For the Jews this Shabbat is the last of the Four Parashiot that have special Torah readings in preparation for
Pesach (Passover), which is only two short weeks away!
For Jews and Christians it should be the most important day of the year. It is the most important Day of Remembrance installed by the Most High Divine Creator.
For the Jews this Sabbat
marking the first of the month (Rosh Chodesh) head of the month of Nisan, is called Shabbat HaChodesh (החודש שבת Sabbath [of the] month), and a special reading is added from Exodus 12:1–20, which details the laws of Pesach (Passover).
Nissan was made the first month of the year because it is the month in
which the Jewish people were
freed from slavery in Egypt, the house of
bondage. Having such a month of beginning the Jews once again could say to each other "Happy New Year". In addition to wishing one another a Happy New Year in the seventh month
of Tishrei for Jewish people (or January 1st for those who follow the
Gregorian calendar), we can wish people Happy New Year again today!
“God said to Moshe and Aharon in the Land of Egypt, ‘This month shall be
for you the beginning of the months; it shall be for you the first of
the months of the year.’” (Exodus 12:1–2)
For Jews it is a new beginning but also for us Christians it should be. We have the liberation of God's People and can find them marching to the promised land. The land which is also promised to those who are willing to be a child of God honouring only One God.
The One True God completely forbade His people from pagan worship customs and especially the practice of human sacrifice:
“You must not worship
the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they
do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their
sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.” (Deuteronomy 12:31)
Knowing that God detests human sacrifice, especially of a son or
daughter at the hand of a parent, the Jewish people naturally assume
that
our God would never allow someone to die a substitutionary death
the way animals do.
This is a significant stumbling block to receiving salvation through Jeshua the Messiah for the Jewish People. However, the ancient prophet
Isaiah revealed that long ago Elohim planned to lay all of our sins and
iniquities upon the Messiah:
“But He was pierced
through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The
chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are
healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned
to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall
on Him.” (Isaiah 53:5–6)
Jeshua’s sacrifice was meant to restore fellowship with our Father
upon a person seeking to draw near to Him, sincerely repenting of their
sins, and accepting the sacrifice as a free gift on their behalf.
The blood of
the Lamb of God (Jeshua) takes away the sins of those
who believe in who he is, what he did, turn from their sin, and follow him.
Today there are still lots of Christians who do not want to accept who Jeshua really is and who made him into a god for who they bow down and of whom they make graven images to pray in front and to burn candles in front of it.
Lots of Christians do forget that God can not die and that God Himself declared that man nor death could do him a thing. But Jesus as a man of flesh and blood knew very well the danger of him exposing himself in the city of God, Jerusalem. Though Jesus knew that time had come and God wanted a turnover in history. For God it was time again to start a new beginning and to come to present the world with a New World with a
New Covenant.
Jeshua, Jesus Christ, was this Kristos or Messiah long before Abraham promised to the world. Already in the garden of Eden, the Elohim promised to provide a solution for the sin of man. With Jeshua the world was given a new Adam. And this Adam had to present himself now as a spotless lamb to his heavenly Father.
It is Jeshua, who has set us free from the evil master of sin through his
death and resurrection, we now have hope and have good prospects.
