A BIBLICAL “Hebrew” Perspective

My husband and I were taught by a Messianic Jewish rabbi that first introduced us to a lunar calendar, that the Jewish people understand the day to begin in the evening, that this is based in Genesis. He said that because Genesis 1 lists evening before morning, that means evening comes first. We accepted that at the time, as we were 100% certain since we were children that a day did not begin at midnight like we learned in kindergarten when they started teaching us the Roman clock on the wall.

When we were faced with the lunar Sabbath, we realized that the whole “Hebrew” “Lunar” calendar we had been taught was a lie. It was based on calculation only, and it did not include observation of the moon. We also realized that, not just the months and years had been divorced from the moon, but the days of the week also. There were some stumbling blocks we had to get over before we could accept the lunar Sabbath. We had to come to the realization that the Jewish people do not really have a Hebraic understanding of the Bible, we had been brainwashed by Messianic Judaism and the Hebraic “follow the rabbi movement” into believing that we needed the Jewish rabbis to understand the bible, that the ruach hakodesh and His word was not enough to lead us into ALL truth, and on the right path. (John 16:13, Psalm 119:105) We found Lamentations 2:6 and Hosea 2:11 which prophesied that Israel would forget the appointed times of YHUH, including the Sabbaths, even Judah would forget once the Temple and Jerusalem were destroyed and they were sent into exile. This came to pass about 70 A.D. Judah has been without the true appointed times ever since.

Not only have they forgotten which days these appointed times fall on the calendar, Israel has forgotten even how to determine when a year, a month, and day begins. It’s lost the lunar week as well. They are as lost as the Romans on this issue of these measurements of time as described in the Torah. Both the Roman Catholics and the Jewish people are convinced their priests and rabbis have the knowledge and authority to change times and laws set forth in scriptures like Genesis 1:14 and Psalm 104:19.

YHUH’s commandments are not so high in the heavens that someone has to go up to heaven and bring it back down and explain it all to us, not across the ocean that some rabbi has to come from the land of Israel to explain them to us, but in our hearts and in our minds and on our lips that we may do them. (Deut 30:11-14) We had to believe Yahusha’s words when He said that the Jews are in darkness, and there is NO light in them, because they do not yet have Messiah. (Isaiah 8:20, 2 Cor 6:14) We had to believe Yahusha when He said of the Jewish religious leaders and their leavened teachings, “If the blind lead the blind, then they both fall into the ditch”. We were discovering that Yahusha’s words had come to pass, that truly, just as he said, our following Judaism (which has married Catholicism, bowed down to the Pope, in MANY respects) by doing the Gregorian weekly Sabbath, led us into the ditch! It was time to stop listening to them! Scripture says Judah, those who still reject Yahusha and follow other rabbis, are blind, and we decided it behooves us not to follow ANYTHING they do. We understood we needed to take seriously Yahusha’s warning to beware the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod (Mark 8:15), that we needed to surrender EVERY thought captive that’s been put into our minds, and let scripture renew our minds.

So, the issue of when a day begins was put on the table for consideration. We remembered back to when we were children, before we were ever indoctrinated that the day began at midnight, and before we were introduced to the rabbis, when did we believe the day began, just from observing the creation around us? We decided that as little children, we understood the day to begin in the morning, that when we arise from our slumber, we wake up to a new day, a new day is dawning, new beginnings. Does this remind you of a scriptural song? It did me. “Great is Thy Faithfulness”, is a song that includes a verse from Lamentations, “morning by morning, new mercies I see”. (Lamentations 3:22-23) If the day began in the evening, why would we not see NEW mercies when evening comes? Why would NEW mercies wait to come until morning?

Patterns of Light and Darkness

We also were understanding that YHUH tends to work in patterns. We reasoned that if the year begins while coming out of darkness (winter is ending) and into increasing light (summer is coming), and if the month begins with coming out of darkness and into increasing light (we begin the month before we can actually see the light on the moon, but after conjunction, we know there is already light growing on the moon) that it would make sense that a day also would begin coming out of darkness, and into increasing light. We don’t begin the day at sunrise, when we see the sun, but at dawn, when we see the LIGHT of the sun. (Supporting scriptures will be mentioned later) We don’t see the sun yet, but we know it’s coming, a new day is dawning. Just like we don’t begin the month when we see the moon, but we understand that after the moments of conjunction, there is already light coming on the moon, even if we don’t see the light on the moon yet, we know it’s there, and so we begin to walk in the month with a lighted path, just like we walk during the day with a lighted path, just like we work in the summer with a lighted path.

