We get another review of the three feasts where the Israelites are to present themselves before the Lord.
I can add another layer to the reminder of how “no one knows the hour or the day.” I noticed that the passage says that Passover happens in the month of Abib. I knew that Passover happened in Nisan, so I did some research. Even those trying to follow a Jewish calendar still aren’t following a Biblical calendar.
You can’t know the Biblical calendar ahead of time. Abib is the first month of the year. It happens when the first barley is ripe. The whole year can’t begin until the barley is just about ready to be harvested. The whole year can be pushed back to the next new moon if the crop is not ready. And if the month is moved back, it would affect all the subsequent months and holidays for the rest of the year. So, even if we could know the holiday and year of Christ’s return, we could never know in advance when that would even fall, and then even if we do learn of the barley harvest, there is the waiting on the new moon to appear to announce the new month has arrived.
We can’t know. Why? Why doesn’t God want us to know in advance? Because He knows man! Why do we want to know? So we can plan. So we can be prepared. So we can take matters into our own hands. Maybe so we can know something others don’t and act like we know so much. Basically, because we want to be God. Same ol’ same ol’. We don’t want to have to wait on God and trust Him. We want to rely on ourselves. If you aren’t prepared for Christ’s return today, it’s unlikely you’ll be prepared when it’s time, unless there’s some serious repenting in your future.
We walk with Christ every day, not just when we think we need to! Pray and ask the Lord to show you areas where you are still playing at God, or where you are letting things control you other than the Holy Spirit. For instance, I recently realized that my sense of efficiency was something that I let control me. I did things because it was efficient, not because I was letting God lead me.
It doesn’t mean efficiency is evil, but it’s just one more thing that needs submitting to God. It was one more case of trying to do it my way instead of submitting each moment to Him and letting Him lead how He may. This is a deeply, deeply rooted sin, this playing at God. Here’s a verse to pray.
Psalm 139:23-24 (ERV)
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts: And see if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.