The first month of the year!
In the book of Exodus, chapter 12, starting with verse 2, Yehoah says:
"And YEHOAH spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house…
And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening…It is YEHOAH's passover."
This first indication shows without any doubt that our Yehoah divides the time into years, months and days. It means that there is a beginning for the year just like there is a beginning for each month and for each day.
The choice of the first month is a particularly important task for the believer as, during this month, Yehoah is sending us an invitation to participate to His feast with Him: it is the feast of Passover and of the seven days of unleavened breads.
The confusion created by man!
Mankind on many occasions tried to build theories to fix the beginning of the year. All these theories sowed the most complete confusion during several millennia.
Such confusion is an expected consequence of any human attempt which does not TAKE ITS ROOT IN THE WORD OF ELOHIM!
Indeed what a difference it would have been if people had spent some time to understand how the Bible is providing useful information about the method to fix the new year. The mankind would have avoided a lot of headaches caused by all these difficult research to find ways to measure time. Moreover it would also have saved a lot of time to do more fruitful works.
The Jewish people also, if they were trying to read the Bible "with open eyes" would understand that ELOHIM DOES NOT NEED THEIR SO-CALLED SACRED CALENDAR, the one designed by Hillel II in the fourth century of the supposedly "Christian era". This type of calendar, although it is the fruit of an erudite observation of the stars, never was and never will be used by the people following the bible since Seth till the Christians. Moreover, Hillel II did not find his inspiration in the Word of Yehoah to build his calendar but on the contrary, he called on
the practices of Babylon which start the new year, not in the spring, but
in the fall. Babylon is in the Bible often associated with confusion
after the origin of its name, Babel.
The absurdity with this Jewish calendar is that, at the extreme, people could fix the new years and the new months from their cellar only by calculation WITHOUT APPEALING ANYMORE TO THE OBSERVATION OF THE NATURE AND OF THE STARS THAT OUR YEHOAH GAVE TO US AS A CELESTIAL CLOCK TO MEASURE TIME!
Indeed, Elohim created the stars so that we make use of them visually just like we are looking at the hands of our clock:
"And Elohim said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years." (Genesis 1:14)
Elohim gave us a majestic gift, a celestial clock which combines a bright beauty with the highest degree of accuracy. Why did all our civilizations neglect such a wonderful gift and priceless tool? Is this by pride, carelessness or by lack of knowledge?
As suggested before, even the Israelite world, which should have been considered as a reference, is plunged in a deep confusion once it must define the new year:
compromises were made by having as many new years as needed to satisfy everyone! First, the most official new year takes place at the beginning of the biblical seventh month, the month during which is taking place the biblical festival of Sukkot.
Then the "religious new year" forgotten by the majority and which marks the beginning of the count of the days to fix the festival of Passover.
Another new year is also " Tou bichvat" also called New Year of the trees and which takes place usually in February.
And last but not least, as a summit of disrespect, the majority of the laic part of the Jewish people, as soon as they could after their independence decided to follow the tradition of the Western world and to adopt Saint Sylvester as a last way to fix the new year.
This confusion of the Jewish people and in particular of their religious
authorities is surprisingly in line with what was written 2500 years ago by Ezekiel, the prophet:
"Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: FOR THEY ARE A REBELLIOUS HOUSE." (Ezekiel 12:2)
However, the Bible thanks to the preserving mission of the Jews, mission which is essential for all human being and which was announced in advance by the apostle Paul (Romans 3: 1-2), does not leave room to any doubt.
No doubt not only, as we saw earlier, to know when starts the new year but also concerning the seventh month, the one chosen by the State of Israel to start its civil year:
"Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation." (Leviticus 23: 24)
The continuation of the chapter indicates that during this same seventh month will take place the festival of the huts (Soukkoth: verse 34). And if we read in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 16, verse 13, it is written that this festival of the huts takes place during the fall when one collects the fruit of the press, namely the wine, fruit of the vine whose harvest is done in autumn!
Why then persist in celebrating new year during the seventh month? Isn't this an act of rebellion and contempt against the Author of our days?
The First of the Months of the Year!
If we are ready to accept the idea that Elohim has chosen one month to be the first of the months of the year, we must asked ourselves the question:
When will this month take place? When can we know that the first of the months of the year mentioned in the book of Exodus is starting?
