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Passover Sabbath
Fred R. Coulter – April 19, 2008
This is before the
first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, so we have, as it were,
back-to-back Sabbaths because of the way that the Passover falls this year.
So therefore, last night we kept the Passover. Today we have a Sabbath and
tonight we have the Night Much to be Observed. And all of those things tie
in with a sequence where-then, when the Passover is on the Sabbath, then
this creates problems on how to count to Pentecost. So we can entitle this:
Count to Pentecost from the day after which Sabbath? Because there’s
great confusion on it and, as we saw with the children of Israel—a previous
sermon that we had just before the Feast, how that they entered into the
land officially on the tenth day of the first month, which was the day that
they selected the lambs for the Passover. And that they kept the Passover
and the Sabbath and then the first day of Unleavened Bread and the Wave
Sheaf Offering.
So let’s go back and
let’s review here from Exodus 12, the commands—and when you get your new
Bible you’ll be able to review it very clearly. You should be getting it
sometime after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now, let’s come to Exodus 12
and let’s read the account here, concerning the Passover that was given to
Israel, which then, as you know, reflects back to the time of the promises
that God gave to Abraham in making the covenant with him—as we find in
Genesis 15.
Exodus 12:1: “And the
LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, ‘This month
shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of
the year to you” (vs 1-2). Now that month is called ‘Abib’ which means
green ears or later it was called ‘Nisan.’ Now there is also a dispute
with this when we come to the green ears which we will cover when we
get to Leviticus 23, as to whether we should run over to Jerusalem or over
to the Holy land every year and watch the barley until it ripens. Well part
of the problem with that is: today we have a different climate than they did
then, so we don’t know what the climate was and we don’t know when it would
ripen. So, that is an aside.
Let’s continue on
here: So here are the instructions that God gave to Moses to give to the
children of Israel: “Speak to all the congregation of Israel… [Now, how did
he speak to all the congregation of Israel? What he did, he called the
elders and they would come to him and he would give them the instructions,
then they would go back and tell all the children of Israel—where they lived
in the land of Goshen. So that’s how they got the instructions. So here are
the instructions:] …saying, ‘In the tenth day of this month they shall take
to them each man a lamb for a father’s house, a lamb for a house. And if the
household is too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his
house take according to the number of the souls, each one, according to the
eating of his mouth, you shall count concerning the lamb. Your lamb shall be
without blemish… [And we know this is a type of Christ because John said,
‘Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.’ And it’s
interesting that it’s not sins, it is sin—because the
origin of sin comes for the human family from Adam and Eve and that passed
on into us by heredity with the judgment that God gave to Adam and Eve. So
He was the Lamb to take away the sin of the world.] …lamb shall be without
blemish a male of the first year. You shall take it from the sheep or
from the goats” (vs 3-5). So here’s a good use for goats in this particular
case.
“And you shall keep it
up until the beginning of the fourteenth day of the same month. And
the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it between the
two evenings” (v 6). Between the two evenings is after sunset on the 13th
and before dark on the 14th, because every day begins a sunset.
So here’s what they did: When the sun went down on the 13th,
beginning the 14th, that’s when they killed the lamb—at the
beginning of the Passover day. Now this is important for us to understand.
They had to do it at the beginning of the 14th, because at
midnight then God was going to pass through and kill the firstborn, and in
the morning they were to get up and to leave and assemble at Rameses. So
this takes away the possibility of the error that the Jews have now in
combining the Passover 14th and putting it on the 15th
and then extending the Feast to the 22nd instead of from the 14th
to the 21st, they have it from the 15th until the 22nd—and
they said that this was done on the night of the 15th, which is
not true. So if you don’t have the book, The Christian Passover, you
be sure and write in for it. This covers every one of these details plus
what I’m going to cover today in addition to it. But this is the most
thorough book ever done on the Passover—Old Testament and New Testament. And
in here contains vital knowledge as to about when to take the Passover, what
is the Passover, what is the purpose of it, what is the meaning of it in
God’s plan and then we also have a summary of that in a smaller book that we
send out—which now we’re ready for our fourth printing, entitle: The Day
Jesus, the Christ, Died. So you can review it in both of those books.
