Did you know that God has a calendar and it’s based on the sun and the moon? In Genesis he tells us that the sun, moon and stars are set there to help us know when his calendar begins, when his feasts are, when Jesus would come and when he will come again.

Genesis 1:14: “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years” The word “seasons” here is the word “moedim” in Hebrew which is God’s appointed feasts.

Although we cannot know the year, we do know the time of year.  It’s been so exciting to learn about HIS calendar that has been kept by Jews all along, and how prophesy has all come true, and will continue to occur on his appointed feasts.

For example, the 9th day of the month of Av has become a day of mourning for the Hebrew people, why? It all began when the spies went into the land of Caanan and returned with a bad report. God was angry because only 2 had the faith to win the land from the Caananites, and 10 were afraid. Thus began a historical kind of “curse” on the day.

God’s calendar is an agricultural calendar as well, and his feasts are also often a time-keeper to alert his people when to plant and when to harvest. The moon is for determining months and moedim, the sun determines days and years. The work together along with the divine hand of God as the perfect time piece.

There could be 12 or 13 new moons in a given year, so how do we determine which new moon starts the year? God made it so simple, he uses barley. The biblical year begins in the Spring at the first sighting of the new moon when the barley is “aviv”. The barley must be aviv in order to declare a new year. Some years the barley may be aviv a little earlier, some years later. If the barley is late in becoming aviv, then a 13th month is declared called the 2nd Adar.

Since lunar months are 11 days shorter than the solar year, they need to be reconciled. Using the aviv barley, God naturally compensates every 3 years by making the barley late to the aviv stage, therefore adding another 30 days to the calendar. In a nineteen year cycle, there will be seven 2nd Aviv months. Thus Yehovah makes good on his proclamation in Genesis that the sun and the moon work together to tell time. 

Exactly 2 weeks later, on the 14th of the month, Passover begins. Followed immediately by the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the First Fruits of the barley offering.

Today, the new moons are calculated mathmatically, but you can still confirm the calculations by actual sighting of the sliver of the new moon. 

Things that happened on the 9th of Av:

• Spies returned with a bad report 1313 BCE
• Both temples were destroyed 423 BCE and 69 CE
• Battle of Betar was Lost 133 CE
• Destruction of the Temple Mount 134CE
• Jews expelled from England 1290 CE
• Jews expelled from Spain 1492 CE
• World War One Began 1914
• World War Two Began 1939
• Jews expelled from Gaza strip 2005

Note; the stock market always takes a dive or crashes every 7 years during a Shemitah year, on the day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). A pattern of several blood moons have occured during feast days as well.

This is just a small sampling, God tells his people his times and seasons. We know the season when he will move as his ways are always cyclical.

Moedim (Feast days)

Spring Moedim 2025

Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread: April 12th-to sundown April 20th. The first and last day are high Sabbaths
First Fruits: sundown April 13th to sundown April 14th. Start counting to Shavuot 50 days.
Shavuot (Pentecost): sundown June 1st to sundown June 2nd. This is a high Sabbath

Fall Moedim 2024

Yom Teruah (Day of Trumpets) aka Rosh Hashana(Civil New Year): sundown October 2nd- sundown October 3rd. This is a high Sabbath day
Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement): sundown October 11th  to sundown October 12th. This is a high Sabbath day
Sukkot (Tabernacles, or Booths): sundown October 16th to sundown October 23rd. The first and last day are high Sabbaths
Shemini Atzeret (the last great day) an 8th day of celebration at the end of Sukkot is October 24th. It is a high Sabbath

Non-Moedim 2024

Purim: sundown March 24th
Hanukkah (Feast of Dedication): sundown December 25th-sundown January 1st

Note: there are several different thought parties on what and when to calculate God’s calendar since so many “traditions of men” have corrupted this knowledge over the centuries. After a lot of study, it is our belief to follow the “jewish” or “hillel” fixed calendar, which is the most commonly used one, more or less unchanged after thousands of years. Although it’s important to note that since the 4th century it has been calculated mathematically rather than agriculturally. Holidays are celebrated on the same day of the Jewish calendar every year, but the Jewish year is not the same length as a solar year on the civil calendar used by most of the western world, so the date shifts on the civil calendar.