In the first of my series of posts on what I called Scriptural Timing I wrote about how I have been blessed as I have explored Scriptural concepts of time and applied them in my own life and that I wanted to share that blessing with others. Scripture (both Old and New Testaments), but dare I also say God, has a different clock and calendar to the ones we have inherited from the Greeks and the Romans.
The timing I find in Scripture begins in the very first verses of Genesis where we read over and over, "...there was evening and there was morning - the first (second, etc) day." So this means.....a new day begins at sunset! So what, you might ask?
Well, for starters, it means that as I write this at 4pm on Friday 24 December, Christmas is very close. In just an hour or so, when the new day begins at sunset, it will be Christmas eve (i.e. the evening of Christmas)...it will be Christmas! Those people who celebrate and perhaps open presents on the evening of Christmas (Christmas eve) are the ones who get the Biblical sense of timing right. In Scripture, the new day begins at sunset.
The pagan Greeks and Romans saw things differently, with the Greeks believing that a new day starts at sunrise and the Romans thinking a new day starts at midnight.
Today is also Friday and Friday is of course the day our LORD was executed, and about this time they were rushing about to get Him buried before the Sabbath started....at sunset. Those who were with Him (the women) would go home and mourn. On Saturday, their (the) Sabbath, they would continue to mourn. Then, early in the morning on Sunday, the first day of the week, they would go to the tomb, find it empty and announce to the world that HE IS RISEN and soon that day (the day after the Sabbath) would become referred to in Scripture not only as the first day of the week, but as the LORD's Day.
So Christmas 2010 is especially special as it falls on the Biblical Sabbath, truly a day to rest in the Good News that He is Immanuel, God with us!
May yours be a blessed and restful Christmas.
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