THE SABBATH CALLED PASSOVER FEAST

The Passover Feast commemorates the death of Y’shua; also, the day when the New Covenant was formally instituted.

Its Old Covenant Significance

The Israelites (the descendants of the patriarch Jacob, whom God renamed Isra’el) celebrate the Passover Feast to commemorate two remarkable occasions: (1) The passing over of their ancestors from captivity to freedom due to God’s intervention; and (2) The passing of the Angel of Death over the homes of their ancestors.

The passing over of their ancestors from captivity to freedom due to God’s intervention. They were treated as slaves in Egypt for 430 years. God sent the prophet Moses to demand their freedom from Pharaoh Amenophis II. (Pharaoh was how the Egyptian king was called from 1550-1307 bc.)

Ten times God demanded their freedom. Instead of heeding God’s demand, the Pharaoh made life more difficult for the Israelites. Thus, the Judgment of God visited Egypt. The Israelites were forewarned and instructed how to escape it.

³ Tell the whole community of Isra’el that on the tenth day of [Nisan] each man is to take a lamb or a kid for his family, one for each household. ⁴ If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. ⁵ The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. ⁶ Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community must slaughter them at twilight… ⁸ That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with [“maror”] bitter herbs, and [“matzah”] bread made with no yeast. ⁹ Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—[with its] head, legs and inner parts. ¹⁰ Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it [completely]. ¹¹ This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover. EXODUS 12

⁷ Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs… ¹² On that same night, I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. ¹³ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague [deathblow] will touch you when I strike Egypt. EXODUS 12

The passing of the Angel of Death over the homes of their ancestors. At midnight of Nisan 14 the Angel of Death passed through Egypt and killed the firstborns there—both men and animals. All the firstborns were killed. Only the firstborns of the Israelites were spared from the Judgment of God. That very night the Pharaoh freed the Israelites.

²⁹ At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. ³⁰ Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. ³¹ During the night, Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. ³² Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.” ³³ The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!” EXODUS 12

The Israelites were commanded to commemorate their last supper in Egypt. 

¹ Observe the month of Nisan and celebrate the Passover of the Lord your God, because in the month of Nisan He brought you out of Egypt by night. ² Sacrifice as the Passover to the Lord your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for His name. ³ Do not eat it with bread made with yeast. DEUTERONOMY 16

⁴³ … No foreigner is to eat of it. ⁴⁴ Any slave you have bought may eat of it after you have circumcised him, ⁴⁵ but a [visitor] temporary resident or hired worker may not eat of it. ⁴⁶ It must be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. ⁴⁷ The whole community of Isra’el must celebrate it. ⁴⁸ An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat of it. ⁴⁹ The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you.” EXODUS 12 

²⁶ And when your children ask you “What does this ceremony mean to you?” ²⁷ then tell them, “It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites and spared our homes when He struck down the Egyptians.” EXODUS 12

¹⁴ This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance… EXODUS 12 

Its New Covenant Significance

The Death of Y’shua

The ancestors of the Israelites entered into a covenant with God. (Covenant is a contract or agreement with someone greater than us. After we enter into it, the contract becomes a law between him and us.) 

⁷ Moses took the Book of Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.” EXODUS 24

The covenant came with a penalty clause: The curse of Second Death upon everyone who did not obey everything written in the Book (Deuteronomy 27:26). Sinners must die (Ezekiel 18:4). And because all the Israelites had disobeyed (Ecclesiastes 7:20, John 7:19) then all must die.

Much as God wanted to set aside the penalty clause after seeing the disobedience of the Israelites, He could not. He had made the covenant a law even unto Himself (Isaiah 46:11). Neither He nor the Israelites could abrogate or revise the covenant, or delete or amend or disobey any one of its stipulations (Isaiah 45:23, 31:2).

¹⁵ Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. GALATIANS 3

But God was not the type to lose His loved ones without a good fight. He devised a plan where the penalty could be placed upon the one in the entire universe who could take their place—Himself. (Cf. Benny Hinn, The Greatest Miracle, pp. 4-5) God took the form of Son of Man, made a sin offering of Himself, and released the Israelites from the penalty by dying in their place. Lucifer, his demons and human agents were allowed to shame and torment Him. The torment began right after Seder, the Passover supper. It ended in His nailing to the cross. 

The Son of Man died at about three o’clock in the afternoon (Matthew 27:46, 50) of the Passover of 31 ad. The occasion was prophesied 1,400 years before it happened:

⁵ The Lord’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of [Nisan]. LEVITICUS 23

Again God intervened so that His people might “pass over” from bondage to freedom. It was the Second Passover in the history of Isra’el.

What’s the difference between the First and the Second?

The First brought freedom from physical bondage. Moses was sent to shepherd His flock. A male lamb or kid without any blemish or physical defect was the Passover sacrifice.

The Second brought freedom from spiritual bondage. God acted as the shepherd of His flock. He volunteered to become the Passover sacrifice. 

²⁹ Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! JOHN 1

²⁶ He is holy and blameless, unstained by sin, undefiled by sinners. HEBREWS 7 tlb

¹⁹ … It was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed to you from your forefathers, ²⁰ but with the precious blood of the Messiah, a Lamb without blemish or defect. 1 PETER 1

Hold your breath because this is mind-boggling: The Second Passover covered all sins—past, present and future. It was accomplished not alone for the Israelites but for the benefit of all humankind. Y’shua assumed the liability of the generations before us, our generation, and the generations after us—so we might pass over from the realm of the dead and live. He did it like a father would for his children: with overwhelming LOVE.

