017 The Month of Iyar

In this episode the Watchman discusses the second month of Iyar and the Tribe of Issachar. Iyar is a month of Healing and looking forward to blessings of the coming year as God reveals two of His covenant names and re-iterates covenant name. Those covenant names are promises that we still receive the benefits from.

The Old Watchman Website
The Old Watchman - Facebook
The Watchman Speaks - Facebook
The Old Watchman - Twitter

Transcript

017 The New Moon and the Month of Iyar

Welcome to The Watchman Speaks! I’m your host, Lonnie Richardson.

It is now the third day of the second month of Iyar. 

The Second Month is mentioned some fifteen times that I have found in the Bible. It is referred to as the second month, Ziv (Zif), and Iyar.

Prior to the Babylonian Exile the second month was referred to as the second month or Ziv (Zif). After the Babylonian Exile came to an end the second month was referred to as Iyar in the Book of Ezra 3:8.

The first date mentioned in the Bible that I can find is the seventeenth day of the second month in Genesis 7:11.

11. “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month , on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the flood-gates of the sky were opened.”

Noah’s flood began on that day. A pretty significant day I would say. The next date of the second month was mentioned in Genesis 8:14.

14. “In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.” Amazing! From the beginning to the end the flood had lasted one year and ten days. 

It was at that time or about that time that God made a covenant, placing the rainbow in the sky as a reminder that He would never again destroy all flesh again. That is a covenant that is still in effect today. So much for the “I’m under a new covenant!” crowd. They are still under that old covenant promise that God made with Noah which was before even Abraham. You, me, us, them, and y’all are still under that same old covenant, or promise, God made to Noah. Thank God that He keeps His promises. By the way rainbows are for God’s promise to the many, not the privileges of the few.

So, just a word about covenants for the “I’m strictly under a new covenant!” crowd. There’s a lot of the new covenant that is not so new as there are old covenants promises extending into the new covenant that have not been fulfilled as yet. Yep, I said it. I’m not taking it back. Covenants are promises and, as far as I am aware, God has never made a promise that He is not capable of or intending to keep. There are parts of the New Covenant that stem from Old Covenants that are still in operation. I pray for all our sakes that they are. 

Iyar is the second month of God’s Calendar and the seventh month of the Jewish Civil Calendar. Iyar is considered to be the month of healing. In fact, Iyar is a Hebrew name that is an Acronym for “I AM God your healer.” You’ll find that in Exodus 15:26. It is there that God reveals one of the more important covenant names, Yhwh Rapha. God is my healer.

If you look into Exodus 15 we find that Israel has crossed the Red Sea, God has destroyed the Egyptian armies and in verse 26 pronounced Himself as the Healer. In Chapter 16:1 we read,

16. “Then they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt.”

If you read a little further you’ll find this is when God began providing manna for the sons of Israel. Again, as God did in Genesis 22 when He provided a ram for a substitionary sacrifice for Abraham’s son, Isaac. God re-iterates another covenant name, Yhwh Yireh. God who sees and provides.

That’s twice in two successive chapters that God reveals or re-iterates a covenant of promise. Do you still want to hold to that, “I’m under a new covenant” stance? I’m under the new covenant. But you’d better believe that I’m willing to step under the umbrella of the ongoing old covenant promises as well. 

Let’s move along to Exodus 17 where Israel was attacked by the Amalekites. Old Moses went up on top of a hill and as long as he held his hands up to God, Israel was winning the battle. But when He dropped his hands Israel began losing heavily. So, Aaron and Hur helped Moses keep his hands up. Israel learned that day about praise and how praise was key to victory. Therein, God revealed another covenant name, Yhwh Nissi. The Lord is my banner of victory.

As you can see, there is a lot that one can learn in this Bible study stuff. You’d be amazed at what can be learned if you set your heart to it. I didn’t learn any of this stuff in seminary. No, not at all. In seminary, I learned all the right answers to questions asked by men who were supposedly greater in spiritual stature than I was. Now, I’m not so certain that was the case. Great men, some of them, but greater I am not so sure.

You see, I’ve learned since that it’s not about learning the right answers to the status quo questions that men have reasoned in their minds. No, it’s about reading, study, and praying for knowledge and wisdom seeking the guidance of Holy Spirit to reveal the right questions and then searching for those answers. It’s not about merely knowing answers, that’s religion.  It’s about knowing through relationship.

