Passover celebration is on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Nissan. The Passover is one of the times that God directed His people to worship Him. Jesus said that the Passover Seder was to be done to demonstrate that His body and blood were shed for the sins of men. In this study we are examining the original festival. I hope to discuss the original Passover, traditional Passover festivals that are held in Judaism, and to look at practical applications for us today. Jesus changed the Passover, we will cover that as well.
One of the changes that the early church made was to replace the Passover for Easter. Replacement theology and a replacement attitude of the early church displaced this festival because it was Jewish in nature. It was later exchanged for Easter which followed the pattern of sun worship. This was a major mistake. By throwing out Passover, the church threw out vital understanding of Jesus’ role in the redemption of men.
The exchange doesn’t make sense. Easter takes place on the pagan holiday devoted to Ishtar which took place during the time that Jesus was on the earth. The name “Easter” is drawn from “Ishtar” the pagan god that the festival originally worshipped. To figure out what date Easter lands on it is an extremely complicated astronomical calculation which is outlined by precise algorithms, dates and complicated calculations. Look at this website from the Astronomical Society of South Australia: http://www.assa.org.au/edm.html#Method. Look into its origins and compare it to the festivals of Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of the First Fruits. Make your own decision, which holiday glorifies God more?
When we look into the Bible, we learn from the teaching of the Old Testament Torah that this is one of the times that God appointed to be set aside as a holy remembrance of what He had done for Israel in Egypt. Let’s look at the scriptures:
Exodus 12:1–13 (NASB95)
The original Passover took place in Egypt. It was the final straw that drove Pharaoh to allow the Jews to leave Egyptian slavery. I don’t think we understand the magnitude of the Egyptian slavery. Think about four hundred years of slavery. America has been a nation for just over two hundred years. The Hebrew people were in bondage for twice that long. During that time, some of the people were faithful to the God of the Hebrews. Others became “Egyptianized” to the point that they incorporated Egyptian gods and practices into the Hebrew worldview. It may well be noted that the scriptures do not indicate that the Hebrews were protected from the plagues of the blood, frogs and gnats. They went through these plagues with the Egyptians because they no longer believed in God. When the Egyptians finally declared that the plagues were the hand of God, the Hebrews were protected from the following plagues of the flies and so on (by the way, the same thing will happen during the judgments in Revelation):
Exodus 8:18–22; Revelation 6:15–17; 7:1-3
Look at the similarity in these passages, during the plagues of Egypt, Israel went through the first three plagues until it was acknowledged that God was true. In Revelation the same thing will take place, only it takes six full seal judgments to cause the earth to recognize that God is true. After that His people are sealed and protected.
We as modern believers do not understand the significance of the Passover. When John wrote Revelation, it patterned the ten plagues in a parallel form. It is impossible to properly understand the judgments that will occur during Revelation without cross referencing to look at the exact same gods that were challenged in Egypt. The final plague, the death of the first born looks forward to the final chapters in Revelation as well. Revelation 18:4 records the voice from heaven exhorting the people of God to come out of Babylon because He is going to destroy it. Revelation 19:1-6 records the scene in heaven as Hallelujah is shouted because the place where God’s people were held in captivity has been destroyed. Revelation 19:7-10 looks at a Marriage Supper as God returns for His faithful people who have readied themselves for Him.
