Wave Sheaf Day - Start of the Count to Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks
***Leviticus 23:15 - Counting (coloring page on the next subtab)
***Leviticus 23:16 - Count!
***Deuteronomy 30:14 - So You Can Do It
Psalm 32:1-2 - How, Then, Shall We Live?
Psalm 90:12 - Counting for a Purpose (coloring page on the next subtab)
Isaiah 64:8 - The Work of Your Hand
Counting
You shall count off seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath. . . . Leviticus 23:15
Materials: Little things to count, counting books (My favorite is Doggies by Sandra Boynton), calendars for the next seven weeks, tiny stickers to mark of the days.
We count things all the time: the days until school’s out, the number of biology assignments left in the year, the of inches you’ve grown in the past month, how many forks we need for supper tonight, how many dogs are in the house . . .
Since counting is a basic math concept that must be mastered before learning addition and subtraction, we start teaching children how to count when they are still very little. And when you’re learning a new language, that’s one of the first things you learn, regardless of your age, how to count in that language - French, Spanish, ASL, all of them.
So here’s a very interesting verse in Leviticus 23:15: You shall count off seven full week from the day after the Sabbath. God tells us to count . . . from the day after the sabbath, and generally we do that from the sabbath in the middle of the days of unleavened bread. Do you know why we count from the day after that particular sabbath? It’s the wave sheaf day - the day when the first grain that was harvested from the barley is waved before the Lord. It’s recognition - at the very beginning of the harvest - that He is the Lord of the harvest (Matthew 9:38): He has given us the grain to plant; He has given us the land to plant it in; He has given us the rain; He has caused the grain to grow and produce more grain. It all comes from Him.
But there’s something else very special that happened on the Wave Sheaf Day the year that Jesus died: Jesus rose from the dead, as the wave sheaf offering to God - the very first of the firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23). Because Jesus rose from the dead, He makes it possible for us also be to raised from the dead (Romans 6:4). As the wave sheaf offering (John 20:17), Jesus is the recognition that our salvation, redemption, acceptance before the Father is all God’s work (1Corinthians 1:30). We are God’s workmanship (Ephesians 2:10) and the firstfruits of the harvest in Jesus Christ (James 1:18).
But the Wave Sheaf Day is not the end of the count. We’re told to count seven full weeks. O.K. How many days are there in a week? Seven. How many days are there in seven full weeks? 49. So we count off 49 days and the 50th day is the next of God’s holy days - the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost.
The counting of these seven weeks must be very important. God told us to do it. It’s much too easy to let the days slide by without counting. Make sure you count!
***Count!
You shall count off fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath, Leviticus 23:16
Materials: calendars, 50 stickers for each child
God gives us certain things to do for each of his holy days. What are we supposed to do on Trumpets? Shout!! What are we supposed to do on the Day of Atonement? Fast or afflict our souls. What are we supposed to do for all of the Feast of Tabernacles? We’re supposed to dwell in temporary dwellings or tents. What are we supposed to do for the Days of Unleavened Bread? Eat unleavened bread each day. So what are we supposed to do leading up to the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost? We are supposed to count.
Do you know when you are supposed to start counting? You count from the day after the sabbath during the Days of Unleavened Bread. It is the Wave Sheaf Day. It is the day Jesus was resurrected from the dead and presented before the Father, the First of the firstfruits. At the same time, the first of the barley harvest was waved before God before the new grain of the harvest could be eaten. This is the day that we are to begin counting.
How many days do we count? 50 days - up until the day after the seventh sabbath. These next seven weeks are the days that we are to count leading up to Pentecost.
It’s easy to live in a temporary dwelling for seven days during the Feast of Tabernacles. It’s pretty easy to remember to shout on Trumpets. It takes a bit more concentration not to eat anything on the Day of Atonement because sometimes you do things without thinking about what you’re doing. And it takes a deliberate effort to remember to eat unleavened bread every day for a week. But it is hard to remember to count each day. You might start out remembering to count, to think about what day of the count you’re on. Some people like to make a calendar and count off the days. Some people like to keep a journal for seven weeks to make a conscious effort to count as we are commanded.
God doesn’t tell us why we are to count. He doesn’t tell us to make a chain to count down the days, or to keep a journal, or to mark off the days on the calendar. But God does tell us to count. It’s important that we obey our God. Let’s count!
