This is my one hundred and fifty-second monthly teaching letter and continues my thirteenth year of publication. Since lesson #137, I have been presenting a series entitled The Greatest Love Story Ever Told. I had given a general overview before starting the seven stages of this story, which are as follows: (1) the courtship, (2) the marriage, (3) the honeymoon, (4) the estrangement, (5) the divorce, (6) the reconciliation, and (7) the remarriage. It is a fact that the most neglected story of the Bible is the marriage of Yahweh to His chosen people, the twelve tribes of Israel (not to be confused with the proselytized Kenite-Edomite-Canaanite-jews of today falsely claiming to be Israelites). Once haven taken Yahweh as our Husband, things went well for a while, but as time proceeded, we started to break our marriage vows with Him, thus becoming unfaithful to Him. Therefore, He had only one alternative, and that was to give us a bill of divorce. Although He provided a way for us to return to His favor, it is not an easy one, and has taken quite some time to transpire!
It should be noted that this source places the Israelites at Etham, or at the head of the Red Sea, which is very reasonable as the distance traveled from Rameses would be about 100 miles. Also, this could not have been the Gulf of Aqaba, as Ron Wyatt claims, as that would place the Israelites near Eloth, and they would have had to traverse mountains on either side of the gulf. Besides, it would have to be a location where Israel would be trapped were it not for the miracle of the parting of the waters. Only the Gulf of Suez fits the criteria for Israel’s crossing! Also, only the Gulf of Suez fits the criteria for Yahweh instructing Moses to guide the Israelites where “they were suddenly commanded to diverge to the south, keeping the gulf on their left”. Therefore, the Gulf of Aqaba is completely out of any reasonable consideration, making Ron Wyatt and company into clowns!
Not only can we establish the Gulf of Suez as the place where the Israelites crossed the Sea of Reeds, but Scripture gives us a timetable for the first three months of their track on the Exodus. For this timetable I will follow the outline of James L. Porter in his The Sabbaths Of God, chapter 3, entitled “Pentecost”, pp. 75-78, except I will write it in my own words. This strategy lets you exclude unnecessary reference, as it is Biblically based.
We should understand that there was an original day of Pentecost which was to be commemorated annually, along with two other required feast days in Israel’s calendar. Many Christians today are aware that it was at an annual observance of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out on what was to become Christ’s Holy Assembly (or called-out ones), as recorded at Acts 2:1. Those who call themselves “New Testament only Christians” completely overlook this very important fact. If they haven’t researched what the original Pentecost was all about, they shouldn’t even be given an opportunity to express their opinion on the subject! To entirely comprehend just what Pentecost commemorates, it is paramount that one carefully analyze the events that transpired from the original day of Passover in Egypt until the original day of Pentecost at Mount Sinai fifty days later! As the original day of Pentecost was for Israel only (and no other people), likewise every Pentecost since then is for Israel only!
Exod. 16:1: “1 And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.
It can be determined that the fifteenth day of the second month was a Sabbath based upon the events that began at eventide. It was at that time that Yahweh demonstrated to Israel which day was His Sabbath. That evening, He gave them quail for meat, and the next morning He started providing them with manna for bread which continued for forty years during their sojourn there. To identify the weekdays very clearly, on the sixth day a double portion was given, while on the seventh day none was provided. It is stated that Yahweh’s purpose for doing this was a test by Him to see whether or not Israel would walk in His laws.
21st = Last Day of Unleavened Bread.
15th = Quail sent in evening – next morning began six days of manna, followed by a Weekly Sabbath.
8th = The first Feast of Pentecost.
This last passage is somewhat obscure, but apparently what is meant is that the children of Israel arrived at Mount Sinai on the very same week day (within twenty-four hours) as they had left Egypt. The Israelites had been instructed to make ready to leave Egypt Passover night which started Wednesday at sunset, then in the morning they were given permission to finally leave their homes in Egypt, never to return.
The main problem with James L. Porter’s reconstructed calendar of these three months is that it doesn’t show the change of one day to another at sunset. As a result, I had to make a few minor changes, but by-and-large he had most of his entries correct. The astonishing thing about this reconstructed calendar is that it is, as far as Passover week is concerned, identical to the week (day for day) that Christ was crucified!
“Addendum to The Sabbaths of God by James L. Porter, Exposition Press, Inc.
“CHANGE IN COUNTING PENTECOST: This addendum is written to revise and correct the counting of Pentecost to conform to scripture. The writer [meaning James L. Porter] was in error in counting the days to determine the day of Pentecost. Pentecost should be observed on the first day of the week instead of the second day, as originally stated in the book, (See pg. 115).
“There is no general agreement among Sabbath-observing Christians on the date of Pentecost. A large group observes Pentecost on Monday; some observe it on Sunday; and some follow the Jews and observe Pentecost on the 6th day of the third month. Surely the occurrence of such an important day to Christians can be determined without question.
“There is only one true Pentecost day that God gave to His people Israel. This was the day on which He entered into the covenant agreement with Israel, and also the day that the new covenant – the giving of the Holy Spirit – was bestowed upon the followers of Jesus Christ.
