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Step by step instruction in understanding the 14/15 Passover, 'ba erev' and 'ben ha arbayim'
and Exodus 12
Fred R. Coulter—March 3, 2018
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Greetings, brethren! Welcome to Sabbath services! Seems like from the time of the Feast of Tabernacles we've been covering false prophets, false doctrines, twisting of Scripture, and one of them that always comes up is the Passover:
- the 14th Passover
- the 15th Passover
- When is the Lamb killed?
All of those come up because the Jews have lost all the knowledge of it. They keep a 15th Passover.
- Why do they keep a 15th Passover?
- Is it that they are deliberately disobedient?
- Why is it that the Church keeps the 14th Passover?
- Who is right?
Let's begin this by first of looking carefully in the book of Exodus concerning the timing of the day. That becomes very important.
There are people who believe that on the Passover night, right after midnight, the children of Israel left their homes. Josephus writes that they were all at their tents assembled around Rameses ready to go, but that begs some very terrible questions.
We're going to examine all of this, step-by-step, and understand the Truth. There are still some people, even in the Church of God today, who say that the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, first day, are one.
- How did that happen?
- How did that take place?
Let's start by coming to Num. 9; that may seem like a strange place to begin, but this is the key to understanding why the Jews keep a 15th Passover. In reality, they are not keeping a 15th Passover, because there is no such thing as a Passover on the 15th day! How did that come about?
'What advantage has the Jew? Much in every way, because unto them were committed the Scriptures and the oracles of God' (Rom. 3). Paul also said, 'What if some didn't obey?'
- Does that change the faith of God?
- Does that change what we should do?
One of the arguments is that the only time that the children of Israel kept the 14th Passover was in Egypt. The Jews to this day say that because they went into the land, that they are going to 'follow the Deuteronomy Code.' In other words, 'we're not going to look at Exodus.' What did Jesus say about how we are approach the Word of God? Every Word of God!
- God is true
- Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life
- God cannot lie
- Jesus never lied
- the Word of God is Truth
What we need to do is look at the Truth and compare Truth with Truth of the Scripture and not Scripture vs tradition. That's how everything got all discombobulated, because those who came in to change the Church and the doctrines would put tradition as a standard as well.
- that's what the Catholics do
- that's what the Jews do
- that's what even the Protestants do
Why is this important? Because in Num. 9 it's a year later. Let's see what the children of Israel did.
Numbers 9:1: "And the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 'Let the children of Israel also keep the Passover at its appointed time" (vs 1-2).
Who appointed the time? God did! We will see what that time is, and a little later we will see that there is a distinct difference in the meaning of the words.
Verse 3: "In the fourteenth day of this month, between the two evenings…" I'll just state right here, that is after sunset, but before dark they were to kill the lamb. That starts it. We'll show the difference in the Hebrew a little later.
"…you shall keep it in its appointed time. You shall keep it according to all its statutes, and according to all the ceremonies of it" (v 3). What does that say? When was that given? That was given in Exo. 12! Deuteronomy was given just before the beginning of the 40th year, or at the ending of the 40th year.
Deuteronomy means the second giving of the Law. There you will read: 'Moses is saying…' and '…saying that God said…' In Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, it is 'the Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'You speak to the children of Israel thus and such…' You will notice the difference in the phrasing in the book of Deuteronomy.
Verse 4: "And Moses spoke to the children of Israel to keep the Passover. And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month between the two evenings in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that the LORD commanded Moses, the children of Israel did" (vs 4-5).
Then it talks about certain men had touched a dead body—unclean, so they couldn't keep the Passover.
Verse 10: "Speak to the children of Israel, saying, 'If any man of you or of your generations shall be unclean because of a dead body, or in a journey afar off…'"—that's important.
The 14th Passover to be observed by the Israelites or Jews, they had to be within the geographical area of the land that God gave them. Here in the wilderness they were directly under God and Moses. So this was actually better than being in the land in some ways.
"…he shall still keep the Passover to the LORD. They shall keep it the fourteenth day of the second month between the two evenings, eating it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break any bone of it. According to all the ordinances of the Passover they shall keep it. But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and holds back from keeping the Passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people" (vs 11-13).
Passover is the most important thing! Stop and think: What are the two things that God specifically said we are to remember. There are more things than that, that's for sure, but what are the two most important doctrinal things?
- remember the Sabbath
- the Passover
What did Jesus say concerning the Passover? Do this in the remembrance of Me.