This question finds an easy answer if we pay attention to all the passages of the Bible related to Passover and the festival of the unleavened breads. Indeed, we will see that our Yehoah puts at our disposal all the information necessary to fix the first month without any risk of error:
"Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the YEHOAH thy Elohim : for in the month of Abib Yehoah thy Elohim brought thee forth out of Egypt by night." (Deuteronomy 16: 1)
Here, Yehoah shows us that the first of the months of the year, the one of Passover, is a month during which ears can be seen in the fields and moreover these ears must recall the exit out of Egypt!
Let us continue our investigation carefully, like Sherlock Holmes and let us make sure that we will use all the clues given by the Word of Elohim ! Thus our investigation is bringing us in Egypt at the time just before the exodus of the sons of Israel.
If we read how the Bible is describing the fields, at the time of
the wounds (woes?), a little before the exodus, we can see what follows:
"And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field…
And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled.
But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they were not grown up." (Exodus 9: 25-32)
The answer is clear, the first of the months of the year is the one during which the ears of barley are mature and ready for the crop.
By the way, the same paragraph also says that it cannot be wheat ears because they are not yet mature. Another proof that it cannot be the wheat ears is the fact when they are mature, it is time to feast Pentecost, alias the feast of the weeks (in Hebrew: shavouot or shavuot). Pentecost takes place seven weeks after the season of Passover:
"And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end." (Exodus 34: 22)
Chapter 23 of Leviticus confirms that the feast of Pentecost takes place seven full weeks after the season of Passover. All this proves how much Elohim takes care of us and how His Word is rich in details to prevent that His people will not be mistaken and lost on the way which leads towards the eternity.
It is not in vain that David wrote:
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."
(Psalm 119: 105)
Now, we must answer another question: where should we observe if ears of barley are mature?
Indeed, ears of barley are mature at quite different times in the year depending on places on earth! In Northern Europe, it will be in June or even July, much later than in Egypt or in the Promised Land of Israel. And if we are in the southern hemisphere, it will be vice-versa.
So which place to choose to observe the ears of barley? Here again, we could find a source of confusion!
But here also, Yehoah will help us to find the answer to that
question. First of all, the people of Elohim must pay attention to another clue in order to find the answer:
"Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into THE LAND THAT I GIVE YOU the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest." (Leviticus 23: 10)
This verse explains how the sons of Israel were expected to make the offering of the first fruit of the sheaves of barley during the seven days of the festival of the unleavened breads. If we wish to be part of the heirs of Abraham, we must understand the meaning of this ceremony and how to participate to it today. By this way, we will have, like Abraham and like the Children of Israel, an access to the Promised Land.
The Children of Israel were promised to enter the Land of Canaan while still in the desert of Sinai, when the book of Leviticus was written. It means that like them, we need to fix the first of the months of the year following the observation of the maturity of the ears of barley in the Land of Promise, in Israel. If this is not yet convincing you, you should not forget either that Yehoah solemnly chose forever the place of the Temple in the city of Jerusalem as the place of residence for His Holy Name:
"For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually."
(II Chronicles 7: 16)
Thus if we want to be close to the heart of our Yehoah , we should focus our eyes on Jerusalem, the city where the place of His house, and we should watch the maturity of the ears of barley near Jerusalem to decide which month will be the first one of the year, the one during which we will feast Passover:
"Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which the YEHOAH thy Elohim giveth thee:
But at the place which the YEHOAH thy Elohim shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt."
(Deuteronomy 16: 5-6)
Daniel, beloved of Yehoah , while in captivity under the power of
Babylon and of the Persian empire, always made his prayers while turning his face in the direction of Jerusalem, towards the place of the Temple. Indeed this Temple was burnt and destroyed but it was still the place of the name of Yehoah . Daniel prayed in the direction of Jerusalem and was endangering his life by doing this as we can read:
"Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his Elohim , as he did aforetime.
Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his Elohim ." (Daniel 6: 10-11)
This event confirms the importance of Jerusalem as a bench mark on earth for the measurement of time and in particular the choice of the first of the months of the year thanks to the observation of the maturity of the first ears of barley.
The Christians are invited to be part of the future priests of our Yehoah and they must take care of the preparation of what will take place at the end times:
THE REIGN OF CHRIST!
When Yeshuah Christ will reign, then:
"And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the YEHOAH, to the house of the Elohim of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the YEHOAH from Jerusalem."
(Isaiah 2: 3)
Did you know that the meaning of SION (Hebrew Tsion) is LANDMARK or SIGNAL!
Then we must make all our efforts to keep our eyes on this landmark of Jerusalem, where our Yehoah has his heart, and use it as the place to determine the first of the months of the year, by observing the maturity of the ears of barley.
