Countdown to the Passover Season

Well, thank you both very much. Enjoyed that. Did I get it correct as far as who wrote it? You both wrote it. Okay, my apologies. Both get credit for writing it and singing it. So those of us who grew up in the 1960s, the space race, I believe it was called, was something that was a part of our lives. I remember avidly following every one of the Mercury shots from who was it? Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom and John Glenn and others, just one after another. And then it graduated to the two-man craft with the Gemini shots, then the Apollo missions with the three. Of course, the one great tragedy were three lost their lives in the fire. But then after that, we went through the space shuttles. And every time, wherever it took place, generally down at Cape Canaveral, Cape Kennedy, called different things at different times. But the countdown would take place. And you'd watch the clock counting down and T-minus one minute and counting and all the way down. And then finally, the burst of flame and the announcement, we have ignition.

And then we have takeoff. And I always loved those countdowns. Of course, then there was one that was rather unpleasant in 1986, the Challenger, and what happened to it after it got up a certain distance. But the countdowns, and we're in a countdown now. Amazingly, here we are on March, what is the day? 19th? Close to that. 19th. And on Thursday evening, April 21st, we'll be gathering for the Passover. And that's just the beginning of the spring feast season. So I call this countdown to the Passover season. I was looking back in some old literature. I thought it was in the autobiography, but it was not of Herbert Armstrong. I was looking to reread, wanted to refresh my mind of a story of how Mr. Armstrong and his wife began observing, of course, the Sabbath and then many other facets of the truth initially. But at a given point, he began to realize that the annual Sabbaths and the weekly Sabbaths are going to stand or fall together. And they didn't know why, but they began keeping the annual feasts. And they kept them, just the two of them, for, as I recall, seven years. And then there was a little group in Oregon that began observing those days with them, and they went another seven years. So a full 14 years before he had one of those aha moments and made the connection that the Holy Days outlined the plan of salvation by which God is seeking to bring multiple tens of billions of sons and daughters into his very family. And it's an exciting story and something that is a part of why we are here today.

But we have a Passover season coming upon us, and we ought not let it slip up on us like a thief in the night, as one of the parables talks about. So I want to just throw out, haven't done this in a number of years, but just throw out some general thoughts on how to prepare yourself for the upcoming season. And the first point is, prepare your spiritual house.

Many of us may have logged some time in the Boy Scouts, and we remember the Boy Scouts motto, Be Prepared, and so we need to be prepared. Or you may think of the occasion when the prophet Isaiah was sent to King Hezekiah, and his message was to tell him, Get your house in order. You are going to die. And then based on Hezekiah's response, God sent Isaiah back and said, I've heard your prayer. I've seen your tears. I'm going to give you 15 more years. But his message was, Set your house in order. Now, a reason we need to talk about this is what Paul wrote to those at Rome, where he told them the carnal mind is at enmity with the law of God. It's not subject to it, nor indeed can be. And if we've been keeping these days for 40 years, or 55, or seven years, there's something within us that we have to fight against that is going to want to just all think about that another day. I'll think about that tomorrow. We'll put off preparation. But when we get down to the last month, it's the last window of the year, and it's time to get started. We also need to be reminded that we have an adversary. That's one of the names by which Satan is called. He is an adversary. He is not death, dumb, and blinded to what God is doing via the Holy Days. He becomes increasingly angry, I believe, as each of these seasons comes around. He does not want God's people to be observing these days. We used to talk a lot about our pre-passover trials, and then it seemed that we began talking about our pre-Feasts of Tabernacles trials. And I think as it gets closer to the fulfillment of trumpets and atonement and tabernacles and on, that he becomes increasingly angry. But he certainly has always been angry when we get to the time of the Passover season. We do need to be praying that God will set a protective hedge about our families, about our brethren, about our congregation, that we can at the right time come here and gather together in peace and rejoice in and observe that most somber and solemn occasion of the year.

Now, in preparing spiritually, there are a number of points I'd like to throw out, sub-points.

One item we can do is review some of our past material. We have booklets on the Holy Days.

Our current one is God's Holy Day Plan, the promise of hope for all mankind.

We have Bible correspondence course lessons that focus on the Holy Days.

