A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Numbers 9 (Part 1)

Ever have a significant event come up, but you couldn’t make it and you wished you could have a do-over? Well, there were times when some of Israelites had the same problem. Something had happened and they could not keep the Passover at the appointed time, but still wanted to keep it. Could they get a do-over? Well, yes. Numbers 9:1-15—1 Now the LORD spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying: 2 “Let the children of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time. 3 On the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time. According to all its rites and ceremonies you shall keep it." 4 So Moses told the children of Israel that they should keep the Passover. 5 And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, at twilight, in the Wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did.”

So they were in the first month, Nisan, on the 14^th day of the month—little time has passed since Numbers 1—and therefore kept the Passover as God had commanded (Exodus 12). Just to refresh your memory, you can read the commands for the Feast in Exodus 12:1-51. The only change would be that they did not have to strike their doorposts with blood—since they did not have doorposts in the wilderness. There are some historians who posit that the blood was sprinkled around the Altar of Burnt Offering, while others reject that claim, seeing as how only Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar remained of the priests, and only the priests could sprinkle the blood on or around the Altar. Now, I don’t think I have ever described all that was involved in the Passover feast, so let’s go ahead and do that. 

First, they had to find a lamb (or goat) without spot or blemish. Exodus 12:3-5—3 “…On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man's need you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.” This was not a time for “close enough”. You had to thoroughly inspect that animal to make sure there were no defects in it. You couldn’t just give it a quick once-over and say it was good enough. It wasn’t like buying a used car, “well, it’s got a bit of a misfire but it’ll do”. Because for the Passover lamb, God did not deal with “good enough” or “close enough”. It couldn’t be lame, couldn’t have any kind of physical defect, couldn’t have Mad Sheep Disease. Your job was not to bring just any sheep, it had to be perfect. 

Just like the Lamb of God. God was pretty particular when He chose the Lamb whom He would offer on behalf of His people. John the Baptist cried out, in John 1:29—“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” This Lamb was of course, His Only Begotten Son. The only, ever, perfect Lamb of God, upon Whom God could lay all the guilt and all the sin of all of His Elect, who could carry His blood into the Holiest in the Heavens, and from Whom the Father could accept that Sacrifice, and say “Well Done! Sit at My right hand!” (Psalm 110:1). Who better than the Son of God to come as our Lamb, as our Passover (1st Corinthians 5:7). A perfect Lamb, "Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth" (1st Peter 2:22, quoting Isaiah 53:9). And keep in mind, this initial Passover was not to be eaten alone. It was to be consumed by the whole household. Just like Christ and the Church. Granted, we do not eat the actual flesh and drink the actual blood of Christ. And with that said, I want so badly to launch into the wrongness of the Romish doctrine of transubstantiation, but it will be better suited to a later text. Suffice it to say that for those of us who are in Christ, we are all one in Him. And we are not meant to be alone in this life. Which is why it says in Hebrews 10:24-25—24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. Just as the Israelites were to celebrate their deliverance from captivity to Egypt by the Lord on that first Passover, we are to celebrate, with other members of the Church, our being set free from our bondage to sin. 

Now, after you found a perfect lamb, you had to keep it in the house for four days. Exodus 12:6(a)—Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. You got used to it being there. The kids got used to it being there. They might have even grown fond of it and given it a name. Probably not “Mutton”, since there might have been some fondness there. At any rate, this lamb had to be in your house for 4 days. Let’s do a little math here, shall we? Our Lord rode into Jerusalem on a Sunday (Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:28-44; John 12:12-19). He is there Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. And He is taken and arrested on Wednesday. Four days. Interesting, no? Almost like God has a perfect way of designing things. Then He was crucified on Thursday. Not Friday, but Thursday. I have talked about that previously here, you can read it if you like. Anyway. 

Then what did you do on that fourth day? Exodus 12:6(b)—Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. After you had had this lamb in your house for 4 days, all your house gathered together and slit its throat, and drained all the blood from it until it was dead. You were not to eat anything that had blood remaining in it (Leviticus 17:10-11). You take this innocent lamb—this perfect, little, innocent lamb—this lamb that had done no wrong, you take it into your home, let the kinds grow fond of it, then four days later you kill it. Now, if you think about it, this whole thing is kind of odd, isn’t it? How do you celebrate being set free from 430 years of bondage? Kill a lamb and eat it. Doesn’t make sense to us, does it? But does it make sense to God? Absolutely. Because it pointed not only the Israelites in Egypt that night, but Israelites hundreds of years later, and even us today, to the day when God would send His son into the world, to preach deliverance from sin to the world, come into the city where God placed His name, and have His blood spilled by order of the High Priest four days later. Or rather, by the earthly High Priest. Who delivered our Great High Priest over to be slaughtered. Delivered over to the pagan Romans. Who did not know, or care, that they were nailing the Son of God to that tree. Which is why Jesus said "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." (Luke 23:34). And really, it was not the Romans’ idea to kill Him, or even the Jews’, but rather the Father’s. Isaiah 53:10—Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. 

You see, Adam’s sin did not take God by surprise. God did not have to whip up some plan to save men from their sins. It was done before the foundation of the world. If one thinks that God did not see it coming, one has a very low view of God. That is why He chose His people before He laid the first cornerstone of Creation. And He considers that death of His Son to have taken place at that time. How do you think the saints of the Old Covenant were saved? By the blood of bulls and goats and lambs and rams and turtledoves? No. They were saved as we are, by the blood of Jesus. But how, since they did not know Him? Because He was slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). 

