Sunday, November 26, 2006

Exodus 12

REDEMPTION IN THE PASSOVER


   Before we read and study chapter 12, we'll watch Zola Levitt's DVD: "The Miracle of Passover" and, time permitting, part of Zola Levitt videotape "The Seven Feasts of Israel - Video 1 - Passover". "The Miracle of Passover" video can also be viewed on-line at www.worshipradio.com/home/ZolaVideo.html


   Of all the Jewish holidays, Pesach (Passover) is the one most commonly observed, even by otherwise non-observant Jews. According to the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS), more than 80% of Jews have attended a Pesach seder (seder is Hebrew for "order"). Pesach begins on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nissan. The name "Pesach" (PAY-sahch, with a guttaral "ch" as in the Scottish"loch") comes from the Hebrew root Peh-Samech-Chet , meaning to pass through, to pass over, to exempt or to spare. Pesach lasts for seven days (eight days outside of Israel). The text of the Pesach seder is written in a book called the haggadah (Hebrew for "telling"). The haggadah tells the story of the Exodus from Egypt and explains some of the practices and symbols of the holiday. - Judaism 101 - Passover: www.jewfaq.org/holidaya.htm


(1) While the Israelites were still in the land of Egypt, the Lord* gave the following instructions** to Moses and Aaron:


*Lord: Yahweh


**instructions: These very specific instructions are laid out so that future generations will always remember how Israel was set free by God's mighty hand! There is more to the Exodus than simply delivering slaves from Egypt. The deliverance from Egypt is a new beginning for Israel - they are now a nation.


(2) “From now on, this month will be the first month of the year for you.


Exodus 13:4: On this day in early spring, in the month of Abib, you have been set free. This first month of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar usually occurs late March or early April. Passover was again celebrated a year later according to Numbers 9:1-14. The Israelites generally stayed away from naming the months. They usually used the numbers of the months in order to avoid the pagan associations with the Canaanites and the other peoples around them who had given them these various names. But, Abib is the Canaanite name for this month which roughly corresponds to our March and April. Later, when Israel was in exile in Babylon, they took the Babylonian names of the months, and the name of this month came known as Nisan.



(3) Announce to the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day* of this month each family** must choose a lamb*** or a young goat for a sacrifice, one animal for each household.


*tenth day: On the 10th day of Nisan, just as all the unblemished lambs were being taken into homes, to be cared for, protected and safe guarded, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt.


**family: The fathers were to act as the priests of the houses.


***lamb: John 1:29: The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

The Hebrew word seh is singular and can refer to either a lamb or a goat. Since English has no common word for both, the phrase “a lamb or young goat” is used in the translation.


Genesis 22:8-14: 8 God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together. When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. At that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am! “Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son” Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”


Isaiah 53:6-7: All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.


1 Corinthians 5:7: Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.


(4) If a family is too small to eat a whole animal, let them share with another family in the neighborhood. Divide the animal according to the size of each family and how much they can eat.


(5) The animal you select must be a one-year-old male, either a sheep or a goat, with no defects*.


*with no defects: 1 Peter 1:19: It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.


(6) “Take special care of this chosen animal until the evening of the fourteenth day* of this first month. Then the whole assembly of the community of Israel must slaughter their lamb or young goat at twilight.


*fourteenth day: Since the lamb was chosen on the 10th, this gave 4 days for the entire assembly to examine the lambs to ensure they were spotless - as Jesus was examined and found spotless. As Christ was crucified at the passover, he entered into Jerusalem four days before, the very day that the paschal lamb was set apart. Jesus Christ was examined by all classes of persons. It was during those four days that the lawyer asked him which was the greatest commandment?” It was then that the Herodians came and questioned him about the tribute money; it was then that the Pharisees tempted him; it was then, also, the Sadducees tried him upon the subject of the resurrection. He was tried by all classes and grades—Herodians, Pharisees, Sadducees, lawyers, and the common people. It was during these four days that he was examined: but how did he come forth? An immaculate Lamb! The officers said, “never man spake like this man.” His foes found none who could even bear false witness against him, such as agreed together; and Pilate declared, “I find no fault in him.” He would not have been fit for the Paschal Lamb had a single blemish have been discovered, but “I find no fault in him,” was the utterance of the great chief magistrate, who thereby declared that the Lamb might be eaten at God’s Passover, the symbol and the means of the deliverance of God’s people. -- http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0054.htm - Charles Spurgeon


