The landowner in the historical nation of Israel didn’t have an option as to when he harvested the barley. If he waited too long the barley grain’s attachment to the stalk would become fragile and would fall off the stalk as the reapers swung their sickles to cut the stalks of grain. Once the grain was dislodged from the stalk and had fallen to the ground it was forever lost, it could no longer be harvested. With that being the case it should be no surprise then to read from the parables of Messiah Yahusha in Mark chapter four these words...

And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. (Mark 4:26-29 KJV emphasis mine)

For even further emphasis I’d like to quote verse 29 from a few other translations.

but, as soon as the crop is ready, immediately he ‘puts in the sickle because harvest has come’.” (Mark 4:29 20cNT emphasis mine)

But when the fruit is ripe, straightway he putteth forth the sickle, because the harvest is come. (Mark 4:29 ASV emphasis mine)

But when the grain is ready, he quickly sends men to get it cut, because the time for cutting has come. (Mark 4:29 BBE emphasis mine)

But when the grain is ripe, he immediately starts cutting with his sickle because the harvest time has come.” (Mark 4:29 ISV emphasis mine)

But when the crop permits, he sends in the sickle right away, because the harvest has come.” (Mark 4:29 LEB emphasis mine)

But no sooner is the crop ripe, than he sends the reapers, because the time of harvest has come.” (Mark 4:29 WMTH-ME emphasis mine)

As has been the case in the past we vacillate according to our human reasoning as to whether the New Year should begin after the 12th Month or whether we should add a 13th Month, it happens every year! Maybe you’re looking out your front door and there is still snow on the ground! This vacillation stems from our rejection of Genesis 1 where the Sun, Moon and Stars are assigned the task of beaconing the New Year or our ignorance of knowing how to read The Master’s Clock. Instead of following the ways of The Creator we then turn to the traditions of men and seek a ‘guarantee’ that the Spring Barley in Israel will be ripe via inspecting the fields for aviv barley late in the 12th Month. I can only hope and pray that what I am saying in this article will help you to realize just how asinine it is to continue to wait for reports of aviv barley before we make a decision as to when The Beginning New Moon of New Moons, i.e. the New Year, will begin.

First Fruits... According To The Blessing!

In the 58th Chapter of Isaiah we’re told that Israel would be as a ‘watered garden’ if the people would show compassion on the poor and downcast, I would encourage you to read the entire chapter.

“Then YHWH would guide you continually, and satisfy your being in drought, and strengthen your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. (Isaiah 58:11 The Scriptures 2009 emphasis mine)

In Jeremiah 31 we’re given a word picture prophecy of what will come to be in the Millennial Reign.

“And they shall come in and shall sing on the height of Tsiyon, and stream to the goodness of YHWH, for grain and for new wine and for oil, and for the young of the flock and the heard. And their being shall be like a well-watered garden, and never languish again. (Jeremiah 31:12 The Scriptures 2009 emphasis mine)

All of which reminds me of what used to be, as Lot looked over the plain of the Jordan River...

And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of the Yarděn, that it was well watered everywhere - before YHWH destroyed Sedom and Amorah - like the garden of YHWH, like the land of Mitsrayim as you go toward Tso ar. (Genesis 13:10 The Scriptures 2009 emphasis mine)

I’ve toured Israel and no one in their right mind would mistake the plain of the Jordan as the Garden of Eden. Something has changed and it has involved more than just YHWH striking Sodom and Gomorrah although the reasons are no doubt related.

We desperately need to understand that the First Fruits offering of Spring Barley is no different than the first fruits of wheat at Shavuot and the first fruits of the fall harvest which would include grapes, olives, pomegranates, figs and dates at Sukkot. They are all blessings that come from YHWH as Deuteronomy 16:16-17 proclaims...

