1 – Abib is the first month of the year

We’ll be starting a look at the 613 laws of Moses from a dispensational point of view. Why a dispensational point of view? Well – if you stayed up late for New Years Eve – you might be a dispensationalist – because March 13th, 2021 (check your lunar calendars for other years) is the Mosaic New Years Eve celebration!

That’s right – the Mosaic law altered the calendar of Creation (according to Jewish tradition Rosh Hashanah – or Tishri 1 – is the date of the Creation of the World, and the Jewish calendar adds another number to the Anno Mundi on that date). You may also know Rosh Hashanah as the Feast of Trumpets, considered by some to be the date of the upcoming Rapture of the Church. If you want an interesting rabbit trail – consider Year 6000 – especially if you follow Ussher’s Chronology as opposed to the Anno Mundi.

So from Adam through Noah – the calendar started with Tishri

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.

Genesis 8:13

So Moses reset the calendar that was given to Adam:

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

Exodus 12:2

Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.

Deuteronomy 16:1

but under the New Testament we were told that calendar observation isn’t worth our time!

But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Galatians 4:9-11

Paul upends the very first Mosaic command (and quite a few others as we will see) calling it a “weak and beggarly element” and a tool of “bondage.”

But lets skip forward 2,000 years from Paul and look into the next Millennium and we see another change of the calendar!

Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the first month, in the first day of the month, thou shalt take a young bullock without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary:

Exodus 45:18

Interesting – a new ceremony for Abib 1 – the cleansing of the sanctuary! How do we know this first month is the month Abib – the month of the Mosaic New Year? Well – the definitive feature of the Mosaic New Year is the Passover!

In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.

Exodus 45:21

So we have one calendar from Adam to Moses, another from Moses to Paul, the Church age is free from calendar mandates, but in the Millennial kingdom there will be a return of the Mosaic calendar with a New Year’s Day purification of the sanctuary!

Will the Millennial New Year’s Day be a commemoration of Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple that fulfilled Malachi’s cryptic prophecy?

[1] Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to this temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
[2] But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
[3] And he shall sit as a refiner and purifer of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
[4] Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.

Malachi 3:1-4

[15] And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;
[16] And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.
[17] And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Mark 11:15-17