God’s Calendar - The Month (New Moon) of Kislev 2021 - (5782)

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 continue our journey on God's calendar as we explore the month of Kislev and receive the personal, historical, and prophetic revelation of it.

It all begins with God's calendar. God does have a calendar that He has established in the Holy Bible. In the book of Genesis, He established a calendar based upon the sun and the moon — the two great witnesses — and we find this in Genesis 1:14. 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." 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. Right out of the gate, the Lord ordained two great witnesses — the sun and the moon — for His calendar, that He uses for us to understand the times and the seasons, as it says, the days and the years.

The word for "seasons" in this scripture is *moed*, which means a divine appointment. We should also be understanding the signs of His calendar — the days, the years, the Sabbath days, and the Shemitah years. When we read it in our English language, we tend to think "seasons" means winter, fall, and spring, but that is not what He is speaking about in this passage. He is speaking about the *moadim* — His divine appointments, His calendar that He wants us to understand. They are for signs, and they are for seasons.

God uses two calendars, which we will try to explain. The first is what we will call the Genesis calendar — the civil calendar that counts time from when Adam was created. Most believe that Adam was created on the Feast of Trumpets, which falls in the September area in the fall. This Genesis calendar counts time throughout history up to the Messiah's first coming and also His second coming. What I mean is that we will be here for six thousand years — six days — and then the Day of the Lord will occur on the seven-thousandth year, the seventh day. This is the calendar that counts time for all the biblical prophets, the prophecies, and the end of the age.

The second calendar is the Exodus calendar. In Exodus 12:2, during the three days of darkness from the plague, God told Moses to look up at the new moon and said, "This is your first month" — the month of Nisan, which we can think of as around April 1st. This is called the biblical calendar. When the nation of Israel, the mixed multitude, left Egypt for Sinai and ultimately for the Promised Land, this calendar counted the Feast Days of the Lord — the divine appointments: Passover, Yom Kippur, the Feast of Tabernacles, Shavuot — as well as the Sabbath days. That calendar is the religious and spiritual calendar for the nation of Israel, or the commonwealth of Israel.

So the fall calendar in Tishri — September — counts time from when Adam was created until Jesus's first and second coming events. The spring calendar counts the Feast Days and divine appointments. The two do not eliminate one another; they work together in unison. It is critically important to understand God's calendar as we approach the end of the age, especially with the prophecies and the divine appointments of the Lord.

Then we can correlate it to our calendar — the Gregorian calendar that most of us in the West must use. It is a great scientific calendar, but it is based upon the sun only. God said His calendar is upon the sun and the moon working together: the moon establishes the months, and the sun establishes the days. That is how the two great witnesses work together.

In Ecclesiastes 3:1 it says, "To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven." We have a God of order. He is not operating on a time lapse — He is a God of order who has ordained specific times according to His calendar, His divine appointments. His months are very important for us to understand as we go forward.

What is so interesting is that in Genesis 2 we see a tree of life, and then at the end of the Bible in Revelation 22 we see another tree of life — bearing fruit every month. Those are eternity chapters: the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 and 22. We will have a tree of life bearing fruit every month. We will have months in eternity. We will not be in a time lapse. We will be on the new earth — because there is a new heavens and a new earth — and we will have order. Scripture tells us we will go before the Lord God Almighty on the new moon to worship, even in eternity. This is truly incredible. Those months are not January, February, March, and April — those are the biblical months He has established. I believe we should be getting on His calendar in order to understand what He is trying to tell us in the season we are in.

In Psalms 81:3–4 it says, "Blow the trumpet at the time of the new moon, at the full moon, on a solemn feast day. This is a statute for Israel, a law of the God of Jacob." This connects powerfully back to Exodus 12:2. That was really the first commandment given to the nation — the commonwealth — of Israel, even before they left Egypt. Remember, they received the Torah at Sinai, about fifty days later. But when Moses saw the new moon, that was the first commandment: this is your first month. Honor and celebrate the new moon. We worship the Creator and not the created, but He wants us to acknowledge His calendar. He wants us to blow the trumpet — and if you don't have a trumpet, you can shout, which is also called a *teruah*. At the time of the new moon, pray into it. Thank the Lord God Almighty for a new month.

He also says to blow at the full moon, which relates to Passover — in the middle of the biblical month. The Feast of Tabernacles is another feast day at the middle of the month, on Tishri 15. He wants us to blow the shofar at the new moon, at the full moon, and on the solemn feast days. Then He says, "This is a statute for Israel." I was born a Gentile, but once I received the blood of the Lamb — Jesus — I am no longer a Gentile. As Paul says in Ephesians 2, we were once strangers from the covenants, but with the blood of the Lamb, when we accept Jesus, we are in the commonwealth of Israel. So when He says it is a statute for Israel, He is speaking to all who are saved in the blood of the Lamb. It is not just for Jewish people to honor — it is for all of us to celebrate. One new body. One new man. The mixed multitude that left Egypt was Jew and Gentile together. It is interesting that even Pharaoh's daughter crossed over with the Israelites, as you can read in 1 Chronicles 4.

It is a Jew and Gentile thing — a mixed multitude, one new body, one new man. Ephesians 2:11–13 speaks to this. Romans 11 speaks of us being grafted in. Galatians 3:26–29 says that if you are the seed of Christ, you are the seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise. This is a Jew and Gentile thing together, one new body, one new man, and He wants us to honor His creation.

In Psalms 104:19 it says, "He appointed the moon for seasons [*moadim*]; the sun knows its going down." The sun and the moon are very important to Him in His creation. They are for times, for seasons, days, and years — the *moadim* of the Lord. It is so important to understand that in a basic way, and to acknowledge it and celebrate it every month and every week.

What is also remarkable is that when God looks at the new moon, He equates it to the promise He gave King David in Psalms 89. Whenever we look at the new moon or even the full moon, we can think about the promise of the Davidic covenant, as He relates it to the sun and the moon. We read this in Psalms 89, verses 4, 20–23, and 35–37:

"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; my arm also 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.'"

This is such an incredible scripture. The promise to King David is related to the sun and the moon — his throne is as the sun before God and established like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky. Just as He says in Jeremiah 33, if someone could get rid of those things, then He would break His covenant with David — but He is not going to do that. He is a promise-keeper. He is not a liar. He is a promise-keeper to David, to the Jewish people, and to us who are grafted into Israel.

When we think about the Davidic covenant, it really traces back to Genesis 3:15 — the seed of the woman, Israel, which is Jesus the Messiah, and the enmity between that seed and Satan's seed, which are the hunters, ultimately the Antichrist, and ultimately Satan himself. That is the controversy — the enmity. The seed of the woman, who is Jesus, is the same seed of the Abrahamic covenant: the promised seed over the promised land. The Davidic covenant builds and extends upon that — the seed of David sitting on David's everlasting throne for a thousand years at the Millennial Kingdom, over the Promised Land, over Israel, which includes Gentile believers. Then the new covenant is the ultimate fulfillment of all three. They work together: the Abrahamic, the Davidic, and the new covenant. We are all saved by the blood of the new covenant when we receive the Messiah. We are no longer strangers from the covenants.