   What we call today as "the Last Supper" was in fact a Passover seder. Jesus being a Torah observant Jew, did all that was commanded. Jesus also explained each part of the service (Luke 22:14-20, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.) After singing the traditional Psalms (Matthew 26:30), Jesus and the disciples went to the Mount of Olives. They proceeded to Gethsemane. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the High Priest stood at the Temple with the last lamb. All the lambs that had been sacrificed before this had been for individuals and families and slain by the heads of the household. The final lamb stood as a sacrifice for the whole house of Israel. The High Priest took the sharp knife and slit the throat of the unblemished lamb. At precisely 3 o'clock the High Priest spread out his arms, looked across the assembly and said, "It is accomplished." Across from the Temple, at exactly 3 o'clock the Perfect Lamb of God lifted His eyes, looked at His beloved city, His mother, the soldiers and spectators and He spoke, "It is accomplished." The Passover Lamb had died as a remembrance of God's deliverance and mercy. -- www.jesuscafe.org/resources/transcripts/passover99.html


(7) They are to take some of the blood and smear it on the sides and top of the doorframes of the houses* where they eat the animal.


*houses: The Passover sacrifice was later to be celebrated only in Jerusalem per Deuteronomy 16:2: Your Passover sacrifice may be from either the flock or the herd, and it must be sacrificed to the Lord your God at the designated place of worship - the place he chooses for his name to be honored. As the blood was applied to the top and each side of the doorway, this blood dripped down, forming a figure of a cross in the doorway.


(8) That same night they must roast the meat over a fire* and eat it along with bitter** salad greens and bread made without yeast***.


*over a fire: It was to be slain, and roasted with fire, denoting the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, even unto death, the death of the cross. The wrath of God is as fire, and Christ was made a curse for us.


**bitter: symbolizing the bitterness of their slavery in Egypt.


***yeast: What is yeast or leaven? Decomposition, the breaking down of substance; thus, leaven has become throughout the scripture a type of sin because of its decomposition, its breaking down, its effect of just permeating the whole by a process of deterioration or breaking down. It becomes a very fit picture of sin. Any sin tolerated or allowed has a way of just expanding until it takes over and controls your life. But it brings into your life that element of decomposition, the breaking down, filling the whole life. So leaven is, and it's to be excluded, they were to eat the unleavened bread, a memorial. "Seven days you'll eat unleavened bread; and the first day you'll put away leaven out of your houses." Jesus said, "I am the bread of life", and thus the bread of the Passover, the middle wafer was representing Jesus Christ. In the Passover meal, they have three wafers of unleavened bread in this little napkin thing. They take the middle wafer and they break it, and then they hide it, and the children have to go and find it. Now why they do this, they really don't know. But Jesus said, "I am the bread of life", He said, "this bread is my body broken for you". They break it, even as He was in the grave for three days. They hide it, and then they discover it and there's great rejoicing when it's discovered, a great celebration, "They found the broken bread." It's brought out. - Blue Letter Bible - Chuck Smith Commentary on Exodus 11-12: www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/chuck_smith_c2000/Exd/Exd011.html

In Deuteronomy 16:3, the unleavened cakes are called “the bread of affliction,” or the "the bread of suffering" which alludes to the alarm and haste of the Israelites. In later Judaism and in the writings of Paul, leaven came to be a symbol of evil or corruption, and so “unleavened bread” – bread made without yeast – was interpreted to be a picture of purity or freedom from corruption or defilement:
Deuteronomy 16:3: Eat it with bread made without yeast. For seven days the bread you eat must be made without yeast, as when you escaped from Egypt in such a hurry. Eat this bread—the bread of suffering—so that as long as you live you will remember the day you departed from Egypt.


