Hello Mike, Thanks for responding. What is your understanding of the significance of the New Moon, considering the number of sacrifices were greater than on the Sabbath and the blowing of the trumpet on the new moon? I would like to also add that there are differing sacrifices offered on the Sabbath and New Moons in Num 28 vs Ezekiel 46.  If you could consider that in your response also, that would be great. I patiently await your response. A____

Hi A____,
You have asked me to comment on the differences between the weekly sabbath sacrifices and the monthly new moon sacrifices.
My observation is that the difference between the weekly sabbath sacrifices and the monthly, new moon sacrifices is the same as the differences between the daily sacrifices and the weekly sacrifices.
So also is it the same difference between the monthly sacrifices and the seasonal sacrifices:

Exo 23:17  Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.

  Look at what is offered in daily sacrifice:

Exo 29:38  Now this [ is that] which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually.
Exo 29:39  The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even:
Exo 29:40  And with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin of wine [ for] a drink offering.

Every day there was to be a lamb offered in the morning and another lamb in the evening. With each lamb was to be a tenth deal of flour mingled with a fourth part of a hin of oil; and the fourth part of a hin of wine for a drink offering.
In the weekly offering the number of lambs is doubled and two more lambs are offered. So too,  is the flour offering:

Num 28:9  And on the sabbath day two lambs of the first year without spot, and two tenth deals of flour [ for] a meat offering, mingled with oil, and the drink offering thereof:
Num 28:10  [ This is] the burnt offering of every sabbath, beside the continual burnt offering, and his drink offering.

The flour is increased to “two tenth deals.” The flour offering signifies what we give to Christ in serving our fellow man [ Read ‘The Law of The Meat Offering’ on iswasandwilbe. com]. The weekly sacrifice is twice as demanding of the flesh as is the daily sacrifice.
Now let’s look at the monthly sacrifice. Notice how much more demanding of the flesh is this sacrifice of the new moon:

Num 28:11  And in the beginnings of your months ye shall offer a burnt offering unto the LORD; two young bullocks, and one ram, seven lambs of the first year without spot;
Num 28:12  And three tenth deals of flour [ for] a meat offering, mingled with oil, for one bullock; and two tenth deals of flour [ for] a meat offering, mingled with oil, for one ram;
Num 28:13  And a several tenth deal of flour mingled with oil [ for] a meat offering unto one lamb; [ for] a burnt offering of a sweet savour, a sacrifice made by fire unto the LORD.
Num 28:14  And their drink offerings shall be half an hin of wine unto a bullock, and the third [ part] of an hin unto a ram, and a fourth [ part] of an hin unto a lamb: this [ is] the burnt offering of every month throughout the months of the year.
Num 28:15  And one kid of the goats for a sin offering unto the LORD shall be offered, beside the continual burnt offering, and his drink offering.

“Beside the continual burnt offering and his drink offering” means that all of this is added to the daily and weekly offerings. There is no mention of a huge bull or a large ram in either the daily or the weekly sacrifices. The flour, the oil and the drink offering are all increased in this offering of the new moon. The sacrifice of the new moon demonstrates an “open heaven” in Bible- speak. The huge increase in what is demanded of the offerer demonstrates that he has been given so much more of God’s treasures of “God’s gold and of God’s silver” and now more is required of that recipient because of all of those gifts:

Luk 12:48  But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few [ stripes]. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

As God pours out on us all the treasures of His gold and His silver, He “will ask the more of us.”
I will not here take the time to demonstrate how this principle continues as we continue through the year, except to mention that there is far more blood spilled at “the feast of ingatherings at the end of the year” than there is spilled at the feast of the Passover, at the beginning of the year.
All of this is a lesson in the unpopular Truth that Christ does not come to us in His fulness as the result of a ten second sinner’s prayer. Rather, He comes to us in a deliberate preordained life- long process of “dying to the flesh,” a process of cleansing and purging, a process that requires faith and patience as we “abide in Christ.” It’s right here is this same twelth chapter of Luke:

Luk 21:19  In your patience possess ye your souls.

For those with eyes to see and ears to hear, there are three lessons to be learned in increasing the offerings required in accordance with the length of the cycle under consideration. The first lesson is that as we mature, we will all need patience because we will all “fall seven times… and rise again.”

Pro 24:16  For a just man falleth seven times , and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

Patience is the lesson of the increased length of each cycle. God works only with “just men.” Seven signifies ‘complete’ [ read The Spiritual Significance of The Number Seven’ on iswasandwillbe. com] Every truly successful man is first a complete failure. Once he is enabled to see and acknowledge this Truth, then Christ in that man, can begin to succeed in conquering the beast within, with all of his beastly passions and sins.
The second lesson in seeing this progression is that the blood flows more with each step in this progression. What this means is that we become more and more aware of, and are willing to acknowledge, our complicity in sin, which is the cause for the death of our Savior:

Rom 4:25 Who was delivered up on account of [ Greek – dia – through] our offences and was raised on account of [ Greek – through] the declaring us righteous.(REV)

But the third lesson is that as we are given the understanding of our own sins and our total inability to do anything of ourselves to help ourselves, we are also given the understanding that it is all in the hands of the “lion of the tribe of Judah” who removes the seals on the completely sealed revelation of Jesus Christ and opens the heavens to us and shows us that that same ‘Lion’ that conquers all of our enemies is also the “lamb slain from the foundation of the world… the beginning and the end… the first and the last” and everything in between.