I don’t know about you, but this is what I conclude from the Scriptures.

I believe that God wants us to reconfirm our covenant at Passover in the first month of Nisan or Aviv….so that He can reveal the power of His covenant names in the second month….so that we can be brought into a whole new level of understanding and power of Holy Spirit at Pentecost in the third month! That’s how I see it. I’ll get to the third month and Pentecost as the third month approaches.

Do you remember how secrets were revealed to Daniel? Daniel 2:21-22 reads:

21. “It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding.

22. It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.”

You can have wisdom and knowledge of profound and hidden things, but you have to ask for and seek those things. 

Knowing God’s time is knowing God’s word. I’m just meandering through the Scriptures and connecting some dots and I am often amazed at how pieces of the puzzle fall into place. 

Matthew 13:11 reads: “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 

But God wants us to ASK. James 1:5 “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

Iyar is a time when God will reveal the blessings of His ongoing covenants if you will set your heart to seek Him earnestly. In doing so, you may walk in a heightened sense of reality all year long! That reality being that you have the right and the authority to operate in the power of the Holy Spirit within you.

Will that always be pleasant? No, it will not. In fact, most likely it is going to be uncomfortable. Do you think that Jesus was comfortable knowing that His teachings were going to result in his death. All the apostles, save for John, met brutal deaths. John had the misfortune of surviving long enough to suffer the isolation of the prison camps of Patmos. Do you think, for a moment, that any of those men were comfortable? I doubt it. 

But they had promises and they held onto the promises, even though they died before seeing the promises. However, they still hold the promises for the promises are coming.

Now, let’s talk about the tribe of Issachar. When Moses and Israel moved the tabernacle or tent of meeting, Issachar was the second to move out. Issachar was the ninth son of Jacob, who would, become Israel, and the fifth son of Leah. Leah had ceased to conceive after the birth of Judah and had given her maid, Zilpha to Jacob. In Genesis 30:18 Leah gave birth to Issachar and said, “God has given me my wages because I have given my maid to my husband.” The name Issachar means “he will bring me reward”.

The three tribes of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulon were grouped together to the east of the tabernacle. The positioning of these tribes is the model of the current church. Judah would move out first with war, worship, and praise. Issachar would move out second with a knowledge of times and timing, and the seasons. Zebulon would move out third as a source of supply.

When King David assembled his armies, he did so according to the strengths of the men and the tribe from which they came. Issachar was gifted with knowing the times and what Israel should do. 

1 Chronicles 12:32 “Of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their kinsmen were at their command.”

That’s what I’m attempting to accomplish with these Bible studies in regard to God’s time. It is important to know what season we are in within God’s time. It is important to align ourselves with God in His time for then we will know what we should be doing within that time. 

But Issachar was known than merely knowing what to do and when to do it. The tribe of Issachar can be associated with prosperity, blessings, and intercession. 1 Chronicles 12:40

“Moreover those who were near to them, even as far as Issachar and Zebulon and Naphtali, brought food on donkeys, camels, mules, and on oxen, great quantities of flour cakes, fig cakes, and bunches of raisins, wine, oil, oxen, and sheep. There was joy indeed in Israel.”

Issachar was an important element in knowing it was time to align themselves with David instead of Saul. In making that decision they also assisted in the provision for David’s growing armies. 

The only negative in the Bible that I can find mentioned of Issachar is that after the Kingdom divided into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah is that there was a king over Israel named Baasha who was not a godly king and led Israel into the continued sin of Jeraboam. Baasha was from the tribe of Issachar. 

Now what does all this mean to the modern believer? Well, if you have set your heart on God and His way, His time, it can mean quite a lot. IF you have not set your heart on God and understanding how He works in His time, it probably means little to you.

 First, last month, in the first month of Aviv or Nisan, we remember and reconfirm the covenant we have with God through Jesus Christ at His Passover a well as celebrating the resurrection. Secondly, in this month, the second month or the month of Iyar, we seek God through His Spirit and His Word to have secrets and mysteries of hidden blessing revealed so that we understand the times we are in and what we ought to do. It is a time to understand the seasons that are coming later in the year and where we should be aligning ourselves. Thirdly, all of this prepares us for the giving of magnificent gifts as we rejoice that the Spirit of the Living God was poured out upon all flesh at Pentecost in the third month or Sivan or Sewan.

