3 Mar, 2008
Leap Year 101
2008 is a leap year, which means that it has 366 days instead of the usual 365 days that an ordinary year has. An extra day is added in a leap year—February 29—which is called an intercalary day or a leap day.
Leap years are added to the calendar to keep it working properly. The 365 days of the annual calendar are meant to match up with the solar year. A solar year is the time it takes the Earth to complete its orbit around the Sun—about one year. But the actual time it takes for the Earth to travel around the Sun is in fact a little longer than that—about 365¼ days (365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, to be precise). So the calendar and the solar year don't completely match—the calendar year is a touch shorter than the solar year.
It may not seem like much of a difference, but after a few years those extra quarter days in the solar year begin to add up. After four years, for example, the four extra quarter days would make the calendar fall behind the solar year by about a day. Over the course of a century, the difference between the solar year and the calendar year would become 25 days! Instead of summer beginning in June, for example, it wouldn't start until nearly a month later, in July. As every kid looking forward to summer vacation knows—calendar or no calendar—that's way too late! So every four years a leap day is added to the calendar to allow it to catch up to the solar year.
photo courtesy images.google.com & story infoplease.com, 2/29/08
Did you celebrate Leap Year?
Leviticus 25:8-17 (NLT)
The Year of Jubilee
8 “In addition, you must count off seven Sabbath years, seven sets of seven years, adding up to forty-nine years in all. 9 Then on the Day of Atonement in the fiftieth year, blow the ram’s horn loud and long throughout the land. 10 Set this year apart as holy, a time to proclaim freedom throughout the land for all who live there. It will be a jubilee year for you, when each of you may return to the land that belonged to your ancestors and return to your own clan. 11 This fiftieth year will be a jubilee for you. During that year you must not plant your fields or store away any of the crops that grow on their own, and don’t gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. 12 It will be a jubilee year for you, and you must keep it holy. But you may eat whatever the land produces on its own. 13 In the Year of Jubilee each of you may return to the land that belonged to your ancestors.
14 “When you make an agreement with your neighbor to buy or sell property, you must not take advantage of each other. 15 When you buy land from your neighbor, the price you pay must be based on the number of years since the last jubilee. The seller must set the price by taking into account the number of years remaining until the next Year of Jubilee. 16 The more years until the next jubilee, the higher the price; the fewer years, the lower the price. After all, the person selling the land is actually selling you a certain number of harvests. 17 Show your fear of God by not taking advantage of each other. I am the Lord your God.
What does today's God's Story scripture teach us about our need to line up every part of our lives with God's control?
Tyndale's LIFE APPLICATION STUDY BIBLE notes provide this insight:
25:8-17 The Year of Jubilee was meant to be celebrated every 50 years. It included canceling all debt, freeing all slaves, and returning to its original owners all land that had been sold. There is no indication in the Bible that the Year of Jubilee was ever carried out. If Israel had followed this practice faithfully, they would have been a society without permanent poverty.
In other words, God's chosen people (Israel) have missed out on a major blessing from God because they sort of did a "leap" over God's instruction for them to celebrate the Year of Jubilee. They did not align their actions with God's plan.
Isn't it interesting that humans have devised a plan to align our calendar year with the solar system year, even though most humans would not recognize God's control of the solar system He created?
It's another reminder that ultimately, God is in control of everything - so it makes sense for us to align our daily calendar with His plan.
How can we connect today's God's Story scripture with our lives?
- Every day this week, take a look at the sun and then your calendar, and then praise God that He is in control, not us! Ask His Spirit to give you the daily faith you need to practice everything His Word teaches. Thank Him for the blessings that He provides as you obey Him.
- Leap Year happens every four years. Look at your calendar for March and reserve a special appointment with God every four days. At the end of the month, look back and see how this scheduled time with God changes your life in a practical way.
How can we connect today's story and God's Story scripture and our story to others?
- With your friends who know Jesus, share with them what you learned in today's DAILYBIDE and invite them to join you in the month long plan to set aside a special time with God every four days.
- With your friends who don't know Christ, but are interested in God's Story, tell them about what you learned about the history and reason for Leap Year. Share with them that part of God's Story is that He is ultimately in control of our calendar because He controls the solar system calendar.
- February 2012 [5]
- January 2012 [18]
- December 2011 [20]
- November 2011 [15]
- October 2011 [15]
- September 2011 [14]
- August 2011 [22]
- July 2011 [19]
- June 2011 [21]
- May 2011 [20]
- April 2011 [20]
- March 2011 [21]
- February 2011 [20]
- January 2011 [21]
- December 2010 [21]
- November 2010 [21]
- October 2010 [21]
- September 2010 [22]
- August 2010 [21]
- July 2010 [22]
- June 2010 [20]
- May 2010 [18]
- April 2010 [21]
- March 2010 [23]
- February 2010 [19]
- January 2010 [22]
- December 2009 [22]
- November 2009 [21]
- October 2009 [22]
- September 2009 [21]
- August 2009 [20]
- July 2009 [21]
- June 2009 [22]
- May 2009 [18]
- April 2009 [15]
- March 2009 [7]
- February 2009 [17]
- January 2009 [20]
- December 2008 [23]
- November 2008 [19]
- October 2008 [22]
- September 2008 [22]
- August 2008 [19]
- July 2008 [22]
- June 2008 [11]
- May 2008 [19]
- April 2008 [22]
- March 2008 [21]
- February 2008 [18]
- January 2008 [20]
- December 2007 [18]
- November 2007 [15]
- October 2007 [19]
- September 2007 [18]
- August 2007 [12]
- July 2007 [12]
- June 2007 [9]
- May 2007 [11]
- April 2007 [10]
- March 2007 [11]
- February 2007 [14]
- January 2007 [7]
- December 2006 [4]
- November 2006 [13]
- October 2006 [17]
- September 2006 [11]
- August 2006 [16]
- July 2006 [10]
- June 2006 [3]
