The Passover Controversy

Today, I'd like to dive into another one of our church doctrines, one of our church teachings, specifically looking at the upcoming, whether the upcoming Passover should be observed on the 14th or the 15th of Nisan. As we know, there have always been things that have entered into the Church of God from the earliest accounts that we see in Scripture, especially in the New Testament and the Book of Acts. Things that the Apostle Paul and others encouraged and admonished to congregations be weary of. And I'll just preface this to say there's no known issue that I'm aware of, any controversy in this regard. But just like so many other things we do as we dive into Scripture and understand why is it that we observe things the way we do on the days we do or in the methods that we do in looking back at Scripture, these are good reminders for us so that we can strengthen our foundation that is underneath us and understand what it is that we do and why.

And so this is one of our Church teachings and our Church doctrines on which day that the New Testament Church should observe Passover. But before we look at what the original instructions were in the Book of Exodus, let's be reminded of the Passover service that our Lord and Savior took part in on the night that He was betrayed. Let's open our Bibles to Luke 22 and verse 7 as we begin to consider this topic today. Luke 22 and verse 7.

Here we have recorded in Luke 22 verse 7 says, Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the Passover must be killed. And He sent to Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat. And this is, of course, speaking of Jesus Christ and saying this to Peter and to John. And so they said to Him, Where do you want us to prepare? And He said to them, Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you, carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house which he enters. Then you shall say to the master of the house, the teacher says to you, Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? That he will show you a large furnished upper room there, make ready. And so they went and found it, just as He had said to them, and they prepared the Passover. When the hour had come, He sat down in the twelve apostles with Him. The Gospel account of Matthew says, When the evening had come. And that's an important reminder, and we'll get into this a little bit more, but please make note, when the evening had come, He sat down with the twelve, is from the Gospel account of Matthew. Back to Luke 22, verse 15, He said, And then He said to them, With fervent desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. So based on this account and other Gospel accounts, there's no question that Jesus Christ and His disciples kept the Passover, and thus we follow that same example ourselves of observing the New Testament Passover today.

But from time to time within the Church, a question comes up as to what date the Passover should be observed, because as many of us know, Orthodox Jews keep the Passover on a different day than we do. So should the Passover be observed on the 14th of Nisan or on the 15th of Nisan?

The Orthodox Jews keep Passover on the evening or on the 15th of Nisan. But we'll see in Scripture the command to keep it Passover on the 14th. So we're going to dive into this Passover controversy and explore what the day the Passover is to be observed. To properly explore the subject, let's begin all the way back when the Passover was first mentioned and outlined in Scripture and the connection that the Passover has through the last plague on Egypt.

Let's look at Exodus and starting in chapter 11.

Exodus chapter 11 and starting at the beginning of the chapter in verse 1.

And the Lord said to Moses, I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. Afterward, he will let you go from here, and when he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here altogether. Speak now in the hearing of the people and let every man ask from his neighbor and every woman from her neighbor, articles of silver and articles of gold. And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people. Then Moses said, Thus says the Lord, about midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sits on his throne, even through the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals.

Then there shall be a great cry throughout the land of Egypt, such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again. But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue against man or beast, that you may know that the Lord does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And all of these your servants shall come down to me, and bow down to me, saying, Get out, and all the people who follow you. After that I will go out. Then he went out from Pharaoh in great anger. Continuing on in verse 9, But the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh will not heed you, so that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. So Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go out of his land. Chapter 12 and verse 1 now. Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be your beginning of months, shall be the first month of the year to you. 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, 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 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. And we know the spiritual reference and connection of this physical animal to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Christ was that perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world.

He did not have any flaws. He did not sin himself. He was without blemish, yet he gave of his own life to cover the sins and for all of humanity. Continuing here in verse 6, going on, he says, Now you shall keep it, speaking of the lamb, until the fourteenth day of the same month, and then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall eat it at twilight. We're going to come back to this passage here in a little bit because this is where a lot of the controversies on the differing of opinions that have entered in in different times comes from. It's verse 6 here.

But continue on in verse 7, And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lentil of the houses 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 boil it at all with water, but roasted in fire, its heads with its legs and its entrails.

And you shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. And thus you shall eat it with a belt on your waist and sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord.

Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when you see the blood I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So this day shall be a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. And then we continue on in verse 21 of Exodus 12. This is when Moses now shares the instructions the Lord had given him with now Israel. Verse 21 says, Moses called for 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.

