Finding Christ In The Passover 4 Ending

  Our Lord God considered it pertinent to consecrate every living being, from the firstborn of humans to the firstborn of the animals. “The Lord said to Moses: consecrate to me all the firstborn; whatever is the first to open the womb among the Israelites of human beings and animals, is mine,” Exodus 13:11. Moses helps us to gain insight by explaining to us why every firstborn was to be consecrated before the Lord. “When the Lord has brought you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your ancestors, and has given it to you, you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your livestock that are males shall be the Lord’s. But every firstborn donkey youshall redeem with a sheep; if you do not redeem it, you must break its neck.

  Every firstborn male among your children you shall redeem.” “When in the future your child asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall answer, ‘By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in
the land of Egypt, from human firstborn to the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord every male that first opens the womb, but every firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ It shall serve as a sign on your hand and as an emblem on your forehead that by strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt,” Exodus 13:11-16. Paul the apostle knew and understood this application of the Messiah’s fulfillment and Paul attributed this prophecy to the Messiah. He ascribes Colossians 1:15 to Jesus: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers all things have been created through him and for him.”

  An interesting factor for us to consider is this. When the time came for the families to kill the Passover lamb, The Mishnah states: “They bring a spit of pomegranate wood and stick it through (the carcass) from the mouth to the buttocks (page 241, 7:1).” Additionally, The Complete Art Scroll Machzor, Pesach, agrees with The Mishnah. As the Messiah was pierced through for the transgressions of our sins, Isaiah chapter 53 explores the entire process of why He was pierced for our transgressions. Psalms 22:16: “They have pierced my hands and my feet.” Other translations render, “Like lions (they maul) my hands and feet.” This is a deliberate corruption of the Hebraic text and is not trustworthy. For more information about this topic go to Glenn Miller, a Christian Think Tank website,

  http://www.christian-thinktank.com/ps22cheat.html

By Michael Jones  

Finding Christ In The Passover Part Three

  This is a final continuation of part 2. I need to make some more important quotes. This will help to make sense of the Eastern culture, during the time of the first century. They considered part of a day equivalent to the whole day. Here are some examples from ApologeticsPress.Org: “Three Days And Three Nights,” an
article written by Eric Lyons. Under the topic, Alleged Discrepancies, He states: “The Jerusalem Talmud quotes rabbi Eleazar Ben Azariah, who lived around A.D. 100, as saying: ‘A day and night are an Onah [a portioin of time] and the portion of an Onah is as the whole of it’ (from Jerusalem Talmud: Shabbath ix. 3, as quoted in Hoehner, 1974, pp. 248-249, bracketed comment in orig.). Azariah indicated that a portion of a twenty-four hour period could be considered the same ‘as the whole of it.’ Thus, in Jesus’ time He would have been correct in teaching that His burial would last ‘three days and three nights,’ even though it was not three complete 24-hour days.” http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/570

  “In the first century, any part of a day could be computed for the whole day and the night following it (cf. Lightfoot, 1979, pp. 210-211).” When selecting a sacrificial lamb for Passover, it is very important to go by the strict guidelines found in Exodus. “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year old male,” Exodus 12:5. The Gospel of Luke 1:31 says, “And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.” He was the sacrificial lamb. The book of Exodus places an important emphasis on not breaking any bones of the lamb before or after the sacrifice. In fact, Exodus 12:46 mentions: “It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the animal outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones."John speaks of this prophetic event strongly, and gives this particular event over to Jesus the Christ.

  “Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs,” John 19:32. Verse 36, “These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled None of his bones shall be broken.”

By Michael Jones

Finding Christ In The Passover Part Two

   Matthew 27:45-50 states: “From noon on darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice “Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani?” that is “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” From the book called, The 7 Festivals Of The Messiah, Ed Chumney’s goes onto mention: “The biblical day goes from evening to evening, from sundown to sundown, which is roughly 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. (Genesis [Bereishit] 1:5,8,13,19,23,31). The day (6:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.) is divided into two 12-hour periods. The evening runs from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. The morning runs from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

  Each 12-hour period is divided into two smaller portions. From 6:00 a.m. to noon is the morning part of the day. From noon to 6:00 p.m. is the evening part of the day. The phrase, "between the evening" (from Exodus [Shemot] 12:6) refers to the period of the day that goes from noon to 6:00 p.m., which is exactly 3:00 p.m. This would be the ninth hour of the day,counting from 6:00 a.m.”

  The Biblical Day

  Evening Morning

  |----------------------|--------------------------------|
  6 p.m. 6 a.m. 6 p.m.