Now here’s what they
were to do [with] the lamb after they slay it, it says: “…you shall keep it
up until…” (v 6). Not through the day until the beginning of the 15th.
‘Until’ means at the beginning. ‘Between the two evenings’ means
between sunset and dark. So when that time came, all the children of
Israel were ready because they had picked out the lamb on the tenth. And
then the head of the house slit the throat of the lamb, drained the blood,
put the blood in a basin and then they skinned it and they gutted it and
then they put back in the kidneys and the heart and the liver and then they
roasted it with fire, with bitter herbs.
Now, one important
thing to understand here: This Passover day for Israel was not the day of
establishing the Old Covenant. The Passover that Jesus instituted in His
last Passover IS a covenant day and that day goes clear back to the covenant
day between God and Abraham in Exodus 15—which I thoroughly cover in the
Passover book and in The Day Jesus, the Christ, Died.
Now here’s what they
were to do: “And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the
two side posts and upon the upper door post of the houses in which
they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night… [Which then,
as soon as it was skinned and gutted, they had the fire ready to go, they
put it on there, and were rolling it like a big rotisserie to roast the
lamb. It was to be]: …roasted with fire… [and we’ll see a little bit later
here, in just a minute, not with water. They weren’t to boil it.] …they
shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened
bread” They shall eat
it with bitter herbs.” (vs
7-8).
Now ‘unleavened bread’
I want you to mark that because the question becomes—one of the subsidiary
questions—becomes this: Can you, in eating the Passover, eat leavened bread
during the day-portion of the Passover. Humm! Well, I’ve even been accused
of making eight days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread—OhHo! But what does
the Bible teach? Is the Passover day an unleavened bread day, or is it a
partial unleavened bread day only for the eating of the Passover? And then
on the day portion you can eat leaven? Well, let’s see as we go through the
account here. Did the children of Israel stop and eat leavened bread any
place along the way? Well, the answer is no! Obviously they
didn’t eat any leavened bread all that night, because they had unleavened
bread. And what did they pack up in their satchels and in their packs so
they could eat along the way? They had unleavened bread! So it
was not possible to have the eating of any kind of leaven on the day portion
of the Passover when the children of Israel kept the Passover in Egypt. And
as I’ve jokingly said before, there are no MacDonalds or Wendy’s or
whatever. Now there may have been a Taco Bell—no, just kidding!
Let’s go on. Now here
are the other specific instructions: “They shall eat it with bitter
herbs. Do not eat of it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted
with fire, its head with its legs, and with its inward parts…. [That’s
the edible pertinence. You can’t cook any animal with all of the guts and
intestines in it—because what’ll happen is, it heats it will explode—and it
would be unclean anyway. So that could not mean all the entrails, but just
the edible portion of the heart and the kidneys and the liver.] …And you
shall not let any of it remain until the morning” (vs 8-10).
Now, let’s understand
very clearly what ‘morning’ means. Let’s come over here—just turn the page
to…let’s see what Moses told the elders, v 21: “Then Moses called for all
the elders of Israel and said to them, “Draw out and take a lamb for
yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb.
And you shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip in the blood that is in
the bowl, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood in the
bowl. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until [morning]
sunrise…” (vs 21-22). Now that Scripture destroys the theory that they left
at midnight as soon as the firstborn were killed. Here’s a specific command:
Don’t go out of the door of your house until morning! And you think about
all the terrible screams and cries when the power of God came through and
killed all the firstborn of man and beast in every house, even in the
dungeons, even in the jails. Do you think anyone would go out of their
houses before morning? No you probably think you’d be killed!
Verse 23: “For
the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians. And when He sees the
blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over
the door, and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to
strike you. And you shall observe this thing as a law to you and to
your children forever” (vs 23-24). And the meaning of the Passover in the
Old Testament was this: God passed over the houses of the children of Israel
on midnight of the 14th day of first month. Now they did not
leave their houses until morning, and then they assembled at Rameses and
they began the Exodus as the 15th day began as the 14th
was ending. Now we’ll see that in just a minute. Just to clarify and get our
bearings here.