“Three times a year all your males appear before YHWH your Elohim in the place which He chooses: at the Festival of Matzot, and at the Festival of Shabu’ot, and at the Festival of Sukkot. And none should appear before YHWH empty-handed,

but each one with the gift of his hand, according to the blessing of YHWH your Elohim which He has given you. (Deuteronomy 16:16-17 The Scriptures 2009 emphasis mine)

It would certainly be appropriate to ask, ‘IF’ the harvest couldn’t begin until the 16th Day of the 1st Month and every male had to travel to Jerusalem for the Passover on the 14th, which could be a few days journey, ‘THEN’ how is it that “none should appear before YHWH empty-handed” on the 16th Day when a sheaf of Spring Barley needed to be offered and waved by the priests on your behalf “according to the blessing of YHWH your Elohim which He has given you?” The men would already have left their homes and fields to travel to Jerusalem for the Passover festival on the 14th, there would be no way for them to bring a sheaf of Spring Barley for the First Fruits offering if they couldn’t harvest the grain ‘BEFORE’ they had to leave home to be in Jerusalem by the 14th!

The bottom line here is extraordinarily self-evident... ‘IF’ Israel wants to insure there will be a First Fruits offering to YHWH of Spring Barley on the 16th Day of the 1st Month ‘THEN’ Israel needs to recognize Yahusha as the Messiah, begin the New Year according to the Sun, Moon and Stars as instructed in Genesis 1 via ‘the one and only’ New Moon beacon in the Spring of the year in order for the Annual Moedim to fall upon their individual appointed times AND dive head long into ‘teshuva’ and ‘repent’ by putting away the traditions of men and following instead the commandments of YHWH! That will insure the First Fruits offerings are ripe and ready in the fields of Israel in their season “according to the blessing of YHWH your Elohim which He has given you”. It is sad to say but I don’t expect this to happen until Messiah Yahusha rules on His throne during the Millennial Reign. Although the Israelites must not eat of the newly harvested barley until after the First Fruits offering is waved on the 16th Day of the 1st Month it’s obvious they must immediately begin the harvest once the crop is ripe lest they lose the crop to the ground.

Time Reckoned From Where?

There is another point I’d like to discuss beyond the main point I’ve already addressed from Exodus 12:1-2. I’d like to focus your attention temporarily on the fact that YHWH is reintroducing His method of time reckoning in the midst of EGYPT! Let that sink in for a moment... The reason for making this an issue is that there are those out there who demand that time be reckoned only from Jerusalem. And yet YHWH restores His method of time reckoning while the Hebrews are in EGYPT! And to take it a step further Mosheh, Aharon and the Hebrews will manage to reckon time for 40 years without ever observing YHWH’s mechanisms for time reckoning from the Promised Land of Israel, much less Jerusalem! Please understand and believe without a doubt, regardless of how remote a location you live in, or how disconnected from the rest of the world you may be, once an understanding of The Master’s Clock is regained you can know beyond a shadow of doubt what Day and Month of the Year it is. Don’t let anyone tell you Scriptural time reckoning for the entire planet must be done from Jerusalem.

The Present

IS NOT

The Key To The Past Or The Future!

Thirdly, as I read Scripture I am left with the impression that in the beginning things were very different. What I see in the beginning is a tropical paradise from pole to pole. If that is accurate, and rest assured I could be wrong, then it would seem to me that the earth’s axis of rotation had to have been perpendicular to the sun’s ecliptic plane with a possible canopy of some sort that helped to keep the earth’s temperatures uniform from pole to pole. From the beginning of creation inhabitants of the earth would have known of nothing but a ‘perpetual’ state of equinox. This tropical paradise due to a perpetual equinox was brought to an end via some cataclysmic event at the time of the Flood of Noah and our first notice of ‘seasons’ in the Scriptures is found shortly after the flood account in Genesis 8:22. That tells me that the earth’s canopy, if it existed, was destroyed and the earth’s axis of rotation was tilted sometime during the time frame of the flood resulting in the spring and autumn equinoxes and the summer and winter solstices that we now have. My expectation is that the earth will be restored to that tropical paradise state of being once the Millennial Reign has run it’s course. It is the only way that the agricultural harvests of both hemispheres can occur simultaneously and in harmonious synchronization with the Appointed Times, the Annual Festivals of YHWH, which correspond to the agricultural harvests of the barley, wheat, grapes, olives, pomegranates, figs and dates in Israel.

