The Passover of Exodus 12

Well, thank you, Jacob. That was beautiful and very well done.

I might also mention one announcement I forgot to make. There is a problem coming up, as all of our young adults' teens know. Down in Atlanta, I think, it's on the 24th. They're also looking for a young adult, older teen, who might be able to lead songs. So, if any of you would like to volunteer, who are going, I'd be happy to submit your name. It doesn't mean you'll be selected, but we can at least submit your name. So, just to let you know, all of you should have a handout that goes along with the sermon today. The Passover is going to be here within a month, and that's the time of the year that we know is a very busy time for all of us. And you'll find that the timing of the Passover, especially in Exodus 12, is one of the oldest controversies within the Church of God community. Now, what I mean by that was, was the lamb slain late afternoon on the 14th of Abib and eat in the night of the 15th? Some feel that way. Or was it slain shortly after sunset on the beginning of the 14th and eaten the same evening? So, many of you may not know that there's a controversy, but I think those who've been around for a while realize that there has been a controversy, and we've had members leave the Church over this thinking that the Passover should be eaten on the 15th. The United Church of God teaches the observance of the New Testament Passover on the evening at the beginning of the 14th, and we do so following the example of Jesus Christ. On the night prior to his death, Christ observed what is called the Passover, and in the synoptic Gospels, through them, all four of them, is called the Passover, and he instituted the symbols of the bread and the wine, as well as the foot washing service. Now, modern Jewish practice, considerable volume of Jewish writing supports the belief that the Exodus, the Israelites, ate the Passover lamb and departed Egypt all on the same night, and they think that's the 15th. So, what you find, you find the Jewish community today keeping what we call the Passover on the 15th. Who's right? You know, we're keeping it on the 14th. They're on the 15th, and if they've gone astray, when did they go astray? How did they go astray?

There are those, you know, which would include us who believe that the lamb was slain on the 14th at twilight between the two evenings and eaten the same night. And I think that we will be able to demonstrate that as we go through the Scriptures. This is one of those topics that all of us need to be able to explain. All of us need to know what we believe. We know that Jesus Christ condemned the Jewish leaders of his day, along with many of their traditions, because what you find is many of them, instead of relying upon the Scriptures, relied upon oral tradition, relied upon their own rabbis and teachers, instead of exactly what the Bible said. So, consequently, if we're going to understand this topic, we need to go to the Scriptures. We need to go to the Bible. It is the official position of the United Church of God that the preponderance of the evidence in the Bible favors the Passover being at the beginning of the 14th, both the killing of it in Exodus 12 and the Egypt of the 14th.

Now, what we need to realize, though, is that Exodus 12 is a question of history and chronology.

A proper understanding of the timing of the Passover in Exodus 12 is not listed as one of the fundamental beliefs of the United Church of God. And Mr. Armstrong, back in 1947, when he put together the bylaws for then the radio church of God, which we basically copied almost in total, did not include it, if my memory serves me right, as one of the fundamental doctrines there.

Our fundamental belief statement on the Passover is very brief. It's quite short, and this is what it says. We believe in the observance of the New Testament Passover on the night of the 14th, the anniversary of the death of our Lord.

Now, this question has been a point of discussion and division for many years. Why do people get off on the 15th? Well, they look at the Jews. They say, well, the Jews are doing this, and therefore they think that the church is wrong. They think that they should be able to participate in the Passover service with confidence that we're doing it correctly and at the correct time. Let's notice 1 Corinthians 11.

Actually, all we need is the four Gospels and 1 Corinthians 11 to know what day the Passover should be observed by us in the New Testament.

In chapter 11, verse 1, Paul says, imitate me or follow me just as I also imitate Christ.

Then in verse 23, he said, I received from the Lord. So this wasn't something passed on to him by man. If you remember, Paul was taught three and a half years in Arabia by Jesus Christ himself. So he said, I received this 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 he gave thanks. So the same night that Christ was betrayed was the same night that he observed the Passover. In all of the four Gospels, Christ said, go and prepare the Passover, that we might eat it. So what we find is they were observing the Passover. The Jews kept it one day later. So it was obvious that Christ and his disciples did something different from the Jews in the last Passover that he observed. When approaching the subject, there's some basic points that we need to examine. One of them is a common belief that so many people have, that the Jewish community has correctly maintained the correct timing and observance of the Passover from the 1500 years from the Exodus down to the first century, and that it has been preserved then on down to our day today. Now, is that correct? I'll show you it's not correct. I'll give you a little head start on that.

