Sermon Tone Analysis

It is a New Year and renewal of a new beginning.

For some it is auspicious and for some superstitions.

Here are some that have evolved around the first day of the first month.

[[web link|http://www.happywink.org/newyearfestival/new-year-superstitions.html]].

Accessed: Jan 3, 2012).

!!! Lucky New Year Babies

Babies born on 1st January is said to be the luckiest of all throughout their lives.

!!! Don't Let Money Leave the House

In several countries, people do not let money, jewelry, precious items or other invaluable things leave home on New Year Day.

!!! Letting the Old Year Out

At midnight, all the doors of a house must be opened to let the old year escape unimpeded.

!!! Make Noise

People believe that Evil One and his attendants and servants hate din and loud noise.

So, scare them away by being as loud in New Year celebrations as possible.

Church bells are rung at midnight for the same reason.

!!! Find Future Groom

On New Year's Day if, on rising, a girl should look out of her bedroom window and see a man passing by, she may reckon to be married before the year is finished.

Interestingly there are some events that surround the first day of the first month in the Bible.

While we do not wish to develop a theology around dates, it is interesting to study and learn what happened on the first day of the first month.

!! A quick look at the Jewish Calendar

The Jewish calendar is based on three astronomical phenomena:

• the rotation of the Earth about its axis (a day);

• the revolution of the moon about the Earth (a month); and

• the revolution of the Earth about the sun (a year).

!! When is New Year’s Day in the Jewish Calendar?

Among others there are two important start dates or at least two New Year beginnings.

There is Tishri and then there is Nisan.

Nothing surprising here, it is like us we have our Calendar year, the fiscal year and the school year each beginning at a different time of the year.

In this case, Tishri the historical beginning; and Nisan is the beginning of the social calendar.

!!! I. Tishri:

The first day is called Rosh Hashanah, literally the head of the year.

This day celebrated as the beginning of creation of the world and marks the start of a new calendar year.

!!! II.

Nisan:

The reign of the kings were counted using this calendar.

This is important knowledge for history scholars.

Any discrepancy regarding the duration of reign of the king can easily be accounted when we use Nisan instead of Tishri, as the basis of calculation.

This is also the start of the religious year.

Nisan is considered the first month, although it occurs 6 or 7 months after the start of the calendar year.

What so special about the first day of the first month?

We will look specifically into the reference "first day of the first month" and draw our lessons from them.

We will not get into the specifics of Tishri or Nisan but just at new beginnings.

!

I. WORLD EXTENDED

[[Bible:Gen 8:13]] – “And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.”

The water from the flood had dried up.

It was time to take the covers off (not just a peak through the window).

We don't have the description of the covering of the Ark, but it was on the first day of the first month that the curtain rose revealing a new world.

The scene must have been spectacular for those staying covered for almost a year.

The old world was gone and it was a new beginning.

Grace was extended to Noah and his family.

Gen 6:8.

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

Incidentally, this is the first time grace or favour is found in the Bible.

They too should have been consumed in the flood, but they get to see a new beginning.

The New Year was certainly the beginning of new things for Noah and his family.

The beginning of the Tishri calendar was believed by the Jews to have started from day one of creation.

The importance of that was not lost to Noah and his family, when on the first day of the first month they see the new world.

!!! Passover in Egypt

We read of a similar beginning when the nation of Israel is ready to leave Egypt.

They were to participate in a Passover meal, symbolizing the passing over of the Angel of Death over them because of the blood of the lamb smeared on their door posts.

Here we read:

Exodus 12: 2 – this month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

It is a new beginning for the nation of Israel.

They had come into Egypt as a family of 70 (or 75 if you count Joseph and his family) (Ex 1:5 Deut 10:22 Acts 7:14).

The number of the children of Israel leaving Egypt was 603,550 armed men for war (Numbers 1:46), add to that number women and children and men who were too old to go to war and you can easily reach a number upwards of 2-3 million.

God had protected the Children of Israel in Egypt during their country's infancy.

They had settled in Goshen in relative peace from the Egyptians because shepherds were an abomination to Egyptians (Gen 46:34).

And left in solitude and later kept through slavery they had grown in numbers, no wonder Pharaoh saw them as a threat on one hand and cheap labor on the other.

!!! Whole New World

Just like Noah and his family step out in a whole new world (sounds like a Disney Production but much better), the nation of Israel step out to go to this new place that God has promised them.

And in this case God commences a new calendar.

God begins a new life with a new time table, a new year.

"this month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you."

If you pick a coin, you will see a year inscribed on it.

The year is a reminder that those many years ago God's Son came down as man to die on the cross so that men and women would have a new life.

By His death on the cross He divides time into two - BC and AD.

With God, it is always a new beginning, a new life and He continues to do that even today.

2 Cor 5:17 — Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature.

Old things have passed away, behold He has made all things new.

May this year be a year of renewal.

If you have lost the freshness of your relationship with God - He says to you, He can make all things new.

Is there is anyone who is waiting for Christmas to put their trust in Christ?

News flash!

Christmas just got over.

God says, "Today is the day of salvation, now is the accepted time."

!!! Personal Command

Gen 9: 1 & 7. "And you, be ye fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein."

A repeat of the original command in Genesis 1:28.

Gen 1:28.

"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

However, Gen 9: 7 is unique in three ways

• Personal: And YOU, be ye fruitful.

• Plenteous: The word ABUNDANTLY is added.

• Persistence: Command is repeated in the same chapter — as if a double portion; a higher urgency to be fruitful and to multiply.

!!! Two Birds Mentioned

The two birds mentioned — raven and the dove are pictures of the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ natures of the believer, aren't they.

Noah releases the raven after the waters were subdued Gen 8:7 but it did not return like the Dove that Noah releases later Gen 8:9.

It is written, "And dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters [were] on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark."

The new nature that God gives us will find no rest on the decaying mess of the old self.

It will not find rest for the sole of her foot.