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Melchizedek Foundations
Which Calendar Do We Keep?
YHVH's calendar is the Mo'edim. Most everyone can agree on that. We all agree that Pesach is the 14th day of the First Month. But how do we find the First Month? The issue facing us is how to find His Mo'edim (the calendar rhythm) Biblically. Actually, it is very simple. Using YHVH's own instructions found in the Torah we can find His Mo'edim and get on with living it out.
We believe that calendar is a critical issue and one that the adversary (ha'Satan) is throwing a lot of chaos into thus causing a lot of grief among the Scattered. Finding the Calendar is very important because living out this Feast rhythm is where the rubber of repentance hits the road. And if we do not live out this rhythm as He instructs then we will not be walking with Him ... but with man. Because this is such an important issue ha'Satan is offering the Scattered many other man-made reckoning of times out there that.
Among many other strange calender's there is another Melchizedek ministry in particular choosing to use an outside Biblical source to promote the use of the pre-flood Enochian (Patriarcial) Calendar or Zadokite (Qumran). Following this teaching (equinox and using a sundial to find the Creator's Feasts) is chaos-making in it's glory. While it may be true that there was an equal calendar prior to the Flood we are living post-flood and equinox is not the instructions we find Yehovah giving Israel to use this side of the Flood. We know that something happened to the yearly cycle during the Flood. Things are not the same. A sad thing is happening in the Melchizedek movement.... people who understand this change begin to become elitists and thus think there is another calendar to be found that has been "hidden" to them... until now. They feel they have the right to come up with a new-and-ignoring-the-Scriptures-and-Ye'shua's-example calendar. Not so!
The Aviv Barley and Sighted Moon method is what YHVH laid out for us in the Torah. The clues that point us to the proper reckoning of time is found in his establishment of the "Month of Aviv" and the command to "observe" the months. Our ministry and family keeps and strongly teaches the Aviv Barley and Sighted Moon reckoning of time because it is most in line with what the Torah commands. Actually we see it. We teach this because the instructions to find his calendar is literally IN the Melchizedek Covenent (Ex.23:15–"Aviv"). It is simple to follow and it is what history says was kept at the time of Rabbi Ye'shua. Ye'shua never challenged the religious leaders about the calendar in use at the time.
The Aviv Barley and Sighted Moon Calendar
Get Rebekah's Rhythm Graph Calendar here
"Each day begins at sunset; each week begins at the sunset at the end of the Sabbath (the seventh day); each month begins with the sighting of the first sliver of the new moon; and the beginning of the year is determined at the new moon when the barley crop in Israel has reached the stage of maturity referred to as aviv. This was Israel’s national calendar from the time of our constitution at Mt. Sinai until long after our dispersion by Rome. It was the reckoning by which the Feasts were conducted during the first and second Temple periods, and it was the exact schedule by which the Jewish followers of Yahshua continued to keep the Feasts after his resurrection. This reckoning of time can be understood by the smallest child and accurately determined by illiterate herdsmen. This is the simple calendar by which the appointed times of our Creator have always been reckoned and observed. He never changed them. He never changes. No one need be ignorant of His times and His seasons as long as we follow His method of marking the days, weeks, months, years, Sabbath years, Jubilee years, and millennia.” –– Michael Rood
Did YHVH name the 7th Day?
Yes! Absolutely He did!
He DID name the seventh day. Out of His own mouth, a TON of places in the Scriptures He said….
- “Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my SABBATHS.” Ez. 22:8,(Ez. 20:13, 21; 22:26; 23:38)
- “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my SABBATHS. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am YHVH, who makes you holy.” Ex 31:13 etc!!
- “But the seventh day is the SABBATH of YHVH thy Elohim…” Ex. 20:10
7676 shabbath: Original Word: שַׁבָּת Part of Speech: Noun Transliteration: shabbath Phonetic Spelling: (shab-bawth') Definition: sabbath
This is a different word that "seventh day."
He created the moon FULL at the start, right?
Not Necessarily
Yes, the Earth and the moon were fully functional in their orbits and phases (moon) when He created them. But it is to read into the text something that isn’t there to assume that the moon is only “good” at its full stage.
One of the moon's function is to help us know when the months start so we can find His Royal Appointments. We find that moment by observing when the sliver appears, That's the ONLY thing we can observe. You can not observe a dark moon. Which day of the 3 possible dark days do you call the new moon? You can not observe a full moon (even the best of us can't always tell if the moon is completely full or not). The Scriptures tells us to OBSERVE the new moon (hodesh) to find the Head of the months.
In that light it could have been deemed by the Creator complete and perfectly “good” as it was marking the first month during Creation week as a sliver.
