8/10 Day Discovery

It blows my mind that I could write a whole book based on Nehemiah 8:10 - the joy of the Lord is your strength - and I didn’t even notice something until later. A lot of the verses in God Joy are actually from the NLT (New Living Translation) Bible, but I did most of the study for Nehemiah 8 from the NASB95 and the NIV. 
Here’s why that matters. 
Most translations use the Hebrew calendar system when giving the date for something. Nehemiah 8:2 (NASB95) says “on the first day of the seventh month.” The seventh month is called Tishrei. Even that can get confusing because it’s a different name before the Babylonian exile. SUPER NERDY STUFF! All that to say, I didn’t really pay attention to the date of when this story took place. 
Then I read the NLT, which I didn’t use for this in the book because they changed “Eat the fat” to “rich foods” and that’s just not as cool as “eat the fat.” 
In the NLT, Nehemiah 8:2 says, “So on October 8…” 
Here’s why that blew my mind and you will know this if you’ve been able to finish God Joy. 
I propose the launch of a new holiday in the book called 8:10 Day where we follow the commands of Nehemiah 8:10 to eat the fat (rich foods) and drink the sweet and share with those who have nothing prepared, for the joy of the Lord is our strength. At this holiday we can share stories of God freeing us from guilt and strengthening us in our suffering. 
I said that 8:10 Day could be on August 10 each year and then I made a little joke that it could be on October 8 (10/8) if you lived in another country, like England, where they write the day first and then the month when writing down a date. 
But that’s actually the day that it happened! The NLT says that this story took place in 445 B.C. and that the first day of the seventh month (Tishrei) would be equivalent to October 8th in our calendar system. 
The whole thing happened on 8/10/445! October 8, 445 BC. 
I think that’s so cool and fills my heart with so much joy. I hope it fills your heart with joy as well.