This premise assumes two things, which I've included in the outline. One, a continuous observance of the Passover during this time period from the Exodus to Christ. Was there always a continuous observance of the Passover? And a uniform observance during the first century, the Second Temple period, can these assumptions be proven from the Bible and also can they be proven from history? Can you look at the Bible? Can you also look at history and determine exactly what occurred? Well, we're going to answer these questions today, and again they're going to be so simple that your children sitting by you can say, yes, I can explain that. We want to carefully examine Exodus 12 and see what the evidence is for the observance of the Passover. So you might be turning back to Exodus the 12th chapter, because this is where the first Passover was instituted. Was it observed at the beginning of the 14th or at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th? I think we will see that the preponderance of information and evidence favors the Passover at the beginning of the 14th. Now, beginning in verse 1, chapter 12, we find that God began to reveal the Holy Days to Israel before the Old Covenant was established. We read here, now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be your beginning of months. He shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel. Say on the 10th day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb according to the house of his father a lamb for every household. And if the house is too small for the lamb, if you only had one or two people in the household, they couldn't eat a whole lamb, so they would take it with their neighbor next door. Let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons. According to each man's needs, you shall make your account for the lamb. So that's very clear. Now, let's notice in verse 5, and I want you to notice the word, IT, from verse 5 through 11. The lamb shall be without blemish. A lamb of the first year you shall take it, the lamb, from the sheep or from the goats. I want you to notice some have thought that the Passover could only be a lamb. It could also be from the goats.

Now, it says you shall keep it, the lamb, until the 14th day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it, the lamb at twilight, or between the two evenings. And they shall take some of the blood and put IT, the blood of the lamb, on the two doorposts and on the lentils of the houses, where they eat it. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night, the flesh of what? The flesh of the lamb that has been killed. 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, its head, yet again referring to the lamb, its legs and its entrance.

So you get it, you stick it in the fire, and everything else is there.

Thus shall you eat it, notice, eat it, eat what? The Passover lamb. You are to eat the Passover lamb with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hands. So shall you eat it and haste it, at what? The lamb, the killed lamb, the meal that they ate, it is the Lord's Passover. So this is referred to as the Passover. Now, the reason why I keep emphasizing this is because later on you'll find the Passover had a much broader application and meaning. You go on later on you'll find that the Passover came to understand for both Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread. And sometimes Days of Unleavened Bread referred to both Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. But originally, it referred to the lamb and to the meal that was eaten. It's important to establish the meaning of the word from the get-go, and that's what we have here, verses 5 through 11. The sacrifice of the lamb and the eating of the lamb are both covered by the term Passover. Now, the term Passover is always associated with the 14th day of the first month. In the outline I gave you, you'll notice I've listed certain scriptures for you. Let me just read through these very quickly. I'll just highlight them. Exodus 12, keep it until the 14th day of the same month. Leviticus 23, 5, on the 14th day of the first month at twilight. Numbers 9, 3, on the 14th day of the month at twilight. Numbers 9, 5, they kept the Passover on the 14th day. Numbers 9, 11, on the 14th day of the second month at twilight. Numbers 28, 16 through 17, on the 14th day of the second month at twilight. Numbers 28, 16, 17, on the 14th day of the first month is Passover. You begin to get the idea that the 14th is the day of the Passover. Joshua 5, 10, they kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month. 2 Chronicles 30, verse 15, the Passover lambs on the 14th day. 35, 1, Passover lambs on the 14th day of the first month. Ezra 6, 19, keep the Passover on the 14th day of the first month. Then finally, Ezekiel 45, 21, in the first month on the 14th day of the month. Now, just as observation in going through these scriptures, what do you find?

What do you find from the very first Passover that was observed all the way into the millennium? That's what Ezekiel 45, 21 is referring to. We find it observed on the 14th. Seems to be a consistency there in God's mind and what he writes. Never a deviation from it. Now, let's notice some other scriptures related to the timing of the Passover. Let's go over to Leviticus 23, verses 5 and 6. And if you'll remember, in Leviticus 23, all of the Holy Days are listed chronologically for us. We read here, on the 14th day of the first month, at twilight is the Lord's Passover. On the 15th day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. To the Lord, seven days you must eat unleavened bread. Now, the Passover is on the 14th, and the days of unleavened bread begins on the 15th. That seems to be clear. It doesn't say the Passover was killed on the 14th and the Passover was eaten on the 15th. No, it says the Passover was observed on the 14th. Exodus 12, again, backing up back to Exodus. You might want to put a marker in Exodus. We'll be coming back and forth to Exodus. In verses 26 and 27, Exodus 12, 26, 27, and it shall be when your children shall say to you, what do you mean by this service? That you shall say, it is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord who passed over the houses of the children of Israel when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our household. So the people bowed their heads and worshiped. So the name Passover is derived from the time when the Lord passed over the houses of the Israelites. Scholars claim that the name Passover is ambiguous, and we don't know where it comes from. Seems very clear here. Passover! So therefore it's called the Passover, and only those who were under the blood of the Lamb had the Lamb pass over their house. The rest had at first born killed in their homes. Doesn't it make sense that the passing over from which the name Passover comes also occurred on the 14th? Haven't seen that makes sense to me. Now notice Numbers 33 verse 3. Numbers 33 and verse 3.