“And this is the way
you shall eat it: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet,
and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in trepidation…. [Not in
haste.] …It is the LORD’S Passover… [Always remember
that. It belongs to the Lord, not the Jews, not the Hebrews, not the
Christians, etc.] …For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and
will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And I
will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD”
(vs 11-12). So in giving His judgment against all the gods of Egypt, and
where do all of the pagan gods come from? but Egypt and Babylon.
And people go back to that and they think, ‘Oh, this is wonderful, this is
great, this is marvelous. But what did God say? He’s already judged them as
what? Dumb, stupid idols or demonic, satanic spirits. He has judged
them.
Then He says, “I am
the LORD.” Or you go through and read it this way: You don’t argue with God.
You don’t want to come up and say, ‘Oh God, don’t you think you ought to do
it this way?’ Don’t argue with God lest you become a grease spot. I mean and
think of all…because we saw this in the sermon, too, didn’t we: the
confirmation through history of how all of the plagues in Egypt really did
occur and they were recorded by Egyptian scribes. So at this point, no one
with the children of Israel was going to argue with God. No one was going to
tell any of the elders who came back from Moses and told him you do this and
you do that and you do the other thing. No, un-ah—“yes sir! Right away,
we’ll make sure it’s done!”
Verse 13: And the
blood shall be a sign to you upon the houses where you are. And when
I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the plague shall
not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. And
this day [Passover day] shall be a memorial to you. And you shall keep it a
feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast as
a law forever” (vs 13-14). That’s the Passover day—then begins the Feast of
Unleavened Bread for seven days. So he gives the instructions there for what
they were to do for the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Now, let’s come over
here to v 37 and let’s see what happened when the children of Israel left.
And another thing that people have accused the Church of God of doing, for
having the Night to be Much Observed—which we’ll observe tonight—that that
is something that was added by man. Well, they just don’t read their Bibles,
yet, making decision and judgment against God on what they think they think
the Bible says, based upon their own feelings and emotions and religious
prejudice. They’re not willing to be as the Bereans and to study the
Scriptures to prove all of these things.
Let’s come here to v
28, first: “And the children of Israel went away and did as the LORD had
commanded Moses and Aaron; so they did…. [Yup! No dissenters, no rebellion
here. That came later.] …And it came to pass at midnight… [just as He said]
…the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt from the firstborn
of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the captive that
was in the prison, also all the firstborn of livestock. And Pharaoh rose
up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians. And there
was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was
not one dead. And during the night he sent word [a message] to Moses and
Aaron…” (vs 28-31). Moses didn’t leave. If God said, ‘Don’t leave your house
until the morning, Moses didn’t get up because Pharaoh summoned him.
As a matter of fact,
if you go back here and you read Exodus 10:27, the last time that he spoke
to Pharaoh: “But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let
them go. And Pharaoh said to him, ‘Get away from me! Take heed to yourself!
See my face no more, for in the day you see my face you shall die’…. [What
was Moses’ answer?] …And Moses said, ‘You have spoken well. I will never see
your face again’” (vs 27-29). So Moses and Aaron didn’t go back to Pharaoh.
The message was sent: ‘Get out of here!’ So that’s what they did.
Back to Exodus 12:31:
“…‘Rise up! Get away from my people, both you and the children of Israel!
And go serve the LORD, as you have said. Also take your flocks and your
herds, as you have said, and be gone. And bless me also’…. [Isn’t that the
way it always is with the hardened criminals? They become absolute cowards
and want blessings when the going gets rough against them. ‘Don’t
shoot!’—they say today.] …And the Egyptians were urging the people, that
they might send them out of the land quickly…” (vs 31-33).
Now let’s just answer
a question here: Did they leave Egypt the day they started to leave? No,
they were on their way out of Egypt. But since God was taking them, it
was good as being already out of Egypt as far as God was concerned. But the
fact that they were leaving, they were on their way.
“And the Egyptians
were urging the people, that they might send them out of the land quickly,
for they said, ‘We are all dead men’…. [Because they didn’t know if
it was going to happen again the next night. So you never know, especially
after all the other plagues as we have seen. You don’t know what’s going to
happen.] …And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their
kneadingtroughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders…. [So
they didn’t have any leavened bread. Do you see any place here where during
the day the children of Israel begged leavened bread from the Egyptians so
they could have a last bite of leavened bread before the Feast of Unleavened
Bread begins? No!] …And the children of Israel did according to the
word of Moses. And they…[they didn’t borrow, they took spoil] …asked for
articles of silver, and articles of gold, and clothing from the Egyptians.