And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lentil 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. For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lentil and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your house to strike you. And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. It will come to pass when you come to the land which the Lord will give you, just as he promised, speaking of the Promised Land, of course, in Canaan, that you shall keep this service. And it shall be when your children say to you, what do you mean by this service? Then you shall say, it is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord who passed over the houses of the children of Israel and Egypt when he struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.

So the people bowed their heads and worshipped. Then the children of Israel went away and did so just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. It's a lengthy passage, but one that we're going to dive into and start to break out into sections as we consider that one of the main disputes concerning the Passover is the timing of the killing of the Lamb on the 14th of Nisan.

Were the lambs killed on the 14th just after sunset from the 13th? We know that according to God, a day begins at sunset and ends at sunset, and so at the end of the 13th, as the day started going into the 14th at sunset, the question is, were the lambs killed in that time period right after sunset on the 14th? Or was it late in the afternoon on the 14th, leading closer into the 15th? This is one of those controversies that occasionally does come up and one that we will examine today as we look and understand why we observe the Passover on the day and the evening that we do.

Going back to Scripture and back to what we just read in Exodus 12, this time starting in verse 3, let's consider verses 3 through 6 and what is here, and we're going to unpack this a little bit.

Verse 3, it says, Speak to all the congregations of Israel, again, saying, On the tenth 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, you shall make your count 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.

And here's where we'll spend a little bit of time in, verse 6, Now as you shall keep it until the fourteenth day. That is very clear here that we're in, we see not only here next to this, but in other passages. Ezra is one example where it was specifically mentioned that Passover would be observed on the fourteenth day. But here it says, You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, and then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.

This phrase, at twilight, is what has created a lot of different views or confusion at times, what is meant by at twilight. In the New King James, that is the New King James version. In the King James version, Exodus 12, 6 reads, And ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. So we see New King James at twilight, King James in the evening.

The easier read version says, You must kill these animals just before dark. And then the literal translation of the Bible and the Young's literal translation both say the same thing. They say, both say, Between the evenings. So you shall kill the lambs between the evenings. This Hebrew phrase, at twilight, or between the evenings, is the Hebrew word b'inhar abayim, which literally means between the two evenings. So we have this passage here talking about twilight, and twilight is not a word we use a lot in our current vernacular.

We don't say to our kids when we're picking them up for school, I'll pick you up at twilight. It's not something we normally say, or I'm going to be out in the garden working until twilight. And so this isn't a word that we use a lot, and so some of the understanding may not be relevant or in our minds.

But from some of the different technical accounts or the concordances, some of the Bible dictionaries, I'll share some different things as we look at some external references to the Bible today. But the Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge and Clark Commentary says this. They both say almost the identical same thing here about this word, b'inhar abayim. It says, Between the two evenings is, of course, what it means again. It says, The Jews divided the day into morning and evening, till the sun passed the meridian, which is about the noon time or so, noon in the day.

All that was morning or for noon was before that passing of the meridian. After that, all was evening or afternoon. Their first evening began just after twelve o'clock and continued till sunset. Their second evening began at sunset and continued till night, for example, during the whole time of twilight. And so again, from another version, the English Standard version note says this is between the two evenings. So this would be that time period from when the sun goes down and you can no longer see it in the sky, to when the light that is still in the sky and around you then disappears.

Usually this can be an hour, depending on cloud cover and different things, could be an hour and fifteen minutes or so of light still left. I can speak for myself as the example that I've seen in these, and we've all been in there, but I've been in the garden at times working on projects, you know those yard projects or trimming bushes, cleaning things up. The day is starting to slip away and fade away, and you see the sun go down and it's no longer there, but yet you still have light to work from while you're still outside.

You can still get a few things done, but as it keeps going, it keeps getting darker until at some point you can't see. I've been known to set up those big electric shop lights out in my garden and driving the neighbors probably nuts, because they know I'm not really fixing light. It's not like a pipe broke on the house and I got to work that late at night. I'm just playing away in the garden. But anyway, that's maybe me, maybe it's not you. But this is that time period that as the sun goes down and it's now no longer visible in the sky, to the point where the actual light from that sun now is non-existent around us, is that time period that is being referred to here as twilight or between the two evenings that we see here in Scripture.

