Passover According to Scripture
By Ray Wooten
Where did Christianity get the authority to observe Good Friday and Easter?
Or any of the other annual days that the Christian world observes? Was it from
the bible or are they not pagan in their origin? The answer is, they are pagan.
Why then do we observe these days as opposed to the days that have Biblical
origin? Isn't it logical to at least consider the observances, which God
revealed to Israel?
In this article I would like to discuss with you what the bible has to say
about a particular annual observance, which I believe, is in effect today. The
Passover. In order to understand it we should study both the old and the New
Testaments and understand what God said to Israel about this subject.
Israel, A Prototype
Make no mistake about it; the Israelites were God’s people. God raised them
up when they were hopelessly enslaved in Egypt and made of them a great nation.
Most people, however, don't know why God raised up Israel. They believe that God
raised up Israel and offered them salvation. They further believe that God
changed his plan and dealt with spiritual Israel as an after thought because of
the failure of the nation of Israel. It is true that Israel failed to live up to
their agreement under the old Covenant but God knew they would fail. It is not
possible to obey God without the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. They did not
have it. Was the reason God freed them simply to make a nation as an end in
itself? Or did he have a greater purpose in mind that includes you and me? I
believe that the latter is true. Everything God did for Israel has two purposes,
1.) To manifest God's power, and 2.) To be an example for true Israel. Physical
Israel was simply a model or prototype of spiritual Israel. Spiritual Israel is
the congregation of God; the body of Christ, the new covenant church that
includes all who are filled with God's Holy Spirit.
Spiritual Israel should know the principles involved in what God gave Israel
to do and apply them today. When God began to deal directly with Israel as they
were enslaved in Egypt He gave them some simple things to do which they and
others have complicated. Let's notice how God dealt with them in their infancy
regarding bringing them out or rescuing them from Egypt and see how that applies
to us today.
Exodus 11:9-10
9 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that
My wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt."
10 And Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; yet the
LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of
his land.
(NAS)
God is telling Moses here that "Pharaoh won't listen to you so that my
miracles, my power, my greatness will be multiplied in Egypt. Pharaoh won't let
them go, he won't release them without some coercion or force on my part".
"One reason he won't allow them to go, is because he’s human, carnal and
selfish and he wants their work for his benefit, but the real reason is so that
My power may be manifested". God was going to make sure that Israel was
released.
As we study the scriptures try to apply them to our circumstances today.
Egypt pictured the world as it is today. Their circumstances in Egypt pictured
sin and that we must come out of it. Israel itself pictured the church today.
Consider the things, which God had already done in Egypt at that time. He had
already executed nine plagues on Egypt which were, 1.) Blood, 2.) Frogs, 3.)
Lice, 4.) Flies, 5.) Murrain, 6.) Boils, 7.) Hail, 8.) Locusts, 9.) Darkness,
yet He still knew that Pharaoh would not allow His people to leave. You may read
about these plagues in the earlier chapters of the book of Exodus.
Firstborn Slain
Now we’re coming up to the tenth plague, which God is going to perform
against Egypt. He is going to do something now that will coerce Pharaoh to allow
the Israelites to leave Egypt i.e., destroy their firstborn.
Exodus 12:1-14
1 Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
2 "This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the
first month of the year to you.
God is showing them the method that they are to use to determine their
calendar. It is based upon the moon. Each month is to begin with the new moon.
If one observes the annual holy days based upon the calendar God gave ancient
Israel he is observing the new moons. There is no special meeting or ceremony
that is to take place on the New Moon. They are for the purpose of determining
the beginning of months.
Passover Not Institutional
3 "Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, 'On the tenth of
this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their
fathers' households, a lamb for each household."
Moses did not have any preconceived ideas. He did not know what was going to
occur. He was just listening to what God had to say. We should follow his
example. He heard God say each one shall take a Lamb. We see then that Passover
is individual it is not institutional. That should be the first thing you
notice. Each one was to take a lamb, i.e. each household. The same is true
today. There is a Lamb for each individual. It is not institutional, it is
individual. The problem lies with people, beginning with the priests, wanting to
make Passover institutional, not individual. It is not wrong for people to get
together and partake of the Passover symbols but we must remember it is an
individual matter. Moses did not have a problem with this concept. "
The tenth day of that first month they were to take their lamb or a kid from
among their herd.
4 'Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor
nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons {in
them;} according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb."
5 'Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from
the sheep or from the goats.
6 'And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the
whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight.’
Twilight, Between the Two Evenings
The term twilight here should be translated "between the two
evenings". Many have misunderstood this statement. Some have thought that
this was referring to the time between sunset and dark. Others have had
different concepts about it. We should understand that each day has only one
evening. God measures time from sunset to sunset. The evening of the fourteenth
until the evening of the fifteenth of the month is one day. (In Hebrew,
"day is "yom", as in "Yom Kippur ", or "Day of
Atonement". One day is from sunset to sunset). This period of time would be
between the two evenings. So at some time during the fourteenth day of the first
month the Passover Lamb should be sacrificed and eaten. Please don't
misunderstand, on that original Passover it had to be done in the beginning of
the fourteenth because of what was going to happen during that night.