And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and they
granted their request, and they stripped the Egyptians” (vs 33-36).
Now, here’s a key:
-
They had the Passover.
-
They killed a lamb at the beginning of
the 14th.
-
God passed through the land of Egypt
and smote the firstborn.
-
They stayed in their houses until
morning—which then is the beginning of the rising of the sun.
-
They all left, gathered together, came
to Rameses—because the land of Goshen was close to Rameses. And so then
they all assembled there to begin the exodus on the day portion of the
14th.
Now notice: “And the
children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, the men being about
six hundred thousand on foot, apart from little ones. And also a mixed
multitude went up with them, and flocks and herds, very much livestock. And
they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought out of Egypt,
for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not
stay, neither had they prepared any food for themselves for the journey…” (vs
37-39). Just unleavened bread.
Now, that was a
summary, now let’s see it a little more in detail. And let’s see the
historical account, which refers back to the promise that God gave to
Abraham 430 years earlier. Verse 40: Now the sojourning of the children of
Israel in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years, And it came to
pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, it was even on that
very same day, all the armies of the LORD went out from the land of
Egypt…. [ Notice v 42] …It is a night… [So they went
out that night. Deut. 16 says they left by night. Now that could not be the
14th, it had to be the 15th, the first day of the
Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now notice carefully—no one snuck this into your
Bible last night before you began reading it today]: …It is a
night to be much observed to the LORD for bringing them out from the land of
Egypt. This is that night of the LORD to be observed by all the
children of Israel in their generations” (vs 40-42). Now, nothing could
be more clear than that.
Let’s come to the count concerning
Pentecost. Let’s come here to Leviticus 23, and let’s see the command that
God gave them. Now we know, in Exodus 16—as we’re turning here to Leviticus
23—we know that God sent the manna and they had manna every day the rest of
the 40-years that they were wandering in the wilderness. Now, you talk about
hard to convince people, you would think that it would be so ingrained to
keep the Sabbath because of the manna coming six days, five days you only
gathered what you needed every day; the sixth day you gathered for the sixth
day and the Sabbath day and nobody did any work on the Sabbath. You would
think that after 40-years they would have learned the lesson concerning the
Sabbath and would keep the Sabbath automatically. But human nature isn’t
that way. Even there have been people in the Church of God for decades, who
have forgotten the Sabbath. So that didn’t teach them anything.
So when we come to the
commandments given here, concerning the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and now
another special event that was going to take place during the Feast of
Unleavened Bread and that’s why this year is so important; because when you
have the Passover day is on the Sabbath with the Passover ceremony observed
the night before, then the day after the Passover becomes the first day of
Unleavened Bread—a Holy Day. That’s on the first day of the week; while the
last day of Unleavened Bread is the following Sabbath. So you don’t have any
day after the Sabbath or “morrow after the Sabbath” during the seven
days of Unleavened Bread when the Passover day falls on a Sabbath.
So what is the answer? Some answer by
saying, “Well, you count from the last Sabbath which is the last Holy Day
and that becomes the Wave Sheaf Offering Day.” Well, you develop a great
problem because that puts it outside the days of Unleavened Bread. So what
is the answer to the problem? How is this solved? Well, let’s read the
instructions first here, and then we will see, sure enough, the answer comes
in the New Testament. And you will have to re-think that the Passover day is
not an unleavened bread day. So we’ll get there.
All right, let’s come
to Leviticus 23:6 [transcriber’s correction]: “And on the
fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread…
[That’s when it begins. That’s not the whole Feast, that’s the beginning.]
…to the LORD. You must eat unleavened bread seven days…. [It’s been a long
time since I had a question—someone say: ‘Do we have to eat unleavened bread
every day?’ Well, if the Feast is seven days and it says you’re to eat it
seven days, yes you’re to eat it every day during Unleavened Bread, right?]
