Honoring God.
God promises to bless you if you
follow his instructions. Every promise has a premise; there’s a condition attached. “You will experience
all these blessings IF you obey the Lord your God: You will be blessed in your towns and in the country. You will be blessed
with many children and productive fields. You will be blessed with fertile herds and flocks. You will be blessed with baskets
overflowing with fruit, and with kneading bowls filled with bread. You will be blessed wherever you go, both in coming and
in going. The Lord will conquer your enemies when they attack you… And the Lord will bless everything you do and
will fill your storehouses with grain.” Deuteronomy 28:2-8 .
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God wants to bless you visibly in front
of others as a testimony. “Lord, you have stored up great blessings for those who honor you. You do much for those
who come to you for protection, blessing them before the watching world.” Psalm 31:19.
God blesses you so you
can be a blessing to others! “I will cause my people and their homes around my holy hill to BE a blessing. And I will
send showers, showers of blessings, which will come just when they are needed.” Ezekiel 34:26 .
God’s blessing
can be passed on to generations. You can create a legacy. “After Abraham's death, God poured out rich blessings on
Isaac.” Genesis 25:11.
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It’s never too late “The
Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the first half of his life.” Job 42:12
God promises
to bless my life IF I meet with him daily. “Blessed is the man or woman who listens to me, watching DAILY at my doors,
waiting at my doorway.” Proverbs 8:34.
“Blessed is the man or woman… whose delight is in the
law of the Lord, and on his word he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which
yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.” Psalm 1:1-3
“The
man or woman who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he
has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.” James 1:25
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Confused man has changed the times to
suit his own purpose. Clearly the New Moon observance is a sanctification of the beginning of a New Month and is commanded
to be observed in the scriptures.
Col 2:16 Then do not let anyone judge you in eating, or in drinking, or in
part of a feast,or of a new moon, or of Sabbaths, The gentile converts of Colossians learned to practice the keeping of
the New Moons. And as they were doing so, some people were making fun of them for observing Jewish customs!
We see that they were observing the laws
of God, and people were saying that they did not need to keep the old ways. But what we find here most interesting is the
fact that the “New Moons” are mentioned along with the Feast Days, and the Sabbaths. Paul tells us that it was
common practice for the Church of God to keep the New Moons.
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So why do the true believers of
God not keep the New Moons today? What has happened since then? Why has the Church stopped keeping the observance of the
New Moons?
Some
people say that because the New Moon was not established as a Holy Day, it should not be kept! Yet, the same thing
could be said about the Passover not being a Holy Day! Both the Passover AND the New Moons were commanded to be observed
and neither are declared to be Holy Days!
Lets continue exploring the “New Moons” throughout the scripture and see what God leads us to understand
as we seek to please him.
We've looked at the new moons in the times of Christ but what about in the future? What does God say will happen
with the “New Moons” in His future coming Kingdom!?
Eze 46:1 So says the Lord Jehovah: The gate of the inner court that faces the east shall be shut
the six days of work. But on the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened.
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The court of the Temple where people
will worship will be closed on the regular week days. But on the Sabbath day, and on the “New Moon” it will be
open!
And the people
will be worshiping God on the New Moons and they will offer sacrifices to God during that day!!!
Eze 46:3 And the people of the land shall worship at the
door of that gate on the Sabbaths, and on thenew moons, before Jehovah.
Eze 46:6 And in the day of the new moon: a bull without blemish, a son of the herd, and six lambs,
and a ram, they shall be without blemish,
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New Moons Before Christ’s
Time
So if it will
be important to God in the Kingdom, and it was important to the church at the time of the apostles, was it important for
the people of God before Christ? In the book of Samuel God tells us that they were keeping the New Moons…
1Sa 20:5 And David said to Jonathan,
Behold, the new moon is tomorrow. And sitting I should certainly sit with the king to eat. And you shall send me away, and
I shall be hidden in the field until the third evening.
1Sa 20:18 And Jonathan said to him, Tomorrow is the new moon, and you shall be expected, for
your seat will be empty.