"…Because he did not bring the offering of the LORD at its appointed time, that man shall bear his sin" (v 13). Then it talks about if the stranger is going to do it, then let them be circumcised, and so forth.
Let's answer: When does a day begin? Then we'll get to between the two evenings.
I've told you about this book before: The Schocken Bible: The Five Books of Moses by Everett Fox. This was printed in 1995. I got this copy right when I was at the point of writing the first edition of The Christian Passover book on what we're talking about right now.
Lev. 23:31 is the Day of Atonement. Why is this important? You read all the instructions. If you don't keep it, you're cut off from God! If you do any work, God is going to even take your life! That's how important it is. Because it's that important, God made it very specific when the day starts and when the day ends.
Why is that? You look at it today, some Jews say, 'The Sabbath doesn't actually begin until it's dark enough to see three stars.' Some others say, 'It's about an hour before sunset.' What does God say? And the Day of Atonement is so important that everybody needs to keep it correctly.
From The Schocken Bible: The Five Books of Moses by Everett Fox.
He doesn't have the Hebrew accompanied with it, but we'll look at that a little later.
Leviticus 23:31-32: "Any-kind of work you are not to do—a law for the ages, into your generations, throughout all your settlements. It is a Sabbath, a Sabbath-ceasing for you, you are to afflict your selves; on the ninth (day) after the New-Moon… [month] …at sunset…"
This becomes important and the Hebrew here is 'ba erev':
- 'erev' means just evening
- 'ba erev' is specific and means sunset
- when the sun touches the horizon, 'ba erev' begins
- when the sun goes below the horizon, 'ba erev' is over
Why is this important? Because everybody, everywhere, regardless of age can understand sunset. Notice, how Fox phrases it here:
"…on the ninth (day) after the New-Moon… [month] …at sunset …" (v 32).
This tells us what's important. This is why sunset ends one day and begins another. This is important because the Day of Atonement is the 10th day of the 7th month. When does the 10th day of the month begin, or when does the Day of Atonement begin that you're not to eat or drink anything and afflict your souls for that day? At sunset! Then Fox makes the definition here very clear how the day is determined:
"…from sunset to sunset, you shall make a ceasing of your ceasing" (v 32).
Again emphasizing no work! This gives us the key.
- How many Scriptures in the Bible do we have to have in order to have a portion of the Truth? One!
- Does God do that sometimes to test us whether we will believe Him or not?
If you say you're going to follow the Deuteronomy Code and you go through Deut. 16 and you think that those offerings are the Passover lamb, you're completely wrong, because it also talks about the herd. That's why they shift over to the Deuteronomy Code so they can keep their 15th Passover.
Why did they get into a 15th Passover? If you're not in the land of Israel, you can't keep the Passover! Isn't that what He said (Num. 9). But if you come back by the second month, you can keep it. When you are in captivity, and not in the land, you can't keep a 14th Passover. So, this is why the Jews have their Passover on the 15th, which is actually the Night to Be Much Observed, call that a Passover with a shank of a lamb. Then they add another day at the end, so they have eight days.
- Why then can the people in the Churches of God, who are the true Christians, keep a 14th Passover and not be in the land of Israel geographically?
- What did Jesus tell them before He ascended? 'Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all nations, teaching them everything I have commanded you!'
- When did they keep the Passover? On the 14th!
That's why we keep it on the 14th.
(continuing with Schocken Bible)
Leviticus 23:5: "On the first New- Moon, on the fourteenth after the New-Moon, between the setting times (is) the Passover to the YHWH"
Footnote: Between the setting times: Between the time the sun is below the horizon, no longer visible, and total darkness….
That's how Everett Fox defines it and he's noted as the leading expert in Biblical Hebrew in America.
…An idiomatic rendition would be "at twilight."
I have a picture of looking at the earth. There's a distinct line when the sun goes down, and there's a distinct line when it gets dark. In between the dark and the setting of the sun, between the two evenings, appears in this picture as green. It is after sunset.
Verse 32. "…on the ninth (day) after the New-Moon, at sunset…
that ends the ninth and begins the tenth
…from sunset to sunset, you are to make a ceasing of your ceasing!
Keep your Sabbath. That is a technical description of the tenth day of the month.
Let's apply this to the Passover. First let's come to Exo. 16; this becomes very, very important. When we had the big blow-up in Worldwide Church of God in 1978, they were bringing in that the Passover should be on the 15th and not on the 14th, brought to us by Robert L. Kuhn, an invader into the Church to disrupt the doctrines.
