PASSOVER
AT THE VERY TIME SPECIFIED IN BIBLE PROPHECY
THE CHILDREN OF
ISRAEL WERE DELIVERED FROM
BONDGE IN
EGYPT. THAT NIGHT WAS DESIGNATED
FOREVER AS THE FEAST OF
PASSOVER.
That night, The
Angel of The Lord went through the land
of Egypt and
smote all the "First Born" of Egypt, from
the firstborn
son of the Pharaoh, to the lowest family
in
Egypt.
That night,
every dwelling of the Hebrews that had obeyed
the command to
slay a Lamb and place the blood on the
two side posts
of the door and across the top, were saved
from the death
stroke of the Angel of God !
From that night,
until the crucifixion of Christ, the PASSOVER
MEMORIAL of the event was observed by the nation of ISRAEL.
TYPE met ANTITYPE in AD 31 when on the sixth day of the week in the FIRST MONTH of The Jewish Year,
called ABIB, also called NISSAN, and on the 14 DAY of the
month, at the 9th hour,
JESUS OF NAZARETH,
was crucified
by the Jews and the Romans
!
WITH THE DEATH
OF CHRIST, THE PROPHECY OF
PASSOVER
WAS FULFILLED, CHRIST THE LAMB OF
GOD WAS SLAIN.
THE BLOOD OF THE TRUE LAMB WAS
SHED TO ATONE FOR THE SINS OF ALL
MEN, WOMEN, YOUTH, AND CHILDREN, ANIMAL SACRIFICES ENDED.
NEVER AGAIN WAS
THE
BLOOD OF ANIMALS TO BE SHED TO ATONE FOR SIN !
THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF GOD'S SON
WAS NOW THE
ONLY ACCEPTABLE
MEANS OF CLEANSING FROM
THE DEFILEMENT
OF THE HUMAN SOUL FROM THE
TERRIBLE
RAVAGES OF SIN.
WHILE THE DEATH
OF THE LAMB POINTED FORWARD
TO THE TIME WHEN
CHRIST WOULD BE CRUCIFIED,
CHRIST, AT THE LAST SUPPER WITH
HIS DISCIPLES,
INSTITUTED THE MEMORIAL, WHICH WAS TO CONTINUE
FROM THAT NIGHT
UNTIL CHRIST COMES THE SECOND
TIME. TODAY WE
CALL IT THE, "LORD'S SUPPER" OR
THE, "COMMUNION SERVICE" !
BY THE SYMBOLS
OF THE BREAD AND WINE, REPRESENTING
THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST, JESUS
SAID:
1 CORINTHANS 11: 26
"For as often as
ye eat this bread, and drink this cup,
ye do show The Lord's death till He
come."
IN OBEDIENCE TO
THE THE COMMAND OF CHRIST,
CHRISTIANS HAVE
CONTINUED TO CELEBRATE THIS
MEMORIAL OF THE PASSOVER TO THIS
VERY DAY.
WHILE THE ANIMAL SACRIFICES CEASED,
THE PASSOVER SYMBOL CONTINUES
AFTER THE CROSS
!
PASSOVER, WAS ONE OF "SEVEN ANNUAL
FEASTS"
ESTABLSHED BY
CHRIST AFTER THE EXODUS FROM
EGYPT AND ARE
LISTED IN LEVITICUS CHAPTER 23.
THEY ARE IN
THEIR ORDER:
PASSOVER
FEAST OF
UNLEAVENED BREAD
FIRST
FRUITS
PENTECOST
FEAST OF
TRUMPETS
DAY OF
ATONEMENT
FEAST OF
TABERNACLES
PASSOVER WAS THE 14TH DAY OF THE FIRST
MONTH
AND WAS
IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWED BY
THE FEAST OF
UNLEAVENED BREAD
WHICH BEGAN ON
THE 15TH DAY
AND LASTED FOR SEVEN DAYS.
NEXT WAS;
THE FEAST OF
FIRST FRUITS
ON THE 16TH DAY OF THE FIRST MONTH.
THEN CAME THE FEAST OF PENTECOST
WHICH WAS 50 DAYS AFTER FIRST
FRUITS
IN THE THIRD MONTH.
THAT IS THE
FIRST FOUR. THEN IN THE
SEVENTH MONTH AT HARVEST TIME,
CAME
THE LAST THREE OF THE SEVEN.
THEY
ARE:
FEAST OF
TRUMPETS,
ON THE FIRST DAY
OF THE SEVENTH MONTH.
DAY OF ATONEMENT,
ON THE 1OTH DAY
OF THE SEVENTH MONTH
AND
THE GREAT HARVEST FEAST OF TABERNACLES
WHICH LASTED
FROM THE 15TH DAY TO THE 22ND
DAY, THE FIRST
AND LAST DAYS BEING A SABBATH.
THE SPIRIT OF GOD SAYS ABOUT THIS FEAST:
"Like the Passover, the Feast of
Tabernacles was commemorative.
In memory of
their pilgrim life in the wilderness the people
were now to
leave their houses and dwell in booths, or arbors,
formed from the
green branches “of goodly trees, branches
of palm trees,
and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook.”
Leviticus 23:40, 42, 43. {PP 540.4}
The first day was a holy convocation, and to the seven days of the feast an eighth day was added, which was observed in like manner.
{PP 540.5}
At these yearly assemblies the hearts of old and young
would be encouraged in the service of God, while
the association of the people from the different quarters
of the land would strengthen the ties that bound them to
God and to one another.
