Week Seven of Counting the Omer

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

Welcome to week seven of our Counting the Omer Bible reading journey. We have passed the back stretch and heading for home! The journey will finish on Sunday evening June 1/Monday June 2. At least one person has already finished reading the New Covenant Scriptures. If you began right after Passover and a little behind, keep going!! This week on the schedule is the last book of the New Covenant Scriptures – the Book of Revelation. As you have been reading the books of the New Covenant, I trust you have been able to get a big picture perspective. This is very helpful in reading Revelation. Ask yourself, what message should I get from the whole letter? Certainly, there is a look to the ultimate future. However, Revelation is not to be read for the purpose of finding current events to fit into the text. For 2000 years there have been wars, natural disasters, oppression by cruel Empires! May I suggest that some major takeaways from Revelation are repentance; not trust in world powers (political parties, nations, and politicians); hope for the future. Another perspective that you can see by reading Revelation is how it echoes the Exodus. In the Exodus story we see an oppressive empire, plagues, deliverance, and the Kingship of God. In Revelation we see apocalyptic symbolism of empire, judgements of plagues, deliverance and finally a New Jerusalem with Yeshua as King.

Enjoy the final week of the journey and I look forward to celebrating Shavuot together. We will meet at 6:45pm on Sunday June 1 for a dessert social which traditionally reminds us of the milk and honey of the land and the Word of God. Then at 7:30 we will have a kid’s program and a Shavuot discussion led by Jared Shatz. At 9pm we will join the Tikkun Leil Shavuot Zoom teaching with the UMJC. (You can register for this yourself at umjc.org if you would like to watch the whole program which ends at 4AM or if you will not be with us.)

On Monday morning at 10AM join us for our morning Shavuot service!

Shavua Tov

Have a great week!

Howard