Background History about the Passover

Let's go now to the main message for today.

As it was mentioned, Passover is just a month away. What a privilege it is to be able to keep it. Let's look at some of the background history to see why and how we keep the Passover according to the instructions in the Bible, and be able to truly appreciate it, prepare for it, and carry it out, just as God has commanded. After all, Christ said that in His kingdom He's going to eat the Passover with us again. And so it's a great privilege to be doing that in anticipation of Him being able to do it. This Passover is the only feast during the year that God specifically tells us to prepare for it spiritually, to take time out, examine ourselves. We're going to go into some of those scriptures later. So we're going to do a historical background from the beginning, basically, to the New Testament about this. So this background history begins in Genesis 1, verse 14.

God here is restoring order on the earth. And in verse 14, then God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs and seasons and for days and years. And so the term that He's using here, which has to do with signs and seasons, the term seasons is Moedim in the Hebrew. I'd like to read what the dictionary tells us about this. It says here in the word dictionary about this term that it has to do with festival seasons. It has to do with different types of seasons about keeping it, Moedim, a religious festival and season. In the easy reading version, it's more clear. It says, then God said, Let there be lights in the sky. These lights will separate the days from the nights. They will be used for signs to show when special meetings begin. These are the special meetings we have on the Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread. You can imagine, mankind has not even been created. And God already has in mind establishing these times, special and holy times during the year. It's that important. He placed the sun and the earth and the moon and actually fashioned it in such a way that He arranged the orbits so that we can have a calendar to keep these days on. That's how important it was for God. In the Good News Bible version, it says, Then God commanded, Let lights appear in the sky to separate day from night and to show the time when days, years and religious festivals begin. Now, people can read the Bible a lifetime and never come across that truth. It's not just for days and years, but also religious festivals, talking about His feasts. The last version, it's God's Word version, it says, Then God said, Let there be lights in the sky to separate the day from the night. They will be signs and will mark religious festivals, days and years. So anybody who is studying the Bible should understand from the very beginning. Holy days are very important to God. So let's go to Leviticus chapter 23 to see what these Moedim are all about. What are these religious festivals? They're described in Leviticus chapter 23.

And let's start in verse 2. God is speaking. He says, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts. In other words, the God of the universe says, These are my special days that I have established to be worshipped on, to have it as holy time. And then in verse 4, it starts out, These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations, which means appointed times. Just like you have a dental appointment or anything else. Here are the holy appointments, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the 14th day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. So on the 14th is the first feast, from sunset to sunset.

And at the beginning of that 14th at sunset is where the 14th begins and the Passover also begins. And on the 15th day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread. To the Lord, seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation, which is what we do. You shall do no customary work on it, but you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. So it's talking about basically any work that's paid and that you're not doing like in the home where you still have some work to do there, which should be minimal, but still. He knows we have to heat things up to eat and things like that.

So there are eight consecutive days here that is the Passover and then the seven days of unleavened bread. And you only have to keep the first and the seventh day as holy. You can work during that week, just don't eat any unleavened bread during that time because of the symbol that it represents sin. You have to put away sin in our lives.

Now, the first month, on the fourteenth day when Passover takes place and on the first day of unleavened bread, it is also the time of the full moon. So we have to always synchronize with the biblical calendric principles there. We have to synchronize so we're always on the fourteenth.

You look up, it's a full moon and the fifteenth because that's, remember, a month, which is one rotation of the earth, of the moon around the earth. That takes twenty-nine and a half days. So the fourteenth and fifteenth period is just when that full moon is completely out. And I'm going to hand out, we can see the children of Israel leaving on the fifteenth day. The evening as the fifteenth day starts, the children of Israel are leaving there. Can you show that, Mike? Yes. And this is the image of Israelites leaving Egypt with Moses and Aaron up on the hill.

And what do you see? Full moon. So God has calculated this very carefully. And we have that same calendar where we can calculate astronomically every one of these feasts. Backwards in time and forwards in time. It's that precise. Now the term here in Leviticus 23, when it says, verse 5, at twilight. That's an important Hebrew word, ereb, the complete word study dictionary. It says, it is evening, dusk, or night. It is used consistently to indicate the close of the day.

