Rosh Chodesh and the Messiah
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. We looked upon His glory, the glory of the one and only from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Rosh Chodesh: Understand each month's biblical focus. Each month we will look at it's Hebraic name, it's meaning, the related subjects and meditations.
Blessing the New Moon: Originally the New moon was determined by the Sanhendrin on the basis of eye witness testimony. Since this was done by lighting signal fires on hill tops. Later it was done by messengers. Use this simple Liturgy for your local gatherings to continue this testimony of worship to the King - Messiah.
Rosh Chodesh Guidelines: Order is a godly (Middah) trait. This document is a general outline for a gathering service to help stability and growth (1 Cor 14 v 40) It is a loose model depending on the time of the year and the desires of the hosts, making members aware of "boundary stones" and responsibilities.
Going Deeper
God relates to Moses a message to give to Pharaoh and to the Jewish people before the 10 Plagues begin, "My firstborn son is Israel" (Exodus 4:22). The Israelites were at their lowest point at this time, undeserving of any miracles in their own right. And yet that is exactly when God sweeps us up, taking us out of the darkness of Egypt, initiating the upward-moving process until 50 days later when we are deserving of receiving the Torah and of becoming a nation. What a perfect time and place to give the Jewish people the encouraging message in the commandment to sanctify the new moon every month and to determine our calendar this way:
"And God said to Moses … in the land of Egypt, say to the Jewish people: This month is for you the beginning of the months …" (Exodus 12:1-2)
God has given us the power of renewal and change, the gift of expanding, brightening and growing big again after we have been diminished.
Women And ROSH CHODESH
For women, Rosh Chodesh, the first day of the new month, is considered a mini-holiday as a reward for not having been willing to participate in the sin of the Golden Calf. This was lead by Miryam, the sister of Moses.
After the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, Moses went up the mountain for 40 days to receive the 10 Commandments. As a result of a minor miscalculation, the Jewish men believed that Moses had died and they beseeched Aaron to make for them a "god" to go with them in the desert.
There is a beautiful teaching on the New Moon – ROSH CHODESH, that is great to internalize. The main point is that Rosh Chodesh is a renewal, almost like a new birth each month that can occur in my life. It is an appointed time with my Creator. As we can have a date with our husband or best friend and share that moment that has even greater significance for all of us.
Its a Girl Thing
Why should this be our reward? What is the link between our not willing to give up our precious jewellery for the ill-fated Golden Calf project and the concept of celebrating the reappearance of the moon every month? Women had the ability to see beyond the very frightening situation the Jewish people experienced after Moses went up to receive the Torah and tarried on his way back. As far as the Jewish men were concerned, all hope was lost. There was no leader, no shepherd, no one to guide them through the desert to Israel. How could Moses be late? He must have died!
When things seemed dark and hopeless, the women knew that light was just around the corner. Why? because women know all about the pain of giving birth and the joy that comes after giving birth.
So what has Miryam got to teach us, since she is the one who saves her baby brother Moses in Exodus 2. In Numbers 20 Miryam dies and there is no water, not even water for tears to mourn her death! The clue to understanding this lies in her name Miryam which is מִרְיָם in Hebrew. Removing the Rosh רְ from her name which can mean 'source' or 'head' gives מִיָם myim water. Hence, on the death Miryam, the source of the water was removed. This is prophetic in that Mary or more correctly Miryam, the mother of Yeshua is the source of the 'living water'!!!
Let us continue looking in the Scriptures...
The first commandment the Hebrew folks were given as a people is the commandment of Rosh Chodesh, the New Month:
"And God said to Moses... in the land of Egypt... This month is for you, the head of the months. First it is for you among the months of the year." (Exodus 12:1-2)
The Jewish nation was told while still in Egypt that the month of Nissan, the month in which they would be leaving Egypt, the Month of Freedom, should be for them, their first month, and that from now on, they, as a nation, have a responsibility to count the months and create a uniquely Jewish calendar based on the lunar year.