(9) Do not eat any of the meat raw or boiled in water. The whole animal—including the head, legs, and internal organs—must be roasted over a fire.


(10) Do not leave any of it until the next morning. Burn whatever is not eaten before morning.


(11) “These are your instructions for eating this meal: Be fully dressed*, wear your sandals, and carry your walking stick in your hand. Eat the meal with urgency, for this is the Lord’s Passover**.


*Be fully dressed Hebrew Bind up your loins - they were to be fully dressed and ready to immediately leave. This was to show their faith that God was going to free them right away.


**Passover: Hebrew - pesah


(12) On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the Lord!


(13) But the blood* on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over** you. This plague*** of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.


*the blood: If a first-born Egyptian was in a Hebrew's home covered by the blood, he would not die. If a Hebrew was in a home not covered by the blood and he was the first born, he would die. The blood is what saved, not the fact of being a Hebrew! This is what redemption is - to save from captivity by paying a ransom, in this case the blood of the lamb. Redemption is a central theme throughout the Bible.

   So the blood was to be a protection, it was to be a seal for that house. A token by which when God sees the blood there on the doorposts, He would pass over that house and the firstborn would not die. However, in whatever house there was not the blood there over the doorposts, and on the side posts of the house, the firstborn in that house would be slain. The only protection and the only salvation was through the blood; no other hope, no other way, no other salvation, except through the blood applied by faith, because it had to be a step of faith on the part of the people. -- www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/chuck_smith_c2000/Exd/Exd011.html

Leviticus 17:11: for the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the Lord. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible.

Hebrews 9:22: In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

Hebrews 11:28: It was by faith that Moses commanded the people of Israel to keep the Passover and to sprinkle blood on the doorposts so that the angel of death would not kill their firstborn sons.


**pass over: literally "hover over", "spread my wings over you", "pause over".


***plague (negef) is literally “a blow” or “a striking.” It usually describes a calamity or affliction given to those who have aroused God’s anger


   The Hebrews had to not only BELIEVE that the blood on the doorposts would keep their firstborn safe, they had to ACT on that belief! So both faith and works were required.


(14) “This is a day to remember. Each year, from generation to generation, you must celebrate it as a special festival* to the Lord. This is a law for all time.


special festival*: Called the Feast of Unleavened Bread.


(15) For seven days* the bread you eat must be made without yeast. On the first day of the festival, remove every trace of yeast from your homes. Anyone who eats bread made with yeast during the seven days of the festival will be cut off** from the community of Israel.


*seven days: Obviously, this is meant for future generations since Israel leaves Egypt the next day.


cut off**: The phrase, "cut off from Israel", is used thirty-six times in the first five books of the Bible. It is mostly used in connection with violations of God’s law, in connection with worship, and sexual immorality.


(16) On the first day of the festival and again on the seventh day, all the people must observe an official day for holy assembly. No work of any kind may be done on these days except in the preparation of food.


(17) “Celebrate this Festival of Unleavened Bread, for it will remind you that I brought your forces out of the land of Egypt on this very day. This festival will be a permanent law for you; celebrate this day from generation to generation.


(18) The bread you eat must be made without yeast from the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month until the evening of the twenty-first day of that month.


(19) During those seven days, there must be no trace of yeast in your homes. Anyone who eats anything made with yeast during this week will be cut off from the community of Israel. These regulations apply both to the foreigners living among you and to the native-born Israelites.


(20) During those days you must not eat anything made with yeast. Wherever you live, eat only bread made without yeast.”


