Dc – Keep the Passover 16: 1-8

Keep the Passover
Exodus 12:1-2; Leviticus 23:5-8 and Deuteronomy 16:1-8

Keep the Passover DIG: What was the purpose of the Passover celebration? What were the Israelites to remember about ADONAI? When and where was the Passover to be celebrated? Why was that significant? What is the messianic significance of Pesach? How is Pesach fulfilled? What was the purpose of Hag ha-Matzah? When and where was it celebrated? How many days was it celebrated? After twilight on the fourteenth of Nisan, what special ceremony took place in the homes of observant Jewish families? How is the festival of Unleavened Bread fulfilled? What is the messianic significance of Hag ha-Matzah?

REFLECT: Why is it important to have the high holy days to remember God’s festivals? What holiday do you and your family celebrate that is the most important to you? Why? What does Pesach mean to you personally, and why? Why is it important that Messiah lived a sinless life? What does that mean to you? When YHVH looks at you, what does He see?

The Passover was fulfilled by the death of the Messiah, and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread was fulfilled by the sinlessness of His sacrifice.

Observe the month of Aviv (the first month of the Jewish religious calendar, later called Nisan, equivalent to March-April) and keep the Passover to ADONAI your God, for in the month of Aviv (see Matthew 26:17) ADONAI your God brought you out from Egypt by night (Deuteronomy 16:1). As Isra’el’s is a lunar year, which is eleven days shorter than the solar year, it is bound to bring about a shifting of its festivals from their proper seasons. To overcome this, it is commanded here that the Passover should always be celebrated in the month of Abib (literally the season of spring), the season in which Isra’el was liberated from Egypt. Later, Isra’el changed to the Babylonian calendar when the month of Abib was renamed Nissan.

The Biblical Practice: There were two key elements. The first was the killing of the lamb. You are to sacrifice the Passover (Hebrew: pesach) offering to ADONAI your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place ADONAI chooses to make His Name dwell (Deuteronomy 16:2). From the tenth to the fourteenth it was to be tested to make sure it was without spot or blemish. The lamb would be slaughtered at twilight on the fifteenth (see the commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Ix – The Examination of the Lamb), because the Jewish day starts at twilight, making sure no bones were broken. The next morning at 9:00 am the priests in the Temple would slaughter one lamb for the sins of the nation called the Chagigah offering. The second element was the eating of the lamb (Exodus 12:8) with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

Dear Holy Heavenly Father, You are Holy and pure and we must keep Your complete purity ever before our eyes. We are so used to thinking of Your great love, that sometimes we forget the awful pain and shame that You had to go through on our behalf as our sacrifice for sins. He made the One who knew no sin to become a sin offering on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (Second Corinthians 5:21). Praise You for Your willingness to take on human form and to suffer great shame and pain for us (Philippians 2:6-11). We bow in worship of Your great love and look forward to praising You forever. In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen

You may not sacrifice the Passover offering within any of your gates that ADONAI your God is giving you. Rather, at the place ADONAI your God chooses to make His Name dwell, there you will sacrifice the Passover offering in the evening at twilight (see Exodus 12:6) – the time of your coming out from Egypt. You are to cook and eat it at the place ADONAI your God chooses, then you will turn around in the morning and journey home (Deuteronomy 16:5-7).

The Jewish Observance: Again, there are two key elements. The first key element is unleavened bread. The Torah says the people should remove any leavened products from their households (Exodus 12:15). This was to remind them that they had to flee Egypt so quickly that the bread in their ovens did not have time to rise. Leaven is a symbol of sin so God would not permit the symbol of sin to be in the Jewish home. Not only that, according to Jewish mitzvah, a Jew may not even own leaven during the Passover season. It also had to be striped and pierced. A particularly intriguing element unwittingly added by the rabbis is called the afikomen (a Greek word meaning that which comes last) ceremony. Three matzahs are placed in a special Passover bag known as the matzah tash that is only one bag, but contains three pouches. A piece of unleavened bread is placed in each pouch. Before the Seder, the middle matzah is broken in two and the larger half is wrapped in a white linen cloth and hidden away to be used later for the afikomen or the desert. The smaller half is used for the special benediction over the matzah just before the Passover starts. After the story has been told and the Passover ceremony is over, and in conjunction with the third and fourth cups of wine, the children try to find it and then it is removed from its hiding place, unwrapped, broken into small pieces the size of an olive, and distributed for all to eat. Before 70 AD the rabbis taught that after the story has been told the Passover lamb was supposed to be the last thing eaten. But after 70 AD there were no longer any “Temple approved” lambs, so the afikomen became the symbolic reminder of the Passover lamb and for this reason, it must be the last thing eaten. The rabbis later added numerous other elements, including green vegetables, a roasted egg, and kharoset (apple/nut mix).

