HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Last night at sundown, the new moon (Rosh Chodesh) began the month of Nisan.
What is so special about that?
This is YHVH's commanded beginning of the new year!
It is also the beginning of the preparations for the spring appointed feasts of YHVH.
When Moses and the children of Israel were in Egypt, and the Lord was bringing warning after warning and plague after plague to Pharoah and the Egyptian people, YHVH prepared Moses and the Israelites for what He was about to do.
This isn't just about how YHVH delivered His people from slavery in Egypt. This isn't just about what He did for them with the lamb's blood on the doorposts and the passing over of the death angel and salvation of all Israel's firstborn. YHVH gave a picture, a pattern to His people that would unfold and grow deeper and richer as His Kingdom plan unfolded over the decades and centuries to come.
Exodus 12:1-2
(After one of many plagues failed yet again to sway Pharaoh's heart...)
YHVH spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt; he said, "You are to begin your calendar with this month; it will be the first month of the year for you."
This was the first command given to the people by YHVH as they were about to leave Egypt, follow Him to the land of inheritance, become His covenant people in His covenant land, and begin to fulfill all His purposes for them as His people and for the nations.
The first command...
...a new beginning...
...so important for what was about to unfold...
...stepping out in trusting YHVH when things looked like they wouldn't happen the way He promised...
knowing that HIS timing and timeline are perfect!
Take a look at what comes right after this command in Exodus 12...
[YHVH said] 'Speak to all the assembly of Israel and say, "On the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family...it is to be without defect...a male in its first year...You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, and then slaughter it at dusk...take some of the blood and smear it on the two sides and top of the door-frame at the entrance of the house....Here is how you are to eat it: with your belt fastened, your shoes on your feet and your staff in your hand; and you are to eat it hurriedly. It is ADONAI's Pesach [Passover]. For that night, I will pass through the land of Egypt and kill all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both men and animals; and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt; I am ADONAI. The blood will serve you as a sign marking the houses where you are; when I see the blood, I will pass over [Hebrew: pasach] you - when I strike the land of Egypt, the death blow will not strike you. This will be a day for you to remember and celebrate as a festival to ADONAI; from generation to generation you are to celebrate it by a perpetual regulation."'
Exodus 12:3-14
YHVH's command to observe the new year leads directly into preparation for
Pessach (Passover)
...which then leads to
the Feast of Unleavened Bread
...which leads to
the Day of First Fruits
...which leads to
Shavuot or Feast of Sevens (Pentecost).
And the exciting part of all of these feasts is that Yeshua is the fulfillment of them all! They are a picture of HIM!
Even more exciting is that these feasts lead into the fall feasts.
And guess what?! Yeshua is the fulfillment of those too!
Do you see the way YHVH has laid out His covenant, His love, His plan, His salvation, His desire to dwell with His people? He has commanded us to observe these feasts and appointed times, and He uses them to show us HIMSELF!!
How awesome!
Today, since this is the new year, I only want to focus on the command to observe the new year.
It is very interesting to look at some of the events that happened on this day of this month throughout different parts of YHVH's timelime according to His Word.
It was on this day that Noah opened the covering of the ark and saw that the ground was dry.
Genesis 8:13 By the first day of the first month of the 601st year the water had dried up from off the earth; so Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked; and, yes, the surface of the ground was dry.
On the 27th day, he left the ark with his family and the animals.
This day seems to be a day of new beginnings and of cleansing.
In Exodus 40:2, YHVH commanded Moses to set up and anoint the tabernacle, HIS Dwelling Place, on the first day of the first month.
Then YHVH filled it with Himself!
Exodus 40:2 (see also verses 33-34)
YHVH said to Moses, 'On the first day of the first month, you are to set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting. Put in it the ark for the testimony, and conceal the ark with the curtain. Bring in the table, and arrange its display. Bring in the menorah, and light its lamps'...(etc).
In 2 Chronicles we find Hezekiah involved in another important event happening during this month...the process of cleansing the temple.
2 Chronicles 29:3-7
In the first month of the first year of his reign, [Hezekiah] reopened the doors of the house of YHVH and repaired them. Then he brought in the priests and Levites and said to them, "Listen to me, Levites: consecrate yourselves now, consecrate the house of ADONAI the God of your ancestors, and remove the filth from the Holy Place. For our ancestors acted treacherously, they did what is evil from the perspective of YHVH our God, they abandoned him, they turned their faces away from where YHVH lives and turned their backs on him. They sealed the doors of the vestibule, put out the lamps and stopped burning incense and offering burnt offerings in the Holy Place to the God of Israel.
...and then in verses 15-19...
They gathered their kinsmen, consecrated themselves and, in keeping with the king's order and YHVH's words, went in to cleanse the house of YHVH. The priests went in to cleanse the inner part of the house of YHVH; all the unclean things they found in the sanctuary of YHVH they brought out into the courtyard of the house of YHVH, where the Levites took and carried them out to the Kidron Valley. They began consecrating on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they reached the vestibule of YHVH. Then they consecrated the house of YHVH in eight more days; so that on the sixteenth day of the first month, they had finished. Then they went to Hezekiah the king and said, "We have cleansed all the house of YHVH, including the altar for burnt offerings and the table for the showbread. Moreover, we have reconditioned and consecrated all the articles that King Achaz threw out during his reign, when he was sinning; and they are there, in front of the altar of YHVH."
It was on this day of the year that Ezra began his journey from Babylon back to Jerusalem to rebuild the House of YHVH (funded by the King of Persia!).
Ezra 7:9-10
[Ezra] began going up to Jerusalem from Babylon on the first day of the first month and arrived on the first day of the fifth month, since the good hand of his God was on him. For Ezra had set his heart on studying and practicing the Torah of YHVH and teaching Israel the laws and rulings.
YHVH gave Ezekiel a detailed vision of the blueprints of a temple that has yet to be built (and therefore must be coming in the future!). In the chapters preceeding Ezekiel 45, you can read for yourself the details of this amazing temple.
And then YHVH told Ezekiel how and when to cleanse and purify the temple.
Ezekiel 45:18-21
YHVH ELOHIM says this: 'On the first day of the first month you are to take a young bull without defect and purify the sanctuary. The priests will take some of the blood from the sin offering and put it on the door-frames of the house, on the four corners of the altar's ledge and on the gate of the inner courtyard. You are also to do this on the seventh day of the month for everyone who has sinned inadvertently. Thus you will make atonement for the house. On the fourteenth day of the first month you are to have the Pesach...
(Did you notice that the Feasts are still being observed during the time of this future temple?)
What an important day of new beginnings and cleansing
this day is!
This is about more than "new year's resolutions."
This is about seeking YHVH's commands, His law, His Torah, His precepts...seeking to live HIS way, always!
This is about coming before Him in purity and in His righteousness, about His Dwelling Place, about HIS SALVATION by the BLOOD of the LAMB!
There will be more to come on that topic soon as Pesach draws near...are you preparing for it?
I am!
In the eternal, everlasting covenant of our YHVH,
Gina
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