JACQUES GAUVIN, RELIGION
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The Passover And The Feast Of Unleavened Bread

1997 Revised 10 April 2004

There were ten plagues cast upon the inhabitants of Egypt before the Exodus. The purpose of these plagues brought on by God were so the Pharaoh would set the Israelites free (Exodus 7:4, 9:1,13, 11:1). Here is a list of the plagues.

1) blood for seven days ~ Ex.7:17,25
2) frogs ~ Ex. 8:2
3) lice ~ Ex. 8:16
4) flies ~ Ex. 8:21
5) grievous murrain ~ Ex. 9:3
6) boils and blains ~ Ex. 9:9
7) hail Ex.9:18, to cause pestilence ~ Ex. 9:15
8) locust ~ Ex. 10:12
9) three days of darkness ~ Ex10:21
10) death of first born ~ Ex. 11:5

After the last plague Egypt released the Israelites by order of the Pharaoh.

There are seven Holy Days that were appointed by our Creator for us to observe besides the regular seventh day of the week Sabbath. They are:

1) the First Day of Unleavened Bread ~ 1st month 15th day full moon
2) the Last Day of Unleavened Bread ~ 1st month 21st day
3) the Day of Pentecost ~ 7 Sabbaths latter on 1st day of the week
4) the Day of Trumpets ~ 7th month 7th day
5) the Day of Atonement ~ 7th month 10th day
6) the Feast of Tabernacles ~ 7th month 15th day full moon
7) the Last Great Day ~ 7th month 22nd day

During their stay in Egypt the Israelites were not fully aware of God^s Holy Days, if at all. They had been in captivity for 430 years (Exodus 12:40, 41). God had to show them which days were Holy through Moses and Aaron. Later, for forty years in the desert, they picked manna on six days of the week only and not on God^s Holy Sabbath days. They picked in the morning. Manna was smaller than a pea in size and was prepared in several different ways in order to vary the taste (Exodus 16:31, Numbers 11:7, 8). They picked double on the sixth day and rested on the seventh. In this way God pointed out to them which day was His appointed day of observance (Exodus 16, Deuteronomy 8:3, Nehemiah 9:20, 21). The same was likely done for God^s seven appointed High Days (Joshua 5:10 to 12). These Holy Days begin to be expounded upon and observed by Israel in Exodus 12. During those days God pointed out to them which days were the Sabbaths (Exodus 16:23, 31:14, 35:2, Leviticus 23:3, 27,32, Matthew 28:1, Mark 15:42). This custom was still evident in Christ^s day in that Joseph of Arimathaea pleaded with Pilot to get Jesus in the tomb before the Sabbath (Matthew 27:57, 58, Mark 15:42 to 47).

Trumpets were also used in helping the Israelites learn to observe the Holy days at their proper times. The first mention of trumpets in the scriptures however, is in Exodus 19:13 and it was a trumpet sound that comes from the spirit world. It was not a ram^s horn as some translations have rendered. It was a signal from God as to when the Israelites should gather before the mountain of the Lord. In Exodus 19:16, 19, and 20:18 the blast of the trumpet was accompanied by thunder and lightning. No man can make a trumpet sound get louder and louder to the point of making the people tremble. These events were Holy interventions.

Among some it is believed that the slaying of the lamb was at the precise time of the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, that is to say at the ninth hour, about three o^clock in the afternoon.

Is it necessary for the sacrificial lamb that represents the sacrifice of our Lord to have been sacrificed at the same time as our Lord was sacrificed? Animals were sacrificed daily. All of them were a reminder of the sacrifice that was to come. Most of them were not sacrificed on the day of the Passover. It was not necessary for all animals to be sacrificed at a specific time of day. To my knowledge only on the Passover day were instructions given as to the time of day that the Lamb was to be slain, that was for the evening meal.

I think it very important to notice that there are other passages where it is stipulated that the sacrifice and the eating thereof are to take place on the selfsame day. Examples are found in Leviticus 7:15, 16 and 19:6, where none of it is to be left until morning. This indicates that it is not proper to make an offering on one day that is to be eaten on the next. We are to make our offerings on the day in which they are to be consumed.