We are often told there are Spring and Fall Feasts. However, we are only seeing 2 seasons in scripture – Summer and Winter. There is no mention in scripture of the Spring or Fall as seasons, no Hebrew word for such seasons in scripture. Many translations do use those words, but we haven’t found it in the Hebrew. For example, sometimes our translations might mention Springtime, but when you look at the Hebrew, it would be speaking of seedtime. There is seedtime and harvest, early and latter rains, return of the year and the end of the year, but no Spring and Fall in the Hebrew in scripture. The only seasons mentioned are Summer and Winter. (Psalm 74:17, Gen 8:22) Summer and Winter, and day and night, mirror each other. We work the land in Summer, we work in the daylight, while there is light to see. We let the land rest in Winter, we rest from our work at night, while it is dark. Just as these periods of light and darkness mirror each other, so also, the feasts and daily sacrifices mirror each other. We have Passover and Unleavened Bread and the first fruits of the barley harvest falling in the beginning of Summer, after the sun has returned to the Northern Hemisphere, just as we have a morning daily sacrifice. We have Sukkot and the end of the harvest season falling at the end of Summer, just as we have an evening sacrifice, occurring when the day, not date, is declining, but it is yet day. There are no sacrifices slaughtered at night, no Feasts in the Winter. We sleep at night in darkness and the cool of the night, the land rests during the winter in darkness when it is cool, and on the dark new moon days, days similar to a Sabbath, we do not buy, sell, or trade, but New Moon days are not Sabbaths either, with the exception of the Day of Trumpets. These are patterns YHUH is teaching us in His word. These are rest and work cycles which tell us when and how to work and worship Him.

Scriptural Evidence

We decided we needed to test our understanding from observing creation with His word though, as every matter must be established by at least 2 witnesses in the word as well. First, we started with Genesis 1:5, and asked ourselves if the fact that the word lists the evening before morning is a sound foundation for beginning the day in the evening. We found that there were MANY MORE scriptures listing morning before evening, and day before night, and there were more of these verses than there were verses that switched them around the other way. For example, scripture lists the morning sacrifices before the evening sacrifices.

Clean in the Evening

What about the scriptures that instruct us that when one becomes unclean, he can wash and become clean in the evening? Some would say that means you start the new day clean in the evening, that this is stating the day begins in the evening. However, we are no longer seeing it that way. The scripture never states that being clean at evening has anything to do with when a day begins. That just tells me that if I become unclean, I can wash and be clean at evening, and that in the morning, if I have not done anything to become unclean again, I am clean to offer a morning sacrifice to YHUH at the temple. Sleeping does not make one unclean.

Unleavened Bread and the Day of Atonement

Some would say, and we also once said, that the fact that we are commanded to begin eating unleavened bread and begin afflicting ourselves on the evening before means that the day/date begins in the evening. That’s a good point, BUT, what DATE does the scripture give for the evening before? Leviticus 23 states that the date for Yom Kippur is the 10^th day of the 7^th month. It says to begin afflicting ourselves the evening before, on the 9^th! Therefore, YHUH says the evening following the 9^th, belongs to the 9^th! It is not the beginning of the 10^th! Otherwise, He would just say, begin afflicting yourself on the 10^th, if the 10^th began that evening. It is the same with Unleavened Bread.

Passover

This brings up another important point concerning the Passover, which may help to illustrate the fact that it cannot be possible for the day to begin in the evening. If the day begins in the evening, then the Passover in Exodus in Egypt doesn’t work with the sequence of events when you pay close attention to the instructions, which were to be done on certain dates and times.

The lamb is supposed to be killed on the 14^th DAY, between the evenings, after noon, but before night. Yahusha died during the daylight hours, on the 14^th. Because His blood removes our sin, we remove the leaven that afternoon after the lamb is slain, before the blood is applied to the doorposts. Then the lamb is supposed to be eaten that night, still the 14^th, with unleavened bread. If the 14^th begins in the evening, before the 14^th day of the month, then Israel eats a LIVE lamb, because they don’t slaughter it until the next day, on the 14^th day of the month, between the evenings! Also, they eat unleavened bread with that live lamb, before they are required to be rid of the leaven. This is backwards! This is obviously not what happened, and not what YHUH commanded! This does serious violence to the scriptures! I can’t believe we didn’t notice this earlier. See what happens when we follow men and their silly, vain traditions?

