The Pesach Offering
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The Pesach offering DIG: Is the Passover a Sabbath? When was the Passover lamb slain? When was the Passover meal eaten? How was the Passover fulfilled? Why do you think God wanted the Jews to celebrate the Passover after entering the Promised Land?
REFLECT: What special once a year religious celebration do you appreciate most? Why? What benefit do you get from that celebration? What benefits does ADONAI receive? What does the Passover bring to mind for you? Who can you pray for this week?
The Feast of Passover was fulfilled by the death of Messiah.
Pesach is an appointed time (see the commentary on Leviticus, to see link click Dw – God’s Appointed Times). The Torah reminds us that on the first of Nisan, the first day of the Jewish religious calendar, ADONAI’s Pesach shall be celebrated on the fourteenth day of the month at sundown. No sacrificial details are given here because they are given elsewhere (see the commentary on Leviticus Dy – Pesach and the commentary on Deuteronomy Dc – Keep the Passover). Generally speaking, the term Passover has been broadened to mean the entire Feast of Unleavened Bread (see Leviticus Dz – Hag ha’Matzot). Today, even in the Gospels, the entire eight days of the festival are called Pesach. Strictly speaking, however, Passover refers only to the day of the offering of the Passover lamb. It is not a Sabbath, and there are no additional musaf offerings on that day. As the sun went down and a new day began, the Passover meal was eaten on the evening of the fifteenth of Nisan .
Pesach, celebrated in March-April of the year, starts the annual cycle of religious festivals, commencing on the fourteenth day of the month. On that day, the head of each household brought home a lamb to be slain and roasted at sundown (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ke – Go and Make Preparations for the Passover). Therefore, on the fifteenth of Nisan, Messiah ate the Passover meal with His apostles, prayed at the Garden of Gethsemane, was betrayed and arrested, formally condemned by the Great Sanhedrin, tried by Pontius Pilot, scourged, mocked, was nailed to a wooden cross for six hours, died, and placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea before sundown and the start of the Sabbath.
In anticipation of the Feast of Unleavened Bread the next day, Pesach is also the day on which the Israelites swept all leaven (yeast) out of their houses. For seven days, from the fifteenth to the twenty-first, you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day, remove the leaven from your houses, for whoever eats anything with leaven in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from the people of Isra’el (Exodus 12:15). The sunset that ends the day of the Passover marks the beginning of the next appointed time, the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
For believers, the appointed time of Pesach carries great significance. Not only is it the anniversary of the slaying of the Passover lambs, it is the anniversary of the crucifixion and burial of our Passover Lamb, our Davidic King and Savior (John 1:29; First Corinthians 5:7-8; First Peter 1:18-21; and Revelation 5:5-6).655 Today, far removed from the death of Messiah, it is difficult for us to comprehend how horrific His crucifixion actually was (see the commentary on The Life of Messiah Lt – The Crucifixion). How great His sacrifice.
Dear Heavenly Father, We praise You and bend the knee before You in worship of You. How great was Your pain and shame in offering Messiah Yeshua as our Lamb to take the punishment for our sins! Focusing on Yeshua, the initiator and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame; and He has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2). Your children love You and desire to live their lives thanking You for Your great love sacrifice. It is a joy and a privilege to give You: our time by meditating on Your awesome qualities, our money, our thoughts, and our actions. We desire to give back to You our whole lives! In Your holy Name and power of resurrection. Amen
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