The Blood Moon Sextet of 2016?
Since the Summer of 2014 we have chronicled in this blog, the history of Blood Moons on the Lord’s Feast days, and important heavenly signs related to the Blood Moon Tetrad of 2014-2015. As a result of an updated view of Bible timekeeping practices, new information has come to light which could have a major impact on the story of the Blood Moons that has dominated the headlines of numerous international media, TV, radio, newspapers, websites, blogs for the last two years. This information could change the entire landscape of the Blood Moon phenomena as the record has been documented up to this point. We will verify in a few short days if this in fact is the case, but for now the summary in this blog post details the key points of this exciting story.
The key heavenly signs in March of 2016 begin with a Total Solar Eclipse on March 9th. From a mundane point of view, there does not seem to be anything special about this particular Solar Eclipse besides the fact that it is Total. However, this March 9th New Moon/Total Solar Eclipse becomes increasingly critical when seen in light of the original Hebrew Calendar. Two key aspects of this Hebrew Calendar are the determination of the start of each month, according to the sighting of the New Moon, and the determination of adding the extra 13th month or second Adar, to keep the seasons aligned with the months. The ripeness of the barley is the key determinant of when the extra month is added to their calendar year. Thus, the state of the barley is verified towards the end of the 12th month. If the barley is Aviv at this time, then the following New Moon becomes the “New Moon of Aviv.” This is the situation in the coming week when the barley will be checked for ripeness in Israel by March 9th. If the barley is ripe that will make March 9th-Nisan 1, followed by Passover 2 weeks later on March 23rd, aligning with a Full Moon Penumbral lunar eclipse! If the barley is still not ripened enough, then another month [Second Adar] must be added and the barley checked again at the end of this 13th month.
At first, the Hebrew Biblical year was determined by the sighting of the first New Moon, while addition of the 13th month was dependent upon when the barley crop reached “Aviv,” or as it turned from a darker to a lighter green-yellowish shade. This month also coincides with Passover [Deut. 16:1, Ex. 13:4] to commemorate the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. Later however, a tradition was popularized by Maimonides which has been used since the 11th century when the Jews replaced barley crop criteria with a calculated method of the keeping the Lord’s Feast and Holy Days.1 Calculation allows the convenience of the advance scheduling of their Feasts, rather than the sighting of the New Moon to determine the months and days of Jehovah’s Feasts. The difference between these two methods may seem trivial on the surface, but in the context of the Blood Moon Tetrad of 2014-2015, it most assuredly is not!
Exodus 34:18 KJV
“And the Feast of Unleavened Bread thou shalt keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time of the month of the Aviv, for in the month of the Aviv thou came out of Egypt.”
Aviv Barley in the Jordan Valley; early March, 2016
Current events in Israel shows core groups who recognize the start of the month based on the sighting of the New Crescent Moon, and the barley harvest, and in this special year of the Hebrew Jubilee, it is even more important that we recognize the Lord’s Feast and Holy days according to all the provisions of this original Biblical Standard. Head of the Year or the first month of the Biblical Year is to be declared on the first New Moon Day after the first complete shocks of Aviv barley are seen in the Land of Israel. [Ex. 12:2] Nehemia Gordon has been checking “Aviv,” annually in Israel for quite a while now, and according to his blog, he has already found harvest-ready barley during this week’s examination in the Jordan Valley, [pictured above] so “there’s a good chance the next New Moon will be the beginning of the Hebrew year, but not a certainty.” This will be verified however by the second week in March. That being said the Nisan 14 Passover may fall on March 23rd aligning with the Full Blood Moon Lunar eclipse, [Levi. 23:5] depending on the determination of the ripeness of the barley harvest about March 8th-9th. This earlier March date is another key due to the March 9th, Nisan 1/New Moon/Total Solar Eclipse set to take place marking the final decision on the barley crop status, to see if its ready for the Wave Offering in Judaism, on the Day of Unleavened Bread. [Levi 23:10] We may recall that there was also a very unique Total Solar Eclipse on 3/20/2015, and it is instructive to realize some common points shared by these consecutive March eclipses. They both are Super Moon Eclipses, and if the barley is ripe, they both will take place on Nisan 1.
Many of us who followed the celestial activity linked to the Blood Moons of 2014-2015 are indebted to Mark Biltz for his admirable work uncovering much of this information. One question arises however, is why is there very little to no data concerning the Lunar Eclipses of 2016? One likely answer is that the “calculated” method of determining the Lord’s Feast dates, utilized by Mark Biltz has already set the Nisan 14 Passover date to April 22nd, 2016, because 2016 corresponds to the Hebrew Calendar year 5776-in Judaic intercalation; a leap year where the 2nd Adar month is added. The calculation erroneously pushes the start of the first month out another 30 days, throwing off the alignment of the heavenly signs of the Sun/Moon with the Lord’s Feasts in the Hebrew Jubilee year of 5776, while ignoring the results of the Crescent New Moon sighting method, that favors instead a fifth Blood Moon on Passover for a THIRD consecutive year. This comes on the heels of the Sept. 28th, 2015 Super Blood Moon on the Feast of Tabernacles. In our Blood Moon Tetrad history provided in the Biblical Blood Moon Calendar, this has never previously occurred! In effect this would constitute the first Blood Moon Sextet; a 6-Lunar Eclipse event over 3 consecutive years since Christ was crucified.
If indeed the ripe barley is verified next week, what a huge event this would be to overlook, but this is not the only lunar event in 2016 that would align with Feast days of the Lord. The following is a list of potential heavenly signs of 2016, should a ripe barley crop be verified.