***So You Can Do It
But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. Deut. 30:14
Materials needed: unleavened bread, calendars, stickers
Have you ever looked at a task and been so overwhelmed that you just wanted to go back to bed, pull the covers over your head, and go to sleep? Or maybe you decide that it’s all still going to be there tomorrow, so you decide to do something else like going for a walk or going shopping? Sometimes that’s how people approach obedience to God as well: it’s too hard and they’ll do it later.
I love that God knew people would say this. So He gave us verses like Deuteronomy 30:14: But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that God tells His people to eat unleavened bread for seven days. See, the spring feasts tell a story. Before we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we were sinners in need of the Savior. Recognizing your need is the starting point. It’s kind of like starting with a messy room - where do you start to get it all straightened up? You just start. First, acknowledge that you need Jesus. Then start obeying Him. When you see something in His Word, do it. For instance, in Leviticus 23:6, God tells us to eat unleavened bread for seven days. It’s not enough to not eat leavened bread; God specifically tells us to eat unleavened bread. In that way we are reminded that all of the leavening is out prior to the Feast, just as Jesus Christ dealt with our sin when He died. Once He has dealt with our sin, it’s time for us to let Him completely fill our lives. You know that old saying “You are what you eat”? Well, we want to be like Jesus, the unleavened Bread of Life, so we eat unleavened bread every day of the Feast to remind ourselves to let Jesus reign in our hearts and lives. That is, we choose to obey Him in everything. As we obey Him, we become more like Him, and we want to obey Him more and more. Those small steps add up!
This first feast of the year is called the Days of Unleavened Bread. In it we are commanded to eat unleavened bread every day. But this year, today is also the Wave Sheaf Day. It starts the countdown to Pentecost. In Leviticus 23:15-16 we are commanded to count the next 50 days. We may need a calendar to help us keep track of our counting. That will help us remember that it’s not too hard! After all, the desire to obey Jesus is in our hearts.
But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
How, then, shall we live?
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Psalm 32:1-2
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven.
Whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity.
Those three phrases are very straight-forward. The words mean exactly what you would expect them to mean. Transgression and sin and iniquity are all words conveying offenses, wrongs, wickedness, misdeeds, breaking of God’s law. The word counts is a legal term or an accounting term, like keeping track of money. Forgiven and covered are words which both mean taken away, lifted up, canceled out.
These three phrases are exactly what we memorialize in the observance of Passover, the Night to Be Much Observed, and the Days of Unleavened Bread. Jesus Christ was tortured and crucified for us, for our sins. He was lifted up that the penalty for our transgressions would be canceled out. He stood in our stead, instead of us, that we could have the accounting sheet balanced before God.
So what’s this next phrase doing in these verses: and in whose spirit there is no deceit. The word spirit is the Hebrew word ruach and means, in this context, the mode of thinking and action. In other words, it’s everything we think, say, and do. Blessed is the one who is honest all the time.
Uh oh. We’re in trouble here. Jeremiah 17:9 says “the heart is deceitful above all things.” That’s 180º from David’s statement in Psalm 51:6: “You delight in truth in the inward being . . .”
The first three phrases are a work of God through Jesus Christ. But this fourth phrase tells us that we can’t stop there. 1 Corinthians 7:1 says, “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”
What promises is he taking about? In the end of 2 Corinthians 6, he’s talking about that covenant relationship we have with God - because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. So - since Jesus has died for us, we need to live in a way that reflects, not only our gratitude, but the change that has been accomplished in our heart.
And here we are back at heart again. Psalm 51:10 says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” God’s going to work with us, as we travel with Him, to create a clean heart, to renew a right spirit within us. But we have to walk with Him. We have to choose His ways. We have to seek Him daily.
I don’t think it’s an accident that God started the countdown to Pentecost within the Days of Unleavened Bread. We’ve just been taken out of sin - delivered from the bondage of sin through the blood of Jesus Christ. Now what? We need to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). So we count the days to Pentecost. Each day is a gift from God, and they can be used to their full potential, or they can be wasted.
How are you going to live your life as a result of what God has done for you?
