and Norway.
Usually you
step from that conveyor belt into a vehicle of some sort, pull
down the safety railing, and sit back as you turn the corner
into an environment totally unlike that from which you came.
God Himself
built into creation, long before the birth of Walt Disney,
several such Theme Parks. But unlike our Theme Parks, they don’t
occupy a special "place" you can fly or drive to. They are
actually Theme Times—they occupy special periods of time
during the year.
Our daily
world occupies a certain "time frame." We move along in it at a
certain rate, based on our perception of time—days, weeks,
months, years. All of this is connected in our minds with the
calendar we use. But most people, including many folks who would
label themselves as "Christians," are likely unaware that the
Bible itself does not use the same calendar we do in 21st
Century America. The characters in the Bible lived by a totally
different calendar. It’s as if we and they are on two conveyor
belts, going in different directions at different speeds.
If you step
off our belt, onto the other one—into "Bible time"—you can
experience a different dimension. It’s not a "3-D" one like Walt
Disney World. You’ll have to use your imagination more, and
check your Bible to get your bearings. But if you take that
step, you will find that you will get some of the same benefits
that vacationers do at EPCOT. You will:
1.
Come out
of your everyday world with its stress—or boredom—and be
refreshed.
2.
Experience environments—past, present and future—you may not
have even known existed.
3.
Learn
things about God’s creation and yourself that can’t be learned
just by reading about them—even by reading the Bible!
God created
His "conveyor belt of time" so that there are varied themes to
experience depending on the time of year you choose to step on
that belt, away from your regular way of counting time. Other
portions of this Times of Refreshing series will explore
some of those themes.
Time Travel
If you want
to make an appointment to see a friend later this year, you will
probably look at a calendar on your wall, on your desk, or in
your planning book, and discuss what month and day you will
meet. But you will not likely pause to wonder where the names of
the months came from, how they got in the order they are in, why
they have varying numbers of days, why we have a "leap year" at
times with an extra day in February, and so on. Most of us just
learned these facts by memory in our grade school years, never
questioning their origin. The assumption of most may be "it’s
always been this way." But it hasn’t "always been this
way"!
Just as a
quick sample, consider the name of our "tenth month." It is
called "October"—yet the prefix "oct" means "eight." Think of
such words as "octopus" (an eight-legged creature) and "octet"
(a singing group with eight members). Obviously, something is
amiss here! In fact, the last four months of our twelve-month
calendar year have names which should indicate "seven, eight,
nine, and ten"—since sept- refers to seven, oct- eight, nov-
nine, and dec- (like in "decimal") refers to ten.
Another
question most don’t ever ponder is why we change the "calendar
year" on January 1. If you would like to find answers to these
puzzling questions a good overview on this topic is available at
Wikipedia.com .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar
All of the
details of the Gregorian Calendar (the official title of the
calendar commonly used in our time) have been developed by man.
In the Bible, however, there is a system of dividing up the year
that was in place from the beginning of the creation. God, at
the point in the creation account described in the Bible in
Genesis 1, built into the creation a calendar and a clock. They
did not need gears or paper or computers to keep working. For
the components were the sun, moon, and stars. A year is not how
long it takes you to live through the pages on your wall calendar from
January to December. Rather, it is how long it takes the earth
to go around the sun.
A month is
not how long it takes before you flip one of the pages on your
calendar. Rather, it is how long it takes the moon to go through
all its "phases"—from a tiny sliver, to a crescent moon, to a
full moon, to a crescent in the other direction, to totally
black …and then starting again as a crescent.
Even though
we use the word "month" (which is derived from the same root as
"moon") to indicate a period just about as long as this process
takes (around 30 days), on our calendars the month is not
in any way connected to that process now. Check your calendar if
you have one that notes the "phases of the moon." The "new moon"
shifts to different dates on each calendar month as the year
progresses.
But in the
Bible, the situation is very different. For whenever a Biblical
passage speaks of the "first day of the month," it actually
does mean that day when the moon is new. It is important
that you understand this principle if you are to clearly
understand some of the events in the Bible.
Another
important thing to know about the calendar of the Bible is that
the year begins, not in what we call January, but in the spring
of the year in the Middle East where Biblical events took place.
Thus, if a Bible passage speaks of the "first month," it means
the month around the time of the Spring Equinox (the point in
the year when day and night are equal in length) in the Northern
Hemisphere.
Once you
understand these two principles—that months are based on the
changes in the moon, and the year begins in spring—you can begin
to learn about the Theme Times that God created for
Mankind.
Festivals
This idea of
Theme Times shouldn’t be totally foreign to you. People
all over the world get excited about such times they have
created for themselves. I grew up in Traverse City, a small town
in northern Michigan that was known as the "Cherry Capital of
the World" for its many cherry tree orchards. And thus its civic
leaders decided in 1926 to create a week-long "National Cherry
Festival."
As with most
such town and city festivals, it always features a carnival with
rides, a parade with floats and bands through the city streets,
competitions at the fair grounds (such as cherry pie-eating and
cherry-pit spitting contests), community decorations, fireworks
displays at night, special guest performers, and celebrities. In
fact, although Traverse City’s normal population is barely
15,000, the festival has grown so popular in recent years that
it draws nearly 500,000 visitors! Taking care of arrangements
for this annual Theme Time has by now become a year-round
occupation for many in the town!
Perhaps your
town or city has a similar festival—many do. In Michigan, for
instance, there are official festivals honoring everything from
maple syrup, mushrooms, and tulips to ice fishing, Shakespeare,
and C.S. Lewis. Why is this so? What is there about Theme
Times that appeals to people?
