A New Year - Declaring the Glory of Yah!

by Bill & Karen Bishop
(A full version of this article can be downloaded here.)

The equinox occurred today, March 20, 2024 over Jerusalem at 5:06 am IST. With this event, the heavenly hosts have declared today as the first day of the first month - the Rosh Chodesh, the "Beginning of Months" as stated in:

Exodus 12:2
(2) This month shall be unto you the beginning [rosh] of months [chodesh]: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

There is no other Rosh Chodesh like this one that was commanded by Yah to Moshe. This is the Rosh or the “Head” or “Chief” of all the months - it is the renewal or beginning of:

• a new monthly cycle, Month I;
• a new season - Spring, bringing the renewal of life springing forth in the earth;
• a new year, beginning a new circuit, a new race, a renewal of hope.

Psalms 19:1-7
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.
(1) The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
(2) Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
(3) There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.

(4) Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
(5) Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
(6) His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
(7) The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: ...

Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible:
From the things that are seen every day by all the world the psalmist, in these verses, leads us to the consideration of the invisible things of God, whose being appears incontestably evident and whose glory shines transcendently bright in the visible heavens, the structure and beauty of them, and the order and influence of the heavenly bodies. This instance of the divine power serves not only to show the folly of atheists, who see there is a heaven and yet say, “There is no God,” who see the effect and yet say, “There is no cause,” but to show the folly of idolaters also, and the vanity of their imagination, who, though the heavens declare the glory of God, yet gave that glory to the lights of heaven (e.g., pagan sun and moon worship) which those very lights directed them to give to God only, the Father of lights.

Today is an emphatic reminder for us regarding our Creator Father YHWH - the Creator of time and everything else. Today points to the 4th day of creation, thousands of years ago, when He placed the heavenly hosts in the firmament with the sun and moon to visibly define daytime and nighttime. He gave us observable timekeeping elements before He even created us, mankind, in His image.  The sun, moon and stars have kept their divinely appointed order since the very beginning of time!

Matthew Henry’s Commentary - continued:

... that they [the hosts of heaven] declare the glory of God, by showing his handy-works, Psa_19:1. They plainly speak themselves to be God's handy-works; for they could not exist from eternity; all succession and motion must have had a beginning; they could not make themselves, that is a contradiction; they could not be produced by a casual hit of atoms, that is an absurdity, fit rather to be bantered than reasoned with: therefore they must have a Creator, who can be no other than an eternal mind, infinitely wise, powerful, and good. Thus it appears they are God's works, the works of his fingers (Psa_8:3), and therefore they declare his glory. From the excellency of the work we may easily infer the infinite perfection of its great author. From the brightness of the heavens we may collect that the Creator is light; their vastness of extent bespeaks his immensity, their height his transcendency and sovereignty, their influence upon this earth his dominion, and providence, and universal beneficence: and all declare his almighty power, by which they were at first made, and continue to this day according to the ordinances that were then settled.

II. What are some of those things which notify this?
1. The heavens and the firmament - the vast expanse of air and ether, and the spheres of the planets and fixed stars. Man has this advantage above the beasts, in the structure of his body, that whereas they are made to look downwards, as their spirits must go, he is made erect, to look upwards, because upwards his spirit must shortly go and his thoughts should now rise.

Jeremiah 33:14-22
(14) Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.
(15) In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.
(16) In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.
(17) For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel;
(18) Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.
(19) And the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, saying,
(20) Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;
(21) Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers.
(22) As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.

Matthew Henry’s Commentary - (continued):

2. The constant and regular succession of day and night (Psa_19:2): Day unto day, and night unto night, speak the glory of that God who first divided between the light and the darkness, and has, from the beginning to this day, preserved that established order without variation, according to God's covenant with Noah (Gen_8:22), that, while the earth remains, day and night shall not cease, to which covenant of providence the covenant of grace is compared for its stability, Jer_33:20; Jer_31:35. The counterchanging of day and night, in so exact a method, is a great instance of the power of God, and calls us to observe that, as in the kingdom of nature, so in that of providence, he forms the light and creates the darkness (Isa_45:7), and sets the one over-against the other. It is likewise an instance of his goodness to man; for he makes the out-goings of the morning and evening to rejoice, Psa_65:8. He not only glorifies himself, but gratifies us, by this constant revolution; for as the light of the morning befriends the business of the day, so the shadows of the evening befriend the repose of the night; every day and every night speak the goodness of God, and, when they have finished their testimony, leave it to the next day, to the next night, to stay the same.
3. ... Concerning the sun observe here,
(1.) The place appointed him. In the heavens God has set a tabernacle for the sun. The heavenly bodies are called hosts of heaven, and therefore are fitly said to dwell in tents, as soldiers in their encampments. The sun is said to have a tabernacle set him, not only because he is in continual motion and never has a fixed residence, but because the mansion he has will, at the end of time, be taken down like a tent, when the heavens shall be rolled together like a scroll and the sun shall be turned to darkness.
(2.) The course assigned him. That glorious creature [the sun] was not made to be idle, but his going forth (at least as it appears to our eye) is from one point of the heavens, and his circuit thence to the opposite point, and thence (to complete his diurnal revolution) to the same point again; and this with such steadiness and constancy that we can certainly foretel the hour and the minute at which the sun will rise at such a place, any day to come.
(3.) The brightness wherein he appears. He is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, richly dressed and adorned, as fine as hands can make him, looking pleasantly himself and making all about him pleasant; for the friend of the bridegroom rejoices greatly to hear the bridegroom's voice, Joh_3:29.
(4.) The cheerfulness wherewith he makes this tour. Though it seems a vast round which he has to walk, and he has not a moment's rest, yet in obedience to the law of this creation, and for the service of man, he not only does it, but does it with a great deal of pleasure and rejoices as a strong man to run a race. With such satisfaction did Christ, the Sun of righteousness, finish the work that was given him to do.
(5.) His universal influence on this earth: There is nothing hidden from the heart thereof, no, not metals in the bowels of the earth, which the sun has an influence upon.

