Today’s Topic: Preparation for the Feast of the Passover
Scripture: Exodus 12
Greetings Kingdom Citizens
Starting now in order not to lose you date-wise, it would help if you get the introduction to this series so you can see how the dates and months correlate with the stories. This is how God prepared His people for the Lord’s Passover. The first thing God did was set a date for the children of Israel to remember the Passover.
Exodus 12:2 says: “this month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you”. So what is this month? Deuteronomy 16:1 calls the month Abib which means barley or spring. In Hebrew it is called Aviv and in Babylonian the month is called Nisan. You will see all of these names throughout the Bible so just be aware. Now God declares this to be the first month of the year. In Israel there are Ecclesiastical (Religious) years and Civil Year that run at the same time. God said this was the first month of the year. So this month called Abib or Nisan is the first of the Ecclesiastical or religious year. Now God tells the children of Israel on the tenth day (Nisan 10) they were to take a lamb for each house. Now this could not be any lamb because God specifies what the lamb should be like. Exodus 12:5,6 says: “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; ye shall keep take it out from the sheep and goats: And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day (Nisan 14) of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. “ Now if you are a Kingdom citizen then you should already know who is symbolic of this lamb God commands the children of Israel to kill. Now God instructs them what to do after killing the lamb.
Exodus 12:7,8 says for Israel to take the blood of the lamb and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door posts of the houses, wherein they shall eat. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat.
Now God continues to give them explicit instructions and if you read and get to Exodus 12:11 we see the Lord telling them to gird your loins, put your shoes on your feet and get your staff in your hand and be ready to eat in haste: it is the Lord’s Passover. Now here is a question and we introduced it in our last series about the end of the age and whether the church will know the day of the return of the Lord? Per scripture and study we concluded that the church will know the day of the return of the Lord. Here is a type and shadow of that event in the sense that God told Israel what to do, when to do it and when to be ready to move and let me show you to clear the picture up.
1. Nisan (Abib) 10 – Take a lamb, male without spot or blemish for each household and keep it up
2. Nisan (Abib) 14 – Kill the Lamb, put the blood over the side posts and the upper door post. Eat the flesh of the lamb with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. Then be prepared to leave Egypt
Now why would God tell Israel to put the blood of the lamb over the door posts? God tells us in Exodus 12:13:
“The blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.”
So the blood of the lamb is what tells God not to destroy the firstborn of that household. God then makes the commandment and declaration in Exodus 12:14:
“And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.”
This is called the Feast of the Passover (Pesach). This is the first feast of the religious year for the children of Israel. In the next message we will look at how the Feast of Passover important to the saints.
At the Father’s Service,
Elder Calvin Calhoun Jr.