And once they killed that first Passover lamb, they were to cook it. How were they to cook it? Exodus 12:8-9—8 Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. This lamb was most likely roasted on a spit over an open fire. But why not boil it; wouldn’t that have been easier and quicker? Because the lamb was not to be cut up and divided. To boil it, and fit it in the boiling pot would have required the lamb to be cut into pieces, and possibly some of its bones to be broken. It was to be a whole lamb when it was cooked and eaten. Now, were they to eat with the Egyptians? Were they to share in the eating of the lamb with those who were not of Israel? No. Likewise, when we partake of the Lord’s Table, we are not to have unbelievers partake with us. 1st Corinthians 11:26-30—26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. 27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. 30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. 

So what did the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs symbolize? Well, the unleavened bread (מַצָח, “matzah”) symbolized the haste with which the people of Israel had to flee Egypt. And they were to eat it for seven days, beginning on 15 Nisan, and have no leaven in their household. Exodus 12:15-20, 39—“15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you. 17 So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. 18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread'"… 39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves. If you’ve ever made bread (as I have tried once and it turned out, well, let’s just say it wasn’t exactly Wonder Bread™) you know that when you add the yeast, you have to cover it and put it in a dark place to “proof”, that is, to rise. The people did not have the time to proof dough, and even if they thought they did, God said “Don’t”. There was no time.  They were to roast the lamb, make bread with no leaven, eat the bitter herbs, then GO! Now, the command to eat unleavened bread for seven days probably came later, as the people had to make haste to vacate Egypt. Now, a little bit about leaven. When you add yeast to your dough, and it rises—what is it that makes it rise? Well, the yeast consumes the sugars found in the dough, and then expels carbon dioxide as a waste product. Which is why no offerings made to God were to contain leaven—because it is a waste product (Leviticus 2:11, Leviticus 6:17 and Leviticus 10:12). 

Many times in the New Testament we are told to watch for Christ’s return, and that the Kingdom of God is near at hand. Matthew 24:42, 44—42 “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming…44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” 1st Peter 4:7—But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. We do not know when He will return. All of the appointed days and feats in the Law, the people knew when they would come, and they could be ready for them. But the Day of the Lord—that Day when Christ returns to bring in His people—we don’t know when that will be. Despite all the Doomsday prognosticators and all their “this is a sign of His return” bluster, no one—NO ONE—is able to say with truth “This is a sign, and it means He will return on such-and-such a day”. But know this—that when He does return, we want to be found doing well. Matthew 24:45-46—45 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.” Do we want to be found fornicating, or robbing, or committing some other shameful act when He calls us home? No. Therefore, let us always let our bread be unleavened, that we may not be ashamed at His coming (1st John 2:28). 

Matthew 16:6 (also Mark 8:15)—Then Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees." 1st Corinthians 5:7-8—7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. In the New Testament, leaven is used to denote sin and unbelief. Jesus was warning the Apostles to watch for the leaven—the broken doctrine, the waste products of the beliefs—of the men who opposed Him, to be ready to answer it, and to show them the truth. Paul tells us to let us keep the Passover—not by taking a lamb into our home and roasting it, but by bringing to remembrance our Lamb of God who takes away our sins. And to not let the leaven of sin permeate the body of Christ, His beloved bride, and to not let it infect her with sin, but to get rid of it, to purge it, to cleanse the bride of it, that she may be a bride without spot or blemish. To not fettered to our old man, who is passing away, but to lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1). We cannot do that if we are waiting for our bread to rise, we must be always ready to go, ready to leave this world behind and go on to glory. Even as the women carried their kneading bowls bound up in their sacks on their shoulders (Exodus 12:34). 

The bitter herbs (םִךןֹך, maror). These were to call to the people’s remembrance the 430 years of bitter bondage the people served in Egypt. And should we not feel the same about all our years serving sin and the flesh? How many times are we told to repent of our sins, to put off the old man, to put on the new man, that we are a new creation, etc. etc. Because that old man is ugly, and must not be allowed to rear his ugly head. Do you ever look back at the person you used to be? How do you feel about that person? Does that person make you proud? Or does your remembrance of that person make you grieve who you used to be? I, for one, don’t want to be the man I once was, because he was full of lust, greed, fornication, and almost any other sin you could think of. And I don’t want to be him again. I am much happier being a servant of the King, than to be the king of my own sinful domain. Albert Barnes—

 

If a drunkard becomes reformed, there is no impropriety in saying that he is a new man. If a man who was licentious becomes pure, there is no impropriety in saying that he is not the same man that he was before. Such expressions are common in all languages, and they are as proper as they are common. There is such a change as to make the language proper. And so in the conversion of a sinner. There is a change so deep, so clear, so entire, and so abiding, that it is proper to say, here is a new creation of God - a work of the divine power as decided and as glorious as when God created all things out of nothing. There is no other moral change that takes place on earth so deep, and radical, and thorough as the change at conversion. And there is no other where there is so much propriety in ascribing it to the mighty power of God.

Now, suppose a member of the “mixed multitude” wanted to keep the Passover. What would they do? Exodus 12:43-45, 48-49—43 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "This is the ordinance of the Passover: No foreigner shall eat it. 44 But every man's servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat it. 45 A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat it…48 And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as a native of the land. For no uncircumcised person shall eat it. 49 One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you." Just as there was one lamb to be eaten that night, there is one Savior to be worshipped now. If one wanted to keep that Passover, they had to be circumcised outwardly and be brought in to the house of Israel. And today, there is one way to salvation—to be circumcised inwardly, that is to have your heart circumcised, and be brought in to the house of God. Romans 2:28-29—28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. Colossians 2:11—In [Christ] you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ. Philippians 3:3—For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. At the time of the first Passover, to partake of it you had to be circumcised of your foreskin. Now, Christ circumcises our heart, that we may love Him and obey Him and seek to please Him. Many New Testament passages tell us of the better circumcision, that made by God of our hearts, rather than the circumcision mad of our foreskin by men (Romans 4:1-25; 1st Corinthians 7:19; Galatians 5:6, 6:15). 

