"It will be sheer terror to understand this message" (Is.28:19, ESV).

"Do not quench the Ruach (Spirit). Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil" (1 Thess.5:19-22, NKJV).

In considering the symbolism that Yahweh uses in scripture, it is important to realise two things:

• 1. There are always many layers to emet (truth), it being ordered by Yahweh as a series of fractals: and
• 2. A symbol may mean one thing on one level but another thing on another level.

Let's take the stars. Stars are suns, and suns are stars, so they are 'greater' than, for example, the moon by virtue of their size and the amount of light they release or reflect. Therefore the sun and stars are 'male' by these criteria and the moon is 'female'. However, in another context the stars are 'female' and the moon is 'male'. Paul uses the the sun, moon and stars as illustrations of the three glories and resurrections (1 Cor.15:40-41). The greatest is the sun (1), followed by the moon (2), and followed by the stars (3). The criterion in this series is not their actual size or brilliance but their luminosicty as they appear to man on earth. Stars are obviously individually far brighter than the moon but from earth they appear weak and dim. Here the parameters of the prophetic illustrations are defined by the positioning of man relative to these heavenly bodies - from a location, earth. So when looking at such symbolism we have to remember context, a rule which applies to all scriptural interpretation. When looking in terms of male/female, ruler/subject, authority/submission, this rule becomes vital to understanding true tavnith (pattern).

Thus when the Scripture says: "there is one Elohim (God), and there is no other but He" (Mark 12:32, NKJV), it does not mean there is no other toqef (authority) or divine Being in the Universe, but rather that our Father in Heaven, Yahweh-Elohim, is alone in being absolutely 'male', 'ruler' and toqef. He is not 'female' to any other being, no other being exercises any kind of toqef (authority) over Him, and no other being rules Him. He is completely yachid or one in that respect, there being nothing 'above' Him anywhere in existence. Yahweh is therefore the sole 'Mighty One', 'Power', 'Ruler' or Elohim (God). Yet others have delegated toqef (authority), power, rulership, and 'maleness' but all are in submission to Him. This is true of both the other members of the Elohimhead (Godhead - Yah'shua and the Ruach haQodesh/Holy Spirit) and those who are mortals like us.

The Solar-Lunar Sabbath model is very interesting indeed because it is unlike any other kind of tavnith or pattern since it essentially sets or establishes a whole set or cluster of others. What puzzled me at first was that in this tavnith the moon (female) sets the Sabbath cycles which themselves are governeed by the sun (male) and appears to contradict the sacred tavnith (pattern). But if we remember objects symbolise different things in different contexts, then we will not have any problem understanding this.

The tavnith or pattern of the Solar-Lunar Sabbath is that the New Moon (invisible) re-sets the pattern of weeks and sabbaths every month. Seven days later after Rosh Chodesh or the New Moon is the first Sabbath. Three more identical, sequential weeks follow and then something interesting happens. Depending on the lunar cycle, a new Rosh Chodesh follows the day after the fourth Sabbath (to make what one might call a 'month-end', as opposed to a 'week-end'...the latter being a man-made invention) or an extra day (day #30) is inserted between that fourth Sabbath and the next New Moon. In the world before the corruption of the lunar and solar orbits, when there were always exactly 30 days in a month, this 'extra day' was a monthly feature. Because the lenngth of the orbit (period) of the moon is now slightly less than 30 days, the extra day only appears every few months. This extra day is sometimes called Rosh Chodesh Preparation Day. And though it is an ordinary working day, it is nevertheless the 'extra' day given by Yahweh to prepare for what is a very important day, the Head or Rosh of the month. Similarly in each weekly sabbath cycle, the sixth day of the week is a working day but is also Sabbath Preparation Day - the day we are to get ready for the Sabbath.

This morning I did something I have never done before and without even thinking about it - I put on a fresh set of clothes as I would on a Sabbath. The Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) was leading me to do something of great symbolic importance because it represented a new beginning for me - a 'reclothing', as it were. And it was then the revelation for today's Rosh Chodesh word began to flow. It was at that moment that I suddenly saw that Rosh Chodesh was me in my relationship to my family in the same way as Messiah (Christ) is to the Messianic Community (Church).

Last year we demonstrated that the Festival of Rosh Chodesh is about headship and fathers. Unlike the pagan-inspired and highly commercialised 'fathers' day' which the world celebrates, Rosh Chodesh is the monthly father's day according to divine tavnith. It is the day that all heads of families should be honoured by their wives and children with two exceptions:

• 1. On the first day of the New Year or Aviv 1 which is the 'Head of heads' and signifies Yahweh (Jesus) as our Supreme Head Father. This is the Day of the 'Father of all fathers' on which Yahweh should be especially commemorated as our Heavenly Father;
• 2. Yahweh has, moreover, ordained one of his seven moedim - the fifth (the number of grace) - to fall on Rosh Chodesh, namely, Yom Teruah which is the 'head' or rosh of the as yet unfulfilled autumnal festivals also known as the 'Day or Trumpets' or 'Day of Shouting' because it announces the Saviour's Return. It is another 'Head of heads' day, since Yahweh has appointed the Messiah as our Head and Messiah until all is fulfilled and Yah'shua returns His headship back to His Father and Supreme Head

Before we look at that, we have to ask why Yahweh has included a system that includes not only the sacred number for governmental perfection (12) but also the number thirteen. 'Isn't that unlucky??' some might retort in superstition and perhaps fear. No, the number thirteen is a sacred number too which I revealed some months ago (see Sukkot #2 The 13 Bulls: Mystery of the Tabernacles Sacrifices. People often forget that Jacob didn't just have 12 sons but had a daughter, Dinah. He had 13 children! Not only that, but number 12 in Hebrew gematria represents the words ahavah (love) and echad (one). The number 13 represents the oneness of echad that is brought to pass by divine love or ahavah. The 'complete year' isn't just about Governmental Perfection, Authority (Toqef) and Patriarchy (vitally important though these are) but also about Ahavah (love) and Echad (oneness). Jacob's daughter Dinah symbolically represents these. It is about Patriarchy and Love/Oneness, just as years consist of both blocks of months of 12's and 13's.

