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A common question amongst even young children who have been brought up in the Christian faith is, "How do we get 3 days and 3 nights from the afternoon of Good Friday to the sunrise of Sunday?"
It does not add up. If we are generous, we can scarcely calculate 1 and 1/2 days...a calculation certainly falling significantly short of 72 hours.
Matthew 12:40 (referencing Jonah 1:17)
“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the stomach of the great fish, so shall the Son of Adam be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
"How Does a Christian Reconcile This?"
The truth is, when we look at the entire dialogue between Yeshua and the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 12, we see that the Sign of Jonah is extremely important to our Savior AND seems to be ENOUGH. If our Savior said 3 days and 3 nights, and Jonah said 3 days and 3 nights...we can can conclude that's what Jonah and Yeshua meant.
Based on the simple math of the matter, how are we logically able to accept the timeline of Good Friday to Easter Resurrection Sunday? What is the alternative if this timeline is in error?
What does it matter if the Easter Timeline isn’t perfectly accurate? Isn’t close enough, good enough?
Looking into the history of HOW our Heavenly Father's Biblical Appointed Times were changed, should alter our perspectives and our walks. This sadly was, and still is, a DIRECT ATTACK on the Appointed Times our Creator set apart in Genesis 1:14 "Let lights come to be in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and appointed times, and for days and years".
Our Father's Appointed Times matter to Him deeply as He repeats over and over in His Scriptures. Let us be sure we are observing them!
Exodus 12:14
And this day shall become to you a remembrance. And you shall celebrate it as a festival to Adonai throughout your generations-celebrate it as a festival, an everlasting law.
Leviticus 23:1-2
And Adonai spoke to Mosheh, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘The appointed times of Adonai, which you are to proclaim as set-apart gatherings, My appointed times, are these:”
1 Chronicles 16:15
Remember His covenant forever, The Word He commanded for a thousand generations, Which He made with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac, And He established it to Jacob for a law, To Israel as an everlasting covenant
John 14:21
“He who possesses My commands and guards them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I shall love him and manifest Myself to him.”
Hebrews 8:10 (referencing Jeremiah 31)
Because this is the covenant that I shall make with the house of Israel after those days, says Adonai, giving My laws in their mind, and I shall write them on their hearts, and I shall be their Elohim (GOD), and they shall be My people.
***Constantine's letters are full of attacks and disdain for the Jewish people. However, His gravest fallacy is in considering that the calculations and memorials of the Appointed Times are a design or creation of the Jewish people when, truly, they originate from the time the Creator set His Chosen People, the Israelites, apart. The Israelites were given the Appointed Times for remembrance, the disciples of Yeshua (Jesus) are seen observing the Appointed Times in Acts, and we are still called today to observe the Appointed Times now.***
Acts 2:1
And when the Day of the Festival of Shavuot (Pentecost) had come, they were all with one mind in one place.
Acts 20:6
And we sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread, and came to them at Troas in five days, where we stayed seven days.
Acts 27:9
And much time having passed, and the sailing now being dangerous, because the Fast (Day of Atonement) was already over, Paul advised them
May we honor, love, and obey our Heavenly Father!