It is also clear from Scripture that the years and months have changed from their original count. According to 2 Kings 20:8-11, where King Hezekiah asks for a sign confirming his healing, Isaiah asks Hezekiah which way he wanted the shadow on Ahaz’s sundial to go, forward or backward? He chose ‘backwards’ and the result, which is confirmed by cultures around the world having to modify their calendars around the year 705 B.C.E., is that the day count of the year is forcefully extended from 360 to 365.25 days per year. My expectation would be that the year will be restored to 360 days prior to the Millennial Reign during the Great Tribulation in the future when catastrophic events on earth will take place once again. To be more specific, my expectation is that the year will be restored to 360 days when The Great Earthquake of Revelation 6:12 takes place at the mid-trib point. I believe that The Great Earthquake will occur at the very beginning of some future year, i.e. the 1st Day of the 1st Month in the spring. The reason for my saying this is that all of the prophecies related to the tribulation are couched in either 3.5 years, 42 months or 1260 days. In order for the prophecies to make any sense the year has to be restored to 360 days and the months restored to 30 days, otherwise there is no harmony between the three different methods of counting utilized in the prophecies. These time counting prophecies must deliver us to the Moedim of the 7th Month in order for the return of Messiah Yahusha to fulfill the fall festivals of Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot and to do so The Great Earthquake must take place on or just before the 1st Day of the 1st Month of some future year.

So what does any of that have to do with how we mark The Beginning New Moon of New Moons today? I have in the past proclaimed that...

‘IF’ there were no Equinoxes in the distant Past? AND...

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‘IF’ there will be no Equinoxes in the near Future?

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‘THEN’ why would anyone use today’s Equinoxes to mark the beginning of our New Years in the Present!???

It seems like a reasonable line of thought and may one day still have merit and yes, I was rather proud of that line and struck out according to the vain imagination of my own mind to establish a different method for beginning the New Year. And through the influence of others I concluded that the Full Moon rising in Virgo in the Spring would mark the beginning of the New Year. But then struggled with the vagueness of the method and decided that the 1st Full Moon to rise beneath the last star in Leo named Denebola, which would then be the 1st Full Moon to rise in Virgo, would mark the beginning of the New Year... But then over time realized the retrograde motion of the moon against the star-studded backdrop of the Mazzaroth would give different conclusions to observers separated by several hours east to west around the globe. One person may observe the Full Moon just above Denebola and declare a 13th Month and later that same evening another observer located far westward would clearly see the Full Moon below Denebola and declare the New Year. It just doesn’t work. And I don’t think it makes a nickel’s worth of difference whether you’re talking about the Full Moon rising above or below a specific point of light from a star or whether a vague line of demarcation is designated within a constellation, such as below the waist of Virgo or near the feet of Virgo. Furthermore, considering these methods from the southern hemisphere only makes matters worse since both Leo and Virgo are slightly North of the ecliptic plane of the sun while the moon will track South of the ecliptic plane on many years. Add to that the tilt of the ecliptic plane on the celestial sphere according to the observer’s latitudinal location on the face of earth and you start to get the idea... None of it works! Bare minimum, we have to remove the moon in positional relationship with the stars from the equation for determining which New Moon is the Beginning New Moon of New Moons. That is the sole responsibility of the positional relationship between the earth and sun alone. And honestly, this is Astronomy 101 or maybe even more infantile. The Full Moon will always beacon the 1st Day of every New Year but the earth’s position around the sun marks ‘which’ New Moon is the Beginning New Moon of New Moons!

Therefore, after a great deal of vacillating over the years I have concluded that the only mechanism we have available to us today, which can be used in both hemispheres, to mark The Beginning New Moon of New Moons is the Vernal Equinox in the spring. When YHWH says to Mosheh and Aharon, “This new moon is the beginning of new moons for you, it is the first new moon of the year for you.” I am forced to ‘assume’ he has to be talking about the first Full Moon to have risen AFTER the Vernal Equinox in the spring, a Vernal Equinox Mosheh and Aharon would have been intimately aware of, Mosheh having served Pharaoh for 40 years and Aharon having lived in Egypt as a sojourner and slave all his life. This simple truth is an obvious truth. It’s reliable, it’s definite and it alone can harmonize people around the globe, east to west, and both hemispheres, north and south, as they mark The Beginning New Moon of New Moons. That is a claim that no other phase of the moon in coordination with any other mechanism in heaven or on earth can claim! It's just common sense!

