A legal system which expects its citizens to abide by its laws for fear of the consequences that occur if the laws are broken is doomed to fail. If the only restraint is punishment, man will risk the negative consequences to attain the perceived benefits. Only a system which instructs its adherents to abide by the laws because transgression of them is inherently wrong and damaging to the individual, can be successful. Therefore, the Torah separates the directives enjoining us from engaging in these illicit acts from the consequences that accompany them to illustrate that we should not adhere to these rules out of fear of punishment, but because they are inherently destructive.

1.18:6-22 2.See Makkos 17b

Quick Halacha:

After nightfall, when the time for counting the Omer arrives, a person should exercise caution not to say “today is...” because he may inadvertently fulfill the mitzva without having made the blessing. Therefore, if a person is asked what day of the Omer we are counting, he should respond “yesterday was...” If he mistakenly announced that day’s count, he can no longer count with a blessing for that evening. This is because there are opinions that one can fulfill a mitzva even without intention. However, since the consensus is that fulfillment of a mitzva requires intention to do so, he is required to count again with intention to fulfill the mitzva, albeit without a bracha.