Is High Sabbath #3 representing the making of the covenant of every believer, where YAHWEH writes His Laws upon our hearts and our minds. The codifying of the Spiritual Law at Sinai and making it a part of a marriage covenant was the forerunner and shadow of the giving of the Holy Spirit on this day representing the BAPTISM of the Spirit which creates a legal contract, i.e. covenant, with YAHWEH and is accomplished through the LAYING ON OF HANDS.

While the last day of the feast of Unleavened Bread represents Water baptism, Pentecost represents baptism of the spirit and entering the Messianic Covenant.

Many are unaware that Yah'shua did not ascend to the Father immediately at His resurrection. When He was first seen by Mary, He was mistaken for a gardener.

This curious passage highlights something significant. Namely that being mistaken as a gardener shows a connection to handling vegetation. In the early dawn, before sunrise [Jn 20:1], Mary drew a connection between a man and an occupation, probably based on some type of vegetation being carried.

As the newly resurrected High Priest [after the order of Melchizadek], it would have been His first duty to perform the Wave Sheaf Offering, to be accepted as the Firstfruits of the harvest…His resurrection. This also explains why Mary was warned not to touch Him, as the acceptance ceremony had not yet been performed, and Messiah could not be touched by sin.

This significant event begins the countdown to the next major spiritual event…the acceptance of the firstfruits of His harvest! Count 50!

What is khamisheem? Simply stated, khamisheem is the Hebrew word for fifty.

Khamisheem vs pentecost…first, can it be an either/or proposition? Of course not, because both terms mean exactly the same thing -50. Let's look at the verses themselves.

Note that the wave sheaf offering is the event that sets everything in motion.

It really isn't hard to understand that counting complete sevens from the first day of the week inclusive, meaning that from the day after the weekly sabbath, counting seven complete sabbaths and ending on a sabbath showing that the next day after the seventh sabbath, the fifieth day, falls on the first day of the week. [see chart below]

That is pretty straight forward, and not much of a "mystery". That counting sabbaths does not mean parts of weeks should be evident in the term "tamiym" (complete), connoting something whole, entire and unimpaired. Which applied to counting seven Sabbaths can only mean one thing...seven Sabbaths!

Counting from the 16th of Abib, as some do, almost always ends on the same date, and rarely a Sabbath. This raises the question of why 'count' to begin with? All the other set-apart times are day specific, so why not khamisheem? The logical conclusion is ... the starting date is not fixed, thus the need for counting.

Why almost always? Since lunar observation rather than a fixed calendar determines the biblical months, there is an occasional possibility for a variance in the number of days of the second month. If Pentecost is pre-determined to be Sivan 6^th, this could, in turn, lead to an incorrect number of days for "counting" from the wave sheaf offering to Sivan 6^th, resulting in either 49 or 51 days, depending on the actual lunar sighting.

We see that "khamishsheem", [i.e. the number fifty is penthkosth, [pentekoste (fifty) in Acts 2:1; 20:16 & 1Cor 16:8] is a variant of penth,konta [pentekonta] which is used in the LXX Lev 23:16 as "fifty", showing that Luke, the writer of Acts, and Paul, the writer of Corinthians, both understood "khamisheem" as "fifty", i.e. the day after the seventh complete Sabbath.

First, we need to identify what scripture means when it says "the sabbath". Is it referring to the High Sabbath of the 15^th of Abib, or the regular weekly Sabbath?

This is easily done in the very same chapter

So eight verses later when "the sabbath" is indicated, with no other meaning indicated, it is referring to it's own explanation in verse three, the seventh day!

When is "the morrow after the sabbath"?

We see that the general definition of "morrow" means the next day.

So the next day after the seventh day is the first day.

Normally, there is no problem with understanding this, because both the 7^th day and the 1^st day are within the Feast. However, when the 15^th of Abib falls on the 1^st day of the week, the question of which Sabbath is used to set the Wave Sheaf Offering arises. Should it be the Sabbath within the Feast?

So the question is…can the Wave Sheaf Offering occur outside of the Feast of Unleavened Bread?

The answer is a resounding "NO"! The Wave Sheaf Offering must occur on the 1^st day of the week during the feast of Unleavened Bread, because it represents the acceptance of the sinless resurrected Messiah!

If the "morrow after the sabbath" would place the wave sheaf offering outside the Feast of Unleavened Bread, i.e. the Sabbath within the feast is also the last day of the Feast, then the previous Sabbath, the 14^th, would be the Sabbath to set the Wave Sheaf Offering on the 1^st day of the Feast.

First, note that the method of counting is fixed from the day of the wave sheaf offering, i.e. the 1^st day of the week. There are seven Sabbaths (49 days), and the following day after the 7^th Sabbath is the 50^th day, also on the 1^st day of the week.

There generally is no problem, except in determining when the beginning Sabbath may be. This would occur only rarely, and only when Abib 15^th falls on the 1^st day of the week. Why must the Wave Sheaf Offering only occur on a particular day of the week? Because both the Wave Sheaf Offering and Pentecost represent Acceptance!

That this is meant to coincide with the early wheat harvest is unmistakable.