So what is the practice of Orthodox Jews today? As you probably know, Jews today keep the Passover on the 15th, not on the 14th. When in time this change was made, there's different accounts in history. No one is necessarily good. That I've been able to find is completely sure. It appears the change occurred sometime between King Ezra, because in Ezra, in the book of Ezra, it references that Passover was observed on the 14th, and then later references the seven days of Unleavened Bread there in that account in Ezra. And so it seems like it was sometime between that and before Jesus Christ was was God in the flesh on this earth. Some different commentaries share some pieces of information that we can also draw from. The Jewish Encyclopedia says, comparison of the successive strata of Pentateuchal law, which is the Pentateuch is, of course, the first five books of the Bible, says, bearing on the festival makes it plain that the institution, as developed, is really a composite character. Two festivals, originally distinct, have become merged. And so there's these aspects that we've seen in Scripture. We see it even in some of the Gospel accounts where the writers referenced, like, the Passover of the Jews, but referencing it as a connection of Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread. In some accounts, when you look online and you look for the Jewish Passover, you'll see it's eight days of Passover, the eight days of Passover, which we do not see in Scripture. We see Passover as its own festival, own feast day, and then seven days of Unleavened Bread. And so you can see how, in time, these two different festivals have been combined together. And the Jewish Encyclopedia notes that, saying, two festivals, originally distinct, have become merged. While there's no concrete history, historical record of when exactly this occurred again, when it was the Jews were still keeping the Passover in the 14th, as I mentioned in Ezra and the account in Ezra, and then when it would have changed. But this would have, when it was in Ezra's time and it was still the 14th, this would have been sometime around 519 BC, so about 500 years before the birth of Christ. A Good News magazine article from April, and this goes the way back. As you can see, this is not a new thought or even controversy at times.

It goes back from April 1963. It explained that the change may have occurred when the Palestinian Jews were under control of the Egyptians from 301 to 198 BC. So that time period between possibly between Ezra and then the birth of Jesus Christ, that the Palestinian Jews were under some degree of control from the Egyptians. This would fit the time frame because we know it most likely happened during this time period between Ezra and of Christ.

And there seemed to be some level of confusion over which day was the Passover. Here's a quote from that Good News article. It says, these Egyptians imposed their philosophies and religious beliefs upon the Jews in profusion. Dr. Lantorback, one of Judaism's greatest historians, admits that this period was one of religious anarchy among the Jews of Palestine. That is from the rabbinic essays, page 200. They accepted on a very large scale many outright Egyptian customs.

The Egyptian day customarily commenced with sunrise. God's day, however, begins at sunset, the article goes on. This is where the trouble lay with the Passover reckoning after this period of Egyptian influence on the Jews. While the Egyptians allowed the Jews to retain their ancient calendar, there was a change made at the beginning of the day. It became common to begin the day at sunrise.

This custom was adopted and persisted among the Jews, even down to the New Testament times.

And that is from the Jew, and another reference is a Jewish quarterly review from April 1946, to where some of this information came from. We know that after this time period, even if this is the accurate historical record, there are some unknowns. We do not can't say 100 percent that this is when it changed or how it occurred, but there are some connections that seem that make it possible. We know after this time period, though, that the Jews went back to observing the weekly Sabbath and the beginning of day starting at sunset. Again, it wasn't at the beginning at sunrise, as was maybe referenced at that time, but we know at some period, at some point in time, they made that change going back that the beginning of the day starts at sunset and ends at sunset.