Ps 81:3 days, “Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon (chodesh=new moon, new month), AND when the moon is full, on the day of our festival (Chag= pilgrimage Feast).”
None of us were there, but the ONE who was there at Creation NEVER challenged the Pharisees on Calendar when He was here. According to history and Josephus they were following a sighted New Moon month reckoning AND the 7-day rhythm as we have it now.
On top of all this Yom Teruah is DEPENDENT upon finding the New Moon. The WHOLE Feast is about looking for and observing that 7th Moon!
To teach that we find the Feast days by the full moon is error! See more articles on the aviv barley and sighted moon calendar in our Kingdom University Vault.
How did Noah know if the barley was Aviv?
Can't base a whole calendar theology on this one Event
First we cannot create a whole theology based on this one event. Our theology needs to be supported by a lot of evidence. There is overwhelming evidence pointing to the Aviv barley and sighted moon reckoning.
We have to look at all of history, not just at this particular story. We must look at what Israel did for most of history that pleased YHVH. We look at the temple services that King David set up that pleased Yehovah. We must look at what our Rabbi Ye’shua taught and did. And most importantly we have to understand what YHVH Himself said!
So you can’t throw all these evidences out for that one situation regarding Noah.
My strongest argument is that Noah did not write that account anyway! Moses did. Moses was inspired by Elohim (as he wasn’t there a Creation either and wrote about that in detail). Yah would have told Moses when things happened to Noah in order to record it. Just as Genesis was completely inspired by YHVH so was this account. Moses would have been told by Yah what dates things happened.
But also, it’s not clear if the writer is talking about the months of the year, OR the months of Noah‘s life. It reads as if the latter is true.
So, based on that there’s not enough information in this event to base an entire calendar theology off of. It is safer to go with the fact that Israel celebrated the new moons and the Aviv barley for thousands of years and that our Rabbi Ye'shua celebrated it as such and never challenged the Pharisees about Calendar.
Biblical evidence for the "New Moon" being head of our month
Yes there is evidence! Notice verse 27 (the second day [of the month] AFTER the New Moon).
1 Sam. 20:5-27
So David told him, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon (2320. chodesh––new moon, a month), and I am supposed to dine with the king. Instead, let me go and hide in the field until the third evening from now.
If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David urgently requested my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because there is an annual sacrifice for his whole clan.’
If he says, ‘Good,’ then your servant is safe, but if he is enraged, you will know he has evil intentions.
Therefore deal faithfully with your servant, for you have brought me into a covenant with you before YHVH. If there is iniquity in me, then kill me yourself; why should you bring me to your father?”
“Never!” Jonathan replied. “If I ever found out that my father had evil intentions against you, would I not tell you?” Jonathan and David Renew Their Covenant.
Then David asked Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”
“Come,” he replied, “let us go out to the field.” So the two of them went out into the field, and Jonathan said, “By YHVH, the Elohim of Israel, I will sound out my father by this time tomorrow or the next day. If he is favorable toward you, will I not send for you and tell you? But if my father intends to bring evil on you, then may YHVH punish me, and ever so severely, if I do not tell you and send you on your way in safety. May YHVH be with you, just as He has been with my father.
And as long as I live, treat me with YHVH’s loving devotion, that I may not die, and do not ever cut off your loving devotion from my household—not even when YHVH cuts off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.” So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May YHVH hold David’s enemies accountable.” And Jonathan had David reaffirm his vow out of love for him, for Jonathan loved David as he loved himself. Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon, and you will be missed if your seat is empty. When you have stayed three days, hurry down to the place you hid on the day this trouble began, and remain beside the stone Ezel.
I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as if I were aiming at a target. Then I will send a boy and say, ‘Go, find the arrows!’ Now, if I expressly say to him, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them,’ then come, because as surely as YHVH lives, it is safe for you and there is no danger. But if I say to the young man, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then you must go, for YHVH has sent you away. And as for the matter you and I have discussed, YHVH is a witness between you and me forever.” So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon (2320. chodesh––new moon, a month) had come, the king sat down to eat. He sat in his usual place by the wall, opposite Jonathan and beside Abner, but David’s place was empty. Saul said nothing that day because he thought, “Something has happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—surely he is unclean.”
But on the day AFTER the New Moon, the second day, David’s place was still empty, and Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal either yesterday or today?”
I've been told that a day is ‘Sunrise to Sunrise’
NO! THAT IS INCORRECT!
Again, many people are trying to stir to waters and cause chaos in the body of Messiah. Now they want to challenge when a day begins, saying that it begins at sunrise. But we believe that the Scriptures give a clear understanding of what YHVH Elohim has established to be the “day.” This is so important to get understanding in because it affects all the Covenant Feast days.
