Cheshvan: The Month of Judgment

By T.W. Tramm



THE BIBLICAL MONTH of Cheshvan begins October 21 this year.


In Judaism, Cheshvan is known as the month of bitterness, as there are no festivals to observe, and it’s when the cold and rainy season begins.1


Another reason Cheshvan is considered a time of bitterness and hardship is because this is when Noah’s Flood began. According to Genesis, the deluge that destroyed the world began on Cheshvan 17, lasting exactly a year, until Cheshvan 27.2, 3 


The Bible, of course, associates the “days of Noah” with the sudden destruction that will befall humanity at the end of the age:


“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man” (Matt. 24:37-39).


With the end of the age and Noah’s Flood in mind, it’s interesting to note the date of a watershed event related to Israel’s prophetic return to the Land: The Balfour Declaration was issued on November 2, 1917. This Gregorian date corresponds to Cheshvan 17 on the biblical calendar—the day Noah’s Flood began.


Further interesting, if we add 100 years, the span of two jubilee cycles, to the November 2/Cheshvan 17 date of the Balfour Declaration, we arrive at November 1, 2017—the day after Halloween. Also known as All Saints Day, or the Day of the Dead, a common belief is that this celebration of ghosts or wandering spirits has its origins in the pagan practices of the Druids and Celts. The reality, however, is that this macabre festival dates back much further, to the most horror filled day in history—a day when corrupted humanity was wiped from the face of the earth. Halloween is, in fact, a memorialization of those who perished in the Flood and whose disembodied spirits now wander the earth as humankind’s invisible (demonic) tormentors.


Check out a fascinating article on this topic here:


http://www.the13thenumeration.com/Blog13/2016/10/20/halloween-celebrating-the-destruction-of-mankind/


October 31, or Halloween, happens to correspond to Cheshvan 11 this year. This is intriguing because Cheshvan 11 is the date, according to extra-biblical tradition, that the Flood was originally intended to begin. The Deluge was apparently delayed seven days, until Cheshvan 17, in deference to a seven-day period of mourning for the death of Methuselah, who died on the 11th.4


But it gets even more interesting. 


Some scholars believe that the Great Pyramid in Egypt was built by the descendants of Seth to monumentalize a warning to mankind that judgment was coming. It’s also believed that the Pyramid was built in such a way that it points to the first day of November and the Flood. 


Read more about this here:


http://www.the13thenumeration.com/Blog13/tag/noah/


Yet another factor that makes the Halloween timeframe noteworthy is that it marks the exact time when the Sun leaves the constellation Virgo and enters Libra, whose “scales of justice” denote judgment.5 For those about to stop reading because we are delving into astrology, understand that the study of constellations in the context of Scripture has nothing to do with this ancient pagan practice. Astrology is Satan’s attempt to make God’s signs in the stars “all about us” instead of what they are really about—the plan to redeem humanity via Messiah. In his book, “The Witness of the Stars,” E.W. Bullinger explains in detail how the constellations, or what the Bible calls the mazzaroth, are essentially God’s Plan of Redemption written in the heavens. This is alluded to in Psalm 19 where the sun is seen running its circuit through the canopy of stars, spread out like a tent:


“The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them; and nothing is hid from its heat” (Ps. 19:1-6).


Each of the twelve constellations, encompassing a roughly 30-degree segment of a circle signifying a year, represents a segment of God’s plan to redeem humanity. As Earth orbits the Sun during the course of a year, the solar disc appears to pass through the signs, spending about a month in each. In this way the sun “spotlights” each segment of the plan. But here is the really remarkable part. Due to a phenomenon caused by a wobble in the Earth’s axis, known as “precession,” the constellations slowly drift west along the ecliptic over time.6 This means that at different times in history the constellations have aligned with different months, or a different range of days. For instance, at the time of the Exodus, the Sun had just receded into Aries (the sign of the ram or lamb), then coinciding with the spring equinox. By the time of Jesus’ crucifixion, however, when the “Lamb of God” was slain, the Sun had further receded into Aries so that on Nisan 14, in the year of the crucifixion, it stood at the very spot marked by the stars named El Nath, meaning, “the pierced, the wounded or slain,” and Al Sheratan, meaning, “the bruised or wounded.” God had so ordained the “times and seasons”—even accounting for the precession phenomenon—that during the noon-day darkness, when the Lamb of God was slain, the Sun was in the sign of Aries (the lamb), near the stars which had spoken for so many centuries of this bruising of the woman’s Seed (Bullinger, p. 106, 107).


