Month-Day 1:1 (Aviv), Rosh Chodesh, 5935:001 AM
ROSH CHODESH I (Rishon haChodesh) SACRED NEW YEAR
Gregorian Calendar: Monday 4 [Red] April 2011
Rosh Chodesh I
The Way of the Abba Yahweh
Chag sameach Rosh Chodesh and a blessed Sacred New Year to all the House of Israel in Yah'shua our Messiah (Jesus Christ)! It is good to be here and it is good to be on time - those who follow the Babylonian tradition of the first visible moon crescent will be a day late and miss their appointment with Yahweh. Since this is a day for consulting the prophets this is not an appointment I want to miss, more so given the unstable condition of the world right now. We're also in Red April, which Yahweh has warned us about. We need to be alert - for some their lives may depend on it in various parts of the world. Low levels of radiation from the Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown reached Britain about a week ago. For those of us in Sweden it actually reached here on 24 March! If the worst happens to Fukushima, we can expect a lot more. No part of the northern hemisphere will be safe, according to Lars-Erik De Greer, research director at the government's Swedish Defence Institute. However, that is not what we are to concern ourselves with today, for we are, according to Scripture, to treat Rosh Chodesh in much the same way as we do the Sabbath, the only real difference being that we are allowed to freely cook on Rosh Chodesh - on the Sabbath we are supposed to prepare our food the day before.
How seriously do you take Rosh Chodesh? Is it one of those days which you feel prevents you from doing what you want so that you wish it were over as soon as possible? Is it an inconvenience to non-spiritual pursuits? Is your attitude the same as the dishonest tradesmen of ancient Jerusalem? Do you remember what they said in the days of Amos the prophet?
"When will the New Moon (Chodesh) be past, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may trade wheat?" (Amos 8:5, NKJV).
Yesterday evening my youngest son said to me that he was so excited about Rosh Chodesh but couldn't explain why. I knew exactly what he meant. I, too, was excited. For antinomians and unbelievers, such observances are nothing, and may even provoke their ridicule. Even in Judaism, Rosh Chodesh is regarded as a minor festival and is celebrated in synagogues with special prayers - only really observant Jews are aware of its existence. And yet it is clear from this passage of Scripture that it is not only on par with the Sabbath but is listed before it. Why? Because without it, we can't know when the true Sabbath is even. And like the Sabbath it is for congregating for worship and listening to the words of the prophets. The main difference is that Rosh Chodesh is male and Shabbat is female - not grammatically but functionally.
This truth Yahweh taught me yesterday evening. Rosh Chodesh is the monthly Father's Day whereas the Sabbath is the weekly Mother's Day. Consider - who usually prepares the food in the household? The wife and mother, of course. So why are we forbidden from preparing food on the Sabbath? Because it's the mother's day off - that's why she is commanded to make all her preparations the day before. That is why Yahweh provided a double portion of manna on the sixth day of the week so no gathering would be required on the seventh. And Rosh Chodesh? Well, that's Father's Day - cooking is permitted as normal. And yet the fathers and husbands don't get this 'day off' - they are required to teach their families, with all the preparation that entails, as I am doing mine today. And of course mothers with small children always have work to do, even on Shabbat!
Today is the Head of not only Aviv, the First Month, but of the whole year. Today defines the four sabbaths that follow and all the annual festivals. No wonder Rosh Chodesh is important, and especially this one. It is the Day of Days of the Head, Yahweh our Heavenly Father, and of all His sons who are heads of families. It is the Head who must bring the Word just as family heads must bring forth prophetic words for their wives, children and extended family. I take this day, and each Sabbath, most seriously in this regard. And I have noticed just how much more present the spirit of prophecy is then.
Where shall a patriarch begin? What is the paramount Word of Prophecy he should be giving? The angel who manifested himself to John the Apostle on the Isle of Patmos tells us:
"Worship Elohim (God)! For the testimony of Yah'shua (Jesus) is the spirit of prophecy" (Rev.19:10, NKJV).
There is no prophecy without Yah'shua (Jesus). Indeed there is no true Rosh Chodesh or Shabbat without Yah'shua the Messsiah (Jesus Christ) for He is its author. Every single believer of every age group and of both genders has to be built upon the foundation of the spirit of prophecy, and that spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Yah'shua (Jesus).
The first duty of husbands and fathers is to properly instruct about, and testify of, the Messiah! And in this first month of Aviv in particular, which is pointing us to, and preparing us for, the coming Pesach or Passover, we need to be thinking deeply about what this festival actually means for it is all about Yah'shua (Jesus). It is about His sacrifice for our sins and our need to accept that sacrifice so that we may have a remission of sins through emunah (faith, trusting), repentance and the first steps towards obedience. Pesach is Day #1 of our new life in Messiah, and this first Rosh Chodesh is designed to point us to that by declaring that there is a Father in Heaven, Yahweh-Elohim, who loves His children - us - so much that He prepared a Derech or Way, represented by the Seven Annual Festivals. It is written:
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For Elohim (God) so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For Elohim (God) did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of Elohim (God)" (John 3:14-18, NKJV).
There is nothing complicated about the year's first Rosh Chodesh just as there is nothing complicated about the first festival of Pesach. It's about Abba - Dad. He is the beginning and of everything. He's why we're here and He's where we have to return. We can try to ignore Him or bypass Him in our journey through life but just as Aviv 1 rolls around year after year, so too comes our Elohim (God) to make His claim for our allegiance.
Your earthly fathers and husbands expect that too and when you assemble at Rosh Chodesh, and especially this first one of the year, you are repledging your love, devotion, loyalty and obedience to an earthly husband and father as well as to your Heavenly Father and to the allegorical Husband of Israel, which we all are by faith and by covenant. Everything rolls back here until we are finally submitted and the cycle ends in the last Sukkot for every soul. Rosh Chodesh is the Day of the King as the Shabbat is the Day of the Queen.