Let us first look at the Sabbath Day. Is this day male or female? It is female. Why? Because "the Son of Man is also Master (Lord) of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:28, NKJV), meaning that He rules it - it is in subjection to Him. The seven days of each week are represented by the Seven Ruachim (Spirit), which are female, and also the Seven Annual Festivals. The seventh day or shabbat (sabbath) is also known as the 'Sabbath Queen', as it is the rosh, head or completion of the seven day week. Notice that this female rosh or head comes at the end of the week as a completing factor - female always leads by being in submission to a head, whether it be a wife to a husband, or a husband to Messiah. Also, four (the four weeks in each month/moomn cycle) is the number of creation - it is in the female that conception, gestation and birth take place.

So why is the calendar 'reset' every month? Is this not a clumsy system? Why not have a system that requires no resetting? Because man all too often forgets his place and position (because of his flesh) as the subjected 'Bride of Messiah' and rebels against toqef or authority. This monthly resetting is to remind men to 'reset' their positioning as being subjected to Yah'shua (Jesus) as Yah'shua (Jesus) is subjected to the Father Yahweh, and to remind wives to 'reset' their positioning as subject to their husbands. Because we all forget our rôles so quickly, we are in need of constant chastisement and reminders to keep in tavnith (pattern). This system, which may look 'clumsy' on the outside, has been designed for fallen man, to keep him in order. If we didn't need it so badly, Yahweh wouldn't need to do it every 29 or 30 days. The four weeks per month commemorate the four wives of Jacob who have birth to the Twelve Tribes.

Now tell me honestly - what man, in the course of a month, does not have a tendency - because of his flesh - to wander from Messiah? And what woman, in the course of a month, does not have tendency - because of the flesh - to wander from her husband's headship? We are all guilty! Therefore we are in need of this monthly spiritual recallibration. Therefore every Rosh Chodesh should be used - along with its preparation day (when there is one) - to honour all fathers, divine as well as angelic and human. This is Hubby's and Dad's Day.

Within the Solar-Lunar calendar tavnith is also a reminder that man needs woman as much as woman needs man. If each Rosh Chodesh is a sacred Father's Day, then each Shabbat is a sacred Mother's Day too, again, because of Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah! Each wife has a 'mother's day'. That is why there are four such 'Mother's days' for every 'Father's Day'. Now there's a thought for the 'ultra-patriarchs' who believe the universe is all-male. These four 'mother's days' are nestled within the 'father's day', of course, so that the divine tavnith or pattern of headship is not disturbed.

You are perhaps wondering about the apparently out-of-place Scripture that introduced this message today: "It will be sheer terror to understand this message". People love knowledge and scriptural insights but when it comes to living them out, people back away, often in terror. For if this teaching is true, then living it will require an enormous change in lifestyle. It means living by an entirely different calendar to the world. Many of you reading will balk and the excuses will roll off the fleshy assembly-line. That's why you have to be convinced whether this is true or not so that all doubt is removed from your mind. I resisted this teaching myself until it became impossible to believe otherwise. The only 'escape' is to become antinomian (lawless) because there is no way you can accurately calculate Yahweh's festivals and sabbaths without this calendar - you will be significantly off. Then you have to decide to become a liberal ("it doesn't matter when you do it, so long as you do it sometime") or a conservative ("it matters because Yahweh says so and was quite literal about it"). My answer is simple:

"Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?" (Heb.12:9-10, NKJV).

Those of you who claim to be observing the Sabbath, who insist it is 'Saturday', need to think again, as I have been forced to do having been following it for the last 12 years. It isn't. It can't possibly be, as the Battle of Jericho proves and as this history of the Roman Calendar shows. I am actually quite ashamed over all the arguing Messianics get into with Sunday-worshippers when they accuse them of being Sun-worshippers for what is one who worships on 'Saturday' but a Saturn-worshipper? And who was Saturn (or Cronus as he was known to the Greeks)? He was originally a satyr, a goat-legged half-man with horns and pointed ears, who was a drunken, letcherous demon with a perverted sexual appetite, representing "mischievousness, drunkness, and orgiastic revelry" (Lew White, Fossilized Customs, p.9). When Roman Emperor Constantine changed the 'sabbath' from the Tamudic Jewish Saturday (changed by them because of their adoption of the Roman calendar) to the Roman Sunday, he was simply exchanging one pagan god for another and claiming to be that demon's incarnation on earth. Not an auspicious start for orthodox Chtristianity.

We have all been horribly duped by Satan who has hidden the truth beneath layer after layer of lies. It has taken this generation to peel them all away and to get to the raw emet (truth). And how different are Yahweh's ways from the ones we have been led to believe are His!

"He shall speak pompous words against the Most High (Yahweh), shall persecute the set-apart ones (saints) of the Most High (Yahweh), and shall intend to change times (fixed appointments) and law (decrees)" (Dan.7:25, NKJV).

Be sure to check our Annual Calendar of Moedim for the sabbaths, new moons and annual festivals for the coming year. We'll have a complete chart up soon. Shalom!