Step Up (Escalon)

Stairway To Heaven by Fabrizio Furchi, http://fav.me/d1hlnhu

He had arranged to leave Babylon on April 8, the first day of the new year, and he arrived at Jerusalem on August 4, for the gracious hand of his God was on him.

A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem. I took my troubles to the LORD; I cried out to him, and he answered my prayer.
-Ezra 7:9, Psalm 120:1


I believe that a word for 2015, is escalon.  Escalon is a Spanish word that, in English means stair, rung, tier, step, stage, stepping stone, or level.

I immediately turned to Psalm 37:23 and Proverbs 20:24, that say:

The Lord directs the steps of the godly.  He delights in every detail of their lives.

The Lord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way.

These are great verses, but the Spanish translations of the Bible that I looked at, do not have escalon for steps in these two verses.  Escalon means the actual step or stair that carries us up as we step up onto it.  The step or rung or tier elevates us to a higher level.

The escalon (step, rung, tier, or path up) is something you step onto that elevates you.  It is like a promotion, like a raise, or like an upgrade.  I chose the two verses above because they carry the escalon idea.


January is our first month of the year, but Nisan, that starts in our month of April, is the first  month in the Jewish calendar.  It is notable that the Jewish calendar begins in the first of Tishrei, in our Fall, on Rosh Hashanah, which is the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve.  That would be the beginning or "head of the year".

Mankind started at Rosh Hashanah and the day of atonement, when sheep pass under the shepherd's rod, is very important and solemn.  That marks the new year for mankind.

But the new year, commemorating the beginning of the Jewish people or the Jewish religion, when God called a people up and out, unto himself happens at Passover.

Jesus was crucified and rose again over the Passover weekend.  What we call Easter is really the the anniversary of the new beginning or deliverance of the world (John 3:16).  Jesus became God's Passover lamb that takes away the sins of the world, for all who will believe.

So, you get the idea that New Year in the Jewish, Hebrew, or Biblical mind, has to do with deliverance, exodus, and new life in Christ. Ezra makes the point that at the anniversary time of the exodus and Passover,  he went up and out of Babylon to Jerusalem.  It was a 4 month journey in the summer.

We also see this idea of ascending towards God, up the steps provided, in the introduction to Psalm 120.  Something I want to take from 2014 into 2015 is the idea or realization that we are going up on steps God has provided.

I wrote a series of posts about the steps or songs of ascents, described in Psalms 120 through 134.  I placed a link to all those posts on the top right column.  ------>  You can also click here, and that link will take you to them, but the last will be at the top (Psalm 134), and you will scroll down to Psalm 133 and so forth.

Post Script Notes for the New Year:

Lastly, for my first post of the new year, I want to say that blog posts are not always masterpieces or scholarly papers.  That should be stating the obvious.  But, they sometimes are gems (Matt. 13:52).

For example, I was walking with my son, when we were on vacation in Catalina, and I said, extemporaneously, "you know, I carried you before you were born".  We both kind of said, "huh?', after I said that.  Then my mind kicked in and I reasoned that my wife and I are one in marriage, so in a sense, I did carry him.

I sat with that thought and when I could get into a concordance, I looked to see if there was a verse for this thought, and there was.  It is Isaiah 46:3.  I had spoke the word of the Lord (a Bible verse) that was true for me, my son, and all believers.  That is how my August 24th post was born.  I probably did not want the focus to be on me, so that is why I did not share the story I just shared.  But I now think that it is good to share that AND what the word of God says and means.

I do share things that are "ah ha!" or "eureka!" moments that are sometimes beautiful revelations that are in plain sight, that I saw and now write about.  Blog posts are also notes, thoughts, and sometimes rough drafts.  I have often corrected and changed or even deleted posts after I "published" them.

Happy new year!

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I found the picture about linking to a blog called God's Appointed Time.