Isn't this a strange first commandment? You'd think the development of the calendar would only come after the establishment of the basic fundamentals like the Ten Commandments. Why does the Torah consider the process of establishing the new month as a major breakthrough in creating a nation? This was the First Thing to do even before leaving the land of Slavery... Think, when you are slave, time is not in your hands but in your Master's hands. So creating a calendar was their first step of Freedom, they were in charge of their lives again. God told them; "Time is now in your Hands and remember to share it with me." Herein is a great mystery!
So creating a calendar was their first step of Freedom, they were in charge of their lives again. God told them; "Time is now in your Hands and remember to share it with me."
And what was wrong with the solar calendar that everyone else had been using? What is the significance of basing the Jewish calendar on the moon?
THE HUMAN ELEMENT
The Commandment of sanctifying the new month was a rather involved process. As soon as someone saw the tiniest sliver of a new moon, they would run to the Jerusalem High Court, who needed two witnesses to testify that the moon was actually seen. They would then convene the court, declare the new month and send messengers across the land to tell everyone that the new month had begun on this certain day. They, in turn, would pass on the news and place torches on mountains and high spots to spread the news faster. Sometimes it took two weeks for people to receive confirmation of the day the court had declared as the beginning of the month. (This, by the way, is the root reason why the Jews of the Diaspora would keep two days of the holidays, just in case they were wrong about which day was Rosh Chodesh if the information didn't arrive on time.) So that calendar determines on which day each Jewish holiday will occur. Each particular holiday brings with it a concrete spiritual reality from above that is available for us to tap into on that specific day.
God is giving the Jewish people an empowering message with this first commandment. Up until now, the Jews have been slaves to the Egyptians. Their time was not their own. Now, says God, you are becoming masters of your time. And not only of your own time, but of My time as well! By being given our own system of measuring time and creating our own calendar, we are taking charge of shaping reality. We are given a certain area of control over nature. Whereas time is steadily moving ahead, never-stopping, marching on in a cyclical, repetitive spiral, we are given the power to stop or start time at will, allowing us to "share" with God that special creativity of determining reality.
THE MOON
As part of this empowering message, it is essential for the moon to be our determining factor in setting up our calendar instead of the sun. The unique feature of the moon is that it appears to us to wax and wane, to disappear and reappear, to grow, diminish and grow again. It is also the smaller of the two luminaries.
Whereas the sun is the symbol of unchanging nature, rising in the east, setting in the west, day in and day out every day of the year, the moon changes and it seems to be telling us something: You can be small and you can diminish until you almost disappear, but then, when things look their darkest, hope springs eternal. You can start looking up again. You can change a situation and yourself for the better, no matter how bad it seems. Nothing is static or set in stone. Human beings have free will and therein is their power of renewal -- an ever-present struggle against the steady, cyclical, repetitive and predictable march of time and nature.
The solar system determines the year, in Hebrew "shana," which comes from the same root as "to repeat, to go over," whereas the moon sets the months, "Chodesh" from the Hebrew root "chadash," -- new, change, different. The people of God are compared to the moon. Though they are small, and suffering has been an integral part of their history among the nations, the Jew knows never to give up. As an individual and as a nation, he will rise up again and light up the night. We live with this belief in the power of miracles, that God supervises over the world and is not dependent on predictable laws of nature. The Jewish nation has a special relationship with God and even when on the lowest of spiritual rungs, about to assimilate and disappear, God maintains His constant love, as a father loves his son.
The World
Why has Christianity and the world have such a focus on the 25th of December and celebrating the birth of the 'son'? (The difference between The Son and the Sun is the 'o' is complete while the 'u' is incomplete!) To answer this one can go back to Emperor Constantine who declared the first day of the week as the veritable day of the Sun. He was a Sun worshipper and celebrated the birth of the new Sun on the Winter Solstice. As Wikipedia states:
Sol Invictus ("The Unconquered Sun/Invincible Sun") was originally a Syrian god who was later adopted as the chief god of the Roman Empire under Emperor Aurelian.[14] His holiday is traditionally celebrated on December 25, as are several gods associated with the winter solstice in many pagan traditions.
