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When does YAH's day begin?

While in Israel and Jordan we encountered brethren that believe YAH's days begin at sunrise, as opposed to sunset. I must admit, they make a really good case, for starting the day at sunrise, but there are flaws. I won't be going into all the scriptures to support my case or theirs. I am just going to present the scriptures that caused me to reject the sunrise doctrine. The reason I studied the sunrise doctrine is cause, if it truly is when YAH's day begins, then that's what I want to do.

When I first heard of the sunrise to sunrise days, I rejected it outright. But when I met brethren that actually do it, I asked YAH to show me and convict me, if it is truth. He not only didn't show or convict me, He kept letting me see scriptures to the contrary.

Neh 13:19 And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath: and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the Sabbath day.

The sunrise group (some of them) explain this scripture away saying,'They closed the gates the night before because, who wants to get up at sunrise and shut the gates? or They closed the gates the night before because there were hedge laws enacted by that time.' Where is that in Scripture?

I would like to submit scripture to prove there were people awake in the temple through the nights into the morning.

Exo 27:21 In the tabernacle of the congregation without the vail, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before YHWH: it shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.

Another stance, taken by the sunrise group, is that there are only two feast days that command an evening to evening celebration. This is what I've found regarding the Sabbath and High Sabbath's.

^{The word Sabbath (H7676) in the 10 Commands is the same Sabbath used to keep a Feast Day (High Sabbath) from even to even.}

Exo 20:8 Remember^{2142 the (853) sabbath7676 day,3117 to keep it holy.6942}

Lev 23:32 It shall be unto you a Sabbath (7676) of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your Sabbath.

H7676
shabbâth
shab-bawth'
Intensive from H7673; intermission, that is, (specifically) the Sabbath: - (+ every) sabbath.

If the weekly Sabbath was to be kept sunrise to sunrise and the High Sabbath from evening to evening, why would the same word be used?

There is another Sabbath used in Lev. 23 that pertains to a High Sabbath but uses a different word and does not give instruction to keep it from evening to evening.

Lev 23:24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath (7677), a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.

H7677
shabbâthôn
shab-baw-thone'
From H7676; a sabbatism or special holiday: - rest, sabbath.

This all seems very confusing to me. Why would YAH start some days at sunrise and other days in the evening? Think of how confusing this concept would have been for the Children of Israel coming out of pagan worship.

There's more....

When the Children of Israel came out of Egypt, look at what they did and when they did it. Keep in mind they were doing what they learned in Egypt.

Exo 32:1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us elohim, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

Exo 32:5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to YHWH.
Exo 32:6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

This was all done in celebration to a golden calf. If you will keep in mind, just before the Children of Israel were to leave Egypt, YAH instructed them to keep HIS Feast, beginning in the evening. What did they do when worshiping the golden calf? They got up early in the morning to do it!

There are two more scriptures that kept me from accepting the boker to boker (morning to morning) doctrine.

Mar 16:1 And when the Sabbath was past (G1230), Miryam from Maḡdala, and Miryam the mother of Yaʽaqoḇ, and Shelomah bought spices, to go and anoint Him.

Mar 16:2 And very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.

This was speaking of the weekly Sabbath. And, let's look at the word 'past'.

G1230

diaginomai
dee-ag-in'-om-ahee
From G1223 and G1096; to elapse meanwhile: - X after, be past, be spent.

So, if these two ladies didn't go to the tomb until morning, then they must have bought the spices in the evening - when the Sabbath was over. If you accept that YAH begins His days at sunrise, then according to the above scriptures, these ladies broke the weekly Sabbath. Do you think they would have done that right after Yahusha died for their sins? I DON'T! So we continue to begin YAH's days at sundown.

Update 07/30 - This past Shabbat, we had a sister ask us how we can keep Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) on the 10th day if we do evening to evening. She drew something on paper, putting the days in a certain order to represent the days beginning in the evening and another set to represent the days beginning at sunrise. I'll admit, it threw us off. When caught off guard like that, we didn't have an answer. I told her we would study it out. I started praying (begging, actually, for 3 days) that YAH would show us if we are wrong. Then I went to the Scriptures. Here's the Scripture in question:

Lev 23:32 It shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth (H8672) day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your Sabbath.