You know how we look when Friday is finishing and you always look out there and you see how the sun is dipping and then it falls sunset and then it gets dark? Well, it's the same way here. It says literally, it means the turning of the evening. The light portion finally turns into darkness. So when are we to eat it? In the precise time, as it says here on the 14th day at twilight, is the Lord's Passover. It's talking about when that Passover is eaten. Now the lambs had to be sacrificed right there and then prepared and eaten.

It has to be done that night. Let's go now to Exodus 12, verse 1. Now chapter 12 has the precise detailed instructions about keeping the Passover. Exodus 12, verse 1. And I'm going to just go over it, verse 5, verse virtually, to explain. It says, The month shall be your beginning of months. That's why the Hebrew calendar that we follow begins in springtime and it is the beginning.

We don't begin like the Roman church does with January 1st and mid-winter time, which is not biblical. But as we have talked about, that they substituted the holy days for all of these man-made holidays, as they're called. It goes on to say, verse 3, Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb according to the house of his father. So before the Passover, you have to select a lamb. A lamb for a household. And then it goes on in verse 5, Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year.

You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. In other words, people that are so poor don't have sheep, they have a goat. They can use a baby goat as a substitute. But that's not the normal, all through the Bible it's talking about lambs. But God always takes into consideration, well, what if there isn't one? What if you only have a baby goat?

Yes, it can be a substitute. It's not a normal substitute. Please don't do that because Christ did not symbolize being a goat. As you know, goats have a different nature. But here he mentioned this, verse 6, Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. So here the word is again one that is quite specific.

It's dealing with something that you keep it until you reach that deadline. That's the stopping point. So you follow all the way, the thirteenth, fourteenth comes, that's when you stop. It doesn't say on the fifteenth you stop. Until the fourteenth of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation shall kill it at twilight. Again, stalking here, the beginning of the fourteenth day starts that evening. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on two doorposts on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.

It's very important. So the symbol, as you know, is so important. If you didn't kill that lamb and you didn't come and you put here on the doorposts that patch, it doesn't say, some people think it's crosses or something. No, it doesn't say anything like that. It just says you're supposed to put two patches of blood. It means that place is protected. It is sealed from the plague that is going to come.

Only those people inside are protected. Notice verse 22 gives you another detail about that. It says, and you shall take a bunch of hyssop, which is kind of like a brush, dip it in the blood that is in the basin and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. Which means, okay, the second part of the day is the morning part.

Now, would you go outside the door sill, the doors, with the protecting blood? Would you risk that? I certainly wouldn't. Because look what's going to happen. Because some people that keep the Passover on the 15th say, no, Israelites were able to leave that same night and they could leave it after the angel came and that was the night that they left.

No, you better not have left on that night. You would be dead. Or at least your firstborn would have been dead. Notice verse 8. It says, then they shall eat the flesh on that night. It takes time to prepare, to cook it. Roasted in fire with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs, they shall eat it. So these are all symbols of the lamb.

It's sinless because Christ would be the symbol of that Passover lamb. Bitter herbs has to do with the sufferings, the bitter sufferings that Christ went through. It says verse 9, do not eat it raw nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire, its head with its legs and its entrails.

Why? Because Christ sacrificed himself. It was a complete Holocaust, a burnt offering. He actually gave everything. So he went through the fiery trial and it was a complete sacrifice. It says verse 10, you shall let none of it remain until morning. It says here that it was to be consumed again because it's like people are accepting that sacrifice for their sins and for their protection. And what remains of it until morning, you shall burn with fire.

So that was another chore they had to do early in the morning. When they could get out of their homes, the first thing they had to do was burn it up completely. It was a total Holocaust. Just like Christ, it was a total sacrifice. Verse 11, and thus you shall eat it with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. So God did not say, well, you've got in the morning, change your clothing, get everybody ready.

No. I mean, they just burnt that Holocaust and you are out of there. There's a lot to do that.

