Why the Torah Calendar?
The Jews have an ancient meditative saying, that whoever’s calendar you keep, that is who you worship. If we will take some time to reflect on this maxim, we may be able to see what the Jews mean.
In Scripture, a servant obeys his master’s bidding. By the same token, whoever the servant obeys, that person is His master. But how does this apply to us?
Many believers are unaware that neither the Christian Calendar nor the Orthodox Jewish Rabbinical Calendar is the calendar prescribed by Scripture. But why would this make a difference? Let’s illustrate with an extreme example.
A Muslim keeps the Islamic Calendar, and he worships Allah. By the exact same token, a Christian keeps the Roman Gregorian ‘Christian’ calendar, and in so doing, at least in the language and thought of Scripture, he serves the Roman Papacy. That is because it is the Roman Papacy that tells us to keep that particular calendar, and at least in Scriptural thought, whoevers commandments you keep, that person is your master.
Similarly, a Jew keeps the Orthodox Jewish calendar. However, since the Orthodox calendar is not the one Scripture prescribes, by this same ancient maxim, his elohim (‘god’) essentially is the Jewish rabbinate, which tells him to keep that particular calendar.
But what if YHWH has a calendar of His own? And what if His calendar is different than all of these other calendars? And what if YHWH told all of Israel to keep His calendar forever, in all of its generations? If we believe that YHWH is our Elohim, and if we claim to obey and serve Him alone, then should we not be keeping His calendar, rather than anyone elses?
Joshua, the son of Nun, let the children of Israel know that they had to make a choice about who they would serve, and whose commandments they would keep.
Yehoshua (Joshua) 24:15
15 And if it seems evil to you to serve YHWH, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the elohim which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the elohim of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve YHWH."
Whether we are conscious of it or not, each one of us has to choose whom we will serve. Will we keep the Islamic Calendar, and serve Allah? Will we keep the Roman Gregorian ‘Christian’ Calendar, and thereby serve Pope Gregory, and the Papacy? Will we keep the Orthodox Jewish Rabbinical Calendar, and serve Rabbi Hillel II and the Jewish rabbinate? Or will we choose to serve YHWH our Elohim, and keep only the calendar He commands His people to keep, in His word?
If you choose to serve YHWH, and if you desire to keep the calendar He asks His people Israel to keep in all of their generations, then this study is for you.
Shalom.