As Christianity separated itself from its Jewish roots, it in a sense replaced the lunar cycle on which the appointed times (moedim) of God with the worship of the Sun and its cycle.
So was Yeshua born on the 25th of December as Christianity has taught since the days of Constantine? When we look at Luke 2:5-8:
He went to register with Miriam, who was engaged to him and was pregnant. But while they were there, the time came for her to give birth— and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped Him in strips of cloth and set Him down in a manger, since there was no room for them in the inn.
Now there were shepherds in the same region, living out in the fields and guarding their flock at night.
Note especially the time when the Bethlehem shepherds were out, 'at night'. Why does it state explicitly at night? The only time shepherds are out at night is during lambing season, definitely not in December when it is known to snow in Bethlehem. Also these shepherds were not just any shepherds but they were the Temple shepherds responsible for looking after the Passover lambs that were to be sacrificed the following year. All of this indicates that Yeshua may have been born in Nissan which coincides with March-April. As the celebration of Rosh Chodesh Nissan sets the start of all the pointed times and is the beginning of months points to something very significant, the birth of the Messiah. The building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) as related in Exodus 25 to 27 can lead to clarification. One can calculate that it took nine month from conception to completion on the 1 Nissan in the second year of the exodus as stated in Exodus 40:2 and 17. This can only point to Yeshua who tabernacled amongst us, full with the Shechinah glory. Just as the Shechinah fulled the Mishkan (Exodus 40:34).
And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. We looked upon His glory, the glory of the one and only from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
Have ever wondered why people are called April Fools' on the 1st of April. One reason is that the New Year used to follow the Biblical example of New Year beginning on 1st April and not 1st January. More significantly, people who accepted that Yeshua was born on 1st April were mocked and called fools!
There are many other indications that Yeshua was born on 1 Nissan given by Rabbi Jonathan Cahn so click on https://youtu.be/kSXSbbRXLJg to listen to his fascinating teaching.
We need to move away from all pagan practices to the truth of Scripture and not to the false doctrines passed down by the Roman Church, and clean out our lives in preparation for Messiah's return.
Baruch Yeshua HaMashiach
Rosh Chodesh: Understand each month's biblical focus. Each month we will look at it's Hebraic name, it's meaning, the related subjects and meditations.
Blessing the New Moon: Originally the New moon was determined by the Sanhendrin on the basis of eye witness testimony. Since this was done by lighting signal fires on hill tops. Later it was done by messengers. Use this simple Liturgy for your local gatherings to continue this testimony of worship to the King - Messiah.
Rosh Chodesh Guidelines: Order is a godly (Middah) trait. This document is a general outline for a gathering service to help stability and growth (1 Cor 14 v 40) It is a loose model depending on the time of the year and the desires of the hosts, making members aware of "boundary stones" and responsibilities.
Going Deeper
God relates to Moses a message to give to Pharaoh and to the Jewish people before the 10 Plagues begin, "My firstborn son is Israel" (Exodus 4:22). The Israelites were at their lowest point at this time, undeserving of any miracles in their own right. And yet that is exactly when God sweeps us up, taking us out of the darkness of Egypt, initiating the upward-moving process until 50 days later when we are deserving of receiving the Torah and of becoming a nation. What a perfect time and place to give the Jewish people the encouraging message in the commandment to sanctify the new moon every month and to determine our calendar this way:
"And God said to Moses … in the land of Egypt, say to the Jewish people: This month is for you the beginning of the months …" (Exodus 12:1-2)
God has given us the power of renewal and change, the gift of expanding, brightening and growing big again after we have been diminished.
Women And ROSH CHODESH
For women, Rosh Chodesh, the first day of the new month, is considered a mini-holiday as a reward for not having been willing to participate in the sin of the Golden Calf. This was lead by Miryam, the sister of Moses.
After the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, Moses went up the mountain for 40 days to receive the 10 Commandments. As a result of a minor miscalculation, the Jewish men believed that Moses had died and they beseeched Aaron to make for them a "god" to go with them in the desert.
