CHRIST IN THE PASSOVER #1
by Ceil and Moishe Rosen (a book puiblished in 1978)
WHY PASSOVER?
When Abraham, the first Hebrew, left Ur of the Chaldees to
follow the call of the living God, he sacrificed a life of
comfort and ease. Ur was no village. It was one of the oldest,
most important cities of Mesopotamia, covering an area of about
four square miles by the Euphrates River, which empties into the
Persian Gulf. The citizens of Ur, numbering well over half a
million, lived in walled safety. They enjoyed the advantages of
the highest culture and civilization of their time. They took
particular pride in the outstanding architecture of their
temples, which they built in honor of their numerous deities, and
in the fact that their city was the center of worship for: the
popular moon-godreligion.
From the comfort, advantages, and sophistication of Ur,
Jehovah called Abraham and his family to a seminomadic way of
life. They were not nomads in spirit, for they had God's promise
of the land; but, in fact, they did not possess it. They wandered
with the seasons, seeking pasture for their flocks, but they also
tilled the ground. Tents were their only shelter from the
scorching sun and cruel desert wind, but they buried their dead
in permanent caves, an act of faith that showed they believed
that one day the land really would be theirs. They trusted God
for future stability and a permanent home, but they knew it was
not yet time.
Then a great drought and famine drove Jacob, a grandson of
Abraham, to leave Canaan for the promise of food in Egypt. Once
again the seed of Abraham dismantled their tents. Packing all
that they had acquired and their scant remaining food and water
supply, they headed south with their wives, their little ones,
and their flocks. For Joseph's sake, Pharaoh welcomed Jacob and
his sons as honored guests, laying Egypt's resources at their
feet and giving them the land of Goshen for their dwelling place
(Genesis 47:6). Goshen was a fertile area along the delta of the
Nile River, lying in the northeast portion of an area between
what is now Cairo to the southeast and Alexandria to the
northwest. Here the Hebrews felt respected and secure.
EGYPT IS OUR HOME-WHY BOTHER ABOUT CANAAN?
Because of the devastating drought that drove Jacob to seek
refuge in Egypt, most of the Egyptians were starving also. Many
sold their cattle, their land, and finally themselves to Pharaoh
in exchange for food. But Jacob's sons flourished and prospered.
Because the pharaohs of that time were of Semitic descent, they
favored the seed of Abraham, who also were Semites. For the first
time since Abraham left Ur, the Hebrews enjoyed a feeling of
permanence. They lived a quiet, secure, pastoral life in Goshen.
The Nile overflowed its banks once a year, bringing life-giving
water to the earth. There was lush, abundant pasture for the
flocks, and rich soil to grow their food.
Here the Hebrews watched their children grow tall and brown
in the sun. At night they slept in safety, with no desert wind
howling through the solid walls of their adobe homes. No longer
did they awake to the distressed bleating of hungry flocks, a
signal that once again they must move on. Their Egyptian
neighbors were people of high morals and advanced culture. Not
only did they produce literature and music, but they also knew
mathematics and a degree of the healing arts, and many were
skilled architects. They accepted the Hebrews as equals and even
bestowed high honors on some of them. Life was pleasant indeed.
In this situation the descendants of Abraham prospered for
hundreds of years. Exodus 1:9 indicates that they multiplied so
fast that a later pharaoh grew concerned that there were more
Hebrews than Egyptians in the land. The children of Israel were
so comfortable and secure that it was easy to forget that Egypt
was not the land God had promised to their fathers. Maybe some of
them even forgot God Himself.
O LORD, FORGIVE OUR COMPLACENCY-GET US OUT OF HERE!
For the seed of Abraham, Egypt had been a volcano
threatening to erupt. For more than four hundred years they lived
at the edge of that volcano without knowing it. Now the volcano
erupted and its flames threatened to consume them, for there
arose a new pharaoh who "knew not Joseph" (Exodus 1:9). Fearing
the strength and power of the vast multitude of Hebrew
foreigners, he turned against them and made them his serfs. The
children of Israel continued to live in Goshen, but the land no
longer belonged to them. Now they belonged to the land, to Egypt,
and to the pharaoh, who was Egypt. They had to serve him with
backbreaking labor, sweating in the fields, building his treasure
cities, without recompense or even dignity. There were no
problems with labor relations, no labor-management arbitrations.
Pharoah owned everything and everyone. He appointed taskmasters,
foremen to make sure that the proper amount of work was done.
When Pharaoh decided to oppress the Hebrews, he simply ordered
the taskmasters to give them more work than they could do. Life
was cheap in Egypt. If a man dropped from exhaustion, the
taskmasters left him to die and quickly whipped another into line
to take his place.
Under the cruel pharaoh, the children of Israel toiled and
suffered, but still they grew in numbers. Enraged, Pharaoh
ordered the Hebrews' male babies murdered so that the entire
nation would eventually die. Then the Israelites remembered the
God of their fathers. At last they recognized their need to be
rescued. They needed to be delivered, not only from Pharaoh, but
from Egypt itself. They cried out to God in their bondage and
distress, and He heard their anguished pleas. Now that they were
ready for His help, He remembered His covenant with Abraham, with
Isaac, and with Jacob. Deliverance was near.
Egypt to the Hebrews had become comfort and complacency
outside God's providence. The covenant Jehovah made with Abraham
was two-sided. On God's part, He promised the land (Genesis
15:18): on Abraham's part, he and his seed were to bear the
physical marks of the covenant-circumcision (Genesis 17: 10). The
Hebrews did remember to circumcise while they were in Egypt
(Joshua 5:5), but they prevented God from fulfilling the covenant
by not seeking the land He had promised. They broke the spirit of
the covenant. They needed to be redeemed, to be "deemed again"
the people of the covenant, the people of God.
Jehovah could have slain the wicked pharaoh in an instant to
alleviate the sufferings of His people. He could have brought
about a new, more favorable order in Egypt. But that would not
have been enough. The sons of Jacob had to forsake Egypt in order
to serve the living God. Old things, old attitudes, old
affections had to pass away - all things had to become new. The
Bible teaches that a person cannot see the Kingdom of God until
he is spiritually born again (John 3:3). So the nation of Israel
also needed a new beginning, a new birth. Thus the redemption at
Passover prepared the sons of Jacob for another covenant to be
made at Sinai, which would reestablish and reaffirm them as the
nation of God.