We have past years. You can go back to the Good News. It's now the Beyond Today, the back to the Good News magazine for years to the March-April edition. And you will have a number of articles, just like the New Beyond Today that we receive, has articles that focus on the upcoming Holy Days. Probably most of us have many notebooks of sermonette and sermon and Bible study notes that we've taken across the years.

And there are surely messages we have heard specifying topics like examining ourselves, discerning the Lord's body, what does the unleavened bread mean, what does the wine mean. We've got so much material that has been covered across the years. So I think it would be hoovers to go back, study, review as much material as we can to get it refreshed back in our mind. And then to ask God to raise the bar and give me more understanding. Give us more understanding this year. Along with preparing spiritually, we can study pertinent chapters and stories in the Bible.

We could actually go back to some stories that took place before the Passover was even given that we have any record of. Because we could go back to the story of the flood of Noah and how God saved eight souls through water, as Peter referred back to it. You have the story of the flood and how God just started all over and sin destroyed the human family. Except one man found grace in God's eyes and God saved his family.

We could look at the story of Lot being in Sodom. There are many parallels there. And it's also interesting that the end of the story is that the angels had to actually lay their hands on Lot and family and pull them out of the city. Sodom is one of the great biblical types for sin. And there's something within us we don't want to go out of sin. We want to stay there. And here we are in the end-time Babylonian system and we don't want to go out.

When push comes to shove. Too many times like Lot's wife, we have these battles to struggle with because she went part way and then aborted from her mission. So that's one. Of course, we have the first 15 chapters of the book of Exodus from chapter one with the conditions that Israel was under in Egypt. The fact that time came when there was a Pharaoh who didn't remember Joseph. And that made a big difference. And the last couple of hundred years, approximately, their life was just terrible.

The conditions they were in there. And they began crying out. And God, through one miracle after another, lifted up this deliverer. And the story of Moses is a fascinating story. If what Josephus records is accurate, he ended up as a great general leading the armies of Egypt against the Ethiopians. And yet, at age 40, his life went in three forties. And at age 40, he was cast out. And he went out and then God really prepared the metal for the work that he had for him to do.

But 40 years out of Midian. And then at the young age of 80, he was sent back to be the one who would deliver the lead the children of Israel out of sin, out of Egypt. And then he was with them throughout the wilderness, almost to the very end. Well, Leviticus 23, we realize that's the chapter where we have, first of all, the weekly Sabbath. And then it says, these are the feasts of the Lord.

And it begins there with the Passover. In fact, why don't we just go there once again, although we'll be going there during the Holy Day season. The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations. Even these are my feasts. These aren't Jewish feasts, as some call them today. These are the feasts of God. And these are commanded assemblies. That's what a holy convocation. I'm reading the King James Version today because I didn't put the correct Bible in my briefcase.

I prefer the one that says, giant print on the spine, but I'll try to make do with this one. And then in verse 3, it mentions the weekly Sabbath. It goes on to the holy convocations, verse 4, which you shall proclaim in their seasons. And there's that very, very meaningful little word, moed, or the plural, moedim, in the Hebrew. These are pointed times.

When as it comes, we are to proclaim that feast.

The 14th day of the first month, it even is Lord's Passover.

And every place in the Bible, every place in Leviticus and in Exodus and other places here in the law, it always refers to the Passover is the 14th. I would say all of the Passover is on the 14th because we have some who get partially derailed in their thinking, and they follow some of the errors that some of the Jews made later on in killing the lambs late on the 14th, but the bulk of it they're doing into the 15th. But every single place where it talks about the Passover, it is the 14th of the first month. It's not part of it on the 14th and continuing the 15th. It is the 14th period. Then there are seven days of Unleavened Bread. I'll come back to that thought a little bit later, but so much material to be reminded of here. We have places in the Psalms. We just heard some from Psalm 32, which is one of David's Psalms of Repentance. There is another one in Psalm 51, which is his Prayer of Repentance after the sin with Bathsheba. There are other places as well, a lot of messianic prophecies in places like Psalm 22 and Psalm 69, for seeing some of the very thoughts and words of Jesus from the cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So it's good to go back there where it was prophesied, hundreds and hundreds of years in advance, and then to go to the New Testament and see how it was fulfilled. We also had a reference there to Isaiah. Isaiah 52 and 53. You have a lot of material describing what Messiah would go through in giving himself as the price, the payment for the sins of humanity. A marred more than any man, numbered among transgressors. So lots of phrases there that are good to go back and review.