“There are three lines of evidence which show Pentecost day occurs on the first day of the week.
“‘... Hebrew numeration always includes the day which is the terminus a quo as well as that which is term ad quem.’, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911, Pentecost, pg. 123.
“The day from which the counting is begun as well as the day to which the counting is directed, are both counted [by Hebrews] when [they] number days. This was also the method of counting days used in the New Testament as shown by John 20:26.
“Bible commentaries state this means that this appearance occurred on the same day the following week. Today, we would use the phrase ‘a week later’, but if the first day and the terminal day are counted as they are in scripture, ‘a week later’ is written as ‘after eight days.’ The Expositor’s Bible (Wm. B. Eerdman’s Pub. Co.) 1956; Peake’s Commentary on the Bible (Thomas Nelson & Sons, Ltd) 1962 The Interpreter’s Bible (Abingdon-Cokesbury Press); Bible Handbook (Halley, Zondervan Pub. House).
“When this system of counting days is applied to the counting of Pentecost, the fiftieth day becomes the day to be observed, not the following day which was mistakenly given in [my] book. If fifty days are counted beginning on the first day of the week (the day following the Sabbath), the fiftieth day will occur on Sunday, seven weeks later.
“COUNTING OF JUBILEE AND PENTECOST SAME: In addition to the weekly and annual Sabbaths, God gave Israel Sabbath years in which the land was to rest in the same manner as the people rested each week on the Sabbath day. He instructed Israel to number seven Sabbath years and the following year – the fiftieth – was to be a Jubilee Year, (See pg. 198).
“The system of numbering seven Sabbath years to determine the Jubilee Year is the same system God gave for the numbering of Pentecost. Seven Sabbath days were to be counted and the fiftieth day was to be Pentecost. When the system of numbering for Jubilee is followed for numbering Pentecost, Pentecost will always occur on the first day of the week.
“Note that the Sadducees observed Pentecost on Sunday and the admission that this represents an old Biblical view. It was the priests’ duty to announce the holy days and to offer the appropriate sacrifices God had commanded. After the destruction of the Temple, the priests (Sadducees) lost their position and their power to influence the Jewish people who thereafter followed the Pharisees. T/span width=td style=text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 105%;JUSTIFYherefore, today the Jews observe Pentecost on the 6th day of the third month because they begin counting the fifty days on the 16th day of the first month, not on the day following the weekly Sabbath, (See pg. 118).
When I run into situations of finding new data like this from James L. Porter and his book The Sabbaths of God, which shed new light on a subject, I like to play the part of an investigative detective, especially when there is a conflict in the evidence. At page 75, Porter had just finished a chapter entitled “Passover and The Feast of Unleavened Bread” where he was starting a new chapter entitled “Pentecost”. In a short space between the two chapters, he had hand-printed a note “See Addendum”. I could determine from this that he, upon rereading his first book off the press, discovered his error of conflicting subject matter. In addition to this, there is another telltale piece of evidence in the last sentence of the chapter where he placed his hand-printed note. Summarizing the chapter, he stated: “Thus if a feast day fell on a Thursday, the feast would begin on Wednesday evening when the sun set, and last until Thursday evening at sunset.” This sentence conflicted with his reconstructed calendar in the next chapter, and is one of the reasons for my editing of his calendar. However, this does not completely ruin his otherwise good scholarship.
“Surely, Mary Magdalene, Mary (mother of James) and Salome would have known that Yahshua was crucified on the day of preparation, for their actions speak louder than words. Actually, there were two sabbaths the week of Christ’s death (the high Sabbath and the weekly Sabbath). Let’s follow these three ladies through Scripture. Mark 16:1 and Luke 23:56 provide us evidence of two Sabbaths.
“Most overlook the passage at Matt. 27:62-66, that Yahshua would be in the grave three days and three nights: ‘Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.’ With this watch, the two Marys had no access to the tomb until the first day of the week, preventing the anointing of His body until that time! A Friday crucifixion would have required a Sunday purchase and preparation of the spices, falsifying Mark 16:2.
It should now be increasingly clear that the original week of Passover, and countdown to Pentecost happened in identical months and days of the week as those of Christ’s crucifixion! Not only that, but this new evidence from James L. Porter, and verification from Scripture, reveal that it could only have been determined by a lunar calendar! Not a “lunar only” calendar but a “solar-lunar calendar”! How else could a reconstructed lunar calendar synchronize so fittingly otherwise? If it were a “lunar only” calendar, there is no way the account at Exod. 16:11-29 could be correct in the “second month”! It is not entirely clear whether Yahweh sent the quail shortly before or shortly after sunset on Saturday the 15th of the second month, but it is fully apparent that the next morning was the first day of the week when Israel initially received the manna. Why don’t the “lunar only” and “solar only” advocates resolve the evidence found on this in Exodus chapter 16? I would also like to know how one would establish a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th month in a solar only calendar without the moon to figure the annual feast days by!
“And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon3391 ...” This verse implies that the moon is as important as the Sun for bringing forth agricultural produce. Also, a woman’s rhythmic cycle is governed by the moon, and we could be devoid of children without it!
