The History of Passover

Of course, the title of the sermon is, The History of Passover, as we are seven weeks away from Passover. For some it here, it might be your first Passover, or your second or third, or even your 50th. I don't know if it'd be anybody's 50th Passover. It's probably, I don't know how many for me, 20, wow, 35 probably, 36, something like that. Does anybody have more than 36? Yes, Jeff? I'm 43. Okay, does anybody beat 43 out there today? No. Okay, so you just really don't look that old, Jeff. But every year when I lived in Tennessee, every year around this time of the year, next month or so, two guests would appear at our house one evening, usually a Sunday evening, for decades.

And those two guests were Yule Brenner and Charleston Heston, as we would watch the movie, The Ten Commandments. Everybody see that movie down through the years? They've got a few people who've never seen it. But I remember Yule Brenner playing the Pharaoh and Charleston Heston playing Moses.

And I remember growing up as a kid, we didn't really go to church. My parents didn't go for until I was 14 or 15, I guess. We would go to a church for one. We'd go to a Sunday church on a once in a blue moon, and it might be Easter at that time. But we would try the church, and my parents really didn't like the church. So as a child, young child, I never grew up, I mean, I grew up never hearing the word Passover until I began to watch that movie every year. As my parents would say, you know, I know you kids, we don't take you to church, but you need to know what the Ten Commandments are. And if God doesn't discipline you for breaking them, I will. Okay? So that's what I remember about that. And yes, my father would. But the Passover, is it just a Jewish thing? Because that's what you hear so often. You'll see it in USA today. You'll see it in all the various news channels. One Passover comes up, and they'll be going to Jerusalem, and they'll be talking about it as a Jewish thing. Well, we keep it. Well, we keep it in the United Church of God and in other churches of God. And we're not Jewish.

So where and when did it begin? Do you know for sure? How good is your Passover history? And most Jews would be shocked if you were to say that it did not originate with Moses in Egypt.

And they would probably stop talking to you and call you a Gentile, a pagan, heathen, or even worse. So let's take the next 50 minutes and go on a journey into the history of Passover.

I want to bring this out and point out that Passover is the only religious appointment God laid out that actually God instituted a backup day just in case you miss the commanded Passover. And I want to take you a little bit on the journey.

But first, let's go to Exodus 12, if you will. Many of you know this, but I just want to touch on a few things.

Exodus 12 verse 1, let's set it up. In my Bible, it says the Passover instituted. Well, we may be able to perhaps argue that point after the sermon, hopefully. But it says in chapter 12 verse 1, Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be the beginning of months, and it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth day of this month, every man shall take for himself a lamb according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of persons according to each man's need. And you shall make your account for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And you shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lentil of the house where they eat it. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted in fire with unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat it raw nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire with its head and legs and intervals. You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains until morning you shall burn with fire. Okay, so he says on the fourteenth of the month, you shall do this. Now you also see in Leviticus 23 in verse 4 and 5, it says on the fourteenth day of the first month. You also see that in Deuteronomy 16 and verse 1. And there are other examples that I won't go into in Numbers and so forth, but it said many, many times when the Passover is to be kept. At the time of, if you want to use a Latin, quarter-deciment. Okay, so why is such a big deal? Because there's a long history of this time, this time that God has set aside for a very, very, very long time. Before there were Jews, this time was set aside. But like you go with me in Numbers, Numbers, if you will, Numbers 9.

Numbers 9, verse 6.

Numbers 9 and verse 6. Now there were certain men who were defiled by the dead body of a man, so they could not keep the Passover on that day. And they came before Moses and Aaron that day. And those men said to him, we have become defiled by the dead body of a man. Why are we kept from presenting the offering of the Lord at an disappointed time among the children of Israel? And Moses said to them, stand still, that I may hear what the Lord will command concerning you. So Moses took it straight to God. So this four-week delay in keeping it came directly from God. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, speak to the children of Israel, saying, if any one of you or your posterity is unclean because of a dead body or is far away on a journey or your plane is delayed or your car breaks down on the way to it or some other health reason, I might keep you there. I had that myself. He may still keep the Lord's Passover. On the 14th day of the second month at twilight, they may keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. And he actually says in verse 13, but the man who is clean and is not on a journey and ceases to keep the Passover, that same person shall be cut off from among his people because he did not bring the offering of the Lord at the appointed time. That man shall bear, it says, his sin. So it is actually a sin to God to not be there on that time or 30 days later. So it's something that's very, very important to God. So let's look at the history. Passover this year is April the 9th. In this room, Sunday night, 730. Last year we kept it 12 months ago in the same room. But how long has this been kept? Well, I talked about Polycarp earlier today in the Sermonette and how the Passover was kept on the 14th day, first month, all the way back to 150 C.A.C. It's been kept. He kept it. He was a follower of the last apostle to be alive, which was John. He was killed in 155, but he actually this battle was fought to do away with it from Rome in 150. Now, the apostles kept it. Paul taught about it. When Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, they had an issue with the Passover. They were not holding it the right way. They had a lot of problems in the church anyway, if you know anything about the church at Corinth. But Passover is one of those things that was addressed by Paul in that letter to them. He pointed out what was wrong, and then he pointed out about keeping the Passover. Now, this was a Gentile church. This was not a Jewish church. Corinth was anything but Jewish at that time. But any of your theologians or writers, whether they keep the Passover or not, or whether they keep Easter, you can find their commentary on Corinthians. It actually mentions that this letter was written just before the Passover to correct some things about Passover that the church was and was not doing right. So let's go, if you will, with me to 1 Corinthians 5. 1 Corinthians 5.

