There is still more to share with you about this season we are in. As mentioned in my last blog, this is an "in-between time." We are between the barley and the wheat; between the Old Covenant and the Renewed Covenant, between the two tablets and the two loaves!Barley in the times of ancient Israel was a rough grain mostly used for animal fodder; wheat, on the other hand, was used to make fine flour for baking bread.
The journey between the feast of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost is a journey of spiritual refining; it is a journey from the flesh into the Spirit. We move from trying to keep the Torah in our own flesh to keeping it by the power of the Holy Spirit, who writes God's commands on our hearts! "A new heart also will I give you, and a new Spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and move you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments, and do them." (Ezekiel 36:26-27). In these "seven sevens" (seven weeks) of the counting of the Omer, we should be maturing spiritually. Shedding the "old man," we are moving toward becoming new creations by the Power of the Spirit, and this means we are desiring to keep God's commandments, rather than feeling they are a burden. We should be experiencing the "rod of correction" with which our Father lovingly disciplines us.
These two connected celebrations of the first fruits of the field are indeed a picture of Yahweh renewing His Covenant with Israel. We wait with the rest of creation for the completion of Messiah's work in restoring all Israel. We look forward to the Fall Feasts, at the time of Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles, all pointing to the Return of Yahshua our Messiah, His righteous judgments, and the establishment of His Kingdom Reign in Jerusalem. But for now, we are still on the wilderness journey: from barley to wheat, from flesh to Spirit, from sin to restoration.
Ask the Holy Spirit to do a cleansing work in you. As of this Sabbath there will be four more weeks left to count. "So, Father, teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." (Psalm 90:12)