On the day of Atonement we are to fast for the full day. Anyone who eats during this day will be cut off from Israel (Exodus 23:29). If you were to end your fast around three oclock in the afternoon your life would be in jeopardy. Leviticus 23:32 points to this very time of day in which the fast is to begin and to end. It is the same expression that is used in Exodus 12 concerning the Passover sacrifice. The reason that the ninth day at even is used and not the tenth day at even (both pointing at the same time of day) is not well understood. I suspect that it is for the same reasons that we call Saturday night morning, starting just after midnight on Friday night. It is our custom. You would have to study the customs of the Egyptians to see what the Israelites had grown accustomed to. God in those days was teaching His chosen people His ways. They were learning them for the first time because many generations had passed since their captivity 430 years earlier. The Holy Days were being introduced formally for the first time to these people, the descendants of Israel.

We know today that at the end of each description of God^s activities during the week of creation he states and there was evening and there was morning, one day (Genesis 1). This shows how God counted a day and how evening preceded the day. (Jesus was three nights and three days in the grave.) Remember that it was Moses who wrote the first five books of the Bible. The books did not exist before this time. There was no way that Israel could have read up on the teachings of God while they were in captivity. All that they knew was taught through Moses and by word of mouth. God reveals when He will, to whom He will and by whom He will.

The lamb that was chosen on the tenth day was to be kept until the fourteenth day. Even though they were fully clad with staff in hand they had a full six hours from the slaying of the lamb until the first born of Egypt were killed. This allows for a good night^s sleep before the Egyptians would have shown up on their doorsteps and outside their homes later that night. From the slaying there was another six full hours of night before the sun rose in the morning since this was the time near the vernal equinox. Nightfall and daybreak come very quickly in Israel. It would have taken at least several hours for the Egyptians to gather around them. You just can^t move an army of Egyptians around three million Israelites any faster. There may have been some Israelites living in Rameses but Goshen is where the Israelites lived (Exodus 8:22, 9:26). It would have taken the Egyptians more than a few hours to gather the people from Goshen. And Israel did go from Goshen west to Rameses (Exodus 12:37) before turning around to the east to head out of Egypt the next night, on the fifteenth. (Deuteronomy 16:1)

The fourteenth is pointed out as being the day of the Passover. The Passover was the day in which the angel of death passed over the Israeli homes that had their door posts painted with the blood of the sacrificial lambs. This angel of death did his work at midnight and slew all the first born of Egypt. In Numbers 28:16 we are told in the exact same language as is used in verse 17 that the Passover is to be celebrated on the fourteenth day as the Feast day is to be celebrated on the fifteenth. There is one Passover day not two. Most Feast Days are daylight celebrations but the Passover is to be commemorated in the evening just as we commemorate with the washing of the feet, the breaking and eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine in the evening of the fourteenth in this generation. The day of the Passover is on the fourteenth. This is mentioned many times in the Bible. The next day was the First Day of Unleavened bread. The Passover was a plague day. The First Day of Unleavened Bread was a Holy Day.

The scriptures say that the Israelites left Egypt by night (Exodus 12:42). The First Day of Unleavened Bread was the first day of the journey that took them out of Egypt. This journey lasted seven days. With all the scriptures that indicate that they left Egypt by night, it certainly seems likely that on the first day they walked into the night as they were being cast out. The commemoration of the Last Day of Unleavened Bread represents the very same day that the Israelites left Egypt (Exodus 12:17, 14:21, Deuteronomy 16:1). I believe that there is a day that portrays the coming out of this world such as is our commitment and a second much greater exodus which is that of our baptism into our redeemer Jesus. Baptism is symbolism for leaving this life behind and the resurrection into eternal indestructible life. It is very clear that they crossed the Red Sea, a form of baptism, by night (Exodus 14:20 to 24). The Last Day of Unleavened bread is a Holy Day commemorating the end of the enemy that was Egypt. It symbolizes the end of death and the threat of death.