But what's interesting is it doesn't appear they made the move to put Passover back on the original day, and it remained in place on the 15th. The Interpreter's Bible, in reference to Exodus 12 or 6, it says the Interpreter's Bible shares this. It says, in Jewish Orthodoxy, the time of the slaughter between the two evenings is specified as in the afternoon before sunset, especially the time of approaching sunset. So this would be that afternoon on the 14th from sometime between noon and whenever the sun would set is from Jewish Orthodoxy the time that they would have slaughtered these lambs. It goes on to say, the Interpreter's Bible goes on to say, the Mishnah, which is the oral traditions or oral law, the Mishnah implies that any time afternoon was valid for the slain. But what's interesting is that also the Interpreter's Bible shares that the Samaritans, the Karaites, and the Sadducees specify the time as after sunset and before darkness. So there was a conflict in Israel on what day should this slaughtering of these animals occur? Should it be at the evening of the 14th right after sunset? So the 13th ends, sunset comes, and then you have that twilight period. The Sadducees and the Samaritans felt that that was the time that the sacrifice should be made, but then others felt that you would go through the night, get to the morning and daytime hours, and between noon and sunset in the afternoon on the 14th, that was when this should occur. So in Christ's time, there would have been some Jews who kept the Passover on the 14th at the beginning of sunset and twilight at that early 14th time period, but there would have also been some Jews who would have kept the Passover towards the end of the 14th in the afternoon. Why is this important? We see from Scripture that Jesus himself kept the Passover on the evening at the start of the 14th, as we looked at in in Luke chapter 22, and it's also in the Gospel account of Matthew and Mark as well, that Christ himself at the beginning of the 14th, that evening, as we do here in the United Church of God still today, keep it shortly after sunset on the 14th is when we gather and observe the New Testament Passover. But I'd like to logically look through a few additional accounts because it's, there's some other aspects that we can draw out from Exodus 12 that puts the pieces of the puzzle together and creates and paints a more full picture of, logically, does it fit that it was either in the afternoon before the 15th started or early right after the 14th began? Let's again look at the instructions that Israel was given in Exodus and the events that followed because one has to evaluate, is it physically possible to have all of the events occur in a single night as it would have been for the Egyptians, or for the Israelites, excuse me, to leave Egypt on the first day of Unleavened Bread, which was Nisan 15.

This event and the timeline associated with it is important because it is what many use to note if the original Passover occurred early in the day on the 14th, or late in the day on the 14th, which would have then rolled into the 15th as the Jews observed today. So the first aspect to consider and to logically look at is this. When the Israelites observed this Passover, they were instructed to remain in their homes the entire evening. We see this again in Exodus 12 and verse 6. This is at the beginning when the Lord spoke to Moses. Exodus 12 verse 6, it says, and now you shall keep it until the 14th day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight, and they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts on the lintel of the house where they eat it. And they shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted in fire.

That's an important aspect to kind of draw out because this is a specific instruction that God gave of how this lamb was to be prepared that evening. Now in our modern technology and kitchens, we have fast ways to cook food. We have microwaves that don't take very long. We have pressure cookers that can increase the time. We have grills outside and things. But the closest thing I can come to in my own life is like making a turkey maybe on Thanksgiving. You don't just wake up Thanksgiving morning, throw the turkey in a pan, and 30 minutes later you have a the turkey. You shouldn't anyway. Please don't do that. Make sure you don't 30 minutes later pull that turkey out and cut into it. It's not going to be, you're not, you don't want to do that.

It takes hours. Two, two and a half, three hours depending on the size of that turkey, that it takes time for this for that meat to cook in that way. And in the instructions that God provided here, roasted in fire, it would have taken a considerable amount of time, not only in the twilight period to kill the lamb, but then to prepare it, to place it into some sort of roasting a device or on a roaster or in a fire so that it would have been roasted. And then it would, you would have had to wait for it to cook and that would have taken some time. And so this would have been a late meal that they would have been eating on that 14th as it started and they would have been eating late into the evening that night. So we need to draw that out to kind of build this timeline. It goes on to say continuing in verse eight that they are to eat it with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. Shall they eat it? Do not eat it raw nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire, its heads with its legs and its entrails. And then in verse 10 we get another important instruction, which is a piece of the puzzle. In verse 10 it says, you shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. This is another aspect that's important because God gave an instruction that something was to occur in the morning. So you can't cut the corners of this and somehow have an exodus in the middle of the night, which is what some proponents built a case for, that after the death angel or after the Lord smote Israel or smote Egypt with the firstborn of the Egyptians, that at some point in that evening still that the Israelites left Egypt. That is one of the cases that is sometimes tried to be created.

But what I'm hoping that we can do here, putting these pieces together, we see that that doesn't fit. It logically doesn't work because it says God gave them instructions that any of it that remained until morning was to be burned, and so therefore they had an instruction that they must do something with that lamb in the morning, any leftovers that were going to be disposed of by fire. A third aspect of this this first puzzle piece is in Exodus 12 and verse 21 later in the passage. This is when Moses is now sharing the information with the nation of Israel and the people of Israel. It says, Moses called for 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.

And she'll take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lentil and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And here's the important aspect, and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. So right here we have not only another, not only to combine with that command that if any leftover should be burned in the morning, but no one was to leave their homes until morning. So all of a sudden now the entire evening is mostly spent after the lamb is killed at twilight. The rest of the evening is spent inside the homes. And so this is one of those puzzle pieces we put together to understand if the Passover should be observed on the 14th early or late in the day on the 14th. The second aspect that we should dive into is when were the firstborn struck? When were the firstborn struck?

