App
Sabbath, Passover and the Holy Days of God
Fred R. Coulter—February 7, 2009
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What are the three most important things in our relationship with God that keeps us in contact with Him and understanding His plan? Now that is aside from prayer and study.
Let's read Psa. 119 because it is very important. What we're going to do is look at all of these Scriptures and, of course, there isn't going to be a single Scripture that we haven't covered in the past. But we're going to see it with a little different perspective because the truth is the teachings and the Word of God are layered.
That's why Isa. 28 says, 'line upon line, precept upon precept,' because that's the way that God has done it. Many times it's layered in such a way that even some of the most obvious things you don't see right away, which we'll find out that's what has happened to us.
Psalm 119:18: "Open my eyes so that I may behold wondrous things out of Your Law." That's quite a verse.
Let's tie that together with Matt. 13, and let's realize some of the blessings that we have because we have the whole Bible. Remember: all of ancient Israel did not have the Bible like we have it today. The closest thing that came to that was the New Testament Church. But they were writing the New Testament and that was being added and so forth, and it really wasn't solidified until John canonized the New Testament.
Yet, even at that John had to write some things like 'the one who reads let him understand,' because he didn't understand. We are told in Dan. 12 that even the great prophecies that Daniel prophesied of the tremendous historical events to take place on the earth leading up to the return of Christ, were closed and sealed to the time of the end!
So, the reason that we have the entire Bible is so that at the time of the end God is going to give a witness to all people regardless of whether they are in the Church of God or not. As we have covered in the sermon: Who are the Two Witnesses and Elijah?
Let's see something very important for us to understand, and we've gone over this over and over again. But we're going to see today a little more meaningful perhaps maybe even significantly more meaningful of what Jesus said.
Matthew 13:10: "And His disciples came to Him and asked, 'Why do You speak to them in parables?'"
It's just like with the Old Testament. Why did you write it in such a way that it's hard to understand? That's so we'll search it out, and that's so that those who have God's Spirit will understand and those who don't have God's Spirit will not understand. The very same book.
Verse 11: "And He answered and said to them, 'Because it has been given to you…'" I want you to really understand that. You!
- whoever has the Spirit of God
- whoever has the Bible
- whoever knows the things of God out of the Bible
it has been given! Remember that we have nothing we didn't receive (1-Cor. 4).
So, we cannot claim any great insight because were intellectual, because we're smarter than other people. It all comes and it's given to us. "…it has been given you to know…" That's why you know things. Read Epistle of 1-John, and go over and note all the things that we know, and are to know, that's recorded there. It will be astounding!
note book: The Seven General Epistles; we have all that broken down there.
"…given to you to know the mysteries… [secrets; the secret things belong to God and how He reveals them to us] …of the Kingdom of Heaven but to them it has not been given" (v 11).
Someone sent me a letter where a man had some people that he had known and they came over and spent some time with them, had dinner with them, and after asking the blessing on the meal it got around to them talking about the things pertaining to God. It turned out that these people were active members and in their local Presbyterian Church. They knew nothing of the Bible and he knew nothing of the return of Jesus Christ!
Yet, they were active in the church and the wife was even mayor of the city they lived in, and she even wrote 1,000 articles for the local newspaper. So, he wrote that to me as well as many of his other friends. I could tell he made it into a form letter and it said 'Dear,' and then he wrote Fred on it. They don't know anything! Why? Because "…it hasn't been given to them to know…"
This is important to understand. But "…to them…it has not been given…" And remember you have nothing that you didn't receive, so they never received it because it wasn't given to them. Now we've gone over these Scriptures many times before, so I think we're going to find is really very interesting today and also enlightening. As it says:
Psalm 119:18: "Open my eyes so that I may behold wondrous things out of Your Law."
Matthew 13:12: "For whoever has understanding, to him more shall be given…" That's why we are to grow in grace and knowledge, and we are to increase in it. Also, there's another Scripture where Jesus said that if we ask the Father, He will give the Spirit to us. Not only just receive it when we're baptized and have hands laid on but we need to also grow in the spirit and use the Spirit of God:
- to change our minds
- to cleanse our hearts
- lead us
- guide us
in what we need to do!
"…and he shall have an abundance, but whoever does not have understanding, even what he has shall be taken away from him" (v 12).
Just like this man made the comment to them after they were leaving, 'Well, I'll have to check out on this thing concerning the return of Christ.
- Is he void of knowledge? Yes!
- Is he lacking in understanding? Yes!
- Does he go to church? Yes!
- Do they use the Bible? Yes, parts of it!
Remember: the Bible is like a million-piece puzzle and if you take a few parts of it you'll never see the whole picture and there certain key things that help us with God's Spirit to put the million-piece puzzle together. And yet, as we do it there are going to be many pieces that God is going to add to us in the way of understanding as we grow in grace and knowledge.
Sometimes it's going to be like were going to cover today you're looking so closely at the tree that you miss the forest. Or we take a perspective like an ant and if he climbs the tree that's a great journey or if he goes clear across the forest floor that's a tremendous journey. But if you're like an eagle flying and looking down you see the whole picture. So, we're going to see some of that today.