As Paul has been addressing sexual immorality that was happening in the church, because Corinth was a very pagan, very sinful city. For those who did not know or have not heard me before, they actually had this temple that overlooked the entire city. And they actually had bells and cymbals that they would ring, because this temple, pagan temple, was used for, if I remember my numbers right, 300 female prostitutes and 100 male prostitutes. And to come up and worship, you would go up there and have sexual intercourse, and at that time they would then ring a bell or these cymbals showing that you had come in and worshiped. And it rang all over the city. So even as the Corinthian church was having church on the Sabbath, they would be hearing these bells going off. So as you can see, it was a very sinful city, one that Paul had to work with. But he comes down in chapter 5 and verse 7, and he says, well, let's go up to verse 6, because the church itself knew there were sins in the church, but they really didn't want to address it. They wanted to just turn their heads and say, oh, we love, we just love each other. Sounds familiar in a lot of ways.

Why bring conflict into the church? Paul said you've got to root it out, you are the temple of God, as he was saying here. But he says in verse 6, your glorying is not good, do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump, as he's referring to the days of unleavened bread, which follow Passover?

He said, therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. Why? They were baptized, they were part of the church, and they were to be putting sin as leaven pictures sin and how it can grow in us. He said, for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.

Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So the church in 55, A.C.E. Gentile church was keeping the feast, and they were keeping the Passover. So here we go back from those that keep it today, all the way back to 150. Now we can drop back in history a hundred, almost a hundred years, and you find that the first century churches were keeping the Passover and the days of unleavened bread.

And all those that Paul is addressing are basically Gentile churches. They might have had some Jews in them, as even the one in Rome had just a few Jews in that church, we know from historical records. But the bulk, the majority of the people were Gentiles. But Paul was teaching them to keep the Passover and the days of unleavened bread. So were they Jewish? No. Are these days Jewish? Well, that's what the world wants you to think today. That's what everything else brings out.

But let's go over to, because Paul wasn't finished, 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 23. He said, For I received from the Lord. Paul got this directly from Christ. Well, you're going to say, wait a minute, he didn't follow. He wasn't around. He wasn't one of the disciples. How did he get this directly from the Lord? Well, from the three years he was taught in the desert of Arabia. He said he was taught by the Lord himself. He said, 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, 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 manner, he also took the cup. After supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you do, and remember it to me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Therefore, whoever eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

So, Paul is explaining to them that he got this directly from Jesus Christ, and it's no longer this Passover of eating of the lamb and having this service that they basically had, but that the symbols had been changed. Because that lamb from Egypt and so forth, that pictured Jesus Christ till he came. And then he instituted these symbols. And that is what the church has kept all this time. That's why we keep it today, because Jesus Christ did it, and you'll hear at Passover. I won't go through John 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 today, but you can actually read that as we prepare for the Passover, because that's why it should be read that night.

But Jesus is explaining why he was doing what he was doing and why we need to be doing what we're doing now. So for today, to the time in John 14, when Jesus Christ kept the Passover, which was 31, A-C-E, to now, it's 1976 years. So for 1976 years, the followers of God, the followers of Christ, have kept the Passover, the way that Jesus Christ instructed to be kept. And you go from there back to 1353 BCE. Do you know what 1353 BCE was? That was what we read about in Exodus 12 and verse 1.

That is the time where they left Egypt, and they kept that Passover. So we're going 1976 years, and then we jump to brings us back to 31 A.D., and then you can go back to 1353 years before the time of Christ, and the Passover was kept as commanded by God. Well, is that where it started? Is that where it originated? 1353?

I would like you to go with me, if you will, to Genesis 15. Genesis 15, interesting Scripture, not a lot of people go to series of Scriptures.

