THE MASTER’S CLOCK!
Discerning The True 7th Day Sabbath of Yeshua!
PART 6
Back-To-Back
Chodesh!
From creation up until the time of King Hezekiah 360-Day Years were made up of twelve 30-Day Months. The 30th Day is also called ‘Chodesh’. In the case of a 30-Day Month, which used to be the norm, we end up with two days of Chodesh, i.e. the 30th Day and the 1st Day. We find an example of back-to-back Chodesh in 1 Samuel 20.
20:1 David ran for his life. He left Naioth in Ramah and found Jonathan.
David: What have I done? Of what am I guilty? What crime have I committed against your father to make him want to kill me?
Jonathan: 2 Impossible! Don’t worry about it. You’re not going to die. My father doesn’t make any decision, large or small, without telling me. And why would my father hide this from me? It is not so.
David: 3 But your father knows we are friends, and he has said, “Don’t tell Jonathan about this; he will be upset.” I swear to you, as the Eternal lives – and as you live – I am on the verge of being killed.
Jonathan: 4 Whatever you ask, I will do for you.
David: 5 Look. Tomorrow is the new moon, and I should be sitting with the king at his table. But let me go and hide myself in the field until three days have passed. 6 If your father asks about me, tell him that I asked to return to my hometown, Bethlehem, for an annual family sacrifice. 7 If he says, “Fine,” then all will be well with your servant. But if he is angry, you will know that he intends to harm me. 8 So deal kindly with your servant, for you have made a sacred covenant with me, your servant. But if I am guilty, then kill me yourself. Why should you have to bring me in front of your father?
Jonathan: 9 That will never happen. If I knew my father planned to hurt you, wouldn’t I tell you?
David: 10 So who will tell me if your father gives you a good or bad answer?
Jonathan: 11 Let’s go out to the field.
They went out to the field so that David could find a place to lie low.
Jonathan (to David): 12 Let the Eternal God of Israel be my witness; this is my vow. When I have talked to my father, about this time tomorrow or no later than the third day, if he acts friendly about you, won’t I send an answer to you? 13 But if my father plans to harm you, then may the Eternal do to me what he plans for you – and more – if I don’t let you know and send you away to safety.
May the Eternal One be with you, as He has been with my father. 14 If I live, then show to me the faithful love of the Eternal that I may not die. 15 Do not ever take your faithful love away from my descendants, not even if the Eternal were to remove all the enemies of the house of David from the face of the earth.
16 With these words, Jonathan made a covenant with David and his descendants.
Jonathan: May the Eternal One guarantee this promise by the hands of David’s enemies.
17 And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for Jonathan loved him more than life itself.
Jonathan: 18 Tomorrow is the festival of the new moon. People will notice you are gone because your place will be empty. 19 On the day after tomorrow, you will be greatly missed. On that day, quickly go down to that place where you hid yourself the first time and wait by the stone Ezel. 20 I will shoot three arrows to the side of the stone, as if I’m shooting at a target. 21 Then I will send a boy after them, saying, “Go find the arrows.” If I tell him, “Look, the arrows are on this side of you,” then come back, for as the Eternal One lives, you are not in any danger. 22 But if I tell the boy, “No, the arrows are beyond you,” then flee, because the Eternal has shown you that you must leave. 23 But as for the agreement that we have spoken together, the Eternal One is witness to it forever.
24 So David hid himself in the field.
When the new moon festival began and the king sat down to eat, 25 he took his usual seat in a place of safety with his back to the wall. Abner, his general, sat at the king’s side; Jonathan stood, but David’s seat was empty. 26 That first night, Saul said nothing. He thought that perhaps David had somehow become ritually unclean, and he could not attend a sacred feast. 27 But on the next day, the second day of the feast of the new moon, when David’s seat remained empty, Saul spoke to Jonathan.
Saul: Why hasn’t the son of Jesse joined us at the feast these past two days?
Jonathan: 28 David asked me if he could go to Bethlehem. 29 “Please allow me to go,” he said. “Our family is sacrificing in the city, and my brother has insisted that I come. So if you think highly of me, I ask that you let me go there and see my brothers.” That is why he is not at the king’s table.
30 Saul, not fooled for a moment, became very angry with Jonathan.
Saul: You son of a degenerate and rebellious woman! Do you think I don’t know that you have befriended the son of Jesse? This is just as shameful for you as your mother’s nakedness was. 31 As long as David walks the earth, you will never rule this kingdom. Now send for him. Bring him here to me, because he will most certainly die.
Jonathan: 32 Why should David be put to death? What offense has he committed?
