Have you ever seen a Farmer’s Almanac in the magazine stands at the grocery store? Or did your grandfather keep one around? Generations went by used almanacs as a handbook to understand the rising and setting of the sun, the weather patterns of the season, and the movement of the stars in the sky.
The oldest example of these are actually connected with Babylonian astronomy, where the great scholars would correlate events on earth with the movements of the heavens. For thousands of years, humanity has been using mathematic equations and observable sciences to forecast the trends of the season. In an almanac of yesteryear, one could find out when the best time to plant crops, harvest them, plan a wedding, or just know when the sun would rise on a particular day. Today, we have the internet to ask all our questions to… but what about our spiritual questions? Where can we go to understand God’s timing for sowing spiritual seed or planning special days? The Bible, of course! It too can be seen as an almanac!
Have you ever considered that the Bible can do that, only with the movement of God’s Spirit throughout the Earth? Did you know that your TLV Bible translation restores the Judeo-Christian narrative so completely that you can keep time with it? Is that why people are growing more and more in love with Yeshua every time they open their TLV Bible?
Biblical timekeeping is so fascinating because God created us to thrive under His watchcare. He ordained the tides to come in and out, for the sun and moon to rise and fall, and for the earth to turn on its axis in such a way that can sustain the life that He breathed into being. God also ordained the seven-day week, the 28-30 day monthly cycle, and the passing of the seasons! And on top of all that, God sent His Son to teach us how to love and obey Him. Yeshua grew up on the earth, like we do, day after day, week after week, season after season. Yeshua lived within the ordained rhythms of life so that He could explain Our Father to us in a way that we could understand.
Loving God the Father is a function of growing closer to Him OVER TIME – year by year. From Genesis to Revelation, we can see the patterns of God’s will in the lives of His people. Whether in the cyclical pattern of seedtime and harvest, or the punctuation of His covenants with mankind, the metanarrative of Scripture is constant: God is faithful to save and provide for His Children.
The calendar that we live with today is known as the Gregorian calendar, which was a replacement for the Julian calendar. The Julian calendar was the Roman Empire’s attempt to keep time without human dictators elongating the years for their own political benefit. When the Gregorian calendar was introduced, it focused on aligning with the solar equinoxes. And while the Gregorian calendar is a tropical calendar instead of a lunar calendar, we can learn to live in the world by not of it by following the Biblical calendar!
Biblical months are lunar, and the Creator purposefully crafted time to include INCREASE by having the twelfth moon to double every 3 to 4 year. In fact, there are seven ‘extra’ months that occurs before you turn 20 years old – the Biblical age of adulthood. What a blessing!
When we live our lives according to God’s calendar, we can easily begin to recognize the patterns, seasons and trends of His Will. Which is incredibly exciting! To be able to recognize what God is doing and when doesn’t always require a “prophetic” gifting. All it requires is a knowledge of who He is and how He operates.
Just like knowing how your spouse takes their coffee after years of marriage, the more time you spend with God and His Word, the easier it is to know how he does things.
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