Nisan 5772 begins Friday Night at sundown, March 23, 2012. This year we have Rosh Chodesh Nisan on the eve of Shabbatt- a double blessing for the Month of Redemption!!
What to expect this month (cycles repeat themselves):
- Praise to prepare the way for the King (Judah means praise)
- Praise to over through the works of the enemy (Judah goes first to war)
- Revelation (month of spring, direct light, unveiling of hidden things)
- Things that looked dead to come back to life (Spring and raising of Lazarus)
- Deeper revelation of our redemption (month of Passover)
- Deliverance (when the Hebrew children were delivered from bondage in Egypt)
- Crossing Over into your Promised Land (when Joshua led the Hebrew children through the Joran River)
- Payback of back pay, finances stolen from you (women ‘asked’ the Egyptian neighbors for riches, Ex 3:22; 12:35-36)
- Take new ground, expand your territory as this is the month ‘Kings go to war’ (2 Samuel 11:1, not defensive, but offensive battle against the enemy)
- Family deliverance (Exodus 12) from captivity, from bondage, from sickness and loss of strength, from no hope, from lack, from oppression…….
- Fresh revelation of the Power of the Blood for cleansing, deliverance, redemption, protection, drawing you near to God!!!
Begin to declare and decree these things over your life. Job 22:28 teaches us, “Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.”
Nisan is the 1st month on Biblical calendar, 7th month on the Civil calendar. It begins at sundown April 4 and lasts 30 days, with the month closing on May 4th at sundown. Rosh Chodesh means the first day of a new month on the Hebrew Calendar. The months on the Hebrew calendar are based on the moon cycle or lunar calendar. Normally the Hebrew calendar is 12 months, but on a leap year it has 13 months. This year is a Leap Year (full year) so we have just passed 2 months of Adar.
Nisan begins the new Biblical year or Cycle of Redemption and Blessing. This being the first month was first instituted by God in Exodus 12:2, “This month [shall be] unto you the beginning of months: it [shall be] the first month of the year to you.” This month was first called the First Month of the year. In Exodus 13 we see this month having a name Abib (pronounced A-veev). Abib in Hebrew means ‘the barley is in the ear’, and represents the barley harvest that is celebrated the middle of Abib on Passover. By the time of Nehemiah it was called Nisan, meaning ‘their flight’.
So this month stands for when God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt after 400 years and the Jews out of a 70 year Babylonian captivity. This past month we were to press into ‘no matter what joy’ with Adar. If you did, I am sure that you experienced many turn-arounds, insteads because you were expecting them. As we go through this next cycle on the calendar God chose, let us expect redemption in every area of our lives and our loved ones.
Redeem is an interesting Hebrew word, H1349, ga’al. It means to buy back, ransom, as buying a slave out of a slave market and setting them free. A kinsman redeemer, as we see of Boaz in the Book of Ruth, would bring a person back to their inheritance or original position. May your eyes be opened this month to the truth of Redemption, for when you really know that truth you will be free indeed!!! Who the Son sets free is free indeed.
Calendar of Events– Remember days begins at sundown the night before
March 24 Nisan 1 Rosh Chodesh Nisan
April 6 Nisan 14 Fast of the Firstborn
April 7 Nisan 15 Passover (Pesach)
April 7-14 Nisan 16-22 Feast of Unleavened Bread
April 8 Nisan 16 Begins the counting of the Omer (50 days to Pentecost)
April 26 Nisan 27 Holocaust Memorial Day
Spring Housecleaning will begin as people begin to clean all the leaven out of their homes for the feasts of Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread & First Fruits. It seens as if we have a special grace from God at this time to get rid of things that clutter, cause stress (mess creates stress), and prepare for a new season. Out with the old and in with the new. During the 7 days of Unleavened Bread all yeast (leaven) items will be totally cleansed from thier homes. This is also a great way to detox your body since yeast infections are a major health problem. Our bodies and the temple of the Holy Spirit (I Cor 6:19) and it is a good things to get rid of things spiritually and phyically.(Hebrews 12:1-2)
The Tribe for Nisan is Judah. Judah means ‘praise‘ and is the 4th son of Jacob and Leah. Judah is the tribe of the king (David, Solomon & Jesus who is the King of Kings).
