New Years Eve means: the Evening of the New Year
In the first of my series of posts on what I called Scriptural Timing I wrote about how I have been blessed as I have explored Scriptural concepts of time and applied them in my own life and that I wanted to share that blessing with others. Scripture (both Old and New Testaments), but dare I also say God, has a different clock and calendar to the ones we have inherited from the Greeks and the Romans.
The timing I find in Scripture begins in the very first verses of Genesis where we read over and over, "...there was evening and there was morning - the first (second, etc) day." So this means.....a new day begins at sunset! So what, you might ask?
Well, for starters, it means that as I write this at 2pm on Friday 31 December, the new year,2011, is very close. In just a few hours, when the new day begins at sunset, it will be new year eve (i.e. the evening of the 1st January, 2011)...it will be new year!
The pagan Greeks and Romans saw things differently, with the Greeks believing that a new day starts at sunrise and the Romans thinking a new day starts at midnight.
Today is also Friday and Friday is of course the day our LORD was executed, and about this time they were rushing about to get Him buried before the Sabbath started....at sunset. Those who were with Him (the women) would go home and mourn. On Saturday, their (the) Sabbath, they would continue to mourn. Then, early in the morning on Sunday, the first day of the week, they would go to the tomb, find it empty and announce to the world that HE IS RISEN and soon that day (the day after the Sabbath) would become referred to in Scripture not only as the first day of the week, but as the LORD's Day.
So this new year is especially special as it falls on the Biblical Sabbath, truly a day to rest in the Good News that He is Immanuel, God with us, and that He makes all things new!
May yours be a blessed and peaceful 2011.
The timing I find in Scripture begins in the very first verses of Genesis where we read over and over, "...there was evening and there was morning - the first (second, etc) day." So this means.....a new day begins at sunset! So what, you might ask?
Well, for starters, it means that as I write this at 2pm on Friday 31 December, the new year,2011, is very close. In just a few hours, when the new day begins at sunset, it will be new year eve (i.e. the evening of the 1st January, 2011)...it will be new year!
The pagan Greeks and Romans saw things differently, with the Greeks believing that a new day starts at sunrise and the Romans thinking a new day starts at midnight.
Today is also Friday and Friday is of course the day our LORD was executed, and about this time they were rushing about to get Him buried before the Sabbath started....at sunset. Those who were with Him (the women) would go home and mourn. On Saturday, their (the) Sabbath, they would continue to mourn. Then, early in the morning on Sunday, the first day of the week, they would go to the tomb, find it empty and announce to the world that HE IS RISEN and soon that day (the day after the Sabbath) would become referred to in Scripture not only as the first day of the week, but as the LORD's Day.
So this new year is especially special as it falls on the Biblical Sabbath, truly a day to rest in the Good News that He is Immanuel, God with us, and that He makes all things new!
May yours be a blessed and peaceful 2011.
