Spring time is my favorite season. The trees begin to bud and produce their cool shade. The mornings are warm and inviting. Everything begins to grow again. Spring time is a favorite of many; but the reason it is my favorite time of year is because of the holiday called Passover. God calls it the “beginning of months“.
This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. EXO 12:2
Passover is the most Christian holiday I have ever observed. It has the most spiritual significance to me personally of any religious holiday. I would like to invite you to consider keeping the Passover for the first time, if you never have. And, if you have kept the Passover, I would like you to re-examine what it means in the light of what Moses wrote and what YAHUSHUA did. It is in the keeping of the Passover that our spiritual eyes and hearts are awakened like the new growth of spring. It is in the eating of the unleavened bread, we eat the Word of God and are truly satisfied and find true contentment. It is in this feast of the Lord that we clearly see our Messiah and King. This is the feast of Redemption and we get to sit at the table with our King and Redeemer.
Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, "On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household“. EXO 12:3
Did you know that YAHUSHUA entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey on the tenth of the month just like Moses said the lamb is to enter the house? YAHUSHUA was riding on a lowly donkey just like Moses did when he went to gather the children of Israel in Egypt. The prophet Zechariah had said that our King would be mounted on a donkey and bring us salvation (YAHUSHUA).
So Moses took his wife and his sons and mounted them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. EXO 4:20
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. ZEC 9:9
It is interesting to note that the commandment to observe the Passover is for the home. Furthermore, guests are to be invited to the Passover. It is not a private affair, but one to be shared. Each observant household is to offer a lamb as the main entree.
Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. EXO 12:4
On a traditional Passover seder platter, the lamb shank bone is always represented as the lamb even though lamb might not be eaten in the meal. The unbroken shank bone of a lamb is called the Zarowa (the arm). The prophet Isaiah asks a question about this Zarowa, which is key to understanding the Passover properly.
Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm (the Zarowa) of the Lord (Adonai) been revealed? ISA 53:1
Simply put, the lamb (the Zarowa Adonai, the arm of the Lord) shank bone of the Passover is a picture of the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God is the sacrifice promised by our father Abraham to Isaac to be offered on Mount Moriah. It is the sacrifice taught by Moses, separate from the law and yet in accordance with the law, for willful, defiant sin. It is the sacrifice that passes us from death to life, and those who have life are recorded in the Lamb's book of life.
As a believer, this is important to you. Your annual observance of the Passover is DIRECT evidence concerning your understanding of who the Lamb of God is and your level of spiritual maturity. Failing to observe the Passover is evidence of two things. Either you have not been taught or you are in willful disobedience. The message is clear: only those who are in the house with the Lamb's blood on their door posts are spared when the Angel of the Lord comes with judgment. Knowing the Redeemer and His work as the Lamb of God and knowing about redemption, but not experiencing it, are two different things. Standing outside and observing those who are keeping the Passover affords you no protection from the Angel of the Lord.
Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. EXO 12:5-6
There has always been some controversy about the timing of the Passover. Is it the eve of the 14th day, the day before the feast of Unleavened Bread; or, is it concurrent with the first day of the feast of Unleavened, the 15th of the month? Is Passover separate from the feast of Unleavened Bread or the first day of it? Traditionally, the Jewish community has connected the two and keep the Passover seder meal on the eve of the first day of unleavened. I am not convinced that traditional observance is correct. The eve of the 14th is the day before the first day of unleavened.
In parallel, there has also been some controversy about the timing of YAHUSHUA's death. We know He was prophesied to be buried three days and three nights.
. ..for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. MAT 12:40
If you have the crucifixion on Friday after a Thursday evening Passover meal and YAHUSHUA is buried before sundown Friday, then how can He be seen on Sunday morning (the first day after Sabbath) and it be called three days and three nights? By Jewish count, it can be called three different days, but it is not three days and three nights. We definitely know the day He arose, therefore an argument can be made for an earlier Passover observance (maybe the evening of the 14th instead of the 15th). Maybe, YAHUSHUA observed the Passover meal on the evening of the 14th (Tuesday night), was arrested and crucified on Wednesday day. Wednesday then would be "the day of preparation" for the first day of the Feast of Unleavened bread which begins on the 15th (Wednesday night). Moses instructed that the first and seventh days of unleavened bread are high Sabbaths (days of holy convocation with no labor).
Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. LEV 23:6-8
Now listen to John's account of when YAHUSHUA was taken from the cross after His death.
The Jews therefore, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day)... JOH 19:31
YAHUSHUA died and was buried on the same day. He died on the Passover and was buried just before the evening began. In Jewish thinking, the new day begins at sundown. YAHUSHUA died on the day of preparation before the high Sabbath (the first day of unleaven). He would have been in the grave Wednesday night, Thursday day, Thursday night, Friday day, Friday night, Saturday day, and He would have been seen Sunday dawn (the day after the Sabbath). This is a combination with three nights (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday) and three days (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday). Remember the counting of the days in Jewish thinking is evenings and then mornings. As Messianic Jews, we may need to seriously reconsider the date we keep the Passover in our homes. Moses instructed us to keep it on the eve of the 14th, not on the eve of the 15th (the first day of unleaven) as the traditional Jewish community follows. Therefore for Passover 1999, the eve of the 14th is the evening of March 30. The first day of unleaven is the evening of March 31.
Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. And they shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. EXO 12:7-10
When the ancients placed the blood on the door posts, a particular Hebrew letter is formed - the letter Het ( ). This letter means "life". You may have heard of the common Jewish toast - "Le Chime" (to life!). The blood on the door posts was a sign to the Angel of the Lord indicating which houses had life, and death passed over them. Today, we understand the greater work of YAHUSHUA as the Lamb of God in passing us from spiritual death to eternal life.
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. JOH 5:24
Why don't we put the blood on our door posts? That event only took place in Egypt. We do as the descendants of Israel do. It is understood that the four Passover cups of wine symbolize the blood of the Lamb. Those four cups tell the story of the Passover so that we might remember and teach our children.
Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, AI am the Lord, and I will bring you [the cup of Sanctification] out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you [the cup of Instruction] from their bondage. I will also redeem you [the cup of Redemption] with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then I will take you [the cup of Praise] for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians“. EXO 6:6-7
This article is reprinted from YAVOH, He is coming, Lion And Lamb Ministries and Monte Judah. Passover Index