The best new year's resolution

Have you ever wondered if New Year's Eve is important to God? God exists in timelessness, which is called eternity. When He created humankind, He placed them within a temporal framework divided into days, weeks, months, and years. There are many different calendars that people on this earth use. The Jewish New Year is not celebrated on the same day as New Year's Eve, although there are similar principles. Regardless of the calendar used, New Year's Day is always the first day of the first month of the calendar year. Time is important to God. The Psalms record a prayer from Moses in which he prays for wisdom in dealing with time: "The days of our years are seventy years, and, if we have power, eighty years; yet their pride is toil and vanity, for they quickly pass away, and we fly by. Therefore teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."Ps 90,10 and 12).

One thing the Bible teaches us about the nature of God is that He sets the pace and does things at just the right time. If something is supposed to happen on the first or the twentieth day of the month, it will happen on that day, to the hour, even to the minute. It is not a coincidence or an emergency, it is God's schedule. The life of Jesus was planned down to the smallest detail in terms of time and place. Even before Jesus was born, the plan was prepared and Jesus lived it out. That is one of the things that prove the divine nature of Jesus. No one can predict how his own life will develop, as Jesus and the prophets before him did. Both the birth of Jesus and his crucifixion and resurrection were foretold by the prophets many years before they happened. God did and said many things on Jewish New Year's Day. Here are three examples from biblical history.

Noah's Ark

While Noah was in the ark during the flood, months passed before the waters receded. It was on New Year's Day that Noah opened the window and saw that the water was going down. Noah remained in the ark for another two months, probably because he had grown accustomed to the comfort and security his vessel provided. God spoke to Noah and said, "Get out of the ark, you and your wife, your sons, and your sons' wives with you!" (1. Mose 8,16).

God told Noah to leave the ark, as the earth was now completely dry. Sometimes we are overwhelmed by life's problems. Sometimes we are trapped by them and too comfortable to let go. We are afraid to leave them behind. No matter where you are in your comfort zone, on New Year's Day 2021, God says the same words to you as he did to Noah: Go out! There is a new world out there, waiting for you. The floods of the past year may have overwhelmed, uprooted, or challenged you, but on New Year's Day, God's message to you is to begin anew and be fruitful. They say that once burned, you should avoid the fire, but you need not be afraid. A new year is beginning, so go outside—the waters that came over you have receded.

The temple construction

God instructed Moses to build a temple in the form of a tent. This symbolized the place where God dwelt with the people. After the materials were prepared, God said to Moses, "You shall set up the tabernacle on the first day of the first month." (2. Mose 40,2)The construction of the tabernacle was a special task, reserved for a special day—New Year's Day. Many years later, King Solomon built a temple of solid materials in Jerusalem. This temple was desecrated and abused by people in later times. King Hezekiah decided that something had to change. The priests went into the sanctuary of the temple and began to cleanse it on New Year's Day: “The priests went into the interior of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and they put all the unclean things that were found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord, and the Levites took them up and carried them out to the Kidron Valley. They began the dedication on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they went into the vestibule of the Lord and dedicated the house of the Lord for eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished the work.” (2. Chr 29,16-17).

What does this mean for us? In the New Testament, Paul speaks of us as the temple of God: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person, for God’s temple is holy—you are that temple.” (1. Kor 3,16)
If you don't already believe in God, God invites you to stand up to become His temple and He will come and dwell in you. If you already believe in God, then his message is the same as that given to the Levites thousands of years ago: cleanse the temple on New Year's Day. If you have become unclean through sexual impurity, lust, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfishness, discord, envy, drunkenness, and other sins, then God invites you to be cleansed by Him and start doing it on New Year's Day. Have you already started? It could be the best New Year resolution of your life to become the temple of God.

Leave Babylon!

There is another New Year's experience documented in the Book of Ezra. Ezra was a Jew living in exile in Babylon with many other Jews because Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians. After Jerusalem and the Temple were rebuilt, Ezra, the scribe, decided to return to Jerusalem. He wanted to teach the people in detail about what was written in the Scriptures. This is what we also want to do, and we want to tell you: Today we are the spiritual temple of God and his church. The Temple was therefore a symbol for us believers, and Jerusalem the symbol for the church. "For on the first day of the first month he had decided to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, because the good hand of his God was upon him." (Esr 7,9).

He decided to leave Babylon on New Year's Day. On this New Year's Day, you too can choose to return to the church (represented by Jerusalem). You may be stuck in the Babylon of your lifestyle, your work, your missteps. There are believers who are spiritually still in Babylon, even if they could fulfill urgent tasks from Jerusalem, the church. Just like Esra, you can now choose to make your return journey home - to the church. Your church is waiting for you. It could be a strenuous journey, especially the first steps towards home. You know, a long journey begins with the first step on the first day of the first month. It took Esra four months to arrive. You have the opportunity to start today.

I hope that you will look back on New Year's Eve and say: “I am glad that, like Noah, I stepped out of the ark's comfort zone, into the new world that God had prepared for him. Like Moses, who set up the tabernacle on New Year's Day, or like Ezra, who decided to leave Babylon behind him to learn more about God! " I wish you a very good year!

by Takalani Musekwa