The Passover redemption from Egypt changed Israel's
reckoning of time. 1 God commanded the Hebrews to count the
month of the deliverance from Egypt as the first month of the
year. He was saying, in effect, "This event is so historic that
you are to rearrange your calendar because of it." They were to
count their existence as a people from the month of Nisan. (Even
so, we of modern time mark our history B.C. and A.D., basing our
calendar on Calvary, the pivot point of God's dealings with
humanity through the Messiah.) And thus, with this new beginning
to occur shortly, Israel, the great nation that God had promised
to its father, Abraham, was about to become reality.
......
1 By tradition, the Jewish people celebrate the fiscal New Year
in the fall, in the seventh month of the Jewish calendar; but the
religious calendar begins in Nisan, the first month.
......
In order to carry out His plan to redeem His people from
Egypt, Jehovah chose a man who was, in many ways, as much an
Egyptian as he was a Hebrew. Moses was born an Israelite. The
blood of Abraham flowed in his veins, but he grew to manhood in
the palace of Pharaoh's daughter. As an infant he was raised by
his Hebrew mother, but he learned worldly wisdom from Egyptian
schoolmasters. God chose him to deliver Israel, to show to all
that "the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and
Israel" (Exodus 11:7b).
As a young man, Moses fled Egypt in disgrace under penalty
of death. When God called him to lead Israel out of bondage, he
had been away from Egypt's culture and sophistication for forty
years. Long ago he had given up his princely robes for the rough
garb of a shepherd. Now he stood before the successor to the
pharaoh who had sought his life. His eyes blazed from his
weather-beaten face with the fire of the living God, whom he had
encountered in the wilderness. His hand, calloused by the
shepherd's crook, wielded a miraculous staff. His lips formed the
syllables of the holy NAME as he confronted Pharaoh with the
words of the Lord: "Let my people go'"
When Pharaoh refused, the Lord demonstrated His might by
bringing down judgment on Egypt's false gods. Through Moses, He
turned the waters into blood, showing His power over the Nile,
which the Egyptians worshiped as the sustainer of life. He
darkened the sky, proclaiming His superiority over the sun-god,
Ra. He made pests of the frogs, which the Egyptians respected as
controllers of the undesirable insects that followed the annual
overflow of the great river.
The Lord poured out plague after plague; still Pharaoh
hardened his heart. God ruined the Egyptians' crops with hail and
locusts, killed their cattle with disease, and afflicted the
people with painful boils, loathsome vermin, and thick darkness.
Calamities threatened Egypt's prosperity on every side, but the
Israelites were spared. Pharaoh hardened his heart even further,
however, and now the cup of iniquity was full. God had said to
Pharaoh through Moses: "Israel is my son.... Let my son go, that
he may serve me; and if thou refuse.... I will slay thy son, even
thy firstborn" (Exodus 4:22-23). Now He determined to break the
iron will of Egypt with one last plague. The specter of death was
to fly by night over the land, breaking the cycle of life,
interrupting the line of inheritance, bringing tragedy to every
home where Jehovah was not feared and obeyed.
Although their redemption was at the door, the Israelites
were not automatically exempt from this last plague. God tempered
His final judgment on Egypt with mercy and perfect provision -
the substitution of a life for a life.
"In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them
every man a lamb.... a lamb for an house.... and ye shall keep it
up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and.... kill
it.... And ... take of the blood, and strike it on the two side
posts and on the upper door post of the houses. For I will pass
through the land of Egypt and will smite all the firstborn....
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses.... and
when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall
not be upon you (Exodus 12:3-7,12-13).
THE WORD "PASSOVER"
The verb "pass over" has a deeper meaning here than the idea
of stepping or leaping over something to avoid contact. It is not
the common Hebrew verb, "a-bhar," or "gabhar," which is
frequently used in that sense. The word used here is "pesah,"
from which comes the noun "pesah," which is translated Passover.
These words have no connection with any other Hebrew word, but
they do resemble the Egyptian word "pesh," which means "to spread
wings over" in order to protect. Arthur W. Pink, in his book
"Gleanings in Exodus," sheds further light on this. Quoting from
Urquhart, he states:
The word is used ... in this sense in Isa.31:5: 'As birds
flying, so will the Lord of Hosts defend Jerusalem;
defending also He will deliver it; and passing over
('pasoach,' participle of 'pesach') He will preserve it. The
word has, consequently, the very meaning of the Egyptian
term for 'spreading the wings over', and 'protecting'; and
pesach, the Lord's Passover, means such sheltering and
protection as is found under the outstretched wings of the
Almighty. Does this not give a new fulness to those words
... 'O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have gathered
thy children together, as a hen does gather her brood under
her wings' (Luke 13:34) ? ... this term 'pesach' is applied
(1) to the ceremony ... and (2) to the lamb.... The slain
lamb, the sheltering behind its blood and the eating of its
flesh, constituted the 'pesach,' the protection of God's
chosen people beneath the sheltering wings of the Almighty
... It was not merely that the Lord passed by the houses of
the Israelites, but that He stood on guard, 'protecting'
each blood-sprinkled door! [The LORD ... will not suffer the
destroyer to come in (Exodus 12:23b).] 1
God includes everyone in the death sentence in Exodus 11:5:
"All the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die." God must do
the right thing because He is God, but He balances His
righteousness with His loving mercy. He decrees judgment for all
sin and all sinners; then He provides a way of escape, a
'kiporah' or covering. When the rain falls from above, it falls
on everyone. But those who have an umbrella do not become wet.
For those who seek His way to satisfy the demands of His Law, God
provides an umbrella of safety. In His judgment of Egypt, He
provided the umbrella of the blood of the Passover lamb.
Israe's redemption began that night behind the sanctuary of
those blood-sprinkled doors. It was a night of horror and grief
for anyone who had foolishly disregarded God's command; it was a
long, dark night of awesome vigil mixed with hope for the
obedient. Perhaps they heard wails of anguish from outside as the
grim reaper went from house to house; perhaps there was only
thick, ominous silence. They knew that terror and death lay
outside that door, which they dared not open until morning. But
within was safety.
It was a night of judgment, but the substitutionary death of
the Passover lamb brought forgiveness to God's people, Israel. It
washed away 430 years of Egypt's contamination. The blood of the
lamb protected them from the wrath of the Almighty. Its roasted
flesh nourished their bodies with strength for the long, perilous
journey ahead. They ate in haste, loins girded, staff in hand,
shoes on their
......
