Passover is today!
Today at sundown begins the Passover. It wasn’t Easter 3 weeks ago when Christian churches fill the pews on one of 2 celebrations per year. Passover always begins at sundown of Nisan the 14th on the Jewish calendar, which is now. Even though the Jewish calendar doesn’t always mark the biblically correct day, if you recall, the April 8th eclipse was Nisan 1st both New Year and Sabbath and was accurate this year. The Passover is not a sabbath, but Feast of Unleavened Bread that begins on the 15th of Nissan is a high sabbath, on the 2nd lunar quarter from the new year. Today is a full moon marking the biblically correct sabbath. Yehshua was crucified on the Passover, during the day after having had the “last supper” the night before (sundown beginning Nisan 14) then resurrected on the 17th of Nissan 3 days later. The 1st day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread was a High Sabbath beginning sundown on Nisan 15, then the 16th of Nisan would have been a regular Sabbath, followed by the Resurrection on the 1st day of the week (Nisan 17).
I would like to offer some advice to all my friends and subscribers that are reading these blog articles, to please not waste time getting confused with whether Passover was a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, etc. Those are Roman pagan names for the days of the weeks, just as are the names for the months of the year, and as is the name “easter”. Look up Nisan 14, the Jewish Passover, and it will likely be the correct day as it is this year, which is a Tuesday in this case. Our calendar comes from Rome, not Israel, so I believe it is a waste of time to try to pin down the Passover to a pagan date on a pagan calendar.
(Got Questions?) Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) is a Jewish festival celebrating the exodus from Egypt and the Israelites’ freedom from slavery to the Egyptians. The Feast of Passover, along with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, was the first of the festivals to be commanded by God for Israel to observe (see Exodus 12). Commemorations today involve a special meal called the Seder, featuring unleavened bread and other food items symbolic of various aspects of the exodus.
Passover is one of the most widely celebrated Jewish holidays. Along with Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost) and Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles), Passover is one of the three “pilgrimage” festivals in Scripture, during which the Jews were commanded to travel to Jerusalem and observe the feasts together. In Western countries, Passover is confusingly celebrated in early- to mid-April called by its pagan pre-Roman name of Easter.
The book of Exodus tells of the origin of Passover. God promised to redeem His people from the bondage of Pharaoh (Exodus 6:6). God sent Moses to the Egyptian king with the command that Pharaoh “let my people go” (Exodus 8:1). When Pharaoh refused, God brought ten plagues on the land of Egypt. The tenth and worst of the plagues was the death of all the firstborn in Egypt.
The night of the first Passover was the night of the tenth plague. On that fateful night, God told the Israelites to sacrifice a spotless lamb and mark their doorposts and lintels with its blood (Exodus 12:21–22). Then, when the Lord passed through the nation, He would “pass over” the households that showed the blood (verse 23). In a very real way, the blood of the lamb saved the Israelites from death, as it kept the destroyer from entering their homes. The Israelites were saved from the plague, and their firstborn children stayed alive. From then on, every firstborn son of the Israelites belonged to the Lord and had to be redeemed with a sacrifice (Exodus 13:1–2, 12; cf. Luke 2:22–24).
The children of Israel in Egypt followed God’s command and kept the first Passover. However, none of the Egyptians did so. All through Egypt, behind the unmarked, bloodless doorways of the Egyptians, the firstborn children died at midnight (Exodus 12:21–29). “There was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead” (verse 30). This dire judgment finally changed the Egyptian king’s heart, and he released the Israelite slaves (verses 31–32).
Along with the instruction to apply the Passover lamb’s blood to their doorposts and lintels, God instituted a commemorative meal: fire-roasted lamb, bitter herbs, and unleavened bread (Exodus 12:8). The Lord told the Israelites to “observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever” (Exodus 12:24, ESV), even when in a foreign land.
To this day, Jews all over the world celebrate the Passover in obedience to this command. Passover and the story of the exodus have great significance for Christians also, as Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law, including the symbolism of the Passover (Matthew 5:17). Jesus is our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7; Revelation 5:12). He was killed at Passover time, and the Last Supper was a Passover meal (Luke 22:7–8). By (spiritually) applying His blood to our lives by faith, we trust Christ to save us from death. The Israelites who, in faith, applied the blood of the Paschal lamb to their homes become a model for us. It was not the Israelites’ ancestry or good standing or amiable nature that saved them; it was only the blood of the lamb that made them exempt from death (see John 1:29 and Revelation 5:9–10).
On Nisan 17 I will follow up with “How Yehshua became our Sabbath Rest”.
