The First Month - Aviv/Nisan

L'shana tova!! That's Hebrew for Happy New Year!!

According to Scripture, today is the first day of the year on God’s calendar - the Biblical Calendar. (Exodus 12:2) This is the month of Aviv (Abib) which means “tender ear.” Since Israel's exile in Babylon, this month has also been called Nisan which means “their flight.” This is a month of great and miraculous deliverance into new creation life. It is the month of Passover, when God first redeemed His people out of slavery in Egypt with great plagues and acts of judgment. During these plagues, God distinguished between the people who were His and the people who were not. Israel became a nation in a day when they were delivered by the mighty hand of God through the parted waters of the Red Sea. Passover is celebrated throughout Scripture and is still celebrated every year to remember how God saved His people with great and powerful signs and miracles.

After one year in the wilderness, on the first day of the first month, the Tabernacle was erected and consecrated to the Lord according to the pattern God gave to Moses. The shekinah glory of God filled the Tabernacle for all to see but Moses was not allowed to enter until the rules were given for the sacrifices required for entering God's presence.

Forty years after the first Passover, it was in this month that Joshua led the Israelites to cross over the Jordan River into the Promised Land. They renewed their covenant commitment to God, circumcised the new generation, celebrated the Passover, and began to eat the fruit of the Promised Land. Most significantly, it was on the eve of Passover that Jesus was betrayed and crucified. Knowing in advance that this must happen, Jesus led His disciples in the Last Supper communion with broken bread and poured out wine. They sang the Hallel Psalms to rejoice in God's great salvation of His people. That night, Jesus was betrayed and events were set in motion. The world judged and killed the Son of God but He shed His blood as the eternal Passover Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. His sacrifice made the way for all who believe in Him to have direct access to God and enter into God's presence without limitation. Jesus' resurrection from death is God's greatest sign and evidence of God's love and redemption made available to all mankind. Jesus brings deliverance and salvation for all who put our trust in Him.

It is Jewish tradition to read the Song of Songs on the Shabbat of the week of the Passover celebration. The story of the lover and His beloved reminds us of God's love for His people, the journey of the Bride to maturity, and points us to the wedding feast of the Lamb that is yet to come.

Other significant Biblical events this month include the first day that the waters of Noah's flood were dried up to show the ground; Ezekiel prophesied the destruction of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar; Daniel had a powerful vision of the Lord and end-times battles; Ezra and a group of exiles began their journey back to the Promised Land; Nehemiah stood sad-faced before the King before being granted permission to return to the Promised Land; and in Esther's time, Haman cast lots to select the date of the destruction of the Jewish people...the date which became the day of their very great deliverance. This is a month of new beginnings, fulfillment of long-awaited promises, renewed consecration, and new life. Therefore, in Jesus' name, may you be blessed this month with supernatural deliverance into new life, increased resurrection power, and the fulfillment of God’s promises according to His plans for you.

Optional Reading: Hallel Psalms 113-118

Traditional Jewish Reading: Song of Songs

Scripture References from the First Month:

Genesis 8:13 Exodus 12-14, 40:1-38

Leviticus 23:5-14 Numbers 9:1, 20:1, 28:16, 33:3 Deuteronomy 16:1-8 Joshua 4:19-24 1 Chronicles 12:15, 27:2-3 2 Chronicles 29, 35 Ezra 6:19, 7:9, 8:31, 10:17 Nehemiah 2:1

Ezekiel 29:17, 30:20, 45:18

Esther 3:7

Daniel 10:4

Matthew 21-28

Mark 11-16

Luke 2:41-50, 19-24

John 2:13-23, 6:4, 11:55, 12:1, 13:1, 18:28-39, 19:14

Acts 20:6

1 Corinthians 5:7-8

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Originally published as: "The Blessing of Abib/Nisan" - Reprinted from Blessings of the Biblical Calendar - Copyright © 2015 Wendy Bowen – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WORLDWIDE

Lamb Selection Day & the Triumphal Entry

Announce to the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each family must choose a lamb or a young goat for a sacrifice, one animal for each household. - Exodus 12:3

Today is the 10th day of Nisan, the day on which the unblemished Passover lamb was to be selected and set apart from the flock. Special care was to be taken of this lamb until Passover on the 14th of the month, when it would be slaughtered at twilight. The blood of this lamb would provide protection and deliverance for Israel from the Destroyer because God would pass over His people who had the blood of the lamb on their doors.