Malachi 4:1-6
(1) For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
(2) But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
(3) And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.
(4) Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
(5) Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
(6) And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

A place is traditionally set at the Seder table for Elijah in expectation of his return. We know that a type of Elijah, John the Immerser came before a “day of the Lord” - our Lord Y’shua’s first coming.

Will we see the return of the Messiah in this generation? Can you hear the voice of Elijah off in the distance today? Are we supposed to be that voice? Are we as Torah-keeping followers of the Messiah Y’shua meant to be the new “Elijah”, preparing the way before the “great and dreadful day of the LORD”?

John the Immerser was a disciple of the Yahad in Qumran, living a life of devotion and practicing the Torah according to the Zadokite teachings and their calendar. He prepared the way of the Lord, preaching a gospel of repentance and remission of sin. Our Lord Messiah has commanded us to do the same - thus becoming the next “Elijah”.

Luke 24:44-49
(44) And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
(45) Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
(46) And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
(47) And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
(48) And ye are witnesses of these things.
(49) And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: ...

What is this promise of the Father? It is the promise originally given to Abraham. It was the promise of the seed, that Yah would provide him a son, that through his seed (the fruit bearing more seed of itself), he should become the father of many nations. Y’shua, the ultimate Promised One of the seed, expands the breadth of this promise to all mankind in the blessed hope of bringing us into His Promised Land of Eternal Life. Abraham received the blessing of the promise through the righteousness of his faith :

Romans 4:13,18-25
(13) For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
(18) Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
(19) And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:
(20) He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
(21) And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
(22) And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
(23) Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;
(24) But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
(25) Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Galatians 3:22,29
(22) But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
(29) And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

We have this promise through our faith by the Grace of Yah, and it does not expire - it holds true throughout the remainder of time! Our adversary, on the other hand, knows his time is drawing short. He is working overtime to destroy and eliminate everyone and everything to do with this promise.

The current events that are happening in our world speak heavily to us at this year’s renewal. We see the perceived future rapidly becoming history everyday; things are coming to pass at an alarming rate.  Yah has it all in His Hand though. He created the Heavens and the Earth, the sun and the moon, daytime and nighttime. His Heavenly Host declares His Glory to us - with His calendar and with the coming signs in the sky. The adversary is truly more deceptive, more deadly, more evil, more powerful than we can imagine, and our Father Creator Yah in Messiah Y’shua is far GREATER! We can safely rely on His Promise through our devotion and repentance - know it, and believe it!

His Promise is our good news! The final call of Elijah for a broken world to come to Y’shua for repentance and the remission of sins is underway. We will not snicker about or disregard Elijah’s empty place at the Seder table. We are encouraged in the Holy Spirit to be a type of Elijah this year as Torah-believing, Sabbath-keeping, truth-seeking disciples of the only true Messiah, Y’shua. Yah’s Hand is moving, pulling back His Veil. We have been blessed by Him, and we will continue to be blessed by Him in these days of upheaval if we keep our focus on Him. May you be encouraged and strengthened to do so as well. We all must be prepared to greet him face to face; we do not want to run and hide when He looks our way. We all have spiritual work to do, and there are many, Believers and non-Believers alike, who need our help.

Proverbs 13:14
(14) The law [torah] of the wise is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.

This is a year to proclaim the goodness and the Promise of Yah more than ever. It is time to set aside our petty differences and see the bigger picture in front of us. It is time to be a fountain of Living Water with Yah’s Word in Spirit and Truth gushing forth.

John 7:38
(38) He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Revelation 21:6
(6) And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

We are at a precipice; it’s the 4th quarter and our opponent is aggressively attacking on offense. We do not win by counter-attacking and using his despicable tactics against him. We become like him when we do that.

Our only offensive weapon is the sword of the Spirit - knowing and declaring the Word of Yah (Ephesians 6:17). We can follow the instruction of our Master and be assured of victory. He will win the battles, and we have the opportunity to serve the greatest and the most righteous leader of all time. There is a call to action; Elijah is here; it’s time to apply our training and be the voice of one calling in the wilderness. The world may not listen, but there are those out there that Yah is reaching, and they need our help.

The Heavens declare the Glory of Yah, and so can we.  This year appears to be bringing many changes and challenges - prime opportunities for each of us to grow and to serve.

May you be blessed and be a blessing!
Bill & Karen

Psalms 19:6-9
(6) His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
(7) The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
(8) The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
(9) The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.