I have a strong suspicion that the Marriage Supper of the Lamb we just considered is actually a Passover Seder. Here is the overview of my thinking. (I am currently working on a document that covers this thought in great detail, watch for it.) Covenants of the Bible took place mainly in conjunction with feasting. The Noahic Covenant is the exception to the rule, no feasting is recorded in conjunction with it (Genesis 8:20-22). With the Abrahamic Covenant, God first gave the covenant and later finalized it over a meal (Genesis 17-18). We have the Passover that we are discussing. After Israel ratified the Mosaic covenant with God the seventy elders had a marriage supper with the Lord (Exodus 24:9-11). Fast forward to the New Testament, Jesus settled His covenant with the disciples at the Last Supper as a new covenant brought in by the blood of Christ (Luke 24:14-20). We are looking at yet another covenant that God will make as a marriage covenant in Revelation 19. This covenant will ratify His agreement with His bride and usher in the Millennium. As I have said, my suspicion is that it will be a Passover Seder because the covenant that Jesus introduced at the Last Supper took place on a Passover Seder. It seems logical that it will be completed on a Passover Seder. I could be wrong on this, but it is interesting to think about. Think back on the final plague now. The Hebrews knew that God was certainly in control by time that Moses told them to paint the doorpost with the blood of the Lamb. They entered into a covenant with God at the Passover that recognized God as their deliverer. In Revelation, we observe a similar occurrence. God sits down with believers in a fellowship meal that seals His ownership over them.
Think about it now. The Egyptians let the people go. Yet Pharaoh had second thoughts and sent the army of the Egyptians to recover the Jews. To make a long story short, God protected the Hebrews while He split the waters of the Red Sea. They walked through on dry ground. When the Egyptians followed suit, they were drowned and utterly defeated. Now fast forward to Revelation once again. The Messiah comes with His army and utterly defeats the armies that have assembled against His people (Revelation 19:11-21). What happens after that? God sets up His earthly Millennial Kingdom for 1,000 years. Look carefully at the scriptures:
Revelation 20:4–6; Daniel 12:1–3
Notice that God raised up those who died for Him because of their faithfulness to Him. God will deliver His people who were martyred during the tribulation and take them into a new land where they will rule with Him for 1,000 years. This is one picture of the Passover. As you can see, God is not finished yet. Even though the Church has explained away the original Passover as an unnecessary festival, the view from prophecy determines that this unnecessary festival still carries a picture of end time prophecy.
Back to the Passover… We just looked at the “big picture” regarding the purpose of the Passover. It was the final straw that God used to deliver His chosen people out of Egypt. We covered how that it looks forward to the time that our Messiah will deliver His people out of the bondage of sin and usher in the Millennial Kingdom. This bird’s eye view does not give us the story behind the Passover. Let’s discuss the situation briefly.
The Hebrew people had just gone through nine plagues that took place over several months. They were not part of most of the plagues directly. However, they were indirectly involved in the consequences of the plagues. Take the plague of hail for example. The Hebrews may not have lost any livestock to the plague, but the Egyptians did. Where do you think the Egyptians got their food? They probably took the livestock that Israel saved to replace the dead livestock in Egypt. This also went for the grain that was destroyed. You can also be certain that when the heaps of frogs were decomposing, the stench covered the entire land. Israel seems to have suffered with the Egyptians with the plagues of the water turning to blood, the frogs and the gnats. I am certain that the Hebrew people were also ready for the plagues to be over. They also knew that God meant business. When He sent word by Moses that there was to be one final plague, Israel listened.
Exodus 11 records the event. God instructed Moses to have the people request gold and riches from the Egyptians. The Egyptians were glad to get rid of the Hebrews at this point and gladly gave them what they asked for. The plague would consist of the death of the firstborn of all of Egypt. It would cover all firstborn of the Egyptians, slaves, servants and even the livestock. As in all the other plagues, Pharaoh was warned, but refused to listen.
Exodus 12: Moses gave the instructions for Passover. A lamb was to be brought into their house on the tenth day of Nissan. This month was to become the first month of the year. The Passover lamb was to live in their house for four days. At twilight on the fourteenth day the lamb was killed, and its throat was slit. The blood was collected and painted on the doorpost and the lintel or cross piece on the top of the door. It was a bloody mess! Every Hebrew house had the entrance doors painted with blood.
That evening the Jewish people were to feast on the lamb roasting it and eating it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They were to eat prepared to go on a journey. Once the night was over, they had to be ready to travel quickly. Think about it, they were leaving Egypt for good. They were leaving their homes and whatever they could not carry behind. A second festival was instituted on this evening as well. It was the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It begins on the 14th day of Nissan (Exodus 12:17-20).