Counting for a Purpose
So teach us to number our days . . . Psalm 90:12
Materials: freshly-harvested strawberries
A couple of weeks ago we talked about counting - specifically because we’re counting from the Wave Sheaf Day until Pentecost. Do you know why we’re counting? The first reason is because God said so. . . . So how are you doing on your count to Pentecost? Do you know what day of the count today is? Are you using the calendar and stickers?
Are you learning anything while you’re counting? As we count the days to Pentecost, it makes us start thinking about why God might want us to do that. The psalmist who wrote, “So teach us to number our days” went on to say “that I might gain a heart of wisdom.” Counting the days can make us wise. Hmmm. What kind of wisdom is this, do you think? Is it wisdom that you get from the world? Maybe. But it’s more likely that the wisdom you get from counting your days is Godly wisdom. How would that work?
I have another question for you too: what do you think I did yesterday? I picked the first of the strawberries. I had picked a small container on Wednesday, but Friday was the first good harvest of strawberries. But what does that have to do with counting or numbering our days?
One of the lessons we learn from numbering our days is that we only have so many. We don’t want to waste any of the time that God has given to us. Wasting time means that we’re not doing something that is profitable for the kingdom or something that doesn’t bring glory and honor to God. We want to be productive, or fruitful, servants for our King.
But how does that relate to strawberries? Well, in order to get a harvest of strawberries, I had to work. There’s weeding. There’s watering. There’s weeding. There’s mulching. There’s weeding. . . You get the picture. If I don’t work hard to make the plants productive, I’m not going to get a very good harvest; there won’t be many strawberries to eat.
It’s the same thing with you. How do you become a productive, fruitful servant of God? You have to work at it. There’s Bible study. There’s prayer. There’s going to church. There’s Bible study. There’s prayer. . . You get the picture. If you don’t work hard to build your relationship with God, you won’t be productive. There won’t be a very good harvest of Godly actions which glorify God.
Being a faithful, productive, fruitful servant for our God means intentional work on your part. You have to make God the priority in your life. That means doing what He says - not some of what He says, all of what God says. He’s God. He has the right. And right now, what are you supposed to be doing? Counting. We’d better get to it!
The Work of Your Hand
But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8
I had a weird dream last night. I was in a court of law as a spectator, watching the prosecution of a popular man. Everyone thought he was a really good guy, doing good things for a lot of people, well-liked by everyone. But I had inside knowledge. I knew, as the prosecutor knew, that he really was guilty of the crime for which he was being tried. And it wasn’t just a little thing. It was a horrific crime, that, if everyone knew what he’d really done, they would turn on him like a Gilbert and Sullivan chorus.
That could be any of us - the guy on trial for a crime - especially before we came to Christ, accepting Him as our Savior. We were lost in our sins, guilty before God of transgressing His laws - no matter how well-liked we were, no matter how many friends we had.
That’s where God’s people found themselves in Isaiah 64. Isaiah confesses that Judah has sinned and that they deserve the punishment God is giving to them. Jeremiah says that Israel was faithless, but Judah was treacherous. Israel served false gods, but Judah served false gods while appearing to serve the One True God (Jeremiah 3). God accused them of outward loyalty, while inwardly, their hearts were far from Him.
But in Isaiah’s prayer in Isaiah 64, he confesses that God is Sovereign and that he is willing to submit to His will. But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand (Isaiah 64:8). Because God is Sovereign, the Potter, He has the right to form the clay in any way He wants to. The end result is completely up to God: we are all the work of your hand.
Isaiah acknowledges that not only is God Sovereign, he also states that God has a special relationship with His people. But now, O LORD, you are our Father. This implies the trust that God is working in their lives for their good.
That’s where we all are when we come to see our need for Jesus Christ, drawn by our Father to His gift, His Son, as our Savior. Charlotte Elliott says it so well in her well-known hymn:
Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me.
And that Thou bids me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
In the timeline of God’s holy days, this is what is pictured by Passover. The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, is crucified on the cross for my sins. I’ve confessed my sins, my complete reliance on God for salvation, and the Sovereignty of God. The Days of Unleavened Bread picture a new creature in Christ, without sin (no leavening), who is subsisting on Jesus. We walk in newness of life, in Christ. Then we start the countdown to Pentecost. This is harvest season, seven weeks of harvest season culminating in the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Firstfruits, Pentecost. What is being harvested? Is it good fruit, profitable for the kingdom? Or is it somehow less than desirable?
