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Is There a Spiritual Reason for God's Seasons?
Posted by Lev/Christopher on October 21, 2009 at 3:05am
in Forum
Here is another article from the same series but this one is totally wrong. What do you think?
_________________________________________________________________________
Mike
Today I was wondering why God ordained fall and summer! What do you think? Do you know a few reasons why? Does one or the other come first on God's calender?
J____
Hi J____,
Thank you for your question. You ask why God ordained fall and summer, and if the one precedes the other on God's calendar.
The reason God ordained all of the seasons is to show us how He is performing His spiritual work in our lives. Remember what Paul told the Roman converts:
Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Well, who made the seasons? That was of course God, and in the seasons there is a great lesson for us all. Look at this verse in Ecclesiastes.
Ecc 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
It so happens that the seasons of the year carry great spiritual significance which reveals the entire plan of God to save all men of all time.
You ask if one season comes first on the calendar, and the answer is, yes, spring comes first on reckoning God's seasons. Here is the order in which the seasons of God's working with His creation is listed:
Exo 12:2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
It was in this first month that the first Passover took place, and it was in the first month on the fourteenth day of the month. Leviticus 23 gives us the feasts of Israel, and in doing so they reveal to us God's plan for all mankind.
That is much too deep a study for an e-mail, but it does reveal that God has a season for everything, and it is a very orderly arrangement.
Lev 23:4 These are the feasts of the LORD, [even] holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.
Lev 23:5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD'S passover.
Lev 23:6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.
The Passover and the days of unleavened bread show us that when we come to realize that Christ has died for our sins, then we begin to put the leavening of sin out of our lives.
This 23rd chapter of Leviticus lays out all of God's feasts for Israel in order. The summer feast was called Pentecost (meaning 'county fifty') because it came fifty days after the offering of the wave sheaf of the spring barley harvest. But that was a type of the offering of Christ for our sins. But Christ is not all there is to God's harvest. There are yet two other harvests before God brings all men to Himself.
Here are all three harvests. They are listed in Exodus 23.
Exo 23:14 Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Exo 23:15 Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)
Exo 23:16 And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
Exo 23:17 Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.
Notice that the feast of Pentecost, is also called "the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of your labors..." So Christ is harvested first at the beginning of the year, during the spring. But that is followed by the "feast of firstfruits" of the summer wheat harvest. This typified the founding of the New Testament church on the day of Pentecost. But Pentecost is not the last of the harvests of God. There is yet one more season of harvest for our Lord, and that harvest is in "the end of the year."
Exo 23:16 (b) and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
This fall harvest, "which is in the end of the year," is also called "the feast of tabernacles, and it typifies the lake of fire harvest.
Christ never kept these seasons outwardly after He began His ministry. He made a point of not going up for the first day of unleavened bread as Moses commanded, and He made a point of eating the ears of corn on the sabbath and telling the man he healed to pick up his bed on the sabbath, contrary to the command of Moses. Christ did not observe the holy days that he had given Moses because he wanted us to know that He was "Lord of the sabbath", and that one "greater than the temple" and one "greater than Jonas is here."
Mar 2:28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
Mat 12:6 But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.
Mat 12:41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
If Christ left us an example, as the scripture tells us, then that example is definitely one of not observing days, months, times and years. And that is exactly what we are warned that we are not to do as God gives us the grace to follow His example.
1Pe 2:21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
If Christ set us an example of not keeping His own days, months, times and years, which He had given to Moses for Israel to keep, then He certainly does not want us to be keeping Pagan days, month, times and years. Here is what Christ told Moses concerning the ways of the nations around Israel:
Deu 12:29 When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
Deu 12:30 Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
Deu 12:31 Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
God told Moses that the observance of the ways of the Pagans was an "abomination" to him. As always, when God says "Thou shalt not," He does so because He knows that is exactly what we will do. And so He repeats this admonition in the New Testament:
Gal 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 4:10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
It should be obvious from these verses that neither Paul nor Christ observed days, months, times or years.
I hope this all helps you to see that God does indeed have a reason for His seasons, but those seasons have nothing at all to do with any outward observance of either Jewish holy days or of the Pagan holidays which are so widely celebrated in the entire western world.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike
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Reply by Lev/Christopher on October 21, 2009 at 3:08am
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