The Exodus – Part 21
The First Two Feasts
Pastor Bruce A. Shields
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SERMON TIMELINE
· The Book of Genesis
· The Book of Exodus
· Introduction
· Israelite’s Oppression
· The Birth of Moses
· Moses Flees to Midian
· Moses and the Burning Bush
· Signs for Moses
· Moses Returns to Egypt
· Moses Speaks to Pharaoh
· God Promises Deliverance
· God Speaks of the Israelites
· The First Miracle
· The Plagues
o Passover
§ Passover Feast
§ Feast of Unleavened Bread
INTRODUCTION
Last week we read in Exodus the instructions given to the Hebrews by God establishing both the calendar (Nisan would be the first month) as well as the Holy Days that would begin the calendar year.
The year begins with Passover, which we now understand to be the allegorical teaching of Jesus, the perfect, sinless unblemished lamb and the sacrifice that would place those who partook of the festival in covenant with God. Just as the Hebrews who obeyed the instructions of Passover were protected by the blood of the sacrifice, we too are protected and marked by the blood of Christ as belonging to Him.
Just as the Lord freed the Hebrews from the bondage of Egypt and His covenant with them would take them to the promised land, our covenant with Christ Jesus frees us from the bondage of sin and offers us a hope of a promised land which will last forever and ever.
The things that took place in Exodus, though literally taking place, were carefully orchestrated by the Lord to allegorically teach us of the coming Christ, salvation, and the covenant we would have with God through Jesus Christ and the power of God’s Holy Spirit.
Today we look at the first two feasts of God, the Holy Days.
SCRIPTURE READING
Exodus 12:14-29
“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance. 15 For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.
17 “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 18 In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. 20 Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”
21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. 23 When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
24 “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27 then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. 28 The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.
29 At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. 30 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.
TODAY’S MESSAGE
I. PASSOVER
a. God establishes the calendar and Passover
i. Nisan is the first month and the beginning of the year
ii. The calendar God gives us is the layout or floor plan for Salvation itself
iii. Beginning with the Passover, Jesus, the cross
iv. This begins the calendar, which is, the Church Age, or the Age of Grace
v. God’s calendar has seven feasts
1. Passover
2. Unleavened Bread
3. First Fruits
4. Pentecost
5. Trumpets
6. Day of Atonement
7. Tabernacles
vi. Each of these represent a point in time in God’s calendar
b. Passover is Jesus
i. First Fruits is Jesus’ resurrection
ii. Pentecost is the arrival of the Holy Spirit
iii. We are awaiting the Trumpets (The Rapture)
iv. Then there will be a Day of Atonement, the final judgment
v. And lastly on God’s calendar of events in time, the Feast of Tabernacles, which will be eternity with our Lord!
c. Why we no longer teach Passover but Christ Crucified
i. Because that is the beginning of the church age, the age of Grace we are in now, and what God’s calendar is pointing to…Judgment
ii. We must not ignore the calendar of events, or the relevance of Christ and the cross or we will suffer on that Day of Judgment
II. FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD
a. The Feast of Unleavened Bread
i. Began on Nisan 15
1. Passover began with choosing an unblemished lamb on the 10th day
2. On the 14th day of Nisan sacrificing the lamb
3. Then the Feast of unleavened bread begins
ii. Interesting fact, they were instructed to eat unleavened bread with the lamb
1. This represented the sinless life of Jesus as the lamb
2. It is also why we do this with communion
b. The steps of preparation for the feast
i. They had to remove all yeast or leaven from their household
ii. They could not use any utensils that touched leaven
iii. There were to be two holy convocations
1. One the first day
2. One the last day
3. Holy convocation or sacred assembly, was a gathering of God’s people
iv. Today, the word convocation used in religious contexts is often associated with the gathering of a synod, a council that meets for the purpose of deciding upon doctrines or the application of doctrines within an organization. A convocation can be an ecclesiastical meeting of importance, an academic meeting led by a university, a gathering of alumni at a college, a meeting of governing officials to fill a chancellorship or other high office, or simply a graduation ceremony.
v. This was more than likely a meeting of God’s people on the first day to instruct everyone, and on the last day to signify the end of the Feast of Unleavened bread
c. What leaven teaches us
i. Leaven represents sin
1. I Corinthians 5:6-8
2. Matthew 16:6-12
3. Luke 12:1
4. Mark 8:15
ii. Eating the Passover lamb represents being in covenant with God and obeying His Word. Eating the unleavened bread with the Passover lamb symbolizes the fact that it is in that covenant that sin is removed (leaven) from us.
iii. Instructions to remove leaven from our houses is symbolic of not having sin in our homes, our utensil’s never touching leaven is saying that nothing in our homes or what we “take in” shall have sin.
iv. These instructions are given AFTER the Passover lamb was eaten
1. In other words, after we are in covenant with the crucified Christ, we must not have sin in our homes, or take sin in.
v. Those who allowed leaven in their homes, or ate leaven during this time were “cut off” from Israel
vi. This is a warning to those in covenant with Christ Jesus NOT to live, choose or willfully, knowingly participate in sin or risk being cut off from God’s people.
III. PASSOVER THROUGH THE SCRIPTURES
a. The first and second recorded Passovers
i. First Passover was recorded here in Exodus
ii. The second was recorded in Numbers 9
b. Passover and the Feast were modified in 1407 B.C.
i. Initially, Passover was a local observance centered on the nuclear family and their home. However, since Passover became a pilgrimage festival centered on the Tabernacle (or later the Temple), it was merged with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was already a pilgrimage festival. That is, two separate yet contiguous feasts are now clarified to be a combined pilgrimage Feast. Consequently, the two were treated together as a single commemoration, with the result that either festival name could designate the entire eight days.
ii. The provision for preparing meals on the last day was rescinded. Consequently, the last day is treated as a weekly Sabbath with no work, including no preparing meals, which was formerly permitted. (Deuteronomy 16:1-8)
c. The third recorded Passover took place the next year in 1406 B.C.
i. In Joshua 5
ii. Because the two feasts were celebrated together it isn’t clear if the Feast of Unleavened Bread was celebrated with the second and third recording of Passover, but it was more than likely celebrated because the two were together now.
CONCLUSION
We understand what the Lord is teaching, and how it represents our covenant and relationship with God today. As important as it was to understand the power of the Pharaoh, and his limitations (because God is greater), and the bondage of the Hebrews to Egypt, how great the arrival of Moses by the Word of God and through the obedience to that Word, the Hebrews were freed from their bondage, let loose from the grip of Pharaoh, led by the Spirit of God to the promised land. It took 40 years, but that too was for our benefit and understanding.
In the same way, this teaches us that the power of Satan has limitations because God is greater. The bondage of sin is broken by the arrival of our Savior Jesus Christ. Through obedience to the Word of God we can receive Salvation and be freed from both the bondage of sin as well as Satan’s grip. We can then be led by the Holy Spirit to the promised land.
What does the 40 years of wandering teach us? 40 is the number of testing, trial, or probation. Although freed from the bondage of Egypt and Pharaoh’s grasp, the Hebrews struggled with obedience to the Word of God and obedience. Just as it is with us after we too are “saved”, the remainder of our life is a test, trial and probation until we too will reach the promised land.
NEXT WEEK
We will look at the Exodus from Egypt
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