1 Arthur W. Pink, "Gleanings in Exodus," p.93.
......
feet, prepared to leave at any moment at God's command. In that
awe-filled night of waiting, they experienced Jehovah's loving
protection, even in the midst of the unleashing of His fierce
judgment. They learned new trust, a trust that was deep enough to
see them through another black night soon to come. They would
stand at the edge of the churning waves of the Red Sea with the
entire host of angry Egyptians at their backs, and they would
trust the words of Moses: "Stand still, and see the salvation of
the LORD" (Exodus 14:13).
The Lord often works on behalf of His people when things
look darkest. In the words of the psalmist, "Weeping may endure
for a night, but joy cometh in the morning" (Psalm 30:5). And so
the morning came, and with it abounding joy and freedom.
Thus, out of His mercy, and because He would keep His
covenant with the fathers, the Lord rescued Israel. It was a new
birth, a new beginning. This time the seed of Abraham must not
forget their commitment to the Holy One of Israel; they must not
forget His promises. They must remember that He brought them out
of Egypt with a strong hand and with His outstretched arm.
.....................
To be continued
Christ in the Passover #2God's Passover Lessons CHRIST IN THE PASSOVER #2
PASSOVER, GOD'S OBJECT LESSON
The Lord's redemption of Israel needed to be stamped
indelibly on the minds and hearts of future generations. He
intended that the ancient experience should have a lasting effect
on His people; its importance must be reinforced with regularity
for all time.
Yet how can a people best remember its history? Books and
scrolls capture only the interest of the scholarly; in time,
words lose their meaning. God, the master Teacher, devised the
perfect method. He commanded the annual reenactment of that first
Passover night, a ceremony that would appeal through the senses
to each person of every generation. Even as we teach little
children today through object lessons, Jehovah took everyday acts
of seeing, bearing, smelling, tasting, and touching and made them
His allies in teaching holy truths to His people.
LAMB
God began His object lesson to Israel with the Passover
lamb. First, the people had to single out from their flocks the
handsomest, healthiest looking yearling. An animal of this age,
just approaching the prime of its life, was frisky and winsome.
Then the family had to watch it carefully for four days before
the Passover to make sure it was healthy and perfect in every
way. During this period of close observation, they fed and cared
for the lamb and grew accustomed to having it around the house.
By the end of the fourth day, it must have won the affection of
the entire household, especially the children. Now they all must
avoid its big, innocent eyes as the head of the house prepared to
plunge in the knife to draw its life's blood. They did not have
meat very often in ancient times, but how could they enjoy eating
the lamb's flesh? The lesson was painfully sad: God's holiness
demands that He judge sin, and the price is costly indeed. But He
is also merciful and provides a way of escape (redemption).
The innocent Passover lamb foreshadowed the One who would come
centuries later to be God's final means of atonement and
redemption. The parallels are striking.
THE PASSOVER LAMB WAS MARKED
OUT FOR DEATH
In Isaiah 53:7 is the prophecy that the Messiah will be led
as a lamb to the slaughter; 1 Peter 1:19-20 says Jesus was
foreordained to die before the foundation of the world.
THEY WATCHED THE PASSOVER LAMB
TO SEE THAT IT WAS PERFECT
According to Deuteronomy 15:21, only that which is perfect can
make atonement. Jesus the Messiah presented Himself to Israel in
public ministry for three years and showed Himself perfect in
heart and deed toward the Father. Even Pilate found no fault in
Him. Hebrews 4:15 says that He was tempted (tested) in all
points, yet was without sin; 1 Peter 1:19 describes Him as a Lamb
without blemish or spot.
THEY ROASTED THE PASSOVER
LAMB WITH FIRE
Fire in Scripture speaks of God's judgment. Isaiah the
prophet foretold that the Messiah would bear the sins of many, be
wounded for sins not His own, be stricken with God's judgment,
and be numbered with transgressors. As Jesus the Messiah suffered
the fire of God's wrath and judgment, He cried out from the
cross: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew
27:46). Second Corinthians 5:21 says: "He [God] hath made him
[Christ] to be sin for us ... that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him."
NOT A BONE OF THE PASSOVER
LAMB WAS BROKEN
The Roman soldiers did not break the legs of Jesus the
Messiah as they did the legs of the other two men crucified
beside Him.
Redemption through the death of the Passover lamb was
personal as well as national. Even so, salvation must be a
personal event. In Exodus 12:3, the commandment is to take a
lamb, a nebulous, unknown entity, nothing special; in Exodus
12:4, God says "the" lamb. Now he is known, unique, set apart.
Finally, in Exodus 12:5, God specifies, "your" lamb; each
redeemed soul must appropriate the lamb for himself. Arthur Pink
quotes Galatians 2:20 to apply this truth to faith in the
Messiah: "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God [the Messiah], who loved me, and gave
himself for me." 1
The New Testament refers to Jesus the Messiah more than
thirty times as the Lamb of God. Faith and trust in the sacrifice
of God's Lamb make a person or a nation belong to God. Exodus
12:41 calls the people of Israel the "hosts of the LORD," not the
hosts of Israel. Redeemed by the blood of the Passover lamb, they
truly belonged then to God.
......
1 Arthur W. Pink, Gleanings in Exodus, pp. 89-90.
......
THE BITTER HERBS
With bitter herbs they shall eat it (Exodus 12:8).
Jehovah commanded the Israelites to eat the Passover Lamb with
bitter herbs. The first symbolism that comes to mind is the
obvious one - the hardships which the Israelites endured under
the whips of Pharaoh's taskmasters. But there is a deeper lesson
as well. Bitterness in Scripture often speaks of death. The
bitter herbs are a reminder that the firstborn children of the
people of Israel lived because the Passover lambs died. God
created man to gain life through death, to receive physical
sustenance from the death of something that once was alive, be it
plant or animal. Even so, the believer in the Messiah Jesus
receives new life through His death as the Lamb of God.
Bitterness in Scripture also speaks of mourning. Zechariah 12:10
prophesies that one day Israel as a nation will weep and be in
bitterness of deepest mourning for her Messiah, as when one
mourns for an only child who has died. God says in Zechariah 13:9
that He w ill bring Israel through the judgment of fire and
refine her even as silver and gold are refined. Then Israel will
proclaim, "The Lord is my God," and in that day "the Lord shall
be king over all the earth" (Zechariah 14:9).