Verse 13: "For this reason I speak to them in parables…" That's why even the Word of God is hard to understand, especially for those who do not obey Him. A key to understanding the Bible is obeying God and then that obeying God grows into the kind of spiritual obedience that develops into:
- love
- faith
- hope
through His grace!
Seeing they see it, like it says in a prophecy: they handed the book to the wise men he says, 'I don't know anything about that.' They handed it to the ordinary man and he says, 'I can't read'; that's referring to the Bible.
"…because seeing, they see not; and hearing, they hear not; neither do they understand" (v 13).
Like one grown son told his father when they were talking about the Sabbath, 'I'll keep the Sabbath if God comes down and tells me to keep the Sabbath.' Hello! God already did from the beginning! "…neither do they understand."
Verse 14: "And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah…"—which is talking about the very children of Israel, the house of Israel and the house of Judah, which says:
"…'In hearing you shall hear…'" (v 14). Didn't that happen in Jesus' ministry? Yes, indeed! When, just before the crucifixion He was teaching everyday in the temple and everyone was coming to hear Him. They were spellbound with what they heard, but how many really believed to the point of conversion? How many hated Him because of it, like the religious leaders?
"…and in no way understand; and in seeing you shall see, and in no way perceive; for the heart of this people has grown fat, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed… [they don't want to listen] …lest they should see with their eyes, and should hear with their ears, and should understand with their hearts, and should be converted, and I should heal them" (vs 14-15).
Doesn't Jesus want to save the whole world? Yes! But His way, on His time schedule, and not now.
Verse 16: "But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear." Just think about all the things we really, really understand. That will take you some time to sit down and think about it.
Verse 17: "For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous men…" I want you to apply this to today, especially when we're looking at such catastrophic events that are just about ready to befall us, which the march in the footsteps of those things are already here.
"…have desired to see what you see, and have not seen; and to hear what you hear, and have not heard" (v 17).
- if you're a good full-fledged socialized Church of God going Laodicean
- if you're a glad-handler and you go to church for the social
- if you're really not taught anything and you've been lackadaisical in your study
- if you just sit there and let them feed you little teaspoons of warm milk
You're in trouble! You don't have very long to get right with God. What is Jesus' personal message to you? Repent and be zealous! You can read that in Rev. 3. So, God made these things known to His people to whom He wants them known.
I want you to think about how many, many times we have read Lev. 23. Do we not read it over and over again every year? I want to show you something very obvious in the way that it has been divided out by God Himself, and it's one of those things that has been right there in front of our eyes all the time. When I explain it you will say, 'I never knew that.' Personally, as a minister, how many times have I gone over it? During the many, many years that I've been a minister? It's going to be something; it is the way that it is structured and we read it and we understand it, but sometimes we miss the structure.
This is going to answer: What are the three most important things for us in our relationship with God and our obedience to God?
Leviticus 23:1: "And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, "Concerning the appointed Feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be Holy convocations, even these are My appointed Feasts"'" (vs 1-2).
That's why we have the Calculated Hebrew Calendar, because everybody has an idea. Here's the test of your conversion:
- Do you believe the model prayer that Jesus gave?
- How does it start?
- Our Father in heaven hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!
Here's a very simple prayer, and think about all of the deceived professing Christians who recite that every Sunday. They don't believe it but they recited it. Why? Because they are blinded and they don't hear!
- What is the first thing that we ask? Your will be done on earth!
- What does that mean? Of course, it's going to be done, but that means in our own personal lives!
- Are you really seeking the will of God?
or
- Are you seeking to find your own pet little doctrine?
- Your own pet little interpretation
—which is not verified in the Word of God—
and you go to God to try and say this is what God says?
When you do that you end up telling God what to do, now we're going to see the great problems that this causes. Anyone who tells God what to do! You take all Sunday-keepers all holiday-keepers, they are telling God what to do!
Just like the Catholics brag because of Sunday and the pagan holidays that they have, the occult holidays are not just pagan they are satanic. 'Oh, the pope has blessed them so that makes them good. Yes, we took away the pagan name of the day and we put a 'Christian' name on it. Isn't that lovely?'
What does God say? You shall have no other gods before Me! How are they going to understand anything else if they have all these false gods that they just rename so it looks Christian? They aren't!
That's why the Catholics also brag, 'we could preach the gospel, that is the Catholic gospel, without the Bible, because of their traditions and what they believe. Catholics by the Bible are not Christian. They take some things from the Bible for the appearance of being Christian, but their full allegiance is never to God it's to the pope and the virgin Mary who is not in heaven. The Apostle John—who took care of Mary after Jesus died—wrote 'no one has ascended into heaven except the Son of man Who is now in heaven.' That's well after the time of the death of the virgin Mary.
They don't understand. You cannot go to God and tell Him what you are going to do, which is contrary to the Word of God and ask God to sanctify it, because He won't! It is His will that is to be followed not ours.
Verse 3: "Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, a Holy convocation. You shall not do any work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwellings."