They departed from Ramesses in the first month on the 15th day of the first month, on the day after the Passover. Okay, so if they leave on the 15th, the ninth portion of the 15th, don't you think that the 15th is the first day of Unleavened Bread, and the 14th is the Passover? It says it's the day after the Passover. Israel left by night on the day after the Passover. Verse 4, for the Egyptians were bearing all their firstborn, whom the Lord had killed among them.

Now, this took place as Israel gathered in Ramesses to prepare to depart from Egypt. It's illogical to believe that the Egyptians began bearing their dead the same night that they died, because it does say that as Egypt left, excuse me, as Israel left Egypt, the Egyptians were bearing their dead, and yet we know that the Passover, or the death angel, passed over the Israelites house at midnight. Now, who gets up at midnight, one o'clock, two o'clock, to check to see if anybody's died in the house? Yeah, most people are sleeping, and it's illogical to think that maybe somebody might get up and go in and check, but if they did, they'd find the firstborn dead. But what, you know, when you find your firstborn dead, and you know it, you then, the first thing you want to do is to let the rest of your family know. So you go out and you start notifying them, then you find, well, somebody else has somebody dead over here. So that only makes sense. Let's notice Deuteronomy 16 and verse 1. Deuteronomy 16.1. Observe 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 if they came out of Egypt on the 15th, we know the day begins in the evening. So they had to leave in the dark part of the 15th. So Exodus 12.22 also says, Exodus chapter 12 and verse 22, you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood in the basin, strike the lentils in the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin, and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. So the Israelites could not go out of their house until morning. So that means they stayed in their house, guess what, all night. Morning does not mean night.

Anybody here believe morning means night? Morning? Okay, we got one who believes morning.

Well, we're not going to argue that point. If you want to discuss that, I'll discuss it with you later. What he is referring to is what they talk about the morning watch. The morning watch ran from 12 to 6. This isn't talking about the morning watch. It's talking about dawn. The word means morning. You know, just, I mean, that's really what it means. No one was to go out of his house until the morning. Therefore, in order to leave by night, Israel must have left the next day. And I think I can prove that to you. Exodus 12, 37, and 38, I want you to notice.

The children of Israel journeyed from Ramesses to Succoth. About 600,000 men on foot.

Besides children, a mixed multitude went up with them also, flocks and herds, and a great deal of livestock. This would be equal to two and a half to three million people, plus a great deal of livestock. You know, the people had goats and lambs and sheep and cattle, all kinds of things.

Several hours would be required to organize them into an army, as the scriptures said. You'll notice in verse 41, it came to pass at the end of the 430 years on that same day. It came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. So they didn't go out, as the 10 Commandment movie shows, or the Exodus, whichever one that was, 10 Commandments, I think, where you had this rabble coming out, and their bodies pulling wagons, and they're just big mob scene, you know, people leaving. They marched out in file or rank, or like an army. They'd be organized to a certain extent. Now, in chapter 12, verse 6, let's notice this in the book of Exodus.

It says, Now you shall keep it until the 14th day, keep the lamb until the 14th day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall keep it at twilight. Now, the English word until, which we use, we say until a certain time, will often not include the ending event that it's talking about. You might tell somebody, y'all come over to our house, don't come over to our house until the sun goes down. What that means is don't come over, but when the sun goes down, you can come over, but don't come over until that point. This is not always true of the Hebrew word. The Hebrew word sometimes includes the ending marker, and more often than not, you find that that is true in several places where the word until is used. But most often in the scriptures, the Hebrew word does not include the end event. For example, there are many references in the scriptures that if an individual were unclean, he was to be unclean until the evening. What does that mean? Well, he was unclean, but when the evening came around, he was no longer unclean. Clearly, when the sun set in the evening began, the individual no longer had his uncleanness. This is the same Hebrew word that is translated until in Exodus. What does it mean in Exodus 12? Well, some people will argue it could go either way, but what you find, I think as we'll go through here, is that they kept the lamb up until the 14th. In other words, it was alive until the sunset. And during the twilight period, what we would call dusk dark today, they killed it. And then they ate it. You'll notice also in verse 16, it says, 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. Twilight is a good translation. I think King James Version says, between the two evenings.

So what does twilight or between the two evenings mean? Was it at the beginning or at the end of the 14th, as some will say? The Hebrew word for twilight is, and I'm not going to try to pronounce this, B-E-I-N-H-A-A-R-B-A-Y-I-M. The lambs were to be slain during twilight or between the two evenings. The literal translation of that, I mean literal translation of this, at this time was between the two evenings. Between sunset, when the sun goes down, and the time it gets dark.

I'm sure that many of you have gone out hunting. I've gone out hunting most places where you hunt. You can hunt to a half hour after sunset. Still enough daylight that you can hunt. And I've been out there an hour afterwards, and I can still see, especially through a scope. You know, at night there's enough light that you can see.

So when did and how did between the two evenings come to mean something different? Jewish tradition claims that this was between noon and sunset.

