When God changed the calendar

By Elizabeth Prata

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2“This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. (Exodus 12:1-2).

In that verse, the LORD Is preparing the Hebrews for the grand finale, the last plague and their exit from Egypt. Upcoming is the Passover, where the LORD Instructs Moses and Aaron to tell the people to stay in their homes that night, eat only unleavened bread, and to take an unblemished lamb, slaughter it, and use a hyssop branch to daub the doorposts with its blood. The death angel would pass over any home so marked.

So in commemoration and in preparation, the LORD changed the month. Formerly Abib, corresponding to our April (roughly), the LORD announced the change.

Along these lines, the LORD is praised in Daniel 2:21.

Daniel answered and said:

"Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
to whom belong wisdom and might.
21He changes times and seasons;
he removes kings and sets up kings;
he gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have understanding;

Oliver B. Greene explains

Daniel praised God that he alone "changeth the times and the seasons." Times and seasons are not under the control of chance, but are regulated by established laws; yet God, who appointed these laws, has the power to change them, and all the changes which occur under these laws  are produced under His power and control God is the God of time and eternity, the God of heaven and earth, and the God of seasons. He is the sovereign God over all earth and all creation.

Praise the Lord that He is in control. Yet, Satan believes he can and will usurp that control. In Isaiah 14:12-14 we read that Satan purposed in his heart that he will dislodge God from His throne and take over.

"How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
13You said in your heart,
'I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;
14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.'

Satan truly believes he will do these things. He believes he has the power and will to usurp God of all creation. And in that vein, since satan thinks he can do what God does, we learn in Daniel 7:25 that the satan-activated Antichrist will seek to change times and laws, just as God changed the calendar times in Exodus.

He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.

Oliver B. Greene again:

The people of Israel what was meant by "times and laws." To the Jewish rabbi, "times and laws" referred to the Hebrew sabbaths and festivals and the "law" (Levitical) which regulated them.

The Antichrist will be the world's worst blasphemer. He is like all of us before salvation, usurping God and incurring His wrath, but this Man of Lawlessness will be the epitome, the ultimate, the worst of them all.

Imagine, attempting to steal God's power and glory by mimicking what He can and does do. The different translations of this verse all say something like 'he will try', 'he will intend', 'he will attempt' to change times and laws. Only God has that true power. Satan can counterfeit, but his schemes can be seen through by God's people. (2 Corinthians 2:11).

When God is finally done with satan, His plans and decrees fulfilled, satan the usurper will finally be jailed forever in hell. (Revelation 20:10).

God, and only God, is in control of times, seasons, planets in their courses, human endeavors, nature, and time.