And of course, in the New Testament, you can pick any of the Gospels. I tend to look at Matthew and at John more so, but you have Matthew 26, 7, 8. You've got all of the story there of that final Passover, the events of that night, the taking of the bread and the wine. You tie in John's account, John 13. John's the only one that refers to the foot washing. But there is enough evidence to piece it all together. And it was a cultural issue of that day. You remember when it's in Abraham's day. It was in Genesis 18 that the God of the Old Testament and the two angels came to Abraham's tent. And the first order of the day was they got water for them to wash their feet. And then Abraham went and caught the calf. Sarah was baking the cakes. So that's a cultural matter. You have examples in the New Testament. Jesus was at the household of Simon.

And that was when Mary came with the expensive ointment. And then she dried his feet with her own hair. And Jesus pointed out later that when I entered your house, you didn't offer me water to wash my feet. And so it was a cultural issue. And in John 13, you've got a supper. You've got different translations that read a little differently. It's a little vague.

But obviously, first order of the day is wash feet, start a meal. During the meal, a sop is given to Judas. And Christ told him, what you do, do so quickly. He left. Then a little further into the meal, the giving of the unleavened bread is assembled. And then one of the gospel accounts said when supper was ended, he took the wine. So that's where we have that order from Passover to Unleavened Bread to the wine and the service that we keep here today. Now, there is a lot of material out there. I think I may have mentioned this last year. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, The Upper Room by John MacArthur. I read it last year. I just started rereading it.

Basically, he's looking at John 13 through 16 and breaks it into different pieces. Like anything that you pick up, you've got to read through some of it, let some of it go. But there's a lot of good food for thought in a work like this. And there's the old classic written by Jim Bishop, The Day Christ Died. I've got the old one. There's a revised version since then. But where, again, it's not perfect. And he's looking at it through the lenses of Friday to Sunday. So we've got to read over the time reckoning that he uses. But Bishop tries to research into the Roman crucifixion, the Roman scourging, and then piece it all together hour by hour by hour on that last day that Christ walked on the earth here. So works like that would be good.

I would add, again, for spiritually getting prepared, I would add the topic of fasting. It has been said all through the years that in most cases it would be advised for us to have a day of fasting, a time to one man years ago call to take the 24-hour cure, 24-hour attitude adjustment.

I say for most of us because I realize there are those who live in a state of affliction beyond anything that a lot of us can relate to. And they probably know a lot more about it than we do if we fast once a month or once every other week. But fasting, you can make a note of Isaiah 58 verses 6 through 12. Isaiah 58 verses 6 through 12. And there's a lot there as far as fasting for the right reason. We fast to seek God's will. We do not fast to enforce our will and our desires upon God. We do not go out to a fast with a preconceived outcome in mind. We go to it and ask God, teach me, show me, guide me, help me to know where to put my next step. Examine yourself was touched on in the first message. Certainly, that's always a part of it as the Scripture is there in 1 Corinthians 11, 28, 29. Also, 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5, both of those talk about examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. Examine yourselves and then take of those symbols.

All right, I think another aspect is prepare your attitude. Let's look at Deuteronomy 14.

Deuteronomy 14, because when we go to keep an annual Sabbath day, just like when we keep a weekly Sabbath day, we're going there for the reason of appearing before God. And I think we need to remember that. We sometimes forget that. I think if we had that at the forefront of our mind, and maybe some of the friction that we have from time to time just wouldn't come up.

But we're going to go appear where God sets His name and where God's name is placed. It should carry the deepest respect. Deuteronomy 14 verse 22, you shall truly tithe all the increase of your seed that the field brings forth year by year.

Now, there are places and numbers that speak about tithing. That tithe was holy unto the Lord. That tithe, again, it's our term, we call it first tithe, goes to or at that time went to the local Levite for the work of the service of the tabernacle. The book of Hebrews makes it clear on the topic of tithing in Hebrews 7 that we've changed administrations. And it's reverted back to the Melchizedek priesthood, the one who didn't die. Every Levite who's ever lived, every high priest there has ever been, like Aaron has died. But it reverted back to the priesthood of Melchizedek, and he remains a priest forever. And he has then, there is a change in the law, Paul, as I believe the author is, Paul wrote. And the tithes are given to the New Testament church for the furtherance of the work that God has given the church in a different age.