Well now, in order to further deceive the people in Europe what they've done they've rearranged a calendar, which is also the corporate calendar of the world to have Sunday as the seventh day of the week. Isn't that wonderful? So, all the deceived generations now coming up these new mush heads that come into the world and go to the government schools, the Catholic schools and the Catholic/Protestant schools—because that's all Protestants are just reformed Catholics—they look at the calendar and they say, 'Oh look, Sunday is the seventh day.' Well, that's like buying gold coins only to find out they're lead and have been painted with gold paint! Sunday is not the seventh day!
That's why we have in The Holy Bible in It's Original Order, A Faithful Version, Appendix N: Rome's Challenge to the Protestants, because the enemy has even told all the Protestants that 'if you keep Sunday you're not following the Bible you are following the Catholic Church, because we established Sunday and there is no place in the Bible would substantiates it.' So, they don't know.
- The Seventh-Day Sabbath
- What is the first thing spoken of here? The seventh day!
- What does that go back to? Seventh day of creation!
Granted, it's the fourth commandment in the Ten Commandments. But that doesn't mean that it is not essentially first in giving us understanding in our relationship with God.
- Do you think it's possible to really have a relationship with God when you refuse to keep His Sabbath Day?
Remember that Jesus said—Who is the Creator of everything—'Heaven and earth shall pass away but My words shall not pass away. Do not think I've come to abolish the Law or the Prophets.'
So this is the #1, key important thing: the Sabbath Day, because when you start keeping the Sabbath Day… I've instructed many, many people to do when they are just coming into the knowledge of the truth wondering about the difference between the Sabbath and Sunday I say this:
You take one month and you keep the Sabbath every day for a month beginning at sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, and you make a special study of the Sabbath Day in the Bible, Old and New Testament. Ask God for understanding and I guarantee you that you will understand why the Sabbath has to be kept: because God said so! That's why! Is the Sabbath Day the will of God? Yes! That's why He created it!
Mark 2:27[transcriber's correction]: "…'The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath,'" meaning man has no authority over which day is the Sabbath. So, all the religious leaders and popes in Christendom today are in defiance of God.
Verse 28: "For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath Day."
So, which day is the Lord's day? Not Sunday! The Sabbath! It's a key important thing that is the first step of faith in obedience to God that someone needs to take in order to begin to understand about God and to begin to develop a relationship with God. It's a continuing, ongoing thing that you do the rest of your life.
Leviticus 23:4: "These are the appointed Feasts of the LORD, Holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their appointed seasons."
If you want a good overview of this you get the book: Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days—Which? You carefully read and study that through. That is the most basic, fundamental book for you to read, to learn and to understand. It will probably take two or three readings for you to really glean out of it. another thing I want to tell everyone that they need to learn how to get out of, which is your 12-minute attention span! What do I mean by that?
I mean the whole generation of this world, because of television, has been trained for a 12-minute attention span. A 15-minute segment, 2 minutes of commercials to begin with, then 12 minutes, and that brings you to 14 minutes and then 2 or 3 minutes of commercials. Then they take the next 15 minutes and they break it down into another pause at 20 minutes after, between 15 after and 30 minutes after. You watch yourself I've even done this: When it gets close to 12 minutes of watching television you start getting restless. And if you want to get a snack or you want to get something else you start thinking about it and you're so glad when the commercial comes, because you get up and go get your snack or go to the bathroom or something.
In order to understand the Bible you cannot have a 12-minute attention span, because you'll never understand it. And you cannot have: 'Oh, give it to me very simply. Give me a summary and then I will understand. You will never understand with a summary! You've got to know the deep things of God, and that comes:
- with work
- with study
- with prayer
with repeating these things over and over again on a daily basis
The reason that is so is because God has not called you to improve your physical life—hopefully it will—He has called you to eternal life and that's what the training is all about eternal life. It's not a social club, not a get-together of people that you know and love, that's all well and good. But if you don't rise above that what you're doing is in vain.
- Passover
Verse 4: "These are the appointed Feasts of the LORD, Holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their appointed seasons. In the fourteenth day of the first month, between the two evenings, is the LORD'S Passover" (vs 4-5).
That is fundamental in your covenant with God, because if you do not keep the Passover the way that Jesus taught in the New Testament—at the time and in the manner that He said, including the foot-washing, the bread, the wine[transcriber's correction] and in that order—Jesus said, 'You do not have any part with Me' (John 13). And we'll understand why.
- The Holy Days
Note book: God's Plan for Mankind Revealed by the Sabbath and Holy Days with CDs That's going to take you in depth all the way through:
- the Sabbath
- the Passover
- the Feast of Unleavened Bread
- Pentecost
- Trumpets
- Atonement
- Tabernacles
- Last Great Day
The meaning and purpose of God's plan as outlined by that is the structure of it and what these sermons do is bring you the details of the Scripture to fill it out. Just like what we covered here:
- the Sabbath
- the Passover
- the Holy Days
this is an overview and everything else fits under that.
Maybe you've never thought of it, but look at the structure of it. Here it is right in front of us, and it reminds me of: I charged a battery and I put it back in the box so I would be sure and have it after it was charged and it got covered up with it some papers having to do with getting the battery charged and so forth. I knew I put it in the box but when I wanted to get it to use it I looked in the box I didn't see it, so I thought: Where did I put it? I looked here and I looked there and I came back and looked at the box again and I said, 'What did I do with that?'