There are Sabbath keepers that have noticed this error with the Passover event, and so instead of beginning the day in the morning to rectify the issue, they do additional violence to the scriptures even further by changing other various commandments concerning the Feast, adding and taking away, in an attempt to keep things in line with the tradition of the day beginning in the evening. Many criticize Judaism for eating their Passover Seder the evening before the 15^th, because in the mind of many Messianics, that night is the beginning of the 15^th, not the 14^th. The rabbis do it on the night before the 15^th DAY, because they have figured out it’s impossible to do it any other way, while still following all the other instructions. Not that Judaism follows all the other instructions concerning the Passover, because they don’t. The Messianics, for the most part, are still in the dark about all this.

 ARISE and SHINE for your LIGHT has COME! Isaiah 60:1

When do we arise, and when does the light come? In the morning! Of course, we know Yahusha is the light of the world that has come in this verse, and we know this is speaking of the DAY of YHUH when He comes. The book of Amos says that the DAY of YHUH will be a DAY of deep darkness to those who are disobedient. If we are in His light, as Israel had His light in Goshen, that very dark day will be as light to us if we remain in Yahusha and His commandments.

Yahusha answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbles not, because he sees the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbles, because there is no light in him.” John 11:9

Judaism teaches believers to forsake Yahusha, and forsake the commandments of the Father for traditions of men. They reject the light. These teachers stumble, if you follow them into the darkness, you will also stumble. The blind lead the blind into the ditch. Many believers try to yoke themselves with the Jews, thinking they can be a light to them in darkness, and thinking that maybe they can learn something from them. Sadly, more often than not, the result is the little light the believer had is extinguished. Ultimately, many are rejecting Yahusha and the New Testament because of the anti-Messiah teachings that are popular among the Jews. There are a high number of atheists among the Jews today because they do not have the testimony of Yahusha, who is the living Torah. There is no Torah without Yahusha, so many Jews have rejected Torah altogether, or only do some things out of tradition and culture of their people, not as obedience to a commandment. We have been warned against being unequally yoked and fellowshipping with unbelievers in darkness. Just because some of them claim to keep Torah, doesn’t mean they do. Yahusha said about the Jewish leaders, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, because Moses wrote about me.” Many say the Jews have the law, so they must have some light to give us. No, they don’t have the law any more than the churches do. Yahusha said so, He said they don’t believe Moses. They claim to see, but what did Yahusha say about those who only CLAIM to see? Yikes! Torah is impossible without Yahusha. It is in vain to even try.

So Yahusha said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. “While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.” These things Yahusha spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them. Yahuchanan (John) 12:35-36

I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. John 9:4-5

These are all verses that point to walking and working in the day. The gates are closed to worship at night. They are open during the day only, on New Moons and Sabbaths, and closed in the evening. Israel left Egypt on the 15^th, at night, after the Sabbath hours had passed. (Num 33 and Deut 16:1) Since the sun rules the day, we use the light of the sun to tell us when the day begins and ends. Day comes first on any given date, then night follows the daylight portion on that same date.

The first of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. John 20:1

Here we read that it was early in the morning, the first day of the week, while it was yet dark. This would be dawn, or more specifically, twilight, when there was morning light in the eastern sky, but the light was not yet overpowering the darkness, the sun was not up yet. Once the sun is up over the horizon, it’s not dark anymore. Keep reading in the same chapter to verse 19:

Then the same day at evening, being the first of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Yahusha and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace unto you. John 20:19

See that, verse 19, says that it was the SAME DAY, the FIRST OF THE WEEK, and it was EVENING! We read earlier in the chapter that that morning was early on the first day of the week, and we read in 19 that when evening came, it was still the first day of the week, the SAME DAY! So, if evening were to begin the day, this should have been the beginning of the second day of the week, not still the first, and not the SAME DAY, but a DIFFERENT ONE! Here’s another verse with the same testimony that evening does not BEGIN a NEW day, but CONTINUES a day:

And the same day, when the evening was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. Mark 4:35

It states that when evening came, it was still the SAME DAY!