God’s precise calibration of the heavens—even to the extent that celestial alignments sometimes correspond in time to the events they signify on earth—is what makes the timing of the Sun’s entry into Libra, the sign of judgment, significant. Many centuries ago, the Sun used to enter Libra at the time of the fall equinox (Sept. 22). This is why the astrological sign of this constellation is still associated with the date range of Sept. 23 to Oct. 22. Today, however, the Sun doesn’t enter Libra until October 30, corresponding to Cheshvan 11 this year, which, as you will recall, is the original intended date of Noah’s Flood.7


The timing of the Sun’s transition from Virgo to Libra, along with the earlier mentioned factors pertaining to the Flood (Balfour Declaration, Great Pyramid, and the link to the end of the age in Matthew) beg the question: Is God trying to tell us something? Is it possible that Judgment Day may begin around the anniversary of the original Judgment Day—Noah’s Flood? Furthermore, is this what Jesus was referring to when He said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man” (Matt. 24:37).


Having posed the question, understand that it’s only a question. It goes without saying that we have to be extremely careful about jumping to conclusions based on celestial and/or calendar alignments, no matter how compelling. As we’ve seen, alignments do not necessarily equate to prophetic fulfillments. Most often they are simply signs, or wake-up calls, pointing to some future or imminent event. All one can say for certain, right now, is that the end of October into November marks an interesting time on the biblical calendar, which may or may not relate to the timing of actual events. 


“No one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself…” (Matt. 24:36).


Regardless, it’s a fascinating time to be a watchman!

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NOTES:

1. Cheshvan is when the “early rains” come, allowing farmers to till the ground for next year’s crops. In the first week of Cheshvan those living in ancient Israel would begin requesting rain by adding “Veten Tal U’Matar” to their Shmone Esre prayers. If no rain had fallen by the 17th, a drought would be feared and ritual fasting and special prayer would begin.


2. Genesis 7:10-11; 8:14. Keep in mind that the biblical calendar of Noah’s day began in the fall. It was not until the events of the Exodus that God commanded Israel to begin the year in the month of Abib, or Nisan, which occurs in the spring. 


3. The sages say that the 11-day discrepancy between the 17th and 27th of Cheshvan represents the difference between the solar and lunar year.


4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah
http://www.aish.com/jl/hol/hm/The_Bitter_Month.html


5. http://www.bible-study-lessons.com/Libra.html


6. Due to the gravitational attraction of the Moon on Earth’s equatorial bulge, the planet wobbles around its axis. Over the last two-and-a-half millennia, this wobble, known as “precession,” has caused the intersection point between the celestial equator and the ecliptic to move west along the ecliptic by 36 degrees, almost exactly one-tenth of the way around, to the border of Pisces and Aquarius. This means the constellation signs have slipped about one-tenth—almost a whole month—around the sky to the west. Since the time of creation the commencement of the year in Nisan has changed to the extent of nearly three constellational signs.


7. Compare the date ranges assigned to the various constellations based on ancient observations (in parenthesis at right), to the date range that the sun is actually in each constellation today (at left):

Capricorn — Jan. 20 to Feb. 16 (Dec. 23 to Jan. 21)
Aquarius — Feb. 16 to March 11 (Jan. 22 to Feb. 20)
Pisces — March 11 to April 18 (Feb. 21 to March 19)
Aries — April 18 to May 13 (March 20 to April 20)
Taurus — May 13 to June 21 (April 21 to May 21)
Gemini — June 21 to July 20 (May 22 to June 22)
Cancer — July 20 to Aug. 10 (June 23 to July 22)
Leo — August 10 to Sept. 16 (July 23 to Aug. 22)
Virgo — Sept. 16 to Oct. 30 (Aug. 23 to Sept. 22)
Libra — Oct. 30 to Nov. 23 (Sept. 23 to Oct. 22)
Scorpio — Nov. 23 to Nov. 29 (Oct. 23 to Nov. 22)
Ophiuchus — Nov. 29 to Dec. 17 (not included in the Zodiac)
Sagittarius — Dec. 17 to Jan. 20 (Nov. 23 to Dec. 22)

https://www.livescience.com/4667-astrological-sign.html