But we find it, really, the Jesus Christ is describing in 31 A.D. at that Passover service, that you're drinking this blood, eating this flesh, and it is the start of the New Covenant with Christ, a New Covenant which replaced the Old Covenant.

And everybody says, well, it's the Old Covenant with Moses. Well, let's go back to this covenant that took place on the same time. Go back to Genesis 15, and heading on, I said, God's covenant with Abram, the Abrahamic covenant. But it's interesting here because God is working with Abram, and He tells him, I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. And we come down to 15 in verse 6, and it said that Abram believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness, as you've heard before. Then you go down to verse 9, and He said to him, Bring me a three-year-old heifer, three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. Then he brought all these to him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the others, but he did not cut the birds in two. As you can see, which you could actually go back to Genesis 13 and verse 18, this was in Hebron, and Hebron is where he was settled at this time, and that's where he built this altar to God in Hebron. And so here, this is where he's at, and he comes at this altar, and he's making an offering that God instructed him to make. And said in verse 11, When the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. So here you had all these dead animals cut in two, laid out on this altar, and some of them, an altar wasn't really big enough, on the ground.

And you're wondering why, and I'm sure Abram wondered why, what this is about. But this was a sign of the covenant that he was making with him, a sign of this agreement sealed in the blood of these animals at a certain day and time that God made an appointment with him to do this. But it's interesting, because I've read this verse many times as we come down to verse 12. It says, Now when the sun was going down, sunset, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and behold horror and great darkness fell upon him. So he had this dream, and he's not understanding, but he had this terrible dream, and something horrible has taken place in this dream. And when he wakes up, he's like in terror, shock.

What do you think he dreamed about?

Did he dream what would happen in the future? Did he dream of first-born children being killed? Did he dream and see all his future great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren, all the males being killed? We don't know.

But it's interesting that all this is tied in through the Scriptures here, which brings you maybe to those thoughts. Verse 13, Then he said to Abram, Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them for a hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge afterwards, they shall come out with great possessions. He brought this out. He brings that up right after the dream, which obviously then it's what? Tied into? They shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried at a good old age, which was probably a relief to Abram, because he's wondering, wait a minute, is this going to be me? Wait a minute, is this terror that I have just seen? Is that my future? 16. But in the fourth generation, they shall return here for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. So four generations are going to take place in that time that they will be slaves, because you had Jacob to Levi. 1. Levi to Kohath. 2. Kohath to Amram. 3. Amram to his son, Moses. 4. Four generations would serve during that time. And then something happens in verse 17. And it came to pass when the sun went down, and it was dark that behold there was a...what's yours say? Mine says a smoking oven, smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces of animals. In fact, one translation actually said that passed over them. 1. Passed over them. 2. A fire.

3. A burning torch and a smoking oven.

I always thought it was interesting in the Ten Commandments movie when the death angel...or it was actually Christ Himself that did the killing of all the firstborn. 4. But in the Ten Commandments, on the screen, it was this green fog or some smoke, right? In it, and it just kind of came and people were running around and so forth. I guess that's how they wanted to portray it. Don't exactly know how it happened. But we come to verse 18. On the same day that the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying to your descendants, I have given you the land from the river. So here, He was telling about the promised land that His descendants would receive. Okay? Now, that happened 430 years before they left out of Egypt. Which brings back to 1783 BC that this was...this took place right here.

But you're saying, well, that's kind of a jump, isn't it? Wait a minute. How do you get...how do you know that that was Passover? How do you know that that was Passover night? You know, that's kind of a jump from there to there, isn't it? Well, let's improve the point and go back...go to Exodus. Please go to Exodus with me, Exodus 12.

Exodus 12, verse 39. And this is as they were leaving. Leaving Egypt. And it says, And they baked unleavened cakes of dough which had been 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 the trip. Now, the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt, and my margin actually says Egypt and Canaan, because that consisted of the 430 years, was 430 years. Okay? So it mentions that 430 years from the covenant with Abraham to the time that they were leaving Egypt. Because in verse 41, and you can note this, and it came to pass at the end of 430 years on the what? On the very same day. On the very same day. God made it absolutely clear. Put it down so there is no mistake that 430 years to the day pass over.

So, Abram, with different symbols, as we celebrate Passover with different symbols than they did in Egypt, he kept the Passover. It was alive and well.

So for 1783 years before BCE, Passover was kept. Now, you combine that 1783 with 1976 that we are now from the time of Christ, and you have 3,759 years.

People on earth have been keeping the Passover.

So 430 years before there even existed a Jewish son or a son named Judah, the Passover was kept by Abram.

So does that settle it?

No. No, because we're just going there.

