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 three days, which is four weeks and five days of the Omer.
Meditation
Exodus 14:15-22
15 The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 16 Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. 17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” 19 Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20 coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night. 21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22 And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
Devotional
God had not left the people to be preyed upon by Pharaoh. But rather, God led them to the Red Sea to reveal Himself. God commanded Moses to use his staff to part the sea. This takes us back to the time of creation when God separated the waters above from the waters below (Genesis 1:6-8) and to the time of the flood when those waters fell upon the earth again (Genesis 7). These are moments of creation and decreation. Here at the Red Sea God is creating new people walking upon dry ground as their oppressors are buried under the sea. God uses Moses’s hand as His own, extending it in judgment and mercy, to create and to destroy and one day to write His word. The Exodus is an act of creation and birth. How God creates is how God saves. How God saves is How God creates. When reading the Bible look for the motifs of creation and the Exodus and see the importance the biblical writings place on that passage. Each of the three verses of Exodus 14:19-21 contain 72 letters. When combined, they form the 72 names of God upon which reveal the nature of God. We are invited to meditate upon these words and in so doing ascend Jacob’s Ladder (Genesis 28:12). Do some research and meditation (Psalm 1)! What is God doing with your hands?