However, that is all in regard to the ‘present’ condition of the earth’s tilted axis in the sense of the ‘present’ being an epoch of time which began at the Flood of Noah and will continue to the end of the Millennial Reign. It begs the question and I have to ask, what was the mechanism to mark The Beginning New Moon of New Moons when there was no Vernal Equinox in the beginning? What was the mechanism to mark The Beginning New Moon of New Moons when the earth had a perpetual equinox, 360 days a year up until the flood? And if the earth’s axis of rotation is ever to be restored to a perpendicular relationship with the ecliptic plane of the sun after the Millennial Reign thereby restoring the earth to that state of perpetual equinox 360 days a year, what will be the mechanism to mark The Beginning New Moon of New Moons then?

Is there room in this discussion for some ‘unvarnished truth’? If the earth’s axis of rotation was tilted in the past via a cataclysmic event and will be restored in the future via another cataclysmic event then I don’t know what the mechanism for qualifying the 1st New Moon of the New Year was or will be or what the mechanism should be in the present day!

I am either wrong about the earth’s axis of rotation being tilted at the Flood of Noah and being restored at the end of the Millennial Reign, and if so then obviously the Vernal Equinox would have existed ‘in the beginning’ and will exist ‘in the end’, and is therefore a viable candidate for marking The Beginning New Moon of New Moons in all epochs of time including the present. Or... if the earth’s axis of rotation was indeed perpendicular to the sun's ecliptic plane in the beginning and will once again be restored in the end, and the Vernal Equinox is not the mechanism to qualify the next New Moon as the Beginning New Moon of New Moons in the present epoch of time, then there is either a mechanism out there that has been forgotten, which no one today has thought of yet, including myself. Or... there is a mechanism that resided in the sun, moon and stars as recently as the crucifixion of Messiah Yahusha but has been temporarily removed from our view but will one day be restored, a mechanism that is defined with an accuracy down to a day which serves both hemispheres.

Admittedly the Vernal Equinox comes with a lot of baggage, its strong association with paganism is a problem that will keep many from considering it as a candidate and although I certainly understand that I also know there is precious little in YAH’s set-apart Creation that hasn’t been profaned with paganism at some level. But there is another problem that I am mindful of and that is the lack of archeological support for the Vernal Equinox. You would think that if Israel used the Vernal Equinox as the mechanism to mark The Beginning New Moon of New Moons that there would have been an archeological discovery unearthing an equinox observatory by now. I know of no such discovery. Lastly, I know of no historical writings that would support the Vernal Equinox as a mechanism to mark The Beginning New Moon of New Moons for Israel. All in all it paints a pretty bleak picture of support for the Vernal Equinox being the mechanism to mark The Beginning New Moon of New Moons.

On the other hand, when considering the change in the length of the year, what I do know is that today, in the present, we have one constant, one unifying standard that could have transcended the change in the day count of the years from 360 to 365.25 in 705 B.C.E. and could transcend the change in the day count of the years from 365.25 back to 360 in the future when the mechanisms of THE MASTER’S CLOCK are partially restored during the tribulation period prior to the Millennial Reign, when the earth’s rotation on its axis (marking a day) is synchronized with the earth’s orbit around the sun (marking a year). That constant, that unifying standard, has been and will continue to be the Vernal Equinox! For the present time I know of no other mechanism that works as precisely as does the Vernal Equinox for marking The Beginning New Moon of New Moons.

To say that defaulting to the Vernal Equinox as the mechanism for establishing The Beginning New Moon of New Moons is frustrating is a complete understatement... but when you’re faced with such a lack of evidence for any other mechanism I am left with no other choice... at least for the time being. This is disappointing to say the least. I desperately want to show my Creator and Redeemer my heart’s desire to follow His ways and part of that is acknowledging His Annual Moedim via our best effort in rehearsing these feasts at their appointed times. In order to do that I have to have a starting point for every New Year and from this day forward I will mark that starting point via the 1st Full Moon to rise after the Vernal Equinox.