God sent His angel through the land of Egypt killing all the first born of the land. His angel would “pass over” all the houses that had blood on the door posts. They were instructed not to go out of their homes until the following morning. Imagine what it must have been like listening to the screams through the night as children, adults, and animals were found dead. God’s children were safe in their homes under the covering of the blood of the lamb.
The following day the Egyptians had enough of the God of the Jews and of the Jews. It was time for them to leave the land. Look at the following passage:
Exodus 12:29–40
Israel departed from Egypt because the Egyptians finally realized that if they continued to fight God, they would be destroyed. We know from the Bible that Pharaoh goes back on his word again and tries to recover the Jews. This will cost him his army at the Red Sea. That is another story.
God informed His people to keep a yearly remembrance of the appointed time of the Passover. Prior to the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, the Jews gathered at Jerusalem to offer Passover lambs. This is where Jesus was at when He gathered in the upper room with the disciples. After the destruction of the temple in 70AD, the option of offering Passover lambs became impossible for the Jews.
As Christians or Messianic Believers, we understand that Jesus was the final Passover lamb that was slain. John the Baptist foretold this when He introduced Jesus at the beginning of His ministry:
John 1:27–36
In the upper room Jesus declared that He is the lamb that was to be slain at the Passover. Note in the following scriptures that the context of the verse indicated that when Jesus spoke about the bread and the wine, He was speaking about the unleavened bread and wine that was present for the Passover Seder:
Luke 22:14–20
In the Church, we have called this “communion” and divorced it from the context of the Passover Seder. To be more specific, let me state clearly: Jesus declared that He is the Passover lamb, when the Passover is celebrated, we are celebrating Jesus death as a Passover celebration. Jesus’ shed blood is the shed blood that is placed over the doorpost of our lives. The “communion” service was intended to be celebrated as a Passover Seder, not as a ritual to be argued about in our churches. Our attitude needs to change to understand that we are remembering Jesus as the Passover Lamb when we celebrate communion. According to Jesus, the only communion service should take place at the Passover Seder…
Jesus was teaching that He was the lamb to be slain and His blood was to be poured out as a Passover offering. We could go very deep on this suffice it to say that His blood was shed to pay the penalty for our sin. When the Father looks at us, He sees us through the veil of Jesus shed blood, just like in Egypt when the angel saw the blood on the doorpost, he passed over the house. God sees us as righteous positionally because the penalty for sin was paid by the shed blood of Jesus. Look at these scriptures:
Romans 5:6–11
During the Passover, the lamb has to be inspected to see if it is without defect before it can be slain. Jesus was inspected by 8 different groups of people. Matthew 21, the Chief Priest inspects Jesus; Matthew 27, Pilate inspects Jesus; Luke 23, Herod Inspects Jesus; Luke 18, Annias inspects Jesus; John 11, Caipas inspects Jesus; Matthew 27, Judas inspects Jesus; Matthew 27, the Centurian inspects Jesus; Luke 23, The thief on the cross inspects Jesus; And finally, Luke 23; John 19; Pilate inspected Jesus and declared Him to have absolutely no fault. God did not just let one inspection take place to see if Jesus was the unblemished lamb for the sacrifice. He had Jesus inspected by a wide variety of people. Everyone’s verdict was that Jesus was innocent, He was without blemish.
We simply cannot stress enough that Jesus is the Passover Lamb that was slain. The entire redemption theology rest on this very fact. It is the scarlet thread of blood that runs through the entire Bible. Jesus died for the sins of the entire world, those who cover their doorpost with His blood will be saved from eternal judgment.
1 Corinthians 11:23-34
When Jesus said that the Passover was symbolic of His body and His blood, He did not redefine it to mean that it was a weekly or monthly occurrence. He simply stated that the meaning changed since He is the Passover Lamb. When applying this passage, think through the remainder of the passage.
