Creation/Lunar Sabbath Keepers

Have you ever wondered how the children of Israel could have marched around Jericho without marching on the Sabbath? Maybe you have, maybe you have not. Maybe you have thought that it was simply allowed by God, and is a case of exemption in battle. What ever you have previously understood concerning this colossal event, here is something to consider.

Let me point out that those who believe the Sabbath to be a reoccurring seven day count, have to admit that Israel marched around the city of Jericho on the weekly Sabbath day. This is seen in the book of Joshua 6:2-4.

And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor. And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. And the seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets or rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.

Seeing that the march was commanded by God to last for seven consecutive days, a weekly Sabbath would definitely fall within the period of the seven day march; at least for those who hold to a continuous seven day count, not anchored in any way by nature.
Upon realizing this, we should notice what God has revealed to us, in His holy word, concerning travel on the weekly Sabbath day. Is travel allowed on the Sabbath? Or does God explicitly condemn travel on the Sabbath?

 

In Exodus 16 we find the account of the giving of the manna by God to the children of Israel. He makes it known to them (in verses 4-5 of this account) that they will be receiving manna for six straight days, but one the seventh day they will find none. On the sixth day of this particular week God commands them to bake that which they will, and seethe that which they will (vs. 23). Food preparation is also found in verse 5 of the chapter. We do however find that immediately after God instructs Israel in that there would be no manna found on the Sabbath day, we find that they simply did not hearken.

And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none [manna]. Exodus 16:27
Upon the children of Israel’s venture God was very displeased. We see this in His statements to Moses in Exodus 16:28-29.
…God said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that God hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day.

God here specifically condemns their traveling on the Sabbath. This was merely traveling a short space to gather manna, much less instigating an attack through a battle march. Obviously God does desire us to travel to our places of worship on Sabbath, but something unnecessary, such as gathering manna or traveling for our own personal edification is something altogether different.

We also see that limited travel on the Sabbath was understood by the believers of the 1st century A.D. This can be seen in the book of Acts 1:12.
Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day’s journey.

Here we see that there was a specific distance that was considered to be a Sabbath day’s journey. The King James Study Scriptures states, “A Sabbath day’s journey was the distance a Jew was allowed to travel on the Sabbath (about 2/3 mile).” Smith’s Scriptures Dictionary has somewhat to add on the passage in Acts as well.

…The Sabbath day’s journey of 2000 cubits, Acts 1:12, is peculiar to the New Testament, and arose from a rabbinical restriction. It was founded on a universal application of the prohibition given by Moses for a special occasion: ‘Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” Ex. 16:29. An exception was allowed for the purpose of worshipping at the tabernacle…

Although Mr. Smith’s opinion leans toward this being an application by man, I think we can see from the passage in Exodus 16:29 that no unnecessary travel was to be done on the Sabbath. Acts 1:12 simply shows us that this is what was understood by Israelites living in the 1st century A.D.

So, did God command a battle attack consisting of a march to take place on the Sabbath? Well, once again, for those insisting on a continual unbroken seven day count for the Sabbath, the answer would have to be yes. And I’m sure one could give a few answers to why God seemed to allow this to take place. However, is there any possibility that God did not command a march to take place on the Sabbath? Yes, there certainly is.

According to the teaching which claims the Sabbath to be fixed in the heavens according to the moon and its phases, a Sabbath falls out to be on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th days of each and every lunation. Reason being is that the day of the New Moon is not counted as one of the six working days (Ezekiel 46:1-3) thus the Sabbath count stops once each month at the day of the New Moon. If the march of Jericho started on the day of the New Moon then it would have ended on the 7th day of that month! This would allow for Israel to not have traveled on the Sabbath! However, we do face a dilemma; the book of Joshua does not give us any conclusive evidence that the march began on the New Moon. This is why I would now like to direct your attention to what is known as the book of Jasher.

The book of Jasher is mentioned twice in the holy scriptures, and was considered as an honorable source of information. This is seen by noticing the context in which it was mentioned.

Below is taken from the book of Jasher Chapter 88:10-21 And the people went up from Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped in Gilgal at the eastern corner of Jericho.

