Week Five of Counting the Omer

Counting the Omer: Week Five of our New Covenant Reading Journey

Welcome to week five of our Omer journey. For some, it is the first time reading the entire New Covenant Scriptures and for others, a time of seeing the big picture of Scripture by reading large portions at a time. For everyone, including myself it is a journey that opens our eyes to new insights and a cleansing of the heart as we allow the Word of God to change our minds and hearts.

This week and next week we will read the letters of Paul. It is important to keep in mind that most of the letters are written to an audience of people who were not Jewish. He was teaching them how to live and worship in a way that demonstrated their spiritual identity in the Messiah of Israel. In the beginning of the Book of Romans, Paul states that Yeshua is the promised Messiah of and king of Israel who has come not only for Israel but also for the nations. In verse 1:16 he writes, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The first part is a great statement that the Good News brings transformation to the lives of those who embrace its message: the Messiah has come, and his name is Yeshua! The second part of the statement accentuates the fact that even though it is a Jewish message and certainly applies to Israel, it is also a message for those who are from the nations. “To the Jew first” means that the message is rooted in the pages of the Tanakh and that Yeshua is the promised Messiah of Israel. “And also to the Greek” means that the message is also for the nations. However, by using the word “Greek” rather than “Gentiles” may I suggest that Paul is saying the message is not only for the powerless Jews but that it is also for the powerful Greeks! The Greeks were educated and powerful. The Jews were viewed by the pagan world as uneducated and lowly. This is a generalization, but this is the point of the verse. Today, we would say that the Good News is not only for the Gentiles but also for the Jewish people. (We could also say that the Gospel is not only for the poor and powerless but also for the rich and powerful.) In the first century, it was known that Yeshua-faith was a Jewish-faith. This is the opposite of today. Therefore, in order to really understand the message of Paul’s letters we have to remember that he is writing to largely gentile audiences, helping them to understand that by virtue of embracing Yeshua they are no longer pagan and therefore cannot live like pagans, but they are also not Jewish and therefore do not have to become proselytes. This is why we do not read Paul or any other writer in the New Covenant Scriptures, exhorting his audience to keep the Jewish rituals of Torah that serve as badges of identity for Jewish people. His concern is that they worship God correctly and engage in the moral and ethical Torah way of Life. The heart of the Torah is the moral and ethical commands that are repeated numerous times in the Prophets, accentuated by the teachings of Yeshua, and written in the New Covenant letters. I look forward to hearing your observations as we continue the journey.

Remember that on the evening of June 1 at 6:45pm we will begin our observance of Shavuot with a dessert social, followed by teachings on Shavuot. On June 2, we will have our Shavuot service at 10am. There will be a sheet in the foyer to write down your name if you have completed the New Covenant reading journey. You can write down your name also on Shabbat, June 7 (even though the reading must be completed by June 2). If you are not here in person you must let me know by email that you have completed the reading by June 2.

Shavua Tov!

Rabbi Howard