Passover: From Creation to Today

The Passover – from Creation to Today

Given in Kingsport April 5, 2025

Given in Roanoke April 12, 2025

Why did we just observe Passover the past evening?  When God (actually the One who became Christ) told Moses to tell the Israelites to select a lamb, kill, roast and eat it, and put the blood on their houses, was observance of the day something new?  When Jesus brought out bread and wine as symbols of His body and blood, was He introducing something new to the Passover observance or simply restoring something which He had established almost 2000 years earlier? Was Passover actually planned from the time of Adam and Eve or was it a later addition?  In this sermon I would like to show how Passover was actually a part of God’s plan from Creation – and how God took it through various stages from that point up to the New Testament Passover of today.  We can title the sermon “The Passover – from Creation to Today.”

Let’s turn first to Rev. 13:8.  Jesus Christ is identified as the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”  From the time of the first human sin – when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit – the One who became Christ knew that He would have to die in order for His plan for mankind (whom He had just created) to come to fruition.  His death would enable the forgiveness of the sins of all mankind for two reasons.  First, Christ lived a sinless life (Heb. 4:15).  We must first remember that the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23) and when we commit our first sin we earn the death penalty – no amount of future righteous conduct on our part can nullify that penalty.  For that penalty to be removed from us it must be paid by someone who has never sinned.  If an ordinary human being had somehow actually lived a sinless life (which is not possible – 1 Kings 8:46, 2 Chron. 6:36, Eccl. 7:20, 1 John 1:8, 10) then the death of that person could pay the penalty for the sins of only one other person.  But here comes the second reason why the death of Jesus Christ could pay the penalty for the sins of all mankind.  Since the One who became Christ had created the entire physical universe (John 1:3), including mankind, His life as a human being was worth more than the lives of all other humans combined.  Hence the sacrifice of His sinless life could pay the death penalty for all human sin, and such a sacrifice would indeed be required for God’s plan for humanity to go forward – otherwise all humans would have to be burned up in the lake of fire because of their sins.  Given these facts, it would be expected that the One who became Christ would command that the day be honored on which He would give His life in the future.  Furthermore, He chose the animal which would be sacrificed as a symbol of His coming sacrifice to be a lamb.

What do we see occurring in the first generation after Adam? Cain and Abel were to offer sacrifices. Note that Abel was a keeper of what animal? Sheep (Gen. 4:2).  And Abel indeed offered lambs in sacrifice (verse 4) whereas Cain offered only crops (verse 3).  Although the Bible does not specifically state such and this is certainly not doctrine, it would definitely seem that God must have told Cain and Abel what kind of offering was required but Cain was apparently too unconcerned to trade with his brother to get a lamb.  If God had not revealed what kind of offering was required, why did He totally reject Cain’s offering?  If God had not previously specified the kind of offering which He wanted and Cain had made his offering in good faith and with good intent, wouldn’t God have accepted Cain’s offering for the time but simply have told him to offer a lamb the next time? But God did reject Cain’s offering, apparently indicating that Cain was violating a command which God had given him earlier.  But why would God demand an animal offering, apparently specifically a lamb?  Note that under the subsequent Levitical system, persons unable to provide an animal (or unable to afford one) were permitted to substitute a grain offering under most circumstances (Lev. 2; Lev. 5:11-12, 6:14-23).  But we can remember one particular situation where a grain offering would have been unthinkable, even under the Levitical system.  That of course was the Passover (Ex. 12).  The fact that God rejected Cain’s offering – and that a particular animal was required – suggests that the day for the offering was quite possibly the Passover.  If so, such is an indication of the observance of the Passover from the very beginning (although we are nowhere specifically told in the Bible that the offering was actually conducted on the Passover – again this is not doctrine).  However, we are told in Gen. 4:3 that the offering was carried out “at the end of days” – again, quite possibly a reference to the Passover.

We can fast forward to the time of Abraham.  We might think first of the time when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac (Gen. 22).  Note that the attempted sacrifice was carried out on the “mountains of Moriah” (present-day Jerusalem).  It is reasonable to assume that the day of the sacrifice was likely to have been the Passover and the site similarly could have been the spot where Jesus would be crucified many centuries later (although again the Bible does not specify whether either of these assumptions was actually true – again not doctrine). But a clue here might be Abraham’s inspired comment in verse 8, “God will provide for Himself the lamb (or Lamb) for a burnt offering.”  The implications of this statement were tremendous.  God indeed provided an actual ram for Abraham to sacrifice, sparing Isaac – but what Abraham said foreshadowed what would occur in the crucifixion of Christ, similarly carried out in the environs of Jerusalem.  Just as the sacrifice of the ram caught in the thicket spared Isaac, the sacrifice of the Lamb of God many centuries later would enable all humanity to be spared from eternal death.