I think it is insane that we have to go over this, as the Scriptures OPENS with this definition during the Creation Story. YHVH Elohim spoke from His own mouth what constitutes a day when He gave instructions about the Day of Atonement. The Creation story in Genesis should be enough, but Scattered Israel constantly wants to seek out theories and earthly rabbis to learn from instead of just listening to YHVH Himself. I contend that YHVH’s word can be understood clearly and is only muddled by those who have what I call, “Moses envy.”
So, turn off the false teachers and their slick talk and use your brain to understand this.
Let us show you the plenty of evidence in the Scriptures where it teaches a ‘day is sunset to sunset.’ There is also plenty of support for this reckoning as we can see in history and by using a bit of logic. Though ‘logic’ is something people who believe in the ‘sunrise to sunrise’ non-sense are not using at all. Let’s start with what is recorded that YHVH Elohim created....
SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE:
1. ‘Sunset to sunset’ pattern was established at Creation
A day is defined 6 times during the Creation Story as ‘sunset to sunset.’ By the time we get to the 7th and final day of Creation the pattern and definition of what makes a day should be clear. Where do we get off trying to re-define what a ‘day’ is and what its boundaries are after YHVH Elohim Himself already clearly defined it? Listen to the Creation Story....
“Elohim, called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening [ עֶ֥רֶב - erev] and there was morning [ בֹ֖קֶר - voker ], day one.” Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31.
The original Hebrew is clear! In the Creation account the boundary of a day is defined. It starts at sunset and includes the following morning! If you question this - you will question the entire Bible. A day is defined as sunset to sunset.
2. Israel is commanded to observe the Day of Atonement from ‘evening to evening’
Yah actually speaks Himself and defines a day during His instructions for Yom Kippur, which confirms the definition in the Creation account. Check this out…. “… on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement….” Lev. 23:27 and then in verse 32 YHVH Elohim knew we’d screw it up so He clarifies, “…. in the ninth day of the month at even [בָּעֶ֔רֶב - ba’erev ] , from even [ מֵעֶ֣רֶב - me’erev ] unto even [ עֶ֔רֶב - erev ], shall ye celebrate your sabbath.”
In this command we clearly see that the Day of Atonement is to be the 10th day of the 7th month, and Yah tells us to start that 10th Day of the month, the Holy Day in the evening of the 9th Day and keep it all the way to the evening of the 10th Day. That’s pretty specific I think! And guess what? The word ‘erev’ [ עֶ֔רֶב ] in this command is the SAME Hebrew word as used in the Creation account.
So in these Yom Kippur instructions we hear YHVH speak again about the fact that He defines a day as sunset to sunset.
3. Nehemiah closes the gates at sunset (“as it began to grow dark”) to prevent the merchants from selling on the Sabbath
In Nehemiah 13:19 it says, “And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath (or as the Berean Bible says, “When the evening shadows began to fall on the gates of Jerusalem,”) I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the sabbath day.”
And in verse 20 we see that the vendors had to lodge outside the wall that night because Nehemiah wouldn’t let them in.
Clearly the prophet Nehemiah was seeking to honor and protect the start of the Sabbath day which he was saying was at sunset! A day is defined as sunset to sunset.
4. They wanted Ye’shua off the stake before sunset as that was the beginning of the High Shabbat of Unleavened Bread and the Prushim didn’t want to be defiled for the Feast.
We see in John 19:31 that the Prushim didn’t want bodies remaining on the crosses on the High Shabbat. They couldn’t take Him off the cross themselves because of the command in Num. 31:19 where it states that if they touch a dead body they will be unclean for 7 days — and thus they would miss the Feast. So they wanted the heathen to do it.
“The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation [day], that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”
We know Ye’shua, the Son of and Lamb of YHVH was crucified at the third hour. “And it was the third hour when they crucified him.” Mark 15:25
And we know that He died at the 9th hour which would have corresponded to 3 pm in the afternoon. Luke 23:44-46 says, “It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Ye’shua, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.”
Understandingthebible.org helps us understand….
“The Hebrew method of telling the time is quite simple. The day would start at 6 a.m. (hour zero) and they would count from there. So noon would be at the sixth hour and the day would end at 6 p.m. (the twelfth hour). So the ninth hour corresponds to our 3 p.m. … The Jews operated on a 12 hour daytime clock…. Some have mistakenly thought through the years that the ninth hour of the day would literally be 9am, but the Jews didn’t operate on military time. Understanding that according to Jewish tradition, evening sacrifices and prayers took place at the ninth hour, is truly remarkable and no coincidence.”