THE UNLEAVENDED BREAD
"And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and
unleavened bread "in Exodus 12:8
The next symbol in God's object is the unleavened bread. The
children of Israel ate the Passover lamb with bitter herbs and
unleavened bread: then they were to eat no leaven for a full
seven days afterward. The lesson went deeper than the obvious
haste of the departure from Egypt.
Leaven in the Bible is almost always a symbol of sin. 1 The
putting away of all leaven is a picture of the sanctification of
the child of God. Cleansed, redeemed by God's lamb, the true
believer must put away the sinful leaven of the old life before
redemption.
In teaching His people this truth, God did not leave them to
grapple with abstractions. The Bible speaks in terms of human
experience. Leaven was something that every housewife, every
cook, used in everyday life. The feel, the smell, the effects of
leaven had obvious meaning.
The Hebrew word for leaven is "chometz," meaning "bitter" or
"sour." It is the nature of sin to make people bitter or sour.
Leaven causes dough to become puffed up so that the end product
is more in volume, but not more in weight. The sin of pride
causes people to be puffed up, to think of themselves as far more
than they really are.
The ancient Hebrews used the sourdough method of leavening
their bread. Before the housewife formed the dough into loaves
ready for baking, she pulled off a chunk of the raw dough and set
it aside in a cool, moist place. When it was time to bake another
batch of bread, she brought out the reserved lump of dough. She
then mixed the old lump into the fresh batch of flour and water
to leaven the next loaves, again setting aside a small lump of
the newly mixed dough. Each "new generation" of bread was
organically linked by the common yeast spores to the previous
loaves of bread. The human race bears this same kind of link to
the sin nature of our first father, Adam.
Often people excuse themselves for bad behavior or wrong
attitudes by saying, "I'm only human." But being
......
1 Once, in Matthew 13:33, it is used as a symbol of growth and
expansion.
......
"only human" is the sin nature within all mankind. Jesus spoke of
leaven as false doctine and hypocrisy (Matthew 16:11-12; Mark
8:15; Luke 12:1, 13:21).
The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 spoke of leaven as
pride, malice, and wickedness. He said, "Purge out therefore the
old leaven, that you may be a new lump [a new person] as ye are
unleavened [cleansed]. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed
for us."
On the other hand, Paul described the unleavened bread as
sincerity and truth. The Hebrew word 'matzo" (unleavened) means
"sweet, without sourness." The unleavened bread typified the
sweetness and wholesomeness of life without sin. It foreshadowed
the sinless, perfect life of the Messiah, who would come to
fulfill all righteousness and to lay down His life as God's
ultimate Passover Lamb. In Passover observances after the
cessation of the Temple sacrifices, the matzo (unleavened bread)
took on added significance when the rabbis decreed it to be a
memorial of the Passover lamb.
Thus, for the Hebrews, the putting away of all leaven
symbolized breaking the old cycle of sin and starting out afresh
from Egypt to walk as a new nation before the Lord. They did not
put away leaven in order to be redeemed; rather, they put away
leaven because they were redeemed. This same principle applies to
the redeemed of the Lord of all the ages. Salvation is of grace,
"not of works, lest any man should boast" (see Ephesians 2:8-9).
THE BLOOD ON THE DOOR
"And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood
that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side
posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall
go out at the door of his house until the morning" (Exodus
12:22).
Several times Scripture mentions a special mark that will
secure immunity from destruction for those who fear the Lord. One
such text is Ezekiel 9:4-6; two others are found in Revelation
7:2-3 and 9:4.
When Egypt's judgment was imminent, God commanded the sons
of Israel to mark the doors of their dwellings with the blood of
the Passover lamb. Those marks painted on the doors set apart the
houses of those who believed and obeyed God from the houses of
those who did not.
The "bason" mentioned in Exodus 12:22 was not a container in
the sense in which we use the word basin today. The word is the
Egyptian 'sap,' meaning the threshold or ditch which was dug just
in front of the doorways of the houses to avoid flooding. The
people placed a container in the ditch to prevent seepage. The
Israelites killed their Passover lambs right by the doors, where
they were about to sprinkle the blood, and the blood from the
slaughter automatically ran into the depression (the bason) at
the threshold. When they painted the blood on with the hyssop
"brush," they first touched the lintel (the top horizontal part
of the doorframe), then each side post (the vertical sides.)...
Thus, the door was "sealed" on all four sides with the blood of
the lamb, because the blood was already on the bottom. Author
Pink sees this as a picture of the suffering Messiah Himself:
"Blood above where the thorns pierced His brow, blood at the
sides, from His nail pierced hands; blood below, from His nail
pierced feet." 1
We see further symbolism in the words of Jesus, when he
said: "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be
saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture" (John 10:9).
The Israelites went in through the blood-sealed door on that
first Passover night and found safety....
We who are redeemed by the true Passover Lamb find safety in
Him from God's judgment, and, because of Him, we look forward to
a future, eternal haven in the very presence of the Almighty, in
the city whose "builder and maker is God" (Hebrews 11:10).
......
1 Pink, p.93.
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To be continued
Christ in the Passover #3The Night to be Observed CHRIST IN THE PASSOVER #3
A NIGHT TO BE MUCH OBSERVED
Delivered from the plague of death by the blood of the
Passover lamb, the children of Israel greeted the dawn of their
redemption with new trust born of experience. The night before,
they were timid slaves cowering behind locked doors. Now they
threw open their doors and windows to the morning sun and
rejoiced in their deliverance. Awed by the power of the Almighty
that had protected them from the death angel, they were ready to
follow Moses, His servant.
That very morning, the Egyptians, fearful of Jehovah's
further wrath, begged the Hebrews to leave the country
immediately. There was no time to prepare food for the journey.
The Israelites bound up their unleavened dough, still in the
kneading bowls, and strapped it to their backs. With this meager
supply of food, they set out from Egypt with their wives, their
little ones, their aged, their flocks, and all they possessed.
They left nothing behind, and their beasts of burden were weighed
down with the riches pressed upon them by their frightened
Egyptian neighbors.
