When is the Sabbath

When is the Sabbath?

by Tom Robbins

Well, this is how any Israelite a few thousand years ago (and any interested Bedouin, or anyone else anywhere in the world even today, for that matter) could easily determine when the Sabbath was, according to the lunar method of reckoning, just by glancing up at the sky at certain times of the day or night. He or she could know when the Sabbath was, without looking at a "calendar" (which I am pretty sure not every ancient wilderness dweller and sheep herder had at their disposal), even if they had been holding out in a cave for several months, and had not even looked outside or spoken with another human being about the days of the weeks or months.

The Sabbath ALWAYS falls on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th days of the lunar cycle. Anyone in Astronomy 101 knows that those days of the lunar cycle are the First Quarter, the Second Quarter (which is a Full Moon), the Third Quarter, and the Last Quarter (New Moon, which is NO MOON, a dark moon, which will last for two or three days), respectively. The apparent position of the moon is lagged by about 50 minutes each day, causing it to be in a slightly easternmost position each day. No mystery there, just simple observation.

For example, today, "Wednesday", "Sept. 19" [2007 - Ed] (these are all man made figures of speech, spiced with paganisms, by the way), at sunset, the 8th day of the lunar cycle began. If someone in ancient times (theoretically) came out of a cave that they had been in for a couple of months, and noticed that at sunset, the moon was directly overhead, straight up in the sky at sunset, he would easily KNOW by common sense (they were smarter than us back then, I am convinced!) that it was the beginning of the 8th day of the "moonth", and that the Sabbath was now. The moon would look like this, straight up in the sky. http://www.calculatorcat.com/moon_phases/phasenow.php?tcv=60

Now, if someone noticed that at about the time of the sunset in the west, a big full moon was also rising in the opposite sky, in the east, he could be pretty certain that this was the natural indication from Yahweh placed in the heavens from the beginning of Creation, that this was the beginning of the 15th day of the month (a Sabbath rest).

If someone came out of that cave, and noticed that at the rising of the sun, the moon was directly overhead, straight up (it would be a quarter moon "in reverse", waning), they would know that it was obviously the last quarter, the 22nd day of the month, also a Sabbath rest.

Then during the "last quarter" (the new moon), no moon is sighted day or night, anywhere in the sky. This is a time of very dark nights. If you don't have your own light source, it is very black outside, all night long. This is no time to be wandering around in the dark outside of your tent, or outside of the city walls. Wild animals can see in the dark, but you cannot! Not even your enemies can make a decent approach against you, while your Watchmen are straining to try to see if any figures are approaching.

At last, after two or three days of anxious anticipation, a tiny sliver of the moon is sighted low in the western sky just after sunset! HalleluYah!!! The shofars are sounded! The dark days are over. A new lunar cycle has began! Yahweh's faithful witnesses in the sky do not ever disappoint.

The first day of the month is over with this sighting of the first sliver after sunset. The second lunar day has just began. It's the first day of the first week. It's time to go back to work. According to Yahweh, it's six days work, then rest on HIS Shabbat. The cycle is repeated, according to His ways.

The pagan paper calendar and system that was invented by man many centuries ago, and has been ingrained into our minds since birth, telling us softly that "this is the way", looks more and more like a clever deception from the Master of Deception (you know who!).