But the true meaning of the ancient phrase is not really in dispute. The term twilight means time of concealment, of refreshment, of stumbling in dim light. When the sun goes down, then the light starts to get dim, what we call twilight.

The phrase is translated dusk in the Jewish Publication Society.

It's translated between dusk and dark in the New English Bible. It's translated between sunset and dark in the Moffat. And Brown driver Briggs, Lexicon, says between the two evenings is probably between sunset and dark. And this is why, if you want to call it, the ancient meaning of the word.

At twilight literally means between the two settings. Something's setting. Revenc- Revenc sources takes this to mean from noon out, anytime from noon onward. They say that the sun reached its zenith at noon, and then it started to go down. And so anytime after that. According to Radoc, the first setting occurred when the sun passed The first setting occurred when the sun passed its zenith, after noon, and shadows began to lengthen. Josephus testifies that the Paschal lamb was slaughtered in the temple between three and five. P.M.

The Jewish Publication Society Torah commentary says that twilight, this is their definition, this term could be ambiguous. And they go on to say that some rabbis think that it means what we call dusk. Others think that it means from noon onwards. So they were divided in their explanation. So they admit that there was a division in teaching among the rabbis. Let me clarify something for you. How many of you know what a rabbi was as opposed to a Levite or a priest? Sadducees were the priests, and they were the ones who had control of the temple.

The rabbis were teachers. A rabbi was one who started when he was very young, generally five, six, started to be taught the law. When he taught it, he actually sat at the foot of another great teacher. And he would have his disciples, and they would follow him. And he would teach. Maybe there would be a dozen, half a dozen, two dozen. And he would teach them. And then when they felt that they had learned the law and those who were outstanding would go out on their own, and they would have their own interpretation of the law, according to how they had been taught and what they believed. Then they would get a group of students, and then they would pass it on. Why was Christ called a rabbi? Because he had a group of students who followed him around. Just like all the other rabbis. There were other rabbis out there, dozens of them, who had their students following them. So when you read that a rabbi had this slant or this definition, realize we're not talking about the official Word of God. This is as they were taught by their rabbi teacher, and then with their own understanding, they go out and get another group. And over a period of time, many sex rose up, as we will see. There were over 24 listed sex in the first century in Judea, and we'll take a look at that.

Now, the Expositor Bible Commentary has this to say. This means between the two evenings, or as the NIV says, twilight, has given rise to much discussion. He goes to show that some believe one, some believe the other. But notice, I think this is a very pivotal comment. Ladder custom, necessitated, moving this time up to allow for the Levites to help everyone with their sacrifice. Now, when we come to Ezra, Ezra 6, we will see something there that you've never seen in the rest of the Old Testament. And that is, the Levites are actually sacrificing the Passover at that time. At some point, and almost all of these authorities will admit, that up until this time, each family brought his lamb to the temple, just as they did in the first century. And they would slay their own lamb. And, you know, they'd have the Levi blessed, and they'd go back to their own house, and they'd prepare it. Somewhere, the Levites began to take a greater hand in it. And because there were hundreds of thousands of people who came up to Jerusalem to keep the Passover, and there were only so few Levites, they couldn't kill all of these between twilight. That's why they moved it back to three o'clock. Now, in order to do that, they had to justify it. And so, the rabbis looked at it, and they said, well, you know, we can define this word, twilight, to mean, from noon to sunset. So therefore, we can, you know, use the whole afternoon. And they chose three to five, two hours, or three to six, three hours, in order to kill the lambs. That is, quite frankly, why it was moved. And we will see that as we go on. While there's some dispute, and general scholars accept that the literal and ancient meaning of this expression, the time between sunset and dark, is the actual meaning of the word. There's no biblical support for the word evening, or between the two evenings, to mean afternoon. Between the two evenings does not mean afternoon. There is a scripture. Go over to Judges 19. We're going to read this very quickly. Judges 19, verses 8 through 15, where all three terms are used in English. Morning, afternoon, and evening. And we get a feeling for how the words are used.

Judges 19, verse 8. Then he arose early in the morning on the fifth day to depart. But the young woman's father said, please refresh your heart. So they delayed until afternoon. And both of them ate. So they were going to leave in the morning, but the father-in-law said, no, please stay around. So they waited till the afternoon. So morning, obviously, was the daylight portion of the day. So they come to the afternoon. What do we think of when we say afternoon? Well, it's afternoon. It's afternoon. Both of them ate. And when the man stood to depart, he and his concubine, his servant, his father-in-law, the young woman's father said to him, look, the day is now drawing toward evening. Please spend the night. So it's getting toward evening.

Spend the night. See, the day is coming to an end. The day ends in the evening.