(Not quite as given above. The Israelites first moved to Rameses;
they left from there to start their treck out of boundaries of
Egypt. All fully explained in my many studies on the Passover -
Keith Hunt)
Four hundred and thirty years earlier, seventy people had
come into the land of the pharaohs with Jacob. This day a mighty
throng, the hosts of Jehovah, went out. The Bible records that
six hundred thousand men left Egypt. Their mothers, wives, and
children surely swelled their numbers to almost two million.
(Could have been 3 or more million, families tended to be large
in number in that period of history, and in ages of time after
this Exodus - Keith Hunt). This newly formed nation would wander
in the desert for forty years. A whole generation would grow old
and die before they entered Canaan, the land that flowed with the
milk of goats and the honey of figs. But they relied on God's
promise that it would come to pass, and they already had His
instructions.
"And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep
it a feast to the Lose throughout your generations; ye shall keep
it a feast by an ordinance for ever" (Exodus 12:14).
"And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the
LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall
keep this service. And ... when your children shall say unto you,
What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is the
sacrifice of the LORD'S passover, who passed over the houses of
the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and
delivered our houses" (Exodus 12:25-27).
"It is a night to be much observed ... of all the children of
Israel in their generations" (Exodus 12:42).
"And thou shalt show thy son in that day, saying, This is done
because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out
of Egypt" (Exodus 13:8).
OBSERVED
The word "observed" used in Exodus 12:42 comes from the
Hebrew root shamar, which means "watch." Even as the Lord kept
watch over the blood-protected homes of the children of Israel on
that first Passover, they, in turn, were to keep watch on each
annual Passover night of remembrance. It was to be a memorial
forever.
To the early Hebrew fathers, a memorial was more than a
grave marker or a milestone to indicate time or space. They used
the memorial to bring to mind or authenticate important events.
Throughout the book of Genesis, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob built
altars or placed markers at the sites where God had appeared to
them. These markers stood as reminders of God's promises to the
seed of Abraham: to make of them a great nation; to give them a
land; to make them a blessing to all people.
Now God commanded the annual memorial of the Passover
observance so that His people might reflect regularly upon all
that He had done for them. When they would come into the promised
land and partake of its goodness, they were to remember the Lord.
They were to rehearse and retell the events of the great
redemption He had wrought for their fathers. They were to rejoice
in His past and present blessings, and look forward to what He
would yet do for and through them.
God gave specific regulations for this celebration of the
anniversary of redemption.
1. All the congregation of Israel must keep the Passover (Exodus
12:47).
2. They must not allow any stranger to eat the Passover, that is,
no one who was uncircumcised or outside the covenant (Exodus
12:43-45).
3. They must eat the Passover in one house, that is, a lamb for a
household. The household could be more than one family, as long
as they came together under one roof (Exodus 12:46).
4. They must eat the Passover sacrifice entirely in one night,
not leaving any for the morning (Exodus 34:25).
5. They must put away all leaven from their tables and from their
houses for seven days (Exodus 13:6-7).
6. They must offer the blood of the sacrifice without leaven
(Exodus 34:25).
7. They must not break any bones of the Passover lamb (Exodus
12:46).
8. They must sacrifice the Passover only at the place appointed
by God (Deuteronomy 16:5-6).
9. All the males of the congregation must appear before the Lord
at Passover time (Exodus 23:17, 34:23).
HOUSE HOLD OF FAITH ONLY
Only those who were of the household of faith could
participate in the Passover festival of redemption. If Gentile
visitors or servants wanted to share in the memorial, they first
had to become Jews, that is, undergo circumcision, which would
make them part of the covenant. The fulfillment of God's promise
to Abraham, that in his seed (the Messiah) all the nations of the
earth would be blessed, has done away with that kind of
restriction. Now all those who trust in Israel's Messiah for
redemption belong to the new covenant of grace. They have
undergone circumcision of the heart (Jeremiah 31:31-33) and are
eligible to celebrate the new memorial. As Paul wrote to the
Ephesian believers, the Gentiles, who at one time were "aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants
of promise," are now by faith in Jesus, the Lamb of God, "no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with ... the
household of God" (Ephesians 2:12,19).
But now the problem is reversed. As Israel celebrated the
memorial of redemption from Egypt, now there is an even greater
redemption to commemorate: forgiveness of sin and new life
through Jesus, God's perfect Lamb. Now God's people only in the
flesh must submit to circumcision of the heart and be brought
under the new covenant in order to have a part in the memorial of
that greater redemption.
After those instructions concerning Passover at the time of
the Exodus, the Scriptures record only one actual observance
during the forty years of the wilderness journey. Numbers 9:1-14
describes a Passover celebration on the fourteenth day of the
first month in the second year after the departure from Egypt,
"according to all that the LORD commanded Moses" (v.5). At that
time God made provision through Moses for a second or "minor
Passover," as rabbinical commentaries later called it. Anyone who
was ceremonially unclean or who had been away on a journey on the
fourteenth day of the first month, the regularly appointed time,
could instead celebrate the Passover on the fourteenth day of the
second month.
No other Passover celebration is recorded in the Bible until
we read of the children of Israel's coming into the land of
Canaan. This lapse was probably due to the problem of
circumcision. Joshua 5:5 seems to indicate that they suspended
the law regarding circumcision during the wilderness journeys,
possibly because of the dangers of infection. Then, as the older
generation died in the desert, no one was left who had been
circumcised, and no one was eligible to carry out the Passover
memorial.
(NOT CORRECT AT ALL HERE! The answer is found in Numbers 14:26-
35. Note especially verse 29. The ones to die in the winderness
during that 40 years was from the age of 20 and above!! [Ah, the
poor study and reading of the Bible, leads many into false
ideas]. This still left many who could partake of the Passover
all during those 40 years of wilderness wandering. The Tabernacle
was built, the Priesthood was formed. There is no reason at all
to assume the Feasts of the Lord were not ALL observed in the
wilderness, albeit not the same way as when they settled in
the land of promise, but God had told them how the Feasts were
to be observed once in the Holy Land. The basic observing of
the Feasts of the Lord could well be observed in the wilderness
- Keith Hunt)
In Joshua 5:7-9, the first thing that the Lord commanded
Joshua when the Hebrews came into the land was the circumcision
of all the males who had been born in the wilderness. Thus, the
Lord "rolled away the reproach of Egypt" (v.9), and the children
of Israel kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in
their new homeland.