This will be the month of Passover and of the festival of the seven days of the unleavened
breads during which Yeshuah Christ, symbolized by the fist ear of barley has offered himself to His Father for us!
The first day of the month.
The important question which arises now is how to choose the first day of the month while using the gigantic astral clock made for us by Our Creator. Unfortunately, this is another place that mankind has rendered thorny BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE SO BLINDED BY THEIR PRIDE TO FOLLOW RULES AS THEY LIKE!
"Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment." (Hosea 5: 11)
The word which is translated by "month " in the Bible should be translated more exactly by " new moon". In the same way, when you read in your Bible " fourteenth day of the month ", in Hebrew, you would read "fourteenth day of the new moon ". The new moons which mark the beginning of the months according to the calendar invented by Elohim for man are particularly important days as they are chosen by Elohim as days for offerings:
"And in the beginnings of your months ye shall offer a burnt offering unto the YEHOAH; two young bullocks, and one ram, seven lambs of the first year without spot." (Numbers 28: 11)
Throughout the old testament, this request of Yehoah d was followed and traces are found here and there. We must always keep in mind that all these rules given once by our Yehoah are still in practice and should never be forgotten by the believers even if the majority of the Christian
authorities try to make you believe the contrary. Rather than to believe these authorities, you should better put your confidence in Yeshuah -Christ and you will never be disappointed. So let us hear what he said clearly along time ago:
"FOR VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, TILL HEAVEN AND EARTH PASS, ONE JOT OR ONE LITTLE SHALL IN NO WISE PASS FROM THE LAW, TILL ALL BE FULFILLED." (Matthew 5: 18)
It may be that you do not understand yet how to practice today this offering of the beginnings of month, alias new moons, but that does not give you any reason to forget it or to erase it from the law!
For true believers, the new moon is invested with a similar importance as the day of rest, the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath
AS BOTH ARE SYMBOLS FOR THE FUTURE!
I am not the only one telling you this, but Paul has also written it for you:
"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holiday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ."
(Colossians 2: 16-17)
Please pay attention to the way we translated these verses of Paul for most of the Bibles are twisting the text trying to induce the reader to believe the opposite of what it says. Indeed in these Bibles, you will find:
" Which were a shadow of things to come "
whereas the original text in Greek say nothing else but what is written higher. Please also note that the word shadow chosen by Paul fits very well here as shadow is created by the light and it is showing us the shape of the world to come where Christ will be King of the kings. The light coming from Elohim the Father lets us guess by the shadow it makes how will be this new world. Today, we see only the shadows, I mean pure food, the festivals, new moons and the Sabbaths; these shadows announces the world to come which is out of our view and they are only projected for us in our world. This shadow gives us a first glimpse of what will be.
The language of our Creator is very precise.
What you have seen before shows the high degree of accuracy that Elohim is using to inform us in the Bible:
"For the word of Elohim is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4: 12)
Here are two examples to convince you even more how much you should pay attention to the meaning of the words used by Elohim in His word. A too quick reading and an approximate understanding of the Bible represent a serious potential danger.
The first example will show you why almost all the Jewish people
celebrate Pentecost, in Hebrew Shavouot which means feast of the weeks, usually on a wrong day. Don't take this as a reason to believe that the Christian world is closer to the truth, quite to the contrary, as Christians in their majority have rejected most of the rules included in the old testament, the essential part of the Bible. But let us go back to the Jews and their wrong practice for the Pentecost.
The reason for which the Jews celebrate Pentecost often at a wrong day comes from the confusion existing for most people in the world who are mixing the meaning of the word week with any series of seven consecutive days. Thus, in Israel, Pentecost is celebrated 50 days after the day following Passover. These fifty days are the result of the count of seven times seven days, forty-nine days, after Passover and to held the feastday on the morning after. This calculation draws its origin in the wrong understanding of Leviticus 23: 15-21. The true meaning of the word week is not taken into account. This true meaning was defined by Elohim since the beginning and it means the particular series of seven days which starts with Sunday, first day of the week, and ends with Saturday, seventh and last day of the week. This meaning is much more limited than any series of seven consecutive days in the week! Confusing that, the religious authorities of the Jews decided to count fifty days starting from any day of the week provided that it was the morning after Passover, with the result that their Pentecost is taking place most of the time at an unspecified day of the week and not Sunday as specified by the Bible!
Indeed, the Bible requires from us even today to begin the count of the 50 days, seven weeks plus one day, on Sunday, the first day of the week which is included in the seven days festival of the unleavened breads. By doing this, we will be able to indeed count seven weeks starting with Sunday and finishing with Saturday, last day of the seventh week, as it is clearly written in the Bible and understanding the word week as it is defined by our Yehoah .