Rev 4:1  After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard [ was] as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.
Rev 5:1  And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.
Rev 5:2  And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?
Rev 5:3  And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
Rev 5:4  And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
Rev 5:5  And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
Rev 5:6  And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

This third lesson in understanding the increases in the demands upon the offerer as he matures is summed up in these two verses:

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

Now that increased demand has a purpose, and that purpose is well worth whatever is the price.
In other words, our knowledge of the mind of Christ and His Father is increased daily, weekly, monthly and yearly, to the point that when our final change comes and we give up this vessel of clay, that change is not that big of a change, and we are “accepted in the beloved:”

Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

You also asked that I comment on the differences in Ezekiel and in earlier scriptures. The answer is that the same principle applies. Ezekiel is a spiritual type of the revelation of the heavenly temple within us, a much later, and more mature temple with more mature priest and more mature sacrifices.

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [ which is] your reasonable service.

You asked me about this verse in Ezekiel:

Eze 46 Thus saith the Lord GOD; The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened.

You also ask about this verse in Psalms:

Psa 81:3  Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.

 The ‘trumpet’ always signifies judgment and war. For God’s elect, that judgment and war is against our enemy which is our flesh.
These two verses help to make clear what is the message of the weekly sabbath, as explained in Hebrews four:

Heb 4:9  There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Heb 4:10  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Heb 4:11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

The scriptures are completely ‘Christ- centric.’ Christ is every offering of every holy day mentioned in scripture. He is also every holy day on which the offerings are made. And what did Christ do on the sabbath?

Mat 12:1  At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.
Mat 12:2  But when the Pharisees saw [ it], they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.

What was Christ’s defense of His actions and the actions of those with Him?

Mat 12:5  Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?
Mat 12:6  But I say unto you, That in this place is [ one] greater than the temple.

Christ was of the tribe of Judah, He was not a physical Levite, He was not a physical priest, and yet His defense was that He and His disciples could “profane the sabbath and yet be blameless.” How did He justify such a statement? Here is how He did that:

Mat 12:7  But if ye had known what [ this] meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
Mat 12:8  For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.

And what does the Lord of the sabbath day do on the sabbath day?

Joh 5:17  But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Joh 5:18  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

It is hard for many to grasp if they are just beginning to understand spiritual matters, but there are times when the outward observation of a physical type or shadow, becomes a rejection of its spiritual reality. If we were to offer “the blood of bulls and goats” today as a covering for our sins, we would be demonstrating that we don’t acknowledge either our own part in Christ’s death or the efficacy of His death to cover our sins. Such is the case with Christ and the outward observance of the weekly sabbath. As Heb 4 declares, we must (or I should say Christ in us must) “labor to enter into His rest.” Those who still observe a weekly sabbath testify against themselves that they are reserving six days in which to remain in sin.
So in that sense your comment is right on target.
“In Ezekiel’s vision, if the New Moon is day 1 and the gate is opened, then the 7th day is actually the last working day and the Sabbath would be day 8.  I am studying how all of that can relate in light of what I am learning at your site. “
Outwardly observing a weekly day of rest actually completes the self- righteous beast we all are by natrue. The weekly Sabbath is a shadow of our ceasing from our own carnal works of our sinful flesh and blood. But Christ broke the sabbath to demonstrate to us that it was but a shadow of  “the Lord of the sabbath.” Like Christ, we also ” labor to enter into that Sabbath,” which is Christ Himself.

Joh 5:17  But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Joh 5:18  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

So I would not say that the seventh day sabbath is replaced by an eighth day sabbath, but rather that Christ is that seventh day sabbath, and we rest (cease) from our works by entering into Him and becoming the one new man, which the eighth day and the eighth head of the one beast signify.

Luk 1:59  And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.
2Pe 2:5  And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 

It is “the eighth person” who is “saved.” It is not the seventh. The seventh is the completion of the work Christ is doing in our flesh, bringing us to see just what flesh is. The eighth signifies what He is bringing us to be spiritually.

Rev 17:11  And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

“The eighth… is of the seven” is God’s way of telling us that the perdition of the beast is his salvation:

Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, E xcept a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Even Christ’s flesh had to be disposed of:

Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
2Co 5:16  Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

Read ‘The Spiritual Significance of The Number Eight’ on iswasandwillbe. com. I hope this helps you to see more of the mind of God and Christ as regards the varying lengths of the cycles of the sacrifices. Here is how important it is that we think as Christ and His Father think:

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Your brother in the Christ,
Mike