New Moon Day.
The 'FULL' New Moon on the eastern horizon at sunset.
New Moon Day.
The CREATOR's luni-solar calendar is governed by
the movements of the heavenly bodies, carefully
placed and protected in the vault of the heavens,
where they can not be altered.
The CREATOR knows the needs of all His creatures. In His love, He has provided specifically for each one. The CREATOR knew that man should not work continuously without interruption. Knowing our weakness and our need to rest as well as our need to obey, He segmented, or divided, time. The shortest segment of time in a MONTH, is the 24 hour cycle, divided by darkness and daylight. The next segments are 4 seven-day periods, all of which are governed by the LUNATION of the moon. After that come the four SEASONS [the summer and winter solstices, and spring and fall equinoxes], that divide a solar YEAR. These segments of time are out of the hands of man, being under the direct control of the CREATOR and governed by the movements of the heavenly bodies, carefully placed and protected in the vault of the heavens, where they can not be altered. He lovingly placed them there for all to see and use, so we can know when we are to come before Him at His appointed times:
(Genesis 1:14-15)[1] (NKJV) 14Then the CREATOR 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; 15and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so.
Earth, Moon, And Stars On New Moon Day.
Each lunation [month], is to be segmented by four Sabbaths - four periods of six work days and a Sabbath.
(Exodus 20:8-11) (NKJV) 8Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the ETERNAL your CREATOR. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11For in six days the CREATOR made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the ETERNAL blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
The CREATOR loves liberty and desires freedom for all His children. He commanded that the lunation, or month, be segmented by four Sabbaths but that segmentation was put into the hands of men so that men could show their allegiance to the CREATOR by their obedience to the 4th commandment. While the Sabbath roughly follows the phases of the moon, it is not as clear and distinct a division of time as that of the day or the month. The CREATOR chose to leave this less defined, giving to man the opportunity to obey or disobey, depending upon what is in his heart to do.
Those who love the ETERNAL and seek to honor Him, worship Him on His Seventh-Day Sabbath. His lunation [Month], is broken into four seven-day periods with an occasional "translation" day in His 30-day months. Those who wish to rebel against the clear divine command are given the freedom to do so. A 30-day lunation can be divided into three 10-day 'WEEKS', as done in the calendar of the French Republic from 1793 to 1806 when the French government sought to de-Christianize France by getting away from a seven-day 'WEEK'. It can also be divided into six 'WEEKS' of five days each.
Worship on the Seventh-Day Sabbath within the CREATOR's luni-solar calendar, is a sign of allegiance to the CREATOR. It acknowledges Him as the Life- and Law-giver to whom obedience, love and devotion are owed. The spiritual purpose for segmenting time is to allow man time for self-evaluation. Every Seventh-Day Sabbath brings one face-to-face with the purity and holiness of The CREATOR. This throws into sharp contrast one's own failings and deformities. In the face of divine holiness, the repentant sinner exclaims:
(Isaiah 6:5) (NKJV) Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The ETERNAL of hosts.
The CREATOR's Calendar, Showing New Moon Day, And Seventh-Day Sabbaths.
(Click image to enlarge).
An additional worship day was given each lunation so that a person could examine where he had failed in the past lunation and to make resolutions for the up-coming lunation. This worship day is New Moon Day on the first Luni-Solar Calendar showing New Moon Day and Sabbaths of every month and comes before the work 'WEEK' which starts on the second of the month. New Moon Day is a time to meditate and consider one's spiritual status. How did it go in the past lunation? What do I want to do differently to bring my will and my life more in line with the will of my CREATOR? It is a time to seek forgiveness for past failings and help for the coming month. A prayer journal can be very useful, when updated every New Moon. People make New Year's resolutions but they seldom keep them more than one or two months. The CREATOR understood this human failing and gave us the opportunity to refine and build on our resolutions every new month.
The modern Gregorian calendar, like the Julian calendar before it, has months that are completely divorced from the cycles of the moon. Thus, New Moon Days do not exist in this alternate method of time-keeping. However, this does not excuse anyone, for not returning worship to The CREATOR on New Moon Days.
"The New Moon is still, and the Sabbath originally was, dependent upon the lunar cycle. Originally, the New Moon was celebrated in the same way as the Sabbath; gradually it became less important while the Sabbath became more and more a day of religion and humanity, of religious meditation and instruction, of peace and delight of the soul." (Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, "Holidays," p. 410.)
New Moons are in a class of worship day all by themselves. They were times of thanksgiving and rejoicing in Heaven's bounty. Anciently, they were days of feasting as well. The prohibitions against cooking on Sabbaths did not apply to New Moons and devout Israelites who fasted on other days, never fasted on a New Moon. Work for ETERNAL can be performed on New Moons. After the Tabernacle had been constructed in the Wilderness, Moses assembled all of the disparate parts on a New Moon:
(Exodus 40:17-19) (NKJV) 17And it came to pass in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was raised up. 18So Moses raised up the tabernacle, fastened its sockets, set up its boards, put in its bars, and raised up its pillars. 19And he spread out the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent on top of it, as the ETERNAL had commanded Moses.