And just after this seventh Saturday, at the end of the seventh week, we reach Sunday, first day of the week and we are invited to celebrate Pentecost, festival of the weeks after its name in Hebrew, Schavouot.
Moreover, even if, today, it is often the custom for people to speak about the week of the unleavened breads, you can check by yourselves that nowhere the Bible is calling this a week but always seven days!
Elohim always inspired His writers to write seven days of unleavened
breads. He did that to teach us the difference between a week and seven days showing us that a week is not, as one could believe, seven unspecified consecutive days but on the contrary the seven days starting with a Sunday and ending with a Saturday.
The second example is very similar to the previous one. It shows the danger and the risks that we can take if we are too quickly satisfied with the approximate meanings of words. For the majority, the duration of one month is thirty days. Thus, if we read Revelation 11: 2 and 13: 5, it refers to a 42 months prophetic period of time during which the Beast will act with a complete and unlimited freedom. A simple calculation can make us believe that these forty two months are the same as 42X30=1260 days during which the two witnesses of Elohim will prophesy (Revelation 11: 3) and also during which the woman described in Revelation 12 will be protected and nourished in the desert.
But if Elohim is as precise as He is demonstrating it to us by the way He has conceived the universe, we are likely to make a big error by accepting such type of approximation. Indeed, everywhere the Bible defines the month as a series of days between a new moon and the following one. This concept would always be in our mind if we were keeping the tradition to make an offering to Yehoah at the time of each new moon. We would understand that this 42 months period of time described in the book of Revelation can only start with a new moon and finish with a new moon.
Moreover, the total duration of this period of 42 lunations is only 1240 days if one considers that the average duration of one lunation is circa twenty nine and a half days. This precision thought by our Yehoah can help us not to be confused and mix events which may perhaps take place at completely different times. In other words, it may also be a way to save our lives as a bad understanding of prophecies can be fatal.
The day of the new moon.
In the book of Proverbs, chapter 12, verse 1, it is written:
"Whoso loveth instruction LOVETH KNOWLEDGE: but he that hateth reproof is brutish."
All believers must aspire to science, to the knowledge by all the means that Elohim has put at our disposal. It is one of our duty to use all our senses and our intelligence to learn more in order to increase steadily our knowledge. However this increase in our knowledge will only bear fruits if in the same time we succeed in changing and correcting our way of life when we discover that we are wrong. A key to reach such behavior is our ability to be humble:
HUMBLENESS MEANS ABILITY TO LISTEN EVERYTHING WHILE KEEPING ONLY THE GOOD.
Today, the choice of the first day of the month and/or of the new moon is still extremely debated. Many religions using the moon to fix the months have adopted the observation of the first crescent of the moon as the signal to begin a new month. The Jewish tradition claims that for more than two thousand years, the religious authorities have had observers, distributed in all over the country, to look for the new crescent, which is visible at the evening a little after the sun has gone down. As soon as the first crescent is seen, fires were lightened on all the summits of the hills till Jerusalem where the supreme authorities issued the new month. It goes without saying that the man with faith must examine these things with the greatest prudence as nothing of these traditions is drawn from the Bible! The Bible, on the contrary, implies that the determination of a new moon was to be known at least one day in advance. This is indeed what we must understand when we read the following part of the life of David related in the first book of Samuel, chapter 20, verse 5:
"And David said unto Jonathan, Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third day at even."
Knowing the character of David, in all his writings, in particular in the psalms, one can be convinced that he practiced with love the observation of the stars and more particularly of the moon to fix the beginning of the months. Don't forget that he was a long time a shepherd before becoming king. When he was a shepherd, during the nights, he could admire the moon and the stars in the sky. He thus had a good knowledge of the sky just like we should have if we were devoting to it some little time on a regular basis. David could determine after the shape of the moon in the last part of its cycle when would begin the following month.
In other words, David had learned how to use the astronomical clock that His Creator offered to him for free!
It is interesting to note that the precise moment of the new moon is single for all the world. We are on the spaceship earth and each one can the same day observe the occultation of the moon which does not receive any more sunlight because the screening effect of the earth.