Let's go continue in Exodus 12 and this time in verse 29. And it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the captive, who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. So Pharaoh rose in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt for there was not a house where there was not one dead. So we see that the firstborn were struck at midnight. The Israelites would have been in their homes. They would have already had eaten the Passover meal with their belts on and their sandals on their feet. And then at midnight would have come as the cries from Israel as the firstborn were being struck and died. And not only would the cries have interrupted the people's lives, of course, but even Pharaoh himself, his wife, was interrupted because it says he rose in the night. So some point after this, after midnight, probably pretty close to midnight, Pharaoh was awakened because of the cries, because of his servants, because of what was going on in this nation of Egypt. And so he rose in the middle of the night. And so this is an important aspect to build that timeline of understanding when the firstborn was struck. A third aspect that we should consider is when would Israel have gathered their belongings and the plunder they had received from the Egyptians in preparation of their exodus from Egypt? Let's continue in verse 31 now of Exodus 12 and says, "...that he called for Moses and Aaron by night," this is Pharaoh being spoken of here, "...and said, Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel, and go, serve the Lord as you have said, and take your flocks and your herds as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also." So this is when Pharaoh pretty much said, get out of town. This is, I want you out of this nation because of this this 10th plague and the devastating effect that it had.

Sometime in the night, as it said, by night that Pharaoh did this, sometime Pharaoh would have sent messengers to Aaron and to Moses, and they would have then received this message from Pharaoh in their homes, because as we know they were told not to leave their homes. So by all accounts that we can see that this was not Aaron and Moses going to Pharaoh, but Pharaoh sending messengers to Moses and Aaron sharing this message from Pharaoh. And then at some point, word would have begun to spread among the Israelites that they were to leave, and we're talking some two and a half to three million people would have had to start preparing for this exodus. This is not a, this would be a large metropolitan area if you consider it, a large downtown city area type of numbers that would have been trying to now mobilize at some point. We know they were instructed to stay in their homes, but word would have to spread through this great population of people so that they knew at daybreak what their marching orders would have been. They would have had to organize their flocks, which would have been great in number. They would have had to load up any carts or any implements that they would have had. They would have had to load up articles of silver, articles of gold and clothing, which was their plunder that they took from the Egyptians. This would have taken a large amount of time to organize and to move this number of people and to begin to prepare for their exodus. And we, again, have to remember that Moses had instructed, none of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. And so this brings the night to a close, and at some point through the day, this is when they would have been making their preparations then to leave Egypt. So logically, this gathering of their animals and any last packing or organizing would have had to occur during these daylight hours on the 14th, not in the middle of the night of the 14th. The fourth aspect that we can build for this, put another puzzle piece together, is between midnight on the 14th and when Israel left Egypt, the Egyptians were burying their firstborn. So all these firstborns who had died were buried in the site of the Israelites. We see this in Numbers 33 and verse 1. Numbers 33 and verse 1.

It says, 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. Now Moses wrote down the starting points of their journeys at the command of the Lord, and these are their journeys according to their starting points. They departed from Ramesses on the 15th day of the first month. So here's an actual account of them leaving Egypt on the 15th, not the 14th, but on the 15th, which would have been the first day of Unleavened Bread.

And on the day after the Passover, so another reference. So there's a clear separation of these two days. You got the 15th, which was on the day after the Passover, says, The children of Israel went out with boldness in the sight of all the Egyptians. So the Egyptians would have seen them gathering their things, collecting themselves, beginning to move as an organized unit as they left Egypt. It says with their own eyes, the Egyptians saw the Israel go out with boldness. In verse 4, For the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had killed among them. Also on their gods the Lord had executed judgment. Which I don't like to do, put myself in the shoes of the Egyptians, and had this happen with the firstborn dying in their homes at midnight or approximate time after midnight. And then recognizing the grief that they would have gone through, the turmoil, the thought process of what's occurred here in things, and then making plans to bury their dead, it would have taken a considerable amount of time and really would not have gone out in the middle of night, the early morning hours, to start digging graves. Plus, number 33 verse 3 says it was in the sight of all of the Egyptians that Israel left.

