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Weekly/monthly holidays: Shabbat and New Moon
SABBATH – focuses on God as Creator
Paul writes to the Colossians that Jesus
- is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist
- Walks on the sea after He’s calmed the winds and the waves
- Rides on the wings of the wind, using the clouds as His chariots
And yet this one who holds the world together by an act of His will, ended His work and rested on the 7th day.
- To rest, cease, desist from labor, to sit down and be still
- Gen 2:2-3 And God blessed the seventh day , and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made
Was He tired? Certainly not. Sabbath was a gift to His creature…a gift of rest and refreshment. A day to be sanctified, separated and sacred. A day when all thoughts could turn to God without the distraction of labor.
Exd 23:12 Six days thou shall do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shall rest: that your ox and your ass may rest , and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed
PERSONAL TESTIMONY - Israel
The Sabbath was given first to Israel to separate them from the rest of the nations. It was to be a sign of Covenant between them and their God. No other nation had a God who spoke to them face to face.
- Exd 31:17 It [is] a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever
- Dt. 4:32-35 For ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; there is none other besides Him.
- Prophetically – redemption – Hebrews
- Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath
- There remains a rest for the people of God
Personal appliction:
- Are we resting?
- What are we laboring for?
- His creation (kingdom or ours?)
NEW MOON
- The New Moon is the lunar phase that occurs when the Moon, in its monthly orbital motion around Earth, lies between Earth and the Sun, and is therefore in conjunction with the Sun as seen from Earth. At this time, the illuminated half of the Moon faces directly toward the Sun, and the dark or unilluminated portion of the Moon faces directly toward Earth, so that the Moon is invisible as seen from Earth.
Established as a unique day of worship in Israel
- 1Sa 20:5 And David said unto Jonathan, Behold, to morrow [is] the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third [day] at even.
- 2Ch 2:4 Behold, I build an house to the name of the LORD my God, to dedicate [it] to him, [and] to burn before him sweet incense, and for the continual shewbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts of the LORD our God. This [is an ordinance] for ever to Israel.
- 2Ch 8:13 Even after a certain rate every day, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts, three times in the year, [even] in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.
Connection with the Sabbath – indicates God’s intent on keeping both the sun and the moon as part of the glory of His Creation.
- Nu 10:10 Also min the day of your gladness, in your appointed feasts, and at the beginning of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be a memorial for you before your God: I am the Lord your God.”
- Nu 28:11 ‘At the beginnings of your months you shall present a burnt offering to the Lord:
- 1 Chron.23:31 and at every presentation of a burnt offering to the Lord on the Sabbaths and on the New Moons and on the set feasts,
Events on the first day = new moon
- Gen 8:5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth [month], on the first [day] of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.
- Gen 8:13 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first [month], the first [day] of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.
- Exd 40:2 On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.
- Num 33:38 And Aaron the priest went up into mount Hor at the commandment of the LORD, and died there, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the first [day] of the fifth month.
- Eze 26:1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first [day] of the month, [that] the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Sadly people began to worship the sun. Who are we really worshipping on “Sun-day?” And what about the crowns of glory which emmenate from the head of Jesus, Mary and the saints in Renaissance art? Look closely – and see how much they look like the rays of the sun. In fact our own Statue of Liberty has 7 rays in her crowns, which the Masons use as a symbol of sun worship!
Well, likewise the moon has its supporters. Search the internet for “new moon” and you will glean a plethora of web sites of witchcraft with rituals and chants for the new moon celebration.
But look through the eyes of God. See how perfectly and in order every 28 days that the earth, the moon and the sun line up. Our God is a God of order, restoring the things and the years the locusts have eaten.
POLUTED
- Amo 8:5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?
Festivals ended
- Isa 1:13-14 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; [it is] iniquity, even the solemn meeting. your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear [them].
- Hsa 2:11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.
TO BE RESTORED In the presence of the Prince – MESSIANIC KINGDOM
Eze 45:17 And it shall be the prince's part [to give] burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and drink offerings, in the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin offering, and the meat offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel.
Eze 46:3 Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the LORD in the sabbaths and in the new moons.
Isa 66:23 And it shall come to pass, [that] from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.
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