Welcome to another edition of the LKP Treasure Trove
In January, during the dead of winter, people around the world love to bring in the New Year with fireworks, parties, and other forms of celebration. But according to Scripture, the year does not start in winter at all, when things in nature usually die. The year begins in spring, when life in nature begins anew; when leaves grow on trees and flowers bloom. In today’s story, Keisha and her parents will explore these truths on a scenic hike through the forest on January 1st, which is . . .
Still the Old Year
“Where are we going, dad?” Keisha asked as they wound their way up the side of the mountain along a scenic country road.
Mom didn’t allow Dad to answer. She looked back at Keisha from the front passenger seat and said, “Let your father concentrate. This bend gets really twisty and these are steep, narrow roads.”
“Okay, mom,” Keisha said as she looked out at a valley of trees below them. Winter had long stripped the deciduous trees of all their majestic leaves, but towering evergreens dotted the landscape.
“Besides,” Mom said, “I thought you wanted it to be a surprise.”
“You’re right, mom. I do,” Keisha said. “I’ll stop asking.”
Another half hour passed before the surprise destination was revealed. Dad eventually reached a flat stretch of road and turned off of it to enter a state forest. After they parked near the entrance and started making their way toward a wide hiking trail, an elderly couple greeted them while leaving.
“Happy New Year,” the man said, smiling through a gray beard.
Dad smiled back politely and said, “We don’t celebrate your new year. For us it’s still the old year. But you take care.”
As they started on a leisurely hike, Keisha asked, “Why do gentiles start the year in January when lots of things in nature die off and some animals hibernate to survive the cold? Doesn’t the year start in spring when there’s new life, new growth, and warmer weather?”
Dad chuckled and said, “Yes. It seems like nature has it right and gentiles have it wrong. The truth is, Scripture says that when our ancestors were getting ready to come out of Egypt, Yah sent Moses and Aaron to speak to all the people of Israel. And that spring, just before harvest time, Exodus 12 verse 2 says that the ancient Israelites were told that the spring month they were to leave Egypt was actually the first month of the year.”
“So January can’t be the beginning of the new year,” Mom said.
“Right,” Keisha agreed. “And wasn’t it the ancient Romans who changed Yah’s calendar and made winter the beginning of the year?”
Dad nodded. “History tells us they did indeed.” Dad stopped in his tracks and slowly turned in a circle to take in all the trees around them. “Consider this forest, Keisha, with all its old growth. These trees have been here for a very long time—hundreds, maybe even thousands of years. Yet, the forest has been the same all that time. The only thing that changes it is the gentile when he cuts it down to build something else. Well, Yah’s laws are no different. They had to cut those down to build their own, and that’s how we get to January and winter replacing Yah’s true New Year.”
NOW, WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Knowing that Scripture clearly marks the first season as spring, the true beginning of the year, will you continue to celebrate New Year’s Day with heathens who openly violate Yah’s law with their worldly traditions? Yah is bringing this age to a close, and soon the elect will be revealed to the world and the Kingdom established. Those who make it to the Kingdom will obey Yah fully, but making it to the Kingdom means obeying Yah now.
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