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Z'man Cheruteinu ~THE TIME OF OUR FREEDOM~
Leviticus (Vayikra) 23:2:
"Tell the people of Isra'el:
`The designated times of ADONAI which you are to proclaim
as holy convocations are my designated times." God's Appointed Times or Feasts are known in Hebrew as Mo'adim. What are the appointed or designated times where the Holy One, blessed be He, meets with His people? We have the weekly Shabbat, monthly Rosh Chodesh or New Moon Festival, and annual Mo'adim. Passover, the subject of this article, is one of the annual Mo'adim ~A Feast of the L-rd~ which is for ALL believers who attach themselves to Israel. These are HIS Feasts, not just the *Jewish* Feasts. The keeping of the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread is a sign to us that we are God's people (Ex. 13:3-10). The Exodus forms the basis of the feast, and while the story is based on the physical salvation of the nation of Israel, the symbolism of the feast represents the spiritual salvation of the entire world.There is one statute for both stranger and sojourner (Num. 9:14). It is humbling and awesome to think that the Creator of the heavens and earth desires to set apart special fixed times to spend with you and me!! It would be advantageous for us to take the time to learn as much as we can about His Mo'adim!
PILGRIMAGE FEASTS
Deuteronomy (D'varim) 16:16 "Three times a year all your men are to appear in the presence of ADONAI your God in the place which he will choose -- at the festival of matzah, at the festival of Shavu`ot and at the festival of Sukkot." Unleavened Bread, Shavuot (Pentacost) and Sukkot (Feast of Booths or Tabernacles) are known as Pilgrimage Feasts. The Hebrew word for "Feast" is chag or chaggim (plural). These 3 chaggim are to be celebrated in Jerusalem in a very special way each year. Of course, not everyone living outside the land of Israel can make the trip, but we can still celebrate these Feasts wherever the Holy One has planted us.
PASSOVER/PESACH AND THE FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREADExodus (Sh'mot) 12: 1 -20 1 ADONAI spoke to Moshe and Aharon in the land of Egypt; he said, 2 "You are to begin your calendar with this month; it will be the first month of the year for you. 3 Speak to all the assembly of Isra'el and say, `On the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb or kid for his family, one per household -- 4 except that if the household is too small for a whole lamb or kid, then he and his next-door neighbor should share one, dividing it in proportion to the number of people eating it. 5 Your animal must be without defect, a male in its first year, and you may choose it from either the sheep or the goats. 6 "`You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, and then the entire assembly of the community of Isra'el will slaughter it at dusk. 7 They are to take some of the blood and smear it on the two sides and top of the door-frame at the entrance of the house in which they eat it. 8 That night, they are to eat the meat, roasted in the fire; they are to eat it with matzah and maror. 9 Don't eat it raw or boiled, but roasted in the fire, with its head, the lower parts of its legs and its inner organs. 10 Let nothing of it remain till morning; if any of it does remain, burn it up completely. 11 "`Here is how you are to eat it: with your belt fastened, your shoes on your feet and your staff in your hand; and you are to eat it hurriedly. It is ADONAI's Pesach [Passover]. 12 For that night, I will pass through the land of Egypt and kill all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both men and animals; and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt; I am ADONAI. 13 The blood will serve you as a sign marking the houses where you are; when I see the blood, I will pass over [Hebrew: pasach] you -- when I strike the land of Egypt, the death blow will not strike you. 14 "`This will be a day for you to remember and celebrate as a festival to ADONAI; from generation to generation you are to celebrate it by a perpetual regulation. 15 "`For seven days you are to eat matzah -- on the first day remove the leaven from your houses. For whoever eats hametz [leavened bread] from the first to the seventh day is to be cut off from Isra'el. 16 On the first and seventh days, you are to have an assembly set aside for God. On these days no work is to be done, except what each must do to prepare his food; you may do only that. 17 You are to observe the festival of matzah, for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, you are to observe this day from generation to generation by a perpetual regulation. 18 From the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month until the evening of the twenty-first day, you are to eat matzah. 19 During those seven days, no leaven is to be found in your houses. Whoever eats food with hametz in it is to be cut off from the community of Isra'el -- it doesn't matter whether he is a foreigner or a citizen of the land. 20 Eat nothing with hametz in it. Wherever you live, eat matzah.'"
