First of all, I would like to apologize for the delay in this topic. There is a lot of information to research and cover here and I did not want to leave you with any lack of information. Before I start the story, I do want to clarify a few things:
* I will discuss the feast days in this story. I will not go into full detail about them until later. However, please note that these days are very important and play an important role in the story.
*As well as the feast days there will be a lot of talk about the Jewish months. Again this is hard to understand just keep with me though.
* There will be a lot of information. As always double check my work. I am not a minister, apostle, or prophet nor do I claim to be.
John the Baptist
Yes, I am talking about the birth of the Messiah in this topic. However, in order to understand everything, you have to know the story of his cousin, John. Here is why. We know through Scripture that Mary became pregnant with Yeshuah (Jesus) roughly around 6 months into Elizabeth's (the mother of John) pregnancy. Why is this significant? Well by knowledge of the feast days and customs, we can accurately predict when this took place. Luke 1:5 tells us that John's father. Zachariah, was a member of the Abijiah tribe (one of the 12 tribes of Israel). This is important because each tribe took turns serving in the temple. So this narrows down the time frame in which John would have been conceived. Based on Scripture in Luke 1, we find that Zachariah is burning incense. He was doing this in preparation of the feast of Shavuot (also called Pentecost). So during Pentecost is when John the Baptist was conceived. For those Gregorians out there, this would mean that John was conceived roughly around June or July. According to the Jewish calendar, this would be the month of Sivan. Let's forward 6 months.
Yeshuah
Here we are six months later. According to Luke 1, this is when Mary finds out that she will be giving birth to the Messiah. Welcome the Jewish month of Kislev (November or December). This was when the angel visited Mary and told her the good news. Yeshuah is conceived and when Mary tells Elizabeth, John kicks in Elizabeth's womb.
The Good Stuff
So now the stage is set for things to happen. 3 months later is when John the Baptist was born. Now we know via the Bible that John is set to prepare the way of the Messiah. What does Yeshuah do? He dies for all of our sins and pays for it with his blood. So take a wild guess when John the Baptist is born? He is born during the month in which Passover takes place. The feast of Passover was when the Israelites painted their door posts with the blood of a lamb to save them from death. This was the last plague in Egypt before the Hebrews were freed from bondage. So John the precursor is born in the same month as the feast day that also is a precursor. Now let's go forward 6 more months. Now we are roughly in the month of September. This is when Yeshuah is born. Wait he wasn't born in December? No, he was not. What's really cool is during this time in the Jewish calendar is the feast of Sukkot, the feast of tabernacles. This is when the other new year for the Jews begins and sin is washed away. So more symbolism pertaining with the feast days and God's plans. Pretty amazing, huh?
Sorting Through The Bad Stuff
So obviously there is a lot of errors in the Christmas story aren't there? Of course by studying this we know for a fact that Yeshuah was not born in the month of December. There is more though. Based on the timing of everything, the wise men (magi) would not arrive for at least another year. So in all honesty the traditional nativity scene is also false. But what if I were to tell you that we could get even more exact then what we did with this topic? What if I told you that there were actually clues in the Bible that give us not only the events but can help us narrow the birth down to an actual time? Well it is possible. This will become more involved for just one lesson so I will continue this topic next week. However, for those who are interested in knowing the topic, we will be discussing the Star of Bethlehem. This is when for me, the Bible literally became the living word. I no longer had doubts or questions. This is where it all hits home. So stay tuned for next week when we will dive headfirst into this topic and wrap it up.
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