You see, once we accept Jesus as our Savior and we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we still have choices to make. We can make good choices in serving God, doing and saying the things which glorify Him. Or we can make choices which are less than honoring to the One who saved us. And our choices don’t just happen in our actions, we also find them in our thoughts. At the point of our baptism, we confessed that God is Sovereign. He is the only One who can save. He has complete authority over my life. But then, I hurt my shoulder and it just doesn’t get well. I know God can heal it, but it isn’t getting well. Maybe I start to grumble inside. On the outside, I’m asking my friends for prayers that I’ll get well, but inside I’m thinking that I don’t deserve a sore shoulder.
But wait a minute! I confessed that God is Sovereign. He is the Potter. I’m the clay. He has the right to do anything in my life that He wants. If the path He leads me down involves pain or persecution, I’m still in covenant with Him to stay on that path. That’s not an easy thing to wrap our minds around. We’d like to believe that because we serve God only good things will happen to us. We’d like to believe that because God is able to heal us, to keep us safe from all harm, to make our lives smooth and easy, that He will lead us down that comfortable path. But that is rarely the case. There are few Christians, if any, who never experience any difficulties, pain and problems.
But we do have another promise from God. Isaiah 64:8 starts out, “But now, O LORD, you are our Father.” We are not only in covenant relationship with the Supreme, Sovereign God of the Universe, we are part of His family and He cares for us. When we suffer, He knows. When we hurt, He understands. But He is planning for our future. He knows what we need now to make us perfect for His kingdom. We might need a broken jaw. We might need an aggravating older brother. Because He’s God, and because we’ve acknowledged Him as our God, we have to stop complaining about the things in our lives that He’s placed there. We have to learn to praise God in the storm - because He’s forming us into usable servants, even priests, for His kingdom.
The next time something crosses your path that you’re tempted to complain about, to start grumbling over, remember that your life is in God’s hands. You placed it there when you said He is your God. He’s in charge of what crosses your path, and He’s put it there for a purpose - to complete the job of forming you in His image. Instead of being grouchy because of the situation, you might consider praying this as part of your prayer, to remind yourself that God is your God: But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8
***Leviticus 23:15 - Counting (coloring page on the next subtab)
***Leviticus 23:16 - Count!
***Deuteronomy 30:14 - So You Can Do It
Psalm 32:1-2 - How, Then, Shall We Live?
Psalm 90:12 - Counting for a Purpose (coloring page on the next subtab)
Isaiah 64:8 - The Work of Your Hand
Counting
You shall count off seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath. . . . Leviticus 23:15
Materials: Little things to count, counting books (My favorite is Doggies by Sandra Boynton), calendars for the next seven weeks, tiny stickers to mark of the days.
We count things all the time: the days until school’s out, the number of biology assignments left in the year, the of inches you’ve grown in the past month, how many forks we need for supper tonight, how many dogs are in the house . . .
Since counting is a basic math concept that must be mastered before learning addition and subtraction, we start teaching children how to count when they are still very little. And when you’re learning a new language, that’s one of the first things you learn, regardless of your age, how to count in that language - French, Spanish, ASL, all of them.
So here’s a very interesting verse in Leviticus 23:15: You shall count off seven full week from the day after the Sabbath. God tells us to count . . . from the day after the sabbath, and generally we do that from the sabbath in the middle of the days of unleavened bread. Do you know why we count from the day after that particular sabbath? It’s the wave sheaf day - the day when the first grain that was harvested from the barley is waved before the Lord. It’s recognition - at the very beginning of the harvest - that He is the Lord of the harvest (Matthew 9:38): He has given us the grain to plant; He has given us the land to plant it in; He has given us the rain; He has caused the grain to grow and produce more grain. It all comes from Him.
But there’s something else very special that happened on the Wave Sheaf Day the year that Jesus died: Jesus rose from the dead, as the wave sheaf offering to God - the very first of the firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23). Because Jesus rose from the dead, He makes it possible for us also be to raised from the dead (Romans 6:4). As the wave sheaf offering (John 20:17), Jesus is the recognition that our salvation, redemption, acceptance before the Father is all God’s work (1Corinthians 1:30). We are God’s workmanship (Ephesians 2:10) and the firstfruits of the harvest in Jesus Christ (James 1:18).