Pesach is a special time where we are commanded to remember our Redemption. All aspects of His deliverance, whether individual (as in the case of Daniel, for example) or corporately (as in the Exodus from Egypt), only forshadow and reveal His ultimate purpose, i.e., to overcome death and give life. [2] In Exodus chapter 12, verse 3 we read of the First Passover, "Speak to all the assembly of Isra'el and say, `On the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb or kid for his family, one per household" Passover is held on the 14th day of the 1st month, Abib. This is the true Biblical New Year. Unleavened Bread is on the 15th day of Abib and we have a direct command from ADONAI to eat unleavened bread for seven days, or until the 21st of Abib. We must not eat leavened bread or have unleavened bread in our homes during this time. Why? Leaven represents sin because it puffs up. More on that later.
TWO PASSOVERS?The gospels appear to say that the Messiah ate a Passover meal with the twelve on the evening beginning Abib 14, and John appears to say Jews were having their Passover meal one day later. There are different theories to explain this. 1. The Sadducees and Pharisees disagreed on the day of Passover. The Sadducees (more conservative group) believed the Feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread were separate feast days. They held Passover on the fourteenth as God decreed in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Those of the majority opinion, including the Pharisees, held Passover on the fifteenth. Jesus may have been following both dates by having Passover with the disciples on the fourteenth and becoming the Passover lamb on the fifteenth. 2. Thousands of people would come to Jerusalem to have their lambs ritually slain in the Temple. If they only had one day in which to prepare for the Passover, it would have been extremely difficult to have slaughtered all the lambs brought in to be sacrificed. Therefore, they worked on two different time scales. The northern part of the country went with the old way of dating (starting from morning and going to the following morning). The southern part of the country followed the official dating method (from evening to evening). Thus, there were two times when lambs were being killed in the Temple for sacrifice. This controversy as to what day Passover should be is not the purpose of this article. You must study to decide for yourself which day is correct. [3]
SINAs I mentioned earlier in this article, leaven represents sin because it puffs up. When we put the leaven out of our homes, we can see how it can have the spiritual application of getting sin out of our hearts as well. What is sin? Sin is the transgression of the Torah (law). 1 John 4 "Everyone doing sin also does lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness." (The Scriptures) Romans 14:23 gives us a second meaning of "sin": "But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it isn’t of faith; and whatever is not of faith is sin." And for a third definition of sin, let's read James 4:17, "To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin." So how do we completely eliminate sin from our lives? We can't. Just as we cannot remove all the leaven from our homes. And that is exactly the point. Once a sin is committed we are guilty. We must go to our Passover Lamb, Yeshua, for forgiveness. [4] So we do the best we can to remove the leaven from our homes before Passover (April 6th, 2004), and from our lives. Since we cannot remove all the sin from our lives in our own strength, we simply turn to Yeshua. We must guard our homes (the doors), and the door of our minds so as to not let in any leaven (sin), not only during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but all year. Dean Wheelock comments, "We are being trained to be like Yeshua as He shows us more "crumbs" (sin)." A great word picture for us to remember during our Passover Preparations. Romans 6:22, " But now, being made free from sin, and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life. 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Messiah Yeshua our Lord." Amein. Please read all of Romans chapter 6 for an in-depth study on sin.
SCRIPTURAL AND MESSIANIC SIGNIFICANCE1 Cor. 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump? 5:7 Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Messiah, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place. 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. There are many more spiritual applications, but here are a few. The Slavery of the Israelites to Pharoah represents our own slavery to sin and the need for Elohim to deliver us, just as He did back in Egypt. Egypt represents sin. Pharoah represents HaSatan. The Pesach Lamb is Yeshua of course. Just as the blood of the first Passover Lamb brought protection to the Israelites from death to the firstborn, so too the blood of Yeshua HaMashiach protects us from the *reward* of sin, which is death. Yeshua was our Lamb without blemish Who bore our sins. HalleluYah! Bitter Herbs remind us of the bitterness of slavery to sin (Egypt), and Unleavened Bread, or Matzah not only reminds us of the actual event of the Israelites hastily leaving Egypt, but also reminds us that we are free from the affliction of sin.
"Chag Sah-meach Pesach!" (Happy Festival of Passover!) END NOTES:
[1] Bikurei Tziyon Magazine, March/April 2000 (c)Mrs. Fern Guyer 
FOR PESACH
The Institution of the "Lord's Supper", by Jeffrey Guyer Yeshua Our Pesach, by Tim Hegg
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This page created March 17th, 2004 (24 Adar, 5764)
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