1Sa 20:24 And David was hidden in the field. And it was the new moon. And the king sat down by the food to eat.
So we see here that David and the Israelites
kept the observance of the New Moons.
Now lets look at the book of Kings where we well see a scripture that indicates that on the “New Moons”
the people went to listen and speak with the spiritual leaders of the day, much like you would do on the Sabbath.
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A woman that had been kind to Elisha
by feeding him and building a room for him, was in distress because of her sons recent death. Because of this tragedy she
went to find and seek help from Elisha.
Notice here what her husband says to her as she leaves…
2Ki 4:23 And he said, Why are you going to him today; it is neither new moon nor Sabbath? And
she said, Peace.
They
would get together with the prophet of God, to learn from on the New Moons just as they did on the Sabbath! So it is clear
to see that Israel was observing the New Moons!
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New Moons to be kept by ALL FLESH
Also, God tells us through Isaiah that
all people will come to worship Him on the New Moons, just the same as in the Sabbaths!
Isa 66:22-24 For as the new heavens and the new earth which
I make stand before Me, declares Jehovah, so your seed and your name shall stand. 23 And it will be, from new moon to its
new moon,and from Sabbath to its Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, says Jehovah. 24 And they shall go out
and see the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against Me; for their worm shall not die, nor shall their fire be put
out; and they shall be an object of disgust to all flesh.
So it should be clear to us from these scriptures & examples that it was very important to
God that all His people kept the observance of the New Moons!
Unfortunately, just as many people today have lost knowledge and defiled the keeping of the New
Moon, so also Israel defiled the keeping of the New Moons much like they did the Sabbaths of God.
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So far we have seen many important
details about the New Moons that help us to better understand what it is, how it was observed and its significance today.
So to summarize what we know about the “New Moons” thus far…
· They were observed in the times of Paul –
Col 2:16
·
Coming to the temple to worship during it – Eze 46:1-6
· Being observed in the kingdom of God – Eze 46:1-6
· Being observed by King Saul – 1Sa 20:5-24
· A time to gather for a special
sacrificial meal – 1Sa 20:18
· To be observed by ALL flesh in the future – Isa 66:22-24
· A time for worshiping God – Isa 66:23
· Amos speaks of those sitting
at the new moon gathering and wishing they were not there worshipping God, folks who would rather be going about their own
ways than worshipping God on Sabbath and New Moons. This is the same as people sitting at Passover and wishing it was
over so that they could do their own thing instead of obeying and worshipping God. – Amo 8:5
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God gave Moses instructions to
follow…
2Ch
8:12-13Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to Jehovah on the altar of Jehovah that he had built before the porch, 13 even
as the matter of every day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the Sabbaths, and on the new moons,
and on the appointed feasts three times in the year, in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and in the Feast of Weeks, and in
the Feast of Booths.
So
God tells us that, He commanded Moses to order worship and sacrifices on the New Moons, much like in the Sabbaths and Holy
Days!
From this
we can also begin to see how much emphasis God puts on the New Moons…they are a very important thing to be observed!
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More evidence of an “Order
Commanded to them…”
1Ch 23:27-32 For by the last words of David the Levites were numbered from a son of twenty years and above, 28 because
their office was to wait on the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of Jehovah, in the courts, and in the chambers,
and in the purifying of all holy things, and the work of the service of God’s house, 29 both for the Bread of Arrangement,
and for the fine flour for food offering, and for the unleavened cakes, and for the pan, and for what is soaked in oil,
and for every measure and size, 30 and to stand every morning to thank and praise Jehovah, and likewise at evening. 31 And
they were to offer all burnt sacrifices to Jehovah in the Sabbath, in the new moons, and on the set feasts, by number, according
to the order commanded to them, continually before the face of Jehovah, 32 and that they should keep the charge of the tabernacle
of the congregation, and the charge of the Holy Place, and the charge of Aaron’s sons, their brothers, in the service
of the house of Jehovah.