And so this, by all accounts, had to be a daytime period that these graves would have been dug and that this exodus would have occurred. The fifth puzzle piece that we can put together here to build this case is Israel left Egypt during the night. In repeating much of the instructions and commandments God had given Israel, Moses repeats in the book of Deuteronomy, of course, the teachings of God's holy days, and it begins with Passover. So if we'll turn to Deuteronomy 16 and verse 1.

The book of Deuteronomy, these passages were shared with Israel before they inherited and entered into the Promised Land as a reminder of the history that they had gone through, the things that God had shown them and taught them. And here in chapter 16, we see the the mention of the holy days and a reteaching of the holy days, a reminder of these days that we are now coming up on here in a few short weeks. Included in this first account, in the first verse here of chapter 16, is the time of day that Israel left Egypt. Deuteronomy 16 verse 1, it says, Observe in the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. So we see very clearly from Scripture that Israel left Egypt at night, but it couldn't have been on the 14th because they were instructed to remain in their homes the entire time period of the 14th through the night until morning.

So at what point could this have been other than the next night on the 15th, as the after sunset, that they left Egypt? They would have had to leave Egypt on Nisan 15, which was, again, the first day of Unleavened Bread. So we're putting these puzzle pieces together to build this case, that it had to be an early Nisan 14 Passover when these lambs would have been killed, not a late in the day type of Passover, or that would have rolled into the 15th or rolled into even more days.

So what can we summarize from all of this that we've looked at? What can we summarize by looking at Exodus chapter 12 that we've looked at, the Passover that was recorded there, and the Passover that Jesus and his disciples kept as we looked at in Luke chapter 22? What can we summarize from these two accounts? There's about five, there's probably more, but there's five aspects that we can look at here and summarize. First is both Passovers were observed at the beginning of the 14th, shortly after sunset. We see that in the Gospel accounts, and we see that here in Exodus.

The second aspect we can summarize is that Israelites stayed in their homes through the entirety of the night where Jesus and the disciples kept the Passover indoors and then later spent the majority of the rest of the evening and night at the Mount of Olives and in the Garden of Gethsemane where he was betrayed. So we see that this both of these time periods occurred in the night. And the third aspect we can summarize is during the day on the 14th, the Israelites prepared to leave Egypt where during the day on the 14th Jesus was beaten, tried, and crucified, and died during the daytime period of the 14th. The fourth aspect we can summarize is during the evening, the night of the 15th, Israel left Egypt where during the night, the evening, the night of the 15th, Jesus's body spent the first of three nights in the tomb.

The fifth aspect we can summarize is on the 15th, both the Israelites and Christ's disciples observed the first day of Unleavened Bread. So as we conclude, let's look at one last reference to the Passover, this time shared by the Apostle Paul, where he provides some clarity on how Jesus Christ is our Passover. This is in 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 7.

Here Paul shares, Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened.

For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Paul goes on in chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians to explain things a little bit further. 1 Corinthians 11 and this time in verse 23.

Mr. Rowe shared part of this passage, but I didn't have in my notes to share the part that he read, so I'm going to read up to where I think he finished with his sermonette today. But this is 1 Corinthians 11 and we'll start in verse 23 to verse 26. Paul 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, took bread. And when he had given things, 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 a new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Obviously, Paul is talking about the Passover that Christ kept with his disciples on the night that he was betrayed.

Paul instructed God's church to keep this Passover at the same time and in the same way that Christ kept it. This was a reminder of his instruction through the church in Corinth that this was the way it should be kept. It was to be kept in remembrance of Christ. The night Christ was betrayed, which he plainly himself called the Passover, they ate the bread and drank the wine for what purpose? To proclaim the Lord's death till he came. The example we have of when Christ kept the Passover, when the disciples also kept the Passover, and Paul's instructions to the church in Corinth all clearly note that what evening the Passover should be observed. That evening is the beginning of the 14th of Nisan, as we continue to observe today. In the New Testament, Christ changed the symbols of the Passover, but he did not change the day. As we continue to move forward to these spring holy days, the Passover, the days of Unleavened Bread, it's a good reminder that we look at these aspects of why we observe these holy days the way we do, why we observe which days that we do, and so we can just solidify in our minds to make sure that our foundations continue to be secure on the reasons and the aspects of why we do what we do. We want to glorify God in all that we do. We want to raise up our Lord and Savior for the sacrifice he made and honor Him accordingly as well. And so on this Passover, we do observe the Passover on the beginning of the 14th because of what we've outlined today in Scripture. It's accurate, and this is what God has asked us to do.