Happy Lord’s Day, my friends! Indeed, today is a special day and here is why: According to Scripture, it is Rosh Hashanah, the “head of the year.” It is the Biblical new year!

Because God created the world and everything in it, He alone determines how it functions and operates! We do well to take Him at His word rather than come up with our own ideas about things! For example, in Exodus 12:1-2, the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and very specifically defined the first month of His ordained calendar. Exodus 13:3-4 tells us the Babylonian name of the month: Abib or Aviv, meaning “spring.” In Hebrew, the month is Nisan.

Interestingly, God did not name the other months, so in the Bible months are typically known as the 2nd month, 3rd month, etc. After the Babylonian exile, man began to name the months. And man also established Israel’s civil new year in the 7th month of the Hebrew calendar. Jews continue to celebrate the civil new year in the fall.

Keep in mind that the Hebrew calendar is a 28-day lunar one, set by phases of the moon. Also, Hebrew days commence at sundown and last until sundown the following day. Given that, today (Nisan 1) actually began yesterday evening at sunset!

God established His calendar and staked it upon Israel’s exodus from Egyptian slavery. In the Jewish mindset, everything ties back to that incredibly historic event, so it is important to understand the escape from captivity as the anchor point, and that God’s calendar spins from it.

When God revealed that first day of the first month to Moses and Aaron, there were no calendars, smart phones or Google searches to determine what day it was! From Scripture, we simply know it was the first day of the first month of the first year. According to the lunar calendar, we also know that the first day corresponds to the New Moon.

It seems logical, then, to assume the new year begins with the first sliver of the New Moon in the spring (when things begin to blossom). Though God defined the first month, He never told Moses and Aaron how many months there would be in a year. What if blossoms were a bit earlier or later than usual? Would this first month of Aviv (Nisan) be solidly planted on a specific day every year, or could it vary depending upon when plants and flowers begin to bloom? It is quite possible Nisan was fully reliant upon which New Moon occurred once blossoms appeared! (Standardized calendars changed all that.)

By the way, this first month of Nisan is marked by all kinds of Biblical significance. God’s calendar for the Jewish people is indeed established in the exodus. We are told that on the 10th day of Nisan a perfect lamb with no blemish was to be brought into the house, and on the 14th day, it was to be slaughtered. The blood of that lamb was to be smeared on the doorpost of every home. Doing so would cause the death angel to “pass over” that home, sparing the life of the firstborn.

Friends, Jesus, the perfectly unblemished Lamb, entered His Father’s house (the Temple in Jerusalem) on the 10th day of Nisan. On that day during the Hebrew exodus, Jews would have been cleansing their houses of leaven (which represents sin). Jesus overturned tables of moneychangers (representative of sinfulness).

Jesus died on the 14th of Nisan, at the same time the lambs were being sacrificed in the Temple. Rather than upon a wooden doorpost, Jesus’ blood stained wooden beams of a cross. Exodus 12:13 references blood as a sign, signifying the passing over by the death angel. Jesus is our Passover Lamb whose spilt blood saves us from eternal death.

Passover, and its associated feasts of Unleavened Bread and First Fruits, are deeply ingrained in Jewish thought, theology, and culture. Early followers of Jesus and well-informed believers of today understand that Jesus was the fulfillment of these Jewish feasts. They are the basis of our salvation.

Now, let’s close the loop on the timing of the commemoration of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of First Fruits happen in the first month, and they set God’s calendar for the Jewish people in motion. They occur in the spring, following the corresponding New Moon.

But in 325 AD, Emperor Constantine convened the Nicaean Council to address theological disputes among early Christians. Birthed from Judaism, yet not constrained by the law, the idea of Passover took a turn for the worse. It seems Christians wanted the Jewish Messiah, but not want the associated Jewish feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits. Thus, they decided that Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection would be commemorated the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox!

What!?!

Along with the man-made date, they added a man-made name: Easter. Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection would be stripped from the Judaic roots of Passover, despite the fact our Messiah was Jewish.

To be clear, I am not advocating that we (believers) must forsake Easter and/or celebrate the Jewish feasts. Remember that our Messiah set us free from the law! The fact is that Jesus was crucified, buried and raised on the third day, providing salvation and eternal life to all who will receive it. When it occurred is irrelevant. The fact it DID occur is what is important.

However, studying the feasts and perhaps celebrating them appropriately does provide a sense of the reality of Jesus’ death as our Passover Lamb, the freedom we have because He fulfilled the Feast of Unleavened Bread by taking our sin upon Himself, and His resurrection so gloriously portrayed in the Feast of First Fruits.

Don’t get hung up on the shadow (the feasts themselves), but focus on the substance (Jesus, who fulfills every feast). (Colossians 2:16-17)

BTW – as we enter into this first month of the Biblical year, take some time today to slowly read through Exodus 12. In doing so, the God of Israel has a blessing for someone. Is it you?

Happy Lord’s Day!