There is a beautiful teaching on the New Moon – ROSH CHODESH, that is great to internalize. The main point is that Rosh Chodesh is a renewal, almost like a new birth each month that can occur in my life. It is an appointed time with my Creator. As we can have a date with our husband or best friend and share that moment that has even greater significance for all of us.
Its a Girl Thing
Why should this be our reward? What is the link between our not willing to give up our precious jewellery for the ill-fated Golden Calf project and the concept of celebrating the reappearance of the moon every month? Women had the ability to see beyond the very frightening situation the Jewish people experienced after Moses went up to receive the Torah and tarried on his way back. As far as the Jewish men were concerned, all hope was lost. There was no leader, no shepherd, no one to guide them through the desert to Israel. How could Moses be late? He must have died!
When things seemed dark and hopeless, the women knew that light was just around the corner. Why? because women know all about the pain of giving birth and the joy that comes after giving birth.
So what has Miryam got to teach us, since she is the one who saves her baby brother Moses in Exodus 2. In Numbers 20 Miryam dies and there is no water, not even water for tears to mourn her death! The clue to understanding this lies in her name Miryam which is מִרְיָם in Hebrew. Removing the Rosh רְ from her name which can mean 'source' or 'head' gives מִיָם myim water. Hence, on the death Miryam, the source of the water was removed. This is prophetic in that Mary or more correctly Miryam, the mother of Yeshua is the source of the 'living water'!!!
Let us continue looking in the Scriptures...
The first commandment the Hebrew folks were given as a people is the commandment of Rosh Chodesh, the New Month:
"And God said to Moses... in the land of Egypt... This month is for you, the head of the months. First it is for you among the months of the year." (Exodus 12:1-2)
The Jewish nation was told while still in Egypt that the month of Nissan, the month in which they would be leaving Egypt, the Month of Freedom, should be for them, their first month, and that from now on, they, as a nation, have a responsibility to count the months and create a uniquely Jewish calendar based on the lunar year.
Isn't this a strange first commandment? You'd think the development of the calendar would only come after the establishment of the basic fundamentals like the Ten Commandments. Why does the Torah consider the process of establishing the new month as a major breakthrough in creating a nation? This was the First Thing to do even before leaving the land of Slavery... Think, when you are slave, time is not in your hands but in your Master's hands. So creating a calendar was their first step of Freedom, they were in charge of their lives again. God told them; "Time is now in your Hands and remember to share it with me." Herein is a great mystery!
So creating a calendar was their first step of Freedom, they were in charge of their lives again. God told them; "Time is now in your Hands and remember to share it with me."
And what was wrong with the solar calendar that everyone else had been using? What is the significance of basing the Jewish calendar on the moon?
THE HUMAN ELEMENT
The Commandment of sanctifying the new month was a rather involved process. As soon as someone saw the tiniest sliver of a new moon, they would run to the Jerusalem High Court, who needed two witnesses to testify that the moon was actually seen. They would then convene the court, declare the new month and send messengers across the land to tell everyone that the new month had begun on this certain day. They, in turn, would pass on the news and place torches on mountains and high spots to spread the news faster. Sometimes it took two weeks for people to receive confirmation of the day the court had declared as the beginning of the month. (This, by the way, is the root reason why the Jews of the Diaspora would keep two days of the holidays, just in case they were wrong about which day was Rosh Chodesh if the information didn't arrive on time.) So that calendar determines on which day each Jewish holiday will occur. Each particular holiday brings with it a concrete spiritual reality from above that is available for us to tap into on that specific day.
God is giving the Jewish people an empowering message with this first commandment. Up until now, the Jews have been slaves to the Egyptians. Their time was not their own. Now, says God, you are becoming masters of your time. And not only of your own time, but of My time as well! By being given our own system of measuring time and creating our own calendar, we are taking charge of shaping reality. We are given a certain area of control over nature. Whereas time is steadily moving ahead, never-stopping, marching on in a cyclical, repetitive spiral, we are given the power to stop or start time at will, allowing us to "share" with God that special creativity of determining reality.