And that brings in, like in chapter 16, verse 16, it tells us to come and appear and don't appear empty. These three occasions, three seasons of the year, all your males appear before the Lord your God in the place which he shall choose in the feast of unleavened bread and in the feast of weeks and in the feast of tabernacles. And they shall not appear before the Lord empty. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given you. So it is a time to prepare to give an offering as well. It's something we ought to be planning for throughout the year. Holy day offerings don't slip up on us like a thief in the night either, unless we let them. So anyhow, that's the spiritual preparation, just a bit of an overview. I'd like to look at some of the physical points with you as well. And overall point number two is clean out the leaven. Clean out the leaven. Now, let's go back over to Exodus 12. Exodus 12. This is when they're still in Egypt. The first record we have of holy days, they're in Egypt, but they're about to be brought out. In Exodus 12, we have a...

As the story unfolds, on the 10th of that first month, you set aside a lamb.

Don't pick one of the coals. Don't pick one with a broken leg. Don't pick one that has two tails or five legs. Pick your best. Set it aside. It is going to represent the Messiah. It's going to point forward to that. And then on the 14th, verse 6, you should keep it up until the 14th of the same month. It doesn't say keep it until the end of the 14th, but you keep it until the 14th. When does the 14th come? Well, when the sun sets, you have that between the two evenings. You have that twilight. You have that dusk. There's only one twilight of any given day because when you get to the end of the 14th and you have dusk again, you're actually into the 15th. So you are to keep it until then. Kill it in the evening. Again, this is the old King James marginal note. Kill it between the two evenings, which is generally understood between sundown and the time when it gets dark. And so you kill it and you're going to give the instruction on what to do with the blood on the lentils and the doorposts. And eat the flesh that night. Roast with fire, unleavened bread, bitter herbs. Verse 10, let nothing remain until morning. Anything left, you burn with fire. There also are instructions, don't go out of your house that night. Because if you were a firstborn of Israel and you went out from a home that was protected by the blood of the lamb, you could be killed. So they were not going anywhere that night. Now again, some get derailed and they say just because in verse 11 they were told to be dressed as though you were leaving. They conclude they went out that evening, but they didn't go anywhere that night. They stayed in the house. Anything left over at morning, they had to burn it. That next day, as you follow the story, they plundered the Egyptians. Then Deuteronomy 16 verse 1 tells us they went out by night. And that was clearly the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So the night of the 14th, they were at home. Anyhow, I'm getting off the track here, but where we want to focus is on the 11 in verse 14. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. Even the first day you shall put away 11 out of your houses, for whosoever eats 11 bread from the first day until the seventh day. That soul shall be cut off from Israel. Verse 16, the first day is a holy convocation, and the seventh day is a holy convocation. Now, 11. Putting the 11 out of the homes. It is good to have a plan. It is good to start early. Most of us have a routine that has developed over years. It is amazingly simple when we don't have three eating machines in our house walking through taking crumbs to who knows where.

There are rooms in our house that probably never have any food in them, but I can't say that with full assurance, because sometimes I'm asleep and I can't always keep an eye on her. Moving right along. Where are we going with that? So, have a plan. Pray for me.

I already, something that I do each year is defrost the chest freezer. I already got that done, and 11 is gone. But then again, we're both where we almost have bread out of our life.

So, it's going to be a trial to remember to eat unleavened bread. But anyhow, that part is done.

But then there may be certain parts of the house where you can deal 11 well in advance, and then just threaten everyone. No food back in that room. And then you work your way, usually down to the kitchen. And then we often will have a couple of plastic tubs and everything that's living is in those. And if you use that, be very careful. So, whatever works for you. And when it is a family, I think it's good to make it a family project. Everyone needs to have a part.

Fathers need to have a part. Fathers ought not delegate it to everyone else. After all, Jesus said those who will be greatest need to be the greatest servants. So, we need to be involved.

Children, I think from a fairly young age, can help. Probably more than you realize. And it's good for them to learn to walk through it. And it's an exercise, but it also gives us lots of lessons we can learn. We learn that on our own effort, we'll never ever get all of 11 out of our house. We don't go to extremes. You don't tear the carpet out of the house. You don't burn it to the ground and build a new one. We don't go to extremes, but we just give it a good honest effort.

