As I was reading http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/apr2012/luisv44.htm it got me wondering, perhaps one reason "no man knows the day or hour" is because perhaps God will check for a spiritual firstfruits before setting the prophetic month of Nisan just as Israel checks for the firstfrutis fo the barley before determining the yearly month of Nisan when Passover falls.
I wrote this article several years ago, but it is about how the symbolism of determining when Nisan falls is found in the Gospels....
Josephus said in Antiq. 3:10:5
In the month of Xanthicus, which is by us called Nisan, and is the beginning of our year, on the fourteenth day of the lunar month, when the sun is in Aries, (for in this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians,) the law ordained that we should every year slay that sacrifice which I before told you we slew when we came out of Egypt, and which was called the Passover;
Now some have said made a good case for the idea that the timing has drifted forward in the constellations, but at http://philologos.org/__eb-tws/default.htm there's a pretty good explanation of how the constellations tell the gospel story in the stars...How Virgo holding the Branch represents the Virgin birth of the Messiah (also called the Branch in scripture), how Libra represents the crucifixion of the Messiah, etc. Aries represents the slaying of a lamb!!!
Now Jewish tradition teaches that the entire Torah has meaning at 4 levels...
- Peshat - plain language
- Remetz - hints and clues
- Drash - Allegorical or searched out meaning
- Sod - mystery
When man speaks, he may only speak in the Peshat or Drash only. But God's "higher ways" are displayed by the fact that He is the same God in every dimension, and therefore speaks with multiple meanings in nearly every word. Thus we can interpret what He says at each of these levels.
Now I was noticed yesterday what Yeshua said when He gave his disciples instructions on preparing the Passover and He said...
"So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. ...to the house that he enters" (Mark 14:13...merged with...Luke 22:10)
and I got to thinking...this is a pretty trivial detail to have recorded in the gospels. Why did Luke bother to tell us who they folllowed? Is there a drash to this?
Then a thought hit me...I thought of Josephus' words and started wondering if there was a constellation out there of a water carrier that comes just before Passover. I began wondering if this was a hint to the timing of Passover. So I went to http://philologos.org/__eb-tws/default.htm and sure enough, Aquarius is the water carrier who comes 2 constellations before Aries, the lamb that is slain!
So let's get the picture here. 2 disciples (2 fish or Pisces) were ordered to followed a man carrying water (Aquarius) into a house. So could this be a drash to tell us that Passover doesn't come on the calendar under Pisces (represented by the 2 disciples) has followed Aquarius (represented by the water carrier). After Pisces has arrived, the month of Nisan can be declared. So maybe Pisces is the constellation in which we check for the barley. If everything is prepared, just as the disciples were to prepare the table for Passover, then the month of Nisan can be declared during the new moon of Pisces.
Now God allowed for Passover to be celebrated in the 2nd month under certain conditions - like if he was away on a journey, or unclean, etc. So perhaps this could be used to support the basis for delaying until the following month if there is no barley to offer for Bikkurim.
As to the article Luis wrote in re applying this to an "age", rather than a yearly cycle, that is entirely possible. Perhaps the yearly rehearsal symbolizes what happens on the greater scale and what he saw in that article may have some merit. However, it is easier to udnerstand the larger cycle by correctly nuderstanding the yearly cycle first, then moving on.
Shalom, Joe