When it comes to Jesus’ [Ye’shua’s] death, the timing alone was enough to grab the Jews’ attention. Jesus [Ye’shua] was nailed to the cross in the third hour – the time of the morning sacrifice – and He died in the ninth hour – the time of the evening sacrifice. The Lamb of God was nailed to the cross and later took his last breath as the sound of the shofar echoed across the land – wow!” (end quote)
How does this story confirm the ‘sunset to sunset’ pattern established at Creation as our ‘days’? Well, the Prushim wanted Ye’shua to be taken off the cross before sunset, because at sunset the High Shabbat would start. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus came to get Him off the cross at evening and to embalm Him.
“When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who himself was a disciple of Ye’shua. He went to Pilate to ask for the body of Ye’shua, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him.…” Matt. 27:57-66
“Now there was a Council member named Joseph, a good and righteous man, who had not consented to their decision or action. He was from the Judean town of Arimathea, and was waiting for the kingdom of God. He went to Pilate to ask for the body of Ye’shua. Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and placed it in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had yet been laid. And it was the Day of Preparation and Sabbath was just beginning [ epephosken - drew near ].” Luke 23:51-54
“Now it was already evening. Since it was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath), Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent Council member who himself was waiting for the kingdom of Elohim, boldly went to Pilate to ask for the body of Ye’shua.” Mark 15:42-43
Clearly in this story we see that the High Sabbath of Unleavened Bread was going to start at sundown — so they felt the pressure to get dead Ye’shua off the cross / stake before the Holy Day started (at sunset). A day is defined as sunset to sunset.
5. The instructions for Passover include ‘sunset to sunset’ reckoning
“… 14th at evening … until 21st at evening.” Ex. 12:18 and it is echoed in Lev. 23:5 “… 14th day at twilight …”
Again, we see the pattern of sunset to sunset (at evening, at twilight) constituting a day in the Passover story. A day is defined as sunset to sunset.
6. The Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah) is marked by the sighting of the New Moon which can only be seen in the evening. The Day of Yom Teruah starts when the moon is sighted in the evening not in the morning!
This Feast was known in Ye’shua’s day as the “Day No One Knew” because you had to sight the moon (which happens at sunset) in order to know when that day arrived.
Thus, again we see that a Set-Apart (Holy) Feast Day is defined by when the sunsets, not when the sun rises. Yom Teruah starts at sunset when we can sight (observe) the New Moon. That’s the only way to find this Feast. Can’t find it in the morning. A day is defined as sunset to sunset.
7. Rabbi Ye’shua kept the Sabbath from ‘sundown to sundown.’
Our Rabbi kept the Sabbath on the same day as all the Jews in the first century. They were keeping a sunset to sunset reckoning. We NEVER see Him correcting the rabbis regarding the calendar or when they celebrated Shabbat. This is a HUGE point no-one seems to talk about or that they ignore!
Our Rabbi Ye’shua kept Shabbat from sundown to sundown. He NEVER corrected the way Israel was reckoning when the Shabbats started and ended. Why would we be picking a fight with the teachers that He didn’t? A day is defined as sunset to sunset.
8. Use logic to understand that it is easier to pin point a moment in time by watching a sunset vs. watching a sunrise.
For one thing, you would be blinded if you watched a sunrise, but not so with a sunset. For another thing most people (including children) would be still awake to watch the sunset vs a sunrise. And YHVH Elohim wanted the children (and EVERYBODY) to be able to keep His ways! You can literally watch the sun sink below the horizon and can clearly say that a moment has been witnessed (the sunset).
I personally love the fact that a day starts with rest. As in sleep. Biblical days are defined as sunset to sunset. Period.
There is probably so much more proof…..
We at Teshuvah Ministries, Inc. believe that these 8 reasons listed above are enough to know with confidence that a day is measured as ‘sunset to sunset’ and it is chaos making to try to prove days are ‘sunrise to sunrise.’ It is a ridiculous thing to travel into a rabbit hole with those trying to push a ‘sunrise to sunrise’ agenda. We have seen people accept this theory so that they can work Friday nights without conflict.
Please remember, Israel that not EVERYTHING that the Jews or Christians believe or do is wrong. You have not been lied to about EVERYTHING. Believing this will lead you into being fearful, never able to hang your hat on a Truth for it can fluctuate if you believe that everything might be a lie. You will live with absolutely no shalom, no ability to see things as black and white. You will have no backbone, be tossed about like a wave on the ocean, operate like a ‘she-camel-heat’ and have no ability to ‘divide the word of TRUTH’ properly.
Please use discernment and allow the Ruach ha’Kodesh to give you Her Wisdom to know what things to challenge and what does not need to be challenged — especially with that which can be answered with a simple understanding from YHVH’s mouth Himself (Gen. 1:5).