And yet, how many times during Unleavened Bread have we all found, uh-oh, look what's hiding here. Or you pick something you were sure you read ingredients earlier, and lo and behold, somebody added something in that box. You missed it the first time. And it's not the end of the world. It's a lesson. It's a learning moment. And we realize that on our own power, we're not going to get everything out of that house. And on our own power, without God's help, we're not going to get sin out of our life either. So be thorough. Give it a good, honest effort. There is material the church has. If anyone needs, I have a... This is a brief form letter. Just someone wrote in and asked, what is leavening? And so it hits the basic categories. You have, of course, your yeast, which is a... what is it? They have the Fleischmann's, the dry packet, and sometimes the little cubes compressed. So you've got that. And that's an actual living agent. Then you have your chemical leavenings, such as baking powder. Brands would be, what, Clabber Girl, Calumet. We have the Rumford aluminum-free. We get that one. So... And sometimes we've gone to the 11 and the can of baking powder we got sometime months earlier had never been opened. So we're... That's how much we wouldn't make pancakes anymore. Okay. Baking powder, baking soda. Sometimes it's called sodium bicarbonate. There's potassium bicarbonate. Here is another article. What is leaven? It's three pages long. So there is material the church has available. You've got a lot of areas that might seem to be leavening agents, but on their own they're not. Like cream of tartar. Cream of tartar is usually used in making meringue for pies, but of itself it's not a leavening agent. Fluffed up egg whites is not a leavening agent. These are not the days of unleavening alpo and purina dog chow.

I really don't know and I can't imagine wanting to find out is there anything you can take out of your dog food to get to be able to make biscuits rice. At any rate, we focus on people food.

There are things like... What is it? I had it written down here. Yeast extract, sometimes in a soup, but it's spent. There's nothing you can pull out of there and use to make pancakes with. Anyhow, a lot of things like that. Brewers dried yeast. I mean, these aren't the days of unleavening beer. There's nothing from that you could take out to make bread rise anyhow. Just ask what is the context of its use.

If there's a basic yeast for chemical leavening agent, then we want to put it out.

We don't want to get as close to that which is normally leavened as possible, but again, that's some of those choices or personal matters. Romans 14. There's a principle here, perhaps we should be reminded of Romans 14. The chapter here deals with what to eat and what not to eat.

For food, don't destroy the work of God. And then in verse 22-23, there's a principle here. Have your faith, have it yourself before God. Happy is he that condemns not himself in the thing which he allows. And he that doubts is damned if he eats, because he eats not of faith, for whatever is not of faith is sin. And to me, the principle is, if in doubt, pitch it, get rid of it, get it out. Don't let it sit there on the shelf three or four days. If it bothers you, if there's any question, better just to get rid of it. Now, in Dilevening, we have a lot of families where we have one who believes this way, married to someone, or living with others in the household who do not believe this way. And I think a lot of that comes down to the question, what do I have control over? So, if I were married to a woman who was not a member of this church, and I would look at what do I have responsibility over, well, there's a Tacoma pickup I drive, and I would need to Dileven that. And then, I've always generally thought the garage, messy as it is, is my responsibility. And then, in our house, I have an office, and that's basically my room. Some might find themselves in that, you know, where I've got a couple of rooms in the house. I have basically full say there Dileven that. You have spouses, though, and family members who will fully go along with it. And it's wonderful when they do that. But it's, you know, it's also a matter that they may, you know, they want their bread. They might say, well, let's have this plastic tub and my bread and my fixings are right here. So, you have to work it out. But it's, ask yourself, what am I accountable to God for? And as you Dileven the house, remember the vacuum cleaner bag at the end, you know. All right. A third point is make plans for the Passover service.

Make plans. Again, it depends on your life situation. Once upon a time, we had little ones in the house. And thankfully, we ran areas where we had teenage girls or, you know, some who were newer, who would volunteer to help keep kids and maybe, you know, be a bunch of church kids over at somebody's house where they were watched and supervised. But it is something to think about. But basically, when we come here in this congregation, we do have our own, the wash basins, some congregations do not. So when you come here, you basically need your Bible.

The hymnals will be here because the last thing we do is sing a hymn and then that ends.

But we'll have the hymnals. We have the wash basins here. You'll need for the foot washing a towel.