So, after looking around I finally quit and I said well it's bound to show up because it doesn't have legs and it didn't crawl away and we don't have any ants or cockroaches to carry it out. So, the next day I thought I'd throw out the box. I opened it up and I reached in there and I picked up those papers and 'VOILA' there was the battery.
So, many times in understanding the Scriptures is just like that. We look and we look and we can find it. We don't know. How did that happen? Well, here of all the years that we've been reading Lev. 23 how did it happen that we didn't understand:
- the Sabbath
- the Passover
- the Holy Days
and we'll show why.
The Sabbath, Passover and Holy Days is the signature that sets us apart from the world. That is true and also someone will say, 'Now you know the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is most important.' On what day was Jesus crucified? Passover Day, not on 'Good Friday'! If you believe in 'Good Friday' and if you believe that he was crucified on a Friday and was resurrected on a Sunday morning you don't know how to count. You can't even count to three! Now let's look at these three things again:
- if you do not keep the Sabbath
and you keep Sunday, you're a 'religious' person
- if you do not keep Passover
- if you do not keep the Feasts of God
What is the counterfeit in place of it? Sunday, communion, the Eucharist and the occult holidays! What are those? Those are the three most important things in Satan's counterfeit Christianity! Now if that offends you then be offended, but that is the truth.
Just like it was during the days of Elijah. 'Why do you vacillate between two opinions as to who the Lord is? If the Lord be God serve Him if it be Baal serve him,' and Baal's day is Sunday, by the way, and the occult holidays are all his days. So, don't stand up there and think in your mind that those things have all been changed. You've got another thought coming! And just to use an expression from mother and father and grandmother and grandfather, if you don't change your ways you're going to be in trouble. And that means repent. So, there we have it; that's something!
Let's begin in Exo. 3, and we're going to emphasize certain things and a lot of people think that by time you come to Exo. 12 that that is the first Passover. We will start out here and see the basis for why God sent Moses, called him—notice that Moses didn't appoint himself—to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. You need to understand the reason for it. When we go through Exo. 12 we will see the link. Just like if you are on the website and you come to a certain point in there is a link that says click here. So you click there and that gives you more understanding? Well, there's a link in Exo. 12 that confirms what were going to read in Exo. 3.
So, after God told Moses what He was going to do, Exodus 3:11: "And Moses said to God…"—because he's been out there for 40 years shepherding sheep. Actually that was good training for him. But what did it do? It kept him isolated from everything of the riches and the wealth of Egypt! When God began dealing with him, beginning with the burning bush, and then told him what he was going to do… Moses began to comprehend all of it because he had been in Egypt and he was the heir apparent of the Pharaoh.
Verse 11: "And Moses said to God, 'Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?' And He said, 'I will be with you. And this shall be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain'" (vs 11-12).
We'll see that's very important a little later on. Now what we are going to do, we're going to take these three things and we're going to focus in on the Passover mostly. We're going to begin to build and understand the substructure of what the Passover is all about. It is one thing to say keep the Passover between the two evenings, it's another thing to know and understand what it's all about. So, we'll begin to understand it here.
Verse 13: And Moses said to God, 'Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and shall say to them, "The God of your fathers has sent me to you"…'"
I want you to him understand that "…God of your fathers…" And he tells us exactly who they are.
"'…and they shall say to me, "What is His name?" What shall I say to them?'" (v 13).
Why? How many gods did they have in Egypt? and All the names of all the gods and everything? Who was Pharaoh? He was 'god in the flesh' on the earth! That will help you understand why all the severe plagues were there. We won't go into any of those in this sermon.
"And God said to Moses, 'I AM THAT I AM.'…." (v 14). Another translation is 'I will be what I will be.' Because God is a covenant God, and in the different covenants He presents Himself differently, though it's the same God.
"…And He said, 'Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, "I AM has sent me to you"'" (v 14). You'll find the emphasis of I AM in the book of John because that follows through.
Verse 15: "And God said to Moses again, 'You shall say this to the children of Israel, "The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My title from generation to generation."'"
(go to the next track)
Here is why God sent Moses. God prophesied to Abraham that it would happen. That also passed down to Isaac and to Jacob. The reason that he sent Moses was to fulfill His promises to Abraham Isaac and Jacob! And let's understand something here very clear:
- if anyone tells you Moses was a Jew, he is an ignoramus
- if anyone tells you that all the children of Israel were Jews, he's an ignoramus
- if anyone tells you that Adam was a Jew Noah was a Jew, that's completely incorrect
That is the propaganda of Judaism!
It gives the appearance that Judaism is a monolithic belief, that all Jews believe the same thing. Not true that is a propaganda statement, which is normally called lies. So, if you believe that, that shows you how ignorant you are of the Word of God and the history that you need to read like those genealogies because they tell us about who the children of Israel really were. That's why they're there.
Another reason why God selected Moses was because he was from the tribe of Levi. God pre-selected the tribe of Levi and also the house of Aaron to be the priesthood from Levi, and the Levites to assist the priesthood. It's very interesting that Aaron was the firstborn and Moses was the second born. Moses turns out to be—because of the calling of God and what he was given to do—the greatest man in the history of the Bible up to Jesus Christ. Moses was:
- a priest
- a prophet
- a spokesman for God
- the mediator between God and the children of Israel
Samuel came close to it, because he was a priest, a prophet and a judge, but Moses ranks right up there at the top.