The second key element is the wine. Each person will drink four cups of wine. First, the cup of blessing; second, the cup of plagues; third, the cup of redemption; and fourth the cup of praise with which the family sings Psalm 113-118. Later in history, the rabbis added a fifth cup called the cup of Elijah (Malachi 4:5).

During the time of Messiah, the Jewish observance had changed somewhat. The slaughter of the lambs began at noon at the Temple on the fourteenth of Nisan (Exodus 12:6). Three Levites, standing over three lambs, lifted the jaws of the little animals and, with a single stroke, drew sharp knives across the three throats. By ritual, the killing had to be done in one stroke and the victim must not utter a sound. This would point to the Lamb of God who would be slaughtered that very next day and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth (Isaiah 53:7).

Inside the Nicanor Gate in the Court of the Women, the priests were lined up all the way up to the bronze altar. They stood in two rows, one row holding golden bowls and the other row the silver bowls. In these the blood of the Passover lambs, which each Israelite slew for himself (as representative of his family), was caught by one of the priests. The bowls were then passed from priest to priest until they reached the priest who was nearest to the bronze altar.³⁷¹ That priest took the bowl and sprinkled the blood in one motion at the base of the altar. He then received another full bowl of blood and returned the empty one back to be filled again. During this entire ceremony the Levites would keep chanting the Hallel, which is Psalms 113-118. They chanted until all the sacrifices for the first group were completed, and then went on to the second group, then on to the third until they all had their lambs sacrificed and the blood spilled at the base of the altar. It is estimated that up to 275,000 lambs were sacrificed in Jerusalem at the Passover during the time of Messiah. We can only imagine the stench, the blood and the flies.

Finally, warm water was poured over the sacrifices as they hung from racks and flayed in the court of the women. The wool was sheared carefully from the lambs. When this was done, the carcasses were examined by other priests for imperfections. If any were found to have moles, cysts, or discolorations of any kind on the skin they were rejected. Three priests signaled that the sacrifices were acceptable and, in an instant, the slaughtering Levites cut the bellies of the hanging lambs with a single downward stroke. They removed all the fat on the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver and both kidneys with the fat on them (Exodus 29:13; Leviticus 3:4 and 9:10).

These internal organs were placed upon the bronze altar (48 feet square and 15 feet high) and the offering remained steaming and burning on the embers until it was consumed. Caiaphas, as befitting the presiding officer of the Sanhedrin, stood composed in his priestly robes loaned to him from the Roman governor. He saw the priests rub salt into the flesh of the lambs, and, in silence he saw them remove the shoulder, and the meat from the head of each animal as an offering to the priests of the Temple – for ADONAI said that is their inheritance among their fellow Israelites (Deuteronomy 18:3).³⁷²

The Messianic Significance: This feast was fulfilled by the death of Messiah. Isaiah 52:13-53:12 pictures the Messiah coming as a lamb to the slaughter. The New Covenant passages also clearly connect Messiah with the Passover Lamb (John 1:29, 35-36; First Peter 1:18-19 and Revelation 5:12). Not only is Yeshua identified with the lamb itself, Paul identifies Him with the whole Passover Feast (First Corinthians 5:7).

The afikomen ceremony also points to Messiah. In this ceremony the middle matzah is removed, a picture of the incarnation when the Second Person of the Trinity became man in the person of Yeshua. It is broken in two pictures. His death when Yeshua came to this part in the ceremony, he said: This is My body broken for you (Luke ). It is then wrapped in white linen. The gospels make it quite clear that when the body of Yeshua was removed from the cross he was wrapped in linen cloth. It is then hidden for a time, a picture of His burial. Then it is removed from its hiding place and unwrapped, a picture of the resurrection. Pieces are broken off and distributed to the members around the table, a picture of John 6 where Yeshua said we must all partake of His body. In that same chapter Yeshua clearly interprets the “eating” of His body as believing that He is the Messiah.

