YHWH's days when do they begin and end?
In this study we will use Scripture to help us determine when the Eternals days begin and end. We will use the Passover and Feast of Unleavened calendar study to help us.
Passover/Feast of Unleavened Calendar study
You will need a calendar for this study. We have provided an online study calendar for you to model and or print, just click on the link below. Please adjust your printer set-up option to print the page in landscape format.
Take your printed or hand made calendar and be ready to play the sleuth. The wonderful thing about this study is that not only will we know when the Passover observance begins and ends, It will also help us in figuring out when YHWH's days begin and end (either from sunset or sunrise). I encourage those who participate in this study to try both calendars. (sunset to sunset & sunrise to sunrise).
Let’s begin with the most basic Scripture references to give us firm footing on the study.
Exodus 12:18-20
18‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening. 19‘For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, that same being shall be cut off from the congregation of Yisra’el, whether sojourner or native of the land. 20‘Do not eat that which is leavened – in all your dwellings you are to eat unleavened bread.’ ”
This seems pretty clear, we start counting on the evening of the 14th day and end counting on the evening of the 21st day. Go ahead and mark your calendar with these times and days (whatever way you feel most comfortable with). If you are using the printed calendar place your X's in the top row. Remember that you need to count seven full days from even to even.
Now lets compare this timing in Exodus 12 to the timing in Levitcus 23 to see what we come up with.
Leviticus 23:6-8
6‘And on the fifteenth day of this month is the Festival of Unleavened Bread to YHWH – seven days you eat unleavened bread.7‘On the first day you have a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work. 8‘And you shall bring an offering made by fire to YHWH for seven days. On the seventh day is a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work.
The Leviticus 23 account tells us to count the days of Unleavened from the 15th of the month and continue for seven days. Mark your calendar with this and see what you come up with! If you are using the printed calendar place your X's in the bottom row of the calendar(s).
The two accounts must agree on the timing of the Feast.
How did it come out? Did your timing agree? Did you come up with keeping the Feast for more than seven days? Was there a difference in the two accounts?
Remember the Feast of Unleavened is kept seven full days, and the timing in the Leviticus account occurs immediately after the Exodus account. If you have arrived at anything else you will need to adjust your X's to make sure you are starting at the proper points of reference.
If calculated correctly you will have the Feast of Unleavened beginning at the end of the 14th day at almost nightfall continuing until the end of the 21st day at nightfall.
This is the only way Exodus and Leviticus can agree. Using the two together allows us to take all of the guesswork out of calculating the timing of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened.
We see that when we calculate the days correctly that YHWH's days start and end at the going down of the sun.
The study above proves without a doubt the truth of the matter. For the sceptic we offer additinal witnesses....
John 20:1
And on the first day of the week Miryam from Magdala came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.
Here we see the resting place of Yah'shua was found to be open on the day after the weekly Sabbath. We see that though it was early morning and still dark that this day is refered to as the first day of the week.
John 20:19-20
19When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the taught ones met, for fear of the Yehudim, Yahshua came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace to you.” 20And having said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The taught ones therefore rejoiced when they saw the Master.
Yahshua apeared to the disciples later that same day towards the going down of the sun. This further helps prove that the days begin and end at the going down of the sun.
For another example we look to Leviticus 23
Leviticus 23:26-32
26And spoke to Mosheh, saying, 27“On the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be a set-apart gathering for you. And you shall afflict your beings, and shall bring an offering made by fire to YHWH. 28“And you do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before YHWH your Elohim. 29“For any being who is not afflicted on that same day, he shall be cut off from his people. 30“And any being who does any work on that same day, that being I shall destroy from the midst of his people. 31“You do no work – a law forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 32‘It is a Sabbath of rest to you, and you shall afflict your beings. On the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you observe your Sabbath.”
For our last example we look to Leviticus 11. In Leviticus 11 we have eight of the thirty examples we use to further confirm our understanding. Verses 24, 25, 27, 28, 31, 32, 39, & 40.
Lev 11:24 ‘And by these you are made unclean, anyone touching the carcass of any of them is unclean until evening,
What we realize when we read these verses is that the priests or people are not considered clean until the evening. It is logical to conclude that the people would not be clean until the new day began, and helps to further show that evening is when the new day begins.
Shalom & Agape in YHWH's precious name