But in another event in the life of Abraham (a number of years earlier) God revealed His plan for the distant future of the Passover. Let’s see why this event is so important.  Let’s first turn to Exodus 12:40-42. The night that the Israelites walked out of Egypt – which falls at the beginning of Abib (or Nisan) 15, the time we now celebrate as the “night of watching” or “night to be much observed” (verse 42) – fell 430 years to the day after the beginning of the “sojourn of the children of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt [and Canaan].  But this passage in Exodus does not tell us what event was considered to be the beginning of that “sojourn.”  To answer that question we need to turn to Galatians 3:16-18.  We see here that the [ceremonial and sacrificial] law – which was given during the Exodus – was given 430 years after the original covenant was made with Abraham.  [By contrast, the moral/spiritual law had existed from eternity.] 

The 430 years which ended with the start of the Exodus on Abib 15 started when the covenant was made with Abraham – which was finished on Abib 15.  The making of the covenant with Abraham is described in Genesis 15:18-20.  The earlier events apparently also occurring on Abib 14 and 15 are shown in Gen. 14:18 through 15:17.  The sunset at the beginning of Abib 15 (before the actual covenant was finished) is shown in Gen. 15:17.  The earlier events described in the chapter occurred on Abib 14, with Gen. 15:1-5 indicating that sunset at the beginning of Abib 14 had already occurred – God appeared to Abraham in a “vision” (apparently a dream) and then woke him up and told him to go out and count the stars in the sky.  Then, looking backward from the beginning of chapter 15 into the end of chapter 14, the most likely time for Melchizedek to have brought out the bread and wine to Abraham (Gen. 14:18) would have been the very beginning of Abib 14 – the same time that Jesus observed the last Passover in His human life with His disciples.  [The verse does not tell us whether or not Melchizedek also washed the feet of Abraham – He may or may not have decided to introduce this part of the Passover to Abraham at that time.]  So what later became the New Testament Passover – or at least part of it – was actually introduced to Abraham, the “father of the faithful.” Similarly, the New Testament priesthood (in the form of Melchizedek, who was the preincarnate Christ – cf. John 8:56) preceded the establishment of the Levitical priesthood and continued after the Levitical priesthood lapsed (Gen. 14:18, Heb. 7). 

The New Covenant Passover (or at least two of the three parts of it) preceded the establishment of the Old Covenant Passover (Gen. 14:18) by 430 years.  So if the New Covenant Passover – part of a better covenant (Heb. 8:6) had already existed, why did God introduce the Old Covenant Passover – involving the killing and eating of an animal lamb – just before the Exodus?  There are a number of reasons why He did this.

Remember that the patriarchs had been given the Holy Spirit (as can be shown by comparison of Luke 13:28 with Romans 8:11).  With the Holy Spirit, Abraham – the “father of the faithful” – could fully understand the symbolism of the bread and wine.  It is likely that Melchizedek (who was of course the preincarnate Christ) would have explained to Abraham that He was going to return to earth in the form of a human being many centuries later, would be murdered by Satan’s government and thereby die in order that the sins of all humanity (willing to repent) could be forgiven.  Melchizedek likewise almost certainly revealed that the unleavened bread He was serving to Abraham represented His future human body, and that the wine symbolized His blood which was going to be poured out.  Abraham, with the Holy Spirit, would have understood this.

But 430 years after the covenant with Abraham came the next stage in God’s plan for humanity, when He was going to choose a physical nation – descended from Abraham – with which to make a covenant.  But at this time He was not yet going to offer them the Holy Spirit, except for the prophets and a few others in leadership positions who specifically needed it.  The people – a nation who as a whole were not offered the Holy Spirit – had been violating the moral/spiritual law and therefore needed an additional law to remind them of the consequences of sin.  The Old Covenant Passover ritual – and the sacrificial system in general, like the rest of the ceremonial law – were to remind the people of the consequences of sin, that the shedding of blood was necessary to pay the penalty for sin. A nation without the Holy Spirit would need a human priesthood to whom they could come to learn about God’s Law – and also to carry out the sacrificial system which was being established. Hence Melchizedek (the second Being of the God Family, who would become Christ) allowed a human being (Aaron) to replace Him as high priest – and Aaron’s descendants followed in that office for the duration of the Old Covenant.  And in contrast to the patriarchs, a nation without the Holy Spirit would not really be able to understand the symbolism of the unleavened bread and the wine.  Hence the need for a Passover ceremony involving the killing and eating of an animal lamb.  The purpose was to remind the people that dealing with sin required the shedding of blood – and eating an animal was to symbolize the future taking in of the body of Christ.  (One part of the symbolism of the New Testament Passover of course was missing in the Old Testament ritual.  The Israelites of course did not drink the blood of the lamb they killed since consumption of actual animal blood is Biblically forbidden (Lev. 7:26-27, 17:10-14).) 

We might remember also that, as I mentioned earlier, it appears likely that the lamb sacrifice which Abel offered (and Cain refused to offer) may have been a Passover sacrifice. We remember that after the disobedience of Adam and Eve mankind in general was cut off from God – including being cut off from access to the Holy Spirit (cf. Gen. 3:23-24).  Hence, if this was indeed a Passover observance, an animal sacrifice was needed – just as would be the case in the nation of Israel over 2000 years later.  (It is possible, however, that Abel alone might have been given the Holy Spirit – Jesus called him “righteous” in Matt. 23:35, a point which is expanded upon in Hebrews 11:4.)