  Morning Evening
  |--------------|------------|
  6 a.m. Noon 6 p.m.
 
 |----------------------|----|
 6 a.m. 3 p.m. 6 p.m.

  |---------------------|
  The 9th hour of the day = 3 p.m. Messianic Fulfillment. Yeshua died at the ninth hour of the day (Matthew [Mattityahu] 27:45-50). This would be exactly 3:00 p.m. (the ninth hour, counting from 6:00 a.m.).” Since we have designated a time of our Messiah’s death, now we can tackle it’s exact day our lamb of God was placed into the tomb.

  The book of Jonah, has given us data of how long he was going to be in the belly of the fish and for how long Jesus was to be placed into the tomb. “The Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Jonah 1:17.” Matthew 12:40 gives us this beautiful Messianic fulfillment through telling us, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the
sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of man will be in the heart of the earth.”

  Therefore, Matthew has given us an Hebraic time frame for us to work with. I will use the information below from a website named Hebrew for Christians, owned and operated by John J. Parsons and with the help of his friend Aaron Eby with this article.

  Nisan 14 evening- Yeshua’s early Seder

  Nisan 14 daytime- preparation day ( Luke 23:54; Mark 15:42). Pesach (Leviticus 23:5). Yeshua dies in the afternoon at the same time that the korban Pesach (Passover lamb) is sacrificed at the Temple, and is buried before evening (before Passover).

  Nisan 15 evening- High Sabbath begins (the actual Seder night)

  Nisan 15 daytime- High Sabbath

  Nisan 16 evening- Weekly Sabbath begins

  Nisan 16 daytime- Weekly Sabbath, waving of the omer

  Nisan 17 evening- Yeshua raised from the dead at/after havdalah (at least before sunrise). Women purchase spices. Nisan 17 daytime- Women bring spices to the tomb early in the morning. Disciples encounter risen Messiah.

  Note: a Jewish day starts at sundown!

  For more of a detail Chart go to:

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Spring_Holidays/First_Fruits/Reishit- Katzir.pdf

By Michael Jones

Finding Christ In The Passover Part one

  I want to discuss the relevance of celebrating Passover (pesach) and, more importantly, how the Passover all points to Jesus. There is plenty of direct symbolism and in-depth meaning behind this Jewish celebration. It is important for Jewish people in this generation and in Biblical times to keep the Passover.

  Exodus 12:11 says, “It is the Passover of the Lord.” It’s no wonder God told Moses in Exodus 12:24, “You shall observe this rite as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children.” Jesus the Christ explained to his disciples that his Passover with them in Jerusalem would be the last one that he would celebrate with them.

  The Messiah expounds on it for them in Mark 14:25: “Truly I tell you I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom.” Where do we possibly begin to link the Passover to Jesus? First, God lays out His application for Moses and the Israelites, telling them when to have the Passover.

  This pattern can be found in Exodus 12:2. “This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you.” This means that the Hebrew date of Passover falls on the 14th of Nisan, which in the Gregorian calendar is the month of April. It is important to note that God, and not Moses, commanded the detailed regulations in how to pick the Passover lamb and when to kill it and how to prepare it.

  Jewish law regulated picking a lamb out for your family to sacrifice. Since you could not take home just any lamb, the Priesthad to thoroughly inspect it for any kind of blot or blemish. Exodus 12:5: “Your lamb shall be without blemish.” In order for the Messiah to meet these criteria, He himself must pass this biblical command of Exodus 12:5, having no blot or blemish.

  For us to start connecting Exodus 12:5 to Jesus, we should proceed to 1 Peter 1:19. “But with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.” Here we really begin to start understanding who Jesus is from the Passover. Our next progression will be the exact timing of when to kill the Passover lamb, and what the bible has to say about this, and how to correlate it with Christ’s death.

  “You shall keep it until the 14th day of this month, then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight,” Exodus 12:6. As this important festival came slowly together, on April 14th the entire
assembly of Israel congregated around the sacrificial lamb to be killed. While the entire assembly of Israel were to have been gathered that night for the Passover lamb, the same is true about Jesus, having a congregation of His own around Him.

  “The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers have gathered together against the Lord and against His Messiah. For in this city in fact both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus,” Acts 4:26-27. When the time came for all Israel to congregate around the Passover (pesach) lamb, God commanded a special, yet divine, designated area for the actual Passover to take place.

   “You are not permitted to offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you. But at the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for His name, only there shall you offer the Passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, the time of day when you departed from Egypt,” Deuteronomy16:5-6.

  Under Jewish law, the Passover lamb was not to be killed inside the city and if it did occur by ignorance of the law or by not adhering to what God had said then the system would be invalid. This prophecy is brought forth into fruition with the Messiah being brought out of the city of Jerusalem. Hebrews 13:11-12 sheds light
for us to understand the sacrifice aspect of the Passover. “For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by His own blood.”

By Michael Jones