WHEN WAS MESSIAH BORN?

By Wally Callen

It is a sad fact of history, that the Gentile Church has not been faithful to the truth that has been given her. They have been all too ready to embrace heathen practices by giving them a ‘christian covering' to hide their true origins and meanings. The one man in history most responsible for taking over heathen festivals and passing them off as christian was the Emperor Constantine. First he declared it unlawful to keep the Jewish Feasts. Then when he found that the people had a traditional religious festival that they would not give up, he declared that it was a ‘christian' celebration, and that made everything alright. It then became a part of the ‘christian' tradition and thus many of the traditional christian holy days were born and survive even to this day. Christmas is one of these.

Much of what is accepted as a normal part of the celebration of the birth of Yeshua is pagan in its origins. The giving of gifts to children was a part of the feast of Saturnalia celebrated in early Rome from the 17th to the 24th of December. The christmas tree and the yule log are to be found in Druid worship. In fact, all of the common practices in the celebration of christmas, including the date, are to be found in the pagan's worship of the winter solstice. The true origin of these practices have been traced back to Babylon by the exhaustive work "The Two Babylons", by Alexander Hislop.

In this book Rev. Hislop lop makes clear the case that the birth of Messiah could not have been in the month of December, as the shepherds do not stay Out in the fields with their flocks later than the end of October. This is due to the very cold nights and the rains that come toward the end of October or the beginning of November.

Hislop goes on in his book to make this emphatic statement, "There is not a word in the Scriptures about the precise day of His, (Yeshua's), birth, or the time of the year when He was born." In this he is supported by most, if not all, of the Bible scholars to date; however, they are wrong. There is a scripture in the Brit Chadashah that not only tells us the time of year that Messiah Yeshua was born, but that also implies the exact date of His birth.

This scripture is to be found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter one, verse five, "There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea a certain priest named Zacharias, OF THE COURSE OF ABIA: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth." This scripture gives us the exact time frame for all that follows, for in verse 8 of that same chapter, it tells us that Zacharias was executing "the priest's office before Hashem IN THE ORDER OF HIS COURSE." The ‘course' refers to the 24 divisions that the year was divided into for the sons of Aaron to execute the priest's office as there were many of them, so that none would be left out from serving before the L-rd. The telling of this is found in 1 Chronicles 24:1-19, with the summing up in verse 19 saying, "These were the orderings of them in their service to come into the house of the L-rd, according to their manner, under Aaron their father, as the L-rd G-d of Israel had commanded him." The 'course of Abijah' of which Zacharias was a part, is the eighth course according to verse 10 of 1 Chronicles 24. As there were 24 courses to the year, then each course was one half of a month in duration. Therefore, the eighth course was the last half of the ½fourth month. The months are counted from the month of Pesach, for the scripture says, "And the L-rd spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you" (EXODUS 12:1-2). Therefore the fourth month is the month Tammuz, which corresponds with June-July of our year.

Now the scripture says that after the days of his ministry were accomplished Zacharias went home and his wife Elisabeth conceived, (LUKE 1:23-24), and in the sixth month of her pregnancy, the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary. (LUKE 1:26-27). Then the scripture says that Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem to be taxed, and that "while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered." (LUKE 2:6). This is saying that Mary's pregnancy was the full nine months, therefore from the time Zacharias' ministry finished until the time Messiah was born was 15 months altogether, the six months of Elisabeth's pregnancy until Mary's conception and the nine months of Mary's pregnancy. This brings us to the month of Tishri, (or Ethanim), which corresponds with our months of September-October. At this time of year the shepherds would very likely have been with their flocks in the fields.

The 15th day of the month of Tishri is Sukkot, or the feast of Tabernacles, the feast where the children of Israel were to dwell, temporarily, in tents, and the one feast that our Bible scholars say has not been fulfilled as the other feast days have been. What they are speaking of is the three times each year when the Israelites were commanded to appear before G-d in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. These three occasions were Pesach, Shavuot, and the Sukkot.

Pesach was, of course, celebrating the passing over' of the angel of death of the houses of the children of Israel that had sacrificed the lamb, and put the blood of that lamb on their doorposts. This was a shadow of the coming sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua, the Lamb of G-d, who by His blood took away death from all those who would put His blood on the doorposts of their hearts.

Shavuot, or the Feast of weeks, celebrated the firstfruits of the harvest, and came fifty days after the Passover Sabbath. (LEV.23:15-17). Shavuot, according to the ancient Rabbis, is the anniversary of the day that G-d gave the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, and has therefore become known among the Jews as "The Feast of the Giving of the Law". In light of this, Shavuot is considered as the birthday of Judaism. Shavuot is also considered, by the Christians, as the birthday of the 'Church', as it was on the day of 'Pentecost', or Shavuot, that the Ruach HaKodesh came into the upper room at Jerusalem and filled all those in it with G-d's Spirit, and they went forth and turned the world upside down.

Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Ingathering, celebrates the end of harvest, and commemorates G-d's mighty deliverance of His people from Egypt and their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, when they dwelt in tents and tabernacles. During the seven days of the feast a total of seventy bullocks were sacrificed in the Temple. The Rabbis explain that this number of seventy bullocks was a sacrifice on behalf of the seventy nations of the world, looking toward their conversion to the G-d of Israel and their gathering under the Shekinah glory. There were two main features of the Temple service of this feast and they were the pouring of water in the Temple and the brilliant illumination of the Temple. The pouring out of water in the Temple represented the grace of G-d being poured forth on Israel, in the form of the rains that were due to start soon. The brilliant illumination of the Temple spoke of it as being the Light of the World.

All of these things taken together, the ingathering, the deliverance of His people, their wandering in the wilderness waiting for the promised land, their dwelling in tents, the pouring out of G-d's grace, and the light of the world, speak to me of Messiah. Is He not the firstfruits of the Harvest, The one who makes the final harvest possible? Is not the Body of Messiah now waiting for His return to take us from our wandering in the wilderness' into the promised land? Is He not the outpouring of G-d's grace? Did He not come to bring not only the Jews, but the all the nations of the world into His kingdom? Is He not the Light of the World? And was not the Tabernacle a shadow of the tent of flesh' that Messiah would put on that we might be brought closer to G-d? Remember, one of the meanings of the word tabernacle is 'dwelling' or in other words, a place to live. The spiritual picture of Messiah Yeshua putting on the tent of flesh' on this date, that He might dwell among men, is too great for me to believe that He was born at this time of year but not on this day.

Finally, consider that the one feast that is required of the nations that they come up to Jersusalem to keep in the one thousand year reign of Messiah is to be the Feast of Sukkot. Those who refuse to do this will receive no rain. What makes this feast the one to be kept above all others? Surely it is because it is the day of Messiah's birth.

Therefore, if we want to celebrate the time of Yeshua's birth, we should celebrate the one of the three feasts that the Gentile Church does not now celebrate, that is Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles.

Wally Callen

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