Verse 16: "Go, and gather the elders of Israel and say to them…" That's how they communicated. The elders would come Moses would speak to them and they would carry the message to the children of Israel. They didn't have telephones, cell phones Blackberries or iPods. That may come as a surprise to many young people today.
Just like someone asked a girl well where does milk come from? A carton! Like Rachelle did one time when we were in a drought of 1977 and they were doing all the irrigating and sprinkling; she was about two-and-a-half or three-years-old and we were coming home and we were looking at this field where they were and they had all the sprinklers going. They were irrigating and everything she says, 'Look, daddy, rain!' It hadn't rained in about two-and-half-years of her life.
"The LORD God of your fathers has appeared to me, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying…" (v 16).
We're going to emphasize that over and over again. Because what happens to Israel is not because of Israel, but because of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the promises that God gave to Abraham passed on to Isaac, and passed on to Jacob. Not because of any righteousness on the part of their descendents, but because as we will see a covenant with Abraham, and we'll see how that fits in with the Passover. Here's what God said:
"…'I have surely visited you and have observed what is done to you in Egypt.' And I have said, 'I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey'" (vs 16-17).
Now we won't go through any of the rest of the things in all the things that took place leading up to them being let go by Pharaoh. Remember that God raised up Pharaoh for the specific purpose, and all of you who believe that the God of the Old Testament was evil and harsh listen up.
Romans 9:14: "What then shall we say? Is there unrighteousness with God? MAY IT NEVER BE! For He said to Moses, 'I will show mercy to whomever I show mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion.' So then, it is not of the one who wills, nor of the one who runs…" (vs 14-16).
Not by human will and that's true of Moses right he wasn't sitting out there on the mountain saying, 'O God, I've got a good idea. Why don't you send me down and I'll bring the children of Israel out of Egypt.' No! God is one who informed them. It's the will of God! Remember where we started? Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!
"…rather, it is of God, Who shows mercy. For the Scripture said to Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I raised you up in order that I might show in you My power…'" (vs 16-17).
Did He do that? Yes! Someone is going to say, 'Why did He harden Pharaoh's heart?' To demonstrate His power because Pharaoh had already hardened his heart! Remember: Pharaoh was the servant and direct worshiper of Satan the devil. That's what this confrontation was all about. If you look at any of the mummies of the pharaohs, what do you see on their crown? A cobra right up on the front of the crown! Yes, they worship Satan the devil the old serpent.
"…that I might show in you My power… [For what purpose?] …so that My name… [and all of His actions] …may be declared in all the earth" (v 17).
- Is that happening every time we read the Scripture?
- Is that happening every time when someone reads the book of Exodus?
- Yes it is!
That's being fulfilled today every time someone reads it or someone preaches it in all the earth down through history.
Verse 18: "So then, He shows mercy to whom He will, and He hardens whom He will. Will you then reply to me, 'Why does He yet find fault? For who has opposed His purpose?'" (vs 18-19).
Because sin is sin, and sin is always at fault. Transgression of the Law is sin!
Verse 20: "Yes, indeed, O man, who are you to answer against God?…." Now think about this relationship if you really have your mind and your life wrapped around Sunday and the occult holidays of this world.
"…Shall the thing that is formed say to the one who formed it, 'Why did you make me this way?' Or doesn't the potter have authority over the clay to make from the same lump of clay one vessel unto honor, and another vessel unto dishonor?" (vs 20-21). Yes were all made of the dust of the earth!
Verse 22: "And who dares to question His purpose if God, willing to show His wrath and to make known His power, chose in much long-suffering to put up with the vessels of wrath, which were created for destruction; in order that He might make known the riches of His glory unto the vessels of mercy, which He prepared before for glory" (vs 22-23).
God's purpose is going to be done. Remember where we started: Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven! So, you can take what we just read here and you can apply it to the coming beast.
After all the plagues and of the course there are even historical documentation that they took place.
Exodus 11:1: "And the LORD had said to Moses, 'I will yet bring one plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. Afterward, he will let you go from here. When he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out from here altogether'"—because they were afraid they would all die.
Verse 2: "Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man ask from his neighbor, and every woman from her neighbor, articles of silver and jewels of gold."
They were going to spoil or plunder, as payment for their years of slavery, from the Egyptians. This started before the Passover, and they had the final thrust of it as we will see later, when they were assembling for the Exodus.
Verse 3: "And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people. And Moses said, 'Thus says the LORD, "About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt'" (vs 3-4).
Now isn't that interesting. He didn't tell Pharaoh which day—did he? About midnight! Which day, Moses? He told the children of Israel, but he didn't tell Pharaoh.
Verse 5: "And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sits upon his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave-girl that is behind the mill; also the firstborn of beasts."
Now that is roughly 20% of the population, and probably with the animals something like 10 or 12%. Because firstborn are not just males, that's male and female.
Verse 6: "And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it anymore."
But here's the promise. Facing the days we are going to face here's a promise that you can claim, and that's why you need to have a right relationship with God.