God built
into man the absolute need for regular rest and
refreshment, both on a weekly basis, and at periodic times
throughout the year. He also built in a desire and appreciation
for decoration, pageantry, variety, surprise, excitement.
Meeting these needs and desires allows for physical, mental,
emotional, and spiritual rejuvenation.
And God
created in His plan for mankind from the very beginning a way
for those needs and desires to be fulfilled. But the knowledge
of that way has been lost by most of mankind. And thus they
have, in order to meet these subconscious needs and desires,
created festivals, fairs, conferences, camp meetings, and a
variety of man-made holidays to try and fill that void.
And God said,
"Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the
day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark
seasons and days and years ... (Genesis 1:14)
In this
passage about the creation, the word "season" is not translated
from a Hebrew word that has anything to do with the concepts of
summer, winter, spring, and fall. It is, rather, from the word
moedim—which means appointed times,
special observances, special celebrations.
That is,
appointed times of festivals. Thus the movements of the sun,
moon, and stars are used to establish the calendar by which God
indicates times He intended to be for regular refreshment for
His people.
For God
intended His people to have Theme Times—times of
feasting, parades, parties, even costumes and decorations. But
His intent from the very beginning was that those special times
be centered around worshipping and rejoicing before Him. He
intended for those times to be joyful and fun—but for the
centerpiece, rather than honoring maple syrup or cherries, to be
honoring Him. There is nothing wrong with man-made festivities
related to those kind of local specialties. But what "lessons
for life" does one learn from a tulip festival or ice-fishing
festival? Since most people have only limited "vacation time,"
would it not seem more suitable for Christians to find out what
"times" God created specifically for them, and use those times
to full advantage? And since the Bible is the foundation of the
Christian Faith, wouldn’t it be sensible for Christians to look
in that book to find when and how God intended for them to
rejoice before Him?
Bible Theme
Times
The Theme
Times in the Bible are based on the calendar of the sun,
moon, and stars. When God took Israel out of bondage in Egypt, He
told them:
This month
[beginning with the first new moon in Spring] is to be for you
the first month, the first month of your year. (Exodus 12:2)
And then
later He told them about the moedim—the appointed times
they were to have to rejoice before Him.
The LORD said
to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'These are
my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you
are to proclaim as sacred assemblies. (Leviticus 23:1-2)
Note that He
didn’t say, "These are your feasts," or "These are the
feasts of the Jews," or any such limiting designation. He said
these are "my appointed feasts." He put in place the sun,
moon, and stars so that men could see when the time approached
for such celebrations!
There are
three such annual times of celebration, called "Feasts," with seven special days,
called "Holy Days,"
connected to them. (For clarification on these terms, see the
articles What Is a Biblical "Feast"?
and What Is a Biblical "Holy Day"?
elsewhere on this Times of Refreshing website.)
Many
Christians are surprised to learn that the biblical Feasts and
Holy Days are relevant to Christians. After all, they seem to
many, on just a surface reading of the Old Testament, to be
related only to the system of priesthood rituals and sacrifices
connected to the ancient Israelites and their Tabernacle or
Temple. For an explanation regarding the relevance of the Old
Testament to Christians, see the article
Concealing and Revealing
elsewhere on this website.
Each one
of these Feasts and Holy Days has many lessons built in to
the observance, lessons about history, the future, prophecy, the
ways of God, the truths of the Bible. And, most important of
all, each one points directly to--foreshadows--our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. (For an explanation of the concept of a
foreshadow, see the article What Are "Shadows" and
"Foreshadows"? elsewhere on this website.) As a complete set, these celebrations teach about
His life, death, resurrection, empowerment of His church with
the Holy Spirit, His eventual Return as King of Kings and
Lord of Lords, and the eternal destiny of those who are His when
He returns.
God did not
intend these Feasts and Holy Days ... these Theme Times ... to be times of solemn, gloomy, boring "religious
rituals." He intended for them to be, in one sense, regular
"family reunions" of those who call Him Father, and who call
Jesus Elder Brother. He intended His people to have fun at these
times, rejoicing in many ways including singing, feasting,
laughing, enjoying camaraderie among people of all ages. They
are not times when just individual families stay in their
isolated homes to have small parties, but rather times when all
the members of the "Family of God" in an area get together and
celebrate.
The rest
of the articles in this series on Times of Refreshing
show you how to use your Bible to step out of this present world
onto the "conveyor belt" that will take you into the Theme
Times of God.
Jesus: The
Reason for These Seasons
Many people
who accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, whether they refer
to themselves as "Christian" or "Messianic," observe the
biblical Feasts and Holy Days as times of worship, fellowship, and celebration. They believe
that these Feasts and Holy Days are shadows pointing to the
reality of Jesus. And they believe that there are valuable
spiritual lessons to be learned year by year through actually
physically setting aside these times as "appointments with God."
For an
explanation of the Biblical background and Christian
significance of each of the Holy Days and Feasts as
they come in their seasons, explore the links below:
T.G.I.S.
The Weekly Sabbath
Let My People Go!
The Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread
On Fire!
The Feast of Pentecost
Reveille!
The Day of Trumpets
Together Again
The Day of Atonement
Roughing It
The Feast of Tabernacles
The Edge of Eternity
The Eighth Day Assembly
For an
overview of the specific ways these Times of Refreshing are
celebrated in the 21st century, see
The 3 Rs.
For
sources of the Hebrew, Greek, and English definitions in this
and other articles on this website, see the
Information page.
For sources
of the Biblical quotations in this and other articles on this
website, see the Information page.
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