The Hebrew Calendar Reveals the Messiah!

 Among God’s people who keep the Sabbath and Holy Days, one of the most controversial topics is the calendar. Folks go round and round arguing over which calendar we should use to determine the dates of the Holy Days.

We can prove mathematically, Biblically, and historically that the correct calendar is the Hebrew calendar in use today. This calendar matches every known historical date back to at least the destruction of Solomon’s temple in 587 BC.

However, that’s well beyond the scope of this post. Those are topics for other days. The purpose of today’s post is to show that the Hebrew calendar reveals Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Savior of mankind.

First, let’s fill in a little background on the calendar. For those who might not know, God’s calendar, unlike the Gregorian calendar used by most of the world today, isn’t a solar calendar. Nor is it a lunar calendar like the Muslim calendar.

The Biblical calendar is a lunisolar calendar, that is, it uses the moon to calculate months and the sun to calculate years. This way, God’s seven annual Holy Days do not float throughout the year, but remain in their proper seasons each year.

Now, a lunisolar calendar requires a lot of math to keep everything in sync. We’ll avoid most of the math today, but here are the basics.

A solar year is 365.24 days. A lunar month is 29.53 days, and a year of 12 lunar months is 354.37 days, well short of the 365.24 needed to stay in sync with the sun. So every two or three years, a lunisolar calendar adds an extra 13th month to compensate for the difference.

On the Hebrew calendar, common years can be 353, 354, or 355 days. Leap years, having an extra 13th month, can be 383, 384, or 385 days.

Here’s the astounding part! The median of those 6 numbers is 369. The average of them is also 369. If we visualize this sequence of numbers, it looks like this: 353–354–355—369—383–384–385.

That middle number, 3-6-9, represents some of the numbers of our Savior’s crucifixion! At the 3rd hour, Christ was nailed to the cross (Mark 15:25). At the 6th hour, darkness fell over the land (Mat. 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44). At the 9th hour, He died (Mat. 27:45-50; Mark 15:33-37; Luke 23:44-46). There are also six hours from the 3rd to the 9th hour.

But that’s not all. When we look at the visual again, 369 reveals another number: 14. It’s 14 removed from either of the closest numbers, being 14 more than 355 and 14 less than 383.

When Jesus Christ hung on the tree and fulfilled those 3-6-9 numbers, what day was it? Why, it was the 14th! Nisan 14th, “the Preparation Day of the Passover” (John 19:14).

Jesus Christ is at the center of the Hebrew calendar! It contains both the hours and the day of His sacrifice. Coincidence? Or Divine inspiration?

Afterall, God designed His Holy Days, the dates of which are determined by the Hebrew calendar, to reveal His plan. They lay out a step-by-step process for reconciling man with God. Without Christ’s sacrifice, though, none of that would be possible. Without His sacrifice, we’d be dead men walking, dead in our sins with no hope of ever entering God’s presence, no hope of anything beyond this short physical existence.

Jesus Christ is at the center of all. Every other part of God’s plan hinges on His sacrifice.

Now, when you look at the visual, you’ll notice that there are three numbers on each side of 369. Here’s another way of visualizing it.

This diagram is a crude picture of the lampstand in the tabernacle and, later, the temple. God commanded Moses and the Israelites to craft a seven-branched lampstand with three branches coming out of each side (Ex. 25:31-37).

If we visualize the six possible year lengths of the Hebrew calendar on the lampstand, they correspond to the six branches of the lampstand. The center number 369, the numbers of Christ’s sacrifice, corresponds to the central stem of the lampstand.

As we’ve seen previously, this lampstand represented Jesus Christ in the midst of His people. He is the light of the world (John 8:12; 9:5). His people who follow Him are also the light of the world (Mat. 5:14), but only through Him, not through their own power.

As Yeshua/Jesus told us in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

Jesus Christ is the vine, we are the branches. He is the lampstand, we are the branches.

It’s also commonly understood that the number 6 represents man in Scripture, for God created man on the 6th day of the week (Gen. 1:26-31). The number 7 represents completeness and sanctification.

Only through the Messiah does man become sanctified and complete. Without Him, once again, we are nothing. We would forever be short of the goal. But with Him, we can be reconciled to God the Father (2 Cor. 5:18) and inherit eternal life (John 3:15).

The Hebrew calendar illustrates God’s plan of salvation for mankind! Its six possible year lengths center on Christ’s sacrifice, just as man’s salvation does.

Throughout His Word, God uses many different illustrations and parables to show us His plan. The tabernacle. The temple. The Holy Days. The days of Creation. And now His inspired Hebrew calendar. What a beautiful picture God’s calendar paints for us!