Suppose someone wanted to break off a leg and eat it by themselves. Could they do that? No. Exodus 12:46 (also Numbers 9:12)—…nor shall you break one of its bones. It was all to be consumed as a whole inside the house by the entire household. Again, a picture of the commonality of the house that they were under the protection of God, and that they were all of one accord. The people were to show that they all shared the table of God, that there was one source of life, and that source was not divided (Deuteronomy 6:3-5). When one sat down to eat in those times, they were basically saying “I agree with this person, and will partake of what they have provided, and show that we are of the same mind”. It is the reason David said in Psalm 1:1-2—1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He was telling us not to partake of the table of those opposed to God. To not show support of them, nor to live in their way. But rather, we should delight in the one Source of all life and truth and righteousness, and live according to His way. 

We find the fulfillment of this command in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as He hung upon His cross. John 19:33, 36—But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs…For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, "Not one of His bones shall be broken." These Roman soldiers were accustomed to crucified victims, and knew how they acted when they were running out of breath. Many times they would gasp loudly, trying to draw air into their lungs, and would cry out for mercy. And to the soldiers, this played upon their nerves, so they would break the legs of the victims, so they may more quickly expire, thus sparing the soldiers of having to hear their desperate cries. But they noticed something. This Man on the middle cross—the One who said we could come—was already dead. “How could this be?” they thought. “It has only been a few hours since we nailed Him here, and He is already dead! Interesting.” But this was no criminal they killed. It was not the loss of blood, or the inability to breathe, or even the shock of the pain of the nails that brought our Lord to death. He Himself said in John 10:17-18—17 "Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again". Paul Kretzmann, once a faculty member of Concordia Theological Seminary and author of the “Popular Bible Commentary”, has this to say—

 

The laying down of His life was not due to His yielding to His foes and their cunning; it was an act of His will. He had the power to give His life, to lay it down in death; but He had the power also to take it again. No other man could dream of having such power; every other person succumbs to death, but Jesus differs from all other men in this respect, because He is Himself true God. The fact of His voluntary death gave to His sacrifice its real worth and value; without such free will His sacrifice would have been in vain. And herein He agrees with His Father, whose command He has received and now carries out for the salvation of mankind.

 

Christ did not die because they nailed Him to a cross. He laid down His life for His sheep, He gave up His life, He resigned Himself to the grave that He may offer to the Father a worthy sacrifice. And in doing so, fulfilled the Passover command that …nor shall you break one of its bones, that He may be a whole sacrifice, that We may all partake of Him as one Lord, that we may be all one body, that there should be no schism in the body (1st Corinthians 12:25), having one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Ephesians 4:5).

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen. 

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--"You shall keep the Passover" (Part 3)

On the day when Christ entered into Jerusalem, He knew that in just a few days He would be crucified. He knew He was to be the Passover lamb, the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). That He would be led as a lamb to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7). That all those people who were cheering Him on, throwing their palm branches and their blankets before Him—many of the same people would be calling for His death by Thursday. But He also knew that He must allow His blood to be poured out so that God’s wrath could pass over the people. Today we’re going to finish up looking at the Passover by looking at the final official, God-sanctioned Passover.

But for now, let’s read Exodus 12:13-20—“13 Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 14 So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you. 17 So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. 18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.” 

The Passover was one of three “Great Feasts” that were to be kept by all Jewish males. And at around this time of year, about 2000 years ago, all of Israel was gathered in Jerusalem—some estimates put the population at the time of Passover at around 2,000,000 people. All these people had gathered to take part, since God commanded “You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.” Now, before we get started let me point something out. How long would you say an “everlasting ordinance” would be in effect? There are indeed some who think we should still be keeping all the feasts and all the holy days, since God Himself does indeed refer to them as “memorials” or “ordinances” that are for “all generations, even forever.” You can find some of these people on TV on Sunday mornings. One such program is called “Tomorrow’s World”, then there’s Gerald Fleury and his show “The Key of David”, the late Garner Ted Armstrong and his late father Herbert W. Armstrong—and there are many more. They teach that even now we should be keeping the Passover—and all the other feasts—in the same way as it was kept in Christ’s day.

At the other end of the spectrum are people who take a machete, if you will, and they make a perfect cut between Malachi 4:6 and Matthew 1:1. And they try and make two different Gods, one mean, angry, nasty God of the OT, and another kind, gentle, tolerant God of the NT. And both of these extremes are wrong. When God says something is an “everlasting ordinance,” He means it’s an “everlasting ordinance.” But, by the same token, He has done away with the formal, ritual, ceremonies that were connected to these various feasts.

Now, does it sound like I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth yet? Well, it’s not that God changes His requirements. “I am the LORD, I change not” (Malachi 3:6). What He does is He gives us types and pictures and prophecies—all of which are but shadows of the reality. And when He gave the Passover as an “everlasting ordinance,” He didn’t mean that every generation of people would smear the blood of sheep or goats on their door frame until the end of time. This was a type, a shadow, a prophecy—that was fulfilled by Christ. And in the NT we see that the feasts—including the Passover—were inextricably linked with Christ. First Corinthians 5:7—Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Christ fulfilled the shadow that was the Passover. Colossians 2:16-17—16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. And gave even gave knowledge of Christ to men like Moses and Abraham and Jacob.

