The Third Month of God's Year (Sivan 5784)

After sunset on Thursday (6th June)  we enter the 3^rd month of God’s year, and also the 45^th day of the counting of the Omer.   

Sometime after the Babylonian captivity this 3rd month acquired its present "man-made" name of Sivan, mentioned as such only once in the scriptures in the book of Esther.  All other times the month is referred to as the 3rd month. 

Seen as the month of revelation, as it is the month The Children of Israel were given  the Torah.   But the no. 3 seems quite significant, as Moshe was the 3rd child in his family who received the Law on the 3rd day of the 3rd month, after there had been three days of preparing before they received it, and then the Children of Israel were divided into three groups, Kohanim, Levites and the other Tribes of the Children of Israel! No great significance I am sure, but interesting!

As recorded in  Exodus :The Lord came down onto Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, and then called Moshe to  join him there. 

Ex 19:1

"I have carried you on eagles wings and brought you to myself.  Now if you will pay careful attention to what I say and keep my covenant, then you will be my own treasure (segula) from among all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you will be a kingdom of cohanim for me, a nation set apart……..” 

Mount Sinai was enveloped in smoke - the whole mountain shook violently….as the sound of the shofar grew louder….then The Lord said all these words:…..”I am The Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.”  

This is then followed by The Lord giving Moshe The Ten Words. Wow, a really significant moment in God’s plan for His creation.

And of course in this 3rd month we celebrate the 2nd of the Three Pilgrim Feasts, Shavuot, on 6th of this month (after sunset on 11th June).  Shavuot  meaning  Weeks,  because it comes at the end of us counting 7 weeks after Pesach.  i.e. What is called Counting the Omer - all of this being God given commands, not tradition, not man’s idea.  However,  traditionally at this time The Ten Words are read, and also the story of Ruth, plus festive meals with lots of dairy products. 

Of course in the year of Messiah Yeshua’s death and resurrection, after he told his disciples to wait in the city, there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Shavuot, seen as a time of empowering the believers to continue the task given to them.  Sadly many anti-Semitic years later, this became known as the birth of “the church”, and given a Greek name meaning 50.  Personally I find this a sad reminder of how over the centuries man-made decisions and wrong theology continued the process of wrenching the life, death and resurrection  of  our Jewish Messiah, Yeshua,  away from the God given calendar, and begin a new religion, which, as far as I can glean from the life and words of our Messiah, was never the plan. 

So back to the Tanach: In Ezekiah 31:1 “On the first day of the third month…..” We then have a  Long prophecy warning Pharaoh that Egypt will fall like Assyria,  but also in the allegory of the tree, Ezekiel helps Judah to see its fate from a more universal perspective. Judah is not the only nation that stands under divine judgment. No king and no nation can escape that judgment—not even Egypt..

In Esther 8:9. we read how after Haman’s downfall King Achashverosh says to Queen Esther and Mordekhai they can issue a decree in his name  for whatever they want concerning the Jews, and it was  on the 23rd day of the third month, the month Sivan, that this decree was written, and you may remember this did not lift the evil plot of Human to kill all the Jews, this edict just gave them the right to defend themselves, which they successfully did! 

Sadly present day Israel has the same ongoing battle against today’s Hamans and Hitlers, namely Iran and its, proxies, Hamas and  Hezbollah, and sometimes it feels like the whole world!      

And in 2 Chron. 15 we read How the spirit of God came on Azaryah the son of Oded, and he told Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin The Lord is with you as long as you are with Him, if you seek Him, you will find Him, but if you abandon Him He will abandon you.  Then they all assembled in Jerusalem in the 3rd month and made huge sacrifices to the Lord in their desire to seek The Lord God of their ancestors with all of their heart and with all of their being…. This resulted in all the standing stones and sacred poles in the cities of Judah , Benjamin, Efrayim and Maneshah being broken down and destroyed. 

Now some of the many tragedies that happened during this 3rd month Sivan. 

In 1096 during the German Crusades when there were a series of mass murders of Jews by mobs of French and German Christians ,  Including the Worms Massacre, when at least 800 Jews in Worms, part of the Holy Roman Empire, now Germany, were slaughtered at the hands of the Crusaders under Count Emicho. 

And in 3rd month Sivan in 1171: in the The Town of Blois,  the whole Jewish community was massacred after it was accused of the ritual murder of a Christian child. The first known example of a blood libel in continental Europe — though no crime had been reported, let alone associated with the Jews!! (no surprises there!)

So quite a mixture: the blessing of the Torah, the joy of Shavuot, but sadly, the history of God and his Chosen People tinged with the hatred and lies of those who choose evil over good, darkness over light, and lies over truth.  Nothing new under the sun, as they say.  

יהי  רצון מלפנין יהוה אלהינ ואלהי אבותינו שתחדש עלינו חודש טוב

 באדנינו ישוע המשיח 

May it be Your will Lord our God and God of our fathers, that you renew for us a good month in our Lord Yeshua the Messiah

CHODESH TOV!