…On the first day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any
servile work therein, But you shall offer a fire offering to the
LORD seven days. In the seventh day is a holy convocation. You shall
do no servile work therein” (vs 6-8). We know these Scriptures.
Let’s come to v 9 and
let’s see the special ceremony that was to take place during the Feast of
Unleavened Bread. It could not take place after the Feast of Unleavened
Bread, because if it did, then you would not be able to have any of the new
grain for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So let’s read it: “And the LORD
spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, “When
you have come into the land… [Now, they had to come into the land that
God promised them. Couldn’t take place before, there was no wave sheaf
offering ceremony during the wilderness trek of 40-years.] …When you have
come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap the harvest of it…”
(vs 9-10).
Some have said, ‘Well,
this harvest—they couldn’t use this harvest—so they had to do it the next
year because the unclean hands of a Gentile planted it; so therefore, the
grain is unclean.’ No, when they came in and took over the land on the
eastside of the Jordan, that was their land then. So the truth is, it
doesn’t matter who planted it, because when you put the grain in ground,
what happens? When it begins to sprout that grain is used for the first
food-source for the spouting of the new plant. And the heads that come up
did not have any unclean hands touching it. So that’s an auspicious
argument. So it was of the harvest thereof—that is of the land—and they came
into the land and it was in the spring of the land. And, as a matter of
fact, it was in the first month of the land and they kept the Passover in
Gilgal. So, let’s continue reading here—notice what it says:
“…then you shall bring
the premier sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest….
[and this means the premiere sheaf of the firstfruits. And as we know, the
wave sheaf offering is a type of Christ. We thoroughly cover that in the
Passover book.] (Now, here are the instructions): …And he [the priest] shall
wave the sheaf before the LORD to be accepted for you. On the next day after
the Sabbath the priest shall wave it” (vs 10-11). Now that’s the day after
the Sabbath. Now here’s an interesting thing with the Hebrew. ‘The Sabbath’
means the weekly Sabbath—and in the Hebrew is ‘ha shabat’—which means
the sabbath. So this has to be the weekly Sabbath. Now, the
Pharisees, because they changed it to the first Holy Day, they don’t begin
to count to Pentecost until the 16th. And since it’s on a fixed
day of the week, they don’t do any counting. It just automatically comes out
on the sixth of Sivan. And that makes counting nonsensical, but if you will
go back—I think we did it last year for Pentecost—we showed the four
different ways of counting Pentecost based upon how the Passover fell in the
week preceding. So, go back and review that. Now here’s the ‘morrow after
the Sabbath.’ So a Holy Day is never called ‘ha shabat.’ Holy Day is only
called ‘shabat.’ And you can read that here in the rest of Leviticus 23
where it talks of the Feast of Trumpets: ‘you shall have a
Sabbath.’ And the Day of Atonement is: ‘a Sabbath.’ And the
first day of the Feast of Tabernacles is: ‘a Sabbath.’ And the
Last great Day is: ‘a Sabbath.’ But here they were to count
from ‘the Sabbath’—which had to be the weekly Sabbath.
Now many times there
is a weekly Sabbath between the first and last Holy Days of the Feast of
Unleavened Bread. When the Passover falls on a Wednesday, then the Sabbath
comes at a natural place and the next day after that is the first day of the
count. But this year where you have the Passover falling on the Sabbath,
being observed the night before, now there is no Sabbath in between the
first Holy Day and the last Holy Day. So how do you solve that problem? And
from which day do you begin counting? Now you don’t count the Sabbath,
because it’s after the Sabbath. All right, let’s go forward. One
other thing we need to cover here, which is in the Passover book as well as
the booklet that we’re sending you: Count Pentecost, the Morrow After
Which Sabbath?—which you probably should already have—so you can go back
and review it there. The custom was to have a special place up on the Mt. of
Olives where they planted the barley for the wave sheaf offering. And they
would cut it right as the sun set on the 14th, just before it
began the 15th day. They would take this sheaf, bring it up and
lay it up along side the altar at the temple to be waved on the day after
the regular Sabbath, during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Now, the thing to
understand is this: since you don’t count the Sabbath, it is the first day
of the week—the morrow after the Sabbath—which begins the count. So you must
have the first day of the week within the Feast of Unleavened
Bread. Therefore, if you count from the last Sabbath you are outside the
Feast of Unleavened Bread. So this brings up the question: Is the Passover
day then an unleavened bread day? Well, we saw in the first Passover, with
the children of Israel, it had to be an unleavened bread day just from the
fact they ate unleavened bread for the Passover meal and they carried
unleavened bread and their kneading troughs with them as they were leaving.