Verse 7: "But against any of the children of Israel… [today the Church is the Israel of God] …not even a dog shall move his tongue, against man or beast, so that you may know that the LORD puts a difference between the Egyptians and Israel."
In the same way today with the Church. We live in the world but were not of the world. There's a difference between those who have the Spirit of God and love God and keep His commandments and those who are in the world.
Verse 8: "And all these, your servants, shall come down to me… [Moses is telling Pharaoh this] …and bow themselves down to me, saying…"
So, the moral of the story is when we get the latter part of Exo. 12 Moses did not go to Pharaoh when Pharaoh sent the message to leave. A lot of people say that was after midnight. Let me just state here that when you began examining about Passover you are going to find that that is so important. Satan has done everything he can to cause:
- confusion
- wrong timing
- misinterpretation
- hatred toward
Than any other single day of God; even more so than the Sabbath. We're going to see why that's so important.
"'…"You and all the people that follow you—get out!" And after that I will go out'" (v 8).
He didn't go back to Pharaoh and say, O Pharaoh, it was so nice of you after all this all this and all of these plagues that you finally agreed to let them go.' Didn't happen that way.
"…And he went out from Pharaoh in flaming anger" (v 8). I like that! Would you say that's righteous indignation? Of course!
Verse 9: "And the LORD said to Moses, 'Pharaoh shall not hearken to you so that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.' And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh. And the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land" (vs 9-10).
So, not only was this a battle between the children of Israel and Pharaoh and the Egyptians, but it was a titanic battle between Satan the devil and the demons and the people of Egypt who followed them, and God, Moses, Aaron and the people who of the children of Israel who would follow God.
I just thought of this the other day. The sermon that I gave on Who is Elijah and the Two Witnesses? How we said there are three Elijah's: Elijah, John the Baptist, and a coming Elijah. Let's look at three pair of two witnesses:
- Moses and Aaron
- Elijah and Elisha
- the two witnesses of Rev. 11:3
So, the pattern follows the same thing.
Now let's begin here in Exo. 12 and let's see the instructions that are given. I want to emphasize this is the first Passover for the children of Israel, but this is not the first Passover of God. We'll see that. And it will involve the same day, because the 14th day of the 1st month is the Passover day. No other day!
If you want to know why the Jews in the Diaspora keep the 15th then you need to get The Christian Passover book and read it. I've had people say, 'Oh it's such a thick book.' Well, you don't understand all the problems that Satan has caused concerning the Passover. There is not one wasted page in this book. You need to read it step-by-step so you will understand because people are going to come along and bring in Jewish traditional interpretation and try and hang that on the Passover Day to justify what they are doing. What you need to do is read this book and understand what happened to the Passover, and why the Jews today have the wrong day. It comes down to something very simple.
- they have rejected Christ who is the true Passover
- they are in the Diaspora scattered around the world
Very few will admit like I have a quote here from a rabbi in the 11th century that 'we are scattered across the face of the earth because of the sins of our forefathers and because of our own sins and we walk in their footsteps.' You tell me one Jew today who will say we are scattered abroad because we sinned against God. They cannot—when they are not in the land—keep a 14th Passover. But what they like to try and do is send their agents to come and try and convince Christians who keep it on the 14th that they should keep it on the 15th.
That's what this book is about: the Christian Passover and what does it mean? Should it be observed the 14th or 15th and then all of the details. There is not one question concerning the Passover that has not been raised by many, many different people down through time all gathered together in this one book.
We're going to go through the whole chapter of Exo. 12. Let me just say that the congregation, or the children of Israel, is composed of all 12 tribes, descendents from the 12 sons of Jacob, of whom one—Judah—are the ones from whom the Jews have come from. We're not speaking here when we read the name Israel of the Jews. They were one of 12 tribes.
Exodus 12:1: "And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 'This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, "In the tenth day of this month…"'" (vs 1-3).
There are a lot of very significant things that took place in the New Testament concerning Christ on the same day, which you will find in The Christian Passover book and also in A Harmony of the Gospels. These two books are very important for you to understand concerning the Passover.
"…In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them each man a lamb for a father's house, a lamb for a house. And if the household is too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take according to the number of the souls, each one, according to the eating of his mouth, you shall count concerning the lamb" (vs 3-4). That generally figures out to be approximately 10 people per lamb.
Verse 5: "Your lamb shall be without blemish…" Here we have a type of Christ but not the sacrifice of Christ; a type of Christ.
As a matter of fact, every offering that was to be given was to be without blemish. Note the book The Law of Offerings by Andrew John Jukes {amazon.com}. It breaks it down in great detail about all the law of the sacrifices, and so forth. It's really phenomenal.
We started with these three most important things: the Sabbath, the Passover and the Feasts that is the superstructure upon which all the rest of these things hang and all of the details come below it. So, what were going to do here is read some of the details, and they all are important.
Verse 5: "Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year…." Can't be more than a year. In another place it says you can't bring an offering that is less than eight-days-old. So, it had to be eight-days-old up to a year.