The question to me at that point became this: Is there any place in the Bible that shows how God used those expressions, 'ba erev,' and between the two evenings: 'ben ha arbayim'?
- How did God use it?
- Is there any place we can find a chronological use of those terms in defining a day? There's one place, Exo. 16!
They got all mad about not having food. They wanted some meat so they complained to Moses and Aaron. They went to the Lord:
Exodus 16:11: "And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, "Between the two evenings… [Hebrew: 'ben ha arbayim'] …you shall eat flesh, and in the morning… ['boqer': sunrise] …you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the LORD your God"'" (vs 11-12).
Follow this carefully. He said, "…Between the two evenings you shall eat flesh…" When do you eat the flesh? When you get it! Why is this important? Because the Jews say that between the two evenings is the time before sunset, not after sunset! This becomes very important.
Verse 13: "And it came to pass, at sunset, that the quails came up and covered the camp…" This was on a Sabbath Day.
So, what did God do? He waited until the Sabbath was over, sunset ends the Sabbath, and then the quail came. Can you eat quail before they arrive? That means that between the two evenings cannot be before sunset. If you're going to eat flesh between the two evenings, there's no way you're going to eat it before it comes. Does that make sense?
Verse 13: "And it came to pass, at sunset… [ending the Sabbath] …that the quails came up… [What do we have after sunset? Between the two evenings] …and covered the camp. And at sunrise the dew lay all around the camp." This is the usage of those two terms:
- 'ba erev' ends the day
- 'ben ha arbayim' begins the next day
that's between the setting of the sun and darkness.
What did they do between that time? Let's think about this a little bit further. Where did God release the quail for the children of Israel? Rained it right down on the camp. He did that so they wouldn't have to go outside the camp to try and find it out in the wilderness as it was getting dark. He did it at that time so they would get the quail, kill the quail, skin them and roast them, then eat the flesh between sunset and dark.
'Ben ha arbayim' is generally a period of about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes from sunset until dark. Here they're able to roast them. There's not too much to eat on quail. The main part of quail is the two breasts.
They would wring the neck of the quail, skin the skin right off of it. They would cut the breasts out of it and roast it over the fire. How long does it take to cook a wee little breast? Ten or fifteen minutes! This is the only place in the Bible that gives us the definition that 'ben ha arbayim' comes after 'ba erev.'
How do we know this was a Sabbath Day? Very simple! Fifteenth day of the second month; you count backwards to when they left. Passover was in the middle of the week. It's a Sabbath. If it were not a Sabbath, God would not have waited to send the quail. Since God didn't want them to go out and pick up the manna. Here's the instruction:
Verse 16: "This is the thing, which the LORD has commanded. 'Each man gather of it according to his eating, an omer for each one, according to the number of your persons. Each one shall take for those who are in his tent.' And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, and some less. And when they measured with an omer…" (vs 16-18).
This is in the morning after they ate the quail. How do we know this is the first day of the week? It's answered right here:
"…he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little lacked nothing. They gathered each one according to his eating. And Moses said, 'Let no man leave any of it until the next morning.' But they did not hearken to Moses, and some of them left part of it until the next morning. And it became rotten with maggots, and stank. And Moses was angry with them. And they gathered it morning by morning, each man according to his eating. And when the sun became hot, it melted" (vs 18-21).
In other words, you had to get up early in the morning, go out and gather it right after sunrise, because if it gets too hot, you're not going to have any food to eat. This goes along with what Paul said, 'If you won't work, you won't eat.'
Verse 22: "And it came to pass, on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said to them, 'This is that which the LORD has said, "Tomorrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath to the LORD.…"'" (vs 22-23)—Sabbath to Sabbath.
That's why we know that the day that they were murmuring and arguing against Moses and asking for flesh and asking for bread was a Sabbath Day. God waited until sunset to send the quail. How's God going to work on the Sabbath and then the next Sabbath tell the people not to go out there and work on the Sabbath? God keeps His own laws!
Verse 23: "'…Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil. And that which remains over, lay up for yourselves to be kept until the next morning.' And they laid it up until the next morning… [the Sabbath] …as Moses said. And it did not stink; neither was there any worm in it. And Moses said, 'Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD….'" (vs 23-25). There it is as clear as can be. This gives us a whole week in time.