¹⁸ The Messiah died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. 1 PETER 3

¹³ The Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” GALATIANS 3

⁴ For [God] chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love ⁵ He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Y’shua the Messiah, in accordance with His pleasure and will— ⁶ to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves! ⁷ In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace ⁸ that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. EPHESIANS 1

People think of Y’shua as someone punished and humbled by God, yet the sufferings He endured were not His; the sorrows He carried were not His (Isaiah 53:4 jb).

⁵ He was pierced through for our faults, crushed for our sins. On Him lies a punishment that brings us peace, and through His wounds [stripes] we are healed. ⁶ We had all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way, and Yahweh burdened Him with the sins of us all. ⁷ Harshly dealt with, He bore it humbly, He never opened His mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter-house, like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers never opening its mouth. ⁸ By force and by law, He was taken [arrested and sentenced and led off to die, and no one cared about His fate]; would anyone plead His cause? Yes, He was torn away from the land of the living; for our faults [He was] struck down in death. ⁹ They gave Him a grave with the wicked, a tomb with the rich, though He had done no wrong [violence] and there had been no perjury [deceit] in His mouth. ¹⁰ Yahweh had been pleased to crush Him with suffering. If He offers His life in atonement, He shall see His heirs, He shall have a long life and through Him what Yahweh wishes will be done. ISAIAH 53 jb

The Institution of the New Covenant

The Old Covenant between God and the Israelites was defiled, torn to pieces by disobedience and spiritual adultery and lack of LOVE. A new covenant was instituted. It anointed the Church (ekklesia in Greek meaning “called out ones”) as a coworker of God. The task was to propagate and perpetuate LOVE. How to do it was stipulated in the Ten Commandments.  

First to join were the Twelve. They entered into it for and on behalf of the first disciples. Since then membership to the New Covenant has been open to those who have the heart for it. Membership means committing ourselves to be God’s coworkers the rest of our lives. The commitment entails 100% obedience of God’s instructions. In return, God commits to love and take care of us—in this life and hereafter. 

⁷ For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. ⁸ But God found fault with the people and said: The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Isra’el and with the house of Judah. ⁹ ...Because they did not remain faithful to My covenant. ¹⁰ This is the New Covenant I will make with the house of Isra’el… declares the Lord: I will put My laws in their minds [so they will know My instructions] and write them in their hearts [so they will obey them]. I will be their God, and they will be My people. ¹¹ No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” because they will know Me, from the least of them to the greatest… ¹³ By calling this covenant “new,” He has made the first one obsolete and aging [it] will soon disappear. HEBREWS 8

Why Participate IN THE NEW COVENANT?

The New Covenant seeks to re-inject the element of LOVE into our hearts. Without it, we will continue in being self-destructive, breeding unrighteous relationships, and bringing about a sick society.

¹⁷ The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Y’shua the Messiah. JOHN 1

¹ Let love be your highest goal! 1 CORINTHIANS 14 nlt

¹⁹ See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. ISAIAH 43

Our participation in the New Covenant is component to gaining the restoration of our original blessed state.       

¹² Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. JOHN 1

²⁶ You are all sons of God through faith in Messiah Y’shua, ²⁷ for all of you who were baptized into the Messiah have clothed yourselves with the Messiah. GALATIANS 3

⁹ If you confess with your mouth “Y’shua is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. ROMANS 10

We participate because we agree with the New Covenant’s objective of dismantling the barriers that separate men.  The New Covenant is all-inclusive, open to everyone—without prejudice to anyone’s gender, age, color, wealth, education, affiliation or belief.

¹⁵ His purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two [the Jews and the non-Jews, rich and poor, young and old, white and non-white]; thus making peace, ¹⁶ and in this one Body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility. ¹⁷ He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. ¹⁹ Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Messiah Y’shua Himself as the chief cornerstone. ²¹ In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. EPHESIANS 2

The objective is to build one citizenship out of the humankind, one Body where no one is discriminated or more dignified than the others; where each member is welcomed, respected and loved as a vital part of the whole; where everyone contributes LOVE-sacrifices to the collective cause. God is building a classless society that is not based on the absence of social status but where all are honored equally as “heirs” according to the promise made to Abraham.

¹² The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with the Messiah. ¹³ For we are all baptized by one Spirit into one Body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 1 CORINTHIANS 12

²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Messiah Y’shua. ²⁹ If you belong to the Messiah, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. GALATIANS 3

⁴ There is one Body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope, when you were called— ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. EPHESIANS 4

We participate because the Blood that sealed the New Covenant is too precious to waste.    

³⁵ One of the [Roman] soldiers pierced Y’shua’s side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. JOHN 19

¹³ You who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of the Messiah. EPHESIANS 2

²⁰ After the supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the New Covenant in My Blood, which is poured out for you.” LUKE 22

²⁷ Drink from it, all of you. This is My blood of the Covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. MATTHEW 26

Only animal blood sealed the Old Covenant.  

²² Under the old agreement almost everything was cleansed by sprinkling it with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. HEBREWS 9 tlb

¹⁹ When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the Law to all the people, he took blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. ²⁰ He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” HEBREWS 9

Gratitude dictates that we reciprocate God’s love for us.  

¹¹ The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the city. ¹² And so Y’shua also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy with His own blood. HEBREWS 13

⁷ The blood of Y’shua, His Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 JOHN 1

Most important of all, we participate because there will be no repeat of the Most Holy Sacrifice. Y’shua cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him (Romans 6:9). Lucifer, his demons and human agents cannot crucify, disgrace or humiliate Him again ever. The opportunity therefore to be reconciled with God while we are on earth should not be squandered; otherwise, there will be nothing to look forward to but God’s awful anger and the terrible punishment which will strike His enemies (Hebrews 10:27 tlb).