God’s Timetable
The Appointed Days For His Plan To Occur On
This post is the second in the series from the book Friends With God, Chapter 7: Celebration of the Birth Of Christ.
When was Christ born?
Should we celebrate his birth?
When you start to look into the issue of Christmas and the Birth of Christ you will find a lot of contradictory views and attitudes toward when and if we should celebrate his birth. In the First Post in this series, we provided many scriptural issues about the timing of the Birth of Christ, some of which appeared to show up major contradictions between various scriptures. These apparent discrepancies fuel the contradictory views and attitudes of biblical teachers.
As we address these issues it will, however, become clear how these accounts do in fact neatly fit together, so that they actually add profound Christian meanings to both the Old and the New Covenant scriptures. You will then be able to see how much is ignored and glossed over in the conventional way that people understand the nativity of Christ.
Searching Out The Word Of God
While the Bible is accurate in its details, don’t assume that God promises to make his truth simple to learn, or clear to everyone. God expects you to take a great deal of time and effort to search out the wisdom of God, as if it were a hidden jewel, which is far more valuable than gold:
My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. (Prov 2:1-5)
God expects us to put in a lot of work to find the truth, and then he promises to open our eyes to understanding. God is the one who will open your eyes, for the one thing that is clear about the Word of God, is that the truth is somewhat hidden from those who read it:
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which God has hidden,
predetermining it before the world for our glory.
(1Cor 2:7)
The reason God hides his truth is for our glory! It is also hidden to glorify God, and to honour those who search it out:
It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.
(Prov 25:2)
Let’s see if we can do the kingly thing, and search it out!
However, even after we have searched things out, and become wise and understanding, Jesus also tells us that God will reveal himself only to whom he chooses to reveal himself, and all other people will be ignorant of his truth:
I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and have revealed them unto babes: yes, Father, for so it was well–pleasing in your sight. (Matt 11:25-26)
Even if you are a prophet of God, or a very righteous person, God may still choose not to reveal this truth to you, as it is simply not the right time. Jesus told his disciples:
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. (Matt 13:16-17)
Therefore, I certainly don’t expect you to take what I say on face value. You need to search it out for yourself and see if what I have said is in the Word of God or not. Please take the time to read all the quoted scriptures, and prove for yourself if what I say is scriptural, reasonable, and plausible. If you don’t agree, write to me and I will be happy to discuss it.
The Appointed Time That Jesus Was Born
The Jews were informed of the Messiah’s coming by many prophecies in scripture. (Isaiah 7:14-16, 11:1-2, 9:1-7, 53:1-12, Micah 5:2, Psalm 110:1-7, Dan 9:24-27)
The big question 2,000 years ago was: when was this child of God to be born?
The Wise Men of the East knew that Christ had been born, but what they didn’t know was exactly where he had been born. Yet they knew the approximate date. So why was it not recorded? Surely it would be a day to remember?
As will be shown, the key to understanding these issues is that God has designated that most of the major events in both the Old and New Testament were to occur on his Holy Days revealed in scripture (Lev 23:1-44)
Following is a summary of the eight Holy Days, with their northern hemisphere seasons, and the month of the Hebrew Calendar when they are kept:
1. Passover (14th Day of the First Month of the Hebrew Calendar, early Spring)
2. The First day of Unleavened Bread (15th Day of the First Month)
3. The Last or seventh Day of Unleavened Bread (21st Day of the First Month)
4. The Feast of Pentecost (50 Days after Unleavened Bread- Summer in the third Month)
5. The Feast of Trumpets (1st day of the Seventh Month- Autumn)
6. The Day of Atonement (10th Day of the Seventh Month)
7. First Day of the Feast of Tabernacles (15th Day of the Seventh Month)
8. The Last Great Day (22nd Day of the Seventh Month)
The first four festivals are focused around the grain harvest in Spring and early Summer, and the last four around the fruit harvest in Autumn. However, each Festival has more than one layer of meaning. As we will see in the next post in this series, each festival has a harvest timetable meaning, a memorial of an Old Testament event, and a memorial of a New Testament event.
The Holy Days In Prophecy
In addition to these already fulfilled events on the Holy Days, the Festivals also often have a prophetic meaning- such as the day of the return of Christ, and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on Earth.
It is amazing that most churches don’t bother with these festivals, as there is a lot of information symbolized in God’s Holy Days!
We also see, in a detailed prophecy about the future Kingdom of God on Earth, that these Holy Days will clearly be kept not just by Israel, but by all nations of the world, or they will be punished by God with drought and plagues:
And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations (gentiles) which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
And it shall be, that whoever will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
(Zec 14:16-17)
God’s Holy Days
God calls these Holy Days his feast days:
Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the LORD that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts.