Second Kings 23:22 records that after Joshua's death, from
the time of the judges until the time of the several reforms in
the kingdom of Judah, there had not been such a great Passover
observance. The people, who once had heard God's thundering voice
from the holy mountain, had listened to the voice of temptation
and had fallen into idolatry. Passover was undoubtedly observed
during the time of Samuel and in the reigns of David and Solomon,
and occasionally after the united kingdom divided; on the whole,
however, the Word of God was not in the Israelites during most of
that period, so they were not seeking to follow God's
commandments concerning Passover or anything else. But then their
hearts were stirred by revival.
The writer of 2 Chronicles tells of two such revivals and
the Passover celebrations that immediately followed. One happened
in the reign of King Hezekiah (726 B.C.), and the other during
the reign of King Josiah (621 B.C.).
Second Chronicles 30 records the Passover of Hezekiah. The
king ordered the priests and Levites to cleanse and rededicate
the Temple and to sanctify the altar. He sent letters to all the
people in Israel, Judah, Ephraim, and Manasseh to come up to the
house of the Lord in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. As a
result, a great revival took place, and the people kept the Feast
of Unleavened Bread with much gladness and singing. So great was
their joy that they kept the feast for an additional seven days
after the first seven. The Scriptures say there was not such
great joy in Jerusalem since the days of Solomon; the Lord heeded
their prayers and healed their backsliding.
Second Chronicles 35:1-17 tells of the Passover celebration
after reform and revival under King Josiah. Verse 18 of this
chapter records the fact that there had been no Passover
celebration of this magnitude since the days of Samuel the
prophet, "neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a
passover.
Then, in 586 B.C., the king of Babylon destroyed the Temple
and carried the people away into exile. In Babylon, the children
of Israel were once again strangers in a foreign land. Perhaps
their circumstances reminded them of their ancestors' bondage in
Egypt. But if this prompted them to keep the Passover, we have no
record of how they observed it.
Further scriptural mention of the Passover is in Ezra 6:19.
After the return from Babylon, the Israelites rebuilt the Temple
and "the children of the captivity kept the passover upon the
fourteenth day of the first month."
At that time, not all the Jewish people returned to the
land. Some stayed in Babylon, where they had built businesses and
made new lives for themselves; others migrated and formed small
Jewish communities throughout the civilized world. Ancient
records bear out the fact that in those days the exiles observed
Passover as a permanent part of Jewish religious life. They could
not sacrifice the Passover lamb unless they made a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem, but they did keep the other two important precepts of
the holiday they purged all leaven from their households, and
they ate unleavened read for seven days.
Thus, throughout the history of the children of Israel, the
Passover celebration, or the neglect of it, stood out as a
thermometer indicating the Jewish community's spiritual
condition. Under the rule of the kings, decadence from within
affected the people's religious commitment. In the
intertestamental period (c. 400 B.C. to A.D. 50), persecution and
oppression by their Gentile conquerors spurred the Jewish people
to renewed spiritual fervor, for they esteemed most highly what
they were in danger of losing.
For the next historical mention of the Passover, one must
look to the noncanonical writings of the intertestamental period.
The Book of Jubilees (second century B.C.) speaks of the
offering of the Paschal lamb at Jerusalem. It emphasizes both the
formal procedures and the expressions of praise and joy of the
Passover festival of that period. Pilgrimages were made to
Jerusalem to keep the Passover, and other appointed feasts of
Jehovah played an important role in Jewish religious life.
As time went on, each learned rabbi, and each succeeding
generation of his disciples, added customs and traditions to
embellish the Passover celebration. Nevertheless, the underlying
theme always remained the same: the Almighty had brought freedom
and new life to His people, Israel, through His supernatural
power.
The memory of that miracle-filled redemption occupied the
people's minds and hearts at Passover. The tangible, visible
symbol of that memorial was the solemn sacrifice of the Paschal
lamb at the Temple in Jerusalem. As the Jews celebrated Passover
during those years of uncertainty and change, hope ran high that
soon the Messiah would come to vanquish the Roman oppressor, even
as the Lord had brought deliverance from the wicked pharaoh in
days of old.
.......................
To be continued
Note:
This "night to be observed" is clearly talking about the Passover
night, NOT the following night of the 15th, but the night of the
14th. It was taught incorrectly by the old WCG (and probably is
by many off-shoots from the WCG). The night to be much observed
is the Passover night as the context clearly shows.
Keith Hunt
Christ in the Passover #4Passover in Jerusalem in Christ's day CHRIST IN THE PASSOVER #4
From the book of the same name by Ceil and Moishe Rosen
PASSOVER IN THE TIME OF CHRIST
GOING UP TO JERUSALEM
At Passover, a constant stream of humanity ribboned the
highways leading into first-century Jerusalem. Devout Jews poured
in from distant corers of the world to worship Jehovah in the
mountain of His holiness. If all possible, those Jews who lived
within a few days' journey came up to Jerusalem three times a
year: at Passover, at Pentecost, and at the Feast of Booths. But
for many who live very far from J erusalem, the lengthy
pilgrimage at Passover was the fulfillment of a once in a
lifetime dream. Weeks before the holiday, the trickles began -
from Asia Minor, from Egypt, from Africa, from Italy, from
Greece, from Mesopotamia 1 and soon the stream became a river.
The current of this river flowed upward. Whether the first part
of the journey was by boat or by land, no one ever went down to
Jerusalem. 2 The holy city sat like a crown 2,610 feet above sea
level, and the Temple was its brightest, most prominent jewel. In
order to reach this destination, all travelers first had to go
through the surrounding valleys. The contrasting loftiness of
that final ascent built a sense of holiness and awe within the
pilgrims as they climbed ever upward.
By mule, in ox cart, on foot they came: families, schools
......
1 See Acts 2:9-11.
2 Even in modern times the Hebrew word used for visiting
Jerusalem is 'Aliyah,' which means "going up."
......
of disciples following their teachers, solitary travelers banded
together in caravans for safety from robbers and wild animals. As
they drew near, their joyful voices rang out and echoed through
the valleys below in the Pilgrim Psalms or Songs of Ascent:
"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul
after thee, O God "(Psalm 42:1).
"How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! My soul
longeth ... for the courts of the LORD" (Psalm 84:1-2).
"I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of
the LORD. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem"
(Psalm 122:1-2).
"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell
together in unity!" (Psalm 133:1).
