God’s Appointed Times
In Leviticus 23, God calls the
feasts “my appointed times”. The
feasts are God’s way to remind His
people
that He is Lord
of the calendar, King of creation,
Ruler over time, past, present, and
future. He established
special times to meet with us in a
particular way to commemorate events
in His dealings with man. When
we celebrate the feasts
in the way He ordained we reinforce
the relationship He established with
us and
honor His
sovereignty over us.
The
timing of the feasts is
important...God is very specific on
when we are to celebrate these
events. The
calendar
used to calculate the dates, the
Jewish calendar, is based on the
lunar cycle. (verses the solar
cycle used in the
Gregorian, or “modern” calendar)
Psalm 104:19 says “He made the moon
for the
seasons; the sun
knows the place of its setting.”
Since the calendar is based on the
moon cycle, the arrival of
the new moon is a
crucial event. In ancient times
three witnesses were needed to
confirm when the first sliver
of the moon was visible.
At that time a fire was lit on the
Mount of Olives to signal others
watching to light
fires
on the surrounding hills until the
message was spread throughout Israel
that a new month had
begun. Month and moon are the same
word in Hebrew: “chodesh”. Thus a
new month is called “Rosh
Chodesh”, head of the
month.
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