What Time Is It?

(I originally wrote and posted this in my previous blog on 03/23/2007. This year, the first day of the first month of the new year began at sunset on the Roman calendar date of 04/07/2008. Shanah Tovah! [Happy New Year!])

Readings:

Bemidbar (Numbers) 28:1-15
YeshaYahu (Isaiah) 66:1-24
Kefa Alef (1 Peter) 2:4-10

The first day of the first month of this Scriptural year was on the day known as 03/21/2007 on the Roman calendar. These readings are for the beginning of a new month.

Num 28:2 "Command the children of Yisra'el, and you shall say to them, 'Take heed to bring My offering, My food for My offerings made by fire as a sweet fragrance to Me, at their appointed time.'

'Moed' is the Hebrew word for 'appointed time'. In order to meet YHWH at His appointed times ('moedim' is the plural), we need to know what time it is.

Gen 1:5 And Elohim called the light 'day' and the darkness He called 'night.' And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, the first day.

When YHWH created the heavens and the earth, He established that each day begins at
evening.

Gen 1:14 And Elohim said, "Let lights come to be in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and appointed times, and for days and years,

When the sun goes down, we know that it is the end of one day and the beginning of another. Each time the first light of the renewed moon is sighted, we know that a new month has begun.

Exo 12:2 "This month is the beginning of months for you, it is the first month of the year for you.

Deu 16:1 "Guard the month of Aviv, and perform the Passover to YHWH your Elohim, for in the month of Aviv YHWH your Elohim brought you out of Mitsrayim by night.

Exo 23:15 "Guard the Festival of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Aviv - for in it you came out of Mitsrayim - and do not appear before Me empty-handed;

The first month of the year is when the Israelites came out of Egypt. It is the month of the Aviv. Aviv is the stage of barley growth when it is close to being ready to harvest. Once the barley crop is noted to be in the Aviv stage, we can know that the sighting of the next renewed moon will mean the beginning of the first month of the year. The newly harvested barley was offered on Yom HaBikkurim (Day of Firstfruits), which is during Chag HaMatzot (Festival of Unleavened Bread).

Following YHWH's calendar is to be totally dependent upon Him to tell us what time it is because it is a calendar of observation and is not calculated ahead of time. He created our eyes to be able to see the first light of the renewed moon. He created our hands to be able to examine the barley. He created the clouds that sometimes obscure the light of the renewed moon so that it may not be visible on the 29th day and we will have to look for it again on the 30th day. He created the sun and the rains that determine how the barley will grow.

He has given us everything we need, and like dependent children, we eagerly wait on Abba to reveal to us His appointed times.

To learn more about the yearly Aviv barley observation and monthly sighting of the New Moon in Israel, visit:

http://www.karaite-korner.org/abib.shtml

http://www.karaite-korner.org/new_moon.shtml

http://www.geocities.com/royh_il/