And the children of Israel kept the Passover in Gilgal, in the plains of Jericho, on the fourteenth day at the month, as it is written in the law of Moses.

And the manna ceased at that time on the morrow of the Passover, and there was no more manna for the children of Israel, and they ate of the produce of the land of Canaan.

And Jericho was entirely closed against the children of Israel, no one came out or went in.

And it was in the second month, on the first day of the month, that the Lord said to Joshua, Rise up, behold I have given Jericho into thy hand with all the people thereof; and all your fighting men shall go round the city, once each day, thus shall you do for six days.

And the priests shall blow upon trumpets, and when you shall hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall give a great shouting, that the walls of the city shall fall down; all the people shall go up every man against his opponent.

And Joshua did so according to all that the Lord had commanded him.

And on the seventh day they went round the city seven times, and the priests blew upon trumpets.

And at the seventh round, Joshua said to the people, Shout, for the Lord has delivered the whole city into our hands.

Only the city and all that it contains shall be accursed to the Lord, and keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest you make the camp of Israel accursed and trouble it.

But all the silver and gold and brass and iron shall be consecrated to the Lord, they shall come into the treasury of the Lord.

And the people blew upon trumpets and made a great shouting, and the walls of Jericho fell down, and all the people went up, every man straight before him, and they took the city and utterly destroyed all that was in it, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and ass, with the edge of the sword.

 So we see by this that according to the Lunar cycle the children of Israel, started their march around Jericho on the first of the month or the New moon, and only marched around the city one time that day. So instead of the poplar belief that they marched seven times on the Sabbath, they marched seven times on the day before the Sabbath, and rested the Sabbath.   I am sure that a march around Jericho seven times consisted of more than a Sabbath days journey.

 When the Children of Israel left Egypt, it stands to reason that they were freed from bondage on the Sabbath… Exodus Chapters 12 and 13…. The Passover was the 14th day of the month and then the Sabbath was on the 15th. They left Egypt on the 15th after the Lord passed over them.  So the Sabbath became not only a memorial of Creation, but also a memorial of their deliverance from bondage in Egypt.

 This is also why I believe God had to re-teach them to keep the Sabbath; while in bondage in Egypt they were not able to keep the Sabbath, and they forgot how…. If it were every consecutive Seventh Day, it wouldn’t have been hard for them to remember, but it wasn’t they had to learn all over again to remember the days of the Moon, and then the Sabbath.

 This, I believe establishes the fact that the Sabbath was kept by the Moon phases in the Old Testament times…. Keep in mind that there was no Gregorian calendar in the beginning; all they had was the Sun and the Moon to tell time with and to know what day it was…..

 To me it is exciting to know that God thought of everything when he created the universe; to create the Moon so that it would be a consistent cycle of 4 weeks always the same, is such a neat thing to me…  I can never look at the Moon the same again after learning this….

It doesn’t say in the New Testament to my knowledge anything about the Moon Phases, except what we can find in History that they were still keeping the Sabbath then by the Moon phases.  I have included an article on that if you care to read it.

 In the Jewish encyclopedia it states that the Jews stopped keeping the Sabbath by the Lunar cycles because it hindered their cooperate system of work and commerce.  So in order to be like the rest of the world and have a “set” day of worship they adopted the “seventh day” on the Gregorian calendar as their weekly Sabbath… This way they would still be keeping the Seventh Day Sabbath, only now it would be in a continuous seven day uninterrupted cycle. In other words it was better for commerce.

 When the Ten Commandments were first given in Exodus 20, it said, Exodus 20:8-11  Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

 9: Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work:

 10: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

 11: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Moses then came down off the mount and in anger broke the tables of stone….. Later God told him to come back up to the mount and he would give him another table of stone with the Ten Commandments on them.   And he did this, but he changed them a little…. Notice the change….

 Deuteronomy 5:12-15 Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee.

 13: Six days thou shalt labor, and do all thy work:

 14: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.

 15: And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.

Now it is because he delivered them from bondage out of Egypt on the Sabbath Day, at the beginning it was because he had created the earth, and rested on the Seventh Day.