Difficult Scriptures #2 - Passover and Unleavened Bread

Details of Difficult Scriptures #2

Explaining "between the two evenings," the 400 & 430 years, the Night to be Much Observed, and
Deuteronomy 16 & 2-Chronicles 35

Fred R. Coulter—March 10, 2018

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Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services! I know this information may get to you a little late, but it lasts forever and very important for you to remember.

Between the Two Evenings:

How do you know that between the two evenings is after sunset, and not before sunset? Where in the Bible do you find how God used those two terms to make it in a chronological sense that we could absolutely know that between the two evenings can never be from noon to sunset? Because that's what people say!

Where do we find that in the Bible? Exo. 16 becomes very important! The way that I discovered this is when this false doctrine was first preached in the Worldwide Church of God. I just finished writing A Harmony of the Gospels. In there I put that if there's any other information concerning the chronology or the Passover, I'll be sure and let you know.

We were confronted with this proposition: We were told by a PhD. Jewish scholar Robert L. Kuhn that between the two evenings is from about one in the afternoon until sunset, and if you say it's after sunset you're wrong. What he was trying to prove was that the Passover was actually on the 15th and not on the 14th. That's when #2 in charge of WCG—Garner Ted Armstrong—began to call the Passover 'the Lord's Supper.' We're going to see today you can't call it the Lord's Supper.

Dolores remembers, I came home from the conference with this, and I had to say—if we cannot find any place in the Bible where God uses evening and between the evenings in a chronological way, then we would have to accept what he said. Wouldn't that be what you would have to do? After all, a PhD… and I think he has two of them; you know!

Exodus 16:12: "I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying 'Between the two evenings…'" That's the literal from the Hebrew. You don't have that in the King James Version. You can't find it in Strong's Concordance. Very important to understand!

Too many people put too much reliance on Strong's Concordance. Strong's Concordance can help you a great deal, but it doesn't give the derivations of the verb, it only gives the root verb. The root verb is 'erev.'

People look at that and say, 'I can't find between the two evenings, how did you get between the two evenings?' This is why last week I brought the Interlinear Hebrew-English-Old Testament and I'll cut out these portions and put it in my next letter, which shows the difference between evening and 'ben ha arbayim.' Totally spelled differently. You don't even have to know Hebrew because you can look at it and know they're two different words.

"…saying, 'Between the two evenings you shall eat flesh…'" (v 12). What time of day was it that God was speaking to them? This happened to be a Sabbath Day. Probably in the morning they got up on the Sabbath Day and they started railing against Moses and Aaron saying, 'We want flesh to eat. You brought us out here in the wilderness to kill us.' Moses and Aaron fell on their faces, and God said, 'They're not murmuring against you, they are murmuring against Me.'

So here's the answer God gave. Remember, sometimes God will answer even if you are angry. If He does, He has a greater purpose beyond what you're little anger may be.

If it's just totally lustful, like it was with the second occurrence of quail, He sent it to them and a lot of them died because they were so lustful they were eating them raw. So, they died!

Here in this case, He said, v 12: "I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, 'Between the two evenings you shall eat flesh, and in the morning…'"—showing that this was the Sabbath afternoon He was speaking to them and that the next morning something else would happen.

"…you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the LORD your God" (v 12). The bread was manna. How do I know it's the Sabbath? Two ways:

• How many days did they receive the manna? Six days (Exo. 16)!

On the 6th day gather twice as much, and it doesn't breed worms and stink. The next day was the Sabbath Day, they went out to get some and God said, 'How long refuse you to keep My commandments?'

• another proof is the calendar

The Passover in the year of the Exodus was on a Wednesday, the 14th. You can do this going forward or backwards. You can take Wednesday in the middle of the week and go forward and you come to the 15th day of the 2nd month and it's a Sabbath. You can go backwards, you can say, 'It has to be a Sabbath, just like I said, because they got the manna six days, and you count backwards and you come to Passover in the middle of the week. So that's how you do it.

There's no calendar that says, 'On this Sabbath Day.' That's correct, but you have to use the Scriptures and the Calculated Hebrew Calendar to do it. The Calculated Hebrew Calendar is what God gave, no other calendar.