Furthermore, in the Jewish observance there are four cups of wine. Luke does not mention all four cups but does mention two. The first cup is in Luke 22:17-18, the cup of thanksgiving over which the Passover observance begins. The third cup is mentioned in Luke 22:20 and is called the cup of redemption. For Jews it symbolizes the physical redemption brought about by the blood of the Passover lamb in the Egyptian Passover. Now it symbolizes our spiritual redemption from the enslavement of sin. Yeshua clearly identified Himself in terms of the Jewish observance of the Passover.

A Practical Guide for Believers in Messiah: On the fourteenth of Nisan, final preparations for the Passover Seder must be made. A traditional Seder plate and ceremonial items will also be needed. The zeroah is a lamb shankbone representing the lamb sacrifice. If no lamb shankbone is available, a turkey or chicken bone that has been roasted by fire may be substituted. The baytzah is a roasted, hard-boiled egg representing the burnt offerings of the Temple period (see my commentary on Exodus Fe – The Burnt Offering). The maror (bitter herbs) is usually horseradish, which is a reminder of the bitterness of slavery to sin. The kharoset (the sweet apple/nut mix) is a wonderful reminder of the sweetness of our redemption, and the karpas (parsley), a green vegetable, speaks of life. A kiddush cup (goblet) for each person plus the cup of Elijah with its own place setting is also needed to prepare the Seder table. A matzah tash (afikomen bag) and a ceremonial washing bowl of water are also essential items.

Each reading participant will need a haggadah (Hebrew: the telling) for the Seder, which is a Jewish instructional guide that sets the order and commemorates the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt. If the leader feels comfortable, it is possible to use a traditional haggadah available through any Jewish bookstore. Many believers, however, prefer to use a messianic Jewish haggadah. These contain most of the traditional reading, but are also accompanied by relevant New Covenant passages and explanations. One recourse I recommend to messianic believers is The Messianic Passover Haggadah by Lederer Messianic Ministries. It is a quality messianic haggadah. Lederer also has a very helpful preparation guide for the Seder.

Pesach officially begins as the sun sets on the fifteenth of Nisan. Since most of the Jewish communities outside Isra’el celebrate the first two nights of Passover with a traditional Seder, many messianic believers have different types of Seders each night. Many messianic congregations have a large community Seder the first night of Pesach for their members and to reach out to those who need to hear the message of redemption. The second night is usually spent at a smaller home Seder with family and close friends. But whatever your options, I encourage you to make plans to celebrate this wonderful festival.

The Seder is the focal point of the celebration of Passover, yet it is an eight-day holy day. The Torah says we are to remove the leaven from our homes and eat matzah during this time. For some, this might be the ultimate inconvenience. What? No bagels for eight days? Yet, when spiritually appraised, even something like eating matzah crackers for a week can be an uplifting experience.

Remember the symbolism. It is not just spring house cleaning; it is to remind us of our need for spiritual cleansing and repentance. Hence, every time we eat a matzah sandwich during Pesach, we are reminded of the meaning of the holy day. Every time we long for a leavened cookie we are reminded of this great spiritual truth!

It is my prayer that Pesach will become a source of joyful celebration as believers experience Messiah our Passover in an intimate and practical way. Therefore, celebrate the feast not with old hametz (leaven), the hametz of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened bread – the matzah of sincerity and truth (First Corinthians 5:8).³⁷³

But secondly, the festival of unleavened bread was to be celebrated for seven days after Pesach. The two feasts were considered as one lasting for a total of eight days.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread
or Hag ha-Matzah

Hag ha-Matzah, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, is recorded in Leviticus 23:6-8. This is the biblical name for this feast found in Exodus 23:15, and emphasizes the necessity of the absence of leaven (also see Matthew 26:17; Mark 1 and 12; Luke 22:7 and John 1:9).