Lodge here that your heart may be merry. Tomorrow go on your way early. So you may go home. However, the man was not willing to spend the night. So he rose, departed, and came to the came to opposite Jibous, which is Jerusalem. With him were the two saddled donkeys. His concubine was also with him. They were near Jibous, and the day was far spent. And the servant said to his master, come, please let us turn aside into this city of the Jibous sites in Lodge in It. But the master said to him, we will not turn aside here into a city of foreigners who are not of the children of Israel. We will go on to Geba. So he said to his servant, come, let us draw near to one of these places and spend the night in Geba or in Rama. And they pass by and went their way, and the sun went down on them near Geba. So the sun is going down on the way to Geba, which belongs to Benjamin. And they turned aside there to go to Lodge in Geba. And when he went in and sat down in the open square of the city, for no one would take them into his house to spend the night. So when evening time came, that's when night occurred. This section of the Scripture gives us some insight into the use of the terms in the Old Testament. The traveler and his concubrine were asked to stay beyond the morning. Same Hebrew word we find for morning in Exodus 12. And into the afternoon. The word afternoon here basically describes the heat of the day.

And the afternoon is described being toward evening. Not evening itself, but toward evening. The Hebrew word for evening here is translated in other places as darken. The afternoon is not the evening, but it is toward evening. Evening is associated with darkness or with night.

We also see that the day ends when the sun goes down, the evening begins. We also see that when the sun goes down, a new day begins. We keep the Sabbath wind. It begins on Friday at sunset. Forward. So I think that's very clear in the Scripture. Let's come back to Exodus 12 again since we brought up the topic of morning. Let's notice in verse 22 Exodus 12.

You shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin, and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. The word morning here, bogre, means, and I think I've given you the definition in your handout, the coming of dawn, the even daylight, the coming of sunrise. We find in Genesis chapter 1 verses 3 through 5 an understanding of what evening and morning means. Let's notice it. Genesis 1 verse 3, God said, Let there be light, and there was light. God saw the light that was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. So the evening, word again is darkness, or night, and the morning, same Hebrew word, the light or the day, were the first day. So you find that light refers to light, and dark refers to dark. Morning is used in the scripture to refer to the light portion of the day, and the Hebrew word for night is another word, but it is used synonymously with the word for evening. And so you find both of those go together. A day is defined as an evening and a morning, the night portion of a day, and the daylight portion of a day. Notice Joshua 8, 29.

The evening begins at sunset, as we find here in Joshua 8 and verse 29. In the king of Ai, he hanged on a tree unto evening, and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his corpse down from the tree. So he hung there unto evening, and when the sun went down, evening came. So we find out again when evening. So sunset marks the beginning of evening and the end of the day. Now I want you to notice the story flow of what we've covered so far here in Exodus 12. The lamb was killed at twilight at the beginning of the 14th. They took the blood and marked the lentils in the doorpost. They roasted the lamb, they ate the lamb, all this occurred on the 14th. At midnight, the firstborn of the Egyptians were killed.

They could not go out of their house until morning or light.

In Exodus 12, 31-38, we also find there was a logistic problem. Let's read this.

Beginning in verse 31, you will find that the Egyptians, Pharaoh, called for Moses and Aaron by night, said, Get out from us, my people. Take your flocks with you. Verse 33, the Egyptians urged the people that they might send them out of the land in haste, where they said, We shall all be dead. Or I'm going to be dead if you all don't get out of here. So the people took their dough before it was leaven, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders. Now God told them to have their sandals on, have their clothes on. Why? Well, because earlier the next day they were going to get together and move out. Notice verse 35, the children of Israel had done, they'd already done this, according to the word of Moses, they'd asked when the Egyptians, articles of silver, articles of gold and clothing, Lord given the people favor in the sight of Egyptians and they gave them to them. And we find the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about 600,000 men on foot beside children. A mixed multitude went up, with them also flocks and herds, and a great deal of livestock. Now, as I said, there's a logistic problem here. Maybe we don't stop and think about these things, but there were probably anywhere between two and a half to three million people. 600,000 men would be safe to say they're probably 600,000 women, plus children. They had big families back then, so they'd have two or three children per family, plus a mixed multitude of the Egyptians go out with them and all of their cattle.

How could two and a half million to three million Israelites, plus a mixed multitude, plus all of their cattle, depart from Egypt in the early morning hours of the 15th? If the Passover were eaten, and we know the death angel passed through at midnight, seems clear that the Israelites began their journey from Egypt by night on the 15th of the first month.

We read that in Numbers 33, remember? They came out by night, and they came out. His numbers are... Deuteronomy 16 once said, at night, or on the 15th, they left the city of Ramesses, a city that is located somewhere in Goshen.

Now, a departure such as this could not have been accomplished in the night when you remain indoors past midnight. It would take a whole day to organize the people. Okay, they're ready in their homes. They're ready to leave. They got everything all bundled up, and they're ready to go. But they've got to come out, and they've got to gather their cattle, get their families together, and then they've got to begin to organize and march out in an orderly rank or fashion.