In the spring of the year when this took place guess what happened just before this, the sheep were already through their lambing. So, most of these were very small lambs. Let's compare a small lamb to a large lamb when it's over a year old. If 10 people ate off that large lamp they have a lot of meat. But you get a little small lamb, there's not much there. I'll tell you about this later as we go along, because not only did we search the Scriptures, we also timed the slaughter, the skinning, the roasting and the burning of the bones of a small lamb that was, I think, two-months-old; actually a kid goat.
"…You shall take it from the sheep or from the goats. And you shall keep it up until the beginning of the fourteenth day of the same month…." (vs 5-6).
For those of you who were following along in the King James please understand that you will be a little handicap in understanding the true meaning of the words because they are not properly translated in the King James which is also another point of great confusion when people try to understand about it, because it speaks of two evenings one at the beginning of the day and one at the end of the day and you need to know how to distinguish between them, and the translation of The Faithful Version does distinguish those very properly.
Verse 6: "And you shall keep it up until the beginning of the fourteenth day of the same month…"
- When does a day began?
- We find in Lev. 23:32 that it's from the 10th day of the month is defined as from sunset on the 9th day to sunset on the 10th day!
- When does the 10th begin? When the 9th day ends at sunset!
- When does the 14th day begin? At sunset of the 13th!
So, we have a Scriptural interpretation of that!
"…And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel… [that means all at once] shall kill it between the two evenings" (v 6).
Now there's a little star there and we've got a marginal reference the Hebrew 'ben ha arbayim' between sunset and dark the beginning of the 14th day. We have a chapter of that—Chapter 5 The Christian Passover. When the sun touches the horizon as defined here in the Passover book this is why you need the Passover book because it covers every argument. The Jews say, 'between the two evenings'; some of them say 'from one evening to the next evening,' a whole day. Are you going to take a whole 24 hour day to do this?
What if you interpreted it between one evening and the next evening and you said, 'I think that since I don't want to stay up at night what I'll do I will do it like about 10 in the morning that will be much more convenient for me to do.' You're dead man! When did God pass though Egypt? At midnight! Is that before sunrise? Considerably! Kill it between the two evenings, which is between sunset and dark.
Here we have the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel that selected the lamb on the 10th day of the 1st month, which by the way when you go through A Harmony of the Gospels, you will find that that is the day, John 12, that Jesus was selected by the voice coming from heaven.
Since He was the Lamb of God, God selected Him on that day, the same day that the lamb here was selected. Someone is up on the roof of the house many different places, because all the children of Israel lived in what was called the land of Goshen. They didn't live in among the Egyptians, because for the Egyptians Hebrews were unclean people. They were shepherds of animals while most of the Egyptians were vegetarians. Kind of sounds little like India. What do you think would happen in India if you had a large number of people kill those little lambs all at the same time? There would be a riot!
'Ba-erev' is sunset (Hebrew) and it comes just before 'ben ha arbayim.'
So picture this: Egypt has a flat landscape you have to worry about hills or mountains. You can look out West and you can see when the sun touches the horizon that's the beginning of 'ba-erev' and takes about five minutes for the sun to set. That's the end of 'ba-erev' and the beginning of 'ben ha arbayim.'
Here you have your different ones up on top of the houses and they're watching the sunset so they can tell exactly when the sun has set, and between the two evenings begins and they say now! Then the head of the house took his trusty little knife slit the throat of the lamb drained the blood and prepared the whole lamb.
Now just to let you know, those two little kids that we did this on to get the timing for the Passover book we wanted to do it authentically. We had a man at that time Gordon Emerson who had sheep and he had goats, and he volunteered to do the slaughtering of the lamb for us. You had to have someone who knew what they were doing. Well, he knew what he was doing, so, we all watched. He took the lamb got it by its hind feet and hung it up cut its throat let the blood drain. Very painless!
God says you're not to eat the blood. So, what you do? You cut the throat and drain it! Let it go on the ground! And remember that no sacrifice of the Passover and its blood was to be sprinkled upon the altar, because it was a domestic observance. this happened all at once. And then what did he do? He cut it right down the middle of the belly from the throat all the way back to the genitals and then pulled out the skin to start skinning it.
I wondered how he was going to do that? Well first of all he opened it up and all the innards came out. All the intestines the heart the lungs you know the kidneys were still left up there so that was taking care of a little later, because they're up in the fat of the cowls, so you take that out. It all came out in just a few seconds. No problem with that and were all standing there thinking, 'My, that's fast!'
Now came the time for skinning. He pulled part of the hide on the left side and part of the hide on the right side so he could put the edge of his hand in there. So, you put your hands together with your thumbs touching and then imagine that your little finger and the side of your hand is just under the skin of the lamb. He just went with both hands from top to bottom, and that skin was loose and ready to come off in less than 10 seconds. Then he cut a place so he could get the legs off front back and back. That was it.
It was killed, blood drained, gutted and skinned in less than 15 minutes; all ready to go. So, the lambs were all ready to go before it got dark, because between the two evenings is between sunset and dark. Now, here's what they were to do.
Verse 7: "And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and upon the upper doorpost of the houses in which they shall eat it."
Domestic observance! Of course, someone will say, 'Why should you emphasize that because there was no temple built.' You've got to read the book but we'll cover it. It was never to be at the temple. What about Deut. 16? Hold on we'll get there.