The Biblical Practice: It is quite simple and two things should be noted. First, it is a feast that lasts for seven days immediately following Passover. The Passover was one day, followed immediately by the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Since they are back-to-back, there are actually eight holy days.

No leaven, or hametz, can be eaten for these seven days. You are not to eat chametz with it. For seven days you are to eat matzo with it, the bread of affliction – for you came out from the land of Egypt in haste. Do this so that all the days of your life you will remember the day when you came out from the land of Egypt. No chametz should be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day may be left overnight until the morning (16:3-4).

Exodus 12:15-20 introduces the feast in conjunction with the Passover since the two festivals come back-to-back. Not only were they forbidden to eat any leaven, they were forbidden to have it in their homes. The punishment for anyone who ate leaven or failed to clean it from their homes must be cut off from Isra’el, meaning they should be executed!

Exodus 23:14-15 declares that this one of the three pilgrimage festivals.

Leviticus 23:6-8 declares that on the first and seventh day no regular work.

Numbers 28:17-25 emphasizes the various sacrifices and the special sacrifices which were mandatory for this feast.

Second Chronicles 39:23-27 records how King Hezekiah kept the feast.

Ezra 6:21-22 states that it was also kept in the days of Ezra.

Ezeki’el 45:21-24 prophecies that it will be observed during the Messianic Kingdom. Not all the festivals will be observed during the thousand-year reign of Messiah, but this one will. It is mentioned only one place in the B’rit Chadashah where Yeshua observed it: Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the Torah-teachers were scheming to find a way to arrest Yeshua and kill him (Mark 14:1).

The Jewish Observance: Two things should be noted. First, it follows the biblical practice of not eating leaven for seven days. For six days you are to eat matzot. On the seventh day there is to be a solemn gathering for ADONAI your God – on it you are to do no work (16:8). There are specially prepared foods made for this occasion containing unleavened bread. The first, sixth, and seventh days were considered more holy, and they would only cook as much food as was needed, not more. Secondly, there is a liturgy that is followed with specific scriptures to read each day.

The first day of Unleavened Bread (more holy), the full Hallel is said.
Leviticus 22:26-23:44 that deals with seven holy seasons
Numbers 28:16-25 that deals with the sacrifices
Second Kings 23:1-9 and 21-25 that deals with the Passover of Josiah

The second day of Unleavened Bread, the first intermediate day
Exodus 13:1-16 that deals with the mitzvot of unleavened bread and the first born
Numbers 28:19-15 and a shortened version of the Hallel is said.

The third day of Unleavened Bread, the second intermediate day
Numbers 28:19-25 and a shortened version of the Hallel is said.

The fourth day of Unleavened Bread, the third intermediate day
Numbers 28:19-25 and a shortened version of the Hallel is said.

The fifth day of Unleavened Bread, the fourth intermediate day
Numbers 28:19-25 and a shortened version of the Hallel is said.

The sixth day of Unleavened Bread (more holy),
Exodus 13:17-15:26, the crossing of the Sea of Reeds
Numbers 28:19-25

Second Samuel 22:1-51 (see my commentary on the Life of David Eh – David’s Song of Praise), and a shorter version of the Hallel is said.

The seventh day of Unleavened Bread (more holy),
Deuteronomy 15:19-16:17
Numbers 28:19-25
Isaiah 10:32-12:6 and a shorter version of the Hallel is said.

The Messianic Significance: Whenever the word leaven is used symbolically in Scripture it is always a symbol for sin. That is why God would not even allow this symbol of sin to be eaten by the Jewish people during this feast or to have it in their homes or to have it anywhere in the land of Isra’el.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is fulfilled by the offering of the sinless blood of Messiah. When Yeshua was offered up as a sacrifice and shed His sinless blood, the moment His blood was spilled outside His body, the Feast of Unleavened Bread was fulfilled. Hebrews 9:11-10:18 emphasizes the sacrifice of the innocent, sinless blood. The point here is that the blood of goats and bulls could never take away sin, but required human blood that was innocent. Only one Person had sinless, innocent blood – Jesus Christ. And once you accept Messiah as your personal Lord and Savior, all the sinlessness of Yeshua, the righteousness of Christ, is transferred to your spiritual bank account. Therefore, when YHVH looks at you, He doesn’t see your sin . . . He sees His Son.

