The Feasts of the
LORD
Introductory basics
If you are just
learning about the Feasts of the LORD from the Old Testament, you will need some
basic information to help you understand.
Why does God have
a calendar? He moves in the lives of men.
Throughout history, events have been
scheduled around holy days that His people are to remember. These holy days are used for signs to us and
are considered ‘appointed times’ to meet with God.
A. The sun and the moon are there for a reason.
Genesis 1:14 And God 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: 15
And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon
the earth”: and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights; the greater light
to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars
also.
1. The
word for ‘sign’ in Hebrew is: twa 'owth,
oth - Strong’s #0226
a
signal, as a flag, beacon, monument, omen, prodigy, evidence, ensign, token.
2. The
word for ‘season’ in Hebrew is: dewm
mow`ed,
mo-ade' – Strong’s #04150
properly,
an appointment, i.e. a fixed time or season; specifically, a festival; an
assembly (as convened for a definite purpose); appointed time.
You will find that
the moon is particularly important to the timing of the feasts. Sometimes it is the very first sliver of the
New Moon seen in the sky that determines when a feast begins. Other times, when the moon is Full you can
know it is the time of a different feast.
This will make sense later.
B. When
does a day begin?
This might seem trivial, but God’s day begins differently than we are used to. Several verses in Genesis 1 show this.
Genesis 1:5 And
God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening
and the morning were the first day.
Genesis 1:8 And
God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the
second day.
Genesis 1:13 And the
evening and the morning were the third day.
Genesis 1:19 And the
evening and the morning were the fourth day.
This shows that God started each day in the evening. When the sun goes down on a given day, it is
considered the end of one day and the beginning of the next. This will be seen with the weekly
Sabbath. On Friday night at sundown, the
Sabbath begins. It runs all through the day we call Saturday until sundown
again. Technically we would say Saturday
is the Sabbath, but it begins right at sunset on Friday evening, not after
midnight.
This is another important concept to understand. It will carry on through the entire
Bible. If you do not know this and the
previous concepts mentioned, there are many passages that you will not
understand.
C. When does a month begin?
In modern times, we have a calendar that tells us when a month
begins. When a month begins is not
spelled out as obviously as some other things.
As you learn more about the feasts, it will become clear.
For God’s Calendar, the month can be either 29 or 30 days. There
is no such thing as a 28-day month or a 31-day month. This is based on the cycle of the moon waxing
and waning. As a month progresses, the moon at first gets bigger and bigger
until it is full. Then it starts waning
and gets smaller and smaller becoming a thinner and thinner crescent.
Eventually, it will be invisible to the eye (completely dark). This period of NO moon can last 2 or 3
days.
At some point, the first sliver of the “new moon” can be seen
in the sky. When that occurs, it marks
the beginning of the New Month. In
Hebrew it is “rosh chodesh” or head of the month. The word ‘chodesh’ (pronounced like kodesh) is
‘month’ as in a new month, or new moon.
In the Bible, God did not have to explain this to Moses (from what we can read). The people watched the sun, moon, and stars and understood things that many today don’t.
*Please note: What the
Bible calls a New Moon is different from what modern science says. NASA and other scientific sites consider the
dark moon period the ‘new moon’. That may work for people with computers and
telescopes, but not for the average shepherd or Israelite trying to keep track
of the months.
Why keep track of the months?
Because all of the feasts depend on knowing what day it is in a given
month. You will see that some Feasts
begin on the 1st day, some on the 14th day and some on
the 15th day. If you don’t
know when a month began, how do you know which day it is?
These are “appointed times” that God has established. He wants us to be there for His
appointments. If we love and want to
follow Yehovah, the God of Israel, we need to be obedient and follow His
calendar.
Numbers 10:10 Also in the day of your
gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months,
ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the
sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial
before your God: I am the LORD your God.
Isaiah 66:23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.
D. When
does the year begin?
Different cultures start their calendars at different
times. In the western world of today,
January 1st begins the year.
In Judaism, sometime in September is called Rosh Hashanah and is
considered the beginning of the year.
We are trying to keep God’s calendar as laid out in the Word
of God.
To do this, we must go back to the time of the Exodus from Egypt.
Exodus 12:1 Now the LORD spoke to Moses
and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2
"This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month
of the year to you. 3 "Speak
to all the congregation of Israel, saying: 'On the tenth day of this month
every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father,
a lamb for a household.”
God was instructing Moses that the time of the Passover was to be the beginning of the year for their calendar from then on. I do not know exactly what calendar they kept at that time, but it is clear this is what God wanted them to do and remember.
If you want to confirm that this was at Passover time, read
Exodus chapter 11, and the verses in chapter 12 following the passage
above.
We will look at more detail on Passover later.
At this point, you know when God wants the year to begin. You know when a month begins. You know when each day begins and ends. You also know that the Feast days are meant to be signs or appointed times for God’s people.
Compiled by G. E. Walker November
2020
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