More About the Timing of the Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower
Although the peak of the annual Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower was last night, in the wee hours of the morning, it will still be possible to view more of the meteors from this shower in tonight's sky as well.
In today's blog, I would like to focus on the timing of the Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower. As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, this annual shower takes place during the Biblical period of time known as the "Counting of the Omer". But what does this mean? Let's take a Scriptural look at this annual period of time, in context with preparing for -and the timing of- Pentecost.
We'll begin by turning to Leviticus 23,
the chapter which explains the Feasts of Yahweh and gives information about how
and when to keep them. Leviticus 23 begins with the
Seventh-day Sabbath. The weekly Sabbath is the first Feast of Yahweh. But, we
will pick up from where the annual Sabbaths and festivals are listed. So, we’ll
begin in verse 4:
Leviticus 23:4-5 "These are the Feasts of Yahweh, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is Yahweh's Passover."
Now,
if we’re going to take a look at the timing of Pentecost, we’ll need to be able
to place these Feast days on a calendar. It is most efficient for us to just do
this as we go along.
Passover is the 14th day of the first month.
So, counting from the day of the first new moon (following the Tekufah of March 17), the
14th day
was on April 20, this year (shown in red on the calendar below).
By the way, you
can get your own copy of our Lighted Way Biblical calendar for this year by
going to our website at www.lightedway.org. The calendar link is an orange
button towards the bottom of the homepage.
Getting
back to our calendar, we also read how the Feast of Unleavened Bread started on
the 15th day
of Abib and continues for 7 days. This means that the Feast of
Unleavened Bread started on April 21 and ended on April 27 this year. On the above calendar, the Feast of Unleavened Bread is indicated in orange, with the annual Sabbaths being darker orange.
It is
necessary to determine the timing of Passover and Unleavened Bread in order to
determine the timing of First Fruits. And you need the date of First Fruits to
determine when Pentecost will be. The
reason we need to determine the dates of Unleavened Bread in order to find
First Fruits is because First Fruits always
falls within the week of Unleavened Bread. And the timing of Pentecost is
counted from First Fruits.
Leviticus 23:10-16 "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before Yahweh, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it... And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath (the weekly Sabbath), from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths (7 Seventh-day Sabbaths) shall be complete. Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto Yahweh."
This period of time in which you are counting to fifty days from First First is called "Counting the Omer". It is the time of counting the days (50) and weeks (7 + 1 day) to find the Day of Pentecost. Many
find the Pentecost count difficult. But it
doesn’t need to be. There are 4 details which much be used to determine when
Pentecost will be:
1) First
Fruits is the day after the Seventh-day Sabbath in the Feast of Passover/Unleavened Bread.
2) From
First Fruits, count 50 DAYS to Pentecost.
3) Seven
Sabbaths must be complete.
4) Pentecost
is the day after the 7th Sabbath (meaning Pentecost will always fall on the first day of the week).
During the week of Passover/Unleavened bread, Leviticus 23 tells us that first
fruits is the morrow after (the day after) the seventh-day Sabbath. Referring back to our calendar, above, this means
that the Day of First Fruits was April 21 this year. Pentecost
always falls in the third month – or after the 3rd new moon of the year. Leviticus 23 tells
us that Pentecost is the day after the 7th Sabbath – counting from First Fruits. And it will be the 50th day
– again counting from First Fruits. Thus, as is shown on the above calendar, Pentecost will fall on June 9 this year.
This year, the period of time from April 21 (First Fruits) to June 9 (Pentecost - a name which means the "fifty count") is the time of "Counting the Omer".
An
Omer was a Biblical unit of dry measure equal to one tenth of an ephah, this is about 3.7 quarts. See the image on the right to show the size of an omer. This counting period came to be called
the Counting of the Omer because an Omer of barley was waved on First Fruits.
In Scripture, you will probably remember the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30). The wheat represent the saved people of God, who are gathered into Yahweh's Heavenly "Barn" at the End of the world. And the tares represent the lost, who are burned in the final Judgment. Grain in the Bible represents people.
The Feasts of Yahweh are associated with
different harvests of grain. Pentecost is a feast which is associated
with two kinds of grain: barley and wheat. Just as
the Feast of Pentecost is prophetic – in that
it will be ultimately fulfilled on this Day at the end of the world - so the grains from this Feast are end-time prophecies. In fact, the Pentecost grains represent two distinct groups of people. Both the wheat and the barley are saved groups of
people. But, the chaff -or tares- are those who are lost.
Luke 3:16-17 "John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: Whose fan is in His Hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable."
Pentecost marks the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest.
The first grain crop associated with
Pentecost is the barley harvest. Barley
actually ripens before wheat. The first fruits of the barley harvest were
gathered in at the time of Passover and Unleavened Bread, in the first month.
We know this because Scripture tells us that the barley was ripe during the
hail plague in Egypt. But the wheat was not harmed, for it was not up yet.
Exodus 9:27-32 "And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: Yahweh is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Entreat Yahweh (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer... And the flax and the barley was smitten (by the plague of hail): for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled. But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they were not grown up."
According to
the Leviticus 23:10-14, newly
harvested grain could not be eaten until the first fruits of grain had been offered on the “day
after the Sabbath” (the Day of First Fruits) during the Festival of Passover/Unleavened Bread.
Then,
when Pentecost took place in the third biblical month, the barley harvest was
finishing. The wave sheaf, presented on the Day of
First Fruits during the Week of Passover/Unleavened bread, was the first fruits of the
barley crop. The barley harvest culminated in the presentation of “firstfruits”
again at Pentecost – on the 50th day from First Fruits. This time, the
barley was presented baked in loaves of barley bread.
2 Kings 4:42 "And there came a man from Baalshalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat."
The
Pentecost barley loaves were leavened, as we see in Leviticus 23:15-17:
After the Feast of Unleavened Bread, during which leaven represents sin, we get to think of all leaven as a terrible thing. The leaven of sin is evil. But, in Scripture, leaven doesn’t only represent sin, it also represents the righteousness of the Kingdom of Yahweh.
Scripture
tells us that "a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump," 1 Corinthians 5:6. This
is because leaven is a spiritual agent which is so powerful that only a small
amount affects us completely. During the Feast of Unleavened Bread, we are to
spiritually become unleavened from the leaven of sin. Then, during the 49 days
between First Fruits and Pentecost, we are to be re-leavened with the righteous
leaven of the Kingdom. This re-leavening process is spiritually Counting the Omer, preparing for Pentecost.
Counting
the Omer spiritually refers to measuring the "barley", which is a message of
judgment in measuring Yahweh’s people by the Standard of the Torah. So the
process of counting the Omer is something we do both literally, to get the
timing of Pentecost, and spiritually to prepare for Pentecost.
Spiritually and prophetically, “measuring” something
is the process of judging it. The prophet Zechariah spoke of Yahweh measuring
Jerusalem. This measuring does not mean the physical dimensions of a physical
city. Yahweh knows the number of hairs on our heads. He certainly doesn’t need
to measure a literal city! The Jerusalem that is being measured here is the
professing people of God. This is a spiritual message of the end-time sealing
and judgment of the saints.
Zechariah 2:1-2 "I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof."
