Holy Hormones Bible Study: Teaching — not Entertainment
What is a day? Biblical background.
FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD #4
Disclosure: I’m not a Messianic. I’m an NT Saint who has been exposed to my OT Heritage.
This post continues the rag-tag series on the closer examination of some of the aspects of the Passover/Last Supper. When it is finished you will have a whole lot of information that will be your job to transform into knowledge.
Maintaining the Big Mac format the next few posts will take bite-sized morsels of the topic of the DAY. Surprisingly, it is not a piffling subject. It will take several bites; and one (which fortunately is not compulsory reading) will require considerable chewing.
If you have come in part-way through the series, there is some explanation in the earlier episodes to be found in this link, FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD
My frame of mind
It would be surprising if you did not already know what is about to follow in this article. It is posted merely to ensure that you know from where I am coming. You may well disagree.
It is not my intention to talk down to anyone, or appear Holier Than Thou, but there is information in the Bible that I was not told. Possibly because too much emotional energy is being used shouting down the other side. But, like it or not, the information is there. Do with it what you will.
If you don’t happen to like what you read, by all means don’t read.
If you happen to like what you read, there’s more on other topics to be found here.
- A DAY IS A BIG DEAL IN YEHOVAH’S SPRING FEASTS
NOTE: A lot of time will be spent in getting a deeper insight into the make-up of the day because it is one of the focal points of Mosaic, Talmudic and Rabbinical Judaism. Without some common grounding no logical discussion can be conducted — only the usual emotional clichés.
Experience with both OT and NT shows that the Day features significantly in God’s Scheme of Things. And there is quite a spiritual, or mystical, air about it but also a natural. This post deals mainly with the spiritual.
The Written Word of God begins and ends on the same note
• The first thing God does is create the Heavens and the Earth. (Genesis 1:1)
• He then progresses to light, darkness, day, night, evening and morning. (Genesis 1:3–5)
• After that He separated the Heavens from the Earth and created the Hydraulic Cycle. (Genesis 1:6–8)
• Then He separated the dry land from the seas before raising the plant life. (Genesis 1:9–13)
• ONLY THEN, on the 4th Day, did He hang the Sun, Moon, and Stars in the sky. (Genesis 1:14–19)
The 4th Day Sun gets pounded by the naysayers, unfortunately including
(small ‘s’)seminaries, as just another one of those errors in this book of myths. “Where does the light come from on days 1–3? You didn’t notice that, did you, dummy christian?” The answer to the question from the first page of the Books is on the last page.
It is written in Revelation 21:22–23 || But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.
NEED ANY MORE BE SAID?!
Forget the Atheists, could they be expected to know any better?
But the seminaries?!
So sad.
What was the reason for the Sun, Moon and Stars?
Of course there is the wonder of photosynthesis but it is mentioned as a secondary issue. (Genesis 1:15)
Their specific function.
Genesis 1:14 || Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs (H226 — ‘ôṯ) and seasons (H4150 — môʿēḏ), and for days and years;
H226 — ‘ôṯ plural noun = sign, signal, remembrance, warning.
H4150 — môʿēḏ מוֹעֵד (inflection ולמועדים) plural noun = appointed place, appointed time, meeting, sacred season, set feast, appointed season
God makes it abundantly clear through the Scriptures that His ultimate plan is that He become our God and we become His people. In the first Chapter of what He had written down He showed the mechanics of how He was going to call His people together in His Feasts He decrees in Leviticus 23.
Parsing key words in God’s general definition of a natural day
The pattern for a natural day is that given in Genesis 1:5, when dealing with the Spiritual Realm, but the pattern remains for the natural — look at the clock then look out the window.
The Holy Spirit succinctly defines a day in Genesis 1:5 || And God called the light (H216 — ‘ôr) Day (H3117 — yôm), and the darkness (H2822 — ḥōšeḵ) he called Night (H3915 — layil). And the evening (H6153 — ʿereḇ) and the morning (H1242 — bōqer) were the first day.
Light H216 — ‘ôr, light of day, noun form of verb H215 — ‘ôr = to become light (day), to shine (of the sun), to become bright.
Day H3117 — yôm, noun, from an unused root meaning “to be hot,” = day (as opposed to night), day (24 hour period), as defined by evening and morning in Genesis 1, a working day (able to see to work), a day’s journey (able to see to travel)
Darkness H2822 — ḥōšeḵ, noun, darkness, obscurity
Night H3915 — layil, noun, night (as opposed to day), of gloom,
Evening H6153 — ʿereḇ, noun form of the verb H6150 — ʿāraḇ = to grow dusky at sundown: — be darkened, (toward) evening dusk.
Morning H1242 — bōqer, noun, breaking of day, morning, of end of night, of coming of daylight, of coming of sunrise, dawn.
So the wording describes the physics of a globe spinning on an axis in front of a stationary (in relation to the spinning globe) light. What it does not do is define the beginning, or end, of a day as we know it. Only the state of the light — presence, absence, transition from, transition to. The colloquialism, “Dusk till dawn,” shows they are mutually exclusive terms that can’t be interchanged.
The principle of, “Hearing the word unspoken,” is real and vital if the unspoken word is from Scripture, and quickened to you by the Holy Spirit. However, there is real danger in injecting into God’s Word what you think is there . . . . but isn’t.
Different thinking patterns
Depending on your logic, the preceding section may seem unnecessary because it is glaringly obvious. But not everyone’s logic is the same. Neither is the understanding of the word, morning/dawn. I have defined my definitions for the different stages of the day so that you know to what I’m referring. It will become important later when discussing the Resurrection on “the third day.”
As I understand it, the English word, “dawn,” describes the beginning of a new cyclic episode of light. It does not define the beginning of a new Hebrew day, which began at starlight about 12 hours earlier. Nor does it define the beginning of a new Western day, which began about 6 hours earlier in the dark.
Appointed Times proclaimed in Leviticus 23
+ 52 Sabbaths
+ 7 days of Feast of the Unleavened Bread (including its related feast days)
+ 1 Shavout, Feast of Weeks (Pentecost)
+ 1 Yom Teruah, Feast of Trumpets
+ 1 Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement (A Sabbath)
+ 7 days of Sukkot, Feast of Tabernacles
+ 1 Shimini Atzeret, 8th Day of Assembly
= 70 total per year
This series is focused on the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. (The weekly Sabbath must also be included.)
In my part of town the Church focuses on one day (Passover, the slaying of the Lamb, which is not officially on the list) and the Feast of Firstfruits (which is included in the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread). This latter one is generally not well known even though it is a big deal in Christendom. Hence the reason for this series. (If you are already aware, you’d spend your time better elsewhere.)
The Feast of Pentecost is familiar to most Saints but only in passing.
The Former Rain Feasts (northern autumn), except a little about the Day of Atonement, are virtually ignored. And, even the Day of Atonement has it’s problems concerning rope on a High Priest’s ankle.
This is sad. These are the Feasts which are on the horizon at this very moment.
But that’s in my part of town. Your part may be different.
Have you been to my part of town?
Laodicea, a suburb of Babylon.
What next?
FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD #5 will delve into the technicalities of the natural Jewish day. Perhaps it will surprise you as much as it surprised me.
The forgoing evidence has not been presented to convince any reader but to allow a personal decision to be made. There is much more to know about this subject. Perhaps you’ll pay another visit, sometime.
All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(We all have a plank in our eye. It’s bigger than we think.)
