One of the things I am most passionate about in my walk of faith and journey to find Yah’s truth, is our Father’s calendar. When I started to come to find the treasure of His torah, and His commandments were becoming written on my heart, one of the first things He impressed on me was a desire to return to His set apart times. It started with the Sabbath, and soon after that, it was His annual appointed times.
As I started to study His calendar in Scripture in more detail, I realized that there was another important appointed time that I was leaving out of the equation: New Moon Days. Now, when I read Scripture, I see the significance of His New Moon days everywhere as a day of worship. It’s as if I were blind to such an important truth before, and I get moved to tears when I think about how much Yah has blessed me to truly see His Word as I continue to strive for HIS truth.
It wasn’t until Yahuah was able to help me see where New Moon days fit into His calendar that the confusion lifted and the mental fog dissipated. And it began with the revelation that the concept of an unbroken chain of a never-ending “7-day cycle” was actually not something His Word teaches.
I believe Yahuah is restoring His remnant to pure and proper worship. HalleluYAH for that!!
Yet, within the body, I also see a lack of reverence to these days of worship. Whether it’s intentional or unintentional I do not know, but I see many people falsely claim that using the moon for determining time is unbiblical, pagan, “Babylonian,” or in error. I’ve heard many people say that the term “chodesh” (month) is not a lunar term when there are more than 2-3 witnesses that speak otherwise. They say that those who use the moon to determine appointed times are in deception, when Psalm 104:19 cannot make it any clearer.
We’ve unknowingly inherited a false paradigm that teaches us a false version of timekeeping, and that is what we must untangle our minds from by using Scripture and Scripture alone.
My prayer as you read this is that you are able to see the beauty of what His word shows us, even though it may come as a challenge to your current way of thinking.
One of the questions/hesitations I’ve received the most from others when it comes to understanding the scriptural calendar is that many people have a hard time wrapping their mind around the sabbaths falling on any day other than “saturday” because the command is to work 6 days and rest on the 7th day.
That is 100% understandable and 100% correct! We work 6 days and rest on the 7th day. But there is a paradigm that we’ve unknowingly inherited from Jewish tradition that we must untangle our minds from. And we must use Scripture to do so.
So, I want to spend some time addressing this and hopefully this will help bring some understanding and clarity to a topic that is hard to understand.
This may come as a shock to you, but the concept of an unbroken, repetitive chain of a 7-day cycle is not a concept taught or found in Scripture.
There is a lot of history that can show us how the calendars have been changed over time, but I want to leave history out of it for just a moment. I want to focus our attention on Scripture ONLY for this understanding. This is one of many reasons why Yahuah’s calendar will not consistently align to a consecutive 7th day of the pagan/planetary/papal “week,” because Scripture does not teach that His weeks are aligned with man’s calendar/traditions.
To understand what I mean by this, let’s first look to Scripture to lay some important foundation on how Scripture alone PROVES that an unbroken, repetitive 7-day cycle is not biblical.
‘Thus says my Sovereign Yahuah: “The gateway of the inner court that faces toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the Sabbath it shall be opened, and on the day of the New Moon it shall be opened.’”
Ezekiel 46:1
So, here we have three different types of days, right? We have it laid out that there are six working days, the day of the Sabbath and the day of the new moon. There is a very clear distinction here that we need to reconcile in our understanding of calendar truth.
If Yah’s calendar is based on a repetitive, uninterrupted cycle of 7 days, which day does the new moon day fall on?
The six working days?
Can’t be, since Scripture tells us that there are 6 of those in which the gate to the inner court is “shut” those days but “open” on the day of new moon. That is a clear distinction that those days cannot be the same day.
Does New Moon day fall on the Sabbath day, then?
Of course not. We rest on the 7th day Sabbath. Ezekiel is talking about 2 different days that the gate is open—again, making a clear distinction that those days are separate from one another. Most are well aware that the command is to work 6 days and rest on the 7th (Exodus 20:9-10).
So, what day out of the “7-day week” is “the day of new moon,” since it can’t be on a working day or a Sabbath day? How do we reconcile what “day” the new moon day falls on if it can’t fall within the command to “work 6 days and rest on the 7th day?”
The scriptural answer is that the new moon day does not fall within the biblical “week.” New Moon days are a different type of day. I’ve heard many people say that New Moon days are “non-days,” but that is also something that Scripture does not teach.
New Moon days have a special place for Yah’s people to worship Him properly. The reason the gates were open on the day of Sabbath and the day of New Moon was for people to come and worship Yahuah!
“Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before Yahuah in the sabbaths and in the new moons.”
Ezekiel 46:3
If we truly want to restore Yahuah’s people back to truth, we cannot leave these days out of our appointed times of worship, and they cannot fall within the biblical “week” either. This means that a repetitive, uninterrupted 7-day cycle of reckoning time will lead one to keep sabbaths on the wrong day and also leaves out the place and significance of New Moon day in our Father’s reckoning of timekeeping.
Scripture is HEAVY on the significance of New Moon days. The goal is for us to return to Him with all of our heart and it is in the deepest desire of my heart to worship Him properly. If that is offensive to you, I’m not sorry.
I also put out a study that examines the interchangeability of “month” (chodesh) and “moon” (yerach) in Scripture, which provides you with over a dozen scriptural witnesses that prove that the term “month” is a lunar term. It can be found on my blogsite, under the blog: “Where is the Term ‘New Moon’ Found in Scripture?”
Let’s look at some other Scripture regarding New Moon days.
