[2] “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. [Exodus 12:2 ESV]
God wanted the nation of Israel to have a new start. He introduced a new calendar and this was Day 1. They were going to celebrate the Passover when the firstborn in every family would be saved from death as the avenging angel passed through the land of Egypt in judgement. And so God delivered His people from 400 years of slavery and oppression at the hands of ruthless Egyptian pharaohs. They crossed the Red Sea and began their journey to the land God had promised them. It was a new start. Everything was going to be different.
But sadly, it was not long into the journey before it was evident that the people were no different despite this new beginning. The murmuring and the complaining was one example of their state of mind. They became angry against Moses who had been used by God to rescue them from Egypt. They forgot all about the whip that they had regularly experienced if they failed to deliver the quota of sun-baked bricks. They forgot all about the misery they had experienced and they soon wanted back to Egypt - they remembered the quality and the variety of vegetables which they had enjoyed in Egypt and they loathed the food from heaven called manna.
People talk about making a break with the past and starting off the new year on a new footing. They make new year resolutions and then discover that within a few weeks (or even days) they are back where they started. 2025 turns out to be very similar to 2024.
I found a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson in Notes Quotes and Anecdotes by Archie Naismith. Tennyson wants the new year to be different.
Ring out, wild bells to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow;
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
King out old shapes of foul disease
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
Jesus spoke about putting new wine into old bottles.
[17] Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” [Matthew 9:17 ESV]
There needs to be a completely new start or as the Bible calls it a new birth.
[5] Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. [6] That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. [7] Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ [John3:5-7 ESV]
I guess most readers have experienced the new birth and we know that it is a once and for all event. If anyone is not 'saved' then there is an urgent message for you. What a great way to start the new year with experiencing the joy of new life in Christ. But for those of us who are believers in the Lord Jesus, the new year is an opportunity to take stock of our lives. Not to wallow in despair and regret for mistakes made in 2024 but to get into God's presence and seek a revival in our hearts as we begin the New Year. Ezekiel talked about a heart of stone and sometimes we are unaware of the hardening of our hearts.
[26] And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. [27] And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. [Ezekiel 36:26-27 ESV]
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