A Portal of Culture

Alright, there's several ways we can do this. I could always sort and consolidate and group like things together. You'll notice that the bolded words correspond mostly to the number of months in a year. You'll find these to be twelve. When we talk about society and even the cities, it implies a certain order to it that is not found in all the wanderings of before. That is because when society gets settled and fixed, it establishes culture, or all the things that make it unique. Some of you might know traditions as something your parents have done and their parents and their parents before that. Culture is much the same thing, though instead of a few generations of people doing it, everybody does it. An aspect of your culture might be dressing well to cover. Another aspect just might be the stars. To some people, the star shapes mean everything. It can determine the destiny to some or just tell the history to others. Let's see which these do that are told of on record. If we're very lucky, they will shape the culture.

This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:

Exodus 12:2-3

Here we see the first Passover recorded. Thus is the Passover kept as a celebration, or something held in remembrance, for the coming out of Egypt. On the first Passover, they slaughtered the lamb, painted the blood above the door and ate the rest as a feast while the angel of death passed overhead that night. Whichever house claimed the blood was spared. In this way, were these passed over in essence. Now I know our modern times might be just a bit different. These days we celebrate just about anything, whenever we feel like it with hardly any reason at all. How they got to Egypt in the first place is a bit different story. It started with Joseph, one of Jacob's twelve sons. He was kidnapped, sold by his brothers to some traders in Egypt. They did it for jealousy because of his dreams. But what God brought about would soon be seen. There was famine in the land where they dwelled that brought his whole family down to Egypt seeking for grain. Then poor Joseph, sold as a slave, had worked his way up. God gave him wisdom through dreams and foresight to prepare. For this he did, even making large stores so none would go hungry for as long as it lasted. Since their kin was now ruling and they were given a place, the people stayed. Soon the twelve sons had more and a place to settle also. Then came the Pharaohs with their faces so grim. They refused to allow the people to settle and so made them into their slaves who put all that working into making their bricks. These bricks can be seen in all sorts of things, from the pyramids of today to all kinds of other things.

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

Remember, back when we left the animals and Noah still on the ark? Soon the flooding and rains stopped, and the water quit coming up from the deep. The ark rested, and so it just also happened to be the first month of the year that Noah opened up the ark so long ago and peeked back outside after the flood. Perhaps you're not seeing a pattern just yet. I know I am. Let's keep on going.

Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.

Numbers 20:1

It was also the month that Miriam died, Moses' sister and companion on his long desert walks with God's people. God had to send a deliverer by this name, Moses, who would go and bring his people back out. On this month then they came up out of Egypt. Miriam too, got to go home in this month, or to whatever your culture knows as the afterlife.

And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho.

Joshua 4:19

Then again, the people wandered a long time in the wilderness. When they crossed over Jordan, which was the name of a river defining the boundary of that land, they came to rest for a while. This rest then is what makes up the month. We're in the month Nisan, that makes up the first. There's Passover for the first feast and also a holy day. We should have a portal for the star sign. A portal is a doorway through which you can enter and leave to get from one place to the next. Through it can come judgment or also a means of escape. Let's see what happened then when the people have gone. Remember, there were the twelve tribes divided into two kingdoms over something that really shouldn't have happened at all. It was all over who should rule the people and who they worshipped as God. There was idolatry persistent in the northern kingdom, that of the nation of Israel. It was presided over by one of David's many sons. The other kingdom, that of the south, consisted of Judah and Jerusalem. It was known as the southern kingdom and contained one of David's descendants through Solomon. Then judgement fell, with the northern tribes being carried off first and the southern tribes being carried off later. The southern tribes were taken by a people called Babylon, while the north presumably went with Assyria. (It was either Syria or Assyria, one of the two. Let me check on that later.)

Then were the king's scribes called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto the king's lieutenants, and to the governors that were over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language; in the name of king Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with the king's ring.

Esther 3:12

In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and brought me thither. 2 In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, by which was as the frame of a city on the south.

Ezekiel 40:1-2

Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the first month, in the first day of the month, thou shalt take a young bullock without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary:

Ezekiel 45:18

And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel; 5 Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz:

Daniel 10:3-4

While in Babylon presumably, the southern tribes met with someone called King Ahasuerus, who sat over the throne of the Medes and the Persians. The empires are a different story and one best saved for another day. Anyhow, there was an enemy which sprang up, who hated God's people, called Haman. In fact, he created a grand plot and sent letters throughout the land in the first month of the year appointing a day for them to be destroyed. Apparently, the king went along with it, for a while a least, until the matter was revealed that it meant killing his new-found queen in the bargain, for she was in fact Jewish. She had just concealed her identity exceedingly well. So then, God delivered them from that terrible trial. Later, there came the prophet Ezekiel who suddenly found himself whether in flesh or in spirit, brought there to the city Jerusalem in Israel. Daniel too, another prophet of God, found himself meeting with God in the first month of the year. Isn't it a funny thing how the whole earth can't contain him much less this house that has been built. Speaking of his house, namely that of the old temple, after it had been rebuilt, the Lord told Ezekiel the prophet to cleanse the sanctuary in the first month after returning to the land. It is funny how sanctuary can come in many forms, shapes, and sizes. It can mean a house of worship, a place of refuge, or even where the stranger finds for themselves a place of rest.

Nisan (1st) / October, Libra, Portal