(21) Then Moses called all the elders of Israel together and said to them, “Go, pick out a lamb or young goat for each of your families, and slaughter the Passover animal.


(22) Drain the blood into a basin. Then take a bundle of hyssop* branches and dip it into the blood. Brush the hyssop* across the top and sides of the doorframes of your houses. And no one may go out through the door until morning.


*Hyssop - common weed available to everyone, like faith. See John 19:29.

In Leviticus 14:6, the ceremony for the cleansing of a leper used hyssop to apply blood. In Numbers 19:6 hyssop was used for to make the ashes of a red heifer for the water of purification. In Numbers 19:18 hyssop was used to apply the purification water. Hyssop was even connected with Jesus' great sacrifice for sin. John 19:29 points out when Jesus was offered sour wine to drink on the cross, the sponge soaked with it was put on a bunch of hyssop. This is why David, in his great Psalm of repentance, says purge me with hyssop (in the Hebrew text), and I shall be clean (Psalm 51:7). Hyssop was always connected with purification through sacrifice.


   Notice the blood was to be stricken on the side posts and on the upper door posts, not on the threshold, because the blood of this lamb is actually symbolic of the blood of Jesus Christ, which is never to be trampled under foot. The blood was to be a protection, it was to be a seal for that house. A token by which when God sees the blood there on the door posts, He would pass over that house and the firstborn would not die. However, in whatever house there was not the blood there over the doorposts, and on the side posts of the house, the firstborn in that house would be slain. The only protection and the only salvation was through the blood; no other hope, no other way, no other salvation, except through the blood applied by faith, because it had to be a step of faith on the part of the people. So today God has declared that the only hope of life, the only hope of salvation is through the blood of Jesus Christ. There is no other way. There is no other hope. - Blue Letter Bible - Chuck Smith Commentary on Exodus 11-12: www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/chuck_smith_c2000/Exd/Exd011.html


(23) For the Lord will pass through the land to strike down the Egyptians. But when he sees the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe, the Lord will pass over your home. He will not permit his death angel to enter your house and strike you down.


(24) “Remember, these instructions are a permanent law that you and your descendants must observe forever.


(25) When you enter the land the Lord has promised to give you, you will continue to observe this ceremony.


   This celebration is to be a lasting, eternal ordinance. Passover is not just an event, and it is not just for one night. It is a reminder not just of what God has done but of what He continues to do. - "The NIV Application Commentary - Exodus" – Peter Enns – Zondervan™.


(26) Then your children will ask, ‘What does this ceremony mean?’


(27) And you will reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. And though he struck the Egyptians, he spared our families.’” When Moses had finished speaking, all the people bowed down to the ground and worshiped.


(28) So the people of Israel did just as the Lord had commanded through Moses and Aaron.


(29) And that night at midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn son of the prisoner in the dungeon. Even the firstborn of their livestock were killed.


(30) Pharaoh and all his officials and all the people of Egypt woke up during the night, and loud wailing was heard throughout the land of Egypt. There was not a single house where someone had not died.


   God told Moses that Pharaoh would not let them go until he was forced to by God's mighty works (Exodus 3:19-20), and that this work would somehow touch the firstborn of Egypt (Exodus 4:21-23). Now the situation unfolds just as God said it would.


   This plague was directed against two significant Egyptian gods. First, Osiris was the Egyptian god thought to be the giver of life. Second, against the supposed deity of Pharaoh himself, because his own household was touched (the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne).


   Pharaoh once asked, And who is the Lord? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go. (Exodus 5:2) Now he knows that Yahweh is greater than all the Egyptian gods, and greater than Pharaoh himself - who was regarded to be a god.


(31) Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron during the night. “Get out*!” he ordered. “Leave my people—and take the rest of the Israelites with you! Go and worship the Lord as you have requested.


*Get out: Pharaoh isn't "letting" Israel leave; now he commands them! This is just what the Lord told Moses would happen (Exodus 11:1).