I refuse to be dogmatic about this decision, I will grant liberty to others who will disagree with this decision, I will leave the door wide open on this subject and, as always, if ever I find better evidence I will make whatever changes I need to make to get in alignment with the Creator, it is my earnest desire to know His ways and that certainly includes an understanding of how to read THE MASTER’S CLOCK!

The Method

The date of the Vernal Equinox is well documented and is easily available if you don’t happen to already know that it falls on the 20th of March on the pagan calendar. But for those, like myself who are so inclined and who have an area available, building an Equinox Observatory could be a fun little project. Is it mandatory for each and every one of those of us who want to follow YHWH’s time keeping mechanism in the heavens to build an Equinox Observatory? Of course not! Could there ever be a scenario when you would need an Equinox Observatory in order to determine the Vernal Equinox, it’s very possible! When The Great Earthquake of Revelation 6:12 occurs I believe the years will be restored to 360 days and I would imagine that the Vernal Equinox could very well land on a date other than the 20th of March. It might be good to know!

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So how do we 'observe' the Vernal Equinox? The safest and easiest way to do this is to use a shadow from a stylus cast by the sun onto a wall rather than looking directly at the sun. You’ll start off by pounding a stake in the ground! Literally! Go to your elevated observation point and permanently pound a stake in the ground anywhere you please but it must be permanent enough to remain fixed without disturbance and it’s position should be such that there is sufficient room east of the stake, which we’ll call the ‘Stylus’, to develop the rest of our Equinox Observatory. Eastward of the ‘Stylus’ you’ll need to construct a wall, this may be a semi-circular wall and if so it needs to be positioned according to any given radius of the ‘Stylus’ and of such height that the shadow of the ‘Stylus’ will fall on it during sunset. If you choose to build a straight wall it will need to be constructed on a North/South coordinate at whatever distance from the 'Stylus' you choose. Once you’ve done that over the course of time you must establish the Summer and Winter Solstices. When the Summer and Winter Solstices draw near (June 20/21 and December 21/22 respectively) you must mark the position of the shadow cast by the ‘Stylus’ at sunset each evening until the furthest Northern and Southern locations are defined. Once the Summer and Winter Solstice locations have been plotted and are permanently marked on the Indexed Wall of Seasons the distance between them is divided equally in two and another permanent marker must be positioned at that point. This equidistant index becomes your ‘Equinox Point’. Both the Vernal Equinox (March 20) and the Autumnal Equinox (September 22/23) will fall on the centered ‘Equinox Point’ on your Indexed Wall of Seasons as the sun casts the shadow of the 'Stylus' at sunset. The scale of the Equinox Observatory is strictly up to you but the larger it is the more accurate it will be.

When the setting sun begins to swing back toward the North from its Winter Solstice position in the South the shadow of the ‘Stylus’ will eventually, that is in approximately 3 months time, cross the Equinox Point index on the Indexed Wall of Seasons at sunset. We must remember that the Equinox is actually a moment in time, which can occur day or night. It is not a day but does occur on a date. It is the moment in time when the Ecliptic Plane of the sun crosses the Cardinal Direction of Due West on the Western Horizon. For my purposes here, I am utilizing the Western Horizon/Sunset rather than the usual Eastern Horizon/Sunrise scenario because I want to know whether the Equinox has occurred during the day leading up to a possible sighting of the Full New Moon beacon that evening after sunset. By using the Western Horizon and Sunset rather than the Eastern Horizon and Sunrise I can insure that the earliest opportunity to mark the New Year exists, even as rare an occasion as that may be. The Equinox must occur prior to the New Moon beacon for a New Moon beacon to beacon a New Year. Any Full Moon that beacons a New Moon from that evening on would be considered The Beginning New Moon of New Moons, i.e. the 1st New Moon of the New Year.

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Vernal Equinox Observatory Model

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