But the Wave Sheaf Day is not the end of the count. We’re told to count seven full weeks. O.K. How many days are there in a week? Seven. How many days are there in seven full weeks? 49. So we count off 49 days and the 50th day is the next of God’s holy days - the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost.
The counting of these seven weeks must be very important. God told us to do it. It’s much too easy to let the days slide by without counting. Make sure you count!
***Count!
You shall count off fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath, Leviticus 23:16
Materials: calendars, 50 stickers for each child
God gives us certain things to do for each of his holy days. What are we supposed to do on Trumpets? Shout!! What are we supposed to do on the Day of Atonement? Fast or afflict our souls. What are we supposed to do for all of the Feast of Tabernacles? We’re supposed to dwell in temporary dwellings or tents. What are we supposed to do for the Days of Unleavened Bread? Eat unleavened bread each day. So what are we supposed to do leading up to the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost? We are supposed to count.
Do you know when you are supposed to start counting? You count from the day after the sabbath during the Days of Unleavened Bread. It is the Wave Sheaf Day. It is the day Jesus was resurrected from the dead and presented before the Father, the First of the firstfruits. At the same time, the first of the barley harvest was waved before God before the new grain of the harvest could be eaten. This is the day that we are to begin counting.
How many days do we count? 50 days - up until the day after the seventh sabbath. These next seven weeks are the days that we are to count leading up to Pentecost.
It’s easy to live in a temporary dwelling for seven days during the Feast of Tabernacles. It’s pretty easy to remember to shout on Trumpets. It takes a bit more concentration not to eat anything on the Day of Atonement because sometimes you do things without thinking about what you’re doing. And it takes a deliberate effort to remember to eat unleavened bread every day for a week. But it is hard to remember to count each day. You might start out remembering to count, to think about what day of the count you’re on. Some people like to make a calendar and count off the days. Some people like to keep a journal for seven weeks to make a conscious effort to count as we are commanded.
God doesn’t tell us why we are to count. He doesn’t tell us to make a chain to count down the days, or to keep a journal, or to mark off the days on the calendar. But God does tell us to count. It’s important that we obey our God. Let’s count!
***So You Can Do It
But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. Deut. 30:14
Materials needed: unleavened bread, calendars, stickers
Have you ever looked at a task and been so overwhelmed that you just wanted to go back to bed, pull the covers over your head, and go to sleep? Or maybe you decide that it’s all still going to be there tomorrow, so you decide to do something else like going for a walk or going shopping? Sometimes that’s how people approach obedience to God as well: it’s too hard and they’ll do it later.
I love that God knew people would say this. So He gave us verses like Deuteronomy 30:14: But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that God tells His people to eat unleavened bread for seven days. See, the spring feasts tell a story. Before we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we were sinners in need of the Savior. Recognizing your need is the starting point. It’s kind of like starting with a messy room - where do you start to get it all straightened up? You just start. First, acknowledge that you need Jesus. Then start obeying Him. When you see something in His Word, do it. For instance, in Leviticus 23:6, God tells us to eat unleavened bread for seven days. It’s not enough to not eat leavened bread; God specifically tells us to eat unleavened bread. In that way we are reminded that all of the leavening is out prior to the Feast, just as Jesus Christ dealt with our sin when He died. Once He has dealt with our sin, it’s time for us to let Him completely fill our lives. You know that old saying “You are what you eat”? Well, we want to be like Jesus, the unleavened Bread of Life, so we eat unleavened bread every day of the Feast to remind ourselves to let Jesus reign in our hearts and lives. That is, we choose to obey Him in everything. As we obey Him, we become more like Him, and we want to obey Him more and more. Those small steps add up!
This first feast of the year is called the Days of Unleavened Bread. In it we are commanded to eat unleavened bread every day. But this year, today is also the Wave Sheaf Day. It starts the countdown to Pentecost. In Leviticus 23:15-16 we are commanded to count the next 50 days. We may need a calendar to help us keep track of our counting. That will help us remember that it’s not too hard! After all, the desire to obey Jesus is in our hearts.
But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
How, then, shall we live?
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Psalm 32:1-2
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven.
Whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity.