It is very clear in this scripture that each individual household was to kill
his own lamb. If they wanted to divide the Lamb between two households that was
fine if there was enough to supply the meat and, more importantly, the blood for
both households. I have heard many elaborate explanations on how much time is
required at Passover for all the people to bring all of their lambs or goats to
Jerusalem for the priests to slay all of the lambs or goats that would be needed
for the Passover each year. There were so many that it was necessary to move the
time to begin sacrificing their Passover lambs back from the tenth, to the
ninth, to the eighth or maybe even back to the very first day on the month in
order have enough time for the priests to kill all the animals which would be
used by the people at Passover. They have made it complicated. It has become
bigger than it ought to be. If each family had taken his animal and sacrificed
it they could have gotten together with others to keep the Passover. There is
nothing wrong with that. I am saying this in regard to later Passovers. They
were commanded to stay in their own homes on that first Passover because the
death angel was going to pass through the land and each was to be in his own
home and under the blood that would be on his door post. Again the problem is
that it has become institutional. I want to emphasize again that it should be an
individual matter not institutional.
7 'Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two
doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
8 'And they shall eat the flesh that {same} night, roasted with fire, and
they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
No Hours In God’s Days
Some have stated that all of this could not have taken place during the early
part of the fourteenth. Why not? They say it would take too much time to do all
of this in one evening. They believe Passover is to be observed on the
fifteenth, which is the first day of Unleavened Bread, the second annual
festival of God. Israel was to begin their departure on that night. They could
not have begun their departure yet stayed in their homes all night. The fact is,
it doesn't take that much time because all of them had selected their Lamb on
the tenth day of the month. They killed it, cooked it and put the blood on their
doorposts in the beginning of the fourteenth. With everybody doing this for
himself how much time could that take? When you understand the fact that
everybody killed his own lamb that doesn't take a lot of time. You also must
realize that on that night the death angel was coming through and the blood had
to be on the doorpost on the night of the fourteenth. They also had to stay in
their homes all night. These same people who have made the earlier statements
say that they could have come out of their homes after the midnight hour and
prepared to leave on the same night they ate the Passover. What we don't realize
today is that God did not break the days down into hours, minutes and seconds.
The shortest period of time God had for us was one day which included
"evening and morning" or night and day. The Babylonians were the ones
who later invented the method of keeping time by hours, minutes and seconds. So
there was no such thing as the midnight hour at the time of the first Passover.
To say there was is simply applying to them something that we have today which
was not available to them at the time. No, the night was the entire night not
just until "The midnight hour".
9 'Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted
with fire, {both} its head and its legs along with its entrails.
10 'And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is
left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire.
11 'Now you shall eat it in this manner: {with} your loins girded, your
sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in
haste-- it is the LORD'S Passover.
12 'For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, (remember they did
not have a midnight hour, this situation lasted all night. In a previous verse
we saw that they were to stay there until morning.) And will strike down all the
first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of
Egypt I will execute judgments-- I am the LORD.
If the first born of Israel had not stayed in their homes, under the blood,
during that night they would have died just the way the first born of Egypt
died.
13 'And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and
when I see the blood I will pass over you, (there is a wonderful old song which
says ‘when I see the blood I will pass, I will pass over you.’ I cannot read
this scripture without thinking about that song. It is so comforting and so real
to know that the blood of Jesus Christ on the lintels of our hearts will cause
the death angel to pass over us and that is individual.) And no plague will
befall you to destroy {you} when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 'Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it {as} a
feast to the LORD; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it {as} a
permanent ordinance.
(NAS)
If this were all that had been stated about it there would not be a question
as to whether the Passover is the first day of unleavened bread. The Passover is
the Passover, a separate observance but with a connection to unleavened bread as
well as the other Festivals that God has given to His people.
Passover, First Of God’s Annual Festivals
Leviticus 23 gives a complete catalogue of God’s Festivals beginning with
the weekly Sabbath. For our purpose in this article let’s notice what God
reveals to Moses about the Passover.
Lev 23:1
1 The LORD spoke again to Moses, saying,
(NAS)
Lev 23:4-5
4 'These are the appointed times of the LORD, holy convocations which you
shall proclaim at the times appointed for them.
5 'In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the
LORD'S Passover.
(NAS) for his people.
These very clear scriptures show that the Passover is a separate observance
and is an ordinance of God. It is not the Passover of the Jews. It is God's
Passover for His people.
Passover in the New Testament
Now let's notice 1st Corinthians 5.
1 Cor 5:7
7 Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are {in
fact} unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
(NAS)
Christ Covers Second Death
Christ is our Passover under the new covenant. His blood on the doorposts of
our hearts is why the second death passes over us. The second death is to be cut
off, separated from God eternally. That is why the most important sacrifice that
Jesus made for us is that He was cut off from God. He had to experience being
totally forsaken by God because that is the wages of sin. This is the new
covenant application of this very important and wonderful observance of God.
This is why Jesus is called the Lamb of God.