This scripture says that David set the order, of the way the Levites were to offer sacrifices to God in His Holy
Days and Sabbaths and NEW MOONS! David had to have had some kind of pattern to give this command.
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Was it from the scriptures or from
God Himself, just as He told Solomon how to build the Temple? David had many visions of God and he was considered a prophet
too. Could we take some commands from him just as much we do from Moses? After all this is Holy Scripture!
Even Solomon when he was about to built
the Temple said that the reason was so that people could come and worship God in the appointed times, including the New
Moons!!
2Ch 2:4
behold, I am building a house to the name of Jehovah my God, to dedicate to Him, to burn incense of sweet spices before Him,
and for the continual Bread of Arrangement, and for burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbath, and on the new
moons, and at the set feasts of Jehovah our God. This shall be upon Israel forever.
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Notice: A commanded observance
forever for all the people of God!
King Hezekiah restores what is right…
2Ch 31:3 And the king’s portion from his substance was for burnt offerings, for burnt offerings
of the morning and the evening; and the burnt offerings of the Sabbaths, and of the new moons, and of the appointed seasons,
as it was written in the Law of Jehovah.
And after Israel had gone astray, King Hezekiah restored the sacrifices during the New Moons as Moses ordered Israel
to do before God!
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Ezra restores what is right…
And Ezra, when Israel came out of Captivity,
made it a point to continue to offer God His sacrifices. And to keep the appointed worship times of God!
Ezr 3:2-5 Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak
stood up, and his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brothers, and built the altar of the
God of Israel in order to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. 3 And they set
the altar on its bases, for fear was on them because of the people of those lands. And he offered burnt offerings on it
to Jehovah, burnt offerings morning and evening. 4 They also performed the Feast of Booths, as it is written, and the burnt
offerings by number, days by days, according to the ordinance, the thing of days in its day. 5 And afterward the continual
burnt offering, both of the new moons, and of all the set feasts of Jehovah that were set apart, and of everyone who willingly
offered a freewill offering to Jehovah.
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Nehemiah restores what is right…
Nehemiah restored the service to God
on the Holy Days and the proper keeping of the Sabbath and the New Moons, and tithing!
Neh 10:31-33 And if the people of the land should bring
goods or any food to sell on the Sabbath, we would not take from them on the Sabbath, or on the holy day. And they would
forgo the seventh year, and the interest of every hand. 32 Also, we made stand on ourselves, to charge ourselves yearly with
the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God, 33 for the Bread of Arrangement, and for the continual
food offering, and for the continual burnt offering, of the Sabbaths, of the new moons, for the set feasts, and for the
holy things, and for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and all the work of the house of God.
So if these people that worship the true
God were so concerned about the keeping of the Law and restoring it back to what would please God… and this included
the keeping of the New Moons…
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What is stopping us from doing the same??
When we pull away – He pulls away…
When God was upset with His people for
not doing what was right and turning away form the right worship that he had commanded. Our own worship, doing things our
own way; made the peoples worship a stench in His nostrils. He considered it nothing more than mere lip service! Serving
him according to the commandments of men; instead of doing what he had commanded.
Is this what is happening to us, His people today? Is the
right worship of God lost today? Will He abhor our worship according to our own ways: or will he accept us as we seek to
please him by doing what is right in His eyes??
Isa 1:12-14 At whose request do you come before me, making my house unclean with your feet? 13
Give me no more false offerings; the smoke of burning flesh is disgusting to me, so are your new moons and Sabbaths and your
holy meetings. 14 Your new moons and your regular feasts are a grief to my soul: they are a weight in my spirit; I am crushed
under them.
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Hos. 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.
Offerings on the New Moons…
God did allow a record in the book of Numbers of what would be His offerings given to Him by
the nation of Israel in the FIRST DAY OF EVERY MONTH!!