On the Last Day of Unleavened Bread, (Exodus 12:17, 41, 42, 51) they left. A conservative number of three million people, roughly the population of greater Toronto (1997), exited Egypt. There were 600,000 men of fighting age (Exodus 12:37), women, children and the elderly. After the night of the Passover, they walked to Rameses, an Egyptian city, from Goshen, where the Israelites lived, bringing with them all their belongings including many cattle, flocks, herds, pets, horses and camels I suspect (Exodus 12:32, 38). I imagine that they had wagons or carts to carry their infants, children, pregnant women, elderly, sick, cripples, possessions and loot (Exodus 12:35). The men however were on foot. For such a large group of people to walk to Rameses which was in all likelihood forty kilometers or so, must have taken several hours. (Verses 29 to 39 in the book of Exodus in chapter 12, are in chronological order.) They looted and asked for silver and gold from the Egyptians in Rameses that day. Then they left Rameses by night. Since the Egyptians were so insistent on their leaving, they left and walked through the night forced on by their former captors (Exodus 12:33, 39). To walk to Rameses, the capital, is to walk into Egypt not out of Egypt from Goshen, where the Israelites lived. They could not have been considered as leaving Egypt at least until they turned around and started heading the other way.

Notice that for 3,000,000 people, a conservative estimate, to be living in Goshen it would take a circle with about a 20 kilometer radius to encamp them and greater to house them. This is a guess on my part. They had no high rise apartments in those days. We know that they lived in houses (Exodus 12:7).

There are many passages in the Bible stating that the Passover was on the Fourteenth. The Old Testament does not state anywhere that the angel of death came on the fifteenth. Both the Passover sacrifice and the eating of the Passover were done on the same day, that is on the fourteenth. The fifteenth was the First Day of Unleavened Bread, a separate day. Here is a list of some of the passages that mention the fourteenth day Passover: Exodus 12:6, 11, 27, 34:25, Leviticus 23:5, Numbers 9:2, 3, 4, 5, 11 where they ate the Passover sacrifice on the fourteenth, 12 to 14, 28:16, Joshua 5:10, 11 where they eat unleavened cakes on the day after the Passover, 2 Chronicles 35:1, 17, Ezra 6:19 and 45:21. Clearly the day of the Passover is a separate day from the First Day of Unleavened Bread.

The 430 year span of captivity to the day is mentioned as ending on a day of unleavened bread, not on the fourteenth (Exodus 12:17, 41, 51). During the first forty years after the Passover there were no days of eating leavened bread. They were all days of unleavened bread (Exodus 16:1, 35). The directive to eat unleavened bread for seven days is for our generation. On the fourteenth we should put leaven out of our houses so that we will be seven days without leaven. On the fourteenth we may eat leavened products but not with the Passover, the evening meal. (Exodus 12:8) It was not uncommon for meals to be eaten with unleavened bread. There are several examples of this in the Bible, see Genesis 19:3, Exodus 29:2, 23, Leviticus 6:16, 8:2, 26, and 1 Samuel 28:24.

RELATING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT PASSOVER

Christians are of the belief that Jesus is the manna, the true food from God. John in his sixth chapter expounds on this subject as he remembers the teachings of our Passover sacrifice, Jesus. Here Jesus assures us that He is the sealed one (John 6:27, 29). He is the manna (John 6:32, 33, 35). He is not here to do His own will but that of His Father (John 6:38). He teaches and assures us that he who believes Him has everlasting life (John 6:47). The words that He spoke are life (John 6:63). It is imperative, necessary, that we believe Jesus if we are to enter eternal life.

The Lord^s supper (or Supper) was on Passover night as it states in the New Testament (Matthew 26:17 to 19, Mark 14:12 to 16, Luke 22:7 to 8, 15). It is Jesus who speaks the words of Matthew 26:18 and says that He is to keep the Passover... In Mark 14:14 it is Jesus who says that he will eat the Passover... Notice in particular Luke 22:15 where Jesus himself states how He had longed to eat this Passover BEFORE He suffered. Should we believe that Jesus ate the Passover meal on the night of the Passover? If we do not, can we expect to enter eternal life? We know from the scriptures that Jesus was entombed before the Holy Day (Mark 15:43, Luke 23:54, John 19:42).