March 9th, 2016- Nisan 1/New Years, Super New Moon/Total Solar Eclipse
March 23rd, 2016-Nisan 14, Passover Full Moon/Penumbral Lunar Eclipse
Sept. 1st, 2016 Annular Solar Eclipse on Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets.
Sept. 16, 2016 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse on the Feast of Tabernacles
The Total Solar Eclipse on March 9, 2016 will appear over the Pacific, while the 3/23 Passover Blood Moon will be visible over North/South America as well as Australia, most of Asia and Russia, but not over Israel. The next Solar Eclipse on September 1, 2016 occurs over South Africa. This would also be the Feast of Trumpets- the first day of Tishri, the 7th month. Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles then begins on September 16, 2016, with a 6th Lunar Eclipse, visible over Israel, Asia, Europe and Russia. With these added Lunar Events in 2016 we can see in the list below each Passover and Feast of Tabernacles/Sukkot aligning over a 3-year period from 2014-2016, with Solar and Lunar signs on the Lord’s Feast and holy days forming the first Blood Moon Sextet in history. Since the 2014-2015 Blood Moon Tetrad uniquely marked both Shemitah and Jubilee years, the singular nature of a Blood Moon Sextet certainly jumps off the Hebrew Calendar, marking 2016 as a year that demands our fullest attention concerning the elevated emphasis the Creator has placed on this Jubilee.
Nisan 1 Total Solar Eclipse, March 9th
Feast of Trumpets Annular Solar Eclipse
Sukkot Lunar Eclipse, September 16, 2016
With these Feasts and Holy days of the Lord marked with Lunar and Solar Eclipses for the third year in a row, during the Year of the Hebrew Jubilee these events can by no means be overlooked, and as we monitor the results of the barley crop, we will see if the final results align with the expectations that this crop will indeed be ripe. The calculated method allows us to predict when the first crescent of the New Moon becomes visible, but the accuracy of these predictions does not extend to the presence of clouds, which can obscure our view. Adhering to the wisdom of the ALMIGHTY eliminates the errors of not simply waiting patiently until the sighting of the first lunar crescent of the New Moon. More importantly, the spiritual benefits seen above in the added Blood Moons of 2016, discovered while keeping a calendar based on waiting upon the Lord, instead of human methods of mathematical calculation, illustrates the infinite benefits of God’s timing versus man’s. This method of calculation obscures a massive truth in 2016-a unique Jubilee Year, because by blocking the recognition of the Passover that takes place on March 23rd instead of April 22nd, we miss out on an added potential Lunar and Solar Eclipses falling on the Lord’s Feast and Holy days, on the heels of the 2014-2015 Blood Moon Tetrad!
The calculated method became a popular tradition originally based on the practice of the Sanhedrin verifying the testimony of the two eyewitnesses who documented the first appearance of the New Crescent Moon, to start the new month. In the mid-4th century BC, the famed Priest Hillel added these calculations to the written record, established by Maimonides in the 11th century AD. Based on this tradition, the calendar in Israel is lunar based, it requires the intercalation of a 13th month, in 7 years out of a 19-year cycle. According to the Talmud; the lunar observations linked with the “New Moons of Nisan and Tishri were so important that the two witnesses might even exceed the 2000 cubit travel limit on the Sabbath to bring their report to Jerusalem.”5 Based on their observations, the head [Nasi] of the Sanhedrin sanctified the New Moon, and a trumpet was sounded, [Ps. 81:3]. This exhibits the importance attached to the process of sanctifying the New Moon in Judaism, which has been obscured by the calculation method for much of the last millennium.
The following is a list of simulated Feast Dates from an independent Jewish source (if ripe barley is found before 10 March 2016): from LTRadio [www.ltradio.org/articles]
Pesach/Passover- Sunset 23 March 2016 – Sunset 24 March 2016 [Lunar Eclipse]
Feast of Unleavened Bread- Sunset 24 March 2016 – Sunset 31 March 2016
Feast of First Fruits (Resurrection)- Sunset 27 March 2016 – Sunset 28 March 2016
Shavuot/Pentecost- Sunset 15 May 2016 – Sunset 16 May 2016
Teshuvah (40 Days of Repentance)- Sunset 4 August 2016 – Sunset 11 September 2016
Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets)- Sunset 2 September 2016 – Sunset 4 September 2016 [Annular Solar Eclipse]
Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)- Sunset 11 September 2016 – Sunset 12 September 2016
Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)- Sunset 16 September 2016 – Sunset 23 October 2016 [Lunar Eclipse]
Hanukkah (Feast of Lights)- Sunset 24 November 2016 – Sunset 1 December 2016
As we anxiously await the results of the March 9th verification of Aviv Barley in the Jordan Valley, we are excited and blessed to illustrate the benefits of recognizing the importance of adhering to the wisdom and patience of the Almighty, when it comes to the determination of His Feast and Holy Days. This is an eternal guiding principle whether ripe barley is sufficiently verified next week or not, it reminds us the Man’s wisdom can never replace the Omniscient wisdom of the Creator, Who spun the celestial bodies in their orbits according to His perfect timing at Creation. We can only stand in Praiseful Awe of His Glory and Virtue-Amen!!
Footnotes
1. “Light from the Ancient Past” Jack Finegan, p. 578
2. Exodus 34:18 KJV
3. “Nehemiah’s Wall.” Nehemia Gordon’s Blog
4. Biblical Blood Moon Calendar [blog.try-god.org] Aug. 2014
5. Talmud, Tractate Rosh Hashanah 19b sbt p.81 n4.
6. LTRadio [www.ltradio.org/articles]