By the way, with the Calculated Hebrew Calendar, you can prove, if you go through the booklet that we produced on the Calculated Hebrew Calendar—Which is the True Calendar of God?—that the year of the Flood was a leap year, 385 days. So, there are a lot of things you can do with the Calculated Hebrew Calendar.

"'…you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the LORD your God' And it came to pass, at sunset…" (vs 12-13). God had to speak this before sunset. Sunset here in the Hebrew is 'ba erev,' which means sunset!

Remember Leviticus 23:32, what does it say how you are to observe the Day of Atonement? "…In the ninth day of the month at sunset, from sunset to sunset, you shall keep your Sabbath."

Why did He put that there? To make everyone sure that they keep the Day of Atonement the way that they should! Not start in the afternoon; not start if you see three stars at night. But sunset! That why in The Christian Passover book I have a chart—sun touching the horizon, 'ba erev' begins. Sun below the horizon, 'ba erev' is over and between the two evenings begins.

Verse 13: "And it came to pass, at sunset, that the quails came up and covered the camp...." What does that mean? The quail came and landed on their tents! God put them in a very passive position so all the Israelites had to do was pick them up, wring their neck, skin them out, and have them ready to eat in about five minutes. That's about all the length of time it takes to do that for a quail.

We have done that. We did that when Skip Emerson was here. He had goats, little lambs, and he sold quail commercially. He raised them. He showed us how quickly it is.

You just grab the quail, wring its neck, take a knife, slice it right down the middle and peel off the feathers. The only edible that's really big enough to eat are the two breasts. You put those on a little stick and hold them over a fire, and in about 10 minutes maximum, you're eating it.

This is what happened. God was kind and merciful, even in their anger. He dropped all the quail easy to catch. They didn't have to go around outside the camp to get it.

• Where did God put the manna? Outside the camp!
• Why? Because you have to work for your daily bread!
• What was the work? You had to go out and get it if you want to eat!

If you don't want to eat, stay in your tent. God is practical.

• What's important here?
• When were they to eat flesh? Between the two evenings!
• Can you eat it before it comes? Of course not!

You don't send someone to the store to get some food and they come home and you say, 'I've already eaten it.' Because the quail came at sunset, and God said, 'You're going to eat between the two evenings.' sunset must come before between the two evenings. Therefore, between the two evenings is after sunset!

This is the only example in the Bible that goes chronologically through the timeframe this way. It means if God said so, and it's written this way, and that's what happened, how many other places in the Bible do you need it to tell you that between the two evenings is after sunset and before dark? Zero!

• God is a God of Truth
• God will not lie

Therefore, if He says it once, is that not sufficient? Yes, indeed!

We covered this last time. When were the children of Israel to kill the Passover lamb? They were to get it on the 10th day of the month and they were to kill it on the 14th, between the two evenings! This means sunset on the 13th came, they were all watching the sunset. The sun went below the horizon! All the head of the household were there with their kid or their little lamb, and they all killed the lamb at the same time. As soon as the sun set, it becomes between the two evenings! Couldn't be in the afternoon.

They were to eat it in the house. What was the instruction? How long they were to stay in the house? You're not to go out of the door of your house until sunrise! This paper said they could leave as soon as the firstborn of the Egyptians were killed. I still have the paper, 40 years old, written by Kuhn and Grabbe, that they had to leave by night. What he was trying to do is justify a 15th Passover. We'll look at that. But you can't leave at night, if you're commanded to stay in your house until sunrise!

• Who created and made time?
• Who keeps the earth turning?
• Who has determined when sunrise and sunset and midnight, all of that is?
• God!

We'll pick up in Exo. 12 where we left off last time. All of that was a review up to this point.

All the children of Israel were in their houses scattered throughout the land of Goshen. They had to gather at Rameses so they could be all organized in their marching order and then leave in an organized fashion.

It took them from sunrise to walk over to Rameses. Some had to come as far as 15-20 miles. That would take you most of the day, but you could walk it in a day. Some were close. Rameses is where they gathered.

Exodus 12:36: "And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and they granted their request, and they stripped the Egyptians"—of their gold, their silver, their jewelry, their clothing.

Verse 37: "And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth…" That's not really very far. They didn't travel very far the first night. They had to come from their houses to Rameses. They weren't at Rameses in their tents, as Josephus wrote about.

