Blessing
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us concerning the counting of the Omer.
Barukh atah, A-donai E-loheinu, Melekh Ha-ʿolam, asher qid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu ʿal S’firat Ha-ʿomer.
Count
Today is thirty one days, which is four weeks and three days of the Omer.
Meditation
Exodus 13:1-2
The Lord said to Moses, “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”
Devotional
God commands Moses to set aside the firstborn for Himself because all belongs to God. In Exodus 4, God calls Israel His firstborn. As a nation they were set aside as a new Adam to serve as priests in His house and kingdom (Exodus 19:6). We recognize the importance of order and hierarchy all the time. When we do things, we know what to do first, second, third and so on. God is our first move in everything. God is our Father. We are children in His home. During his sermon on the hill, Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). But sometimes we make what we think should be first but it is not what God told us to do. We are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves. God lives among us in the identity of the other. Jesus put a priority for caring for the poor, feeding the sick, visiting the incarcerated (Matthew 25:31-40). We must not forget what matters to God and make that a priority.