Is 1 Corinthians 15:41 in the New Testament unbiblical?
Eli James boldly tells us, “The moon does not tell us seasons ...”, but Psalm 104:19 expressly declares, “He (Yahweh) appointed the moon for seasons ...”. Whom (Eli or Yahweh) are we to believe? If Yahweh is correct at Psalm 104:19, then the moon has to be one of the “lights” created at Gen. 1:14-16 for “signs, seasons, days and years”! In fact, the center reference in my KJV at Psalm 104:19 directs me to Gen. 1:14. Ditto for Psalm 136:9. In Scripture the stars are usually referred to as “the host of heaven” which cannot be classified as “two lights” at Gen. 1:16. When Moses wrote these three verses, he did not speak of the physical size of the Sun or moon, but of the quantity of light they shed directly or indirectly upon the Earth, hence “two great lights”. When he wrote verses 14 & 15, he was speaking generally of all the heavenly lights, where at verse 16, he narrowed it down to two, with the stars as an afterthought. Some may be wondering what all of this has to do with Yahweh’s marriage to the twelve tribes of Israel, but who ever heard of planning a wedding without memorializing the date for the vows to be taken?
How, then, does the “solar only” calendar advocate, Eli James, come to the conclusion in his The Great Impersonation, p. 267, “... There are two lights in the sky which divide times and seasons. They are the Sun by day and the stars by night”? It is amazing to me why anyone having an ounce of common sense would classify the billions of stars that make up our Milky Way to be a single light along with the Sun to make “two lights”! Inasmuch as our Sun is in itself one of the “stars” of the Milky Way, according to Eli’s twisted reasoning, there would be but “one light” at Gen. 1:14-16! The Sun and the stars cannot be classified as two different types of light, as they are all thermonuclear hydrogen fusion in nature, with an operating temperature of about 15,000,000 °C. Another flaw in Eli’s hypothesis is the known fact that the stars in the heaven are also shining in the daytime; it’s just that the Sun is so bright it overpowers the light from the stars! Actually, if one had a black four inch tube about twenty to thirty feet long and oriented toward the portion of the heavens one wanted to view, one could view the stars in the daytime! So whatever influence the stars have at night (with which I agree), they also have during the day.
If you will remember in WTL #151, I presented evidence that on their track in the exodus, it was quite likely that the Israelites used a sea route as well as a land route. If that were the case, it would have been necessary to utilize both routes side by side as much as possible in order to have access to their supplies of food, along with other necessary equipment. No doubt, even a large supply of ingredients for unleavened bread, would have been transported by water. I read in one commentary that fish might have been part of their diet, along with the bread. It seems reasonable, though we have no record of it, that the men on the barges could have been net fishing as they continued on their way, for about 250 miles, until they arrived at Migdol where the Egyptians had them trapped and Yahweh made a way for them to cross through the Sea of Reeds (Suez) on dry ground.
What we do have is a record that, after they had crossed the Sea of Reeds (Suez), and escaped into the wilderness on their way to Sinai, they ran short on food and water, and began to complain that they had no “flesh” to eat. Could that have been because their source of fish was no longer at hand? We can only guess, but to satisfy their craving for “flesh” (meat) Yahweh sent them enough quail to feed 2½ to 3 million Israelites, Ex. 16:13. Evidently the next morning they had exhausted their supply of unleavened bread, and Yahweh sent them manna for bread which continued for the next forty years. And it wasn’t until the bestowal of manna that Yahweh set up His system of keeping a weekly Sabbath. It is by the Almighty’s gifts of quail and manna that we can determine that the twelve tribes of Israel kept a lunar-solar calendar! So, the lunar-solar calendar wasn’t likely to be something the traditional Judahites picked up during their seventy years in Babylon! That is only conjecture! If it is true, let’s see some proof! I heard one absurd supposition that the Israelites determined the time of the first Passover by observing the shadow cast by the Great Pyramid. Sure, the Great Pyramid is a masterpiece of architecture, but where did the Israelites get a sextant and a compass to check it out?
Surely “meat” here is for some kind of grain, not a cut of an animal! It is evident here that the Israelites didn’t rely solely on the sun or moon, but upon their crops to tell them when a new year had arrived! Even today, there are gardeners who won’t plant their potatoes any other day than Good Friday, not that the pagan Good Friday is something good! By the way, I was born on Good Friday, 1927. Like one of the nurses said at the hospital where my son was born: “I haven’t seen it fail yet, a full moon, a full house”!
This has been a difficult lesson for me to put together, as I had to, at almost every turn, check and double-check various passages of Scripture and other data to make sure I was stating things correctly. Other than writing a paper Sacred Calendar Chaos, #1, I had put the subject on the back burner. I was quite happy when I obtained James L. Porter’s book The Sabbaths of God, as for the first time I had Biblical evidence to support a lunar-solar calendar. Even Porter’s errors turned out to be a blessing, as they forced me to dig a little deeper. For me, Porter’s reconstructed calendar calculated from the original Passover to Pentecost is the most important part of his book! At last now, I have Biblical conformation regarding Israel’s calendar! The reader can now decide these matters for himself!