It was in Christ that God made a covenant with Abraham, Galatians 3:17—The law…cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ. Abraham saw that promise fulfilled, as Jesus told the Pharisees in John 8:56—“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” Jacob saw Christ even though he didn't realize what he was seeing. Genesis 28:12—Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up…and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. The apostle that Jesus loved wrote in John 1:51—"Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." And even Moses saw Christ. Hebrews 11:24-26—24 By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, 26 esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt... Notice what he says in Hebrews 11:26—Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. Moses looked forward to Christ. We don’t have it written down in the OT that Moses saw Christ—but then again, we don’t know everything that God told Moses—we simply know what God told Moses to write down. So Christ, rather than being this figure that suddenly appeared on the scene out of nowhere, has existed for all eternity, being known to the Patriarchs and prophets—although not known to the people.

There are times in the NT where you will find the word translated “mystery.” We think of “mystery” as something shadowy and something that only the greatest detectives and the deepest thinkers can figure out. Or, like last week, when I mentioned the Gnostics. The Gnostics were known for seeking out “mysteries,” and to them it was secret knowledge that only the most spiritual person could understand. But in the Bible, when we see the word “mystery,” we shouldn’t think of it as something that we humans have no hope of ever understanding. While it does indeed mean “hidden knowledge” it is not hidden to the point that no human of average intellect could ever grasp it. But only those who have received the Holy Spirit will understand them. The biblical meaning of the word “mystery” is

“Not the mysterious (as with the English word), but that which, being outside the range of unassisted natural understanding, can be made known only by Divine revelation, and is made known in a manner and at a time appointed by God, and only to those who are awakened by His Spirit. In the ordinary sense a ‘mystery’ implies knowledge withheld; its Scriptural significance is truth revealed.” 

First Corinthians 2:7-8—7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. To those that do not know Christ, the words of Scripture are still a mystery. They are hidden from their understanding because they have not been given the spirit of understanding.

The true meaning of the Passover was another “mystery.” It was a picture, a shadow, a prophecy of Christ hidden in the commands and ordinances surrounding it—the lamb signified Christ Himself, the blood of an innocent animal was a figure of the blood of the innocent Jesus, the vertical doorpost and horizontal beam of the doorway signified the upright post and horizontal beam of the cross. Knowing all that, we can see now that when God gives an “everlasting ordinance” or a “statute forever” He does not mean “for a couple thousand years, then we’ll change it up a little.” But He may not necessarily mean “It will be done exactly like this forever and ever.” Many of the “everlasting statutes” were shadows, pictures, and prophecies of Christ, and now that we have the substance—whereas before we only had the shadow—we do not fulfil the Law outwardly with ritual and ceremony. We keep the Law inwardly, by faith in Christ who kept the Law for us. Romans 8:3-4—3 For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh…4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. 

So with all that being said, let’s see how the Passover was fulfilled in Christ. Luke 22:7—Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed. This was the night before the crucifixion, when Christ and His apostles met in the upper room. It was the 14^th of Abib (Nisan). This was the day when the people took that “lamb without spot or blemish” that they had been setting aside for the last four days and they brought it out and killed it and roasted it with fire and ate it. And Christ, not having yet fulfilled all things concerning Himself, was still under obligation to keep the Passover. Galatians 4:4—God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. What was the number one requirement for the Passover lamb to be acceptable? “Without spot or blemish.” First Peter 1:18-19—18 You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold…19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He was born under the Law so that He would have to keep the Law. And that He did. First Peter 2:21-22—21 Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example…22 "Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth." Again, what did that Passover lamb do to deserve being killed and burned? Nothing. What did Jesus do to deserve being put to death? Nothing. So in that innocent lamb we have a picture of the innocent Christ.

Now, the focus of the Passover feast was the lamb. What other two elements were included? Unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Let’s talk about the unleavened bread. Exodus 12:15—“On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.” Exodus 13:7 (NASB)—“Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and nothing leavened shall be seen among you, nor shall any leaven be seen among you in all your borders.” In other words, get it out of the entire camp. Leaven—yeast—what does it do to bread? Makes it look bigger than it really is. Well, the reason yeast (leaven) was to be excluded for the seven days that made up the Feast of Unleavened Bread was as a reminder of the haste with which God brought their 430 some-odd years of bondage to an end in one night.

But Christ applied another meaning to it. Matthew 16:6-12—6 Then Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees." 7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have taken no bread." 8 But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread?...11 How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." 12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. The doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees was full of spiritual leaven—they had puffed themselves up with human teachings in order to make themselves look greater in the eyes of men than they really were. Anybody ever make bread from scratch? You know what it means to “proof” the dough? That’s when you add the yeast, and what do you do with the dough when you add the yeast? You put it in a dark, lukewarm oven, excluding any light. That is when yeast grows most quickly—in darkness and lukewarmness. And by extension, Christ tells us to beware of the doctrine of false teachers, because when does bad doctrine grow best? In spiritual darkness and spiritual lukewarmness.

And 1500 years before He sent His Son, God warns the people to avoid leaven, and to even get any leaven out of their house during the feast. Paul gives us this same warning, as he does many times in his letters to the Corinthians, he tells us in First Corinthians 5:6-8—6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. We keep the Passover—indeed, the entire Feast of Unleavened Bread—by purging out those things that puff up and corrupt, and by living a life of truth, in Christ. Albert Barnes— 

“The sense is this - ‘As the Jews when they celebrated the Passover, on the slaying and sacrifice of the lamb, put away all leaven - as a symbol of sin - so let us, in the slaying of our sacrifice, and in all the duties, institutions and events that follow, put away all wickedness from our hearts, and from our societies and churches.’” 

Also, in the original commands, there were commands to not boil the Passover lamb. Exodus 23:19—“You shall not boil a young goat in his mother's milk.” Ralph Cudworth, a Hebrew scholar in the 1600’s, said

“It was a custom with the ancient heathens…to take a young goat, and boil it in the mother's milk; and then…to go about and sprinkle all their trees, and fields, and gardens, and orchards with it, thinking by these means, that they should make them bring forth more abundantly in the following year. This is why God’s people, the Jews, were forbidden to use any such superstitious or idolatrous ritual.” 

