We are into the third week after Unleavened Bread and pretty much in the middle of the period known as “Counting the Omer”. What is a bit confusing about this designation “Counting the Omer” is that it is NOT really the OMER that is being counted, but the DAYS between the WAVING OF THE OMER (within the Week of Unleavened Bread) and the DAY OF SHAVUOT (fifty days later). On the day following the Shabbat within the seven days of Unleavened Bread the people of Israel were required to bring an OMER (a sheaf or a bundle) of the first fruits of the barley harvest to the High Priest so that he might wave it before Yahweh in the presence of all the people. An OMER is actually just a measuring unit (for dry entities like wheat, grain, barley or flour) – equal to about 2 to 3 litres in volume or about 2 to 3 kilograms in weight. So what was presented before Yahweh on the Day of the First Fruit Wave Offering, was just a small quantity of barley – literally the first fraction of the harvest but, as is always the case with the first fruit, a quantity that came off the land that held the promise of much more to follow! What is of course of the utmost importance for us, is that Y’shua of Nazareth was resurrected from the dead on the exact same Day of the First Fruit Wave Offering of that particular year (about 2020 years ago) – and that his followers, who knew the Torah and the principle of the first fruit, immediately made the prophetic connection of Y’shua being the first fruit of those who will eventually be resurrected from the dead.
Pesach and Unleavened Bread is a reminder for us all to come to a standstill and spend some time thinking about both death and resurrection. Sometimes people tend to focus mainly on the resurrection of the Messiah and, in the process they ignore the profound significance of his death. To me, this is the main difference between Easter and Passover. With Easter, all the emphasis is on resurrection and life, with eggs symbolising life and bunnies symbolising fertility and life and the name “Easter” symbolising life (a name that comes from “Astarte” the goddess of fertility and life) and even the designation “Good Friday” focusing more on death than on life, because the death of Messiah can only be called “good” in the light of life and resurrection. This is the way the majority of people prefer to handle the subject of death – “Get it over and done with as quickly as possible and start talking about life!” Right from the very beginning of time there has been a refusal to face the reality of death. Satan started with the oldest and most repeated lie of all times: “You shall certainly not die”, when earlier, Yahweh had clearly revealed: “Do not eat of it, nor touch it, or else you will die!” (Bereshit / Genesis 3:3). Up till this day the lie is still believed that believers don’t really die – they only pass through the portal of death and enter into life after death immediately. Death is almost rendered irrelevant. Death is thought of as something that doesn’t really hurt. Like the scorning rulers of Yerushalayiem during the time of YeshaYahu we have made a covenant with death and have declared: “It will not come to us “(Isa 28:15). But to these Yahweh is saying: “Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your vision with the grave shall not stand” (Isa 28:18).
Death is not irrelevant, nor is it harmless – not even from the viewpoint of belief. Y’shua’s death did not take place so that others may skip death or only experience partial death. No, death, and the full impact of death, is something that all of us will have to go through, except for those ones who will still be alive when Messiah comes again. Death is a real-life reality: Even as believers in Messiah we will die and remain dead until that day when Messiah comes again. Our primary hope as believers is to be raised from the dead on that all-important and climactic Day of resurrection. Our primary hope is not to be transferred to heaven (in a fairy tale manner) any time before that turning point in the history of mankind. This is the clear message of Scriptures: In Acts 24:15 Shaúl clearly states that his hope for the future is the hope of the resurrection of the dead. In Romans 8:23 he declares that all believers should eagerly await the day of the redemption of their bodies, and in the rest of the New Covenant Scriptures it is very clear that this day is the Day of the Second Coming of Messiah. The whole chapter of 1 Corinthians 15 deals with the issue of resurrection and how the end-time resurrection of believers is the basis and foundation of their hope for the future. If we are basing our hope for the future in some vague doctrine that moments after the time of death, death itself will disappear and life will be resumed somewhere in heaven, we are just repeating (and believing) another form of the age-old lie of Satan: “You shall certainly not die!”
