Passover Basics (v1.2)
By servant@nazareneisrael.org
Shemote (Exodus) 12:14-20
14 "'So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to YHWH throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.
15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
16 On the first day there shall be a set-apart gathering, and on the seventh day there shall be a set-apart gathering for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat — that only may be prepared by you.
17 So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance.
18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.
19 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land.
20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.'"
Shalom, Nazarenes.
Unlike many of the other Feasts of YHWH, the Passover is not really an 'all day festival', nor is one required to abstain from work on it. Rather than being a festival per se, the Passover is really more of an ‘event’ that begins about mid-afternoon, and then automatically turns into the First Day of Unleavened Bread at evening (which is a festival, and a day of no work).
Ironically, while the Passover is a pilgrimage feast, and is listed as one of the ‘Sabbaths’ we do not need to abstain from work on it. Particularly in the morning, we can clean our homes, burn leaven, and even shop for food: basically anything our forefathers would have done in Egypt to get ready for the First Passover. However, as we explain in ‘The Torah Calendar’ study, the Passover slaughter was supposed to take place 'between the evenings' (meaning mid-afternoon, about 3 PM). As we explain elsewhere, the ‘first evening’ was considered to be high noon, when the sun first begins to set. The ‘second evening’ is at dusk (sunset). ‘Between the evenings’, therefore, is the time half-way in between those two points, when the sun is about 45 degrees up from the horizon. By beginning the Passover slaughter then, one has enough light to kill, clean and cook the Passover before it gets dark, and one has to go inside for the rest of the night.
If we need to conduct other business during the day, we can: however, from the time the Passover slaughter was supposed to begin (about 3 PM) onwards, we should turn our focus to preparing the Passover meal, praising, worshipping Elohim, and eating the Passover meal.
But how are we to eat the Passover meal? When YHWH brings us back to the Land of Israel and the Temple is rebuilt, we will again offer the Passover slaughter in Jerusalem, at about 3PM, and in the Temple area. However, while we are still in the Dispersion there are questions as to how we should Passover meal. The reason there are so many different opinions is reflective of the fact that we are being punished for our forefathers’ sins: one of the penalties for our forefathers’ disobedience is that we are not able to keep the Torah in the way that we should (and consequently there is confusion, which is always from the Adversary).
Without judgment, some recommend partaking of a rabbinical Passover ‘Seder’ style of service. Some argue for this because the rabbis call for it; and others argue for it because there is a very strong case to be made that the Last Supper may have been conducted as a Passover Seder style service. Others feel that the Passover Seder is purely traditional, and that it is not commanded anywhere, and there is an equally strong case to be made for that.
Since some have asked my opinion on how to perform the Passover. I give more details in The Torah Calendar study, in the chapter entitled, “The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.” However, there are basically two ways to look at the Passover, much like there are two different ways to approach anything in the Nazarene-Messianic Movement.
Since Yeshua was a product of Second Temple Period Judaism, and since He likely held the Last Supper as a Passover Seder style service, we can hold the Passover this way. The Passover Seder service is a sit-down meal with dishes, bread, and wine. It conflicts with the Torah in many points, but especially that we are to eat the meal standing, and in haste.
The other approach is to try to follow the instructions given in Torah, with how to hold the Passover meal. This is the approach I now take. While it is now my understanding that we are no longer to offer sacrifices until the Temple is restored, I try to hold the meal as much like the Exodus Twelve service as I can, loins girded, staff in hand, and shoes on my feet, as if ready to flee Egypt.
Shemote (Exodus) 12:11-14
11 And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is YHWH’s Passover.
12 'For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the elohim (g-ds) of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am YHWH.
13 Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 'So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to YHWH throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.’”
Verse 14 tells us that we shall keep this feast as an everlasting ordinance. The question is how we should do that, when we are in the Dispersion.
While our forefathers were still in the Wilderness, they were told that whenever they were in the Land, they should hold the feast wherever YHWH would place His name.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 12:1-5
1 "These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which YHWH Elohim of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth.
2 You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their elohim, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.
3 And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their elohim and destroy their names from that place.
4 You shall not worship YHWH your Elohim with such things.
5 "But you shall seek the place where YHWH your Elohim chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go.”
As we show elsewhere, YHWH has placed His name in Jerusalem, and so that is the place we should go whenever we live in the Land (verse 1). Although it is a great blessing to be able to go up to Jerusalem for these festivals, we know that we do not have to go up to Jerusalem for these festivals, because the Apostle Shaul did not go up while he was in the Dispersion. So again what that leaves us with is a question as to how we should best celebrate the feasts.
The rabbinical approach is that since we do not have a Temple, we do not have to try to follow the commandment in Exodus 12, to eat the Passover in haste, with our shoes on our feet, our belts on, and ready-to-go. Instead, the rabbinical approach is to have a relaxed, laid-back Seder in which one literally leans, or reclines. To me, this is not really what YHWH commanded.
In the Nazarene Israel study we explain how the festivals are prophetic shadow pictures of things that are still to come. But if the festivals are prophetic shadow pictures of things that are still to come, then should we not hold them as YHWH says to hold them? Just because we are not able to fulfill YHWH’s commandment perfectly, does that mean we should disregard His commandments, and do something else altogether? (Elohim forbid!)
My feeling is that when YHWH tells us to do something, and we are not able to do all of it perfectly, we should at least do as much as we can, as best we can. I do not believe that the wisdom is to make up some new man-made commandment, to replace the one YHWH has told us to perform in all of our generations, as an everlasting ordinance. And when He says, “I am YHWH”, He is basically saying, “I mean it.”
Shemote (Exodus) 12:14
14 'So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to YHWH throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.’”