Some went out to get it and what was God's retort with it? Verse 28: "And the LORD said to Moses, 'How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? See, because the LORD has given you the Sabbath, therefore, He gives you the bread of two days on the sixth day.…'" (vs 28-29).
Verse 35: "And the children of Israel ate manna forty years until they came to a habitable land. They ate manna until they came into the borders of the land of Canaan."
You would think manna in this manner, every day so much, double on the sixth day, stink and rot on the six days, not stinking rot on the seventh day. The stink miracles. Plus Moses was told to get an omer of manna and put it in the Ark. It was there and did not breed worms and stink. So, another miracle.
From the handout of the Interlinear Hebrew-English Old Testament by George Ricker Berry, pages 288-289. We have all three things here. Exodus 16:6—if you look at what I've circled at the right hand side, at evening. That is 'ba erev.'
Come down here to the next one on the right side where I have circled, in the eveningand in the morning (v 12). Notice the difference between evening that I've circled on the second and what the first one is. The first one is evening and this is in the evening I will send to you flesh to eat. That's 'ba erev,' the finishing of it.
Page 289, the second line, saying, between the evenings. I want you to compare the spelling, even though you don't know Hebrew. You can look and see that the spelling is different. Between the two evenings, compared to eveningof either one of these.
Why is this important? This is important because if you use Strong's Concordance, you will not find 'ben ha arbayim.' It's not numbered, it's not listed. Strong's Concordance only refers to the root word. The root for 'ben ha arbayim,' is 'erev.' So you'll never find it. That's why when you look at Strong's Concordance, it has these long definitions, plus this and minus that, and so forth. He's trying to crowd everything in together, but he didn't realize the mistake of not having 'ben ha arbayim' there.
If he would have had it there, and it would have been a numbered word, just think of the centuries of confusion he would have eliminated.
Drop down here to the second circle on page 289 and it is in the evening(v 13). If you look at it carefully, part of the lettering in the Hebrew is the same, but you need between the evenings.
Even though you don't know Hebrew at least you can tell by spellings that it's different. Also there are accent marks there. The accent marks, if you look at it carefully are different. The accent marks are important for pronunciation and the meaning of the word.
There's another place, that God was ready to destroy the children of Israel in the land of Egypt because of their sins. So they lost all knowledge of the Sabbath. To say that Exo. 16 is where He introduces them to the Sabbath is a stretch, because they kept the Sabbath the rest of the first month and into the 15th day of the second month. That means they kept the Sabbath on the 8th of the first month and on the 8th of the second month. You go backward. On the 1st of the second month, and so forth, until you come back to the Passover in Exo. 12.
(go to the next track)
Some parts of Exo. 12, in the King James Version, and many other versions, is very difficult to understand because in translating they made no difference between 'ben ha arbayim,' between the two evenings, and 'ba erev': sunset! They labeled both of them as evening!
I remember sitting there, after having had the Passover, and the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the minister at that time was Ron Kelly and I was living in Burlingame. We went to Sacramento, drove all the way up there.
Kelly was reading along and the evening in v 6, he says, 'This is at the beginning of the day. Then you come over to v 18 and where it says, 'In the evening,' he says, 'This is at the end of the day.' I sat there and said to myself, okay, how do I know that? I didn't and he didn't explain it. It took years in order to come to the understanding of it, because it was rarely completely taught.
Then come along the infiltrating Jews and saying the Passover is on the 15th and they left right after at midnight, they left and went out and started going out. What was missing on the night of the 14th? That they didn't have until the night of the 15th? No one answered the question—the flame of fire by night was missing. There was no light to get out by night. We'll see another reason here in a little bit.
This is why in the Faithful Version it is translated correctly so that you will know one night is for the Passover and the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is the next night. There is one verse that makes it a little difficult to understand if you do not understand the difference the between the evening of the two evenings—between the two evenings—and the evening that should be called sunset.
King James Version makes no difference in it at all. This is the trap that everyone gets caught into because they have no explanation back. Because they haven't studied Exo. 16 to know the difference between sunset and between the two evenings. Sunset comes first and ends the day. Between the two evenings comes then. Also sunset not only ends a day, but it begins a day. If you end one day, you have to have the beginning. It's all cyclical.
We're going to read in the Faithful Version and cover these things. We will look at why it should be translated that from the Schocken Bible and also from George Ricker Berry's Hebrew Interlinear. He only lived long enough to do Genesis and Exodus. He didn't live any longer to finish it. I couldn't find the book for a long time and I found it here recently. This is why we have the pages from it.
