Southern Baptist Messianic Fellowship

The Counting of the Omer

"Sefirat Ha'omer"

The counting of the Omer starts after Pesach and ends at Shavout.

Omer is an ancient dry measure unit (approx. 43 oz.).  It was used in the time of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Counting of the Omer (or Sefirat Ha'omer) (ספירת העומר) is an actual counting down of the 49 days between Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot (Pentecost).  The beginning of the countdown starts the day after Pesach, on the first day of Unleaven Bread.  From Pesach to Shavout we count down to the giving of the Torah.  Shavout is the 50th day. 

You shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks , that is, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. [Exodus 34:22 NASU]

Then the L-RD spoke to Moses, saying, 10 "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.  [Leviticus 23:9-10 NASU]

You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths. 16'You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the L-RD. 17'You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the L-RD. 18'Along with the bread you shall present seven one year old male lambs without defect, and a bull of the herd and two rams; they are to be a burnt offering to the L-RD, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the L-RD. 19'You shall also offer one male goat for a sin offering and two male lambs one year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20'The priest shall then wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering with two lambs before the L-RD; they are to be holy to the L-RD for the priest. 21'On this same day you shall make a proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. It is to be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.  [Leviticus 23:15-21 NASU]

Also on the day of the first fruits, when you present a new grain offering to the L-RD in your Feast of Weeks , you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work.  [Numbers 28:26 NASU]

You shall count seven weeks for yourself; you shall begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. 10 "Then you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the L-RD your G-d with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give just as the L-RD your G-d blesses you; 11 and you shall rejoice before the L-RD your G-d, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the Levite who is in your town, and the stranger and the orphan and the widow who are in your midst, in the place where the L-RD your G-d chooses to establish His name. 12 " You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.  [Deuteronomy 16:9-12 NASU]

Three times in a year all your males shall appear before the L-RD your G-d in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and they shall not appear before the L-RD empty-handed. 17 "Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the L-RD your G-d which He has given you.  [Deuteronomy 16:16-17 NASU]

Omer is the counting down of the days leading to Shavuot (Pentecost). 

Jewish Tradition:  The Jewish traditions of today count the Omer with Mitzvot (good deeds).  An illustration of how Jewish people teach their children to count Omer is found at the web site The Homer Calendar and Torah Tots.   Jewish people all over the world count down Omer by reciting the Omer prayer one line each day.

In the days of the temple, the "Omer", or a measure of the first barley of the new harvest, would be sacrificed as a praise offering.  Today, Jewish households all over the world observe the counting of the Omer by units of days and weeks and faithfully say prayers.  For the Jewish people, counting the Omer is numbering the days between receiving their physical freedom on the Passover until the day they received the Torah at Mount Sinai - their spiritual freedom - on Shavuot!

The counting ideally takes place at sundown (when a new day on the Hebrew calendar begins), either at home or in synagogue during the ma'ariv (evening) service. One does not need a minyan (prayer quorum of ten) to count.  "Maimonides views Sefirat Ha'Omer...as the outcome of the extraordinary anticipation that Jews felt for the moment of Revelation. The Israelites counted every night much like a child who counts the days until his or her birthday."  

Jewish people know the importance of counting down the Omer.  Christians should also know how important it is to us too.  Fifty days praising and thanking our L-rd for His Law, deliverance and supply.  His law and instruction revealed. 

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.  [Revelation 1:3  NKJV]

Shema Yisreal

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  [Rev 3:22] 

Study Compiled by:

Ric Worshill

Remember The San Antonio Encampment is Coming in June:

Baruch Ha'bah B’Shem Adonai.  [Psalms 118:26]

Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the L-rd. [Psalms 118:26 - Matthew 23:29]

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.   [Hebrews 10:23-25]

If you need to know more please contact us.  If you are seeking the Face of   G-d and looking for His Mashiach to come, please contact us.  If you don't know who Yeshua is and who He can be in your life, please contact us.  

If you are thinking of attending our annual meetings, please contact us.  We would love to see you.

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But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in His wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.  [Malachi 4:2 in NASU & 3:20 in the Tanach]

Hampton, Virginia

Be safe, be healthy, be blessed, be found in Yeshua.

Chag Sameach

Shalom Alechem

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