Let’s Celebrate!

Religion

Laughter. Food. Fellowship. Music, dancing, clapping. Shouting! Rejoicing and Celebrating. These are all things that God loves. Sounds like a party.
The Scriptures are full of stories about celebrations and special occasions. These special times are meant to be remembered. Often specific days are set apart. Work stops. Friends and family gather from far away places. Memories are created. Plans are made to repeat the celebration the next year. The day is marked on the calendar. It’s a date everyone looks toward with anticipation.

When God delivered Israel from Egypt, He wanted them to remember it for all of history. It was such a significant event in the national life that God told Moses: This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. Exodus 12:2

Deliverance was promised. Freedom was assured. Time started over. Israel’s life was just beginning. After an elaborate time of preparation, a special meal and ceremony, the exodus began. And then they threw a party. (Exodus 15)

One year later – to the day – God gave another demonstration of His presence to His people.

That first year in the wilderness was trying. There was the brush with the army from Egypt and the miracle of passing through the Red Sea. There was hunger and thirst, and seeing God’s provision for each.
There was the golden calf while Moses was with God on the mountain, and the new law, the ten commandments.

But on the first day of the first month of the second year, Moses erected the tabernacle.

And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up. Exodus 40:17

This tabernacle was a visible reminder that God was always with His people. It, and the temple that came later in Israel’s history, became the center of the spiritual life of God’s people. A place of offerings, celebrations, gathering. A place of rejoicing, singing, worship.

God wants His people to anticipate, then remember, historic days in their spiritual journey.

It is not insignificant that, in God’s creative work at the beginning of the world as we know it, He made the light on the first day.

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. “ Genesis 1:5

Some time later, we — God’s creations and His delight — had so corrupted everything He made good, God chose to start fresh with one good family. A flood wiped everything away except what God specially preserved, and He started again. On a special day.

And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. Genesis 8:13

These events were each on the 1st day of the 1st month. New beginnings. New creations. New opportunities. At the beginning of a new year.

There are many other events recorded on specific days throughout the Scriptures. And, of course, celebrations need not be restricted to once a year. Jesus appeared to his disciples after his crucifixion on the first day of the week, then again the first day of the following week. And Christians continue this tradition – gathering in His name to celebrate His and our new life – each week.

If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, I invite you to gather with a group of His followers this week, on the first day of the first month of a brand new year, to celebrate. And if you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, I invite you to seriously consider His claims and how – if His claims are true – you should live your life. It may be time for a next start.

This Sunday, the first day of the first month of a brand new year could mark the beginning of a brand new life for you. And that would be cause for serious and repeated celebration.

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