Exodus 12:50, if I understand the intent of the scripture correctly, states that all of Israel obeyed the directives of Moses and Aaron that were given earlier in this chapter.
Thus did all the children of Israel; as the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. Exodus 12:50 (KJV)
And so they all observed the Passover the same night lest they would have died. Jesus and his apostles also observed the Passover on the right night, the night He was betrayed. The following day being the day of the Passover, Jesus was put to death. He became our Passover sacrificial Lamb.

There are many dissimilarities between the sacrifice of our Christ and the killing of the Passover lamb before the Exodus. Besides the fact that they both shed their blood and died there is practically no comparing the two events. The one took all of two minutes or less for they did it in haste remember and they had chosen and kept the animal since the tenth day of the month. The other took most of the day if you include the betrayal, the arrest, the desertion by the apostles, the mock trial by the High Priest, Caiaphas, the accusations and indignities, the denials of Peter, the condemnation by the council of the elders and scribes, the being bound and brought before Pontius Pilot, then Herod, then to Pilot again, the beatings, the mockery of the soldiers, the crowning with thorns and the dragging of the stake to his place of death. He was impaled around nine oclock in the morning and died around three oclock in the afternoon. This is merely a glimpse at his suffering. Anyone who has suffered knows how difficult it is to explain and convey the depth and severity of the experience.

The lamb was bled at or near dusk, just before the roasting. The whole meal (Exodus 12:11) was in all likelihood totally consumed hours before the angel of death came by to slay the first born of the land; men, women, children and cattle (Exodus 12:12). God only knows to what extent the first born were killed, if it included the insects and spiders, pets or fish. They had a full six hours to cook and eat before midnight and another six hours before sunrise since it was just around the time of the vernal equinox. On the day of the vernal equinox, the length of the night is equal to the length of the day. The children of Israel, were probably sound asleep most of the night before the people of Rameses awoke them very early in the morning. In haste they made ready for a permanent exodus loading their wagons with clothing, bedding, tents, pots and pans, stoves and tools, food and whatever else they had. These things took time. They must have been done in the morning of the fourteenth since they were not permitted to leave their homes until morning. (Exodus 12:22, 50)

Jesus was taken captive before the cock crowed once and it was dark (Luke 22:53). The Israelites had been ordered to stay inside until daybreak and then to burn the leftovers before sunrise (Exodus 12:10, 29:34, 34:25, Numbers 9:12). I do not know how to relate this with the events surrounding Jesus. Nevertheless Jesus did celebrate the Passover with His disciples on the night of His betrayal (1Cor. 11:23).

The lamb was only meant as a symbol representing our savior by shedding blood that was used for the forgiveness of sins. The Israelites were spared who had put the blood of the Lamb on their door post and lintels early in the evening. Jesus on the night of His betrayal was not killed but was betrayed. He explained to His disciples that He would be their Savior through the blood of the covenant that the drinking of the wine represented. The blood of the old testament is in fact a symbol of God^s mercy on His obedient people. There is no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood (Ephesians 1:7, 1 John 4:10). Just as the lamb came before the Lamb of God so the Passover meal was eaten with the apostles before the Passover Lamb^s blood was shed for the forgiveness of mankind. You could beleaguer the point and say that they had a triple fiasco of blood shedding and symbolism that day; there was the shed blood of the lamb for the Passover meal, the wine representing the blood and the blood of Jesus itself. Like any analogy there comes a point where it is no longer valid or becomes meaningless or senseless. The fact is that the apostles did not yet comprehend what was going on. The lessons had to be repeated to them often (Luke 24:25, Matthew 16:11, 23, Mark 4:13, 7:18 and many more).