Notice Mark 14
Mark 14:12-16
12 And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover {lamb} was
being sacrificed, (By this time Passover and unleavened bread were used
interchangeably. This was incorrect but it happened. It is not the purpose of
this particular passage to try and correct an error in the way it's stated. But
we should remember that Passover and unleavened bread were separate.) His
disciples said to Him, "Where do You want us to go and prepare for You to
eat the Passover?"
Christ Ate The Passover
Notice he was going to eat the Passover. This is very important because there
are some who say that Christ did not eat the Passover on the night of the
fourteenth. According to this he did. I believe that Christ and his disciples
chose a lamb on the tenth day of the first month and kept it to be prepared on
the fourteenth.
It is true that the Jews observed the Passover on the fifteenth day of the
first month. It is also true that they took their Passover sacrifice to the
temple to be sacrificed by the priest. You should notice that Christ and his
disciples did not do that. I believe they observed the Passover a day earlier
than was customary by the Jews. This proves to my satisfaction that Christ kept
the Passover at the same time he had told the Israelites to keep it back in the
land of Egypt.
13 And He sent two of His disciples, and said to them, "Go into the
city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him;
14 and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, 'The Teacher says,
"Where is my guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My
disciples?"'
15 "And he himself will show you a large upper room furnished {and}
ready; and prepare for us there."
16 And the disciples went out, and came to the city, and found {it} just as
He had told them; and they prepared the Passover.
(NAS)
Footwashing, Bread and Wine Commenced
It was during the time of this Passover dinner that Christ took a towel
girded himself and took a basin of water and washed his disciple’s feet. This
is found in John 13. It was after this that he directed the New Testament
symbols to be taken during this very same time, the Passover. I believe it is on
the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month.
New Covenant Passover Foreknown
1 Pet 1:17-21
17 And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to
each man's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay {upon
earth}
18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or
gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,
19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, {the
blood} of Christ.
20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared
in these last times for the sake of you
21 who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and
gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
(NAS)
Did you really notice as we were reading these verses what he was saying? We
were not redeemed by gold and silver. Not even by the blood of bulls or goats or
lambs. We were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, our Passover, as of a
Lamb unblemished and spotless. Let us not become so embroiled in arguments about
time that we forget this central fact about Christ, our Passover
Another exciting truth that is brought out in this scripture is that the
sacrifice, the blood of Jesus Christ and when it was going to occur was
foreknown before the foundation of the world. So, this was known before the
institution of animal’s blood. That means that God knew all along that the
blood of animals was simply symbolic and pointed to the blood of His precious
first-born son Jesus the Messiah.
Passover then shows us that our faith is to be in God through His Son, Jesus
Christ. With this background let's turn to 1st Corinthians 11.
Instructions For Passover Observance
The congregation at Corinth had many problems. They were selfish and
unconcerned about the needs of others. They apparently were still participating
in the type of banquets to which they had been accustomed back in paganism and
they were doing this on the Passover. Paul enumerated several problems here in
1st Corinthians. By the way, this was written during the days of unleavened
bread. After telling them some of the things they were doing wrong in this
chapter he goes on to tell them further how they should partake of the Passover
as new covenant people of God.
1 Cor 11:23-34
23 "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you,
that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread;"
There should be no question as to when they were to observe the Passover. It
was on the night in which he was betrayed, the fourteenth day of the first
month. This also shows that he simply took the bread as the symbol of his body.
Passover, A Memorial Of Christ’s Death
24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, "This is My
body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
The observance of the Passover in the Old Testament was a memorial of the
night when all of Israel's first born were saved or passed over. The observance
of Passover, as shown by this verse, is a memorial of the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ through which all of God's faithful believers, true Israelites are passed
over by the second death.
25 In the same way {He took} the cup also, after supper, saying, "This
cup is the new covenant in My blood; (the wine symbolizes His blood) do this, as
often as you drink {it,} in remembrance of Me."
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the
Lord's death until He comes.
How often do we observe this? Annually, on the same night in which he was
betrayed.
27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an
unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
This obviously means that you must understand the meaning of the body and
blood the Lord. It does not mean you have to be worthy of taking it. If you were
worthy you would not need it.
28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink
of the cup.
The problem with institutionalizing the Passover is that one or two or, at
most, a few take it upon themselves to examine and judge whether everybody else
is worthy of taking it. And you or I can’t do that. This is why it must be a
personal, individual decision.
29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he
does not judge the body rightly.
30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.
31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we should not be judged.
32 But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord in order that we
may not be condemned along with the world.
33 So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.
Be concerned for and interested in the well being of one another, not just in
yourself. In other words, love one another.
34 If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you may not come
together for judgment. And the remaining matters I shall arrange when I come.
(NAS)
Yes, fellow believers, Christ is our Passover. Let us begin to prepare
ourselves in attitude, by understanding the sacrifice of Christ, His body and
His blood, as well as in service, in prayer and love toward others. We don't
have to prepare a sacrificial Lamb. The Passover sacrifice is already prepared.
Christ has done that. We simply must have the right attitudes so that we can
receive it with humility and joy.
May God bless you as you seek to serve and follow Him.
|
Passover According to
Scripture 