So basically, bring yourself a Bible and a towel. And the church will provide the unleavened bread that will be broken that night. The church will provide the wine that will be used that night.

Okay, number four, make plans for the night to be must observed.

And let's go back to Exodus 12 for that one. Exodus 12, late in the chapter, verse 42.

As you can follow the story here, it builds to the point where they are moving.

They are leaving. Verse 37, 600,000 on foot that were men besides children, a mixed multitude.

They baked unleavened bread. They were thrust out of Egypt. They were in a hurry.

This completed 430 years.

And verse 41, it came to pass at the end of the 430 years, even the same day it came to pass that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.

Again, just make a note. I mentioned a while ago, but make a note of Deuteronomy 16, verse 1, because the latter half of that says, For in the month of Abib, the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

It wasn't the night that the 14th took place, because they were told, Don't go out of your house till morning. And the next day they plundered. So now the next night and in the 15th they are leaving. They are departing.

And then it adds in verse 42, it is a night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations. Now that's about the sum total of the instruction we are given on what is called here the night to be much observed. Or we oftentimes, I think another translation uses the term remembered. Another one calls it a night of vigils or a night of watching. But what we do on that night, I would say the way we do it is 90-some percent church tradition. And it's good tradition. It's been a matter. We don't have any scripture in Leviticus 23 here that tells us this is an annual Sabbath. It is. And you gather for a sacred command at assembly and have a church service. Nothing tells us to do that. But it does tell us it's a time to rejoice. It's a time to remember. It's a time to get together with each other.

And so over the decades, we have this rich tradition within the church that has developed.

And I hope that everyone is in a position of being able to go and get together with those of like-minded and share in different ones, individuals or families or couples, different ones, bringing something to make the meal come together and just sit down and nothing like God's people to sit down and eat and talk. We're really good at that. And on this night, it is a night to be must-observed to thank God. In their case, He brought them out of Egypt. In our case, that He called us and He forgave us. And the very body and blood of Jesus Christ makes possible the fact that one day we can be born in the very family of God. So, again, it's the way we do it. A 97% church tradition, but it's based on this very verse.

On the church website, two years ago, we have posted a full sermon given on the night to be must-observed, if you want to go back and look at that. So, it's a night of rejoicing and remembering and fellowshipping and honoring the covenant that we had just renewed with God the night before on the Passover as well. All right, let's close over in Leviticus 26.

Leviticus 26.

And it's interesting here that two great test commandments are mentioned.

Keeping the Sabbath is one, and refraining from idolatry is the other.

You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Eternal.

If you walk in my statutes, and you know if you go back to Leviticus 23 as it discusses one holy day after another at the end of it, it says this is a statute forever throughout your generations.

Holy days are statutes like healing is a statute and like tithing is a statute.

You've got commandments, but then you've got statutes, and then you have judgments. This is a statute. Let's skip on down. It goes on with some of the wonderful blessings if you actually do them. And you know the Psalm says, and I'm trying to think of the exact wording, hold your place there. I'm going to read a psalm to you. Psalm. Psalm 111 verse 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all they that do His commandments. His praise endures forever.

As we do God's commandments, understanding grows.

And over the years, as we keep the weekly Sabbath and keep and we walk through the annual Sabbath, God opens our minds and magnifies our understanding. And so we want to continue to do that. So back in Leviticus 23, after mentioning walking and doing, keeping, He begins listing some of the blessings. Blessings are very important to them or rain and dew season. Peace in the land, chasing your enemies. Five of you chase a hundred, and a hundred put ten thousand to flight. Boy, those were the days.

Well, let's read verses 12 and 13. And if we apply this in our time today, if we appear before God, we show up prepared, we obey and we do. Verse 12, And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their bondman. And I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you go upright. And then it goes on with the curses if we disobey. So much that ensures whether an upcoming Holy Day season will be a value profitable to us is in the preparation. If it's going to be the best ever, we have to prepare for it. We have to do our part. We have to show up, as we heard in the first message, and prepared to take the bread and the wine in a reverent, respectful, prepared manner.

Not unworthily, like the old King James says, but it's referring to the manner in which we take it.

And so let's start now and work hard. God's presence and God's blessing will be here with us on the Passover and on the next night, the night to be must observe the first Holy Day, all the way through the last Holy Day. And let us pray for God's blessing of protection.