Verse 8: "And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire…" They were to take the whole animal put it on a spigot and turn it.
"…and unleavened bread…" (v 8). Is the Passover Day an unleavened bread day? Of course! That's what it says: unleavened bread. Then someone is going to say well that makes eight days of unleavened bread. No! You have one day for the Passover and seven days for the Feast. It does make eight, just like the Feast of Tabernacles is eight days long, because there are seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles and one day the Last Great Day.
If you want to really think this through you tell me where they were able to get leavened bread while they were walking to Ramses to assemble for the exodus. Did they run to the Egyptians and say, 'We ate this hardtack last night, this unleavened bread. It was terrible! Give me one of your biscuits would you please. Oh I'm on the way to Ramses to assemble to leave.' Never happened! Like I've said jokingly before there was no McDonald's to stop and buy an Egg McMuffin in the morning.
"…They shall eat it with bitter herbs…. [other instructions; all of these are important details] …Do not eat of it raw… [no rare lamb] …nor boiled at all with water…" (vs 8-9). I want you to make a point of this right here, because this becomes most important for Deut. 16.
"…but roasted with fire, its head with its legs, and with its inward parts" (v 9).
What you mean inward parts? That is the heart the liver and the kidneys were to be put in the cavity where the intestines were. Some people have thought they just killed the lamb, let it bleed, put a spigot through it from tail to head, left the fur on it, left the intestines in it, and started roasting it. Well, if they did that let me tell you what would happen: About 45 minutes into cooking it would explode in your face, because all the intestines would be heated up and the heat would make them explode and wouldn't be able to contain it.
So, there were no intestines in it. They did not roast it with its fur on it. But they kept it because that's part of the remains they were to burn before they left.
Verse 10: "And you shall not let any of it remain until the morning…."—'boqer'—that's sunrise. Since they all had wristwatches courtesy of Wal-Mart they all knew the exact time when they would assemble. No! I'm being very facetious! God kept it simple. 'ba-erev' is sunset.
- Can even the simplest minded person understand when sunset is? Yes!
- Can the simplest minded person understand when sunrise is? Yes!
After the sun is set and all night and then—which set in the West—then you look in the East in the morning and you see the sunrise.
Verse 10: "And you shall not let any of it remain until the morning…." What would be remaining after you ate all the flesh? The skin the guts and the bones!
Another thing that's important to understand about the bones is that being mostly young lambs their bones are not set hard, and they're mostly cartilage and they can burn very quickly, very easily. But what we did, we got a shank bone. So, I put it in our fireplace in the front room to see how long it would take to burn the shank bone, which would be the biggest thickest part of the lamb. I got it at the local market just for that purpose. It took two hours for that to burn so it could be crumbled into ashes.
- Why would God wanted done that way?
- Everything burned?
- Were they living in Egypt? Yes!
- Did they worship other gods? Yes!
- Did they have little magic idol things?
- Have you ever read about scarabs these, 'good luck' charms and you keep?
So, God wanted it all burned so no one could say:
- look I've got the ear of the lamb when the Passover took place
- I've got the right hoof here in the front leg, and this is going to protect me, and we'll use this is a 'good luck' charm
That's why! People would do that! Because someone would say:
- God took us out of Egypt look what I have; I've got a hoof the lamb
"…And that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire. And this is the way you shall eat it: with your loins girded…" (vs 10-11). Have everything ready. No time for the last minute 'I have to pack my suitcase. I've got to take my clothes.'
"…your sandals on your feet…" (v 11)—because they stayed up most all that night. I'm sure some of the children slept while some of these things were going on until the slaughter of the firstborn at midnight.
"…and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in trepidation…." (v 11)—in 'haste' in the King James is not correct and a lot of people have misinterpreted you eat it in haste so you can hurry and get out of there right after midnight, and from midnight until in the morning you could go to Ramses. But what did God say? You shall not go out of the door of your house until sunrise!
"…It is the LORD'S Passover" (v 11).
- Who owns the Sabbath Day? God does!
- Who owns the Passover? God does!
That's His Passover, His Holy Days. If you want to be right with God you:
- do it His way
- on His day
- according to His will
Scriptural References:
- Psalm 119:18
- Matthew 13:10-11
- Psalm 119:18
- Matthew 13:12-17
- Leviticus 23:1-3
- Mark 2:27-28
- Leviticus 23:4-5
- Exodus 3:11-17
- Romans 9:14-23
- Exodus 11:1-10
- Exodus 12:1-11
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- Isaiah 28
- Daniel 12
- 1 John
- 1 Corinthians 4
- Revelation 3:11
- Leviticus 23:32
- Deuteronomy 16
Also referenced:
- Sermon: Who are the Two Witnesses and Elijah?
- from The Holy Bible in It's Original Order, A Faithful Version, Appendix N: Rome's Challenge to the Protestants
- Books
- The Seven General Epistles by Fred R. Coulter
- Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days—Which? by Fred R. Coulter
- God's Plan for Mankind Revealed by the Sabbath and Holy Days with CDs by Fred R. by
- The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter
- A Harmony of the Gospels by Fred R. Coulter
- The Law of Offerings by Andrew John Jukes
FRC: po/bo
Transcribed: 3/26/17