What should be clearly noted in Exo 34:22 is that "weeks" is from the general term "shabuwa", meaning "seven", but not specified, because the actual parameters and counting are detailed in Lev 23 (i.e. in reference to the wave sheaf offering...the Messiahs acceptance ceremony), followed by the sacrifices and the two leavened loaves (Lev 23:20) which were also "kodesh", i.e. set-apart, to be accepted by YAHWEH. That is, Messiah, the first-fruits, afterward, those that are Messiah's at His coming. [The final event doesn't occur until Messiah has defeated death and is turning over the Kingdom to Almighty YAHWEH]. Thus this harvest is the BEGINNING of Messiah's first-fruits of humanity, i.e. those that are Messiah's.

An added word of caution: YAHWEH'S set-apart times are spiritual events, which interact with our time, like the mountain, which casts a shadow. It is the superiority of the reality - the event, not the shadow, that we must pay attention to. Thus our "time" becomes an interactive participation in the event itself, not just a ritual in the shadows. Which, is why we should want to be voluntarily observing these time-linked events as a necessary part of the inheritance of glory. As long as the reality remains, i.e. this heaven and earth, the shadow of the events do also. [see Sacred Time]

Now, continuing, we see the same wording in reference to the counting of the Sabbatical Years in Lev 25:8. There is little debate over the counting of "seven sabbaths of years" meaning seven times seven for a total of 49 years, i.e seven complete sevens of years without any partial years to contend with, and the next "jubilee" year, being the fiftieth, is also the first year of the next cycle. Failure to recognize this would be the equivalent of rotating the weekly cycle beginning with the Feast of Unleavened Bread because counting from a fixed date would always place the fiftieth day at the beginning of a weekly cycle...regardless of what day it occurs. Since the weekly cycle of seven days always remains in the same order...ending with a Sabbath, so also do the jubilee years.

Counting seven sevens is identical in both instances, and both are whole, entire and unimpaired measurements, and not dependent on anything other than YAHWEH'S stated word...COUNT FIFTY [7x7+1] - are seven Sabbaths complete + 1! This necessarily eliminates the counting of seven days as partial weeks, which would NOT be whole, entire and unimpaired weeks. So counting is restricted to full weeks, days one through seven.

Counting is seven complete Sabbaths...beginning with the Wave Sheaf Offering, and the 50th day is also the first day of the week. Really?

Which Sabbath?

Some mistakenly call the 15th of Abib, which is a feast day, the day of the convocation, as 'the sabbath'. While it is a Sabbath, scripture clearly identifies "the Sabbath" as the seventh day.

Therefore, it should be noted that throughout the Scriptures, "the sabbath" always means the seventh day

In fact, "the Sabbath" is defined AS the 7^th day, in Lev 23:1-3

So, yes...really! There can be no question as to "which Sabbath" is being referred to! Therefore, the Sabbath can only mean "the seventh day", and is the beginning point from which the wave sheaf offering is observed, which would be the next day, i.e. the 1st day of the week, Sunday.

The wording is to count seven Sabbaths ...complete, showing that there are 7 complete weeks, Sabbath to Sabbath, beginning with the wave sheaf (day one), and ending on a Sabbath. What this means is that the weekly Sabbath anchors the Wave Sheaf Offering, and that event, in turn, forms the starting point for counting the complete weeks. That necessarily means that the next weekly Sabbath completes the first seven day count ending with a Sabbath.

Some would count the Sabbath within the Feast of Unleavened Bread as the first Sabbath, the day before the Wave Sheaf Offering. This, however, negates the direct command to "count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering". It is simply impossible to backtrack before the Wave Sheaf Offering to count the first Sabbath when the counting clearly begins from the Wave Sheaf Offering.

So, beginning with the day of the Wave Sheaf Offering, the day after the 7th completed Sabbath is the 50th day, and the same day of the week as the wave sheaf offering... why is that? because both show acceptance of the first fruits...

Seven is the number of completion, and 7x7 is completion raised to a higher power, thus we are complete in Him, and finally completed at the consummation of His faith by our resurrection..

Thus the "8th" day, being the first day of the week, and the day Messiah presented Himself to Yahweh, and the 50th day, the day which we are presented to the Father, are united in a new beginning. YahwehShua, being already perfect, was immediately accepted, whereas the first-fruits of His kahal, or legally represented assembly, still has leavening and must undergo the purging, i.e. overcoming, process. Thus the first-fruits are not resurrected until He returns to gather His harvest on the Feast of Trumpets.

However, please keep in mind that like Passover, the spiritual event which occurred before the world was [Ecc 3:11; Isa 46:10; Rom 4:17; 2Tim 1:9; 1Pe 1:20], and that the 7th day Sabbath is a created spiritual event with repetitions in our reality [so we participate in the actual spiritual event], Pentecost is actually a spiritual event having already occurred the way Yahweh sees it: [The past is present, and the future is past (Ecc 3:15). Thus all Yahweh's spiritual events, intersecting with our reality, are our living inheritance in which we actively participate, showing our continuing obedience in His presence.

Our confidence, then, is in understanding that we are in His presence, according to His express Will, and that He sees us as if we are partakers of His holiness and the blessings of the event itself...our inheritance in Messiah.

End