Those three phrases are very straight-forward. The words mean exactly what you would expect them to mean. Transgression and sin and iniquity are all words conveying offenses, wrongs, wickedness, misdeeds, breaking of God’s law. The word counts is a legal term or an accounting term, like keeping track of money. Forgiven and covered are words which both mean taken away, lifted up, canceled out.
These three phrases are exactly what we memorialize in the observance of Passover, the Night to Be Much Observed, and the Days of Unleavened Bread. Jesus Christ was tortured and crucified for us, for our sins. He was lifted up that the penalty for our transgressions would be canceled out. He stood in our stead, instead of us, that we could have the accounting sheet balanced before God.
So what’s this next phrase doing in these verses: and in whose spirit there is no deceit. The word spirit is the Hebrew word ruach and means, in this context, the mode of thinking and action. In other words, it’s everything we think, say, and do. Blessed is the one who is honest all the time.
Uh oh. We’re in trouble here. Jeremiah 17:9 says “the heart is deceitful above all things.” That’s 180º from David’s statement in Psalm 51:6: “You delight in truth in the inward being . . .”
The first three phrases are a work of God through Jesus Christ. But this fourth phrase tells us that we can’t stop there. 1 Corinthians 7:1 says, “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”
What promises is he taking about? In the end of 2 Corinthians 6, he’s talking about that covenant relationship we have with God - because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. So - since Jesus has died for us, we need to live in a way that reflects, not only our gratitude, but the change that has been accomplished in our heart.
And here we are back at heart again. Psalm 51:10 says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” God’s going to work with us, as we travel with Him, to create a clean heart, to renew a right spirit within us. But we have to walk with Him. We have to choose His ways. We have to seek Him daily.
I don’t think it’s an accident that God started the countdown to Pentecost within the Days of Unleavened Bread. We’ve just been taken out of sin - delivered from the bondage of sin through the blood of Jesus Christ. Now what? We need to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). So we count the days to Pentecost. Each day is a gift from God, and they can be used to their full potential, or they can be wasted.
How are you going to live your life as a result of what God has done for you?
Counting for a Purpose
So teach us to number our days . . . Psalm 90:12
Materials: freshly-harvested strawberries
A couple of weeks ago we talked about counting - specifically because we’re counting from the Wave Sheaf Day until Pentecost. Do you know why we’re counting? The first reason is because God said so. . . . So how are you doing on your count to Pentecost? Do you know what day of the count today is? Are you using the calendar and stickers?
Are you learning anything while you’re counting? As we count the days to Pentecost, it makes us start thinking about why God might want us to do that. The psalmist who wrote, “So teach us to number our days” went on to say “that I might gain a heart of wisdom.” Counting the days can make us wise. Hmmm. What kind of wisdom is this, do you think? Is it wisdom that you get from the world? Maybe. But it’s more likely that the wisdom you get from counting your days is Godly wisdom. How would that work?
I have another question for you too: what do you think I did yesterday? I picked the first of the strawberries. I had picked a small container on Wednesday, but Friday was the first good harvest of strawberries. But what does that have to do with counting or numbering our days?
One of the lessons we learn from numbering our days is that we only have so many. We don’t want to waste any of the time that God has given to us. Wasting time means that we’re not doing something that is profitable for the kingdom or something that doesn’t bring glory and honor to God. We want to be productive, or fruitful, servants for our King.
But how does that relate to strawberries? Well, in order to get a harvest of strawberries, I had to work. There’s weeding. There’s watering. There’s weeding. There’s mulching. There’s weeding. . . You get the picture. If I don’t work hard to make the plants productive, I’m not going to get a very good harvest; there won’t be many strawberries to eat.
It’s the same thing with you. How do you become a productive, fruitful servant of God? You have to work at it. There’s Bible study. There’s prayer. There’s going to church. There’s Bible study. There’s prayer. . . You get the picture. If you don’t work hard to build your relationship with God, you won’t be productive. There won’t be a very good harvest of Godly actions which glorify God.
Being a faithful, productive, fruitful servant for our God means intentional work on your part. You have to make God the priority in your life. That means doing what He says - not some of what He says, all of what God says. He’s God. He has the right. And right now, what are you supposed to be doing? Counting. We’d better get to it!