And many times in the Scriptures, over and over and over again, God gave them strict commands about how He was to be worshipped, and He was not to have His people mix the worship of the One True God with the customs of the pagans. Ezekiel 22:26—“Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean.” And again, we have similar warnings in the NT. Second Corinthians 6:14-17—14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” 17 Therefore “Come out from among them and be separate,” says the Lord. 

Now, about the command to break none of its legs. Exodus 12:46—In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones. There was a reason they were not to break its legs. This was the only animal sacrifice that was not cut up. To the people of Israel, this was meant to signify the unity of the people as a nation. It was not cut up; it was roasted whole on a spit. Now, think about a sheep. Its legs are not very agile. So to put that lamb on a spit, what do you need to do with its legs? You gotta pull them out of joint. It is believed that Jesus quoted all of Psalm 22 on the cross, and in Psalm 22:14—I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint. His bones were out of joint, but they were not broken. And even in death, Jesus fulfilled the Law. This came to pass, of course, as we read in John 19:32-36—32 Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs…36 For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, "Not one of His bones shall be broken." 

Christ was the fulfillment of what the OT Law only gave a picture of. He was the Lamb without spot or blemish. There was no leaven—no sin nor deceit—in Him. He never mixed the holy with the profane. And not one of His bones was broken. And just as the blood of the Passover protected the house from the Destroyer the night of the Exodus, the blood that Jesus shed protects us from the wrath of God. Next week we’re going to begin a study of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, and how they were both ratified—made official—by blood.

Jesus is Lord. Amen.

A survey of the Old Testament Law--"You Shall Keep the Passover" (Part 2)

Last week we used Exodus 23:15 as a jumping-off point for part 1 of what will be a 3-part study of the Passover. So if you have your Bible let’s go ahead and turn to Exodus 12:43-49—43 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "This is the ordinance of the Passover: No foreigner shall eat it. 44 But every man's servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat it. 45 A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat it. 46 In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones. 47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. 48 And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as a native of the land. For no uncircumcised person shall eat it. 49 One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you." Before we start, I want to mention something. Right in the middle of this paragraph, we see God command the people, at the end of Exodus 12:46—“…nor shall you break one of its bones.” We’re gonna skip that for now, come back to it later

Under the Old Covenant, God split the world up into two groups of people: Jew and Gentile. It was easy. If you were born to a Jewish family, you were a Jew. If you belonged to any other ethnic group, you were a Gentile. The lines were drawn and they were very distinct. And one sign that one was a Jew was circumcision. Today parents have their children circumcised for any number of reasons. But under the old covenant, circumcision was a sacred rite, one by which one was permitted into the nation of Israel. Another sign that separated Jew from Gentile was the feasts. If you were a Jew, you took part in the feasts. If you were not a Jew, you could take part in the feasts—if and only if you had been circumcised. These commands were given because of what we see in Exodus 12:37-38—37 Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. 38 A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock. The “mixed multitude” was made up of Egyptians who feared the LORD and who saw His mighty hand and wanted to worship this One who could do such mighty works and topple the gods of Egypt. Now, if we fast-forward to the NT, we find the question of circumcision being one of the most hotly-debated issues in the early church. We, who are living today, tend to think that many of the errors we see today are ones that have taken 2000 years to develop. That is not quite true. There were, I dare say, just as many heresies trying to creep into the church in its infancy as there are now. And in fact, many of the NT epistles were written to correct those heresies. Colossians and 1^st John were written to denounce the heresy called “Gnosticism”, which was a heresy that taught that to attain salvation one had to gain this mystical, secret knowledge. They also taught that material things are evil; therefore Christ could not have had an actual body of flesh and bone. Which is why 1^st John 4:3 says Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.

Probably the most common heresy in the early church was the issue of circumcision, and whether a Gentile had to be circumcised in order to be saved. The reason this was an issue was many Jews brought up the fact that for one to take part in the Passover, one had to be circumcised. They then applied that to Christ—He being our Passover. So they said, “If you have to be circumcised to eat the Passover, then it’s obvious you must be circumcised to partake of Christ’s life.” And time after time the apostle Paul—a Jew among Jews—soundly rejected that thinking. We could spend weeks going through all the verses that pertain to circumcision, but we’ll just hit on a few. Galatians 6:6—For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. Romans 2:28-29—28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. Ephesians 2:11-13—11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Under the old covenant one could not be joined to the nation of God except through circumcision of the flesh—that is, by becoming a Jew. But now, under the new covenant, one is joined to the family of God through circumcision of the heart—being adopted as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself.

Now, many years after the Passover was instituted, another question arose about if certain people were to keep the Passover. We find these questions in Numbers 9:6-13—6 Now there were certain men who were defiled by a human corpse, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day; and they came before Moses and Aaron that day. 7 And those men said to him, "We became defiled by a human corpse. Why are we kept from presenting the offering of the LORD at its appointed time among the children of Israel?" 8 And Moses said to them, "Stand still, that I may hear what the LORD will command concerning you." 9 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “10 Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If anyone of you or your posterity is unclean because of a corpse, or is far away on a journey, he may still keep the LORD's Passover. 11 On the fourteenth day of the second month, at twilight, they may keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They shall leave none of it until morning, nor break one of its bones. According to all the ordinances of the Passover they shall keep it. 13 But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and ceases to keep the Passover, that same person shall be cut off from among his people, because he did not bring the offering of the LORD at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin.’” Question: The command in verse 10, about men who have been defiled because they touched a corpse right before Passover—we read about two men in the gospels that command applies to. Who would those two men be? What two men handled a corpse at the time of Passover in the gospels? Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. John 19:38-40—38 After this, Joseph of Arimathea…came and took the body of Jesus. 39 And Nicodemus…also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. 40 Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices. These men would not be allowed to keep the Passover the next day, because they would be considered unclean. And I think it might have shocked even Pontius Pilate that these two devout Jewish men—Joseph of Arimathea being a member of the Sanhedrin—would handle a dead body the day before the Passover. But, because they did, they would have had to wait until the 14^th of the next month, which would be the month Ijar to observe it. But I think Joseph and Nicodemus knew something that even the Pharisees, the guardians of the Law of Moses, didn’t know. That the Passover has come, has been slain, and never needs to be slain again. They knew that when they lay Christ, our Passover, in the tomb, He wouldn’t be there very long.