Nehemiah’s Gate Closure the Evening Before the Sabbath

It’s been suggested that since Nehemiah had the gates closed in the evening before the Sabbath day in Chapter 8 of the Book of Nehemiah, that means a day begins in the evening. Let’s look at the verse:

And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the sabbath day. Nehemiah 13:19

If I were Nehemiah, and I knew people had developed a habit of coming carrying in their goods to sell on the Sabbath, and I didn’t want to be bothered with it and wanted to have a peaceful Sabbath, I’d make a habit of locking the gate the evening before so I can sleep in on the Sabbath and rest in peace and not have to worry about having to deal with their sins and their pollution of the Sabbath on the Sabbath morning. I don’t want to stay up all night worrying that maybe the guards wouldn’t follow my orders and close the gates at the right time. I would want to go to bed in peace knowing I had nothing to worry about. As a mother, I can’t go to sleep if I’m not sure all the doors are locked. I have no peace and cannot sleep until I know those doors are locked. I believe Nehemiah had the gates closed before the city went to sleep for the same reason. Thieves (those who transgress the commandments) sneak in at night, their evil works are done in the hours of darkness. We guard the city from thieves/enemies at night. This scenario with Nehemiah and the closing of the gates the evening before Sabbath simply is not PROOF that the day/date begins in the evening. It is another witness suggesting the SABBATH OBSERVANCE begins the evening before the Sabbath day, as Yom Kippur does, and Unleavened Bread, but it is not a witness that the Sabbath DAY itself begins the evening before.

When Could and Could Not the Priests Eat the Meat of the Sacrifices and Offerings in Leviticus?

The scripture that we found that stood out the most to my husband as conclusive evidence, no doubt about it proof that the day begins in the morning, we found while reading in Leviticus:

And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning. Leviticus 7:15

If evening began a new day, the sacrifice would need to be burned up by evening, and nobody would be able to leave it until evening, because that would begin the next day, and the verse we just read stated it had to be eaten the same day. But that’s not the case, it says to eat it the same day, it does not disallow anyone eating it in the evening, because evening is still the same day. However, it does specify that it must not be left until MORNING, because morning begins the next day. A similar verse:

On the same day it shall be eaten up; ye shall leave none of it until the morrow: I am YHUH. Lev 22:30

That word morrow in Lev 22:30, is actually boqer, morning, and here is what Strong’s has to say about when morrow (tomorrow-next day) is:

1. morning, break of day
   1. morning
   2. of end of night
   3. of coming of daylight
   4. of coming of sunrise
   5. of beginning of day
   6. of bright joy after night of distress (fig.)
2. morrow, next day, next morning

What Did Moses Teach “Tomorrow” Means?

Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast…Exodus 10:4…And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and YHUH brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all night; when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. Exodus 10:13

So the threat made by Moses was if Pharaoh did not let the people go, ON THE MORROW, the locusts would come. True to the promise, ALL THAT DAY AND NIGHT the wind blew, and the locusts appeared in the morning, on the morrow, the beginning of the next day.

What About Genesis 1?

The way we now read those verses of the creation week, “and there was evening and there was morning”, is this: When Aluhym said, “Let there be light”, on the first DAY of creation week, it was now day, because there was light. He spoke the light out of the darkness. That was the beginning of the day-morning. These are the creation hours. He created upon the earth during the daylight hours. Then came evening, continuing the date through the night until morning. Morning brings the sunlight – our light SIGNAL – that day one has ended and we have now begun day two, and now YHUH continues creating again during the daylight hours which is when He says we can work, and He divides the firmaments and the waters on this DAY. Then comes evening, then night, which isn’t mentioned, because He only mentions the daylight portions, which brings us to morning which is the beginning of the third DAY, on which He creates again during that DAY, and so on…Remember, Gen 1:14 says that the lights in the heavens are for days. YHUH says in the same chapter that the sun rules the day and that light was called day. How would the sun and light disappearing be a sign to us of a new day? How does the coming of the moon and stars and darkness announce the beginning of a day, when YHUH said the moon and stars rule the night, and that darkness is called night, not day?

What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. Isaiah 5:20

“They make night into day, saying, ‘The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness.” Job 17:12

I’ve provided MUCH more than the required 2-3 witnesses to establish the foundation from which I stand on, from scripture, that the day begins in the morning. Truly we have inherited lies. (Jeremiah 16:19)

For those who like to pull the race card on those that disagree with Judaism, we have discovered our Jewish ancestry and are not anti-Semitic. We love Judah and pray for ALL of Israel to see the light. The best way we can love, and be a light to Judah, is to do what YHUH’s written word says, even though that means forsaking their teachings and traditions. To do Torah works is love and light to all mankind!