About fourteen hundred years later, it was on this day, Lamb Selection Day, that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey in the Triumphal Entry, presenting Himself as the unblemished eternal Passover Lamb of God. As Jesus entered Jerusalem, the people shouted “Hosanna!” with joy, affirming their faith in Jesus as the promised Son of David, the Son of God, their Messiah, and the King of Israel. They waved palm branches as a symbol of national pride and their hope for political deliverance from Rome. 

Matthew 21:5 ESV - 5 "Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.'" (Quoting Zechariah 9:9)

John 12:13 ESV - 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!" (Quoting Psalm 118:26)

But unlike military conquerors who proudly rode into conquered cities on warhorses, Jesus rode humbly on a donkey, not a warhorse, and He wept because He knew that the people failed to recognize God’s love and refused to be gathered to God’s grace. He understood the great sacrifice He was about to make for them to have peace with God, but they did not know their time of God visiting them. As Jesus rode into the city, He knew that their exuberant profession of faith would be replaced in only a few days with demands for His crucifixion. He knew that His own slaughter as the Passover Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world was the way God was making peace to spare people from His wrath.

Luke 19:41-42 ESV - 41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”

When Jesus’ arrived in Jerusalem, He entered the Temple and turned over the tables of the money changers who had turned God’s House into a marketplace for their own advantage, even though it was supposed to be the place where all the nations could come to seek, pray to, and know the God of Israel without hindrance. Soon after this, some Gentiles sent word to Jesus that they wanted to see Him, and even though it was always God’s purpose to include the nations/Gentiles who came to Him, this was Jesus’ cue that His earthly mission was almost over. Before salvation could be opened up to Gentiles and offered to the world, Jesus must die on a cross to bring salvation to and through the Jews. Prior to this, Jesus had said many times that His time had not yet come, but now He announced, “The hour has come” because it was time for His mission to culminate on the cross. A grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die so that it can bear fruit. Jesus did not love His own life and in fact, He thought so little of life in this world by comparison to eternal life with God, that it was a joy for Him to endure the cross and not count the shame of it. (See Hebrews 12:2)

John 12:24-25 ESV - 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Jesus knew that people did not believe Him because God had not yet revealed it to them. Their eyes were blind and their hearts were hard, and in four days, they would crucify Him. But He also knew and trusted that God would not fail to raise Him on the third day, victorious over sin, death, and the ruler of this world, the devil.

Even though His soul was troubled to think of what was ahead, Jesus refused to ask for deliverance from it. When He instead said, “Father, glorify Your Name”, a voice from heaven responded affirmatively, so Jesus said, “Now is the judgment of the world; now the ruler of the world will be cast out.” He knew that through the cross, by not succumbing to the powers of darkness or the temptation to resist evil with evil, He would overcome evil with good. By giving Himself over to death and trusting God’s power for vindication through resurrection, Jesus would be lifted up on the cross and draw all humanity to God’s love and salvation.

Jesus set the example of what it means to hate your own life in this world by comparison to your love for God. This is revealed through submission and obedience to the will of God, even if it costs everything you hold dear and your own life. He told His disciples about the cost of following Him, and He does not ask us to do anything He did not demonstrate for us Himself.

Matthew 10:37-39 ESV - 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Mark 8:34-38 ESV - 34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

Luke 14:26-27, 33 ESV - 26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. ... 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Jesus is the one and only Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and as His disciples, we are called to follow the Lamb and be like lambs among wolves. It is popular to get excited about following the Lion of the tribe of Judah, but when it is announced in the book of Revelation that the Lion of Judah has overcome, John turns and sees a Lamb that was slain. The authority and strength of the Lion of Judah is revealed in the Lamb of God who did not fight the world on the world’s terms or with the world’s weapons or threats of death because these things are from the evil one. The Lamb overcame the evil one and the world by trusting God and obeying Him, even unto death, by turning the other cheek, going the extra mile, and giving salvation as a free gift to everyone who asks. True disciples of Jesus follow the Lamb wherever He goes because He is their strength and their song and has become their salvation. (See Exodus 15:2; Isaiah 12:2; Psalm 118:14.) There is no mention of following a lion.

Talk is cheap. Obedience is costly. If you truly believe that Jesus is your Savior, then you will walk in the obedience of faith. So, on this Lamb Selection Day, with renewed commitment, willingness, and passion, declare again your faith in Jesus as your Savior, your King, and your eternal Passover Lamb with readiness to take up your cross and follow the Lamb wherever He leads you.  