Just a note on that. What does the word “Pentecost” mean in Greek? It means the fiftieth day. Why is that important? 

You must understand that after the Passover Israel was instructed to “count the omers”. Fifty days later was the Feast of Weeks which was the time of the second harvest of wheat. Fifty days after Passover on “Pentecost” was when the Spirit of God was poured out onto all flesh. How convenient it is that Pentecost coincides with the same date as the Feast of Weeks or a Feast Celebrating God’s giving of provision for an entire year. Is that convenience or by design?

That’s something that you’ll have to decide for yourself. I happen to believe that it was by God’s design. More than two or three millennia had passed between the establishment of the Feast of Weeks and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Only God can arrange such things. 

Here’s something else that you may not be aware of concerning the Feasts. They are all conducted during harvest seasons. Who doesn’t want a harvest? To understand and appreciate the benefit of harvest, seed must be planted. We are currently in planting season. What we sow now will be what we harvest in the fall. This is not rocket science! It is God’s natural order and process! Farmers have planted seed and gathered harvests since the dawn of man! It is a naturally occurring process in the physical realm as well as the spiritual realm. 

Another thing about Iyar is that it is the month in which the second Passover opportunity presents itself. If you did not at least remember Passover in Nisan last month while I was discussing the Passover, you have a second opportunity in this month of Iyar.

Numbers 9:6-11

6. But there were some men who were unclean because of the dead person, so that they could not observe Passover on that day; so they came before Moses and Aaron on that day.

7. Those men said to him, “Though we are unclean because of the dead person, why are we restrained from presenting the offering to the Lord at its appointed time among the sons of Israel?”

8. Moses therefore said to them, “Wait, and I will listen to what the Lord will command concerning you.”

9. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

10. “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If any one of you or of your generations becomes unclean because of a dead person, or is on a distant journey, he may, however, observe the Passover to the Lord.

11. ‘In the second month on the fourteenth day at twilight, they shall observe it; they shall eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs.’”

Therein, we have a second opportunity to remember and reconfirm our covenant with the Lord. It’s what some in the modern church refer to as “re-dedication”. But take special note of Verse 13.

13. “But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and yet neglects to observe the Passover, that person shall then be cut off from his people, for he did not present the offering of the Lord at its appointed time. That man will bear his sin.”

So how does that affect us? Well, Jesus removed the leavening from His Father’s house. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior we are made clean. We are all on a journey. However, it is the blood of Jesus that is the redeeming agent for our sins. That blood was spilled under the death of the Sacrificial Lamb of God. We should remember that. That is the Lord’s Passover.

But what about the offering at its appointed time?

Hebrews 13:15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of the lips that give thanks to His name.”

Notice “a sacrifice of praise” in that verse. What is the tribe of Nisan for the Passover? Judah. What does the name Judah mean? Praise. And take notice of “the fruit of the lips” as well. The implication is the praise that rolls off our lips for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He was and is the first fruit of the dead as in the Feast of First Fruits. It all ties together people.

God has appointed times to meet with people for very specific reasons. When God makes an appointment, He keeps that appointment. Do you? Or do you cancel the appointment without any notification? Does that condemn you to hell? No, I don’t think it does. But just imagine that you have an appointment with someone, a hot date if you will, and that person does not show up and doesn’t even call to tell you that they are not coming. How disappointing is that? My Lord and Savior gave everything that He had to give so that I may have eternal life. Why would I not want to keep those appointments that His Father, My heavenly Father, made? After all, Jesus kept those appointments.

I observed the Passover with my family. I will observe this second Passover to plead for God’s mercy for those who neglected the Passover whether out of ignorance or out of spite. This month I am deeply rooted in prayer asking for wisdom, to have hidden blessings revealed, to know the times and signs of the times so that I may know what to do and say. I pray and prepare for a fresh outpouring of His Spirit in the month ahead.

The question is, now that you know these things, what are you going to do about them? Will you take heed or continue ignoring them?

I am The Old Watchman, Ezekiel. You have been warned!


The Old Watchman
FaceBook - The Old Watchman
Twitter - The Old Watchman
YouTube - The Old Watchman