   Yet, Pharaoh had earlier said (Exodus 10:28) he never wanted to see Moses' face again!


(32) Take your flocks and herds, as you said, and be gone. Go, but bless me* as you leave.”


*bless me: Moses does not reply to that request. Pharaoh is here acknowledging the superiority of the Hebrew god to himself and to the gods of Egypt.


(33) All the Egyptians urged the people of Israel to get out of the land as quickly as possible, for they thought, “We will all die!”


(34) The Israelites took their bread dough before yeast was added. They wrapped their kneading boards in their cloaks and carried them on their shoulders.


(35) And the people of Israel did as Moses had instructed; they asked the Egyptians for clothing and articles of silver and gold.


(36) The Lord caused the Egyptians to look favorably on the Israelites, and they gave the Israelites whatever they asked for. So they stripped the Egyptians of their wealth!


(37) That night the people of Israel left Rameses and started for Succoth. There were about 600,000 men*, plus all the women and children.


*men Or fighting men; Hebrew reads men on foot. Exodus 38:26: This silver came from the tax collected from each man registered in the census. (The tax is one beka, which is half a shekel, based on the sanctuary shekel.) The tax was collected from 603,550 men who had reached their twentieth birthday. Numbers 1:44-47: They were registered by families—all the men of Israel who were twenty years old or older and able to go to war. The total number was 603,550. But this total did not include the Levites. This number would require a total population of about two million - a number that's hard to believe!


(38) A rabble of non-Israelites* went with them, along with great flocks and herds of livestock.


*non-Israelites: Hebrew ereb. Per verse 48, these had to be circumcised to celebrate the Passover. These non-Israelites later on got the Israelites into trouble. In Numbers we read where, Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed. (Numbers 11:4).


(39) For bread they baked flat cakes from the dough without yeast they had brought from Egypt. It was made without yeast because the people were driven out of Egypt in such a hurry that they had no time to prepare the bread or other food.


(40) The people of Israel had lived in Egypt* for 430** years.


*Egypt: Samaritan Pentateuch reads in Canaan and Egypt; Greek version reads in Egypt and Canaan.


**430: Genesis 15:13: Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.

Acts 7:6-7: God also told him that his descendants would live in a foreign land, where they would be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. ‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and in the end they will come out and worship me here in this place.’

Galatians 3:16-17: God gave the promises to Abraham and his child. And notice that the Scripture doesn’t say “to his children,” as if it meant many descendants. Rather, it says “to his child”—and that, of course, means Christ. This is what I am trying to say: The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking his promise.


(41) In fact, it was on the last day of the 430th year* that all the Lord’s forces left the land.


*on the last day of the 430th year - The very day that was foretold!


(42) On this night the Lord kept his promise to bring his people out of the land of Egypt. So this night belongs to him, and it must be commemorated every year by all the Israelites, from generation to generation.


(43) Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the instructions for the festival of Passover. No outsiders are allowed to eat the Passover meal.


(44) But any slave* who has been purchased may eat it if he has been circumcised.


*slave: Obviously, slaves don't own slaves, so this refers to the years after they have left Egypt, and particularly after they've settled in the Promised Land.


(45) Temporary residents and hired servants may not eat it.


(46) Each Passover lamb must be eaten in one house. Do not carry any of its meat outside, and do not break any of its bones*.


*do not break any of its bones: None of the bones of the Passover lamb were to be broken. This looks forward to Jesus, the ultimate Passover Lamb, who had not one bone broken even in His crucifixion:

Psalm 22:17: I can count all my bones.
My enemies stare at me and gloat.

John 19:31-36: It was the day of preparation, and the Jewish leaders didn’t want the bodies hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath, because it was the Passover). So they asked Pilate to hasten their deaths by ordering that their legs be broken. Then their bodies could be taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn’t break his legs. One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out. (This report is from an eyewitness giving an accurate account. He speaks the truth so that you also can believe.) These things happened in fulfillment of the Scriptures that say, “Not one of his bones will be broken,”


(47) The whole community of Israel must celebrate this Passover festival.