"Behold, bless ye the LORD ... ye servants ... which by night
stand in the house of the LORD" (Psalm 134:1).
HOW MANY WENT TO
JERUSALEM?
The number of permanent residents in the Jerusalem that
Jesus knew was about six hundred thousand. A conservative
estimate of the vast multitude of Passover pilgrims is about TWO
MILLION, who swelled the city's population to almost four times
its normal size. Those who came from afar arrived at least a week
or two in advance, because anyone coming from a country outside
of Israel could not worship in the Temple before undergoing seven
days of ritual purification.
At Passover, Jerusalemites and their visitors, despite
vastly differing cultural backgrounds, rejoiced in the unity of
their Jewishness. It was a time for renewal of family ties.
People were reunited with blood kin whom they had not seen for
months or even years. Pilgrims without relatives or friends at
Jerusalem found themselves being welcomed as family members into
homes where they had never been, by people they had never met.
The earliest to arrive camped around the Temple site, as the
tribes had once camped around the tabernacle in the wilderness,
but this space was limited. The area surrounding Jerusalem was
too rocky and hilly for pitching large numbers of tents, so all
residents who were able opened their homes to the visiting
worshipers. They were forbidden by custom to charge rent, but it
was a joyful obligation. Almost every home had guests.
Jerusalemites often entertained exotic visitors who had
tales to tell of distant places and different cultures. Usually
the host and his household were given hospitality gifts, exciting
things that brought the sight, smell, and feeling of adventure.
PRIOR TO PASSOVER
During the four weeks before Passover, the synagogues and
academies placed much emphasis on teaching and reinforcing the
holiday's meaning. Jerusalem was filled with excitement and
expectancy, and all the citizenry prepared for the festivities
and the influx of visitors. Members of the Sanhedrin busied
themselves with arrangements for the repair of roads and bridges
leading into the city. Housewives scrubbed and polished, and they
sewed new garments for everyone in the household. Vendors in the
marketplaces expanded their stock in eager anticipation of
increased business. Even the beggars, huddling at the gates in
their rags, dreamed of a season of bounteous compassion and
generosity, prompted by the worshipers' piety.
One preparation custom involved whitewashing the tombs
around the city. The people of that time buried their dead in
caves and sealed off the openings with large stones, so that wild
animals would not desecrate the bodies. But the numerous caves
around Jerusalem were used for other purposes as well. People
kept livestock in caves, 1 and also used them for shelter. It
was possible that a traveler, seeking refuge at night or during a
spring rainstorm, might blunder into a burial site. Since this
contact with a dead body would defile him, he would have to
undergo an elaborate ritual cleansing before being able to
worship in the Temple. For this reason, they marked the tomb
entrances and surrounding areas with a white, chalky material to
warn people. This whitewash wore of and needed replacing
periodically, and it was the custom to do these repairs at the
Passover season.
These freshly painted tombs provided Jesus with the imagery
He used to rebuke the Pharisees in Matthew 23: 27-28. They
thought of themselves as a repository of truth and light, but
there was an infectious spirit of death to their
self-righteousness. Their outward piety looked good and right,
but men were to be warned away from their teachings, because
following them would only lead to death and decay.
Jerusalem was a commercial city as well as the seat of
government and religion. The most common meeting grounds to
befriend strangers and offer them hospitality were the gates of
the city, the marketplaces, and the synagogues.
THE CITY OF JERUSALEM
The Jerusalem of Jesus' time had about three hundred sixty
synagogues. The city was small enough geographically not to need
neighborhood divisions. Rather, the congregations consisted of
people with like interests, like trades, and like stations in
life. Thus, there were synagogues of potters, synagogues of
tentmakers, synagogues of Greek-speaking Jews, and so forth.
The synagogue was not only a place of learning. It
......
1 Such a stable at Bethlehem sheltered Mary and Joseph at the
birth of Jesus.
......
took the place of the community center, the grange, the hiring
hall, the fraternal lodge. Here people in the trades met their
foreign counterparts and exchanged knowledge, and artisans were
introduced to new methods and designs. Passover was a time for
seeking new apprentices, and those who came early for the holiday
might join the craftsmen in their trades.
In the marketplaces, the tables and blankets of wares held a
larger than usual and more colorful variety of goods. Many of the
travelers brought trade goods to be used for currency; food
producers supplied extra commodities, often of a more luxurious
nature than their everyday products, to meet the increased needs
and festive mood. Here was a rare spice, an exotic ointment;
there, a delicate piece of woven material, a familiar homespun
made intriguingly different by the startling brilliance of some
new dye, a new kind of carpenter's tool, a cleverly designed
potter's wheel, a finely crafted silver wine goblet, or an
elaborately concocted food to tease the nostrils.
At Passover, Jerusalem was filled with itinerant rabbis and
teachers, who often brought along their whole academies. These
scholars enriched the homes of their hosts with the benefit of
their knowledge and inspiration. All rabbis were learned in
matters of the Law, and at this time they had the opportunity to
compare notes and share interpretations and precedents of both
Jewish and Roman law.
It was a time for making business deals, and a time for
servants who had made the decision to undergo the ritual which
would indenture them for life to their masters' households. It
was a time for those of the priestly class to renew their
acquaintance with Temple customs; their sons might have an
opportunity to sing with the Levitical choir, or they might find
a bride of equal station. It was a matter of prestige to marry a
daughter of Jerusalem, for those women were not of peasant stock
and often came from priestly, scholarly, or merchant families. In
general, it was a time for seeking wives and for arranging
marriages.
THE PEOPLE TOGETHER
Passover season was an ideal time to sit in the marketplace
or at the gates and enjoy the skillful art of conversation.
Jewish people of that time usually did not play physical games
for recreation and entertainment, as did the Greeks and Romans.
Rather, they delighted in songs, storytelling, word games,
riddles, the exchange of news, and long discussions on religious
matters. In those crowded public places, one could hear
interesting bits of news. Sometimes they were merely
entertaining, other times rather useful. One might learn of
battles, of uprisings, of scandals among rulers, of a
particularly lenient tax collector at one of the tollgates, or of
a wealthy merchant seeking a son-in-law.