Over 2000 years ago Jesus bore the crown of thorns for us. Pilate even wrote the title “JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS” and put it on the cross (John 19:19). When they put this crown on Him and His precious blood began to flow, the curse of the land was broken. Adam’s sin brought thorns, and the sweat of our brow (Genesis 3:17-19). But in heaven King Jesus is on the Throne, at the right hand of the Father. This month is known as “The King of all Months“, and New Year for Kings. Psalm 8:2 in the NLT reads, “You have taught children and nursing infants to give you praise.They silence your enemies who were seeking revenge.” Leah was not loved or wanted by Jacob and she experienced rejection, her number one enemy. When she made a decision to stop fighting and begin praising she became the original ‘No Matter What Woman’.
Judah always goes first in all journeys. God knew to send out the Tribe that had courage and strength because they were praisers. His weaknesses were too much drink, women & money. In fact, the first words recorded from Judah was in the sale of Joseph, “What profit is this” and “let’s sell him.” His strengths as he overcomes his weak areas were praiser, leader, victorious warrior (Caleb), Kings. By far, his strengths outnumbered his weaknesses.
The last letter in the Hebrew Aleph Bet is Tav and it means ‘a sign’. The ancient Hebrew letter for Tav is a picture of a cross. The Hebrew word dat which means ‘religion‘ is made up of Dalet Tav. Dalet in ancient script a picture of ‘a door’. So, put them together and it is clear that religion is the door of the sign (cross). When the Hebrew children put the blood of the lamb on their door posts it formed a cross over their threshold (door). John 10:7, Jesus said “I am the Door of the sheep.” No man comes to God unless they go through the door of Jesus, washed in His precious Blood. He is forever our Passover Lamb (I Cor 5:7)
Hebrew Letter: Hei
Hey is the 5th letter in the Hebrew Aleph Bet with the numerical value of 5. The number 5 stands for grace, God’s unmerited, unearned favor. The pictograph of Hei is a man with his hands raised up praise and thanksgiving and it also is a represents a window. It means to look, to behold, to show, to reveal, and it is used before a word meaning ‘the’ . Hey represents the breath of God and his divine creative powers. In the Talmud (Menachot 29b) it is said that the ” breath of His mouth’ refers to the sound of the letter Hey- the outbreathing of His Spirit.”
Constellation- Aries, The Lamb.
The lamb, slain at Passover, became a sign of Redemption. Israel is like a lamb among 70 wolves (nations formed in Genesis 10). The lamb possesses the innate ability to arouse merchy by its voice. The Blood of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the earth, is crying out ‘mercy’ every time a drop hits the Mercy Seat in the Throne Room of Heaven.
1 Nisan– Exodus 40:1,2
- The erection of Moses Tabernacle was completed. Moses completed the consecration rites of Aaron his sons. Aaron performed the first sacrifical rites. Death of Nadab & Abihu.
- King Hezekiah commenced the reconstruction of the Temple.
- The plot of Bigtan and Teresh to assassinate Ahasherus was discovered by Mordecai.