In this section of Numbers, we also see the provision for those who are away from home to keep the Passover. Numbers 9:10—“If anyone of you or your posterity is far away on a journey, he may still keep the LORD's Passover.” These were the only two reasons a person may be excused from keeping the Passover on the 14^th of the month Abib (Nisan). However, if they just didn’t feel like going through all the hassle of finding a perfect lamb or goat, and wanted to put it off until next month, and observe the “little Passover” as it was called. Well, we find God saying this in Numbers 9:13—“13 But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and declines to keep the Passover, that same person shall be cut off from among his people, because he did not bring the offering of the LORD at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin.” Sorry! Unless you are unclean or on a journey, you MUST keep the Passover on the 14^th of Abib (Nisan). If you delay without reason, you are cut off from the nation of Israel. Period, paragraph, end of story. God had set up some very distinct regulations concerning how He was to be worshipped. If someone wanted to say, “Well, I know what it says, but I worship God in my own way.” Well, you go ahead and do that—and then, when you stand before Him, you can explain to Him why you thought you knew better than He did. And He can then explain to you why He did not accept that kind of worship. And you can have a chat with Nadab and Abihu, whom we will talk about further down the road.

Now, there is one last aspect of this feast that we’re going to look at today. In the middle of all the regulations concerning the Passover, God says in Numbers 9:14—“And if a stranger dwells among you, and would keep the LORD's Passover, he must do so according to the rite of the Passover and according to its ceremony; you shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger and the native of the land.’” Real simple—there was but one Law for both Jew and for Gentile. There was not one Law for the Jew and another, separate Law for Gentile. One Law covered them both. Four times, God repeats this command. Once in Leviticus, three times in Numbers. God makes it very clear that He does not set one standard for one group of people, and another standard for others. Romans 3:19—Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. The ONE Law of God shuts EVERY mouth, and declares ALL THE WORLD—Jew and Gentile—to be guilty before God. Romans 3:28-30—28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. 29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. See, one thing we need to understand about the OT Law is that it was not simply God’s standard for a specific group of people for a specific period of time. While the Law was indeed given only to Israel, and it was only the Israelites who suffered the temporal punishments for violating its various commandments (for example, the Hivites were not stoned with stones for working on the seventh day of the week), it’s not as though God ignored murder before that moment when the people of Israel got to Mt. Sinai. Listen to what He said to Cain after he killed his brother Abel, Genesis 4:10-11—“10 What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground. 11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.” And of course we know why God sent the flood to wipe out all but the family of Noah. Genesis 6:5-7—5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually…7 So the LORD said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth." And after the flood was over, Genesis 9:6—“Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man.”

When God gave the Ten Commandments in the hearing of all the people, and when He spoke the entire Law to Moses up on Sinai, God was not really introducing any new commandments; He was not all of a sudden prohibiting things that He had previously condoned. When God gave the Law, He was simply telling Moses to put in writing those things that had been understood by all mankind even from the time of the Fall, when sin and death entered the world. Listen to Romans 5:12-14—12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam). Over the 1500 or so years before the giving of the Law, men died. The reason we die is because of sin. Sin entered the world, and death through sin. So when Paul says in Romans 5:13 that sin is not imputed when there is no law, he’s saying that there must have been some kind of Law in existence before Sinai, because men died. And men died because of sin. So that one Law covered every single man—except Enoch, who was taken out of the world before he died.

 Now, just as there was one Law for both Jew and Gentile, there is also one gospel for both Jew and Gentile. There is not one gospel for Jew and another, separate gospel for Gentile. There’s a real popular preacher on TV who says that Jews don’t need to accept Christ as their Savior, since they are Jews and the Jews are God’s chosen people—therefore Jews are saved because they're Jews. And I'll tell you his name, it’s John Hagee. That teaching is heresy—that was the very same error that the Pharisees were guilty of. Matthew 3:7-10—7 But when [John the Baptist] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, 9 and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” John the Baptist was saying, “Yep, you guys are sons of Abraham. Whoopty-doo! That and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee, but it ain't gonna get you into the kingdom of God!” That’s just a loose translation from the Greek. There is ONE GOSPEL for the Jew and for the Gentile. Listen to what Peter says in Acts 15—and keep in mind, if there were ever a devout Jew, it was Simon Peter. Acts 15:7-11 (NASB)—7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; 9 and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. 10 Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are." Jew and Gentile are both saved in the same way—by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone according to the Scriptures alone for the glory of God alone.

Paul tells us the following, in Ephesians 2:14-18—14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross…18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Colossians 3:11—There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free—and to expand that thought, there is neither white nor black, American nor Canadian, Latino nor Japanese, African nor Asian, French or English, Russian or Mexican—but Christ is all and in all. Galatians 3:28—There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Albert Barnes—“Every man, on whom is the image and the blood of Christ, is a brother to every other one who bears that image, and should be treated accordingly. What an influence would be excited in the breaking up of the distinctions of rank and class among people; what an effect in abolishing the prejudice on account of color and country, if this were universally believed and felt!” There was one Law for both Jew and Gentile—there is one gospel for both Jew and Gentile.