We might point out that God considered the Passover so important that He commanded that a person keep it on the fourteenth day of the second month if he were unable to keep it at the prescribed time in the first month (Num. 9:1-12) – a practice which we continue to this day in the New Testament Passover.  The Old Testament Passover was an annual commemoration of commitment to the covenant which was made for each Israelite at the time of circumcision – and the New Testament Passover is likewise a recommitment to the covenant which each individual Christian made at baptism.  We can contrast the Passover with the other festivals of God – none of which were to be repeated in a subsequent month if they were unable to be observed at the proper time.  (Note in 1 Kings 12:32-33 that one of Jeroboam’s sins was mentioned as his observance of the Feast of Tabernacles in the eighth month – against the command of God – instead of the seventh month.)

Old Testament Passover observance most likely declined (not being mentioned in the Bible) during the time of the judges and the less-than-loyal kings.  Revivals of Passover observance are mentioned under the obedient kings Hezekiah (2 Chron. 30) and Josiah (2 Kings 23:21-23, 2 Chron. 35:1-19).  It is mentioned in 2 Chron. 35:18, regarding the Passover kept in the 18^th year of Josiah, that no Passover of that magnitude had been kept since the days of the prophet Samuel. Although the intention behind both of these Passover revivals was admirable, we may notice that one practice is mentioned that went beyond God’s commandment on how the Passover was to be observed.  It is true that the Passover was to be observed in the place chosen by God – the location initially of the tabernacle and later the temple (Deut. 16:5-6).  However, the lambs were to be killed by the people themselves (Ex. 12:6) – there was no requirement that the people should have the priests or Levites do this.  But such a practice was instituted, especially at the time of Josiah (2 Chron. 35:11-12).  The time requirement for having the priests and Levites kill a large number of animals made it difficult for the slaughter of the lambs to be completed in the time Biblically specified – and may have led to the eventual corruption of the Passover by the killing of the lambs on the afternoon of the 14^th of Abib instead of at twilight at the beginning of the day (cf. John 18:28).

We can then fast forward to the time of Christ’s final Passover as a human being.  He first observed the Old Covenant Passover ceremony and then reinstituted the form of Passover observance which He, as Melchizedek, had shown to Abraham on that same evening many centuries earlier (this time with the addition of the footwashing).  And He told us to observe the Passover in that manner – in remembrance of Him and of His death that our sins might be forgiven.   We can note two additional reasons why He took the form of the Passover which He had shown to Abraham and reinstituted it to replace the form He had commanded to Moses for the Israelites to practice.  First, remember that Abraham and the other patriarchs had the Holy Spirit – which was not given to Israel as a whole.  The New Testament Church was about to be established and a group of people were to be given the Holy Spirit for the first time in history.  With the Holy Spirit the Church would understand the symbolism of the unleavened bread and the wine, representing the body and blood of the true Lamb of God – and there would be no need for an animal lamb. Similarly, upon His resurrection Jesus resumed His job as our High Priest – which, as Melchizedek, He had held in the time of Abraham.  With the Holy Spirit, we no longer needed a human priesthood.  Jesus Christ is our High Priest in heaven (Heb. 7) and when He returns to earth we will be priests under Him (Rev. 5:10).

There is a lot of argument as to whether the Old Testament Passover lambs were to be slain after sunset on the evening beginning the 14^th of Abib or, instead, as sunset approached at the end of the 14^th (a practice which was later adopted by the Jews). We can show from different Old Testament passages that only the first alternative makes sense.  But the whole point is moot for New Testament Christians. There is no doubt as to when Christ and the apostles observed the New Testament Passover and we are to follow His example.  Hence that is what we do – observing the Passover starting at twilight on the evening beginning the 14^th.

But just as the Old Testament Passover eventually became corrupted by being blended with the observance on the following evening, so likewise the New Testament Passover has become corrupted by the world.  The ceremony which Christ introduced on His final Passover as a human being, and which He commanded us to observe as a remembrance of Him and His death for us, has been twisted into something totally different by most churches – something which no longer has any connection with the Passover day and which is observed at different times of year, even every Sunday by some denominations. How different from what Paul taught us in his great Passover epistle of 1 Corinthians – “Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us!” (1 Cor. 5:7).

So let us think on how the Passover was a part of each covenant over the ages as God made successive covenants with His people – and how we have just observed the Passover in the original form which the One who became Christ gave to Abraham.  Let us think on how Christ suffered so terribly on this day almost 2000 years ago in order that our past sins might be forgiven and that we might have the opportunity for eternal life.  Let us this evening celebrate the deliverance from sin which His sacrifice makes possible, just as the Israelites were delivered from Egypt – a symbol of sin – on this evening well over 3000 years ago.  And let us then further go forward into the Days of Unleavened Bread – asking for God’s continued help to root sin out of our lives, to better keep the commandments of His eternal spiritual law – which, as Paul again told the Corinthians in his Passover epistle (1 Cor. 7:19), is indeed what matters.