So they couldn’t have eaten anything other than unleavened bread.
All right let’s
continue on here and see how we are to count Pentecost. All right, now
here’s another instruction—v 14—very important: “And you shall eat neither
bread, nor parched grain, nor green ears until the same day, until you have
brought an offering to your God. It shall be a statute forever
throughout your generations in all your dwellings.” So they had absolutely
no bread of any kind all during the wanderings until they came into the land
and the wave sheaf offering was waved. Now, we’ll see that in just a minute.
Now, here’s how they
were to count: “And you shall count to you beginning with the next day after
the Sabbath, beginning with the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave
offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete…. [Now, the ‘morrow after the
Sabbath’ means this: beginning with the day after the Sabbath you shall
number your count—beginning with. And when you number, it is
different than adding and subtracting. You begin with the day that you are
on and it has to be beginning with the first day of the week during the
Feast of Unleavened Bread, because that’s the day when the wave sheaf
offering was to be waved.] (And it says): …Even unto the day after the
seventh Sabbath you shall number fifty days” (vs 15-16). Now, the day after
the seventh Sabbath can never be Monday. Now, some people
still keep a Monday Pentecost, because of an error by someone in counting.
It’s never on a Monday. The day after the Sabbath has always
got to be the first day of the week, which today is called ‘Sunday.’ And
that’s when Pentecost was to be observed, and it’s counting 50 days, seven
complete weeks ending in a Sabbath, plus one day, brings you to the first
day of the week.
Now, let’s come back
here to Exodus 13. Let’s see something else that had to be done in order to
prepare for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Exodus 13:5—it says there,
summarized: when you come into the land “you shall keep this service in this
month. (v 6): You shall eat unleavened bread seven days, and in the seventh
day there shall be a feast to the LORD. Unleavened bread shall be
eaten seven days. And there shall be no leavened bread seen with you, nor
shall there be leaven seen with you in all your borders.”
Now, today we don’t
have a comprehension or an understanding of what it was like to unleaven a
whole country. We can unleaven our homes. We can get rid of all the leaven,
get it out of the house, get it gone, and that’s the end of it. Now think
about unleavening the whole town in which you live, or the whole city in
which you live. Now, you can’t start doing this on the 14th!
Be an impossibility! What are you going to do with the bakeries?
What are you going to do with all of the bread that is still not eaten, that
is leavened, which you can’t have any for seven days? How did the Jews
handle it?
All right let’s pick
it up here and see how they did it. This is from Unger’s Bible Dictionary:
“Of Festivals” [Here’s how they did it, they had a procedure.]:
On the 13th
of Nisan: On the evening of the 13th—which is that until the 14th—was
called the ‘preparation of the Passover,’ every head of the family searched
for and collected, by the light of candle, all the leaven. Before the
beginning of the search he pronounced the following benediction: “Blessed
are you oh Lord, our God, King of the Universe, Who has sanctified with us
Your commandments and enjoined us to remove the leaven.’ After the search he
said, ‘Whatever leaven remains in my possession, which I cannot see, behold
it is null and is accounted as the dust.”
So here’s what they did.
Other Rabbinical
writings reveal that by 10 o’clock on the morning of the 14th
[that’s for those who kept the 15th Passover] all leaven had to
be burned.
So just carry that
over, it all had to be burned on the morning of the 14th, so
there would be no way to eat leavened bread the rest of the Passover day.
You didn’t eat leavened bread that night—you had unleavened bread with the
Passover. So they took all the leaven and burned it by no later than 10
o’clock the next morning. Now, the same procedure would be one day earlier
for those who then kept the Passover on the 14th with a domestic
Passover.
Now, let’s understand
something about another name for the Passover day which has to do with
unleavened bread.
(go to the next
section)
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