God's Calendar and the Month (New Moon) of Nisan 2021 (5781)

Hello, friends. I'm Chadwick Harvey, and this is Faithful Performance, where we explore the testimony of the biblical prophets and how they perfectly correlate with the current events of today. Thank you for joining us. In this episode, we're going to discover God's calendar and the month of Nisan, which will begin on March 14th.

In Genesis 1:14, we get a clear picture of the calendar God uses, one based upon the sun and the moon. It says: "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 and seasons and for days and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth.' And it was so. Then God made two great lights — the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day."

This is foundational. As we go through the Holy Bible, it all begins with God's calendar. Man has departed from God's calendar in favor of the Roman calendar — the one we all use today. There is nothing wrong with the Gregorian calendar; it is a great calendar. But it is not the calendar that God uses for his seasons and his months. Great revelation comes when we align ourselves with God's calendar. It governs the feast days, the Shabbat or Sabbath, and the Shemitah year, as we have discussed in other videos. God's calendar is the one he uses for all of his biblical prophecies that carry into the end of the age. We must have a basic understanding of it.

We are about to enter the month of Nisan, which is the first biblical month of the calendar. It is the month from which the counting of all the festivals begins, so it is critically important. God's calendar is based upon the sun and the moon — the two great witnesses in the sky, the sun by day and the moon by night. The months follow the phases of the moon, and each new month begins with the new moon. The moon cycles are perfect. God is perfect. When man gets involved, things sometimes get diluted.

Notice also the contrast in how the two calendars begin the year. The Gregorian calendar starts in the middle of winter, when everything is dead. But God's calendar — the biblical calendar — begins the new year in spring with the month of Nisan, when everything is new again, new beginnings, new life. That makes complete sense. As Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us, "To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven." God is a God of order. His seasons are his seasons, and he does not change simply because mankind chooses to change the calendar.

I would also like to draw attention to the tree of life. In Genesis 2 we see the tree of life, and then again in Revelation 22:2 we see the tree of life at the end of all things. What do we find? We find that tree producing fruit every month. The scriptures specifically say "every month." In eternity that tree will not be operating on January, February, March, or April. It will be operating on God's calendar — the biblical calendar he has ordained. So we will have months in eternity. It will not simply be an undifferentiated stretch of time; it will be measured month by month, just as the scriptures say. The end is like the beginning. In the beginning, Genesis 1:14 gives us a calendar based on the sun and the moon and we see the tree of life. At the end, we again see the tree of life. This is consistent throughout all of scripture.

Whenever there is a new moon, the biblical calendar — God's calendar — begins a new month, exactly as Genesis 1:14 declares. Psalm 81:3–4 reinforces this as a commandment: "Blow the trumpet at the time of the new moon, at the full moon, on a solemn feast day. For this is a statute for Israel, a law of the God of Jacob." The Gentile church rarely speaks about the new moon or even the Sabbath. Some observe the Sabbath on Sunday, and while it is good to worship on Sunday — in fact it is good to worship every day — Sunday is not the Sabbath. The Sabbath is Saturday, or more precisely from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown, just as Genesis establishes: God's day begins in the evening and runs to the following evening, from sundown to sundown.

The command in Psalm 81 is to blow the trumpet at the new moon — or to make a shout toward the new moon if you do not have a shofar or trumpet — and again at the full moon. Understanding the lunar month helps us here: the month opens with the sliver of the new moon, grows to the full moon at the middle of the month, and then returns to the new moon again at the close. The moon cycles God's months perfectly. Our Gregorian calendar does not track this, which is why we can be in the middle of March on the Gregorian calendar while simultaneously entering the brand-new first month on God's calendar. The discrepancy is real, and it is okay to keep up with the Gregorian calendar for work and daily life — but we also need to understand God's calendar.

I believe there are three foundational areas the church has largely missed when it comes to theology and prophecy: the calendar, the covenants, and the feast days — the appointed times of the Lord. Understanding those three things unlocks so much.

Psalm 81 describes the new moon as a statute for Israel and a law of the God of Jacob. Gentiles must understand that through faith in Jesus we are grafted into Israel, as Romans 11 and Ephesians 2 clearly teach. You were once a Gentile, but when you receive Jesus as your Savior you enter the commonwealth of Israel. God is reverting us back to Exodus 12, which states one law, one Torah, for the citizen and the stranger. There is one way to worship, one calendar that he goes by. Exodus 12:49 says there is one Torah for the citizen and the stranger. Paul is simply telling us in his letters that we are part of the commonwealth of Israel — the congregation of Israel, as Exodus 12 phrases it. Notice Moses did not write "the children of Israel" there but "the congregation of the children of Israel." He is speaking of both Jews and Gentiles. There were Gentiles who left Egypt alongside Israel, including Pharaoh's daughter — the one who saved Moses. You can read that she left with Israel in 2 Chronicles, around chapters three or four. So this has always been Jew and Gentile together: one new body, one new man, one way to worship, one Torah for citizen and stranger. When we read Ephesians 2 we see we are in the commonwealth of Israel, and we need to begin viewing things from that standpoint — really from God's standpoint, since this is God's calendar, not merely the Jewish calendar. God ordained it. No one created the sun and the moon but the Almighty, and this is his calendar. He entrusted it to the Jewish people so that they might pass it on to us as a light. We must carry that understanding with us.

Psalm 89 gives us another magnificent look at the importance of God's cycles, seasons, and months as measured by the moon. This passage concerns the promise to David — the Davidic covenant — and it reads: "I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn to my servant David: 'Your seed I will establish forever, and build up your throne to all generations.' Then you spoke in a vision to your holy one and said, 'I have given help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from the people. I have found my servant David; with my holy oil I have anointed him, with whom my hand shall be established; also my arm shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not outwit him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him. I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague those who hate him. My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of my lips. Once I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me; it shall be established forever like the moon, even like the faithful witness in the sky.'"

What a beautiful passage. This is a promise not only to David and his descendants — the Jewish people; remember, David was from the tribe of Judah, a full-blooded Jew — but by extension to all who are grafted into the Davidic covenant. As we have discussed, we are grafted into the new covenant, the Davidic covenant, and the Abrahamic covenant. Galatians 3 tells us that if you are a seed of Christ, you are a seed of Abraham and an heir according to the promise. The Davidic covenant builds upon and extends the Abrahamic covenant, and the new covenant confirms them both. This promise is sure: if God could break his promise to the Jewish people, he could break it to us. But he will not. He will not lie to David. He will not lie to Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, and he will not lie to any of us. He is a truth-keeping, promise-keeping God, faithful to all his covenants.

He ties the covenant to the moon. Every time we look up and see the moon, we can contemplate the promise of God. Gentiles who believe in Jesus are grafted into these covenants. Jesus will sit on David's everlasting throne during the millennial kingdom, and we will be there with him.

This raises an important question: will we be celebrating and acknowledging the new moon during the millennial kingdom — the thousand-year reign of Jesus when he returns? The answer is yes, and we must understand this. During the millennial reign we will also be observing the Sabbath on Saturday. Ezekiel 46:1 speaks directly to this. For those not yet familiar with Ezekiel chapters 40 through 48, these chapters describe the millennial temple and the worship that will take place during that age — and the new moon and the Sabbath are both explicitly included.