But if you go back to Genesis 1, let's go back to Genesis 1. Let's go back to Genesis 1. Many of you have heard me quote this many times.

And Genesis 1, verse 14, Then God said, Let there be lights in the firmament, or the expanse of the heavens, to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs and seasons. Moed, Mohedim, which is the Hebrew word for religious appointments.

Look this up. Don't believe me. Go look it up. Go look it up in Hebrew. Go look it up in any of the commentaries. They'll tell you these seasons, signs and seasons. He put the moon up there. He put everything in motion. These were the signs, and then the seasons were the Mohedim's, the religious appointments He made with man. And He made them with us. It's just most of men do not care today. They don't show up for their appointment. So, we see 6,000 years. 6,000 years.

6,000 years from what we see here in Genesis 1 and verse 14.

God had a religious appointment with those who would follow Him.

I can't think of any other way to put an appointment as strong as the one that says, okay, every Sabbath you're going to meet with me. Every seventh day, that's an appointment. Seven times a year on a holy day, you're going to come and you're going to meet with me. But there's another appointment I have with you at sunset on the 14th day.

And that religious appointment is so important to me because of what it pictures. It pictures my son who died for you. And sealed that covenant. It's so important that I'm going to give you a backup in case you miss it 30 days later. That's pretty important religious appointment, if you ask me. Now, I've never missed one in my 30-something years that I had to keep the second. But I remember, Humberto and Melita had to one year. She was sick. Is that right, Humberto? Yes. One of the two of them were sick and they couldn't keep it, and they had to keep it 30 days later. So we wanted to make sure.

So... ... ...signs and seasons 6,000 years ago. So it actually says in Genesis 1, verse 14, that this happened before man.

So this plan, these appointments were laid out before man was even created. Hmm. Very important. So, there had to be a plan, and like any architect, plans are laid out way before a building is ever built.

God being the master designer, the master planner, the master architect, this stuff just didn't happen. But as we can see from other scriptures that he says, I thought of this a long, long, long, long time ago. And he planned all this. He even told Abraham many times, you can't see that your descendants are going to be as the sand of the sea, but look up at the sky, and you see all those stars, your descendants are going to be as plentiful as those stars.

How do you think Abraham viewed that? Do you think he could see?

Most people couldn't. Wait a minute, that many people? Wait a minute! I'm old! I don't even have a child yet! I wish he hasn't been able to give birth! And she's old! And you're telling me that my descendants are going to be this way? Man! But see, God sees behind, here, forward, and he asks us to see forward, to look forward. Like he gave me to Romans 4 as we begin to wrap this up today. Romans 4. Incredible Scripture here.

Ex only partial Scripture.

Romans 4 and verse 17. As God is actually explaining to the Romans about Abraham and his faith, and the incredible faith that he had. And he says in Romans 4 and verse 17, as is written, I have made you a father of many nations.

But he couldn't see it? Had it taken place at that time? No! Right? But God sees into the... He knows what's going to happen. And he says in the presence of him who he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.

Way ahead of us. He's way ahead of us. So, let's go back to where I believe it all began, where Passover originated. And it takes us to one Scripture. One Scripture. That to me is an amazing Scripture, and it ties this all in.

That the Passover has been for a very, very long time. I'd like you to turn to Revelation 13 and verse 8. As it talks about the Lamb, as it predicts the future, and it tells us something no other place in the Bible tells us. That the Lamb, Jesus Christ, and what does it say in your Bible? Slain from the foundations of the world. You get that? Slain from the foundations of the world, before this was actually a even planet, millions of years ago. So, the plan was put into place that the Word who became Jesus Christ would have to die.

And so, here you have Passover originating at the foundations of the world. That's an incredible history. That is something that is mind-boggling.

And you know another example of that is in Matthew 25 and verse 34.

As Christ is talking about the sheep and the goats, and he talks about the goats being on one side and sheep on the other. And you know what the big thing for us is? We need to make sure we're sheep. Okay? Because at that point, see, this was a plan by the greatest architects and planners that ever exist or will ever exist, God and the Word. Their plan was that, yes, one of them had to die for the creators. But he also tells us here that this is about us.

And he says, for those sheep, not goats, to inherit the kingdom, inherit the kingdom of God, prepare for you from the foundations of the world. So this was all a plan. Eternal life was a plan created millions and millions of years ago.

And 99, probably 0.9% of the world has ever lived has rejected his appointments and his plan because they didn't want it.

We have been given the opportunity to keep not only the Passover, but keep that appointment and be a part of the history, the history of the Passover that originated millions of years ago. That is an epic story, a lot bigger, a lot grander than the Ten Commandments. That is an epic story that we all have the privilege of being a part of, and we're going to continue to write that story till Jesus Christ returns.