Let me say this: as we start. If you have not read, or do not have, The Christian Passover book, and you have not read the whole thing, you need to get it and read it so that you understand all of the conflicts concerning the Passover.
Satan the devil knows this very well: if you do not keep the Passover on the 14th day exactly as Jesus said, He says, 'You have no part with Me'—which means that's a big target for Satan.
If Satan can get you off base, then sooner or later you're going to apostatize and have nothing to do with Christ. Is that not what happened to how many thousands of people in the Worldwide Church of God? They forgot the two things they are to remember:
- Sabbath Day
- Passover
Also, it's important to understand that when God gave the Ten Commandments, He said, 'Remember the Sabbath Day,' because they'd been keeping it all the way up to Mount Sinai, not just in Exo. 16.
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'" (vs 1-2).
This is the sacred calendar. The sacred events start with the Passover. The calculations start with the Feast of Trumpets. So, keep that in mind.
Verse 3: "Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, '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… [showing souls are persons] … according to the eating of his mouth, you shall count concerning the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish… [a type of Christ] …a male of the first year…'" (vs 3-5). No older than the first year.
It had to be a very young lamb. When is the lambing season? About 40 days before Passover! What's the youngest you could use a lamb? On the 8th day, could use it for a sacrifice, not until.
"…You shall take it from the sheep or from the goats" (v 5). There are good goats.
Sidebar on goats: They're independent. They'll go anywhere, do anything. They don't follow along like sheep.
Explicit instructions, v 6: "And you shall keep it up until the beginning…" I've added the word in italics, beginning, because until means up to. It cannot mean on through, to late in the afternoon on the 14th.
"…of the fourteenth day of the same month. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it between the two evenings" (v 6).
We saw that between the two evenings comes right after sunset. So, here they are in the land of Goshen at their houses, not at the tents assembled in Ramses as Josephus records.
Why would Josephus write that, because he would know since he was a priest of the first course, that that was entirely wrong? Why did he write it? In order to justify a 15th Passover, that's why! Also, Josephus lived during the time of Jesus Christ and the New Testament Church. They kept the Passover on the 14th; many of the Jews in the area there did keep the Passover on the 14th. As a matter of fact, it was the majority of them.
That's why you need to read the Christian Passover book. The Jews distort everything to fit their narrative all the time. Remember that. You have to check it out.
Also remember this, they have the Kol Nidre, which is one of things that they do on Day of Atonement, which is 'Lord, forgive me for any of my misdealings in the coming year.' You think on that one!
"…between the two evenings" (v 6)—so that's right after sunset. Here they are, may be up to 1-million 600,000. So there are a lot of homes; they're scattered through all of Goshen. They have flat-roofed homes, and they were watching for sunset. How many were on top of their roofs of their houses watching the sunset? The whole congregation was to do this in mass at the same time. They had scouts up there and they were watching. At sunset the head of the house had the knife, slit the throat, and then dressed out the lamb.
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… [not tents] …in which they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs. Do not eat of it raw, nor boiled at all…" (vs 7-9).
Sidebar on Deut. 16: Those sacrifices in Deut. 16, though called Passover sacrifice, were boiled, not roasted. The King James Version says roasted—blatant mistranslation.
"…but roasted with fire, its head with its legs, and with its inward parts" (v 9). The inward parts were the heart, liver and kidneys, because you couldn't put it there with all of the guts inside. It would get so hot and reach a certain point and would explode.
Verse 10: "And you shall not let any of it remain until the morning…. [you are to eat for the eating] …And that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire…. [notice morning] … And this is the way you shall eat it: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in trepidation.…" (vs 10-11).
It's translated haste and people look at that translation and say, 'They ate in a hurry and left right away.' No, they did not! How do we know they did not leave right away?
How did these instruction get to all the people? They had certain leaders that came to Moses, called elders. They would take the message back. So, here's what Moses did:
Verse 21: "Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, 'Draw out and take a lamb for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip in the blood that is in the bowl, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood in the bowl. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until sunrise" (vs 21-22)— 'boqer.'
They did not go out of their houses right after the firstborn of man and beast were killed in Egypt. Why until sunrise? So they could all be gathered together at Rameses in the daylight hours. Have you ever tried to herd animals in the dark?