Jerusalem was a beehive of activity. Crowds thronged the
streets, their voices blending with the lowing of cattle and the
bleating of sheep and goats. Vendors hawked their wares; people
shouted greetings to one another. There was a good-natured air of
festivity. Then, amid the bustle and din, a change in the wind
might cam-down the sound of the Temple services - the music, the
chanting of the priests. People then turned their eyes upward to
the towering structure high atop Mount Moriah, which dominated
the landscape in all directions. They saw the smoke from the
sacrifices curling upward against the sky, and they remembered
their real purpose for being there: the worship of Jehovah, the
true and living God. That was the scene; those were the sights,
the sounds, the smells that greeted Jesus and the disciples as
they entered Jerusalem the week before the Passover
LEAVEN PUT OUT
A crucial part of the final preparations that last week
before the feast was the emoval or storing away of all leaven
from each Jewish home. That included bread, all leavening
agents, and any cereals or grains that had the capacity of
becoming leavened. There was also the ceremonial cleansing of the
pots and utensils in the house.
On the night before Passover eve, (THAT WOULD BE the
BEGINNING of the 14th for the Pharisee Jews observed the Passover
on the late afternoon of the 14th into the evening of the 15th -
an INCORRECT observance - see all my in-depth studies on the
Passover - Keith Hunt) a search was made for any leaven that
might have been overlooked. At that time, the head of the
household went through the house, inspecting it with a lighted
candle or lantern in complete silence. If he found any leaven, he
disposed of it or locked it away where it would not be touched
until after the Passover and the eight days of unleavened bread,
which followed. Then the head of the house repeated an ancient
prayer, which Orthodox Jews still use today: "All leaven that is
in my possession, that which I have seen and that which I have
not seen, be it null, be it accounted as the dust of the earth."
Alfred Edersheim wrote of this search: "Jewish tradition
sees a reference to [this] searching out of the leaven in
Zephaniah 1:12." 1 Speaking of judgment, God said in that verse:
"I will search out Jerusalem with candles," meaning He will
search out the leaven of sin and destroy it. The apostle Paul
probably had this search for the leaven in mind when he said in
1 Corinthians 5:7: "Purge out therefore the old leaven [sin],
that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened [cleansed from
sin]. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us."
......
1 Alfred Edersheim, "The Temple, Its Ministry and Services as
They Were at the Time of Jesus Christ," p.220.
......
At the same time that people throughout the city were
preparing their homes, special attention was being given to the
central subject of the feast, the Paschal lamb. In obedience to
Scripture, a representative of each household chose the sacrifice
lamb on the tenth of Nisan. If someone bought a lamb outside the
Temple, he had to bring it to be inspected by the priests and
declared without blemish or spot; or he could buy a lamb already
certified by the priests within the Temple complex. Most people
bought lambs in the Temple, knowing from bitter experience that
the priests could almost always manage to find some minute
imperfection on any animal brought from the outside.
(INCORRECT here. The writers did not understand that at the
Passover NO Temple or Priest was needed for any part of the
Passover observance. The law of Moses allowed for the Passover to
be observed by families or groups of people within Jerusalem,
free from the Temple or priesthood. The Temple and priesthood
rituals were ADDED by the Pharisees - their own traditions, which
Jesus siad often made void the commandments of God - Mark 7:7
etc. See all my studies on the Passover - Keith Hunt)
On the fourtee of Nisan, the slaughter of the Passover lambs
took place. The priests chose "companies" of not less than ten
people, nor more than twenty. Each group sacrificed one lamb,
which they later ate as their ceremonial meal. The crowds of
worshipers entered by company into the Temple's outer courtyard.
The Levites killed the lambs at the signal of the silver trumpets
sounded by the priests. Then they removed the fat and burned it.
They caught the blood of the sacrifices in bowls, which two rows
of priests passed along to be poured out at the base of the
altar.
(Again, this was all Pharisee traditions, which had no basis at
all in the laws of Moses; such Temple practices for the Passover
cannot be found in the books of Moses - see if you can find them
- they ain't there - Keith Hunt)
While all this was happening, the Levitical choir chanted
Hallel, the recitation of Psalms 113 to 118. The congregation
joined in the liturgy by repeating the first line of each psalm
after the Levites sang it. They also chanted the words Hallelu
Yah (praise ye the Lord) at the end of every line. When the
priests came to Psalm 118, the congregation repeated verses 25
and 26:
......
1 This is why Jesus cried out in anger: "Ye have made it [the
house of God] a den of thieves" (Matthew 21:13; cf. Mark
11:15-17; Luke 19: 45-46).
......
"Save now, I beseech thee, O Lose [Hoshia Na, or Hosanna]
O Lose, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. Blessed be he that
cometh in the name of the Lord."
These are the very words that rang out through the streets
of Jerusalem a week before the crucifixion as Jesus rod into the
city on a donkey in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9.
The two disciples sent by Jesus to prepare the Passover
heard them again as they stood in the court of the priests to
kill their lamb. As their memory of that joyful acclaim mingled
with the reality of the death scene before them, one wonders
whether they began to understand what the Master had been trying
to tell them when He said:
"Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written
by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.
For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked,
and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: and they shall scourge
him and put him to death" (Luke 18:31-33; cf. Matthew 20:18-19,
26:2; Mark 9:31-32, 10:33-34).
(NO, the disciples did not hear per se those words and see those
people going to the Temple, for when all this was supposedly
going on in the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan, Jesus was dying
on the cross. Christ and His disciples HAD ALREADY observed the
Passover the evening before - the BEGINNING of the 14th of the
first month of the sacred year, as the Gospels make very clear.
If you are having trouble putting the correct and true observance
of the Passover, with the Pharisee Passover of the 15th, then you
need to carefully study ALL my studies on the Passover on this
Website.
Furthermore, whatever was the "norm" for the Temple and priests
during their rites of following the Pharisees teaching of the
Temple traditions on the 14th, you can be assured that the norm
was not followed on the day Jesus died. People tend to forget
that from about NOON to about 3 pm there was DARKNESS over the
city of Jerusalem. The priests and the people must have been
scared out of their mind. This was no ordinary darkness, but a
miracle of darkness, and so terror must have blown away the
"norm" of Temple observance during those hours. Then when Jesus
died and the earthquake shook the city and rent the curtain in
two, that separated the holy place from the most holy place in
the Temple, there must have been shear hysteria, fear, panic, and
confusion. Everything in the Temple ritual [if any was going on
with that darkness] would have come to a grinding stop! - Keith
Hunt)
.........................
To be continued
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