33 At that, Saul threw his spear at him, fully intending to hit him, so Jonathan knew that it was truly his father’s intention to have David killed. 34 Jonathan left the table in a rage, without eating a bite on the second day of the festival. He was grieved because of David and because his father had disgraced him. (1 Samuel 20:1-34 VOICE)
Five times in the verses above the Hebrew word ‘Chodesh H2320’ is used. In verses 5, 18 and 24 it refers to the first day of Chodesh, i.e. the 30th Day of the Old Month and in verses 27 and 34 it refers to the second day of Chodesh, i.e. the 1st Day of the New Month. It may be difficult to see this according to the translation you may be using. Although most translations translate ‘Chodesh H2320’ as ‘new moon’ in verses 5, 18 and 24 when it comes to verses 27 and 34 most translations use the phrase ‘second day of the month’ to translate ‘chodesh’ which completely skews the meaning of the verse. Saul is putting on a high level feast to celebrate something, I can’t think of a single Scriptural event that would be commemorated on the 2nd Day of any Month. There are several translations which use the phrase ‘second day of the new moon’ to translate ‘chodesh’ in verses 27 and 34. While this is better it can still be interpreted as ‘second day of the month’ which is certainly not what the author of 1 Samuel intended. Another phrase that just a few translations used to translate ‘chodesh’ in verses 27 and 34 is ‘second day of the New Moon festival’. While I like that a lot there were other inconsistencies in the chapter so that I chose not to use them. The VOICE was the only translation out of approximately 40 translations that I looked at that remained consistent with translating ‘chodesh’ without implying or directly saying ‘the second day of the month’ in verses 27 and 34. If I were to translate ‘Chodesh H2320’ in verses 27 and 34 I would have written ‘second new moon day’ which would have made the verses understandable in their context, clearly reflecting YHWH’s model of what a Month looks like.
In the verses above David and Jonathan are surely speaking to one another in the evening on the 29th Day of the Month, as they observed the Full Moon rise, which is the 4th Sabbath of the Month and is always followed by ‘Chodesh’ whether it is a 29 or 30 Day Month. I say ‘surely’ because David, Jonathan, Saul and all his servants and invited guests knew that the next two days were going to be ‘Chodesh’ when they would all come together for ‘the two days of the feast of Chodesh’. People often ask, “How could they have known it would be a two day feast?” Once the question gets asked there is always someone ‘like me’ who strives to know the answer and share their theories with those who are asking the question. So here it goes! If the conversation recorded between David and Jonathan took place the evening of the 29th and they saw the Full Moon rise into view ‘before’ the Sun set out of view they would know beyond a shadow of doubt there would be a 30th Day of the Month and therefore back-to-back ‘Chodesh’, i.e. the 30th Day of the Old Moon and the 1st Day of the New Moon.
Wait a minute! This thought just occurred to me…
While my theory, which I just wrote about may seem quite plausible to some, including me, it’s not necessarily how they knew it would be back-to-back ‘Chodesh’. As I said before, it is believed by many that the 360-Day year existed all the way up to King Hezekiah who reigned from 716 to 687 BC. In Isaiah 38 King Hezekiah falls sick and YHWH tells King Hezekiah through His prophet Isaiah to prepare to die, that he would not recover, but King Hezekiah prays to YHWH and wept bitterly. YHWH hears the prayer of King Hezekiah and decides to give him 15 more years to live and a sign to confirm the promise.
And the word of YHWH came to Yeshayahu, saying, “Go and say to Hizqiyahu, ‘Thus said YHWH, the Elohim of Dawid your father, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. See, I am adding fifteen years to your days. “And out of the hand of the sovereign of Ashshur I shall deliver you and this city, and protect this city.”’ “And this is the sign to you from YHWH, that YHWH does this word which He has spoken: “See, I am bringing the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.” And the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down.” (Isaiah 38:4-8 Scriptures ’98)
It was at this same time that a dozen or more cultures around the world modified their calendars to reflect a change that had taken place in the heavens forcing them to abandon their 360-Day Years with twelve 30-Day Months! Returning ten degrees on a sundial indicates the Earth’s orbital speed around the Sun had changed by slowing down, every day the Earth would now fall an additional 20 minutes behind in the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, it will now take the Earth 365.25 days to complete its orbit around the Sun! Of course with the change in the length of the year the length of the month also changed from exactly 30 days per Lunar cycle to 29.5 days resulting in alternating 29 and 30 day months.
So prior to King Hezekiah every year was a 360-Day Year, every month was a 30-Day Month and every transition between months was a 2-Day back-to-back Chodesh, but…
King David ruled from 1010 to 970 BC, approximately 300 years before the change from 360 to 365 days in the year took place. Back-to-back, 2-Day Chodesh would have been all they had ever known! Therefore, if you were to have lived at the time of David and Jonathan, as long as you were on track with your Sabbaths once you got to the fourth Sabbath you would have automatically known the next two days would be Chodesh just as David and Jonathan did! It would have been their expectation; no one would have even thought to ask whether it would be a 1 or 2-Day Chodesh. Observance of the Full Moon rising ‘after’ the Sun sets will certainly keep you in synch with the Sabbaths or restore you if you have managed to lose track, but honestly the only possibility of losing track back then that I can think of would be by becoming isolated from other people and simply forgetting your count during one of the four weekly cycles that occur during the month. In populated areas it would have been nearly impossible to lose track of the Sabbaths or New Moons come rain or shine! It makes me laugh to think I’d never heard of that or thought of that before! Please note that they didn’t wait until the morning to confirm with a second witness that it was indeed ‘Chodesh’ as some people teach via the Full Moon remaining above the Western horizon as the Sun rises into view above the Eastern horizon the morning after.
This has been Part 6 of the 17 Part series titled THE MASTER'S CLOCK! It is my sincere hope and prayer that in reading this series you'll be blessed with the revelation of Time According to the Author of Time! May your eyes be opened to The Creator's Cosmological Calendar!
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