Yahweh’s Calendar – Part 2
05/18/19 (03/12) Video Broadcast
Video Transcript
This is a direct transcript of a teaching that was presented via video. Due to the fact that we often speak differently than we write, the written text may not flow and/or sound strange in some places. There may also be grammatical errors and unintended mistakes. It is encouraged that you to watch the video to complement this written transcript.
Yahweh’s Calendar part-2
I’m very excited to share this study portion for today’s broadcast, part 2 of the study on Yahweh’s Calendar. The controversy of controversies in the Hebrew Roots movement is trying to understand Yahweh’s calendar. And I’m going to bring a perspective that I doubt, I don’t know of anybody else who’s really even brought this perspective into the calendar study. And the perspective has not really changed my view at all on the calendar I follow, but it is really the basis for how I study anything. So I’m going to share with you the mentality with which I believe Yahweh wants us to approach our study of the Word.
Our study of the Word, the reason why there’s so many different opinions, at least partly, is because of ignorance but partly also because of our approach, sometimes our approach is wrong. And that’s why we end up finding ourselves in error. Now most of us have recognized that some point that we’ve come into this understanding of Yahweh’s Word with the blessing of the Hebrew Roots of our faith and things like that nature. What we’re really saying is we say by Hebrew Roots we’re saying “Let’s get back to the original stuff, let’s get back to basics, get back to the way it was originally communicated, the way it was originally shared and get back to, you know, skip all through the church history and the church fathers and all their business and everything that they’ve said and whatever: What does the Scriptures teach. What do they teach?” That’s what we’re trying to find, okay.
So what we have done when we come into this understanding most of us I think what we’ve done is this. We said: Alright here’s a doctrine, let’s find out whether or not that doctrine matches up with what? Yahweh’s Perfect Word as originally inspired. And only by that can we find Yahweh’s Perfect Will. Now what we were willing to do at some point in the past on certain topics perhaps, maybe not everything, was this: Here’s a doctrine and I’m going to compare it to Yahweh’s Perfect Word, great yeah good so far, but then I’m going to allow a man to come along and basically come up with his opinions, his ideas, adding to and/or taking from Yahweh’s Word. And the end result would be “Is it really Yahweh’s Will?”
We looked at the Word but then we looked to man to tell us how to interpret it, how to view it, how to read it, how whatever. Man is his own worst enemy. Really! And that’s how we came to things like change a name, take it out of the Bible, change His Sabbath, Law of Yahweh is done away with. That was the problem that was muddying the waters and a lot of us came out of a church system and we always had in the back of mind: But what about this over here, I don’t understand, I guess all these people must know, these guys they are trained, they know the Hebrew, the Greek, they must know. But when I look at it I see different. And we knew there was something more but we didn’t have the courage to go and seek it out and be the lone ranger and you know.
And so did we really find Yahweh’s Will? Not until we went back and we said “Wait a minute. Here’s on the day of judgment it’s only gonna be: me, His Word and Yahweh.” So whatever man says whatever, he says it, but for me I have to go back to what Yahweh says. Now almost every religion claims to do that, at least denominations most of them do, some of them outright just lie, I mean they will say “O no you know we have the authority”. For instance, let me tell you “beware of the experts”, okay.
Catholics say “We’re the experts, you don’t know anything”. In fact church tradition trumps Scripture, it’s over Scripture. Protestants say “We’re the experts you don’t know anything. Okay we have now in the Hebrew Roots movement people that are widely considered to be quote “experts”. For instance Hebrew Roots experts say “You’re ignorant of the Hebrew culture and Jewish culture, you don’t know anything. Let us tell you what the Hebrew and Jewish culture is. And only then will you be able to understand Yahweh’s Word. See, that’s what you’re missing all along. You missed” what? “Us! You needed us to tell you what.”
You see any time I’m not against, don’t get me wrong. Yes we are ignorant in many ways but we don’t need someone to tell us what that we can do our own research and find out what that is, okay. If you can completely trust somebody to tell you what it is you’re no different than what you did in Christianity. You’re trusting people to tell you what the Bible tells, tells us, you’re trusting them, and they can be wrong and they may not think they’re wrong, they may be sincere but they are wrong in the less, okay.
And then you’ve got, now it seems like, more and more we’re seeing these Hebrew Roots “homesteading farmer experts”. Again: “You’re just a dumb American, you’re disconnected from agriculture. You don’t know anything. And whatever it is we’re the experts, come to us!”
You see you create a void and they are going to fill it, they create the void, they fill it. Same thing with the so-called Rabbis. Jewish Rabbis whether messianic or whatever: “Oh you’re just an unlearned Gentile, you’re an untrained Jew, you don’t know anything.” All of these are doing the same thing, all of them they’re doing the same thing. You come to us you don’t know anything we will tell you; and you’re putting your trust in man, okay.
Now some, I can read I can watch a Protestant sermon and get good things out of it. I can listen to so-called Hebrew Roots experts and homesteading farmer experts and so-called Jewish Rabbis, hey I can learn and learn, fine, whatever. But with a lot of caution because it’s got to be from the Word. And the truth is they have the knowledge, many of them do, but (1 Corinthians 8:1b-3) – Knowledge puffs up, love edifies. And if anyone thinks he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves Elohim, this one is known by Him. – The goal is not to have a ton of knowledge, although you want to know, the goal is that Elohim knows you. To that you have to love Him. That to happen you have to love Yahweh with all your heart, soul and strength.
