Next year will be different… or will it?

by | Dec 12, 2012 | 2012 | 0 comments

Have you ever wondered if God cares about New Year’s Day?

God exists in timelessness called eternity. However, when he created humans, he placed them within time, defined by days, weeks, months and years. There are many calendars that people use around the world. I realise that the Hebrew New Years Day is not the New Years Day that we celebrate, but the same principles do apply. Whatever calendar you use, there is New Year’s Day, that is, the first day of the first month of the calendar year.

God cares about time. Moses prayed for wisdom when it comes to time. This is what he said:

“The days of our lives are seventy years; … So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.”(Ps. 90:10, 12 NKJV).

One thing we have come to know about God as revealed in the Christian Bible is that God keeps time. He does things on time. If something must happen on the first of the month, or on the 20th of the month, it will happen on that day, on the hour, to the minute. It is not a coincidence, and it is not an emergency. It is God-incidence.

The life of Jesus was scripted to the last detail in terms of time and place thousands of years before he was born, and he lived the script. This is one of the things that attest to Jesus’ deity. No human could predict how his own life would turn out the way he did, and the way the prophets before him foretold. The birth of Jesus, which we celebrate on Christmas Day, as well as his crucifixion and resurrection, were announced by the prophets many years before they happened.

Let me share with you some of the things God did and said on New Year’s Day in biblical history.

Firstly, we note that when Noah was in the ark during the flood, it was months before the waters subsided. It is recorded that it was on New Year’s Day when Noah opened the window and saw the waters have subsided. Probably having gotten used to the comforts and safety of the ark from the floodwaters outside, Noah stayed a further two months. In Genesis 8:16, God said to Noah leave the boat, the ground is dry. Sometimes we are flooded by problems in life, and ironically we get trapped in them and become comfortable that we are afraid of leaving them behind. Whatever comfort zone you may be in right now, on this New Year’s Day of 2013, God says the same words he said to Noah thousands of years ago – get out!

A fresh start

There is a new world out there waiting for you. You can go out and be fruitful and multiply. The floods of last year may have destroyed all you had, but a new year’s day is God’s message to you to start afresh and be fruitful and multiply. I know they say once beaten, twice shy. You don’t need to be shy. It’s a new year – get out. The proverbial waters that were drowning you have subsided.

Secondly, we find that God gives Moses instructions to construct a Tabernacle (Temple), which was a Tent symbolizing God’s dwelling place amongst the people. After it was completed, God says to Moses, “Set up the Tabernacle on the first day of the new year” (Exodus 40:2 NLT). According to God, this was a special task, to be done on a special day, New Year’s Day!

Hundreds of years later, the Temple was defiled and corrupted by the people. King Hezekiah decided that things must change. The priests went into the sanctuary of the Temple to cleanse it, and they took out of the Temple courtyard all the defiled things they found. They began this work on New Year’s Day, that is, the first day of the first month. (2 Chronicles 29:15-17).

But what does all this mean? Fast forward to the New Testament, where we are told by Paul that we are The Temple. “Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:16)

So, on this New Year’s Day, God gives you and I the same message he gave to Moses thousands of years ago. “Set up the temple on New Year’s Day”. If you are not a believer already, God is making a call. Set yourself up to be his temple, and he will come and dwell in you. If you are already a believer, he gives you the same message that the Levites were given thousands of years ago to purify the temple, starting on New Year’s Day. So, if you have defiled yourself through sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these, he says to you, “Purify yourself!” – starting on New Year’s Day. Have you started? This could be the best New Year’s Resolution of your life, to become God’s dwelling place.

Leave Babylon!

Thirdly, there is another New Year’s Day event which is God’s message to humans today. This event is recorded in the book of Ezra. Ezra was a Jew who was living in exile in Babylon, together with many other Jews. Jerusalem, the place where the temple was, was falling apart, together with the temple. Remember we are the temple, and we are in the church. So the temple was a symbol of us, the believers, and Jerusalem a symbol of the church.

We read in Revelation 21:2: “And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband”. Elsewhere, we are told several times that the church is the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:27; Revelation 19:7; 21:9). What does this have to do with you?

Well, after Jerusalem and the temple were rebuilt, Ezra, who was a scribe decided to travel to Jerusalem to learn more about the scriptures and teach his people. He decided to leave Babylon on “New Year’s Day”! (Ezra 7:9)

This New Year’s Day, just like Ezra did thousands of years ago, you too can decide to start your journey back to church (Jerusalem). You may have been stuck in the Babylon of your lifestyle, your job, and your sins. There are many believers stuck in Babylon, when Jerusalem, the church, needs them. But like Ezra, you can decide to start the journey back home – to church. The church needs you. Will you be like Ezra this New Year’s Day and go back to church? Ezra started his journey on New Year’s Day. It may be a tough journey when you start, but the journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step, on the first day of the first month. It took Ezra four months to get there. But you can start today!

May you look back next New Year’s Eve and say, “I am glad I was like Noah, who stepped out of the comfort zone of the ark into a new world God had for him, or like Moses, who set up the temple on New Year’s Day, or like Ezra, who decided to leave the trappings of Babylon behind, and learn more about his God!”

Happy New Year! Happy 2013!

 

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