However, no income-generating commerce may be done. The defiant heart never appreciates the opportunities Heaven has provided for time spent with the CREATOR. Centuries later, rebellious Israel bemoaned the "lost" business opportunities when Sabbaths and New Moons came.
No Income-Generating Commerce
Is To Be Done On New Moon Day.
(Amos 8:5-6) (NKJV) 5When will the New Moon be past, That we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, That we may trade wheat? Making the ephah small and the shekel large, Falsifying the scales by deceit, 6That we may buy the poor for silver, And the needy for a pair of sandals- Even sell the bad wheat?
Such an attitude is high treason against the government of Heaven. New Moon Days, like Seventh-Day Sabbaths, are times of holy convocation and the rejection of these holy days was directly responsible for Israel's overthrow by Assyria. The very next verses state:
(Amos 8:7-8) (NKJV) 7The ETERNAL has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their works. 8Shall the land not tremble for this, And everyone mourn who dwells in it? All of it shall swell like the River, Heave and subside Like the River of Egypt.
While the ETERNAL graciously "winks" at times of ignorance, knowing disobedience is treated as the rebellion that it is. Israel's worship degenerated into a form that had no spiritual value whatsoever.
The CREATOR rejected Israel's worship, stating:
(Amos 5:21-23) (NKJV) 21I hate, I despise your feast days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies. 22Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. 23Take away from Me the noise of your songs, For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.
While Israel went through the motions of worshipping the CREATOR, they were, in fact, honoring 'Saturn' as had their forefathers in the Wilderness at the golden calf. The CREATOR demanded:
(Amos 5:25-27) (NKJV) 25Did you offer Me sacrifices and offerings In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? 26You also carried 'Sikkuth' your king* And 'Chiun'**, your idols, The star of your 'gods', Which you made for yourselves. 27Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus, Says the ETERNAL, whose name is the ETERNAL of hosts.
*king - The Septuagint and Vulgate read 'tabernacle of Moloch'.
**Chiun - "Another name for the 'god' Saturn". The English word 'Chiun' is (Strongs #H3594 'Kiyuwn') meaning: an image or pillar, probably a statue of the Assyrian-Babylonian 'god' of the planet 'Saturn' and used to symbolise Israelite apostasy.
Ancient Israel, like modern spiritual Israel, rejects The CREATOR's New Moon Days and returned worship on "Saturn's" day, or 'Saturday'.
Sadly, the vast majority today, are rejecting the
advancing light on the creator's sacred calendar.
Prayer to the planets on their respective days was a part of the worship of the heavenly bodies." (R. L. Odom, Sunday in Roman Paganism, p. 158). Such worship is not acceptable to the ETERNAL. In Amos, right after denouncing them for worship of Saturn, the ETERNAL declares:
(Amos 6:1) (Septuagint) Woe to them that set at nought Sion, and that trust in the mountain of Samaria: they have gathered the harvest of the heads of the nations, and they have gone in themselves.
(Amos 6:3) (Septuagint) Ye who are approaching the evil day, who are drawing near and adopting false sabbaths;
(Amos 6:7-8) (Septuagint) 7Therefore now shall they depart into captivity from the dominion of princes, and the neighing of horses shall be cut off from Ephraim. 8For the ETERNAL has sworn by himself, saying, Because I abhor all the pride of Jacob, I do also hate his countries, and I will cut off his city with all who inhabit it.
The same fate awaits all who cling to worship on 'Saturday', or ANY fixed day of the so-called 'WEEK', on our modern counterfeit calendar, while ignoring the obligation of observing the Sabbaths and New Moons of the Biblical luni-solar calendar. Worshiping on the seventh-day sabbath of the CREATOR, is the distinguishing mark [the sign] that sets His people apart:
(Ezekiel 20:12) (KJV) Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the ETERNAL CREATOR that sanctify them.
Indeed, returning worship to the CREATOR on His seventh-day Sabbaths and New Moons, will be one of the joys of the Redeemed in the new earth throughout all eternity.
(Isaiah 66:22-23) (KJV) 22For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the ETERNAL, so shall your seed and your name remain. 23And 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 ETERNAL.
Commit now to worshiping the ETERNAL on all His holy rests, Sabbaths, New Moons and annual feasts. Untold joys await those who seek fellowship with Him in whom all the fullness of Life dwells.
Footnotes:
[1] [a]All scriptural links point to the Bible Gateway, A Searchable Online Bible In Over 100 Versions And 50 Languages, located at "BibleGateway.Com", a vast biblical resource containing all the major texts and reference materials useful for in-depth bible studies. Most scriptual quotations are from the (KJV) of the Bible, however versions noted in (parentheses) should also be consulted. [b]All Strong's scriptural references point to the Blue Letter Bible Lexicon, located at "BlueLetterBible.Org", another vast biblical resource which has over 4,000,000 links available, pointing to more than 165,000 pages of concordances, lexicons, dictionaries, commentaries, images, and several Bible versions.