The Work of Your Hand
But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8
I had a weird dream last night. I was in a court of law as a spectator, watching the prosecution of a popular man. Everyone thought he was a really good guy, doing good things for a lot of people, well-liked by everyone. But I had inside knowledge. I knew, as the prosecutor knew, that he really was guilty of the crime for which he was being tried. And it wasn’t just a little thing. It was a horrific crime, that, if everyone knew what he’d really done, they would turn on him like a Gilbert and Sullivan chorus.
That could be any of us - the guy on trial for a crime - especially before we came to Christ, accepting Him as our Savior. We were lost in our sins, guilty before God of transgressing His laws - no matter how well-liked we were, no matter how many friends we had.
That’s where God’s people found themselves in Isaiah 64. Isaiah confesses that Judah has sinned and that they deserve the punishment God is giving to them. Jeremiah says that Israel was faithless, but Judah was treacherous. Israel served false gods, but Judah served false gods while appearing to serve the One True God (Jeremiah 3). God accused them of outward loyalty, while inwardly, their hearts were far from Him.
But in Isaiah’s prayer in Isaiah 64, he confesses that God is Sovereign and that he is willing to submit to His will. But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand (Isaiah 64:8). Because God is Sovereign, the Potter, He has the right to form the clay in any way He wants to. The end result is completely up to God: we are all the work of your hand.
Isaiah acknowledges that not only is God Sovereign, he also states that God has a special relationship with His people. But now, O LORD, you are our Father. This implies the trust that God is working in their lives for their good.
That’s where we all are when we come to see our need for Jesus Christ, drawn by our Father to His gift, His Son, as our Savior. Charlotte Elliott says it so well in her well-known hymn:
Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me.
And that Thou bids me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
In the timeline of God’s holy days, this is what is pictured by Passover. The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, is crucified on the cross for my sins. I’ve confessed my sins, my complete reliance on God for salvation, and the Sovereignty of God. The Days of Unleavened Bread picture a new creature in Christ, without sin (no leavening), who is subsisting on Jesus. We walk in newness of life, in Christ. Then we start the countdown to Pentecost. This is harvest season, seven weeks of harvest season culminating in the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Firstfruits, Pentecost. What is being harvested? Is it good fruit, profitable for the kingdom? Or is it somehow less than desirable?
You see, once we accept Jesus as our Savior and we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we still have choices to make. We can make good choices in serving God, doing and saying the things which glorify Him. Or we can make choices which are less than honoring to the One who saved us. And our choices don’t just happen in our actions, we also find them in our thoughts. At the point of our baptism, we confessed that God is Sovereign. He is the only One who can save. He has complete authority over my life. But then, I hurt my shoulder and it just doesn’t get well. I know God can heal it, but it isn’t getting well. Maybe I start to grumble inside. On the outside, I’m asking my friends for prayers that I’ll get well, but inside I’m thinking that I don’t deserve a sore shoulder.
But wait a minute! I confessed that God is Sovereign. He is the Potter. I’m the clay. He has the right to do anything in my life that He wants. If the path He leads me down involves pain or persecution, I’m still in covenant with Him to stay on that path. That’s not an easy thing to wrap our minds around. We’d like to believe that because we serve God only good things will happen to us. We’d like to believe that because God is able to heal us, to keep us safe from all harm, to make our lives smooth and easy, that He will lead us down that comfortable path. But that is rarely the case. There are few Christians, if any, who never experience any difficulties, pain and problems.
But we do have another promise from God. Isaiah 64:8 starts out, “But now, O LORD, you are our Father.” We are not only in covenant relationship with the Supreme, Sovereign God of the Universe, we are part of His family and He cares for us. When we suffer, He knows. When we hurt, He understands. But He is planning for our future. He knows what we need now to make us perfect for His kingdom. We might need a broken jaw. We might need an aggravating older brother. Because He’s God, and because we’ve acknowledged Him as our God, we have to stop complaining about the things in our lives that He’s placed there. We have to learn to praise God in the storm - because He’s forming us into usable servants, even priests, for His kingdom.
The next time something crosses your path that you’re tempted to complain about, to start grumbling over, remember that your life is in God’s hands. You placed it there when you said He is your God. He’s in charge of what crosses your path, and He’s put it there for a purpose - to complete the job of forming you in His image. Instead of being grouchy because of the situation, you might consider praying this as part of your prayer, to remind yourself that God is your God: But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8