Well would it be for the people of God
at the present time to have a Feast of
Tabernacles—
a joyous commemoration of the blessings of God to them.
As the children of Israel celebrated the deliverance
that God had wrought for their
fathers, and His miraculous
preservation of them during their journeying's from Egypt,
so should we gratefully call to mind the various ways
He has devised for bringing us out
from the world,
and from the darkness of error, into the
precious light of His grace and
truth.
{PP 540.6}
THE QUESTION IS; IF THE FEAST OF
TABERNACLES
WAS "NAILED TO THE
CROSS" WHY BOTHER TO HAVE
A "FEAST OF TABERNACLES" CELEBRATION NOW ?
THE FACT IS, ONLY THE PASSOVER FEAST
WITH ITS ANIMAL SACRIFICES ENDED AT THE
CROSS.
JESUS
OBSERVED THE OTHER YEARLY FEAST DAYS
WITH PRECISE APPLICATION AFTER THE CROSS.
THE SPIRIT OF GOD TESTIFIES:
"Arguments drawn from the Old Testament
types also pointed to the autumn as the time when the event
represented by the “cleansing of the sanctuary”
must
take place.
This was made very clear as attention was given to the manner in which the
types relating to the first advent of Christ had been fulfilled.
{ GC 399.1}
The slaying of the Passover lamb was a shadow of the death of Christ.
Says Paul: “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”
1 Corinthians
5:7.
The
sheaf of first fruits, which at the time of the Passover
was waved before The Lord, was
typical of the
resurrection of Christ.
Paul says, in speaking of the resurrection of
The Lord
and of all His people: “ Christ the first fruits ;
afterward
they that are Christ’s at His coming.” 1 Corinthians 15:23.
Like the
wave sheaf, which was the first ripe grain gathered before the harvest, Christ is the first fruits of that immortal harvest of redeemed ones that at
the
future resurrection
shall be gathered into the garner of God.
{GC 399.2}
These types were fulfilled, not only as to the event,
but as to the time.
On
the fourteenth day
of the first Jewish month
,
the very day and month
on which for fifteen long centuries The
Passover Lamb had been slain, Christ
, having eaten The Passover
with His disciples, instituted that
feast which was to commemorate
His own death as
“ The
Lamb of God , which taketh away
the sin of the world .”
That same night He was taken
by wicked hands to be
crucified and
slain. And as
the anti-type of
the wave sheaf
Our
Lord was raised from the dead on the third day ,
“ the first fruits of them
that slept,” a sample of all
the
resurrected just , whose “vile body” shall be
changed,
and " fashioned like unto His glorious body
.”
Verse 20; Philippians 3:21.
{GC 399.3}
IF THE FEAST
TYPES WERE "NAILED TO THE CROSS",
THEN THERE WAS NO LONGER A
" DAY OF FIRST FRUITS
"
AND THE TESTIMONY OF THE SPIRIT OF
GOD IS A LIE !
BUT GOD IS NOT A MAN THAT HE SHOULD LIE !
IT IS SINFUL MAN WHO HAS NOT
UNDERSTOOD THE
WONDERFUL PROPHETIC MESSAGE
OF
THE SANCTUARY
THAT HAS "TURNED THE TRUTH OF GOD INTO
A LIE" !
CHRIST WAS
CRUCIFIED ON THE 14TH DAY OF
ABIB,
AT THE NINTH
HOUR, THE EXACT DAY AND MONTH
ON WHICH FOR 1500
YEARS THE PASSOVER WAS
ALWAYS CELEBRATED BY THE NATION OF ISRAEL
ACCORDING TO THE COMMANDMENT FOUND
IN
LEVITICUS 23:
5.
JESUS WAS
PLACED IN JOSEPH'S TOMB JUST BEFORE
THE BEGINNING OF
THE
SEVENTH DAY WEEKLY SABBATH,
AND RESTED THERE UNTIL EARLY THE FIRST DAY OF
THE WEEK OF SEVEN
DAYS, WHICH WAS THE DAY
OF THE WAVE SHEAF OFFERING ,
A SYMBOL OF THE
RESURRECTION OF
CHRIST AND
AT HIS COMING,
THE SAINTS OF THE LORD !
THERE IS ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL TRUTH
CONNECTED
TO THE FACT THAT JESUS RESTED IN THE TOMB
ON
THE SEVENTH DAY SABBATH . THAT SABBATH WAS
ALSO THE "FIRST SABBATH" OF
THE
SEVEN DAY FEAST
OF UNLEAVENED BREAD. THAT IS IT WAS A
" DOUBLE SABBATH ".
IN JOHN 19: 31:
"The Jews
therefore, because it was the preparation,
that the bodies should not remain upon the
cross on
The Sabbath Day , ( for that Sabbath day was an high
day ,)
besought Pilate
that their legs might be broken,
and that they might be taken
away."
CHRIST RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY SABBATH AT
HIS CRUCIFIXION IN HONOR OF
HIS GREAT POWER
AS CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE,
AND AT THE SAME
TIME,
RESTED ON
THE FEAST OF UNEAVEND BREAD
SABBATH
IN HONOR OF HIS REDEEMING POWER
!
ALL OF THIS WONDERFUL
WORK OF GOD
WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPOSSIBLE IF
THE FEAST DAYS
WERE
"NAILED TO THE
CROSS" !