Eating the Passover meal in an unclean manner was forbidden for the Jews. Gentiles who were not circumcised were excluded (Ex 12:48). Anyone who was unclean at the time of the Passover was offered a second chance Passover at a later date; they were not allowed to take part in the regular Passover (Num 9:5-14). This is where the warning is given regarding eating the Passover in an unworthy manner (1 Cor 11:27-33).
I couldn’t tell you the number of times I passed up communion because I had some guilt in me. Little did I realize that communion (commonly called the Lord’s supper), was only to take place at Passover. The ordinance of the church is born out of tradition based upon a misunderstanding of the scripture. The guilt that I felt was misplaced shame that was put on me by religious tradition. Guilt is not even the problem! Unworthyness is a translation of the idea of being unclean. Shame is not the issue at all. The following Feast of Unleavened Bread is designed to flush out uncleaness from one’s life. That is another story.
A final note on this passage: The Passover was a holy meal. It called into remembrance the salvation of the Lord from Egypt. Paul admonished them to eat at home so that they would not be hungry at the time of the Seder (1 Cor 11:34). The point of this is to keep the focus on the holy meal and its meaning.
Further thoughts: I would encourage you to search through the internet on Passover Seder and read through how the ceremony takes place. A good example of a traditional Seder can be found at Judaism 101, http://www.jewfaq.org/holidaya.htm. Follow his links to read through the entire article, this is three pages long. Mr. Rich has a note on his website requesting that a link be given on websites so that he can edit material. I understand this and comply by giving you the link above. The attached document is 21 pages long. In short, a Passover Seder is not just acknowledging that God delivered the people from Egyptian bondage. It is a long process. I will be quoting from Tracey Rich’s document through this part of the study because he is a Jew and biased toward orthodox Judaism. He is not trying to spin the festival toward the Messianic as a matter of fact, he explicitly warns against it. Using his document gives us a proof text that points to the modern practices of a Jewish Passover. I have a Haggadah on this site that you can use, I call it “Christianized” since I removed the rabbinics from it.
Mr. Rich wrote his site from a strictly Jewish perspective. I am certain that when you read through the document, you will see how that Jesus is written between every line. To continue this study, I am going to focus a little more on the last days of Jesus up to and including His crucifixion.
Matthew 26:17–19
Perhaps as you read through the scriptures you notice that Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples the night before the real Passover. Actually, this is a common occurrence among the Jews. There was a discrepancy between which day that the Passover should land on with the Rabbi’s arguments. They settled the issue by having a two-part festival. The first part was at the beginning of the day, Passover evening when the individual families would celebrate Passover in their homes. This is what happened with Jesus and the disciples in the upper room. They celebrated Passover the night prior to the official day of the Passover. During the day the lambs were sacrificed and the community Passover was acknowledged.
Jesus used this meal as his final instruction to the disciples prior to His departure from the world. Think about this, the Haggadah, or retelling of the story that took place with the Jewish people. They would recount the story about Egyptian slavery and God’s deliverance from that slavery. Every aspect of the Passover meal has significance that pointed to the story of the Passover. One of the issues involved was the instructions that were to lead the Jews in the following days. Jesus spent part of his Passover giving the disciples instructions that they would follow in the days after he was crucified to the resurrection. He also gave them instructions on how to spend the next fifty days as they prepared for the upcoming feast of first fruits. This feast began on the Sunday following the Passover, and ended fifty days later at Pentecost.
Look at this interesting note from the Tracey Rich’s website we linked to above: “The day before Pesach is the Fast of the Firstborn, a minor fast for all firstborn males, commemorating the fact that the firstborn Jewish males in Egypt were not killed during the final plague…On the first night of Pesach (first two nights for traditional Jews outside Israel), we have a special family meal filled with ritual to remind us of the significance of the holiday.”[1]
We can see from the two paragraphs quoted above that Jesus had two reasons to celebrate with His disciples on the day before the Passover. He was the firstborn, and celebrated that status. He was also spending time with his family as he drew his intimate circle close to him.