What is the meaning of Y’shua’s death for us, today? Y’shua’s death and the full acceptance of this fact is one of the most crucial aspects of Scriptural belief. It is the one major event that joins the Old Covenant and the New Covenant together, because it’s an old covenant principle that animals and lambs are to be killed to bring reconciliation between men and Yahweh. It is also an old covenant prophesy that someone would be smitten and pierced and killed, for the transgression of others, just like a lamb led to be slaughtered. And it is clearly explained in the Messianic Scriptures that this is exactly what the new covenant means: Yahweh has sent his own Son as the perfect Lamb of Elohim to suffer and be humbled and, finally, to die on our behalf, so that we may be restored in our relationship with Yahweh, through believing in his Son, Y’shua. Believing in Y’shua means believing that He is the fulfilment of the prophesies. Believing that Y’shua is the fulfilment of the prophesies is not the same as believing that Y’shua, somehow, is Yahweh in human form – this is the confusion that crept in over the centuries. Believing that Y’shua is the fulfilment of the prophesies, is not believing that when Y’shua died, Yahweh also died. This kind of confusion about Y’shua is weakening and damaging the true and clear message of Scriptures. In the writings and the poems and the songs over the centuries about the sacrificial death of Y’shua of Nazareth, there are numerous examples of this confusion about the Messiah and in the end one is left with the impression that it was the Almighty, Himself, who died in our place. Here is just one example from a song written by Charles Wesley: “Amazing love! How can it be – That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?”
It is written in Yahuchanan 12:24: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit” (Yahuchanan 12:24). Our human obsession to ignore and belittle death is undoubtedly related to our pride and our inherent dislike of any form of humbleness. Y’shua’s death signifies the climax of a life of being humble and even taking upon Himself the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7). It is this kind of humbleness and servant-like attitude that is needed in our own lives, so that we may bear much fruit. Otherwise we will remain alone and our groups of believers will remain scattered and ineffective and alone. Shaúl wrote to the Romans that it is only when we are willing to die with Messiah that we will also live with Messiah (Romans 6:8).
Once we have clearly and fully grasped the meaning of the death of Y’shua, we should gladly celebrate with believers all over the world that Yahweh had raised his Son, Y’shua, from the dead. Y’shua proved that death does not have the last word. Death does not have the final say! After three days and three nights Y’shua was resurrected as the first-born from the dead and one of the most powerful statements ever, was sent into the world and even into the heavenly realms: Death is swallowed up in victory! “For if we believe that Y’shua died and rose again, so also Elohim shall bring with Him those who sleep in Y’shua” (1 Thessalonians 4:14). Even the Jews, who normally up to this day do not accept that Y’shua was raised from the dead, believe firmly that death opens up the possibility of life and that there is a future resurrection of the righteous. This can clearly be seen in the term they use for a cemetery. In Hebrew culture a cemetery is often called “Bet Chaim” which means “House of Life”. And on the gravestone of Jewish believers one will often find the words: “May his soul be bound up in the covenant of life”. When visiting Jerusalem, one will find thousands of Jewish graves on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. The Jews know that the coming of the Messiah will somehow be focused on the Mount of Olives. If they are true believers in Yahweh and his Torah, their lives are filled with this hope and this expectation, even if they don’t recognize Y’shua of Nazareth as the Messiah.
The period of the counting of the Omer is, among other things, an exercise in living with hope and expectation. We too, are counting the days – even if we don’t know the exact day of Y’shua’s coming. We are not living for this day and this time only. Our quality of life is not exclusively or predominantly determined by what is happening here and now. Our vision and our hope and our belief is fixed upon the future Great Day of Yahweh – the climax of a period of which we simply do not know the length. But for now, we are focusing on the 50 days up till Shavuot, which is quite clearly a reminder of the period of 50 years leading up to the final Year of Jubilee, the Year of Yahweh’s intervention in the history of this world; a time described by the prophet YeshaYahu as “the acceptable year of Yahweh, and the day of vengeance of our Elohim, to comfort all who mourn, to appoint unto those who mourn in Tsiyon: to give them embellishment for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isa 61:2-3). This is truly a time of extreme joy and gladness!
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