HAPPY BIRTHDAY?

First, you only have ONE birthday.
Can a man enter the second time into his mother's womb?
Ecclesiastes, the book of wisdom that rails against vanity, says:
"A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth." Ecc. 7:1

Birthdays in Scripture
In Genesis 40, the pagan pharoah celebrated his birthday by hanging his chief baker from a tree and letting the birds eat his flesh off of him.
In Mark 6, King Herod had a drunken feast and celebrated his birthday by chopping off the head of John the Baptist.
Job's Understanding

Job was a man who "was perfect and upright, and one that feared Yah, and eschewed evil" (Job 1:1).
Job 1:4 "And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. 5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, 'It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed Yah in their hearts.' Thus did Job continually".
Job was concerned that by exalting themselves and usurping the honor of Yah by celebrating "their own day" that his sons may have sinned!
You might question that since it only says "every one his day" that it may not refer to birthdays. However, another passage in the same book is of interest in this regard.

Job 3:1 "After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. 2 And Job spake, and said, 3 'Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived'."
Job, a man who "was perfect and upright, and one that feared Yah, and eschewed evil", thought that celebrating days of birth was cause for great concern of sin!
Is there a reason that Scripture only shows birthdays in an evil light? In Scripture, the only ones who were lifted up with birthday celebration were wicked pagans who did not know Yah and others for whom there was concern about sin related to such.
According to the 12/23/96 issue of US News & World Report, "the earliest Christians simply weren't interested in celebrating the Nativity...". The same magazine continues, "...They 'viewed birthday celebrations as heathen'."
Early believers did not even THINK of holding a festival in honor of ANYONE'S birth. The third century writer Origen wrote in his Lev. Hom. viii in Migne, P.G., XII, 495 that ONLY SINNERS in the Scriptures celebrated birthdays.
How can exalting one's day of birth be harmful? Seek Scriptural truth in the matter.

To Yah Be The Glory
I Corinthians 10:31 "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of Yah."
James 4:10 "Humble yourselves in the sight of YHVH, and He shall lift you up."
A converted believer should not take pride in himself nor should he exalt himself.
Romans 12:3 "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as Yah hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."
Matthew 23:12 "And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted."
In everything we do the believer is obliged to give all the glory and honor to Yah as we were purchased for a costly price and our bodies are no longer our own.
I Corinthians 6:19 "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of The Ruach ha Kadosh which is in you, which ye have of Yah, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify Yah in your body, and in your spirit, which belong to Yah."
What is the spirit of a "birthday celebration"? Does an annual "birthday celebration" give honor to The LORD? Does one humble himself and give ALL glory to Yah in a "birthday celebration"?

Ahava b' YahShua
(Love in The SAVIOUR)
Baruch YHVH,
(Bless The ALMIGHTY)

Bro. Chris Barr
a servant of YHVH