Num 28:10-14 This is the burned offering for every Sabbath day, in addition to the regular burned
offering, and its drink offering. 11 And on the first day of every month you are to give a burned offering to the Lord; two
oxen, one male sheep, and seven he-lambs of the first year, without any mark; 12 And three tenth parts of the best meal
for a meal offering mixed with oil, for every ox; and two tenth parts of the best meal for a meal offering mixed with oil,
for the one sheep; 13 And a separate tenth part of the best meal mixed with oil for a meal offering for every lamb; for
a burned offering of a sweet smell, an offering made by fire to the Lord. 14 And their drink offerings are to be half a
hin of wine for an ox, and the third part of a hin for a male sheep, and the fourth part of a hin for a lamb: this is the
burned offering for every month through all the months of the year.
And God commanded Israel to blow the Trumpets on the first day at the beginning of every month!
This was to be done over all of their sacrifices so they would be a “MEMORIAL” to them.
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Num 10:10 Also in the day of your
gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt
offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am
the LORD your God.
So
we see that the people of God were worshiping God in the keeping of the New Moon as told to us by Paul in the new testament,
by David, by Hezekiah, by Ezra, Nehemiah, Elisha, Ezekiel, Amos, Saul, Jonathan, and even Moses. We can see that they did
meet together, they worshiped God, they came to meet the religious authorities of the land, they broke bread together, they
sacrificed, they were not to buy or sell – it seems clear that God is showing us there was some type of order and
service set for this day.
So what are we to do??
It is very clear from scriptures that we need to observe the New Moons. And do what we can to please God, as He
obviously is expecting of us today!
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When & How…the experts or the scripture?
So how can we know when the New Moon
will be? And what should we do during that day? God is not an author of confusion among his people; Satan is and he will
always be.
Satan
has given man many choices and chances, so they can learn to do what is more convenient to them! Man, since the time
of the early church, has learned to keep the New Moons with a lot of baggage involved in the keeping of them.
The clear way and the record of the Holy
Scriptures are easily ignored because of the technicalities and debates over Rabbinic thoughts and different ways to see
the moon phases and occurrences. It has become so confusing, that people completely ignore the keeping of the New Moons altogether!
Today, people that use the moon cycle
to determine the beginning of the month, decide whether or not to skip a day or two according to their own will and own
conveniences. They change the record of the true day!
When it is next to a Sabbath, they choose to skip a day so that it will not affect the preparing
of that day.
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Is this allowed in the scriptures??
The truth is that God never allowed this
kind of choice in the counting the month cycles. At least it is not in the record of the scriptures. And it is never mentioned
that it ever occurred in the history of Israel. Lets for a moment ignore the Jewish scholars and so called experts of our
day and just look at what the scriptures teach us about it.
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How can we know when a first day
of the month really begins?
In the book of Genesis, God told us that the celestial bodies were given to us to tell the time!
Gen 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights
in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days,
and years:
God
says here that the lights are for the telling of the times! For days, for seasons, and for years!
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Notice that it says the lights,
the “luminaries”. Not the darkness but the lights! So today, as people are watching when a New Moon will begin.
They look for the darkness of the Moon when it is not visible on the skies. And from there, from this darkness, some begin
to count the beginning of a New Moon or lunar month!
But the scripture is clear, God said to use the light and not the darkness! Going by this guide
from God – we would have to conclude that the first sliver of light would be the beginning of the new lunar month and
that day would be the New Moon.
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Another analogy to consider…
Jesus Christ is the light and He is represented
as such, while Satan is darkness and he is represented as such. Would God use the LIGHT to determine the beginning of this
special day or would he use darkness?
More to consider…
God also told us that the first month of His lunar year was in the Spring and not in the Autumn as some people use
for the beginning of their year. Israel also was used to other calendars while they were living as slaves to Egypt. But
God before He took them out of Slavery told them what would be their new way of counting their year..!
Ex 12:2 Let this month be to you the
first of months, the first month of the year.
We would have to use the first month of the year, the one that falls in Spring, so that we may
be able to keep the Spring Passover Festival, at the right time. In this way we would be able to keep the counting for Pentecost
in the right order as well.
