Counting Pentecost ~ Day Twenty Three ~ Keep Waiting

Update April 30th 2018

Today is the 2nd day of the 4th week of seven weeks. Today is the 23rd day of the counting of fifty days from the day of the waving of the Omer on the morrow after the Sabbath.

Original Post April 30th 2012

7 Ziv / Iyyar 31 AD

What an exciting “fifty” days those must have been for the followers of Jesus, especially those of His inner circle! An emotional roller-coaster for sure. Their Lord, their Messiah–their friend–has died a horribly unimaginable death. They spent the next three days and three nights in what can only be abject despondency. They had pinned all their hopes, dreams, aspirations, their very lives on this one man—and then he’s gone. But then, oh hallelujah, He’s alive! He comes to them, showing Himself to them many times. But they also know He will not be with them for much longer. What must have been their inner battles during the times He is not with them. To them the world is upside down, and yet everything and everybody else is just going on with their lives. Even though the temple is torn asunder, “…the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split.” Matt 27:51* There were also reports that the tombs in Jerusalem “were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;  and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.” Matt 27:52-53 And there were rumors going around that the disciples themselves had stolen His body at night, just so they could claim He had risen. “…the chief priests [ ] assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, and said, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’ And they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day.” Matt 28:11-15  Now these are the same guards that shook with fear when they saw the angel of the Lord whose “appearance was like lightning!” Matt 28:2,3 But the Lord keeps coming to them and reassuring them. Telling them that very soon they would not need to have Him there with them physically, that He would be sending the promised Helper!

Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. “You are witnesses of these things. “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”  Luke 24:44-49

I think those fifty days would have be exciting days full of anticipation, but also days filled with uncertainty, fear, dread, anxiety. As time went on they learned they could rely on Jesus for everything, remembering His words of reassurance…”the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me.”  And today we can be confident that He is always ready to come to us, when ever we have doubts, fear, anxiety…

“…the Lord earnestly waits expecting, looking, and longing to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed–happy, fortunate, to be envied, are all those who earnestly wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him for His victory, His favor, His love, His peace, His joy, and His matchless, unbroken companionship! Isa 30:18

* The veil of the temple
According to the Rabbis this was a handbreadth in thickness, and woven of seventy-two twisted plaits, each plait consisting of twenty-four threads. It was sixty feet long and thirty wide. Two of them were made every year, and according to the exaggerated language of the time it needed three hundred priests to manipulate it. This veil was the one which covered the entrance to the holy of holies, and not, as has been asserted, the veil which hung before the main entrance to the sanctuary. The holy of holies contained only a large stone, on which the high-priest sprinkled the blood on the day of atonement, occupying the place where the ark with the mercy-seat had stood. – Vincent’s Word Studies.