Matthew 26:20–25
Two notes on this passage gleaned from the Jewish New Testament Commentary: First, the idea of reclining is drawn from the Jewish custom of having a child ask four questions. Rich supports this by quoting the question that a child is to ask, “On all other nights, we eat either sitting or reclining, either sitting or reclining. On this night, on this night, we all recline.” Reclining gave the idea of freedom. Slaves did not recline, only the free men were able to recline at a table.
The dipping of the hand into the bowl is also a significant part of the Passover. The bowl contained a paste type of food that symbolized the mortar that was used for the bricks in Egypt. This was a direct symbol of slavery. Note that Judas was still in slavery as he dipped his hand into the bowl with the full knowledge that he was in bondage to the sin of betraying Jesus. Judas had already taken money for his betrayal and Jesus sent him out of the celebration after symbolically linking him to the slavery of Egypt through dipping in the bowl. I quote from Rich again “A blessing is recited over a bitter vegetable (usually raw horseradish; sometimes romaine lettuce), and it is eaten. This symbolizes the bitterness of slavery. The maror is dipped in charoset, a mixture of apples, nuts, cinnamon and wine, which symbolizes the mortar used by the Jews in building during their slavery.” In effect, When Jesus sent Judas out, he was saying that Judas was still under the bondage of sin and would remain under the bondage to the sin until he completed the task of betraying Jesus.
Matthew 26:26–30
During the Jewish Passover celebration there are three squares of unleavened bread that are placed in a three-part napkin or bag. One part of the bread is broken. The broken piece is then hidden for children to later find. The first part is consumed. This part of the ritual puzzles modern Jews because it does not bear significance to the story. Rich explains it as a ritual which keeps children interested and relates it to an abnormal method of playing with food. He also warns his readers against the Messianic Christians who are reinterpreting the Jewish festivals. This is the reason I am quoting from him, he is a very biased Jew! The picture that Jesus gave us is simple. The bread is His body, broken on the cross. When the children find the hidden piece, it relates to how that Jesus’ body was hidden in the tomb and then His disciples found Him to be alive! They sought out his hidden body. Some feel that the three squares represent the three aspects of the Trinity.
The cup of wine is actually one of four cups that were used in the Passover celebration. Jesus indicated that the wine symbolized the blood that He shed on the cross. In effect then, we see Jesus reinterpreting the Passover to state that the bread and wine which is used in the Passover celebration is a symbol of His work on the cross and resurrection. The original communion service was during a Passover Seder and was already a part of the Seder. Jesus helped the disciples understand that it spoke about Him.
The final phase of the Passover was to sing praise songs, or hymns as the modern translators state it in the New American Standard Bible above. “Singing the Hallel. This translates one Greek word which means, literally, “hymning.” But since this was the Seder, we can know the hymn being sung must have been one of the Hallel (“praise”) Psalms recited at festivals, Psalms 113–118 or 136.”
The second day of the festival took place at the temple. Here they would offer their lambs to be slain and work through a Passover Seder with the Priests officiating it. The first phase of the celebration was a time when the lambs were inspected to see if they had blemish. We covered this in the last study when we discussed that Jesus was inspected eight times to see if He was without blemish. Jesus was found by all parties to be innocent. It is estimated that 200,000 Passover lambs were slain on the Passover in Jerusalem from 9 AM to 3 PM. No matter how you slice it, it was a busy day for the Priests.
Note that Jesus hung on the cross from 9AM to 3PM. When the High Priest finished sacrificing the lambs, what do you suppose that he shouted? Jesus said the words exactly:
John 19:30 (KJV) 30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
The High Priest would declare that the final sacrifice was made. It is finished was a statement that the contract was complete.
If you are able to find a Passover Seder to be a part of. Prayerfully consider it. It will be worth the effort.
[1] http://www.jewfaq.org/holidaya.htm, accessed 4/18/19