(Lev 23:2)
God’s Feast Days were kept by all Israelites, and by Christ, the Apostles, and all the New Testament Church, including those who were not Jews. (Matt 26:17-19, Mark 14:12-16, Luke 22:7-15, 1Cor 5:6-8, Acts 18:21)
While they were given to Israel, they are not their festivals, but God’s Festivals. The word feasts is the Hebrew ‘moed’, which means appointed times, or Holy Days- for they are the times when historically God has acted to powerfully intervene in the affairs of men, and we should keep them holy to remember God’s intervention, and rejoice before God as commanded by him.
God’s Harvest Of Souls
These festivals were structured around the harvest times of physical Israel in the Old Testament, but they were transformed in the New Testament into spiritual harvest festivals for the Church (which is Spiritual Israel)- as Jesus indicated:
Do not say, It is yet four months, and the harvest comes? Behold, I say to you, Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white to harvest already. And he who reaps, receives wages, and gathers fruit to life eternal, so that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. (John 4:35-36)
Israelites were to congregate at the Temple in Jerusalem, presenting themselves formally before God, for a time of rejoicing and great feasting before the Lord. (Lev 23:1-44, Deut 16:1-17) They were to rejoice with God in his presence, and to praise him for his protection and harvest blessings.
At these feasts many animal sacrifices were offered before God, yet most of the sacrifices were actually eaten by the people who provided the sacrifices, and they were also shared with the priests and their families. Those who were poor were not forgotten, with a special tithe of the harvest increase set aside for them, so they were also able to attend, and to rejoice before God. (Deut 14:28-29) God wanted everyone to have a joy-filled time of eating and rejoicing before him, celebrating the great events that he had undertaken on these days.
The most likely time, therefore, for the birth of the very Son of God, would surely have been one of God’s appointed Holy Days.
This series of posts is intended as an introduction to a subject that has been almost totally neglected by most Churches, yet Biblical scholars have been addressing these questions for hundreds of years.
One scholarly work is The Companion Bible by E.W.Bullinger, 1922. In Appendix 179, Bullinger provides scriptural and secular evidence for the birth of Christ being on the First Day of the Feast of Tabernacles.
This series of posts elaborates on Bullinger’s evidence, and examines some of the ramifications of what the timing of Jesus’ birth meant 2,000 years ago, means now, and suggests for future fulfilments on these days.
Jesus- Born As A Child Of God
But before we look at the actual Festival that Jesus was most likely born on, and why it is so significant, we first need to address the important question: “why didn’t Jesus just come to Earth as a full-grown man, as had previously been recorded that he had done in scripture?” (Gen 14:18-20, 18:1-3, 32:24-30)
By being begotten by the Holy Spirit in Mary, and carried by her for nine months, Jesus experienced being a man to the greatest extent possible- from conception to death. And in so doing, he showed us a complete example of how to live, which we can totally empathise with. (Heb 5:5-10, 12:2, Rom 8:28-30, 1Cor 15:38-49)
The ironic thing, however, about God’s becoming a man, is how truly unexceptional it actually is. As God made us in his image (Gen 1:26-28) it’s obviously no strange or difficult thing for God to then be made in our image, as it’s actually his image anyway!
By Jesus living a life as a physical man, he demonstrated the complete compatibility that God and Man have. It shows us that physical and mortal human beings, can be changed to immortal spiritual beings that are actually one with God!
And I do not pray for these alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one, I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me. (John 17:20-23)
But we must be transformed to be one with God at the resurrection:
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and when this mortal shall put on immortality, then will take place the word that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory”.
(1Cor 15:53-54)
This was clearly shown by Jesus when, after being born in a physical mortal body, he was then resurrected after his death into an immortal spiritual body.
For our citizenship is in Heaven, from which also we are looking for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our body of humiliation so that it may be fashioned like His glorious body, according to the working of His power, even to subdue all things to Himself.
(Philippians 3:20-21)
His resurrection to eternal life opened the way for all human beings, who are in the image of God, to be made into spiritual beings that are one with God. Jesus was resurrected to eternal spiritual life with God- which is as he had been before his human birth. (John 1:1-3, 17:5, 17:24)
In going through this sequence of events from
(A) immortal spirit being, to
(B) physical being, and then
(C) back to immortal spirit being again,
he demonstrated the process that also enables all physical mortal beings to become one with God. (Rom 8:29-30, Heb 2:11-15)
He is our trail blazer, so that we also may be born onto his plane of existence- as eternal spiritual members of his Godkind- the actual children of God, who are to be one with God. (Col 1:13-23, Rev 1:5-6)
In completing this cycle of life, Jesus was fulfilling the entire purpose for mankind having been initially made in the very image of God. (Gen 1:26-27, 1Cor 15:20-23)
In the next post we will examine the historical events, in both the New and Old Covenant, that have occurred on these Feasts of God, and how they relate to the record of the birth of Jesus in Matthew and Luke.
Your comments are welcome, particularly if you disagree- I would hate to be misrepresenting the Word of God. So, if you think I have got it wrong, please let’s discuss it.
I can’t thank you enough for this series. I’m learning so much.