(48) “If there are foreigners living among you who want to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, let all their males be circumcised. Only then may they celebrate the Passover with you like any native-born Israelite. But no uncircumcised male may ever eat the Passover meal.


(49) This instruction applies to everyone, whether a native-born Israelite or a foreigner living among you.”


(50) So all the people of Israel followed all the Lord’s commands to Moses and Aaron.


(51) On that very day the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt like an army.



Luke 22:1-30: The Festival of Unleavened Bread, which is also called Passover, was approaching. The leading priests and teachers of religious law were plotting how to kill Jesus, but they were afraid of the people’s reaction. Then Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve disciples, and he went to the leading priests and captains of the Temple guard to discuss the best way to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted, and they promised to give him money. So he agreed and began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus so they could arrest him when the crowds weren’t around. Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread arrived, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John ahead and said, “Go and prepare the Passover meal, so we can eat it together.”
“Where do you want us to prepare it?” they asked him. He replied, “As soon as you enter Jerusalem, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him. At the house he enters, say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ He will take you upstairs to a large room that is already set up. That is where you should prepare our meal.” They went off to the city and found everything just as Jesus had said, and they prepared the Passover meal there. When the time came, Jesus and the apostles sat down together at the table. Jesus said, “I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.” Then he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. Then he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. For I will not drink wine again until the Kingdom of God has come.” He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.” After supper he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you. “But here at this table, sitting among us as a friend, is the man who will betray me. For it has been determined that the Son of Man must die. But what sorrow awaits the one who betrays him.” The disciples began to ask each other which of them would ever do such a thing. Then they began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them. Jesus told them, “In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves. “You have stayed with me in my time of trial. And just as my Father has granted me a Kingdom, I now grant you the right to eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom. And you will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.


   Most scholars agree that the Last Supper was not a Passover Supper, but was instead done on the Preparation Day. The New Unger's Bible Dictionary says that the Preparation Day for the Passover was from the evening (end) of Nisan 13 until the evening (end) of Nisan 14 (page 411). E.W. Bullinger, in Appendix 156 to The Companion Bible, states: "Wednesday, Nisan 14th (commencing on Tuesday at sunset), was 'the preparation day', on which the crucifixion took place" (page 180).


John 18:28: Jesus’ trial before Caiaphas ended in the early hours of the morning. Then he was taken to the headquarters of the Roman governor. His accusers didn’t go inside because it would defile them, and they wouldn’t be allowed to celebrate the Passover.


1 Corinthians 5:7: ...Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.






On-Line Sources:



Off-Line Sources:



  • "Cruden's Complete Concordance" - Zondervan Publishing House

  • "Breath of the Holies: Secrets of Moses' Tabernacle" - DVD by Perry Stone

  • "In Search of the Mountain of God" by Robert Cornuke and David Halbrook - Broadman & Holman Publishers

  • "Life Application Study Bible" - New Living Translation version - Tyndale House Publishers

  • "Symbols of Judaism" by Marc-Alai Ouaknin - Barnes & Noble Books, publisher

  • "The Companion Bible" by E. W. Bullinger - Zondervan Publishing House

  • "The Exodus Revealed: Searching for the Red Sea Crossing" - (2001), DVD, Studio: Questar, ASIN: B00005AUE2, available from Amazon.com

  • "The Defender's Study Bible" -World Bible Publishers

  • "The Miracle of Passover" - DVD by Zola Levitt

  • "The NIV Application Commentary - Exodus" – Peter Enns – Zondervan™

  • "The Seven Feasts of Israel - Video 1 - Passover" - Zola Levitt

  • "The Ten Commandments" (1956 film) from Paramount Pictures, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Charlton Heston as Moses

  • Unger's Bible Dictionary - Merrill F. Unger

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