HOW TO COUNT FIFTY

There is much confusion in the world today regarding the counting of the fifty days that leads to the Feast of First Fruits also known as the Feast of Weeks.

Are the fifty days counted from the waving of the wave sheaf or the omer during the Feast of Unleavened Bread? Most would that they are, but is this true?

Or, does the 50 day count begin from the morrow after the 7th Sabbath after the waving of the wave sheaf?

There are many ideas and opinions that people have, but there are two that are more predominantly practiced by those who claim to celebrate this Feast.

First, let’s rule out the obvious fraud; here are the instructions in Leviticus 23;

Lev 23:15-16

15 And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete:

16 Until the morrow after the seventh Sabbath you shall number fifty days; and you shall offer a new meat offering unto YEHWEH.

The first thing that we must do is determine which morrow after the Sabbath that we are to begin counting from. Then we must determine if the count is to be a fifty day count from that day or a seven Sabbath count from that day that leads to a fifty day count.

There are groups that say that we must begin counting 50 from what they call a weekly Sabbath that falls within Unleavened Bread. All of the groups that I have found that make this claim do not understand YEHWEH’s true calendar system and believe in a non-stop, continuous seven day weekly cycle and a weekly Sabbath always landing on Saturday.

I will expose their hypocrisy. One of these groups is led by a man who claims that he and his wife are the two end-time witnesses that stand before Elohiym and the whole world restoring truth.

These groups are using the calendar system that those who call themselves Jewish today use. A calendar system that the Jews of modern times admit themselves was changed in the fourth century.

In these groups method of calculation, whenever the first day of Unleavened Bread lands on a Sunday, as it did in 2008 in their false calendar, they actually must go backwards out of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and choose the day before, which is the Passover as the Sabbath to count from.

They do this because they correctly state that the wave sheaf cannot be waved outside of Unleavened Bread and they know that the following weekly Sabbath in their system would be on the last day of Unleavened Bread, thus the wave sheaf would be on the following Sunday and outside of Unleavened Bread.

In doing so, they are making the first day of Unleavened Bread which is a Sabbath also the wave sheaf offering.

The verse that this group wants to turn to support this idea is Joshua 5;

Josh 5:11-12

11 And they did eat of the old corn (Strong’s #5669- stored grain) of the land on the morrow after the Passover, unleavened cakes, and parched (# 7033-dried or roasted) corn (Not even in the original text) in the selfsame day.

12 And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn (# 5669-stored grain) of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna anymore; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

Their argument goes that since they could not eat of the harvest of that year’s new crops until after the wave sheaf offering was waved, that this verse proves that the Passover was on a Saturday in that year and thus the wave sheaf was waved the next day so that they could eat of it which would have been the first day of Unleavened Bread.

Is this really what this verse is saying? It says the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten of the stored grain of the land and eaten parched unleavened cakes, the word corn after parched is not even in the original text.

Leviticus 23 tells us plainly that the first Day of Unleavened Bread is a Sabbath. Manna did not fall on the Sabbath day anyway, how could it cease from falling that day if it did not customarily fall on that day in the first place?

THERE ARE WORDS THAT DESCRIBE THE NEW GRAIN that we are not to eat of until the after the wave sheaf is waved that are used elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures. One place that describes this forbidden produce is in Leviticus 23:14.

It says that we are not to eat of the “parched corn” or “roasted grain” which is the Hebrew word # 7039 in the Strong’s concordance nor of the “green ears” which is Strong’s # 3759. I wonder why these words are not used here in Joshua 5?

This group’s argument that Joshua 5 is referring roasted corn that was from the green (Abib) crop of that year. I don’t see it saying that.

This verse more accurately reads;

They consumed the stored grain of the land on the following day after the Passover with roasted unleavened cakes, the self-same day.

And the manna ceased on the following day after they had eaten of the stored grain of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna anymore; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

The manna ceased on the following day after they had eaten of the stored grain. Which day did they eat the stored grain of the land? It was the day after the Passover which is always the first day of Unleavened Bread, therefore the manna ceased on the next day after the first day of Unleavened Bread. This is always the 16th day of the month in YEHWEH’s calendar system.

It is sick to see what measures man will go to uphold his/her erroneous beliefs.

There is plenty of evidence in history that supports this as well, but we do not need to go to those sources, all that we need to do is believe the word of Elohiym and not put in our own ideas.

He told us that the wave sheaf was waved on the morrow after the Sabbath and He says the first day of Unleavened Bread is the Sabbath and it is, it is both a weekly Sabbath and a High Sabbath.

Like I also said, this group and the many similar groups that hold onto this method of calculation do not believe Elohiym anyway when He said that
He gave us the moons to determine His appointed times, or they don’t believe Him that the Sabbaths are appointed time I guess.

They would rather believe in satan’s calendar system and make their calculations from that and reject the truth.

Group #2;

The largest group of people who claim to celebrate the Feast of Weeks or First Fruits is those who understand that the wave sheaf offering occurs on the correct day, the 16th of Abib.

Their error is they also want to use the pagan roman calendar system instead of their Creator’s calendar.

With their calculation system, depending if the months that our involved in this count are 29 or 30 days long, the 50th day would always land on the 5th, 6th or 7th day of Sivan which is the 3rd month, but most of them manipulate the number of days in these months so that it always lands on the 6th day.

The problem with this system is, if they think that this is the day that 50 should be counted from, this means that the 50th day does not land on the morrow after the Sabbath as Leviticus 23 says it should if you count 50 from the wave sheaf, unless the 15th just happens to be on a Saturday since they claim that Saturday is the Sabbath.

So therefore they claim that there is a discrepancy on whether Leviticus 23:15 reads;

15 And you shall count unto you from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete:

Or whether it reads, as some old texts say;

15 And you shall count unto you from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven weeks shall be complete:

With their counting system they want to claim it is the latter, thus it does not need to fall directly after the weekly Sabbath, it can land on any day of the week.

The beautiful thing about the truth is it does not matter which of these two translations is accurate; both fit in the truth.

Knowing what makes a week complete tells us how to count, it is the Sabbath that completes a week, not a 7th day of a seven day cycle that can conveniently begin on whatever day you want it to, therefore end whenever.

Our Creator’s calendar system is pure. All of His annual Holy days and Feasts are listed by date except this Feast. Passover is on the 14th day of the 1st month, Unleavened Bread is from the 15th and the 21st of the 1st month, The New Moon day of Trumpets is on the 1st day of the 7th month, the Day of Atonement on the 10th day of the 7th month and the Feast of Tabernacles is from the 15th day of the 7th month until the 21st and the next day is a Sabbath, as it always is because it is the 22nd day of the month.

Clear cut and easy to follow, but why not give us the date for the Feasts of First Fruits?

One reason is to teach us and to remind us the importance of counting weeks the way He gave us to count them, to teach us not to rely on our own understanding. This also teaches us and reminds us that everything revolves around His calendar and His appointed times.

This true calculation system has been all but lost, few even know about it, less more follow it.

The crazy thing is, those who call themselves the Jewish people today and observe the Feasts according to their calculation all know that the new moons determine these appointed times.

They also know that the weekly Sabbaths are also appointed times. So why would they use the New Moons to determine some of our Creator’s appointed times and not others?

This question should be a marvel. It is called willful ignorance.

The next part of analyzing this subject is Jewish tradition says that the Law was given to Israel through Moses on the Feast of First Fruits.

Does history support that this was on the 6th of Sivan? On the surface it appears so because the book of Jasher records that the law was given to
Israel on the 6th day of the 3rd month.

I have myself quoted the book of Jasher before and Joshua quoted it once and so did the author of Jude, but is it without error or could it have been tampered with? It certainly is not recognized by most as divine scripture.

Again, let’s simply believe the Holy Scriptures;

When did Moses say the law was given?

Ex 19:1-2

19:1 In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day they came to the wilderness of Sinai.

2 For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.

However you slice it up, the language used by Moses tells us that Israel came to the wilderness of Sinai the night of the 15th in the 3rd month because it was the same day that they departed from Egypt and this is clearly recorded as the night of the 15th in the 1st month. They certainly would have been traveling by night in the third month in the desert, after all, they had fire leading them and it would have been cooler.

They had earlier departed Rephidim which is the place in the desert that there was no water and the people murmured against Moses.

I know that it is Jewish tradition today that the law was given on the 6th day of Sivan but did this get perverted after the calendar system was perverted and after they claimed that the Feast of First Fruits now lands on this day according to the “new” calendar system?

You tell me, I choose to believe the word of Elohiym and His servant Moses over the customs of men.

We read on in Exodus 19 and in verse 10 we read;

Ex 19:10-11

10 And YEHWEH said unto Moses, Go to the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes,

11 And be ready against the third day: for the third day YEHWEH will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai.

Today would have been the 16th, tomorrow would have been the 17th and the 3rd day would have been the 18th.

Of course this is not when He brought the written commandments down from the mountain, this was 40 days later. Moses did however bring down the 10 commandments verbally that day, which was the 18th day according to Holy Scripture. If you want to deny this, that is your choice.

The primary purpose of the Feast of First Fruits is to point us to three things, one,  as a reminder that we can depend on Him for everything because He is our source.

Secondly, to teach us to be thankful for His provision and rejoice in His provision and thirdly, it is a fore shadow of the completion of the early harvest of those who learned to rely on His provision becoming the first fruits into His family.

Yehshua will return on this day in 2012 to harvest the remainder of His Father’s first fruits, of which, He was the first.

I will continue with a part two and discuss the actual timing on how the date of this feast is determined.

He is restoring His truth to a people who will turn from the lies that they have embraced and simply believe Him and trust Him.

THE FEAST OF FIRST FRUITS, PART 2

In part one of this topic I discussed two of the more popular ways that the timing of the Feast of First Fruits is determined.

The first being based on a weekly continuous seven day cycle where the 50 day count is from the morrow after a day that they call a weekly Sabbath that falls within the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Unless of course, the 1st day of Unleavened Bread is on a Sunday in their method using their pagan calendar, then they need to use the day before so that 1st day of Unleavened Bread also becomes the wave sheaf because otherwise they have the wave sheaf falling outside of the week which it cannot. Confusion based on lies.

The second group was a group who understands that the wave sheaf or omer is waved on the second day of Unleavened Bread which is the 16th day of the 1st month.

This group errors as well by trying to make the count co-mingle their count with satan’s calendar that man uses.

They count the 50 days from this day and it does not work this way. Most of these groups set up their compromised calendar so that this feast is always on the 6th of the 3rd month to line up with their tradition.

There are several other variations to these counting systems as well, so much confusion. Is it meant to be that confusing?

There is another group that is growing in numbers as more are coming to understand their Creator’s calendar. This group understands how to count complete weeks which are completed by weekly Sabbaths. The Sabbath is the only thing that can make a week complete.

They understand that that the New Moon days and the 30th days of the month are not reckoned in this count because they are counting actual Sabbaths as their Creator appointed them, then adding a day as instructed in order to line up with the morrow after the 7th Sabbath, thus always landing day 50 on the 9th day of the 3rd month.

As accurate as this system is, is this actually when the Feast of First Fruits is or is it a point of beginning to count 50 from?

There are three different harvest seasons given to us by our Creator that are recorded in scripture.

The spring harvest is in the 1st month of the year. The beginning of this harvest is the barley harvest. The barley is beginning to be ready to be harvested right before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened bread, along with other herbs and legumes and such.

IT IS BARLEY THAT IS USED AS THE WAVE SHEAF OR OMER THAT IS WAVED ON THE DAY OF THE WAVE SHEAF OFFERING.

The winter wheat which is part of the spring harvest is not harvested for several more weeks, actually towards the beginning or in the beginning of the 3rd month. It takes longer for it to mature than the barley.

Deut 16:9-10

9 Seven weeks you shall number unto you: begin to number the seven weeks  when you begin to sickle the corn (referring to the wheat).

10 And you shall keep the FEAST OF WEEKS unto YEHWEH your Elohiym with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give unto YEHWEH your Elohiym, according as YEHWEH your Elohiym has blessed you:

Here we see different terminology than is used in Leviticus 23. Moses records seven “7’s” or 49 days and the starting point is not the wave sheaf offering, at least it is not mentioned as such. It is the same author, so why the different terminology?

This is a much broader description and as with all things, it is there by design as we will see.

The counting says nothing about seven Sabbaths, nor seven “complete” weeks. Instead Moses says seven sevens then you shall have the Feast of Weeks. The Hebrew word “tamiym” (taw-meem) for complete is missing altogether.

Also, the word corn makes this confusing, it is the wheat, and they did not lay the sickle to the wheat at the time of the wave sheaf, that was a sheaf of barley, the wheat is never ready at that point in the spring.

Let’s go back to Leviticus 23;

Lev 23:15-16

15 (AND YOU SHALL COUNT) unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete:

16 Until the morrow after the seventh Sabbath (YOU SHALL NUMBER) fifty days; and you shall offer a new meat offering unto YEHWEH.

It is so important to take the time to research how the weeks were reckoned at this time, it is the same way that they are supposed to still be determined. Once you do, it is a simple fact how the seven Sabbaths are to be counted.

The only problem with this way of counting is there would be 52-54 days before the morrow after the 7th Sabbath from the wave sheaf depending on the whether there are 29 or 30 days in the two month ends that this count bridges.

I say a problem because the following line in verse 16 says to count 50 days. Is it possible that there is a second count?

As with all things, it is simply a matter of being given the truth and believing the word of Elohiym which verifies it. In verse 15, “and you shall count” is the Hebrew word caphar (saw-far) which means to count or to enumerate.

It is the same word that is used in verse 16 for “you shall number”.

I mentioned that there are three different harvests recorded in scripture. The second harvest is the SUMMER HARVEST.

This harvest includes the grapes and other fruits including figs and the primary WHEAT HARVEST, larger than that of the spring wheat harvest. This summer wheat matures in approximately four months while the winter wheat takes seven months.

There are three “feasts” (Hebrew word “chag”) that are commanded by YEHWEH. There certainly are other commanded assemblies and appointed times. I know that many of the splinters that came out of the world wide church of god and others say that Trumpets is a feast and the Day of
Atonement is a feast but they are not.

After the appointed times of Yehweh are spelled out in Leviticus 23, verse 37 says these are the “feasts” of Yehweh but that word is the word moed which means appointed times.

Deut 16:16

16 Three times in a year shall all of the males appear before the YEHWEH your Elohiym in the place which He shall choose; in the FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD, and in the FEAST OF WEEKS, and in the FEAST OF TABERNACLES: and they shall not appear before YEHWEH empty:

Why are they called feasts? Because they are timed with the three different harvests, they are “HARVEST FEASTS”.

The timing of the spring harvest is simple to figure, all you need to do is know when the barley is ready and that becomes the first month of each year and the 14th day is the Passover and the 15th – the 21st is the Feast of Unleavened Bread with the wave sheaf being on the 16th.

Very easy, yet those who call themselves Jewish today even blotch this up, sometimes being a whole month off.

The fall harvest feast is referred to in scripture as the Feast of Tabernacles and also the Feast of Ingathering. It is also easy to determine the dates as well, at least “IF” you got the first month correct because it is the 15th – the 21st of the seventh month.

I discussed how after the winter wheat was harvested AFTER the barley in the spring. The timing of this harvest begins around the timing of when most are getting ready to observe the Feast of Weeks on the 6th day of the 3rd month.

Obviously this wheat harvest is still part of the spring harvest because the summer harvest is not there yet. Are there two spring harvest Feasts?
No, the Feast of Weeks surrounds the summer harvest, not another spring harvest feast.

Everything that our Creator does is by perfect design to teach us. I mentioned in part one of this topic that the Feast of Weeks or First Fruits is to remind us of some things and teach us some things, one of which is to point us to the harvest of His First Fruits into His family.

The spring feast of Unleavened Bread pointed to the Unleavened Bread of life which is the word or the logos of Elohiym, whom His Son became, as well as other things like coming out of the bondage of sin by living off of the unleavened bread of life that sets us free.

Yehshua was resurrected and became the first of the First Fruits into the Kingdom of Elohiym. Also, during this time, the 24 Elders were resurrected into the Kingdom.

Now we are approaching another resurrection, the resurrection of the remainder of the First Fruits of His Kingdom which is the 144,000.

One might ask, if the 144,000 are considered first fruits, would not that be tied to the spring Feast (at least I asked this (: )

Amos 8:1-3

8:1 Thus has YEHWEH Elohiym showed to me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.

2 And He said, Amos, what do you see? And I said; a basket of summer fruit. Then YEHWEH said to me; the end is come upon my people of Israel;
I will not again pass by them anymore.

3 And the songs of the temple shall be howling’s in that day, said YEHWEH Elohiym: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.

The coming harvest is associated with summer fruits, the word used for summer fruit here is “qayits” (kah’-yits). It means the grain or fruit of the dry season which is the summer.