Lamb Selection Day Scriptures

Lamb Selection Day: Exodus 12:1-6

The Triumphal Entry: Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19, John 12

Note: This is celebrated in many churches as Palm Sunday.

Passover & The Last Supper

Tonight at twilight is the Passover, the night which recalls how God protected His people from destruction and delivered them from slavery. Tonight, as Jews all over the world enjoy the Passover Feast, the youngest child will pose the question, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” The oldest person responds by telling the Passover story.

Life of Egyptian slavery had become very bitter for the Hebrews, so they groaned and cried out to their God for deliverance. God sent Moses to request that Pharaoh release His people so they could worship Him freely. Israel was God’s firstborn son and if Pharaoh did not let Israel go, God would take Pharaoh’s firstborn son. But Pharaoh refused to acknowledge God as greater than him and the gods of Egypt. His heart was hard and he hardened it, refusing to release God’s people. So, God graciously displayed His exceedingly great power by sending plagues of blood, frogs, gnats, flies, death of livestock, hail, locusts, and darkness, while continuing to request through Moses that Pharaoh let His people go. When Pharaoh still refused to release the Hebrew slaves, God gave Moses instructions for the first Passover, which he relayed to all the Hebrews:

Exodus 12:5-13 ESV - Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

The Hebrews did as God instructed and when God passed through the land of Egypt with the angel of death, not a hair on any Hebrew head was touched. In fact, it was so peaceful where they lived that not even a dog barked. After the Destroyer destroyed all the firstborn in Egypt, the Hebrews left Egypt at midnight to make their way into the wilderness. God had delivered them from slavery, and they were finally free to worship Him! With joy, they looked forward to possessing the land flowing with milk and honey, which God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. As all Israel left Egypt, they were set apart as a nation and became His sanctuary, the dwelling place of the only God who created heaven and earth and everything in it. (Psalm 114:2)

God commanded Israel to celebrate the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread each year to remind them once a year of God’s mighty hand which delivered them from slavery and how He set them apart as His holy nation. God also commanded that the firstborn son of every family and every firstborn animal must be consecrated to Him so that Israel’s redemption would be incorporated into their regular consciousness every time a firstborn was born. These observances would serve as a mark of their redemption on their hand and forehead.

Exodus 12:14 ESV - 14 "This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.

Exodus 13:2, 11-16 ESV - 2 "Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine." ... 11 "When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, 12 you shall set apart to the LORD all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the LORD's. 13 Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. 14 And when in time to come your son asks you, 'What does this mean?' you shall say to him, 'By a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. 15 For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.' 16 It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt."

About fourteen hundred years later, it was on this night that Jesus ate His last supper, the Passover meal, with His disciples. As God’s firstborn Son, He told them He had longed to celebrate this day with them and pointed to the bread and wine from the Passover meal as His body which would be broken and His blood of the New Covenant which would be poured out for the forgiveness of sins. They sang the Hallel Psalms (Psalms 113-118) and praised God for His power and deliverance.

When the disciples began to argue about which one of them would be the greatest, Jesus told them that His followers must not try to take the highest place to lord over one another like Gentiles do, but must take the lowest place to love and serve one another. To demonstrate this, He washed their feet and told them to do the same for one another.

Judas had already received money to betray Jesus and after the meal and foot washing, went out to complete his task. Jesus immediately and enthusiastically proclaimed, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him!” knowing that His crucifixion was imminent.

After Judas departed, Jesus gave His disciples a new commandment that they must love one another the way that He loved them, by laying down His life for them. He told them if they loved Him, they must keep His commandments and if they obeyed Him, He would come and dwell within them. He was giving commands for His New Covenant community so that God’s Spirit could dwell with them as His people. His friends are those who keep His commandments and they would be the new sanctuary, the new Temple of God.

Jesus had tried to tell His disciples several times before in very literal terms that He was going to be killed and raised from the dead. But this night, He used figures of speech because His disciples could not bear any more. He prayed His final prayer for them and for all believers to be completely united in Him so the world would know that God sent Him and see God’s love.

In anguish, Jesus also prayed in Gethsemane, totally surrendering Himself to the will of God by saying, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” The religious leaders of the Jewish people had rejected Jesus’ ministry and claims of Messiahship. Regardless of His miracles like healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead, walking on water, commanding the storm, multiplying food, and other things only God can do, they hardened their hearts and refused to believe. When Judas and the High Priest’s band of soldiers came to arrest Jesus, Jesus turned Himself over to the power of darkness, saying this was their hour. All His disciples fled.