Notice verse 18 of chapter 13. It says, The children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt. So they weren't a big rabble. They organized into ranks, and they left Egypt. Now, the Israelites, again, consisted of 600,000 men, not counting women and children and so on. This is roughly a number equal to the population of Greater Chicago. Greater Chicago has 2.7 million people. Just think of it that way. If they were to line up in a column one mile wide, you know, here they are, they're all lined up one mile wide.

It would still be five miles long going this way. You have them in ranks going backwards. A modern example of this, to explain what I'm talking about, would be a four-lane highway where there's a bad wreck, and all four lanes are closed down on this freeway. The cars would be four breasts. You would have cars, you know, four lanes, and you know, you look down, you can see the cars across from you, and they would back up. And depending on how long the wreck was there, traffic might back up five, ten miles. My wife and I were once in a traffic jam on 75 trying to get into Tampa that was 35 miles long.

We just got off of 75. We knew how to go home. We weren't that far away, but we felt very sorry for everybody else who was in this traffic jam. Well, this is exactly what we're talking about. They organize in ranks, you know, a breast of each other, one behind another, families together, with their cattle, and they start marching out of the land.

If it were one half mile wide, in other words, people lined up one half mile wide, it would be 10 miles long. The ranks would go all the way back 10 miles. At a rate two and a half miles per hour, if you walk that fast, it would take two hours or four hours for everyone to pass a single point. If you're back here in a traffic jam, 10 miles back here, and they pull the wreck off and the traffic begins to move, how long does it take you to move?

You know, everybody in front of you has got to move. Well, that's the same way here. There are miles of Israelites piled up back here, and they're going out orderly, and they're leaving the land. According to the U.S. Army Quartermaster General for a group this size to camp, it would require an area two-thirds the size of Rhode Island, 750 square miles. That's a big area. If the Israelites were all living in the land of Goshen, when the exodus occurred, they were still considerable distance for them to travel.

When spreading the word to leave. Just think about the city of Chicago, and my wife and I have lived in Chicago. I know how big Chicago is. I used to pass her from Highland Park down to Joliet. That was 90 miles from one end to the other. And Chicago proper wasn't quite that big, but taking out all the suburbs.

You try to go around Chicago and warn three million people to leave, and then to get them all out and head them all in the right direction. So you couldn't all just go any direction they wanted to. They had to go in the right direction. They had to march out to Succoth. So it'd be like trying to evacuate a city the size of Chicago.

Doesn't it make sense that they killed the lamb on the beginning of the 14th? They ate it on the 14th. At midnight on the 14th, the death angel passed through. They stayed in their houses ready to leave. They had all their booty, everything they wanted to take with them, all ready. And when morning came, the news came, we were going to assemble over here in Ramesses.

They all gather over there, and by the next night, the 15th, they start marching out of the land of Egypt. And then on the daylight portion of the 15th, they arrived in Succoth.

This was a tremendous job to move this amount of people. Also, Scripture tells us that every Egyptian household had at least one person dead. It's estimated that 1.2 million Egyptians died that night. We're told the firstborn of the livestock died also. So you have 1.2 million corpses and hundreds of thousands of dead animals out there. It seems unlikely that the Egyptians could have thrust the Israelites out in the middle of the night when the tragedy occurred and started burying their own people that night. That doesn't make sense. Most of them are just finding out during that night that somebody did die in their household. Philo, an Alexandrian Jew who was a contemporary of Christ, gives an interesting view of these events. He wrote, along with Josephus, are the only basic writers that we have of the first century of what was occurring in Palestine. Philo gives the idea that the death of the firstborn and the exodus from Egypt did not occur on the same night. This is what he said. But at the dawn of day, as it was natural and everyone beheld his nearest and dearest relative, talking about the Egyptians, unexpectedly dead, with whom he up till the evening before had lived in one house and at one table, and for a while they remained in their houses, no one being aware of the misfortune that had befallen his neighbor, but lamenting only for his individual loss. But when anyone went out of the door and learned the misfortune of others, he at once felt a double sorrow, grieving for the common calamity in addition to his own private misfortune. So he's saying that most of them, the Egyptians, didn't find out until sometime later on during that night. If you want to call it the morning watch, that's fine. But what we need to realize is that the Israelites didn't just, within a couple of hours, three hours, bunch together and leave. It took a lot more time than that. Now, was there a consistency and continuous observance of the Passover from the time of Moses to the time of Christ? The Bible shows that the answer is no.

I have listed for you, if you will go to your outline, I think on page three, I have listed for you all of the references to the Passover in the Old Testament.

I say we don't have time to read all these, but I will point out to you certain things. I'm not saying this is where every, we're not reading every word where Passover is mentioned, but the sections that talk about the Passover. Sometimes in each section you will find Passover mentioned several times. In Exodus 34.25 it says, You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven. I think it's important to understand this. Nor shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left until the morning. The Passover was never to be taken with leavening, nor was it to be left until the morning. Unleavened bread was eaten with the Passover. Why? Because of the nature of the sacrifice. In Leviticus, we find that no leavening was to be present in any of the grain offerings that were brought to the tabernacle. Therefore, the eating of unleavened bread with the Passover lamb is associated with the sacrifice, not the day of unleavened bread, or the days of unleavened bread, but with the sacrifice.