The Feast of Tabernacles is the fall harvest that will not happen until after the millennium is finished when there will be a great resurrection.

Did Yehshua give us any clues that point to this summer harvest in His parables?

John 4:34-35

34 Yehshua said to them, my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.

35 Do you not say because there are YET FOUR MONTHS and then comes the harvest. Lo, I say to you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

What kind of grain takes four months to grow and to be ready to harvest? SUMMER WHEAT.

What symbolism did Yehshua use referring to the harvest of the first fruits? Wheat!

Matt 13:30

30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: BUT GATHER THE WHEAT INTO MY BARN.

None of this will matter to most of you because change is difficult and you do cannot admit that you are deceived, even though scripture says that satan will have deceived the whole world.

I tell you the truth, satan has deceived the world. The important thing is to understand that our Creator allowed for it because man has refused to believe Him, thus refused His counsel and His protection from the deception.

Understanding the count to The Feast of First Fruits involves believing His calendar system, and then the rest can fall into place.

We simply do what we are commanded, we count seven Sabbaths or seven complete weeks from the 16th day of the 1st months and the morrow after is the 9th day of the 3rd month.

From there, we do just what we are told to do, we count 50 days and we land on the 28th day of the 4th month if there is 30 days in the 3rd month or the 29th day of the 4th month if there are only 29 days in the 3rd month.

I have explained before how there used to always be 30 days in every month but that is another subject. And, there will always be 30 days in each month in the Millennium because Yehshua will restore all things.

But what about Jewish tradition saying the law was given on the Feast of Weeks?

Well, let’s see how this lines up with this counting method. When were the tablets given to Israel? Actually we all know Moses smashed them when He returned but when did He bring them back down from the mountain?

I discussed in part one that Exodus 19 plainly shows that part of the law was given verbally to Israel on the 18th day of the 3rd month. Counting from the 9th which is the day after the seven Sabbaths complete from the waving of the wave sheaf as day one, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 equals 10 days, add the 40 days that Moses was on the mountain when YEHWEH wrote the law with His finger before Moses returned. Guess what?
A perfect match; 5o days.

Is this a coincidence?

Is it possible that those who call themselves Jewish today could have lost the way to count for this Feast? You tell me, they lost the way that the Sabbath is counted and that is a lot simpler than this.

How does this fit in with Moses second description of how to count to this feast?

Back to Deut 16:9-10

9 Seven weeks you shall number unto you: begin to number the seven weeks  when you begin to sickle the WHEAT.

10 And you shall keep the FEAST OF WEEKS unto YEHWEH your Elohiym with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give unto YEHWEH your Elohiym, according as YEHWEH your Elohiym has blessed you:

Remember, this calculation says nothing about seven Sabbaths or Seven complete weeks. It just says seven sevens or 49 days. They knew what Moses was talking about, from the time that the spring wheat was being harvested, they were to count 49 days, and the next day would be the Feast of Weeks, day fifty.

They also knew how the actual date that this was to be counted from with the other instructions found in Leviticus 23.

Notice in the following verse that Moses says WHEAT HARVEST, is He talking about a spring wheat harvest or a summer wheat harvest? Each of us needs to make this decision going forward;

Ex 34:22

22 And you shall observe the FEAST OF WEEKS, of the first fruits of the WHEAT HARVEST, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's course.

23 Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before YEHWEH ELOHIYM, the Elohiym of Israel.

The interesting thing is, all of the different counting methods for this feast that man uses is just like everything else, confusing. It never adds up completely and there is always room for varying opinions, THEREFOR SCORES OF DIFFERENT BELIEFS.

Without Elohiym’s protection from what is false and without turning to Him as the source for our understanding, we just remain in the dark.

Now is the time that He is beginning to restore all things and repairing the breach between Him and man. Sadly, most will hold onto the lies that are engrained in their minds and miss out on what He is offering at this time, to live into a new era of time when He will pour out His spirit on all flesh.

There is more information in scripture and in history that shows this feast is a summer harvest feast if you want to hunger for it.

In 2012, according to my estimates of the New Moons dates surrounding this feast that are needed to determine when it is, it will be on approximately July 18th.

THIS IS THE DAY OF THE RETURN OF OUR MESSIAH SO PREPARE FOR HIS RETURN, MAKE STRAIGHT YOUR PATHS AND TURN TO HIS STATUTES.