Luke 22:53 NLT - 53 Why didn't you arrest me in the Temple? I was there every day. But this is your moment, the time when the power of darkness reigns."

Through His imminent death as the Passover Lamb, Jesus knew that He was inaugurating a new kind of Kingdom, not like the devil’s, which is Babylon. Jesus was inaugurating a Kingdom where God’s will is done, fulfilling God’s original purpose for mankind by being fruitful and multiplying in life and love. He would not bow to the gods of this world by using its tactics or tools of violence or deception. He made no attempt to retaliate, defend Himself, or deny His identity, and He rebuked His disciples for drawing the sword, which is Babylon’s way.

Even as the firstborn Son of God, who is the exact image of God and equal with God, Jesus did not use this to His advantage or try to escape the suffering that God had ordained for Him at the hands of sinful men who irrationally hated God. Actually, it is on the cross that Jesus is the greatest expression of God’s exact image: self-sacrificing, unmerited goodwill and love, in stark contrast to the devil’s image of self-preservation, anger, hatred, murder, and death.

For us today, through faith in Jesus as the eternal Passover Lamb and faith in His blood which was shed for the forgiveness of our sins, we gain the right to become sons of God, a new creation of humanity, and to participate in Jesus’ Kingdom. Like Israel was delivered from Pharaoh’s oppressive slavery to become a holy nation of God with God dwelling among them, we are delivered from slavery to sin and the devil, to become a new kind of holy people and the new Temple of God where His Spirit dwells.

This said, the historical events of the first Passover also point forward to a Passover that is still yet to come. The original Passover became known among Jews as the “day of the Lord” when God delivered His people by bringing judgment on Pharaoh and Egypt. As such, celebrating Passover looks back to these historical events while also looking forward to the final, definitive Day of the Lord, when God will deliver His people from this world to bring them into the “promised land” of the world to come, dwelling with Him in a restored Eden-like creation, and partaking of the ultimate, eternal Passover Feast. This is why Jesus told His disciples that He eat or drink it again until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.

However, no one knows exactly when this day will come, not even Jesus. It will be like the night the Destroyer passed through Egypt to take the firstborn of every household without the blood of the lamb covering their door. The Destroyer will pass through the world, taking those who have hardened their hearts in rebellion against God by not trusting in Jesus’ sacrifice for their sins. There will be so much death that vultures will gather to gorge on the feast that God has prepared for them: the bodies of those who rebelled against Him. (See Ezekiel 39:17-20; Revelation 19:17-18.) After this, God will gather His elect to dwell with Him forever in resurrected bodies in the new creation.

Matthew 24:36-42 NKJV - 36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 "But as the days of Noah [were], so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 "For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 "and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 "Then two [men] will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 "Two [women will be] grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 "Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.

Luke 17:37 ESV - 37 And they said to him, "Where, Lord?" He said to them, "Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather."

The good news is that God truly is God and is still sovereign over the world. The good news is that God will ultimately judge all evil and deliver His people from the pain and suffering in this world to enjoy unhindered fellowship with Him in the world to come. The good news is that God has made a way of salvation through the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, and anyone who spiritually paints His blood on their hearts is marked for redemption at the end of the age. But similar to the first Passover, before the final day comes, there will be great trials and tribulation, great conflict and chaos in the earth and in the heavens, and there will be an antichrist leader who hardens his heart to resist God and deceive anyone who can be deceived so that they become marked for the beast.

For this reason, we must remember in our daily lives that we are a redeemed and consecrated people who owe our lives to the Lamb who laid down His life for us. We have been spared from death, the wrath of God, and have been delivered from the gods of this world in order to make us free to live for God, bearing His mark rather than the beast’s. So, on this Passover night, remember God’s great redemption and all He has done for you. Let Him restore the joy of your salvation as you renew your resolve to follow the Lamb, Jesus Christ, shining as a light in the midst of this dark and dreadful world.

Yes, tonight is different from all other nights! Praise the Lord for His mighty hand and outstretched arm which He uses to deliver salvation to His people! Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive all power and glory! Jesus is King! Amen!

Passover Scriptures

The Original Passover: Exodus 5-15

The Last Supper, Passover with the Disciples: Matthew 26; Mark 14; Luke 22; John 13-18

Note: This day is observed as Maundy Thursday in some churches.