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BUT WAIT – THERE IS MORE....
This is where Counting the Omer Starts...
Exodus 23:15 – 17; 20-21.
"'From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD. From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the LORD....
The priest is to wave the two lambs before the LORD as a wave offering, together with the bread of the firstfruits. They are a sacred offering to the LORD for the priest.
On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. New International Version
Counting the Omer connects Passover with the summer Feast of First fruits. We are told to count off fifty days - five being the number of GRACE - and then there is ANOTHER offering of FirstFruits. The first harvest at Passover is the Barley Harvest, the Harvest after fifty days is the Wheat Harvest. So there is a FirstFruit offering of one type at Passover, and there is another type of crop being harvested after fifty days. Furthermore there is a specific connection in time between the two harvests.
Barley is considered a lower grade of grain than wheat, so there is also the idea of increase going on here not just one crop and then another. Passover remembers the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. Fifty days later God met with His delivered nation (Isreal) at Mt. Sinai where He offered to enter into Covenant with them (Exodus 19). They all agreed to His offer (Exodus 24), and He gave them the Torah, which was their guide and schoolmaster to teach and guide them on how covenant living operated. Later, after the death and resurrection of Messiah, God sent the Holy Spirit to the believers in Jerusalem with tongues of fire and speaking in unknown languages on the very same day of the year. Jesus promised that “He will teach you in all truth” (Jn 16: 13). In the New Testament, the death of the Messiah occurs on the exact date of Passover. The experience of Pentecost in Acts 2 occurs exactly fifty days after the cross.
Leaven or no Leaven?
Leaven or no leaven, What does God want?
At Passover, there was no leaven allowed whatsoever, anyone found with leaven was cut off from nation of Israel (Exodus 12: 15), no leaven was allowed with any sacrifice (Exodus 34:25), nor was any leaven to be burned on the altar of burnt sacrifice (Leviticus 2: 11). But here 50 days later, there is the waving (not burning) of an offering of refined flour processed into bread made WITH leaven. What's the deal? This second assembly is called "Pentecost" (fifty days), or "Shavout", or the"Feast of Weeks" (for the 7-week time period).
The focus of the Passover and the first fruit of that season is the sinless, spotless Lamb of God that was slain for our deliverance from the consequence and power of sin (Egypt) NO LEAVEN.
The focus of Pentecost is the impartation of Grace given by God to empower and equip His covenant people to get from where we are to where God wants us to go.
The two loaves that are waved before the Lord with leaven are US! We stand before the Lord WITH MIXTURE still in us. We have access and good standing because the Lord himself made a way and a provision for our sin. That is already done. But we are not yet completed, and we don’t have the ability to complete ourselves alone.
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