Now 1 John 2 verse 27 says this – the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; – You get that? You don’t need anyone to teach you. – but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. 28 And now, little Children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. – Now why would John basically teach you that you don’t need anybody to teach you? It’s true what he says, this is from the Holy Spirit, okay. The Holy Spirit is using John to teach that we don’t need man to teach. Alright. But the same anointing abides in each one of us to be able to comprehend and understand the Word of Yahweh. And it’s true, what he is saying is true.
Now why in the world am I on a broadcast if we don’t need any teachers? We don’t need teachers in the sense of it would be impossible to figure out the truth unless we had teachers, okay. What do teachers do? Yahweh has put teachers in the body of Messiah to speed up the process of learning, okay. Because Yahweh wants us to be sanctified and it would take a whole lot longer for us to learn, pick up Hebrew, do all these things, unless there were teachers. And so I’m not against teachers. What I’m against is overreliance on teachers. There are some people all they do, their only study of Yahweh’s Word they do is they sit and watch YouTube videos of one teacher after another, or one ministry after another, or whatever. And there’s all kinds of opinions out there.
Yahweh has placed teachers in the body of Messiah but I am concerned sometimes, we are in an entertainment driven culture and teachers become popular not because they effectively teach how to love, that’s what the Bible is supposed to be about, but because they carry charisma, they are charming and interesting personalities and are good storytellers.
You know I would rather listen to a dull person that tells me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, than a charming and charismatic person that believes what he says is true just because he said it. Or thinks he can play fast and loose with the text. And what we have here in this so-called Hebrew Roots movement is almost like it’s becoming like a Talmud 2.0. A Talmud was a collection of Jewish Rabbis and their opinions and they want to argue with each other.
Everyone has their favorite teacher, the one they tend to trust the judgment of, and rather than digging deeply in the Word themselves they just go with the guy they like. Seems to make sense? Oh good enough. Listen we’re all prone to being spiritually lazy, we all are. And so some people just let everybody else do the labor and sit back and follow the one that sounds best. We have to do the labor ourselves and see whether or not what we believe and who’s teaching what, is the truth.
But you don’t have to be seminary trained, you don’t have to be a natural Jew, you don’t have to grow a garden, you don’t even need to be a Hebrew scholar to find truth. Yahweh’s Word says this (James 1:5) – If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of Elohim, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. – It’s a promise, we can do this, we can. It’s gonna take hard work to unravel and to unpack all these lies; and yes there are men who have done that labor and who can help you along, but be careful, it’s no different than what you found in Christianity and there’s just a lot of things out there.
So I’m talking about our approach, okay. (John 7:15-18) – The Jews marveled, saying “How can this Man – Yahushua – know letters, having never studied?” 16 Yahushua answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17 If anyone wants to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine – We have to pursue righteousness and we’ll know – whether it is from Elohim or whether – He said – I speak on My own. 18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory;
And man, have I ever seen this in my lifetime. Pastor will get up there and share one or two Scriptures and the rest of it is his own stuff, his own ideas, his own thoughts. And how well he teaches is based on how well he can carry on with his thoughts, which might be biblical but the best teacher is Scripture. It is a far better teacher than I am. If I can underline it and circle it and point it out to get it from point A Yahweh’s throne to your heart point B, I’m glad to do that. But that’s my goal. My goal isn’t to get my thoughts in your heart, my goal is to get Yahweh’s thoughts in your heart, in your mind even as His thoughts have entered my heart and my mind.
So listen. Get away from anybody who speaks from himself. Those who speak from themselves are only are usually those willing to add to Yahweh’s Word. The Jews had their schools and taught people their beliefs and doctrines, they were quite busy adding to Yahweh’s Word and so they marveled “Yahushua how could you have an understanding of the doctrines? You never went to our schools.” Yahushua explained: we first have to want to do the will of Elohim and then we’ll know. Pursue righteousness, hunger and thirst for righteousness, cry out to Yahushua: Son of David have mercy upon me, I’m blind and I want to see. He will show you.
But what man shows you usually is this (Matthew 23:4) – heavy burdens, hard to bear, laying them on men’s shoulders; they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. Mark 7 verse 9 He told the pharisees and scribes – All too well you reject the commandment of Elohim, that you may keep your tradition. – Everything was about man speaking from himself rather than from the commandments of Elohim, from the Words of Elohim. And so Yahushua told His disciples (Matthew 16:6) – Take heed beware of the leaven of the scribes and the Pharisees. – Pharisees and the Sadducees should say.
So here is what I want us to do during this study, I’m convinced the biggest reason for our calendar differences is not because the Bible lacks proper information to give us the calendar. The biggest reason for calendar differences is that people are all too willing to add to Yahweh’s Word in order to find a conclusion. I know it’s a bold statement but I cannot help it see what I’m seeing.
The temptation to Eve was that she would be in the position of Elohim and that’s why there are Talmuds and catechisms. I truly believe that if we take the right approach we will all come to the same calendar, I really do. But if we don’t I’m not so much concerned with the result end result of your search, what concerns me sometimes is the criteria and the methods used to find the truth. And so we’re going to build us a filter. We’re going to take all of the calendar belief systems and we’re gonna run them through the filter. We’re going to trust the filter, which is based on Yahweh’s Word, to take out any impurities and at the end enable us to (Titus 2:1) – speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine.
