Does The New Moon Govern When To Set And Observe The Weekly Sabbath?

 

According to a friend, there is a study saying the New Moon (Rosh Hodesh) of each month is supposed to set the weekly Sabbath rests for the month.

Obviously someone has gone to quite lengths to determine this as a possibility, and we all should be so diligent to put forth so much effort in our search for God and His Truth.

According to this method, the 7th day following the New Moon would be appointed as the first weekly Sabbath of the month. This would result in the weekly Sabbaths always falling on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and the 28th of every month. Then, when the next New Moon occurs, the process is repeated for each and every New Moon that follows thereafter.

 

It is a known fact that the New Moon is to be observed as a Sabbath:

Amos 8:5  Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

But, we also find in Lev. 23:27-32, that the day of Atonement is to be observed as a Sabbath:

Lev. 23:32  It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.

Atonement does not set the weekly Sabbath rest. So, is there any validity in the New Moon governing the weekly Sabbaths? Truth is established by the evidence of 2 or 3 witnesses. We must see if the Scripture bears this teaching out as truth or not.

2 Timothy 3:16   All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

Witness # 1

 

Creation Week:

In Genesis we read that the sun and the moon were created on the 4th day. For those who choose to use the dark moon as the New Moon, it fell on the 4th day of creation. For those who use the first visible sliver, the New Moon was on the 5th day of creation. Thus the New Moon and the beginning of the heavenly clock work started as early as the 4th day of creation or as late as the 5th day of creation, depending on your method of identifyng the New Moon.

Did God wait for 6 more days to pass before He rested? NO. During the Creation Week, the Sabbath day of rest was on the 3rd day after the dark moon and the 2nd day after the sliver as seen in the chart below. This example for the weekly Sabbath was set by God Himself. The lunar month, or the New Moon, had nothing to do with His Sabbath day of rest. The New Moon or Rosh Hodesh fell in the midst of the 7 day week totally separate from the Weekly Sabbath.

 

Witness # 2

Manna Week:

After the children of Israel had been in bondage to Egypt for 400 years, God used the Manna Week to reinstate His weekly Sabbath. In Ex. 16:4, He said "to see if they will walk in My law or NO," and God said NOTHING about the moon.

The scripture records that Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron on the 15th day of the 2nd month after departing out of the land of Egypt. The first day manna fell was in the morning on the 16th day of the 2nd month. They collected manna each day for 6 days, 16th through the 21st, and God said there would be none on the next day (the 7th day) because it was the weekly Sabbath (the 22nd of the 2nd Month). The scripture (Ex. 16:29) reads, " see for the LORD has given you the Sabbath."

Now, just simply count backwards to the point where God said in Ex. 12:2, "this is beginning of months to you.” This puts the 1st day of the 1st month of the beginning of months and the New Moon on the 5th day of the week and the weekly Sabbath occurred 2 days after the the New Moon disproving again by the example that God Himself has set, NOT to use the 7th day after the New Moon as a method of determining the weekly Sabbath.

 

Witness # 3

 

Crucifixion Week:

Yeshua was crucified on Nisan 14 and in the tomb 3 days and 3 nights and the tomb was empty on the first day of the week. This makes the 1st day of the week the 18th. Counting backward to find the 1st day of the month (new moon) goes as follows:

 

Sunday (18th); Saturday (17th); Friday (16th); Thursday (15th); Wednesday (14th); Tuesday (13th); Monday (12th); Sunday (11th); Saturday (10th); and so forth, counting backward, showing that the New moon or the 1st day of the 1st month fell on what we call Thursday (the 5th day of the week) and the Sabbath came 2 days later on the 3rd of Nisan not seven days after the new moon.

Using the method of the weekly Sabbath coming 7 days after the New Moon, would have thrown the days of the week off and would have nullified Yeshua's resurrection from falling on the 1st day of the week as the scripture records.

 

Conclusion:

The weekly Sabbath is the sign that God gave to show which God you serve. All three of these scripture witnesses pertained to situations were God Himself intervened establishing His Sabbath, not by the New Moon, not the calendar, not man, not the prophets, not the Christians, not the Jews, not the Messianic, not me, or anyone else but God Himself...............

Am I saying the weekly Sabbath is always two or three days after the New Moon as these examples appear? No. But I am saying it seems to me that God Himself has set the example, three of them, not to use the Rosh Hodesh to find His weekly Sabbath. It is through these examples that we can conclude; the seven-day cycle goes unbroken no matter where the New Moon falls.

 

Truth is only established by the evidence of 2 or 3 witnesses; all three of the examples used proving the New Moon does not set the weekly Sabbath were scripture accounts given by the Creator Himself in the Scripture of Truth.