It is the Lord's Passover. Why is it called the Passover? Kuhn and Grabbe in their paper said, 'We don't know the origin of the word Passover.' Both with doctorate degrees, deliberate lie to deceive!
Verse 12: "For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. And the blood shall be a sign to you upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you.… [that's how the day got called the Passover Day] …And the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be a memorial to you. And you shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast as a law forever" (vs 12-14).
It's very interesting, the division right here. Passover's on the 14th day and the instructions for the Passover end with v 14. The next day is the 15th day, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Verse 15 starts out giving the instructions concerning the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Also you need to realize that the Passover Day is an Unleavened Bread day because they ate unleavened bread. Didn't He tell them they shall eat it with unleavened bread? Yes, indeed! Passover day is one day. The next day is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the 15th. It identifies it that way. People read this verse and say, see—Passover is the first day of Unleavened Bread. It's not! The arguments and things that are against the Passover are so many.
That's why The Christian Passover book is 500 pages. If you don't have it, get it and read it. You can't read it all in one sitting. I suggest you read one chapter a day. If you do that, it will take you a month to read it. If you want to read it a little quicker, try two chapters.
Verse 15: "You shall eat unleavened bread seven days; even the first day you shall have put away leaven out of your houses; for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. And in the first day there shall be a Holy convocation…" (vs 15-16).
Notice He did not say of the Passover it was a Holy convocation. It was a feast day, but not a Holy convocation.
"…and in the seventh day there shall be a Holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done in them, except that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you" (v 16). So, you can do whatever food preparation necessary on the Holy Days for keeping the Feast.
Notice the difference, v 12: "For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD."
Verse 17: "And you shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for in this very same day I have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt.…"
That's why the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread cannot be the Passover Day because they could not leave their houses that night. How can you come out of the land of Egypt by night if you're in your house keeping the Passover? You can't! That's they shifted up to the 15th, but let's read on. There's more to it.
"…Therefore, you shall keep this day in your generations as a law forever" (v 17).
What this is a collection of the commands for the Feast of Unleavened Bread given before it starts!
Verse 18: "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at sunset…"—of the 14th, sunset ending the 14th. So, in the King James Version it is in the evening. That conflicts with:
Verse 6: "And you shall keep it up until the beginning of the fourteenth day of the same month…."
When Ron Kelly said, 'This is at the beginning, and this is at the end.' I said, 'How do I know?' Because we were told at that time, 'Don't believe me, believe your Bible.' The Bible wasn't translated correctly, so how could I possibly understand what it was? This was never solved until years later.
How do we know this ends the 14th? What is the key Scripture we started with? Leviticus 23:32: "It shall be to you a Sabbath of rest… [the Day of Atonement] …In the ninth day of the month at sunset…" That ends the day—from sunset to sunset you shall keep your Sabbath. So we apply it in:
Exodus 12:18: "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at sunset… [ending the 14th day, beginning the 15th day] …you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at sunset." The 21st at sunset ends the 21st.
Let's count: Remember, counting is different than adding and subtracting. Let's count the seven days: 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. That's important to understand because those who use the King James Version come here and say that Passover and first day of Unleavened Bread are the same because it's the 14th to 21st. Not true! See what a bad translation does for you.
Verse 19: "Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses, for whoever eats that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land."
What did the Jews do so they wouldn't have to get rid of their leaven? They would give it to the Gentile. But God says, 'The stranger within your land, he shouldn't have it either.' The truth of the matter is that no one can defy God—period—in anything!
Verse 20: "You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread."
What do we have? Goes back to the beginning before the Passover Day, with the instructions.
Verse 21: "Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, 'Draw out and take a lamb for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip in the blood that is in the bowl, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood in the bowl. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until sunrise" (vs 21-22).
Then they all went to Rameses, because that's where they left from. We'll see that in a minute. Here's one mistake that happens when you're reading certain parts of the Bible. We are so used to everything coming along in chronological, one after the other, that that's how people get confused because the Bible doesn't do that.
Especially in the prophets, you'll go along and here's one verse about Christ, right in the middle of nowhere, just one verse. Here's a verse about the present, then here's a verse about the future, then here's a verse about the past; all within the same chapter. You have to know how to read it.
Here it reverts back to the Passover; v 23: "For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians. And when He sees the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you." That was just for the firstborn. That has things to do with the Church, too.
Verse 24: "And you shall observe this thing as a law to you and to your children forever." That means as long as all the circumstances stay the same. If there are any changes, Who changes them? God! No man! Forever!