2 Nisan
- King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella signed a decree expelling Jews from Spain, 1492
3 Nisan
- In 1944, the Nazis perpetrated the Children’s Action in the Kovno Ghetto. That day and the next, German soldiers conducted house-to-house searches to round up all children under age 12 (and adults over 55) — and sent them to their deaths at Fort IX. Eventually, the Germans blew up every house with grenades and dynamite, on suspicion that Jews might be in hiding in underground bunkers. They then poured gasoline over much of the former ghetto and incinerated it. Of the 37,000 Jews in Kovno before the Holocaust, less than 10 percent survived. One of the survivors was Rabbi Ephraim Oshri, who later published a stirring collection of rabbinical responsa, detailing his life-and-death decisions during the Holocaust. Also on this date, in 1937, American Jews held a massive anti-Nazi rally in New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
4 Nisan
- In 1948, a convoy of 78 Jewish medical personnel, en route to Hadassah Hospital in the Jewish enclave of Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, were killed in an Arab ambush. The ambush cut off the hospital from the rest of Israel and forced Hadassah to relocate, eventually opening a larger medical center in 1961 at Ein Kerem. The Mount Scopus facility would reopen after Jerusalem was reunited in 1967
5 Nisan
- In the Hebrew year 2488, Joshua sent scouts to survey Jericho in anticipation of the Jewish conquest. The mission was risky in the sense that 40 years earlier, Moses had sent scouts to Israel, only to have them recommend against entering the land. This time the mission was successful, and in the ensuing siege, Joshua’s troops — amidst shofar blasts — encircled Jericho seven times until its walls came down. The events are recorded in the biblical Book of Joshua, chapters 2 and 6
8 Nisan
- On this date in 1915, the Zion Mule Corps, a Jewish militia, was formed. Zev Jabotinsky had proposed that Jewish volunteers fight to liberate Palestine from the Turks, but the British resisted the idea of Jewish soldiers on the Palestinian front. So instead Jabotinsky established the Zion Mule Corps, whose 650 members were commanded by the famed one-armed fighter, Joseph Trumpeldor. It was essentially the first organized Jewish fighting force since Roman times, and a precursor to the Israeli Defense Force (IDF)
10 Nisan (Joshua 4:19-14)
- The Jews, led by Joshua, crossed the Jordan and erected 12 monuments at Gilgal
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Death of Miraim
13 Nisan
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Haman published decree callng for the extermination of all Jews the Persian Empire. Esther ordered the 3 day fast for the Jews of Shushan.
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Nazi party emerged on the anniversary of Haman’s decree to kill all the Jews
14 Nisan (Passover)
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Joshua lifted up his eyes and saw the Lord with a sword in His hand. Jericho march (Joshua 5:10-15)
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Cain & Able offer their sacrifices to God
15 Nisan
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Rabbincal teaching belives in the Hebrew year 2018 (1742 BCE), God made a covenant with Abraham, granting him and his descendents the Land of Israel, as recorded in Genesis chapter 15
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Feast of Unleavened Bread begins
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Birth of Isaac
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Isaac summoned Esau and requested that he prepare a tasty meal for him and receive his blessing
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Moses saw the burning bush
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The Tenth and final plagues of Egypt: Eqyptian first-born were slain
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The Hebrew children were protected by the blood of the lamb on their doorposts as the Death Angel passed over (Passover instituted)
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The defenders of Masada died, 73 AD
16 Nisan
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3 million Jews left in the Exodus from Egypt, in what is known as the “birth” of the Jewish nation.
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Wicked Haman was hanged
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Mordecai was appointed chief minister to replace Haman
19 Nisan
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Adolph Hitler made his first appearance on the very anniversary of teh same day Pharoah set out pursuit of the Jewish people
21 Nisan
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Jacob left Laban’s home to return to Israel
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2448 BC, The Hebrew children crossed the Red Sea as God opened it for them and covered their enemies. Moses & the people of Israel sang the Song of Moses as Miriam danced and played her tambourine
22 Nisan
- In the Hebrew year 2488, Joshua began a seven-day march around Jericho in anticipation of the Jewish conquest. The Jews circled the walls one time each day, for six days, and then on the seventh day marched around Jericho seven times — until its walls collapsed amidst shofar blasts. The events are recorded in the biblical Book of Joshua 6.
23 Nisan
- In 1921, Arab mobs attacked Jewish residents of Jaffa and stormed the Zionist Immigration Center, killing 47 Jews
24 Nisan
- In the Hebrew year 2448 (1312 BCE), after crossing the Red Sea, the Jews came to a place called Mara — literally “bitter,” because the water there was bitter. The people complained and Moses miraculously made the waters turn sweet. It was here that God gave the Jews some of the first mitzvot — the laws of Shabbat and some civil laws — in anticipation of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, some six weeks later
28 Nisan
- In 1912, the RMS Titanic sank after crashing into an iceberg in the North Atlantic.
29 Nisan
- In 1945, U.S. soldiers liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp. Although not technically an extermination camp (prisoners were used as slave labor in local armament factories), mass killings took place at Buchenwald, and many inmates died in the course of gruesome medical experiments. Elie Wiesel, who went on to write stirring accounts of the Holocaust, for which he earned the Nobel Peace Prize, was an inmate at Buchenwald. Toward the end of the war, the Nazis evacuated inmates from Buchenwald to Flossenberg, where they were liberated.