“After His suffering, He presented Himself to them with many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a span of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:3)
Jesus appeared to his disciples over a period of forty days, after which he was taken up into Heaven. The number 40 is the numeric value of the Hebrew letter “Mem”. In the original pictographic script, that is the pictorial script from which the ancient Hebrew or Paleo-Hebrew developed, the letter “Mem” resembled waves of water.
Waves of water have much to do with Jesus’ ascension into Heaven for the following reason: In Genesis 1:6-8, God makes a firmament (expanse) to separate the waters below the firmament from the waters above it. God calls this firmament “Sham-mayim”. This Hebrew word “Sham-mayim” is translated into English as “sky” but it is also the Hebrew word for “Heaven”. However, “Sham-mayim” sounds like two Hebrew words: “sham”, which means “there is” and “mayim”, which means “water”. So “Sham-mayim” in actual fact means “there is water”, because the firmament (expanse) is the divide between the waters below it and the waters above it.
Just as the mighty waves of the sea cover the Earth, so too the even mightier waters are above the firmament of the heavens. For Jesus to have ascended into the highest Heaven, he would have had to ascend through this expanse or firmament called Sham-mayim, which is Hebrew for “there is water”.
The 26th of May 2022 was the 40th day of the counting of the Omer, counting from Jesus as firstfruits from amongst the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20) on “the day after the [regular] Shabat”, immediately following Shabat haGadol, the Great and special Shabat day designated for Passover, the eve of which Yshua fulfilled the Passover lamb through His own death on the cross (Leviticus 23:9-11). 40th of Omer is not a religious holiday in Judaism, HOWEVER, to US it is of GREAT significance, as we read in Acts 1:3 “After His suffering, He presented Himself to them with many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a span of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.”
And here is the last thing that Jesus spoke about when He was with His disciples in Bethany, before He ascended into Heaven: Acts 1:6 So when they came together, they asked Him, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9After He had said this, they watched as He was taken up, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. 10They were looking intently into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.”
We know, according to Luke, that Jesus made this last instruction in Bethany, near Jerusalem, AFTER he had met with them in Galilee and given them the Great Commission:
“When Jesus had led them out as far as Bethany, He lifted up His hands and blessed them. 51While He was blessing them, He left them and was carried up into heaven. 52And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53praising God continually in the temple.” (Luke 24:50)
So TODAY is that 40th day and joy fills our hearts, because we who fix our eyes on Yshua, the *pioneer* and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), know that ever since THAT day, he sits at the RIGHT HAND OF THE THRONE OF GOD!!!
