 Hope of Israel Ministries (Church of God) |
The New Moon and the Weekly Sabbath -- Side-By-Side!
Throughout the Bible we find mention of the weekly Sabbath side-
by-side with new moon observance. Is this coincidental, or an in-
dication that these two days are meant to be observed together,
and that one is dependent upon the other for determining its place
in time? What does the book of Genesis say we should use to de-
termine time -- the sun? the moon? both? The answer to this ques-
tion is vital in determining when God's weekly Sabbath day should
be kept. |
John D. Keyser
Calendar disputes are nothing new. When the Northern ten tribes of Israel broke away from Judah Jeroboam, their new king, established a feast in the eighth month in rebellion to the scriptural one in the seventh month (Tabernacles.). During the time of Christ there is evidence that the Sadducees were keeping a solar calendar or reckoning while that of the Pharisees was lunar based. The Essenes moved to Qumran in the Judean wilderness because they accused the high priests in Jerusalem of being wicked and in error regarding the calendar. There, in Qumran, archaeologists have found evidence that the Essenes used the Maccabean period Book of Jubilees -- which demands a solar based calendar be kept that used a 364-day year.
In our day, notes author Jonathan Brown, "disputes between 'Sabbatarians,' (Saturday sabbath) and 'Lord's Day' keepers are of such variety that they now even include the theories of whether a 'day' includes the 'night' of dark hours where there is no sunlight; and whether sabbath begins at noon because noon is actually the 'evening.' These arguments are all based upon the assumption that our current seven-day cycle is something which has always been with mankind. Indeed the Seventh-Day churches fervently argue that Sunday through Saturday has run continuously from creation. However, just because we grew up with this cycle doesn't mean it always existed" (Keeping Yahweh's Appointments, p. 41).
And, although they might interpret it otherwise, all the authorities I have read agree that the basis in law for God's calendar is found in Genesis 1:14 -- notice, for example:
A calendar is an orderly system of dividing time into years, months, weeks, and days. Long before man's creation, God provided the basis for such measuring of time. Genesis 1:14, 15 tells us that one of the purposes of the "luminaries in the expanse of the heavens" is that they might serve for "seasons and for days and years." The solar day, the solar year, and the lunar month are thus NATURAL divisions of time, governed respectively by the daily turning of the earth on its axis, by its annual orbit around the sun, and by the MONTHLY PHASES OF THE MOON in its relation to earth and sun. The division of time into WEEKS and the division of the day into hours, on the other hand, are ARBITRARY ones [especially the "week" we observe today]. -- Insight On the Scriptures, Vol. 1, p. 389. Article "Calendar."
In Eerdmans Handbook to the Bible, p. 111, we read: "...in early times the weekly sabbath was adjusted to COINCIDE with major festivals, or even with new moons (see Leviticus 23). After the exile, the seventh-day sabbath was more strictly [?] observed and BECAME INDEPENDENT of the lunisolar calendar. So the orthodox Jews had problems over the relationship of the sabbaths and festivals."
Let's, now, read Genesis 1:14 for ourselves --
Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for SIGNS and SEASONS, and for DAYS and YEARS."
In verse 16 we read:
Then God made two great lights: the greater light [sun] to rule the day, and the lesser light [moon] to rule the night. He made the stars also."
Now, we should be able to recognize that whatever these "lights" are, they are NATURAL PHENOMENA which dictate the rules of order for calculating time. And, notice, it is not a singular source of light God made (i.e., the sun) but all collectively -- "let THEM [the sun and the moon] be for signs..."
It should be quite apparent that nothing in our present seven-day cycle or week can be tied to anything in the natural phenomena that God outlines in the above verses -- the sun, moon or stars. Moreover, our "week" doesn't even flow with the current Gregorian calendar. January 1st (the beginning of our "year") falls on a different "week day" everytime it comes around. The beginning and end of our seven-day cycle are simply not ANCHORED in nature, and this in itself proves that God's true Sabbath day is neither Saturday nor Sunday (except occasionally when the Sabbath happens to fall on these days) -- in light of the fact that:
1/. The reckoning of time is only by the "lights in the heavens" and
2/. the Fourth Commandment clearly specifies that God had a particular day in mind when He said "remember to keep the sabbath holy."
The 15th Day of the Second Month...
At first glance it seems that the Bible nowhere outlines a clearly spelled out formula for constructing a Sabbath calendar. Genesis 1:14 tells us what source we are to turn to for calculations, but there doesn't seem to be any explicit instructions on their practical implementation. Notes Jonathan Brown, "notching off seven "solar-day" periods which never correspond at the beginning or end with heavenly lights does not satisfy Genesis 1:14". But all is not lost. There is a passage in the Bible that plainly shows how to determine God's TRUE Sabbath days! This passage is found in Exodus 16. Notice what Herbert W. Armstrong writes --
The generation of Israelites which Moses led out of Egypt had had no religious instruction or training. Probably they knew little about the Sabbath. Time could have been lost -- to them. But, if so, GOD REVEALED IT BY AMAZING MIRACLES!
NOW NOTICE! These Israelites, some three or four million in total number (600,000 men above age 20), came to the wilderness of Sin two months after leaving egypt, and some two weeks BEFORE arriving at Mt. Sinai [in Saudi Arabia]. Remember, this is weeks before God gave them the Ten Commandments. These people were griping and grumbling because of scarcity of food in the desert.
And here God revealed to them, by MIRACLES, which day was the Sabbath, and whether it makes any difference whether it is kept (Which Day Is the Christan Sabbath? Pasadena: Ambassador College Press, 1972. P. 30).
Let's, now, go to the Bible and get the time frame:
And they departed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sina; and ON THE FIFTEENTH DAY, IN THE SECOND MONTH after their departure from the land of Egypt, all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron. And the children of Israel said to them, Would we had died smitten by the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, and ate bread to satiety! for ye have brought us out into this wilderness, to slay all this congregation with hunger. And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread upon you out of heaven: and the people shall go forth, and they shall gather their daily portion for the day, that I may try them WHETHER THEY WILL WALK IN MY LAW OR NOT. -- Exodus 16:1-4, Septuagint.
It is very interesting that Moses should mention the EXACT DAY that the Israelites murmured against him and Aaron in the wilderness -- nowhere else in the narrative of the Israelites' wanderings from Egypt to the Promised Land is an exact date mentioned! This day -- the 15TH DAY OF THE SECOND MONTH -- was so important to God that He appeared in the cloud before the Israelites and then caused thousands (maybe millions) of quail to be blown into the Israelites' camp "between the two evenings," i.e., the afternoon of the 15th. Why was this day so important to God?
Continues Herbert Armstrong --
I will show you that God was speaking to them ON A SABBATH. It is evident that the Eternal (who, in human flesh later became CHRIST) first preached to man on the first Sabbath. Adam was created on the sixth day of creation week Evidently he was created on the sixth day of creation week. Evidently he was created in the late afternoon, since the creation of man was the last act of creation on that day. When the sun had set, immediately after Adam's creation, God preached to him, offering him the GIFT of eternal life (through the tree of life), and warning that the wages of sin is DEATH (Gen. 2:15-17).
And here [in the wilderness of Sin] God is again preaching to Israel, through Moses, on the Sabbath.
In the next verses of Exodus 16 we read how the Israelites saw the glory of the Eternal (verse 10) and how, in the afternoon, He sent the quail for food, and the next morning the manna was on the ground (verses 11-13).
To Read the rest of this study, please click the link below:
>>>>>>> http://www.hope-of-israel.org/sideside.htm <<<<<<<<