Now, you go on, and I've listed here for you Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua. Well, let's come down to 2 Chronicles 30, verse 4. 2 Chronicles 30, verse 4. So they resolved to make a proclamation throughout all Israel from Beersheba to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel in Jerusalem, since they had not done it for a long time in the prescribed way. So notice, it had been a long time since they had kept the Passover in the way in which it was prescribed. King Hezekiah restored the observance of the Passover. He sent runners, verses 10 through 11, to the tribes, country of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Zebulun, but they laughed him to scorn, and they mocked him. And you find that, here's a clear statement, that the Passover had not been observed continuously through all that time. 2 Chronicles, chapter 30, verses 15 through 18, you find the same thing mentioned here.

Well, let's read to this. It says, they slaughtered the Passover lambs on the 14th day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed and sanctified themselves, and brought the burnt offerings to the house of the Lord. They stood in their place according to their custom, according to the law of Moses, the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood received from the hand of the Levites. For there were many, notice this, in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves.

So they were technically, ceremonially, unclean. Therefore, the Levites had charge of the slaughter of the Passover lambs for everyone who was not clean. What about those who were clean? They slaughtered their own Passover lambs. That's the implication of this, to sanctify them to the Lord. And it says, for a multitude of people, for me from Manasseh, Iskard, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves yet so that they could eat the Passover. So here we find the reason the priests, or the Levites, began to slaughter was because the people were not clean, and they couldn't do it. The lambs were slain for those who had not sanctified themselves. We can assume, or the assumption is, that those who had sanctified themselves killed their own lambs.

Now let me ask you, when Christ and his disciples ate the Passover, who killed the lamb?

He told his disciples, you go prepare the Passover. The Jews did it one day later, so they obviously were killing the Passover one day prior. And I can show you, this is something that we always wondered about years ago. When was it changed, and were those who were actually still killing it and observing it at a different time? And I think we have evidence from history that shows that, and that proves that. Now in 2 Chronicles 30, verse 23, we notice here again is another reform. Let's notice in verse 26, well, I have the scripture written in my notes here, and I don't have, I think, 2 Chronicles. I don't have a one or two in front of Chronicles, but I believe we're in 2 Chronicles.

Verse 26 says, So there was a great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem.

So from the time of Solomon, there had not been any type of observance like this. And in 2 Kings 23, 22, Such a Passover surely had never been held since the days of the judges who ruled Israel, nor in the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. So, Josiah established the proper observance of the Passover. In 2 Chronicles 35, verses 18 through 19, you find that there had been no Passover kept in Israel like this since the days of Samuel the prophet. So, what do you get from this? They were not consistently keeping the Passover worthy.

They, you know, there were periods that they went into idolatry, they went into captivity. Remember all the time that Israel went into captivity, especially in the book of Judges, and God would bring them out? They forgot about God's Sabbath and Holy Days, and they went and kept pagan days, worshiped pagan idols, and they were not consistent. Now we come to Ezra 6, 19 through 20. And we find here that the descendants of the captivity kept the Passover on the 14th day of the first month, for the priests and the Levites had purified themselves. All of them were originally clean, and they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the descendants of the captivity for their brethren, the priests, and for themselves. Now again, why was this done? Well, they were purified. The implication is that the people were not. So therefore, they purified. They were purified, and they were qualified then to go ahead and sacrifice. So we come to the end of the Old Testament, and once again, you find the Passover being restored after many years of non-observance.

Notice this is the first example in the Old Testament where the Levites slaughtered all the lambs, and there seems to be a reason for it. This is the first time. So if I could summarize what we've covered here. You find the example of the Passover in the Old Testament that there are many years of non-observance of the Passover. There are many times that it had to be restored. We find that the lambs were slain by the head of the household, by the assembly of the people, by the Levites. The lambs were slain in the individual homes, at the tabernacle, in the first temple, and then later on in the second temple. I mean, these are all variations that I'm showing. It appears that there were few what we would call normal Passovers where it was just kept consistently. We find there was an inconsistency in the Old Testament just as there was an inconsistency among the people and obeying God, keeping his law. We find that happened over and over again. That's why they went into captivity. Now, here comes a crucial question. Why did we find the Jews in Jesus' day were keeping the Passover one day later on the 15th?