How are you going to say, 'This is going to be down to the time of the Messiah. When He comes, I'm going to change it.' How would they understand that? They wouldn't!
Verse 25: "And it shall be when you have come to the land, which the LORD will give you, according as He has promised that you shall keep this service. And it will be, when your children shall say to you, 'What does this service mean to you?'" (vs 25-26).
Why? Because they killed the lamb at their houses!. Your children would be there to watch it. Aren't kids that way? 'Daddy, why are you doing this?' Then you tell them. The Passover is passing over the houses.
Verse 27: "Then you shall say, 'It is the sacrifice of the LORD'S Passover, Who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our houses.' And the people bowed their heads and worshiped. And the children of Israel went away and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron; so they did" (vs 27-28). Means they:
- selected the lamb on the 10th
- kept it up to the 14th
- killed it right after sunset, right at the beginning of between the two evenings
- roasted it
- ate of it
- put the blood on the lintels
- stayed in their houses until morning
You can't stay in your houses until morning if you leave at midnight. It's impossible! That's why you have to know these arguments because they're tricky.
Verse 29: "And it came to pass at midnight the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the captive that was in the prison, also all the firstborn of livestock. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead" (vs 29-30).
Another mistranslation, Moses never went to Pharaoh. How do we know? Because Moses said, 'You will never see my face again,' (Exo. 11).
Verse 31: "And during the night he sent word to Moses and Aaron saying, 'Rise up! Get away from my people, both you and the children of Israel! And go serve the LORD, as you have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone. And bless me also'" (vs 31-32).
When could the children of Israel leave? Right after the word came from Pharaoh? No! At sunrise! Can everybody know when sun rises? Just like everybody can know when the sun sets. You stay in your house, you're ready to go.
Verse 33: "And the Egyptians were urging the people, that they might send them out of the land quickly, for they said, 'We are all dead men.'" They didn't what was going to happen later in the day, or later that night.
Verse 34: "And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses. And they asked for articles of silver, and articles of gold, and clothing from the Egyptians" (vs 34-35).
Can you imagine what the Egyptians were anxious to do—give them everything 'Here take it all, take all my gold, all my silver, all of this, all the clothes.' Remember they also had wagons to carry a lot of these things. They just didn't carry it all on their shoulders.
Verse 36: "And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and they granted their request, and they stripped the Egyptians."
Imagine how desolate that country was after all those plagues, and the killing of the firstborn. Can you imagine the burial process going on!
Verse 37: "And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth…" They had to leave their houses and come to Rameses. What is missing here that we're not told? We have to surmise it based on:
- Is God organized? Yes!
- God is not the author of confusion
- they went up by their armies
That means they were organized. When they got to Rameses, they started organizing them in their marching order. It's not going to be one mass of people, two miles wide, walking along the desert.
Verse 38: "And also a mixed multitude went up with them, and flocks and herds, very much livestock. And they baked unleavened cakes… [this is all a summary] …of the dough which they brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not stay, neither had they prepared any food for themselves for the journey" (vs 38-39). Then it talks about the sojourning of the children of Israel.
Verse 41: "And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years…" Remember how to figure the 430 years? Two fifteen-year periods! This referring to the covenant with Abraham.
He was 85 when that was given. Isaac was born 15 years later. That's 15 of the 30. Isaac was taken out to be offered when he a lad, so that had to be he was 15-years-old. 430 years. Be afflicted 400 years; 15 and 15 equals 430.
"…it was even on that very same day, all the armies of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. is a night to be much observed to the LORD for bringing them out from the land of Egypt. This is that night of the LORD…" (vs 41-42). Same thing concerning the Sabbath, of the Lord, belongs to Him. Some people say we're not to observe that night. God says you do!
"…to be observed by all the children of Israel in their generations" (v 42). They came out by night!
Let's come to Num. 33. Here's a detailed log of nearly all the places that they stopped.
Numbers 33:1: "These are the journeys of the children of Israel, who went forth out of the land of Egypt with their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron." They were all organized.
A little later on you find the marching order when the tabernacle was all finished and they were ready to go. You had three tribes to go in front, three tribes on the side, three tribes on the other side and three tribes to follow.
When they went out in column, then it was a little differently, but that's how they were settled around the tabernacle.
Verse 2: "And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the command of the LORD. And these are their journeys according to their starting places. And they set out from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the next day after the Passover day, the children of Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians, While the Egyptians were still burying all their firstborn whom the LORD had stricken among them.…" (vs 2-4).