Some believe that the Last Supper was the Passover itself, and that Yeshua was offered up on the First Day of Unleavened Bread. This is referred to in scholarly circles as the ‘Second Hagigah Hypothesis’, and I explain why it is incorrect in The Torah Calendar study, in the chapter on the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
As I explain in The Torah Calendar study, the Last Supper was held after the fashion of a Passover Seder, the night before the Passover. It was not the Passover itself, because Yeshua was put to death on the Passover itself (the afternoon of the 14th, or the ‘Late 14th’), in fulfillment of the Passover. This harmonizes with Scripture, for we are told that Yeshua is our Passover Lamb (and not our ‘First Day of Unleavened Bread’).
Qorintim Aleph (1st Corinthians) 5:7
7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Messiah, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
People also often have questions about the Last Supper. If the Last Supper was the evening before the Passover, then when Yeshua said that ‘as often as we partake of the cup, we should do it in remembrance of Him’, was Yeshua instituting a new ceremony, or perhaps a new festival day?
Qorintim Aleph (1st Corinthians) 11:23-25
23 For I received from YHWH that which I also delivered to you: that the Adon Yeshua on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."
The simple answer here is, “No. Yeshua was not instituting anything new at all.” Replacement Theology (upon which the Church system is based) is always trying to show that Yeshua (or ‘J-sus’) came to do away with the Torah, and start something new and different.
However, the entire Nazarene-Messianic Movement is based on the idea of Continuation Theology; and from the standpoint of Continuation Theology, it does not seem right that Yeshua could possibly have instituted any kind of a new day of worship, or any new rituals; for that would be to add to YHWH’s festivals (which would essentially be to add to the Torah). Yeshua would never have added to the Torah, because to add to the Father’s Torah is to break the Father’s Torah.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 4:2
2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of YHWH your Elohim which I command you.
Since Yeshua kept the Torah perfectly, He could not have added any other festival days; nor could He have changed the festival days. Rather, when Yeshua says, "As often as you do this, do this in remembrance of Me", what He means is that whenever we break bread, and/or partake of the Kiddush cup (or the cup of Set-apartness, which Jews and observant Ephraimites partake of in synagogues all over the world every Sabbath), we should remember Yeshua, and His wondrous sacrifice for us. Yet this is something that we should do not just annually, but every time we come together to break bread, and partake of the Kiddush cup.
So even while it is not a ‘salvation issue’, if anyone asks me, I recommend adhering as close to the commandment in Torah as possible. If there is anything specific that we cannot do (such as a physical sacrifice), then let us leave that part off, but do the rest as YHWH says. Again this is because YHWH's Festival Days are still shadows of coming prophetic events.
Qolosim (Colossians) 2:16-17
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the body of Messiah.
The First Passover was to be eaten with one’s belt on one’s waist, with one’s sandals on one’s feet, and with one’s staff in one’s hand. It was also to be eaten in haste.
Shemote (Exodus) 12:10-11
11 And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is YHWH's Passover.
Although I cannot prove it, my personal belief is that the reference to a belt is to that of either a utility belt, or a work belt. That is, they were to be ready to flee. The reason for this was that the Exodus was to take place suddenly, and hastily, as Pharaoh drove the Israelites out of Egypt.
Shemote (Exodus) 11:1
1 And YHWH said to Moshe, "I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here altogether.”
Even though Isaiah tells us that we shall not go out in haste, nor go by flight (Isaiah 52:12), we are still looking forward to a Second Exodus that will be so great, that the First Exodus will pale in comparison. And from the looks of the political situation, we may need to have our loins girded, our work-belts on, and our staves in our hands.
Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 16:14-15
14 "Therefore behold, the days are coming," says YHWH, "that it shall no more be said, 'YHWH lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,'
15 but, 'YHWH lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.' For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.”
Those who believe in a ‘Rapture’ should bear it in mind that there is no indication in Scripture that the Second Exodus will be all that much easier than the first. Even though Isaiah 52:12 tells us that the Second Exodus will not be a hasty event, we must still partake of a Second Exodus; and to me this speaks more to the original manner of eating the Passover (loins girded, and ready to go) than it does a sit-down Seder meal. Plus, bottom-line, there is nothing quite like keeping the commandments the way YHWH gives them; and for these reasons I recommend people at least consider eating the Passover hastily, and then afterwards perform whatever other ceremonies you might like to honor YHWH with.
I often get asked what I do for Passover. Usually I read the account of the Exodus slowly, starting in Exodus 1:1, and then going all the way through the Songs of Moses and Miriam, in Exodus Chapter Fifteen. I take time to talk about it with friends as I go. That usually takes me several hours. Then on the next day (the First of Unleavened Bread) I read the accounts of the Last Supper, and Yeshua's sacrifice, again talking about it with friends as I go. To me, this always seems a much richer and more wonderful way to spend my time with YHWH than searching for an afikomen, or wondering why there is an egg or a shank-bone on some kind of plate.
To me, the richest and most wonderful way to spend the Passover is to relive the accounts of our forefathers, trying to imagine the great sacrifices of all those who have gone before us. There are thousands of years of Israelite history, if we will but ask YHWH to help us connect with it. (However, if you feel led to do something else, as long as you do not transgress what Scripture commands, I do not have an issue with it.)
Thessaloniqim Aleph (1st Thessalonians) 5:21
21 Test all things; hold fast what is good.
Please prove all things, and hold fast only to that which is good, but I hope this has helped someone.
May YHWH bless you for reading and studying His word, and for seeking to do what He commands, rather than keeping the commandments and traditions of men.
In Yeshua’s name,
Amein.
Norman B. Willis
Overseer, Nazarene Israel
The Faith Once Delivered to the Saints
www.nazareneisrael.org
servant@nazareneisrael.org