Title: God Who Begins New Year
Exo 12:1-2 Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year for you.
God spoke to Moses and Aaron that today shall be the New Year’s Day to you, and that was it. It wasn’t according to the change of climate or the calendar they used. The people of Israel didn’t feel any atmosphere of Year End or New Year. It begins when God speaks and when God orders it is. Although this situation happened in Moses’ time, it also explains how Year 2021 has begun. There must be God’s new plan and new will that He wants to achieve and complete.
What would be the main project God will do in the New Year?
Exo 12:3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are, each one, to take a lamb for themselves, according to the fathers’ households, a lamb for each household
Exo 12:11 Now you shall eat it in this way: with your garment belted around your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in a hurry—it is the Lord’s Passover.
Right after God had begun the New Year, He established the Feast of Passover. Passover was the time God judged the people of Egypt and their gods. Through the Passover, the people of Israel were released from the hands of Egyptians. Through the Passover, Great Exodus happened, and the people of Israel started their journey toward the Promised Land.
What was God’s master plan when He began New Year? It was Exodus: It was God’s redemption, God’s salvation, God’s deliverance, God’s healing and God’s restoration.
By the birth of Jesus Christ, the timeline is divided by BC (Before Christ) and AD (In the Year of the Lord). By the coming of Jesus Christ, a new year, a new time has begun. The coming of Jesus Christ is to fulfil God’s work of salvation and redemption (Mat 1:21; Jhn 3:16).
Jesus said many times, “Let it be done as you have believed.” Let’s believe and confess by faith that Year 2021 is the year that God has begun. Therefore, Year 2021 will be the time when God will execute His redemption. Amen.
We all know that God had created the heavens and the earth. That is written in Gen 1:1. We all believe that God created heaven and the earth. When did it start? Bible says in the beginning. But Jhn 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word.” The work of Creation only started in verse 3. There are some theologians do not agree with this understanding but this is how the founding pastor explained to us that there must a moment of difference between the beginning of when God was there and the beginning moment of God started the work of Creation. It could be a split second, or it could be thousands or millions of years.
So, the founding pastor called the beginning in Jhn 1:1 the eternity, and the beginning in Gen 1:1 the beginning of Creation. God who was in eternity, decided to do the work of Creation and by this work, new time began.
Do you believe that God was there and the sun was there before the universe was there? Amen. God was there before time.
What is the new purpose of God’s staring new time in Gen 1:1?
We learned that when God began the new time, that is related to God’s salvation, God’s redemption, God’s healing.
The answer to God’s beginning of new things, it’s God’s salvation and God’s redemption.
God had separated the light from the darkness (Gen 1:3-4). In Jhn 1:9-10, coming of Jesus was described as the light enlightens and shines upon the world. However, the world did not know Jesus. The people who accepted Jesus becomes the part of light and the people who do not accept Jesus becomes the part of darkness (Jhn 1:9-10).
The work of Creation, the work of Separation, is related to God’s redemption. God has separated man from beasts on the 6th day. Psa 49:20 says that man who is without understanding is like the beasts. It is the separation between the man who understands and accept Jesus Christ and the man who do not understand and do not accept Jesus.
My brothers and sisters, the examples that we looked at above, are all related to the work of redemption and salvation. Let’s hope for His redemptive works to be manifested in 2021. Let’s hope for the faith and the word I want to share with you in 2021, if we believe 2021 is the year that God manifests His redemptive plan, I believe it will be done so.
With new hope and new faith, not because the new calendar started; we are living in a new year, new era, and new time where the work of God’s redemptive work will begin. Amen.
The Lord's Covenant Church Malaysia 