Jesus they knew not but they did dress him with a robe (Matthew 27:28). Jesus suffered in their and our stead. Jesus suffered for Israel. Jesus is our elder brother, the only begotten son of God and the First born into the Kingdom of God.

On the night of the Passover, Jesus predicted that all His disciples would abandon Him (John 16:32). Jesus was sorrowful even unto death (Matthew 26:36, 37, Mark 14:33, 34). Listen to these words that seem to quote Jesus in prayer that terrible night and during the ensuing trauma.

O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried out day and night before you. May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of trouble and my life draws near the grave. I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like a man without strength. I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care. You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. Your wrath lies heavily upon me; you have overwhelmed me with all your waves. You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape; my eyes are dim with grief. I call to you, O LORD, every day; I spread out my hands to you. Do you show your wonders to the dead? Do those who are dead rise up and praise you? Is your love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction? Are your wonders known in the place of darkness, or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion? But I cry to you for help, O LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you. Why, O LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me? From my youth I have been afflicted and close to death; I have suffered your terrors and am in despair. Your wrath has swept over me; your terrors have destroyed me. All day long they surround me like a flood; they have completely engulfed me. You have taken my companions and loved ones from me; the darkness is my closest friend. (from Psalm 88)

An angel came to strengthen Him (Luke 22:43). In agony He prayed and His sweat was like great drops of blood falling to the ground (verses 44, 45). This transpired about the time that the death angel passed over the Israelites in the first Passover.

The only time that the angel of death killed the first born of Egypt and passed over the Israelites was on the night of the original Passover. There is no New Testament event or celebration mentioned that corresponds with this event save the one that I just mentioned. Jesuss agony increased all that day until He finally died many hours later.

It is by the sacrifice of Jesus that we are set free from the bonds of this demon lead world in which we live. Three days later Jesuss resurrection showed us that even death had been overcome. Notice that even the resurrection of Jesus is not a Holy Day, yet there is no entering the kingdom except through Jesus. I must warn you however that it is not enough that you know His name and use it. He said ^not all who say Lord Lord will enter my kingdom but those who obey my commandments^ (John 14:15, 15:10, 14:21, Matthew 7:21,22, Luke 6:46 and many more).

Regarding the Feast of Unleavened Bread, it is a seven day Feast that begins with the day they turned their backs to Rameses, the capital of Egypt at the time. It ends with the day they stepped foot outside Egypt on the Sinai Peninsula on safe ground after having crossed the Red Sea. They were led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. In this way God led them through the land both day and night. They left Rameses by night (Exodus 12:17, 49, Numbers 33:3). They camped at Succoth (Numbers 33:5). They camped at Etham (Exodus 13:20, Numbers 33:6). The whole Egyptian army pursued them (Exodus 14:6 to 9). They camped near Pihahiroth (Exodus 14:2,9). They camped before Migdol (Numbers 33:7). It is not noted in the Holy Bible whether the Israelites camped by day or by night. We do know that they were moving on at least two of those nights; the First Day of Unleavened Bread and the Last Day of Unleavened Bread. They crossed the Red Sea by night (Exodus 14:20, 21, 30, Deuteronomy 16:1) to reach the safe banks of the Sinai (Exodus 14:24 to 27, 13).

There is ambiguity whether Exodus 12:17 refers to the First Day of Unleavened Bread and or the Last Day of Unleavened Bread. It is assured that it does refer to one of these Holy Days. It is generally considered to be the First Day of Unleavened Bread.

As for Easter, it is a modern spelling of Eostra, Ishtar and Astarte, all pronounced Easter. Eostra was a goddess of dawn or spring. Astarte was a Phoenician goddess of fertility and erotic love. The Egyptians portrayed her as a warlike goddess. In the New Testament the word Easter is found only in the King James Version and only in Acts 12:4. It is a blatant mistranslation of the word Passover. Easter is a pagan goddess, is fictitious and has nothing to do with any Christian feast, observance, Holy Day or celebration of any sort.

2007 Jacques Gauvin

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