This blood needs to be applied and sprinkled somewhere. It could not be sprinkled in the Most Holy Place of earthly Tabernacle, or the Temple, for that was merely a copy of the original. The writer to the Hebrews says it was necessary to cleanse the heavenly Tabernacle. As a result, at some point, Yeshua sprinkled the heavenly Tabernacle for the purpose of cleansing it. Whereas the earthly Tabernacle could be cleansed with the blood of animals, the heavenly tabernacle required something more – sinless human blood. This accomplished three things. First, the heavenly Tabernacle was cleansed; secondly, the sins of the Righteous of the TaNaKh were removed before leading the captives to heaven (Ephesians 4:8); thirdly, the sins of the B’rit Chadashah believers are forgiven and removed permanently upon faith in Yeshua, we are justified.

Another implication of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is in First Corinthians 5:6-8 where it is stated that believers are to keep it by a holy walk. Believers should purge out the leaven in our lives because Messiah, our Passover Lamb, was sacrificed for us. Again, leaven is a symbol of sin. Even believer’s sin, this leaven in our lives, must be purged. When a person accepts Jesus as his or her Passover sacrifice in fulfillment of the First Feast, and is at the moment born again (John 3:3), he or she experiences the regenerating work of the Ruach ha-Kodesh (the Spirit of God), is baptized into the body of Messiah, and placed into the family of God (see my commentary on The Life of Christ Bw – What God Does For Us at the Moment of Faith). Once a believer is in the family he or she can never be disowned. However, fellowship within the family can be broken by sin or by leaven in the believer’s life. The means of purging out the leaven is confession: If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (First John 1:9b). By means of confession we can purge our lives of leaven. In that way, we can keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread in its spiritual sense.

A Practical Guide for Believers in Messiah: Those who desire to enter into the full celebration of the holy day begin before the arrival of the Seder by cleansing all leaven from the house. Floors are swept, vacuumed and mopped. Cupboards are cleared of leavened products and cleaned. Pots and dishes are thoroughly washed to remove any possible fragments of leaven. The spirit of the Torah is to remove all leaven from our houses (Exodus 12:19-20). This is also symbolic of the spiritual cleansing of our hearts (First Corinthians 5:6:8).

My suggestion, in that spirit of freedom, is to adapt the preparation to a comfortable degree. For some, this may mean all of the above cleaning. For others, it may mean a cursory cleaning to merely symbolize the truth of the Passover. Let everyone be convinced in his or her own mind (Romans 14).

After the general cleaning in the first weeks of Nisan, the attention becomes more focused as the day of Pesach approaches. After twilight on the fourteenth of Nisan (Exodus 12:6), a special ceremony called bedikat khameytz (the search for the leaven) takes place in the home. The last little bits of leaven are found and removed. The details are intriguing. Since the house has previously been cleaned, the leader of the house must purposely hide some leaven (bits of cookie or bread) in various places. Then the leader takes a feather, a wooden spoon and a lighted candle, and the family begins searching for the final leaven. This can be a great time to get children or grandchildren involved because it’s a game like hide-and-seek.

The spiritual lessons are quite striking, however. The leaven (sin) must be cleansed from our dwellings (and hearts). The method itself is informative. The light of the candle (the Word of God) illumines our sin, “I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You” (Psalm 119:11). The leaven is scooped onto the wooden spoon for removal (like the wooden cross of the Messiah). The following morning, this last bit of collected leaven is burnt outside the home (in a can or bag) to symbolize its final destruction. This symbolizes Messiah’s destroying sin outside the camp (Hebrews 13:12-13), and making freedom from the power of sin available for all who believe.

On the day of the fourteenth of Nisan, as the first day of Passover approaches, final preparations for the Seder must be made. By now, the preliminary arrangements, such as shopping for “Kosher for Passover” products (Matzah, wine or grape juice, and any other unleavened food substitutes) should be completed. These customs may seem strange to the uninitiated, but the deep spiritual truth will be evident to discerning believers in Yeshua. Even something as unusual as the search for the leaven can become a meaningful ceremony for those whose hearts have been cleansed by the Messiah.³⁷⁴