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--"You shall keep the feast of Passover"

There were three great feasts that the people of Israel were commanded to keep every year: Passover; the Feast of Firstfruits; and the Feast of Ingathering. These were three feasts that were to remind the people, year after year, of the fact that God is their Provider, their Deliverer, and the one to whom they should look for all their needs. These were symbolic—they were meant to point to the One who would provide their salvation form sin; the One who would deliver them from evil, and who would give life and give it more abundantly. The Feast of Firstfruits and the Feats of Ingathering—we’ll look at those when we get to those parts of Leviticus. Today we are going to look at Passover and how that was a shadow of the Christ to come. The Passover was to remind them of how God saved them from their bondage to Pharaoh. However, the One who was pictured in that event was going to, one day, save many from their bondage to sin, Satan, the flesh and the Law.

Exodus 23:13-19—“13 And in all that I have said to you, be circumspect and make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth. 14 Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year: 15 You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty); 16 and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field. 17 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD. 18 You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor shall the fat of My sacrifice remain until morning. 19 The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.” Each of these feasts was a guide, a shadow, which was meant to guard hearts of the people until the Son of God appeared to fulfill these things (Galatians 3:25).

By the time Christ arrived, the keeping of these feasts had become the ground to which many people were clinging for their salvation. But in many places in the OT, God rebukes the people of Israel for keeping feasts and for offering sacrifices that He would not accept. Isaiah 1:11-14—11 “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” says the LORD. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats. 12 “When you come to appear before Me, who has required this from your hand, to trample My courts? 13 Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. 14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.” And the reason He would not accept them is because the people were saying—in their heart—“I'm not going to stop sinning, so I'll just bring a lamb or a goat and make my offering and God will be happy with that.” And in the NT, Paul rebukes the people for trying to be righteous by keeping them. Galatians 4:9-11—9 But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.

The feasts and the offerings and the rituals and the blood of bulls and goats—these were all simply guideposts, if you will, that were meant to lead the people to the One who would deliver them from their real enemy. Now, for those couple thousand years between the giving of the Law and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the people always thought their real enemies were foreign nations—the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Egyptians. But their real enemy was no human kingdom. Their real enemy was not of this world. Their real enemy is the same enemy we all need to be delivered from, and that is whom? Ephesians 6:12—We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. The feasts and offerings were not meant to make one righteous, but to point to the One who would make us righteous—the Lord Christ. Galatians 3:23-24—23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. The writer of Hebrews tells us that these things were merely a “shadow” of Christ. Hebrews 9:9—[The tabernacle] was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience. He goes on to say in Hebrews 10:1—1 The law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. These things contained in the Law could not cleanse the conscience; they could not take away sin; they could not do anything. They were only an outward manifestation of an inward change.

Because you could perform all these outward rituals every single day for the rest of your life but if there was no change on the inside; if there was no mourning over sin; if there was no heart that longed after God—those rituals and offerings and sacrifices were useless. You could kill 100 goats a day, but if there was no hatred of sin, no shame, then all the blood of all the bulls and goats in all of Israel could not make one person righteous before God. Like baptism. You could get dunked in water every day, but if your heart has not been changed and if there is no repentance, if there is no hunger and thirst after righteousness, all the water in the world cannot wash away one single sin. 

For now, let’s look at the first of these feasts, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, in Exodus 23:15—“You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt.)” This command is repeated in Exodus 34:18. This Feast of Unleavened Bread is, of course, also known as what? Yes, Passover. Turn with me please to Exodus 11:1. I don’t think I need to set the scene up for you. But just in case—the people of Israel have been living in Egypt for over 400 years. They have been in bondage to Pharaoh, forced to build many of the monuments and temples that archeologists are now discovering. And it is most likely that the Pharaoh at the time was Rameses II. He ruled Egypt from 1279 BC until 1213 BC, and was one of the longest-reigning of the Egyptian pharaohs. Moses commands Pharaoh, in the name of YHVH, to let the people of Israel go. Pharaoh refuses time after time, and eventually God sends the first nine plagues to punish Pharaoh and the people of Egypt.

When Pharaoh still won’t budge, we find Moses telling Pharaoh the following in Exodus 11:4-7—4 Then Moses said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt; 5 and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals. 6 Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again. 7 But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the LORD does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.’” So, who was going to be the object of the wrath of God in this plague? Just like we talked about last week, the reason the people of Israel were to dedicate their firstborn to God was as a reminder of this night, because God destroyed the all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, but spared the firstborn of the Israelites.

Now, Exodus 12:1-2—1 Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.” This was the month of Abib. It is now called “Nisan”. Like the car but with only one ‘s’. The name ‘Abib’ comes from the Hebrew word which means “the month of green ears.” It is the month when the grain would be seen for the first time that year. Now, the name was changed from ‘Abib’ to ‘Nisan’ after the Babylonian captivity, and that is what it has been called ever since. Abib—Nisan—occurs during the springtime of year, and it falls in what we call March or April. And there is a reason for the ambiguity, if you will. The Hebrew calendar reckons months quite differently than the Gregorian calendar that we use. Our calendars measure the time it takes for the earth to revolve around the sun. The Hebrew calendar is based on the phases of the moon. There are 12 months in the Hebrew calendar; 7 of the 12 Hebrew months have 30 days, the rest have 29. So, there is a difference of 11 days between the lunar Hebrew calendar and the solar Gregorian calendar. Also, every couple of years they need to add an entire month to make sure the Passover stays in the right part of the year. ISBE— 

“The year was composed of 12 or 13 months according to whether it was an ordinary or a leap year…[a leap month] was used to make the lunar year correspond approximately to the solar year, a month being added whenever the discrepancy of the seasons rendered it necessary. This was regulated by the priests, who had to see that the feasts were duly observed at the proper season.” 