Filter #1: Everything is about love, everything is about purity of heart, everything is about a good conscience and a sincere faith, everything. That’s what (1 Timothy 1:5) – the purpose of the commandment is love – the calendar commandment it’s a purpose is love – from a pure heart from a good conscience, from sincere faith. – I have a whole study on this particular verse and show all the different Scriptures that in what this means from the Scriptures. So the sincere faith part is probably a major one, I think a lot of us who have come into Hebrew Roots came into this because we have sincere faith. But somewhere along the line we lost the purpose which was this: love, some of us have lost. The reason why these commandments are here is because of love.
Now what does a calendar have to do with love? You might think what’s that got to do, I mean just calendars, love? We have to love that which Yahweh creates. If you love Yahweh you love what He creates. You love your fellow man, you love your family, your children, you love His creation, you love animals, you love everything He created and we’ll love holiness and therefore we’re going to love holy days. We have a zeal for showing proper reverence and love for Yahweh’s demarcation of time. And for His holy things whether it be His holy Name, His holy days or anything that is set-apart for Him. We’re going to love it because we love Him. The weekly Sabbath was important enough to us because we love Yahweh. It was important enough to Yahweh for Him to include it in the Ten Commandments. The yearly Sabbaths were not in the Ten Commandments but are all holy days none the less, just as the seventh day of the week is a holy day.
And we don’t want to be among those who (Ezekiel 22:8) – despise His holy things and profaned His Sabbaths. – because we love Yahweh. We’re not gonna despise His holy things if we love Him. And one of the holy things are holy days. Notice He says Sabbaths, not just the weekly Sabbath, but the yearly Sabbaths, okay.
So we must love holiness and we must love truth, we must love truth we must believe truth matters. Yahushua said “You must love Yahweh” (Matthew 22:37-39) – “You shall love Yahweh with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” – So love is what the commandments are for. Our first loyalty is that we love Yahweh, He is the center of the universe, He is the head of all principality and power, and therefore He is first; not our own opinions not what man says, what He says.
With this love comes filter #2: Respect for the Word of Yahweh. You see the Word is at center stage. It was the Words of Yahweh that Satan sought to undermine in the Garden of Eden, right? Genesis 3 verses 1 through 3 – The serpent was more cunning – or subtle – than any beast of the field which Yahweh Elohim had made. And he said to the woman, “Has Elohim indeed said ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’” – Immediately causing doubt as to whether Yahweh really said what He said or meant what He said – 2 … “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, Elohim has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” – Then comes the alternative word (Genesis 3:4-6) – Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For Elohim knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like Elohim, knowing good and evil.” – He added something to Yahweh’s Word. O well the reason why He said this was this. Catch that? He added to it. And he contradicted it. – 6 So when the woman saw the tree was good for food, – Here comes her own desire now – that is was pleasant to the eyes, a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave it to her husband with her and he ate.
Here are Satan’s subtle techniques to bring deception and it very much applies to the calendar: A. Cast doubt on Yahweh’s Word. 2. Add to Yahweh’s Word. 3. Contradict Yahweh’s Word. And 4. Appeal to her pride and personal desires. I have heard very similar things that comes to the calendar people, it’s important that we believe the sufficiency of Scripture to give us the answer. We don’t have to doubt Yahweh’s Word tells us all we need to know. We don’t need to add anything to complete it.
Again, we don’t have to add anything to complete what Yahweh says about the calendar, what He says about the calendar is enough. So out of respect for Yahweh’s Word we’re gonna recognize (Proverbs 30:5-6) – Every Word of Elohim is pure, He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. – He says: do not, do not – 6 Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found – What? Imitating the enemy – a liar. – He is a liar and the father of lies. Adding to His Word looks a very scary prospect to me, I mean I would not want to do that. Yahweh help me if I ever have.
Now I can say something that would be true like Yahweh’s Word is true, it’s according to Yahweh’s Word, and that’s fine. I can reword what Yahweh said and say the exact same thing and it be fine. I can paraphrase what Yahweh says and be fine as long as it’s not adding to the Word or changing what the Word says, that the same thoughts conveyed. I can have five different translations saying the same thing five different ways, that’s fine. But I can’t add my own additional thought to it. If I am wrong I can be found a liar and I don’t wanna be in that place.
Yahweh says Deuteronomy 12:32 – Whatever I command you be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it. – Deuteronomy 4 verse 2 – You shall not add to the word which I command you, not take from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your Mighty One. – He knew what’s gonna happen. You started add and taking away, you’re not gonna keep the commandments anymore. Man will be at center stage at that point. Man will decide what happens. He will become a lawgiver that’s what happened with first century Judaism, man became the lawgiver. He added to Yahweh’s Word, things that Yahweh never said, required of things of people Yahweh never required. Then man becomes a lawgiver, man becomes the center of attention, you need to let Yahweh be the center of attention.
Now I know Yahweh has given us a calendar, He has given us something to follow in order to properly determine His feast days, and for that reason I believe that Scripture has already provided us with everything we need to know. Otherwise we have to add to the Word to find the answer, something He expressly told us not to do. So in the Law of Yahweh He provides us with all the information we need to find a calendar, we don’t have to add anything to what’s written. What’s written is sufficient enough for us to know what to do. Otherwise, again, He’s requiring us to add to the Word; He told us not to do that. We would have to add to the Word to find the feast dates and since He told us not to do that we should know for sure we can find the information in Scripture itself. Because if He didn’t provide explanation on something it must be so simple it requires little to no explanation.
Where ever He supplies no further explanation the simplest reading and understanding is what I’m looking for. Now it’s true that truth is not necessarily easy to find, sometimes we have to dig deep, we can’t be lazy in our spiritual walk because it does require some laboring in the Word. And we have a lot of people who just throw their hands up and conclude “We’re not gonna be able to find a clear answer till Yahushua comes back.” I disagree. Again, it’s hard to find sometimes (Proverbs 25:2) – … the glory of Elohim is to conceal a matter, the glory of Kings is to search out a matter. – And most of the time I find it really it’s hiding in plain sight.
Yahushua was the master of short answer. Short answer. He just blew them away. Now some have seen all the division over the calendar and they choose and they make a decision, they are going to just a kind of bow out. They conclude it must be too hard to find the answer, they just gonna go with the flow and follow the calendar of whatever group they happen to be keeping the feast with.
Listen. It’s so important we refuse to be lazy in our spiritual walk, the calendar issue does require labor. We can’t just throw our hands up and conclude we’re done. Maybe that’s the humble thing to say you think. I’m willing to acknowledge I may be wrong in my conclusion, I may have blind spots in my heart I’m not aware of. But you know what? Listen to me. I would much rather be ignorant of truth because of blindness, because I didn’t know, because of ignorance than because of laziness.
One of the reasons why this topic is so divisive is because it’s being muddled with the opinions of man rather than be diligent and sticking to the Scriptures. I have found this to be the case with people a lot of times, newcomers coming into understanding the blessing of Yahweh’s Torah, you share with them the clear Scriptures, they’re like yeah, yeah, get excited on fire, then they go consult man. Their family members, their pastors, their elders or whatever and come along with various opinions of man and they start getting confused. And so with the calendar issue along with every other topic we examine: stay with the Word and do our very best not to add our own thoughts and opinions.
Filter #3: Empty ourselves. We have to be careful we don’t try to bring our own personal preferences into this topic or any other topic. It is only when we empty ourselves of our own will that we can really find the will of Yahweh. I’ll be honest with you. I kind of wish the equinox determine the years I mean that’s my personal preference, makes a lot easier. But I can’t find it in the Word, I’ve got to empty myself of my own desire, opinion or whatever. But too many are following a particular calendar because it’s more convenient for their schedule or because they want to fellowship or keep the feast with a particular people they like or. Listen. What’s the difference between that and those who ignore the true Sabbath day on the seventh day of the week or keep the Sabbath on a different day simply because that’s where their friends are. Where their pastor is or fits their job schedule better.
And sometimes it’s ironic because the same people who peer down their nose and point the finger at traditional Christians who ignore the Sabbath day out of convenience or personal preference, they’ll do the same when it comes to the feast calendars. And they’ll say it, by their own mouth they’ll say it. You see, if we become judgmental we become blind and Yahweh allows us to be tested in how well we fare.
And many will pick the calendar they want out of convenience or preference rather than what in fact some would even acknowledge yeah the calendar should really be over here but in the interest of unity… Sorry, unity with Yahweh is what I’m after, then man. If man is there, great. If he is not, sorry I’m going with Yahweh. So now I disagree it’s impossible to know when the calendar is. I say this: it’s possible for us to study the Scriptures and come as close to the simple meanings presented without adding our own thoughts and ideas into the text and arrive at a conclusion. I don’t believe it’s impossible to know when the holy days are anymore it’s impossible to know when the seventh day Sabbath is.
And traditional Christians will say the same thing: “O you can’t know when the seventh day Sabbath is, you can’t know, we don’t know.“ And I hear Torah observant genuine brothers and sisters all “We don’t know, well we’ll just go with the Jews.” And they’ll say the same thing. I say nonsense, either Yahweh has provided us all we need to know, in the Word, in order for us to find the truth of His calendar or He has willfully put us in a predicament of having to add to His Word to find the answer which is something He told us not to do. Again, either He has provided all we need to know in the Scriptures or He is putting us in a predicament of having to add to His Word to find the answer, which He said “Do not do that”. Right? Okay.
Here’s another thing I hear often, beware of this: “We believe the Father has shown us…” because the weather did this this year or I had this supernatural experience or I had…, okay. I’ve heard all sides of the debate, calendar debate, “have this personal divine relation that came down from heaven”.
Pardon me, honestly, I groan when someone says that to me, I’ll tell you why. Not because I don’t believe Yahweh can give us divine revelation supernaturally, but because it shuts down reason at that point. It becomes now a “Who’s right” discussion, because when they say they have divine revelation, if you contradict it, now you’re questioning their relationship with Yahweh. It shuts down the conversation, sometimes I think that’s really what they want. They’re afraid of a hurtful argument and they won’t talk about it at all, actually they say “Well you know we believe the Father has shown us…” fill in the blank whatever they came to. It’s no longer “Let’s reason together in Scriptures”, now it’s “Who among us has a direct line from heaven”. That’s really what it comes down to. I don’t want to get into that, I don’t want to.
So unless you’re a prophet, true genuine prophet, we always have to compare what we think are personal revelations with the Holy Scriptures. Because if we don’t believe the Scriptures provide us with an answer, then we must believe He told us to keep the feast days and certain days are holy but then didn’t bother to tell us when it was. And so now He has gonna come down some personal vision and tell you? No I believe (2 Peter 1:3) – His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and reverence…
Now I agree that we don’t wanna be divisive, I agree we don’t wanna be condemning, but we also don’t wanna be so afraid of divisiveness that we lose our thirst for truth and conclude it doesn’t matter. It does matter. These are holy days. We need to know when they are. And how about we pursue truth of all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind because we earnestly desire to do Yahweh’s will, nothing hindering us, including some conclusions that the law of Yahweh is too hard to figure out. O isn’t that what traditional Christianity says “O man that law is too hard to follow, all those laws, why do you even try?” That’s not prove their point, okay.
What makes things difficult in what I’m finding, is man coming in and muddying things. If we choose to zealously, fervently stay with the Scriptures, nothing added, that’s our safest place; the correcting factor to any perception of divine communication is the Holy Scriptures. I’m gonna trust that over anything else.
So let me summarize the danger here. We cannot add, okay, listen. This is why people contradict or add and take away from the Word, okay. Here is the underlying root issues that I see.
- They don’t empty themselves of their own will. They really wanted to be something different. And so they look for things and they’ll ignore certain verses or they’ll come up with some additional, historical information for instance or whatever to back up what they want it to be.
- Also failing in true love for Yahweh, a pure heart, clear conscience, sincere faith; clear conscience, free of bitterness, there’s no bitterness there you know and there’s a pure heart. And true love for Yahweh, there’s not an attempt to establish some you know denomination become and be somebody, everyone is trying to be somebody and then it all goes downhill from there.
- Believing that we need man to teach us and the Scriptures are not enough
- Spiritual laziness, a preference to resort to “man’s opinions” rather than laboring in the Word.
- And then their preference for personal divine revelations. Again, unless we are a prophet of Yahweh we can be wrong. So just rely on the already inspired Word and you’re a whole lot better of.
- And then fear of divisiveness guiding the outcome, thereby causing us to lose our thirst for truth. In other words people saying “I don’t care what truth is, I don’t care I want my fellowship!”
You know I can fellowship with a group who I believe is in error, I don’t have to distance myself from them, but I better keep the holy days holy, um when they’re holy. And I better be out there in a tent or some temporary structure on Tabernacles. So I keep the feast when I keep the feast and I do the feasts and we do the feasts here at eliyah.com when we believe the Scriptures teach, okay. But I attended I should say a second feast of Tabernacles three years ago when there was a month difference and I got more fellowship out of it, okay. But that is not the ideal thing, they were following a Jewish calendar which by definition is already in error because they admit it’s not the biblical calendar. Alright.
So what if I’m wrong? I always hold out the possibility that I’m wrong. But if I’m wrong I want it to be because I misunderstood the Scriptures, not because I made up my own thing. It is far better to be wrong because you misunderstood something Yahweh said, than to be wrong because you departed from what Yahweh said and decided to add your own ideas. It’s far better to be wrong because of ignorance than because of laziness. What did Yahweh say, Yahushua said in a parable “You wicked and lazy servant, I gave you this and you didn’t use it.” He gave you a mind, use it, use it to search truth. So, yes I might be wrong, but if I’m standing before Yahweh on judgment day my faith will be sincere in that I try do my best to follow the Scriptures. But my faith is not sincere if I’m willing to just go with the flow do what man says, add my own stuff, got to be careful. So if I’ve added my own things I pray Yahweh opens my eyes to see it, even that will be out of ignorance, okay. But if we willfully know we’re yeah we’re putting something in here, then look out.
So we’re going to require our calendar to pass these tests. The doctrine must be straight through the filter of Yahweh’s Word and come out pure and only then can we find Yahweh’s Perfect Will. We’re gonna be aware of what? Any doctrine, o yeah we go to Yahweh’s Word but then we go over here to man and see what he says about it, and then he has his own opinions, ideas, adding to, taking from and then o, we find Yahweh’s will? You might, but you’re in danger. Might not be.
So which method I’m gonna go with? I’m gonna go with Yahweh’s Word. Now, Yahweh’s Word says (Deuteronomy 16:1) – Observe – as we talked about in a previous segment – (guard/watch for) the month – the new moon which is directly connected to the moon in the Scriptures– of the Aviv, – for a month – and keep the Passover to Yahweh your Mighty One – is the first month – for in the month of the Aviv Yahweh your Mighty One brought you out of Egypt by night. – So we’re looking for, watching for with our eyes the new moon of the Aviv.
Now I haven’t added anything to Yahweh’s Word, I’ve looked to Yahweh’s Word to find the answer and this is what I’ve found. I haven’t put my own thoughts into it, I have not endeavored to add anything, I simply allowed the Scripture to tell me it’s calendar. I’ve had to dig into the Hebrew sometimes to find the answers, so it wasn’t necessarily easy to find, but it’s there, it’s in the Bible, we don’t have to need any man really saying anything adding to it, it’s just there.
So here we are (Deuteronomy 12:32) – Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it. (Deuteronomy 4:2) – You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your Mighty One which I commanded you.
I think to the best of my ability I’ve done that. I just looked at what it says and I’m doing it. The month in which I find the Aviv is the month in which I have the Passover and the month is defined by new moon or renewal of the moon and I’m looking for it when it appears, there it is. When the Aviv appears there is my new year. That simple. But in all the other calendar systems I’ve seen every single one of them require me to go outside of Scripture to find it. I don’t wanna do that. Every other calendar system I’ve seen requires me to go outside the Bible to follow it.
Alright. Now some might say “Well how much Aviv do you need to consider it to be a new year”. And that’s a huge question this year, 2019, a lot of people say “Well how much barley do you need to call it a new year”. Can I find the answer in the Scriptures? That’s a huge question. To them I ask “If we need more than an omer of harvestable barley to call it a new year, where are you finding this in Scripture?” Crickets. The Scriptures only require an omer or 2.2 liters of barley in order to have enough barley to have a wave offering to Yahweh. This year there was a 20 ft by 40 ft section of harvestable barley found, this would be far more than enough to produce 2.2 liters of barley, but some believe that most of Israel would need to complete their harvest before the new year begins, or perhaps at least one person would have to harvest their field completely.
Now what’s a field? Who decides what a field is? Who decides when Israel is done? The North is going to have ripened barley later than the South. You’re gonna wait for all of Israel to harvest all their barley and then call it a new year? You’re gonna run into a major problem when it comes to the wheat harvest, okay.
Now listen. I live on 40 acres. I’ve had gardens. I would take the first of my green beans, peppers, tomatoes and I would not eat them. I wouldn’t feel the need to wait until all the plants produced and then I gave Yahweh the firstfruits. The firstfruits would be rotten by then. My plants would continue to produce okay, and there’s other plants that are like one shot here it is, I understand that, but listen it’s not hard for a priest to go into the field see what barley plants are ripening first, make sure it’s enough for an omer, cut them and bring them for an offering to Yahweh. In fact if you waited until the entire field was Aviv you may not remember which plants were the first of the firstfruits. Exodus 23:19 says – The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of Yahweh your Mighty One.
So I’m looking for the first of the firstfruits, not just the firstfruits but the first part of the firstfruits, the first omer of barley that’s produced, okay, and I’m not gonna go by modern machinery and how they do things now, if you look to the volunteer barley that’s growing in Israel, Israel is one of the very few places in the world that barley just grows on its own, okay. But that notion “O we’ve gotta wait” is directly contradicted by this verse here, Joshua 5:10 it says – The children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month between the evenings on the plains of Jericho. – This was fourteen days after the beginning of the year, right? – 11 And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, – We talked about last week, when the barley is not completely mature, but it’s mature enough to have soft dough inside to where you can dry out the grain through parching, and that soft dough becomes hardened then you can that’s still good enough for a firstfruits offering, a first of the firstfruits offering, okay.
Now they’re eating parched grain fourteen days after the beginning of the month, correct? Where is this place called Gilgal where they were? It’s right here, and I’ll zoom in for you. You see it’s north of the Dead See, it’s north-east of Jerusalem, we’re gonna zoom in here, here is Jerusalem here, here is Jericho and there’s Gilgal, just north of Jericho. So they were basically in the center you know of Israel proper, proximately okay, and they were eating parched grain in the low elevations of the Jordan valley, okay. Which would mean, if you had to eat parched grain here in Gilgal, if you were to go farther north the grain wouldn’t even be ready yet. Why? Because down here in Gilgal they had to parch it, okay. And so if you had to parch the grain in Gilgal then your grain north is not ready, it isn’t and so you don’t wait for the whole nation to harvest before you call it a new year.
And this is fourteen days after the beginning of the month. So what they must have found is somewhere in the deep south of Israel, somewhere down here I don’t know, perhaps over, I don’t know somewhere they must have scouted something or Yahweh informed them, one or the other, and discovered on their journeys harvestable barley, okay. But it had to be parched. So or the harvestable barley was found here in Israel proper and it was all ready it didn’t need to be parched and they offered that but their barley up here in Gilgal needed to be parched, okay. But you’re running into a problem when you demand the entire nation of Israel have their harvest in before you come and keep Passover. Or even a full, whatever you wanna say, you only need an omer that’s all you need because Scripture (Leviticus 23:10-11) says – Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, you shall bring a omer of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. – ‘Sheaf’ is ‘omer’ in Hebrew. – 11 He shall wave the sheaf – the omer – before Yahweh, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
So there we go, from the Scriptures I find information on what’s necessary, how much aviv do I need. Now it could be argued additional barley might even be needed perhaps for a grain offering later on, okay. But the point is there would need to be enough for aviv barley in Israel to supply this quantity when the new moon day arrives. But I can’t prove anything beyond that. That’s all I need to know. Others want more information, they want more, once again we run into the situation we have to rely upon the judgments of man to determine a new year.
If we start adding new laws that don’t exist in the Bible, namely that we need more than an omer of barley to call it a new year, then how much more? Two omers? Four omers? Five? Six? Seven? Nine? Ten? Twelve? How much of a field do you need have to have ripe? One acre? Two acres? Three acres? Five acres? Ten acres. All of Israel proper. Now you’re going back to man and his ideas. You look at the Word, then you went over here, well what do you say, “bla bla bla bla bla bla bla” and maybe you’ll find Yahweh’s Will and maybe you won’t. You see I don’t wanna go there. I just want to stay with me just me and Yahweh’s Perfect Word and that’s it.
Do you follow what I’m saying? And I try to avoid this man’s intervention as often as I can. If there’s some if there’s enough barley there for a wave offering that’s all I need to know. If I wanted demand more than that, then how much more? One acre, fifty acres, who decides? Zach Bauer? Michael Rood? Who decides? I don’t want them man to tell me when. I want the Word to tell me when. You know it’s a recipe for division; it’s when man comes in and muddles everything. “Well you know it’s not enough”. How do you know? Is there some Scripture you’re gonna point to? You know when I turn on the bath or shower faucet at home, my wife thinks the water is not hot enough, I’d scald my skin on it if I was to use her bath water temperature, it’s an argument of degrees. You can never win an argument of degrees! How hot? This is hot, o this is not hot, that’s hot. Nobody can win!
And so when will the barley be enough to call it a new year? O that’s not enough, no that’s enough, you have to rely now you have to rely on man to tell you. “O it’s got to be this much”. No thanks, I’ll pass. And if someone wants to do that, it’s up to you but now you’re relying on man to tell you when a new year is. Now to some extend you’re allowing them to give you an accurate report of what they see, but you decide based on the Scriptures, based on the accurate reports of what they see and everybody saw the same thing this year, there was no difference in what they saw, it’s all about what they did with what they saw.
And so I’m staying with Yahweh’s Word which says very simple (Exodus 23:19) – The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of Yahweh your Mighty One. – As soon as you find that omer of barley, bring it. Cut it and that’s what you’re gonna bring. And I guarantee you the eyes of Israel was on every field, looking for that new year so that they can eat that barley. It’s the first harvestable plant, that is harvestable for food for the year. So I’m sure all eyes were on the fields. And the first one that found an omer worth of barley, they were excited. So the very (Exodus 34:26) first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring to the house of Yahweh. – And the people in Gilgal eating parched grain, the children of Israel eating parched grain in Gilgal, then hey, it sounds to me like they didn’t wait around.
So the first of the firstfruits is representing Yahushua, right. He ascended into heaven, the first of the firstfruits of those who fall as He became the firstfruits, right. So (1 Corinthians 15:20) – Messiah is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who fell asleep. – He is that first one. He is that omer of barley. He didn’t wait around for anybody else to be ripe, He just He was ready. Plucked up out of the ground was offered up to Yahweh.
So in my mind it’s a new year. And if you did something different please e-mail me, contact me, show me from the Scriptures why you believe, if you believe the barley, why you believe it’s not a new year on what the world calls early “March”. Alright and I’ll address it in our next broadcast, alright?
Now here is some other objections. The NIV says in Exodus 23:19 – Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of Yahweh your Elohim. You do not cook a goat in its mothers milk. – Okay. So the NIV says “Bring the best”. And the argument is made “Well how can you know what the best is unless you let more of your field ripen and look at all the different barley plants and pick the best ones”. Okay. Now first of all I mean we’re not trying to find the prettiest tomato pretty much all barley seeds is gonna look the same, okay. There might some on the edge kind of weaker or something, I don’t know. But listen. The word “best” is not in the Hebrew. The word “best” is actually “reshith” from which we get “bereshith” – in the beginning, okay. So it’s not “best” it’s “the beginning”. And in fact it’s translated “in the beginning”, “bereshith” in Genesis 1:1. It’s translated “firstfruits” in Leviticus 2:12 as for offering the reshith, okay. And Ecclesiastes 7:8 says – The end of a thing is better than its beginning. And so it doesn’t mean “best” it just means “the first” so “the first” is actually more accurate.
Alright so you know poor translation. And so what it should read is this (Exodus 23:19) – The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of Yahweh your Mighty One. You shall not boil a goat in … – So the first. So if you’re gonna bring the first and you wait until your entire field is completely ripe or all land of Israel is completely ripe, you’re gonna lose track of which one was the first. You are. So alright.
Another one has e-mailed this week, appreciate it, (Deuteronomy 16:13) – You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. – So according to this translation you’ve gotta wait until you gather from your threshing floor and from your winepress before you’re able to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. But once again the translation problem. The Hebrew in this verse which I understand you gonna have to rely upon, what I’ve read in Hebrew and the Bible tools I have okay, but the Hebrew does not have “gathered” as in past tense or perfect tense in Hebrew, it’s the infinitive construct which does not have a number, gender, tense, it’s neutral in regard to the timing of it. Okay. It does not use “gathered” in past tense. It’s an infinitive construct. So now if you don’t believe me ask any expert on the Hebrew language, use a Bible program, I’ll tell you well in fact if you’ve got a pretty good connection I can show you my own Bible program which tells you it’s in the infinitive, okay. So we’re gonna go here just real quick to my trusty BibleWorks which sadly is currently no longer being sold, I don’t know why they did that, but it’s no longer being sold, and I want to put it up on the screen. Just one minute. Now my screen is very tiny. Okay. But I’m going to try to read it here if I can. In fact I do this and I’ll switch over. Alright. So we’re looking at Deuteronomy 16 and what I do is I compare lots of different versions, my other computer has a whole lot more versions to it, but – You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. – Alright. So “acaph” (aw-saf) you see the Aleph, the Samek and the final Pe there, alright. So we’re going to, o now my I’ll have to switch over to a different screen, hold on a minute so I can read it properly, alright here we go. And so we’re looking for this, in fact in fact if you don’t even have the Hebrew but if you look here it my particular program, it says “gathered” okay, it tells you down here infinitive is the mood here, so infinitive, okay. And so we’re looking at the infinitive is the tense, it’s not a perfect tense what should mean it’s completed, it’s simply its infinitive. So that might help you. Alright. So. You know my w.t.t. is not, o there we go, okay. So here we are we have infinitive construct, alright, so it’s not, that’s it. Alright. Back to our text here, just one minute I’ve gotta switch the screen back.
Okay. So sometimes yeah you do have to dig to arrive at conclusions. But just in case you’re wondering there are translations that are more accurate in this regard. Young’s Literal Translation which is a very, very literal translation to the extend sometimes it’s hard to understand it but (Deuteronomy 16:13) – The feast of booths thou dost make for thee seven days, – and it says – in thine in-gathering of thy threshing-floor, – and “in” would be correct simply because the word “be” in Hebrew is “in”. Some might say it should be “when”, but there is no timing involved here, okay. Revised Standard Version says (Deuteronomy 16:13) – You shall keep the feast of booths seven days, when you make your ingathering from your threshing floor and your wine press; – What this one suggests it happens all at the same time but there is no time mentioned because there’s no time necessary.
Just in the same way the Feast of Unleavened Bread occurs during the harvest of the barley in some case, depending on when the feast actually rolls around, but it will be you know, when the new moon comparison to the barley is harvestable, that particular feast they could be right in the middle of barley harvest and they’re gonna take a week off and go and keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, okay. And that does happen. If you’re gonna go by the first of the firstfruits you’ve got to bring that to and someone from somewhere in the land is gonna bring the first of the firstfruits to the priest, then that will be during a time when maybe somebody in the northern part of the country, as we saw in Joshua chapter 5, they haven’t parched the grain or they’re not gonna have grain that is ripe enough to eat, and so they kept the Passover in Gilgal and they had to parch their grain, that means there were some parts of the land it was not ready. And so they were keeping the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread right in the middle of the harvest. So yeah you can be in the middle of the harvest and you’ve gotta go off and keep the Feast of Tabernacles seven days. And that’s fine. And that’s why the Hebrew is not giving us a specific timing on that very thing. So.
Yes, the challenges are here, you have to dig deep, you have to think things through, you have to come to a conclusion on something that maybe difficult to find your conclusions on. But this needs to be your method. Yahweh’s Perfect Word and His Perfect Word alone and only then can we find His Perfect Will.
Now, I’ll be demonstrating in our future segments exactly why the other calendar systems are doing this, okay: they are adding their own ideas, their own opinions to the Word of Yahweh. And by that they’re failing to find, or at least failing to give me assurance that what they are saying is truly the Will of Yahweh.
Let’s pray. Heavenly Father Yahweh, we just thank You for Your Word, we trust Your Word, we believe that Your Word is sufficient for us and that we don’t need any of our own thoughts, Father. Reveal to us any areas in which we don’t have that pure heart toward You and that loyalty to You, where we have not emptied ourselves of our own will, or we have not this clear conscience and a sincere faith. Reveal to us Father where we may be relying on man instead of You. Reveal to us Father where we may have any spiritual laziness and so we just lazily rely upon man and what he says. Reveal to us Abba Yahweh where we have chosen instead to rely on our own perceptions of what You’re teaching us in the Spirit, rather than the solid rock of Your Word. Reveal to us where we may have been hurt by divisiveness and we’ve lost our thirst and our hunger for righteousness. Purify our hearts. And thank You for Your Word and Your promises. And thank you for Your Son Yahushua through whom which we have grace. If we fail You, if we make mistakes and yet it’s out of ignorance, right out of sincere desire to serve You, but just not knowing or not understanding something, that You do grant grace. But Father, we know where You draw the line. You told the Pharisees if they were blind they would have no sin. But they weren’t. You came and spoke to them through Yahushua the Messiah and they no longer had an excuse for their sin. And Father if there’s anybody in the sound of my voice who are recognizing they have done this, they have allowed their own thoughts and opinions to enter into the picture, and out of pride or out of disbelieve that Your Word supplies us with the truth, Your Word and Your Word alone, they’ve want about to establish their own truth. Open their eyes to see it. And if I have done the same, open my eyes to see it. For I know and I’m sure that Yours is the kingdom and power and glory forever. And Father if there are people out there who just they’re sort of on the fence even choosing to serve You or are not serving You at all, Father, show them, it’s not because of Your Word being complicated, that things are some confusing at times because man has come in and complicated matters, and made it harder to see the truth, requiring more effort to find it. Let them not be discouraged. You are a patient and loving and merciful Mighty One and we thank You for that. We turn away from anything that may not be from You. We turn fully to You through Yahushua the Messiah and it is in His Name we pray these things. And we praise You and we glorify You. Amein.