Consequently, the moon cannot reflect the sunlight towards the earth. This moment is called astronomical new moon (in Greek: neomenia). The new moon is the precise time when no one cannot see the moon, when the moon is not visible at all. It is not a coincidence that in the Greek text inspired of the epistle of Paul to the Colossiens whom we quoted higher the word neomenia is translated by new moon. Neomenia is the astronomical name for new moon. The use of the neomenia, which is the precise time of the new moon, to fix the first day of a new month is a rather different concept than the calculated one adopted by the Israelites and the observation of the first crescent of the moon by the Muslims. All these practices do not take their roots in the Bible.
As we will see, the careful reader of the word of Elohim can find and demonstrate the method conceived by Yehoah to decide when a month starts. According to this method, any new month starts at the first day in the cycle of the moon when the moon is not visible anymore.
The choice of the day corresponding to the new moon is particularly important for the seventh month as it is a major feast in honor of Yehoah (Leviticus 23: 23-25). Indeed this feast of the seventh new moon of the year is very special as it is the only one that coincides with a new moon. It means also that the feast of the first day of the seventh month is taking place when darkness is overwhelming during the night everywhere on earth. And Elohim is using this feast as a key in the Bible to open our eyes about the way to choose the precise day of new moon and to avoid the big error made by the other religions in the world.
This key is in psalm 81: 2-6:
"Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, when it is covered (with the meaning not visible), on our solemn feast day.
For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the Elohim of Jacob.
This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard a language that I understood not.
I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots."
This text requires some additional explanations to be well understood. The words "in the time appointed" or in some translations "full moon" are translated from the Hebrew word "kessa" or "kesse" which means fully covered with the meaning " not visible" or " being hidden". Here a first comment must be made: it is completely the opposite of the full moon which means that the moon is completely visible and glaze of light! It is rather interesting to note that the translation "full moon" was first introduced by the Jews of Babylon! Babylon is known as the source of all confusions.
The root of " kesse " can be found in many other Hebrew words as for instance "mecousse " which means in modern Hebrew fully covered with the meaning of protected. But it is certainly more convincing to find the root of " kesse " in several places of the Bible where it undoubtedly is associated within the meaning of being hidden, camouflaged. Thus in Genesis, in chapter 18 and verse 17, Yehoah uses the word "kesse" for saying:
"And Yehoah said, Shall I hide ("kesse") from Abraham that thing which I do;"
In psalm 40: 10, the same word is used for saying:
"I have not hid ("kesse") thy righteousness within my heart."
A little further in psalm 143: 9, the writer says:
"Deliver me, O Yehoah , from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide ("kesse") me."
Finally in the book of proverbs, chapter 10, verse 18, it is written:
"He that hideth ("kesse") hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool."
All these references show how much the meaning of "kesse" in psalm 81 goes hand in hand with the fact that the first day of the month is the one of the astronomical the moon (neomenia in Greek). This astronomical definition means that the moon is completely hidden and cannot be seen, even not its crescent!
That also explains very well why the translation using the wording "full
moon" is not appropriate as it would mean the complete opposite, a fully visible moon as it is in the middle of the month.
This brings us to a kind of conclusion. If we analyze the ways Elohim has built His calendar, we will note that everything is consistent and logic. The basic principle of the calendar of Elohim is
START EVERYTHING AFTER THE END OF WHAT PRECEDES.
A new day starts when the sun has gone down and has completely ended its course in the visible part of the sky.
In the same way the new month starts at the end of the lunar cycle, at the precise moment when the moon does not give anymore light reflected from the sun. The moon is in other word is not visible at all!
All these examples from the creation are a source of teachings given by Elohim to the mankind:
In the same way, the children of Israel became the nation of the Yehoah only when their end appeared certain to the Egyptians who were exterminating them hoping to put an end to their existence on earth. Before that event, Israel was not a nation.
Yeshuah -Christ became our Savior only after His death on the wood, at the end of his human life on earth, at the same moment when His light stopped to shine before mankind.
The new world to come and about which Yeshuah -Christ spoke so much will start only when all the world will find itself in complete darkness and without any light as during the night of the feast of the first day of the seventh month, the feast described in psalm 81, verses 1 to 4. At that time still to come, the people of Elohim will find themselves like the children of Israel being persecuted and dying without any hope to survive except Elohim . At the very last end, the last two witnesses (Revelation 11) will give us a last hope of survival, but they will also die like their Savior, Yeshuah -Christ. The whole world of those who are not written in the book of life will celebrate the execution of the two witnesses and there will be a big feast and joy everywhere. But people will not understand that their final catastrophe is a few hours ahead like it was in the last day of Beltschatsar (Daniel 5).
Then will come the reign of the Yehoah !
YES WITH THE YEHOAH, ALL STARTS AFTER THE END OF WHAT PRECEDES!