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Lev 23:10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say
unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring
a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest unto the priest: 11And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted
for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
12And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first
year for a burnt offering unto the LORD. 13And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled
with oil, an offering made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the
fourth part of an hin.
14And
ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, [of the new harvest] until the selfsame day that ye have brought
an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
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15And ye shall count unto you from
the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete:
16Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto
the LORD.
Pentecost
was to be counted from, the next day after the Sabbath that falls in the week of the Passover/- Unleavened Bread Festival.
From that first day of the week, which would be to us Sunday. They were supposed to count seven full weeks, and the day
after the Seventh Sabbath would be a total of 50 days.
Now the wave offering would not be possible, without the ripening of the grain since the Lunar
calendar would be out of sync with the rotation of the Earth around the Sun after several years. It would be necessarily,
to add a 13 month into the year that was out of sync. In this way it would allow the New Year to have the ripening of the
grain in the right time for it to be waved!
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This is the only way possible,
for people to keep the right dates for all the Holy Days of God. Any other correction that is done to the lunar calendar,
is for the convenience and laziness of man!
The scriptures do not give us the right to change the calendar of God. And God never, ever, told
man to change what He has ordained!
Anyone that will be faithful to God would have to be willing to go through some inconvenience in those occasions
that have a Holy Day fall next to a Sabbath. This is part of our faithfulness and part of our test.
Are we willing to follow God, or do our
own thing out of convenience? It’s clear then that we need to do something about the commands of our God. We must
worship our Lord as He wants and learn to correct our ways when we are shown where we are wrong.
The New Moons must be kept, and we must learn how to keep
them in our time. We have the opportunity to restore this truth in much the way Hezekiah and Nehemiah did in their day.
We may not have ALL the facts, but to a member of the church of God who wants to please God in all His command there is a
lot of information in the scriptures to work with, certainly enough to observe this command.
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I hope and pray that God will grant
you wisdom and understanding as you dig deep into his scriptures to better understand this very important day.
Editors comment: The New Moon is not
a Sabbath or a Holy Day.
If every New Moon Day is a Sabbath, why do we find God commanding labor upon the day, and labor being exacted upon
the day?
And the
LORD spake unto Moses, saying, On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.
… Thus did Moses: according to all that the LORD commanded him, so did he. And it came to pass in the first month
in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up. (Exodus 40:1,2,16,17 — read all
of Exodus 40:1-33 to see how much labor was done this New Moon Day)
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In the second year of Darius the
king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel
the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD
of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built. …
Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith
the LORD. … Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant
of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent
him, and the people did fear before the LORD. (Haggai 1:1,2,8,12)
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If every New Moon Day is a Sabbath,
why do we find God commanding Zerubbabel to gather wood and build upon the first day of the month? Recall God’s judgment
against the man who gathered wood on the Sabbath in Numbers 15:32-36.
If every New Moon Day is a Sabbath, we should find the command to make the Sabbath offering on
the New Moon Days as well. No such command was given. Only the daily offering was to accompany the New Moon offering. (Numbers
28:15)
The New
Moon is NOT a Sabbath unless it happens to fall on a Sabbath. The New Moon is NOT a Holy Day except for the first day of
the Seventh month.
The
New Moon is merely the consecrating of the beginning of a month with special sacrifices by God’s command.
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I suggest that New Moon’s
be observed by family or local congregational Bible Studies in replacement of the sacrifices, as they are to be observed
as day’s of worship [yet NOT Holy Days or Sabbaths just the consecration of the beginning of each month] in the Kingdom.
They are essential to a proper understanding
of the Biblical Calendar; and the consecrating of months in the Biblical Calendar.
The importance of the New Moons lies in the fact that they
are essential elements in determining ALL of the commanded Holy Days; except for the Sabbath. That is why God has set them
apart for special recognition without calling them actual Holy Days.
They are the foundation of God’s Calendar and they are the foundation for properly dating
the actual commanded Holy Days! We should get in the habit now!
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