Elohim’s Calendar

by Henry Mate

In the western nations as well as the west of the world today, we go by the Roman calendar. It begins the year in January 1 st , which is also the Winter season. But what about the people of YHVH? Since YHVH establishes prescribed feast days, would He not give us a calendar with which to keep and honor those days? Of course He would and He did.

The Western calendar was established around February 1582 with 365 complete days. Though there is no direct record of a calendar we read in Gen.1:16,”And Elohim made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars. 17 And Elohim set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And Elohim saw that it was good”.

Another hint is when Noah gave us the length of the flood, when it began and when it ended. Moshe wrote in Gen.7:11,” In the six hundredth year of Noaḥ’s life, in the second new moon, the seventeenth day of the moon, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of the heavens were opened”.

There the month and date is given indicating the presence of a calendar. From
the 17th of the 2nd Biblical month the flood lasted for 150 days.

Let read verse 24,” And the waters were mighty on the earth, one hundred and fifty days”.

Then we read in Gen.8:3-4,”And the waters receded steadily from the earth, and at the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters diminished. 4 And in the seventh new moon, the seventeenth day of the new moon, the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat”.

Then the real calendar was given to start in spring and not winter.

Exodus 12:2, “This new moon is the beginning of new moons for you, it is the first new moon of the year for you.”

This is in spring when the wild barley begins to grow. It is the first crop of the new season of warmth. The new year is identified with the state of barley.

Deuteronomy 16:1, “Guard the new moon of Aḇiḇ, and perform the Pĕsaḥ to יהוה your Elohim, for in the month of Aḇiḇ יהוה your Elohim brought you out of Mitsrayim by night”.

The calendar is based on the Barley being at “Abiv” stage in time for the offering of First Fruits which occurs during the seven days of Unleavened Bread. Much is known about being able to determine its ability to be at this stage 15 days ahead of time in order to declare the new year. That is outside the scope of this lesson.

We know the Passover lamb is killed during the day light period of Nisan 14 and is then roasted over a fire. That night, after sunset of the 14th, which is the beginning of the 15th day, they ate the Passover meat with bitter herbs and unleavened bread ready to move out of Egypt. This day is also the beginning of the feast of Unleavened Bread.

On the morning of the 15th the whole congregation of the children of Israel left Egypt.

The First Fruits offering occurs on Sunday at 9 AM during this seven days of Unleavened Bread. It has nothing to do with being a Sunday but the morrow after a weekly sabbath. It has everything to do with needing to complete the Saturday Sabbath.

Clearly Elohim gave us the calendar which his true faithfuls keep. Not the Hillel II,nor the Christian Roman Gregorian counterfeit found in homes and offices throughout the world today. Neither of these calendars existed at the time Yehshua walked on this earth.

The book of Jubilees written some 150 years before the birth of Messiah had warned of a counterfeit calendar. It documents about Israel forsaking the biblical calendar for one which was crafted by a renowned rabbi. This Hillel calendar is in use in many synagogues and messianic Churches today eg The Church of God 7th Day and their sisters. The calendar has made these innocent bodies to miss the appointed times of YHVH disqualifying them from the heavenly kingdom.

Jubilees 6:32,”And the children of Israel will forget….not find paths of years..forget the new moons,..Sabbaths and..festivals….. 33 ……and walk according to the festivals of gentles…..after their errors and…ignorance”. Vs.35 “….will observe wrong days….mix holy days with unclean ones…for they will error as to months, Sabbaths, festivals and jubilees”.

Let’s hear Jude speak.

Jude 3-4, “Beloved ones, making all haste to write to you concerning our common deliverance, I felt the necessity to write to you urging you to earnestly contend for the belief which was once for all delivered to the set-apart ones. 4 For certain men have slipped in, whose judgment was written about long ago, wicked ones, perverting the favour of our Elohim for indecency, and denying the only Master יהוה and our Master יהושע Messiah”.

He continues to warn about these apostate, false leaders , V12-13,”These are rocky reefs in your love feasts, feasting with you, feeding themselves without fear, waterless clouds borne about by the winds, late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots, 13 wild waves of the sea foaming up their own shame, straying stars for whom blackness of darkness is kept forever”.

Why follow blind guides brothers and sisters? YHVH says in prophet Hosea:

” “My people have perished for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being priest for Me. Since you have forgotten the Torah of your Elohim, I also forget your children. 7 “As they were increased, so they sinned against Me. My esteem they have changed into shame”.

Forgive me of my strong words please. YHVH admonishes us in prophet Jeremiah 6:16, “Thus said יהוה, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and find rest for yourselves”