Verse 13, Now the blood shall be a sign for you on your houses. That same word has to do with God's special sign. It's going to be the protection where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. That's where the word Passover comes from. And it is that that angel that God sent to do his bid and it passed over the houses and wherever he saw the blood on the doorposts, he did not intervene and kill the firstborns at that time. If I would have been in Egypt at that time, I would have been dead if I would have been Egyptian because I'm a firstborn. And it said, even of the animals, the firstborn. This was one of the worst destructions ever in world history. Verse 14, It says, There shall be to you a memorial. Talking about the Passover. A memorial is something you do. It's kind of like an anniversary. It's in your memory. It stays in your memory. God wants us to remember this. To re-mem-ber re- what? Memory-ize it. Don't forget every year. A memorial and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord, not to anyone else, throughout your generations. Doesn't matter. If you are here young or old, this is something that is for life.

You shall keep it by an everlasting ordinance. Ordinance means law. Everlasting law or commandment. Seven days you shall eat on leavened bread. Notice, this doesn't have to do with the Passover. This is the day after the Passover. This is the fifteenth to the end of the twenty-first. On the first day, it says you shall eat on leavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. So we have to have it before that day happens. Still, you can remove leaven during the Passover because the Passover is not a day of unleavened bread. But by the time we take the Passover, the following day you can still take because it's on the fourteenth. On the fifteenth, which is the night to be much observed, is when we have to have the leavening out of our homes. Now, if you live in a home where your husband or wife are not part of the church, then depending, of course, on the wife or the husband, but if they insist on eating their hot dogs or eating whatever bread and everything else, you keep your area clean of it. It's up to what is your responsibility. Keep it from having leavening, even if it's your bed only or whatever. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. At that time, it meant a death sentence. God was very serious. Now, it just means God begins to cut you off spiritually. And until that person loses whatever Holy Spirit they had or whatever they didn't have, God's Spirit, that any God being with them, the Spirit being with them, it's just lost more and more. It says, verse 16, on the first day, there shall be a holy convocation. So that's why we have one. Because we follow God's rules. We're so dumb, we don't try to make up our own rules. And on the seventh day, there shall be a holy convocation to you. The white carpet is out there. That white spiritual carpet. God does not want us to tread and to soil it. No manner of work shall be done on them, but that which everyone must eat, that only may be prepared for you. That's a general principle that we have. Well, you can prepare food and heat food. You shouldn't have a banquet for that time where your poor wife is enslaved in the kitchen. But you don't have to eat your eggs raw or whatever. No? You can prepare. But that's what God says. Just keep it in your home. Do whatever you can to have it as easy and not work intensive for your wife or for yourself if you prepare things. Then it goes on to say, verse 17, So you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. Doesn't say this is a suggestion. If your boss tells you, well, you've got to work on that day. Well, yeah, God just suggested it. No. You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. For on this same day, I will have brought you your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first of the month at evenings. So again, it's from the beginning of the fifteenth, as the fourteenth ends, begins these seven days. For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses. Since whoever eats what is leaven, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Egypt, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. God has a spiritual lesson for us. And basically, let's go to 1 Corinthians 5, because here's the lesson, spiritual lesson.

Paul was preparing the Corinthians to keep the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. And unfortunately, here in Corinth, there was sin in the congregation. And before they kept the Passover, Paul says, this has to be removed from the congregation. Just as you do remove the leaven as physical, that's a symbol, you remove sin. He says, verse 1, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that a man has his father's wife. And this means that it was basically, he had a wife of the father. The father had married twice, and here you have a foster mother, and there was a relationship. And unfortunately, this happens, where it's not the same relationship between a mother and child, where there's this bond that is just very much not involved. But when somebody remarries, and maybe there's a child of opposite sex, there's a lot of possibilities, because that same relationship is not exactly the same. But in the great majority of cases, people still respect each other. I'm just saying that that is more of a possibility if it's a foster father or a foster mother. It says in verse 2, And you are puffed up, and you have rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. In other words, it was already out there in the congregation. People knew what was going on. And the people said, well, let's leave this man in the congregation. We ought to show mercy. Maybe he'll repent. And Paul is very upset about that. He says, verse 3, This is Paul as a pastor.

As though I were present, him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, we all have God's spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. In other words, put him out of the church, go back to the world so he can deal with his sins, but not inside the congregation. And for him to learn that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, that he might repent because he has been punished. But it's a remedial type of punishment. It's to help the person wake up to the seriousness of the matter. Verse 6, That's a principle of the Days of Unleavened Bread. He says, look, if you allow this, somebody says, well, he's getting away with it. Why can't I? Therefore, purge out the old leaven. Get rid of those sins, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. You have been clean of your sins, for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. So we have the forgiveness of sins. Therefore, let us keep the feast and talking now about the Days of Unleavened Bread. Remember, there were eight days in a row. Sometimes the Passover covers the eight days. Sometimes it's called the Days of Unleavened Bread. Because that also can cover all eight. And the first day of Unleavened Bread, in that case, would be the Passover. Because it's a convenient way of not having to say Passover and Unleavened Bread. Unleavened Bread and Passover. No, just say Passover time, or Unleavened Day time. That's the way they used it in Christ's Day, as I will show.

Let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, or with the leaven of malice and wickedness, talking about the sins that they were tolerating, but with an unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. We have to be truthful. We can't be lying about these things.

And then he says, I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. So that's part of the rules. I don't make the rules, but I have to abide by them. So let's go back to Exodus 12. So we hear in verse 19 why God says every year you need this week to remember to clean up your life, your sins. And then he says, verse 20, you shall eat nothing leaven in all your dwellings. You shall eat unleavened bread. I remember a minister years ago in San Diego, when Cottie and I were just starting out, and he said, boy, I learned my lesson during these days of unleavened bread. I was keeping everything out, no leavening. And he was a boss that worked for the Aeronautics company. And he said, all of a sudden they came in and they said, happy birthday. And they gave me chocolate cake, which was my favorite. And I took a slice of that. I bit into it. And all of a sudden, oh, I fell into it. And he was just talking about how temptation can sometimes grab you in the same way as a chocolate cake. It was too quick for him to react and realize what day of the week it was. And so that's part of the lesson. It's not that the cake is sin. It's that it's the lesson of how easy sin can come into our lives. Never comes as some bitter thing that we're not interested in. No, it's usually kind of chocolate cake is going to get you. OK, then verse 21. Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families and kill the Passover lamb. Notice here, the lamb is the normal thing. God is so generous and everything that, well, somebody doesn't have a lamb and can't get one or whatever. You can use the goat. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dippet, I've already mentioned this about, and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For I, the Lord, will pass through to strike the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood on the lintel, again, see that angel of the Lord was going to do the work on the blood of the lintel and on the door to the doorpost. The Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you.

And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. And then he explains here in verse 26, and it shall be, when your children say to you, what do you mean by this service? You shall say, it is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt. That happened on the 14th when he struck the Egyptians and delivered the household so the people bowed their heads in worship. Then the children of Israel went out and did so just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. Verse 29, and it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Israel. Verse 30, so Passover rose, the Pharaoh rose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt. So for there was not a house where there was not one dead. Then he told Moses, Get out. I'm leaving you. I'm freeing you up for it. And it says, verse 33, and the Egyptians urged the people. This was in the morning. The Egyptians urged the people that they might send them out of the land in haste, for they say, We shall all be dead. The next one's going to catch everybody, the plague. So the people took their dough before it was leaven, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders. So that was something else that they just didn't do. During that night, you're in a state of panic. You're listening to people dying and shouts. The horror you have around us. Believe me, what are you doing? You're praying. You're tucked in bed. And you just thinking, Oh, this blood may protect my family. That's all they're thinking about. In verse 35, now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians, Articles of silver, articles of gold. Believe me, the Egyptians were willing to give them anything, just as long as they retained their lives. Verse 37, then the children of Israel journeyed from Ramesses to Sukkot, about 600,000 men on foot besides children, and mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds, a great deal of livestock. And they baked unleavened bread of dough, which they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt, and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves.

And then it talks about this night being very important. Verse 42, it is a night of solemn observance to the Lord, for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord's solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generation. So this is the night to be much observed. This is where we all gather together and we celebrate God's spiritual liberation of His people. And certainly He has liberated us from the sins of this world and this spiritual Egypt that we all belong to. And we long for Christ's kingdom to come, because once Christ's kingdom is there and we, God willing, are transformed into spirit beings, we're not going to have carnal nature anymore to deal with. And we won't have Satan's nature to bother us. That's what is worthwhile to live forever. But if I told you, hey, you get to, at Christ's return, you get to be turned into a spirit being. And you get to live, but you still got your human nature and you still got Satan around. What would I say? No thanks. I'd just rather vanish. Give me the second death if it's necessary. But now, if you take human nature out and Satan's nature out that you don't have to contend with and fight every day of your life, then it is worth it. And of course, that's why we're in the church. We're looking forward to that coming kingdom and being transformed. So I'd like to show you how important it is to follow these instructions, because this is how Jesus Christ and His disciples fulfilled that Passover and commanded that to be in His church. Let's go to John 13. John 13, verse 1.

When did they keep the Passover? When should we keep the Passover? Again, these are just one set of rules that God has set up. No man-made rules that we should follow. Now, before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come and He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. And supper, talking about the Passover meal, ended the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given Him all things in His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. Afterwards He poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them from the towel with which He was girded. And this is what we call the foot-washing ceremony that we carry out. It's the first part of the Passover that we fulfill. Let's go to Matthew chapter 26, verse 20.

Matthew 26, verse 20. It says, And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and broke it and gave it to His disciples, and said, Take eat, this is my body. So this is now the second part of the ceremony. The taking of the bread, the taking of the wine. And then He says, verse 28, For this is my blood, it's a drink, this wine, it's symbolic of the new covenant, which is shed for many, for the redemption of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine. That's Jesus Christ up in heaven. He hasn't had a sip of wine all this time. From now on, until that day, when I drink it, a new with you in my Father's kingdom. That's how important that Passover is. So this is our Passover rehearsal. We're doing this, and one day Christ is going to take over and do it on His own. Notice in Luke, chapter 22, another repetition. When was this done? Luke, chapter 22, verse 14.

It says, When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, With fervent desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you, before I suffer. For I say to you, I will no longer eat of it, Is this abolished? Until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. He says, verse 17, Then He took the cup and gave thanks, and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God comes. So He's waiting. He's waiting for that Passover to celebrate it. But notice, it's even, it says, When the hour had come. There's no other hour to keep this. That's the only hour. It's the beginning of the fourteenth, when it should be kept. So we follow the same instructions, given in the Old Testament and the New Testament. After sunset, the beginning of the fourteenth, we eat them. Passover symbols, when the hour had come. That's why 730 is during that hour of the Passover, the beginning of Passover Day. This is why we have a fundamental belief on it, which says, We believe in observing the New Testament Passover on the night of the fourteenth of Abib, which is the first month that God gave the name of it. The anniversary of the death of our Savior. Notice in 1 Corinthians, I'm going to finish with this, maybe give you two verses. 1 Corinthians 11, it wasn't just Christ and the disciples, now it's the Apostle Paul. Some thirty years later, what is he keeping? 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23, He says, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, that was on the night of the fourteenth, the beginning of the fourteenth, he was betrayed, he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of me. In the same way with the cup that he took. And then he says, this is the anniversary date, For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, that's every Passover evening, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. And so it is something that God has established. The whole universe is watching what is done. All the angels. And in Numbers 33, verse 2 and 3, I just wanted to add this about the precise dates of things. Numbers 33, this is a good chronology of when they left Egypt.

It says, verse 1, These are the journeys of the children of Israel who went out of the land of Egypt by their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron. And now Moses wrote down the starting points of their journeys at the command of the Lord. Again, God sets the rule. And these are the journeys according to their starting points. They departed from Ramesses in the first month on the fifteenth day of the first month, on the day after the Passover. The children of Israel went out with boldness in the sight of all of the Egyptians. It's the second day. It's not on the Passover that they left. So, brethren, let's examine ourselves and appreciate so much as we went through this historical background and take the Passover through God's mercy, forgiveness, and love.