In 2 Kings 4, we are given a passage of a woman who went to seek help from “the man of Elohim” to help her son who got hurt and died. The woman tells her husband that she has to go find this man to help her son, and in 2 Kings 4:23, her husband says to her:
“Why are you going to him today? It is neither the New Moon nor the Sabbath.”
Why did he say that? What did he mean by that?
In other words, we can understand that the husband was confused on why she was going to go to the man’s house because it was actually a working day! This “man of Elohim” was at work, so he wouldn’t be home to help her because it was “neither the New Moon nor the Sabbath.” A working day cannot be a New Moon day or Sabbath day, and vice versa. Working days, New Moon days, and Sabbath days are all different types of “days” in Scripture.
In Amos 8:5, we see that the wealthy, greedy merchants of the day eagerly waited for Israel’s New Moon days and Sabbath days to be over so that they could cheat them.
“Saying, ‘When 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?’”
It is clear in this verse that Israel was not buying or selling on New Moon days or Sabbath days.
Also, in reading through Numbers 28 & 29 and Ezekiel 46, you will see that the burnt offerings looked different for those different days as well. The burnt offerings on work days, Sabbath days, and New Moon days were different, indicating that these days were separate from one another.
If Sabbath days and New Moon days cannot be on the same day (I’ve provided three witnesses), and also can’t fall within the 6 workings days (as distinguished in Ezekiel 46:1), this means that a 7-day cycle with a “fixed” Sabbath day on our modern calendar is simply not biblical, as this boots the New Moon days out entirely.
Most calendars that claim to be biblical today align themselves to this concept of a repetitive 7-day cycle, which as I have illustrated is not in alignment with what Scripture teaches. This is why it is easy for me to dismiss those calendars as false.
We have inherited a false paradigm of time reckoning that is not rooted in Scripture, and the mindset of a week being a repetitive, uninterrupted 7-day cycle comes from traditions of men but has been so deeply cemented in our thought process that many people don’t understand that Yah’s method of timekeeping has nothing in common with what we’ve been taught.
Once men began to boot the moon out of the reckoning of time is when the confusion started. Now, when people are so daring as to stick their neck out to challenge these paradigms, it is usually met with hostility and accusations. It is usually met with counterarguments that are rooted in the false understanding of this unbiblical 7-day repetitive cycle, which is why it is difficult for people to see where I’m coming from and what I’m trying to explain. People will claim you are causing division, when in reality you are simply just returning to the ancient paths by trying to show others what Scripture says, without the influence of these traditions of men that many are unaware of.
These are just a few examples of the significance of New Moon days in Scripture. I will go ahead and also list some verses that show New Moon days as days of worship, right along with the Sabbaths and annual appointed times.
2 Chronicles 2:4
2 Chronicles 8:13
2 Chronicles 31:3
Nehemiah 10:33
Ezra 3:5
Isaiah 1:13-14
Ezekiel 45:17
Colossians 2:16
I desire for us to return to ALL of Yahuah’s appointed times. New Moon days are important—my Father’s Word says so. We will be keeping them in the Kingdom to come, so why wouldn’t He want us to keep them now?
“And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says Yahuah.”
Isaiah 66:23
I hope this is helpful to you in your studies.
The calendar has certainly been corrupted, but I am not of the opinion or mindset that it is okay to become complacent in our confusion or that “Messiah will straighten it out when He comes back.” I believe what Scripture says, in that if we ask anything in Yahusha’s name, as long as it gives glory to our Father in Heaven, it will be done for us (John 14:13-14). It is in our Father’s will for us to worship Him properly. I believe He wants us to understand, it is in His will for us to understand, and we must pray accordingly and stand in faith that every promise in Him is “yes and amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20).
I am not claiming to have it all figured out, either. I’m in a continuous state of learning and repenting. And one of the hardest things to unlearn is the paradigms in which we’ve been given “truth.” These are mindsets we’ve inherited, unknowingly. This is why we must remain open to being corrected, even if it challenges the way we’ve always done things.
I used to keep a saturday Sabbath. But once I was presented with a weight of evidence that conflicted with my current understanding, I had to earnestly seek it out. If I’m being honest, I didn’t want to. I was met with the flaming arrows of fear, doubt, anxiety and confusion. My pride tried to get in the way. I don’t share all of these things without saying, “I understand how this might make you feel.” I’ve been there. I’ve learned that it is still possible for us to have more deception to come out of. There is pain and grief that comes with realizing this.
Understanding the true calendar of Scripture comes with first understanding that the 7-day repetitive, uninterrupted cycle is simply another tradition of men that has been solidified through the Jewish tradition of a “saturday sabbath.” There is a lot of unlearning that comes with deprogramming our minds in the way that we’ve been born and raised to keep track of time, which is why I wanted to take some time today to show you how Scripture does not teach a fixed sabbath in terms of the modern-day calendar.
The Sabbath is always on the 7th day of the biblical week, but according to whose calendar?
A continuous weekly cycle of an uninterrupted 7-day week is impossible to support from Scripture. If the moon is appointed for moedim (Psalm 104:19 & Sirach 43:6-7), it is not possible for the weekly Sabbath to be a fixed day on a pagan/planetary/papal calendar.
I’ve presented evidence for any honest truth seeker who is willing to weigh the evidence to examine and test. The misconception of an uninterrupted, continuous 7-day cycle since creation (which there is literally no scriptural support of) MUST be weighed in the balances of this evidence.
The truth can hurt, but it really does make you free.
Shalom and blessings, beloved!
With love,
Stephanie Green