THE MOON
As part of this empowering message, it is essential for the moon to be our determining factor in setting up our calendar instead of the sun. The unique feature of the moon is that it appears to us to wax and wane, to disappear and reappear, to grow, diminish and grow again. It is also the smaller of the two luminaries.
Whereas the sun is the symbol of unchanging nature, rising in the east, setting in the west, day in and day out every day of the year, the moon changes and it seems to be telling us something: You can be small and you can diminish until you almost disappear, but then, when things look their darkest, hope springs eternal. You can start looking up again. You can change a situation and yourself for the better, no matter how bad it seems. Nothing is static or set in stone. Human beings have free will and therein is their power of renewal -- an ever-present struggle against the steady, cyclical, repetitive and predictable march of time and nature.
The solar system determines the year, in Hebrew "shana," which comes from the same root as "to repeat, to go over," whereas the moon sets the months, "Chodesh" from the Hebrew root "chadash," -- new, change, different. The people of God are compared to the moon. Though they are small, and suffering has been an integral part of their history among the nations, the Jew knows never to give up. As an individual and as a nation, he will rise up again and light up the night. We live with this belief in the power of miracles, that God supervises over the world and is not dependent on predictable laws of nature. The Jewish nation has a special relationship with God and even when on the lowest of spiritual rungs, about to assimilate and disappear, God maintains His constant love, as a father loves his son.
The World
Why has Christianity and the world have such a focus on the 25th of December and celebrating the birth of the 'son'? (The difference between The Son and the Sun is the 'o' is complete while the 'u' is incomplete!) To answer this one can go back to Emperor Constantine who declared the first day of the week as the veritable day of the Sun. He was a Sun worshipper and celebrated the birth of the new Sun on the Winter Solstice. As Wikipedia states:
Sol Invictus ("The Unconquered Sun/Invincible Sun") was originally a Syrian god who was later adopted as the chief god of the Roman Empire under Emperor Aurelian.[14] His holiday is traditionally celebrated on December 25, as are several gods associated with the winter solstice in many pagan traditions.
As Christianity separated itself from its Jewish roots, it in a sense replaced the lunar cycle on which the appointed times (moedim) of God with the worship of the Sun and its cycle.
So was Yeshua born on the 25th of December as Christianity has taught since the days of Constantine? When we look at Luke 2:5-8:
He went to register with Miriam, who was engaged to him and was pregnant. But while they were there, the time came for her to give birth— and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped Him in strips of cloth and set Him down in a manger, since there was no room for them in the inn.
Now there were shepherds in the same region, living out in the fields and guarding their flock at night.
Note especially the time when the Bethlehem shepherds were out, 'at night'. Why does it state explicitly at night? The only time shepherds are out at night is during lambing season, definitely not in December when it is known to snow in Bethlehem. Also these shepherds were not just any shepherds but they were the Temple shepherds responsible for looking after the Passover lambs that were to be sacrificed the following year. All of this indicates that Yeshua may have been born in Nissan which coincides with March-April. As the celebration of Rosh Chodesh Nissan sets the start of all the pointed times and is the beginning of months points to something very significant, the birth of the Messiah. The building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) as related in Exodus 25 to 27 can lead to clarification. One can calculate that it took nine month from conception to completion on the 1 Nissan in the second year of the exodus as stated in Exodus 40:2 and 17. This can only point to Yeshua who tabernacled amongst us, full with the Shechinah glory. Just as the Shechinah fulled the Mishkan (Exodus 40:34).
And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. We looked upon His glory, the glory of the one and only from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
Have ever wondered why people are called April Fools' on the 1st of April. One reason is that the New Year used to follow the Biblical example of New Year beginning on 1st April and not 1st January. More significantly, people who accepted that Yeshua was born on 1st April were mocked and called fools!
There are many other indications that Yeshua was born on 1 Nissan given by Rabbi Jonathan Cahn so click on https://youtu.be/kSXSbbRXLJg to listen to his fascinating teaching.
We need to move away from all pagan practices to the truth of Scripture and not to the false doctrines passed down by the Roman Church, and clean out our lives in preparation for Messiah's return.
Baruch Yeshua HaMashiach