And did all the Jews follow this custom? Were they all doing this in the first century? Well, Christ wasn't, and his disciples didn't. I'd like to quote to you from a book that describes the development of Judaism from the Old Testament to the New. Remember, the House of Israel went into captivity, 721-718 B.C., to the Assyrians. The House of Judah went into captivity, 604-585, to the Babylonians. 70 years later, they came back out of captivity, and there were reforms established under Ezra and the Amiah. And what you find during this 300-400 period, what we call the inter-testimal period between the Old Testament and the New Testament, you find there developed a Judaism that was called rabbinical Judaism. That's what the Pharisees follow. There was all kinds of Judaism, different, there was a Babylonian Judaism, and they came up, and this is a period of time that they began to add their own dos and don'ts, came up with all the rituals, traditions, and so on that they began to add. Well, this book, titled The Jewish Festivals, A Guide to Their History and Observance by Hayyan, H-A-Y-Y-I-M, Shouse, S-E-H-A-U-S-S, this book was published back in 1938, and this is what he says, We must thus bear in mind that the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were originally two distinct festivals observed at the same time. Both were spring festivals, but the Feast of Unleavened Bread was observed by the entire community, gathered in a holy place, while the Passover was celebrated in the home as a family festival.

Now, we cannot be certain how long a time passed before the Jews accepted these reforms in practice and ceased to offer the Passover sacrifice in their own home, nor can we be certain how long it took the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread to become one festival, but it was during this period of time that this happened. The Encyclopedia Judea says this, it provides a possible answer. The Feast of the Passover consists of two parts. The Passover ceremony and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Originally, both parts existed separately, but at the beginning of the exile, they were combined. So when were they combined? At the beginning of the exile. Brethren, you've heard me say this many times, but Judaism in the first century was not the religion of the Old Testament. It was much of it man-made traditions, you know, a part of, yes, what you find in the Old Testament, but it was a mixture. That's exactly what you find here. Josephus again claims that the priests killed the lambs in the afternoon on the 14th, and they ate the meal on the 15th. Philo again gave a little different view. Now, it says, let me quote Philo, it says, and therefore they sacrificed at that time themselves out of their exceeding joy without waiting for the priest. And what was then done, the law enjoined to have repeated every year as a memorial of gratitude for their deliverance. There is evidence among the scholars that the Sadducees disagreed with the Pharisees on the timing of the sacrifices. That in the first century, the Sadducees and the Pharisees followed different traditions. The Pharisees held that the lambs were slain during the last three hours before sunset, the afternoon of the 14th. The Sadducees, on the other hand, held that the lambs were slain between sunset and nightfall. Now, all of this is taken from the Talmud. The Pharisees and the Sadducees had a dispute as to the time when the slaughter should take place. The former held it should be the last three hours before sunset, the latter between sunset and nightfall. The time of the Passover's sacrifice is defined in the laws between the two evenings. The Pharisees and the Talmud interpreted one way. The Sadducees, the Samaritans, and the Catharites held to the other position.

So, let me summarize this for you. The only information we have about the first century comes from Philo and Josephus. The Talmud record, what we have in the Talmud, the written record later on was written 300 years after the first century. It wasn't written in the first century. It was written 300 years later. And to a great extent reflects the Pharisaical position or rabbinical Judaism. The Talmudic literature states that there were 24 sects in Israel. Each of these sects had major disagreements with the other sects. The parallel today would be the Christian community. There's a great deal of diversity and practice in the Christian community, as we know. Same was true in the first century among the Jews. There was no such thing as one Judaism. I covered that with you when I went through the Sermon's onosticism. The Sadducees and the Pharisees were bitter enemies. The Pharisees were the popular party, controlled most of the synagogues. But the Sadducees were the priestly party, and they controlled most of the activities surrounding the temple. They were the priests, and so therefore they controlled that. The Sadducees rejected the authority of the Pharisees as to the oral law.

And as we see in Judaism today, the oral tradition is equal with the written tradition. The written tradition would be the Old Testament. Their oral tradition, which is written down in the Talmud, is equal to the written tradition. Same thing with the Catholic Church. Their tradition is equal or superior to the scripture. The same thing could be said of modern Judaism. So what you find is that the Sadducees and Pharisees were better enemies. The Sadducees rejected the Pharisees and the oral law. They followed a strict adherence to the written law and generally accepted no books as being necessary, except those of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. They rejected the idea of a bodily resurrection because they couldn't find it in the first five books. Sadducees also did not believe in spirit beings or angels. They also disagreed with the interpretation of the Pharisees on the meaning of the moral after the Sabbath when calculating Pentecost, whereas the Pharisees calculated Pentecost as we do. The Sadducees calculated Pentecost like we do. The Pharisees, we know as Judaism does today. The Sadducees held tenuous control over the temple and worship in the first century. The only reason I'm bringing this out is to show you that there was room among the Jews for different Passover observances, and that's exactly what we find in the New Testament. We've always wondered when and where these changes took place. I think we now have some evidence from Judaism itself, from Pylo, and from others exactly when this took place. Judaism was not one cohesive religion but divided into many sects. The Sadducees lost their power with the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. They no longer had any duties. They disappeared from the scene, as I say. Judaism today is called rabbinical Judaism and traces its roots back to the Pharisees.

So, brethren, we keep the Passover on the 14th day following the example of Jesus Christ and the New Testament Church. We can be confident that we're keeping the Passover at the correct time.