Yahweh has ordered everything in His moedim or appointments, of which this, Aviv 1 Rosh Chodesh is the first and most important. There are seven festivals which may be divided up into three blocks - one block of three followed by a solitary block of one and concluded by another block of three. These I have labelled Alef (a) or the Beginning Point, Mem (m) or the Mid Point - an important 'hinge' or 'pivot' - and Taw (t) or the End Point. This Alef to Taw spread or range represents the substance of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) which is planted in the hearts of all men and women who trust, submit to, and obey Him. They are the Seven Grades of Sanctification, clearly spelled out in the symbolism of the annual feasts.
"'I (Yah'shua/Jesus) am the Alef (a) (Alpha) and the Taw (t) (Omega), the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last'. Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city" (Rev.22:13-14, NKJV).
In the first diagram you will see that I have called this Alef (a), Mem (m) and Taw (t) blocks 'Evangelical', 'Messianic' and 'Messianic-Evangelical', respectively:
This I have do to share the revelation that Yahweh has given to me showing the relationship between Evangelical Christians and Messianic Israelites as they exist today and what He has destined them to become. The spiritual war that is being fought between Christian Evangelicals and Messianics is a civil war of the essential parts of His Body that He means to fuse into one. This is what we preach and teach. That is what we are, in part, about. Messianics and Evangelicals need each other.
Each of these three 'blocks' has a rosh or a head which correspond to the three annual festivals which all males, or male family representatives, were obliged by Yahweh to attend in Jerusalem. The rest were observed at home or the local assembly place. The first block (the spring festivals) is headed by Pesach and the third (the autumn/fall festivals) by Sukkot. Notice how Shavu'ot is a kind of pivot or hinge. Notice also that the 'head' of the third block is at the 'end' rather than at the beginning. When the Messiah refers to Himself as the "Alef (a) and Taw (t)" (or "Alpha and Omega" in Greek) He is simply saying that He is the "Pesach and Sukkot":
His relationship to us has a beginning and an ending. The beginning takes place when we make a confession with our mouth that He is our Messiah and the ending is the full consummation of the allegorical marriage to Him as the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. Pesach then corresponds to the mouth or Alef (a) and Sukkot to the sexual organs or Taw (t) in male and female. Shavu'ot, which is the mid-point, or hinge, is the lev (heart) or Mem, which in Hebrew symbology is located in the kidneys:
I hasten to add here that this is not kabbalism I am talking about, which is an occult art and totally false. This is simple tavnith or pattern as revealed in Torah. Neither is this figure the kabbalistic 'Adam Kadmon' which to kabbalists is the God-Man, just as it is to the Mormons (their original belief that Adam is their God). Man is not God or a God and never will be even though he will one day join the Elohim as a subordinate part, like the angels.
Another way of representing this Alef (a)-Mem (m)-Taw (t) progession, that shows the Mem or Shavu'ot pivot, is what I call the 'Messianic V':
As I hope to show over the course of the year's festivals this year, Shavu'ot is a critical junction. It is the place where, as Israel did at Mount Sinai, we choose to believe and obey Yahweh even before we have heard what He requires of us. Here we covenant to become Sons and Daughters of Commandment, known as Bar and Bat Mitzvah, respectively. To reach such a point of emunah or trusting does require some spiritual growth, which is where the other two spring festivals of Chag haMatazah and Yom haBikkurim play their vital rôle in the intervening sactification process. For the process of spiritual growth between head and heart take time - our head (Alef) more readily accepts emet or truth than our heart (Mem) does. Time is therefore needed for the heart to catch up with the head, and that period of time is important because the Mem is a vital foundation of faith. Profession of faith with the mouth following a decision of the will in child-like trusting made in the head is only the Alef (a) or first stage in our conversion. It isn't enough just to repeat the 'Sinner's Prayer' out loud. It has to be genuinely meant and lived out until there is a full flowering. Until it has taken root in the heart it is still very vulnerable and subject to possible abortion before or at Yom haBikkurim, the point at which we are born again which we symbolise outwardly in water baptism. It is at this point that we receive resurrection power, for Yom haBikkurim corresponds to the Firstfruit of the Resurrection. From here we count the days to Shavu'ot. Only in Shavu'ot, at which time we receive the Pentecostal Anointing following covenant-taking, is the heart properly established to grow up again to the Taw (t). This is explained in more detail in the next diagram which shows the relationship between the festivals, influence of the sevenfold Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) at each stage of growth (for each stage requires a special nurturing or mothering), and the spiritual growth and sanctification processes that take place in a believer walking in correct tavnith or pattern:
And it all begins with Rosh Chodesh - none of this even gets off the ground without the first Rosh Chodesh, what today represents. Abba. He is the head of all. We must begin by coming to understand that there is an Elohim (God) who runs this Universe even if we don't know Him personally or His Name at first. Only then does the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) reveal His Name and His Son, Yah'shua (Jesus).
I hope this short introduction to the festivals and their place relative to Rosh Chodesh has been enlightening to you. There is obviously encyclopedias more that could be said about all of this. The beauty of true tavnith or pattern is that is is true on all levels of creation, no matter where you look - it's everywhere. Indeed, that is the way of testing anything that claims to be divine truth.
Until I discovered and finally accepted the Creation Calendar thanks to the research work of others, I could not finally fit Rosh Chodesh into the divine scheme of things - it was somehow 'fuzzy' and out of tavnith before. Now it is crystal clear! The Father is All in All. He is the Supreme Mighty One, Yahweh-Elohim. Hallelu-Yah!
Continued in Part 2
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