I would have never known or thought to check out the word "ninth" , unless YAH showed it to me. Let's take a look at the Hebrew for this word.

H8672

tay'-shah, tish-aw'
The second form is the masculine of the first; perhaps from H8159 through the idea of a turn to the next or full number ten; nine or (ordinal) ninth: - nine (+ -teen, + -teenth, -th).

So, the word 'tay-shah' (at even) is telling us that it is beginning the next day (number).

Then there are all those scriptures telling us that people were unclean until evening, bodies had to be taken off of the stake at evening, at evening all the afflicted were brought to Yahshua, don't let the sun go down on our wrath and many other such scriptures.

Most brethren, that keep a boker to boker Shabbat (or days), still believe that the New Month begins with the Moon (whether conjunction or crescent). Now my questions are...How can you believe YAH's Days begin at sunrise, if the New Month begins with the Moon? What happens to the time period from evening until morning?

Update 08/22/09 This page was not supposed to go this long but we've been having fellowship with brethren who believe in a 12 hr. day that begins at sunrise. So, I prayed again, and this is what YAH has shown me.

Gen 1:5 And YAH H430 called H7121 the light H216 Day, H3117 and the darkness H2822 he called H7121 Night. H3915 And the evening H6153 and the morning H1242 were H1961 the first H259 day. H3117

Let's start with 'evening'...

H6153

‛ereb
eh'-reb
From H6150; dusk: - + day, even (-ing, tide), night.

So it appears that 'Dusk + a Day' would would give us Evening to Evening Days.

Or how about 'morning'...

H1242

bôqer
bo'-ker
From H1239; properly dawn (as the break of day); generally morning: - (+) day, early, morning, morrow.

^{Erev (evening) And The Boker (morning + day or morrow) were the first day. This will also give us an evening to evening day. Now this makes so much more sense than evening and the morning being the first day. Evening to the Morning is NOT a full day. We pretty much sleep from evening to morning.}

Observation: We have noticed a recurring word from the 'Sunrise' brethren - Convenience. They keep saying, "It's so much more convenient to keep Shabbat (sunrise to sunset) this way".

In Lev. 23 you'll notice that there is no command to start this feast at sundown.

Lev 23:24 “Speak to the children of Yisra’ĕl, saying, ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you have a rest, a remembrance of blowing of trumpets, a set-apart gathering.

But turn to Psalm 81...

Psa 81:3 Blow in the month a trumpet, In the new moon, at the day of our festival,

This is speaking of the feast in Lev. 23:24. And when do they begin it? With the New Moon (in the evening). It seems to me David knew that all of YAH's days begin at sundown. The 'Creation' chapter was probably all David needed to understand when YAH's days begin.

Here's a scripture including the evening in a day.

Deu 16:4 "And no leaven should be seen with you in all your border for seven days, neither should any of the meat which you slaughter in the evening on the first day stay all night until morning.

Out of Yahshua's mouth...

Mar 14:30 And Yahshua said to him, “Truly, I say to you that today, this night, before the cock shall crow twice, you shall deny Me three times.”

And following into the 'daylight' portion of the above 'day', they didn't say, 'And the next day.' No! They said...

Mar 15:1 And immediately, in the morning, the chief priests had a council meeting with the elders and scribes and all the council. Having bound Yahshua, they led Him away, and delivered Him to Pilate.

Shaul says something similar...

Act 27:27 And when the fourteenth night came, as we were driven up and down in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were drawing near some land.

Act 27:33 And when day was about to come, Sha’ul urged them all to take food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day you have continued without food, and eaten none at all.

Please take notice that Shaul was including the evening prior to the daylight portion of the 'Fourteenth Day'.

A scripture that I found interesting...

Psa 139:12 Even darkness is not dark for You, But night shines as the day – As is darkness, so is light.

More on the subject:

http://www.fossilizedcustoms.com/day.html

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Jud 1:2 Compassion, peace and love be increased to you!