“ … your beginning of months …”
(Ex 12:2, NKJV)
In early Biblical times months were not yet named, and were indicated by numbers. The month in which Easter was celebrated was not only the month of deliverance, but also the birth of the Jewish nation. It was called the FIRST month. It was only after the Jews had been in exile in Babylon that they appropriated the Babylonian names for the different months. Being increasingly uncomfortable using the names of certain gods which are part of the West’s delineation of days of the week (like Saturday, which stems from the god of debauchery and orgies, Saturn, or Sunday, which stems from the sun god) I am equally uncomfortable with some of the Babylonian names of certain Jewish months, like Tammuz, which points to a specific demonic principality (see Ezek 8:14; Isa 47:5).
One needs to understand that a very important aspect of Hebraic thinking lies in the fact that it is not linear, but circular, moving in terms of cycles. The term year in Hebrew literally means repetition. The feasts (including the circular movement of moving into a new year), are all there to celebrate that within every new cycle of months the people of God are still following Jesus, the Way (John 14:6)!
In Ex 12:2 God gives Moses and Aaron the following assignment concerning the month of Abib – “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.” This was mainly based on the events of deliverance which had taken place when God saved the Israelites out of the land of slavery, placing them on the road to the promised land. Thus God made this ordinance – “Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by flight.” (Deut 16:1). The new year is not emphasized in the same manner of importance as our Western tradition. Perhaps this reduced emphasis on the new year was part of the how it came about that the Jews started referring to Rosh Hashanah as Jewish new year. It is however not Scripturally accurate to call this very important feast (which takes place on the first and second day of the month Tishri, the seventh month) Jewish new year. The term Rosh Hashanah literally means head of the year or first of the year, but it is not found in Scripture. Feel free to read Lev 23:24-25 as an explanation of these holy feast days. Also – if we look at all these Moedim (Feasts) it makes spiritual sense for the year to begin in at Pesach and end at Sukkot.
From a New Testament perspective God’s ordinances concerning 1 Abib merely point to God granting us the opportunity to again be at the beginning of a new cycle, “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor 7:1, KJV)! Thus Ps 23’s famous verse, He leads me in the paths of righteousness, in Hebrew actually means “He leads me in the cycles of righteousness”, FOR THE SAKE OF HIS NAME! This feast of weeks points to Jesus as a God of new beginnings (Ps 103:5; Lam 3:23 and 2 Cor 5:17)!
- Sela: Should we still celebrate the Jewish new year?
- Read: Deut 16 (important within the context of this teaching); Ezek 42; Micah 4
- Memorize: Micah 4:1-3 & 13.
- For a deeper understanding: ElijahAfrica published a Biblical diary. Obtain one if you haven’t already done so.