Another point to remember here is this. They were burying them. Do you suppose that the Egyptians took the ones that died in their houses, the night that they died, and went out that night and started burying them right then? No! If you're an Egyptians you'd think, 'If I go out there, I may be struck dead too.'
This was all day, during the day portion and they were still burying when the Israelites were leaving. They had a horrendous number of people and animals to bury. I imagine the animals they ended up burning most of them.
"…The LORD also executed judgments upon their gods" (v 4).
Why are we going to Mark 14? It tells us something very interesting from the mouth of Jesus Christ! This is the Passover night. They sang a hymn (Mark 14:26), and they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Mark 14:27: "Then Jesus said to them, 'All of you shall be offended in Me in this night… [Passover night] …for it is written, "I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." But after I have risen, I will go before you into Galilee.'"
Verse 29 is very interesting. In Luke it says that Jesus told Peter, 'When you're converted, strengthen the brethren. Satan has asked for you, but I have prayed for you.' Wouldn't that have been a coup to get Peter? They did get a Peter: Simon Magus, the Catholic Church.
Verse 29: "Then Peter said to Him, 'Even if all shall be offended, yet, I shall not.'" You can do nothing against the Word of God!Think of it. Jesus said, 'You're going to be offended.' Peter said, 'No, no.'
Verse 30: "And Jesus said to him, 'Truly I say to you, today… [Passover Day] …in this very night…'"
When it talks about the 15th day, they left, but they left by night. That is still the 15th day and not the 14th. You understand the principle I'm getting at here?
"'…today, in this very night, before the cock crows twice, you shall deny Me three times.' But he spoke more adamantly, 'If it were necessary for me to die with You, I would not deny You in any way.' And they all spoke in the same manner also" (vs 30-31).
You know what happened. Peter denied Jesus three times. I turn there for this reason: Because it says:
Numbers 33:3: "And they set out from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month…" That was at the beginning of the day, because it was at night, but it's still the 15th day.
With us used to a midnight time, people's minds are not oriented to that. That's why we have to prove everything by Scripture.
Let's come to Deut. 16 for just a minute. The second edition of the Faithful Version, it reads correctly (also on afaithfulversion.org).
Deuteronomy 16:1: "Keep the month of Abib… [a name for the 1st month of the year] …and observe the Passover to the LORD your God…. [ that's where the period should be] …For in the month of Abib…" There are two things you are to observe:
- keep the month of Abib
- observe the Passover
"…the LORD your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night" (v 1)—called the 15th day of the 1st month.
Here's where the confusion comes, but here's what helped me understand this cannot be the 14th day.
Verse 2: "'And you shall therefore sacrifice the Passover offering to the LORD your God, of the flock and the herd…'"
Where do we find in the Bible the Passover calf? You'd have to have a pretty big family to have a Passover calf, wouldn't you? These are, as we have covered—and I'll cover that again in part two—the redemption of the firstborn of your males and the firstborn of your unclean animals. You redeem them.
God says if you have a donkey and you don't redeem it, if it's a firstborn, you break its neck. That's like saying today, if you don't dedicate this car to God, He's going to take out the engine.
When did they offer these offerings? On the day portion of the 14th they started offering these offerings and on in for the Night to Be Much Observed!
All Scripture from The Holy Bible In Its Original Order, a Faithful Version (except where noted)
Scriptural References:
- Numbers 9:1-5, 10-13
- Leviticus 23:31-32, 5, 32
- Exodus 16:11-13, 16-25, 28-29, 35
- Exodus 12:1-11, 21-22, 12-16, 12, 17-18, 6
- Leviticus 23:32
- Exodus 12:18-39, 41-42
- Numbers 33:1-4
- Mark 14:27-31
- Numbers 33:3
- Deuteronomy 16:1-2
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- Romans 3
- Exodus 16:6, 12-13
- Exodus 11
- Mark 14:26
Also referenced: Books:
- Josephus
- The Schocken Bible: Five Books of Moses by Everett Fox
- The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter
- Strong's Concordance
- Interlinear Hebrew-English Old Testament by George Ricker Berry
FRC:lp
Transcribed: 3-6-18
Formatted: bo—3/9/18
Copyright 2018—All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes, no part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner. This includes electronic and mechanical photocopying or recording, as well as the use of information storage and retrieval systems.