 And this is why Passover—and consequently Resurrection Sunday—may occur in what we call the first of March one year, and what we call the middle of April the next year.

So, with all that being said, let us move on to Exodus 12:3-6—“3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month.” On the 10^th of Abib (Nisan) you examine your sheep (or goats) and you find one that was physically perfect. No open sores, no sickness, no physical deformities. Had to be perfect, and could not be more than a year old. And when you find that perfect specimen, you set it aside—or, ‘sanctified’ it—for the next four days, until the 14^th of Abib (Nisan). If your family was not big enough to eat and entire sheep or goat by yourselves, then you had your neighbor come over with his family to help you, because as it says in verse 10, “You shall let none of it remain until morning.” 

Now, let’s fast-forward to the NT—or, more correctly, to the end of the OT. There’s a fellow preaching in the wilderness outside of Jerusalem. And he’s making the leaders of the religious establishment a little sketchy. Because people are going out and flocking to him instead of paying the scribes and Pharisees the honor and adoration they deserve (said with tongue firmly in cheek). And many are going out to hear this man because even the Pharisees know that the people reckon this man to be a prophet of God. And indeed he was. He would be the last prophet of the Old Covenant. He preached of the coming Messiah—his cousin, actually—and one day that Messiah comes along and this prophet cries out John 1:29—“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” For the last 1500 years God had been giving them one clue after another about what to look for in the coming Messiah, and the clearest picture He gave them was the lambs that were used not only in the daily sacrifices, but in the Passover lamb. The people had been under mandate to provide their own lambs as a sacrifice—but now God has provided His own Lamb to deal with the problem of sin, Satan and the flesh. Just as Abraham promised Isaac when he took him up Mt. Moriah, in Genesis 22:8—“My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” And indeed, God provided a Lamb as an offering for sin for the people. So here we have the Passover—or Paschal—lamb as a picture of the Christ. A lamb without spot or blemish.

Now, in Exodus 12:6-7—“6 Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 7 And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.” And on that day, the whole assembly would gather together and kill that lamb—slit its neck from one side to the other, and all the people watched as the blood poured from that lamb. And let’s remember—what did that lamb do to deserve being killed? That innocent lamb was killed so that the people could be delivered from slavery and bondage. Hmmm. I wonder if we can see some similarities here. A lamb without spot or blemish. A lamb that never sinned. All the people of Israel gathered to watch this lamb pour out all its blood so the people could be freed from slavery and oppression. Can you think of anybody that scenario may remind you of? Also—They were to put blood on the vertical posts and the horizontal beam across the top of the entrance. Hmmm. The vertical post and the horizontal beam. I wonder what THAT might symbolize.

BUT—I want to point this out. In our main text, Exodus 23:15, the people were commanded to keep the Passover every single year. Year after year, they are to come to Jerusalem, bring their lambs and goats, kill them, cut them up, and burn them. Year after year after year after year. The lamb you killed last year does you no good this year. Hypothetically speaking, if you had killed your lamb in 2009, you would still have to bring one in 2010. In 2011, the one you killed in 2010 would do you no good; you would have to bring one in 2011. In 2012, all the lambs you brought in 2009, 2010, and 2011 would do you no good—you would still have to bring one in 2012. In 2050, all the lambs you would have killed from 2009, 2010, 2011, all the way up to 2049 would not do you one bit of good—you would still have to bring a new one in 2050.

All the lambs that were killed, cut up and burned every year under the Old Covenant were a symbol. They were a picture. They were a reminder of how God delivered them from one ruthless oppressor—but they were also a way of looking forward to God delivering them from an oppressor who was much more ruthless than Pharaoh. It was meant to keep in the front of their minds the fact that one day God Himself would redeem them from bondage to sin, Satan and the flesh. It was meant to be a tutor to bring them to Christ (Galatians 3:24). We don’t have to bring a lamb or a goat to Jerusalem and slay it every year. Reason number one, 1^st Corinthians 5:7—Christ, our Passover, was crucified for us. And even if we wanted to bring a lamb or goat and sacrifice it at the temple, we couldn’t—there’s no more temple. That’s why God had the temple destroyed. We talked last week about how even the Jewish historian Josephus knew that it was God who allowed the Romans to destroy the temple. He thought it was because of all the killing that had been taking place—but the truth is, God had the temple destroyed because He did not have anymore use for it. The true temple is in Heaven. “Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days”…He was speaking of the temple of His body (John 2:19-21). And, finally, writing of the New Jerusalem, John says in Revelation 21:22—I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 

Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who was slain, whose blood was poured out—not to deliver us from earthly tyrants, but to deliver us from the wrath of God that we deserved. And when we—spiritually—apply that blood to ourselves, God passes over our sins. Romans 3:23-25—23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed. So, when that first Passover lamb was killed, it was to be burned and eaten in a very particular way. Exodus 12:8—“Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.” The phrase “bitter herbs” does not refer to chewing on a sprig of oregano or basil. It’s actually a poor choice by the translators; it literally refers to some member of the lettuce family. If you go to Kroger’s and see the bags of precut salad, and some of them look like they're filled with grass and purple weeds—that’s probably what is referred to here. John Gill—

“Whatever they were, for it is uncertain what they were, they were expressive of the bitter afflictions of the children of Israel in Egypt, with which their lives were made bitter; and of those bitter afflictions and persecutions in the world, which they that will live godly in Christ Jesus must expect to endure; as well as they may signify that as a crucified Christ must be looked upon, and lived upon by faith, so with mourning and humiliation for sin, and with true repentance for it is an evil and bitter thing.” 

Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen.