Yahshua Our Calendar
I want to quote a couple paragraphs that I wrote to end my study last week, entitled Passover Resurrection Week: “I trust that my readers are mature in their faith. I am now going to propose something that could upset many Jewish and Messianic religious spirits. Meditating on what we have just learned, that Yahshua, our Lord, King, and Savior was perfectly keeping, demonstrating, and becoming, with His life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, the EXACT Sacred Calendar of Yahweh, should not crucifixion/resurrection week EXACTLY reveal which day of the week in that year was the real, hidden, true Sabbath of Yahweh? Yahshua stated plainly that He would be in the tomb EXACTLY 3 days and 3 nights and rise on the third day, which could have been a split second before sunset on that third day. Also, since the Scriptures teach that Yahshua is the Firstfruits and our First born from the dead, then according to Torah fulfillment, did not Yahshua rise from the dead EXACTLY at the end of the Day of Firstfruits? And then, based on that truth and fact, would not the DAY BEFORE RESURRECTION DAY BE THE REAL, TRUE, YAHWEH CREATED SABBATH DAY!?! Hmmmn.
Yahshua died around 3 pm on the pure old priestly biblical 6th day of the week, or Friday, in our terms; His disciples rested on the next day, their Saturday Sabbath. Let’s count it out then. Friday night and Saturday day = day 1 in the tomb. Saturday night and Sunday day = day 2 in the tomb. Sunday night and Monday day = day 3 in the tomb. Meaning Monday, Resurrection Day, was Day of First Fruits on Yahweh’s Sacred Calendar. The day before Day of First Fruits then, according to Torah, is Yahweh’s holy weekly Sabbath, which was Sunday that year!!!! So now we see why Yahweh may not be upset with Christians worshiping on Sunday! Yahweh may have been hiding His holy Sabbath for these last 1,900 plus years, so it would not be defiled by corrupt Jews and Gentiles!! See, I told you we cannot become dogmatic about our religious calendar and timelines. Think on these things, but celebrate the Feast!”
Why did I say all that fantastic sounding stuff about Yahshua being our calendar? Because He is. Because He is not limited in understanding like we are. I’ve blogged on this point before, that Yahshua gave one and only one sign that He was the Messiah. What was it? During one of Yahshua’s teaching sessions, we read in Matthew 12:38-41 HRB “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, Teacher, we desire to see a sign from You. 39But answering, He said to them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, and a sign shall not be given to it, except the sign of Jonah the prophet. 40And even as “Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights,” so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. (Jon. 1:17) 41Men, Ninevites, will stand up in the Judgment with this generation and will condemn it. For they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and, behold, one Greater than Jonah is here.” One much greater than Jonah is here, so what was His one and only one SIGN that He is the Messiah? His being dead for 3 nights and 3 days in the tomb! That’s it. He said He would be dead and buried for 3 nights and 3 days; no other sign would be given to a fallen world. So now, it’s a matter of do you believe Him, or don’t you believe Him? Personally, I believe He was in the tomb EXACTLY 72 hours, from late Friday afternoon, to late Monday afternoon. For the demanding biblical calendar fans, that’s late afternoon on the 6th day of the week, until late afternoon on the 2nd day of the next week.
I believe Yahshua exactly demonstrated and BECAME Yahweh’s calendar for us, to reveal Yahweh’s hidden calendar to us. The Jews were doing the best they knew to do with the lunar calendar, beginning their months at the sighting of the first crescent of the New Moon. The old priestly line of Jews who had separated themselves from the Pharisees and the corrupt Temple service, living out in the wilderness by the Dead Sea, were doing the best they knew with a lunar calendar that began their lunar month with the lunar conjunction. We demonstrated clearly in the post last week, with an accompanying spreadsheet, that the Pharisees and chief priests were 1 day behind Yahshua and the disciples during crucifixion and resurrection week. The same single set of redemption events occurred, just marked off on two different calendars. Well, now it’s time to let Yahweh weigh in with His hidden Sacred Calendar.
Since Yahshua was and is Yahweh’s perfect calendar, we KNOW that he resurrected on Day of First Fruits. This truth and fact then demands, per Torah, that the day before Day of First Fruits, or the day before Resurrection Day that year, was EXACTLY Yahweh’s true Sabbath day. Day of First Fruits is ALWAYS on the 1st day of the biblical week, so the day BEFORE Day of First Fruits is ALWAYS Sabbath! Leviticus 23:10-16 HRB “Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them, When you come in to the land which I am giving to you, and have reaped its harvest, and have brought in the Omer, of the beginning of your harvest, to the priest, 11then he shall wave the Omer before YAHWEH for your acceptance; on the morrow of the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. [On the 1st day of the week.]12And you shall prepare a lamb in the day you wave the Omer, one without blemish, a son of a year, for a burnt offering to YAHWEH. 13And its food offering shall be two tenths part of flour mixed with oil, a fire offering to YAHWEH, a sweet fragrance; and its drink offering, a fourth of a hin of wine. 14And you shall not eat bread, nor roasted grain, nor fresh ears, until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your Elohim; it is a never ending statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 15And you shall number to you from the next day after the Sabbath,[The 1st day of the week.] from the day you bring in the sheaf of the wave offering; they shall be seven complete Sabbaths; 16to the next day after the seventh Sabbath, you shall number fifty days; and you shall bring near a new food offering to YAHWEH;” Do you see how the Torah clearly shows that Day of First Fruits is ALWAYS on the 1st day of the week? Yahshua rose from the dead on the first day of the week, ON YAHWEH’S WEEKLY CALENDAR, but it was the 2nd day of the week on the local Jews weekly calendar!! Ask for my spreadsheet to see the picture clearly.
As we’ve posted before, Yahweh re-aligned the Israelis with His Sabbath during the second month of the wilderness experience, after the Exodus, with the Manna from heaven teaching in Exodus 16. I believe Yahweh again re-aligned the Israelis with His Sabbath with the resurrection of Yahshua in 30 AD!! I don’t believe many believers have caught on to this realignment. But it does explain why, over the past two millennium, we have seen anointed worship on Sundays, great revival preaching on Sundays, healings and dead raised on Sundays, and the Scriptures diligently studied in Sunday School by disciples of Yahshua! Who spread the Gospel of Yahshua to the uttermost parts of the earth? The Sunday people. Who defends the Scriptures and the Gospel of Yahshua more than anyone else on the planet? The Sunday people. So, are they the Sunday people, or are they really Yahweh’s Sabbath keepers? Knowing the roots of our faith is great, but the fruit of the Kingdom is out on the branches of the Church olive tree. And Who is the Head of this great Church? No, it’s not the Pope, silly, it’s Yahshua!!
Well, here’s an interesting question to close with. So, did the early believers continue worshiping on the Jews’ Sabbath, or did they eventually move their worship day to the day AFTER the Jews’ Sabbath, to Sunday? Look closely at the bottom of my Resurrection Week spreadsheet. The Holy Spirit was poured out in Acts 2 on the 1st day of the week on the Jews’ weekly calendar, but it was the SABBATH on Yahweh’s weekly calendar!!I rest His case.
Gene Benjamin II
April 19, 2014 AD
ULB