When was the
last time you walked through a field, reached down and took a handful of
grain and just ate it? No package to open, no preparation to be made, just
food there for the taking, as you walk along. That even gets better when you
think of happily walking in the fresh air and sunshine, talking and laughing
with your friends. It’s really an idyllic picture.
One day Yeshua and His disciples were
enjoying just such a relaxing and joyous time on the
Sabbath. When His religious enemies saw it they
criticized Him for it, because it was the Sabbath and He wasn't
following their religious rules. No
surprise there.
They were really big on man-made rules.
Yeshua kindly responded, demonstrating that their
interpretation of the Sabbath went beyond the demands of Scripture,
resulting in injustice. Finally, He said to them, “The Sabbath was
made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is lord
even of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12, Mark 2)
There is a
lot that could be said about this profound statement. The Son of God is Lord
of the Sabbath and He created it for humanity. Realize that the Creator did
not just pick a random date and say ‘I declare this date the Sabbath.” Oh
no, not at all. The Sabbath was created as an integral part of the larger
Creation. “God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of sky to
divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for
seasons, and for days and years.” (Genesis 1:14)
Does that
sound like the calendar to you? Did you know the word calendar is not
in the Bible, not even once? Something most of us take for granted as a
daily part of our lives is not even mentioned in Scripture! That’s because
our Heavenly Father sees time completely differently than we do. There are
about 200 different calendars that have been or are being used by mankind.
However, no man-made calendar can accurately represent an eternity of
‘seasons, days and years.’ Yet, all of those ‘seasons, days and years’ are
complete in the mind of God. All of them and each of them have been ordered
by Him to fulfill His purposes. If we want to move with Him in His time, we
can do so, using the “lights in the expanse” as “Signs”, as they mark out
the “seasons” (lit. appointments) and “days and years.”
Here’s a bit
more about that word; seasons. Bible translators have, unfortunately,
used this very general word instead of the much more specific word indicated
in the original Hebrew text. This is Strong’s word H4150, and Strong’s
Hebrew Dictionary says this about it:
mo-ade', mo-ade',
mo-aw-daw' - properly an appointment
When we make
this needed correction to the verse it reads:
“God said,
Let there be lights in the expanse of sky to divide the day from the
night; and let them be for signs for appointments, and for days and
years.” (Genesis
1:14)
What the
verse is saying is that the “lights in the sky” provide “signs” of the
Creator’s “appointments” with His people. Notice that these “appointments”
are not set according to any of the 200 calendars created by man. His
appointments with us are set according to the “signs” the Creator put in the
heavens to indicate His appointed days to meet with His people. This, of
course, includes the Sabbath.
Think of
this: the Sabbaths are literally written into the Creation itself as
appointed days set to meet with us by our Creator! Showing up for any
appointment on the right day is crucial. If you have an appointment with
your doctor on one day but you show up a day later you have missed your
appointment. Suppose your doctor made the appointment with you using the
Gregorian calendar, but you thought, since he was Chinese, he must have been
using the Chinese calendar. In that case, are you going to have the right
appointment day? Sadly, many sincere believers are missing the appointment
with the Lord of the Sabbath for exactly this same reason.
This is no
small issue, since keeping Sabbath is the Fourth of Ten Commandments:
“Remember
the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. You shall labor six days, and do all your
work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to YHWH your God. You shall not do
any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor
your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within
your gates; for in six days YHWH made heaven and earth, the sea, and all
that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore YHWH blessed the
Sabbath day, and made it holy.”
(Exodus 20:8-11)
We are
commanded to keep the “seventh day” holy. The seventh day of what? Clearly,
we need to keep this appointment according to the “Sign’ the Creator put in
Heaven to mark that appointment! Appointment days are set in Scripture
according to the Moon.
YHWH spoke
to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying; “This month shall be
to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of
the year to you.”
(Exodus 12:1-2)
The word
month here is not talking about a calendar month. It is talking about
Moon cycles. Why do I say that? Notice the original Hebrew meaning of the
word translated from English:
Strong’s:
H2320 - chôdesh - the new moon; by implication a month
AHLB: New
moon: The first crescent of the moon as the renewal of the moon, the first
day of the month.
BDB
Definition: chôdesh - 1) the new moon, month, monthly 1a) the first day of
the month 1b) the lunar month
The word
translated here as ‘month’ is the Hebrew word chôdesh and
literally refers to the renewal of the moon cycle, beginning
with the sighting of the first crescent of the moon as the “sign” in the sky
as the start of the first day.