A little secret about Josephus. Josephus was to bring the history of the Jews, so he starts at creation. Who was Josephus? He was a priest of the first course! He was alive during Jesus' ministry and the apostles. His mission was to give the history of the Jews, minus almost totally 99% of the ministry of Jesus and the apostles so there would be a history written.

• Who would inspire that?
• God?

or

• Satan?
• God recorded it right here!

Those inspirations to leave it out did not come from God. Later a couple of other writers tried to insert some things in it, and most everyone knows that those are not true.

I have Dr. Hoeh's Compendium of World History. In the foreword he wrote that the reason that the world history is all messed up—which it is—is because the victor always writes the history. The history that is written bears down on facts, emphasizes other facts, overlooks other facts, and presents the story from the victor's perspective.

For example, if you wrote a biography about yourself, would you put in there all of your worst private sins? Or if you hired someone to write your biography for you, would you tell him what they are?

All of us have things in our past that we would never tell anyone. Isn't that true? Yes! I bring this up from this point of view: When you read about King David, a man after God's heart, he included his sins with Bathsheba and numbering the children of Israel. The other ones he didn't.

The Jews, wanting to get rid of Christ, as much as they could would eliminate everything in their history about it. Why would that be? Why would that be inspired by Satan the devil? Satan knew there was going to a whole lot more time. Satan knew he was going to raise up scholars who would look for the historical Jesus in history and never find Him, because they never recorded it.

You know what organization did that? The Jesus Seminar! Ever heard of them? You can read about them in A Harmony of the Gospels. They said:

• the Bible can't be true
• the New Testament can't be true
• the worst book of the New Testament is the Gospel of John, not a word of it is true

Guess what, many people believe it today. Philo of Alexandria was a famous Jewish priest from the renegade line of Onassis III that have their Jewish temple, an old pagan temple, in Leontopolis. Philo was the one who wanted the Jews to be able to be as good as, or superior to the philosophers of the Greeks. He did everything to allegorize the Bible and coordinate that with the pagan beliefs.

There are some facts he has that are true. There are some facts he has which are not true. Philo is a very difficult book to read. I remember I got that and I started reading it and I said, 'What on earth is this?' So, yes, Philo could have written about it. He could have written about the Church, but out of Alexandria, Egypt… There's a reason why God sent Jesus there as an infant and brought Him back out. There's nothing good in Egypt—period!—religiously speaking. To this day they still have a lot of trouble.

Were there any Roman chronicles about what happened to Jesus? No! The Romans were against the Christians and sought to kill them at every chance that they could as well. You stop and think about it today—really objectively.

• What generation in the whole history of mankind:
  • has the blessing of all the Word of God?
  • has the blessing during Sabbath services?
  • that you can sit down and all open your own individual Bible or iPad or smart phone and have the Bible there and follow along with it?
    • What generation in the world has had all of these languages where we could check and prove the way we ought to?

Yes, they had it in the first century and down through time from there!

Then you read the history of the Church. How many have ever read the writings of Chrysostom, written in 390s and early 400sA.D.? Did you know that there so many Sabbath-keepers in the area of what is called Turkey today that he railed against them for going to the synagogue? That was a derisive remark, because all the Churches of God were in homes, and because they were keeping what they called the 'Jewish' Sabbath and the 'Jewish' Holy Days. Does that sound familiar today? Yes!

In order to denigrate it, Chrysostom called all those homes synagogues. I've given sermons on that years and years ago. I'll have to get it again and give some more. It's amazing what the Church has gone through.

Look at even the prophecy concerning the Smyrnans: You're going to go to jail and you're going to be killed. Thank you, Lord, that's a wonderful blessing! But God said, 'Be faithful unto death and I'll give you a crown of life.'

Think about what we have today. It's amazing, absolutely amazing! You want to talk to someone who is a friend a long, long way away? Pick up the phone, 'Hello, I'm here. Get on your iPad and let's see each other. Hi!'

Just think about what William Tyndale had to go through—A Tribute to William Tyndale—what he had to do. One man chased by the whole Roman Catholic Church to kill him, because he dared translate the Bible into English. By the way, he did get it all done. When you read Tyndale, he did finish up through 2-Chron. All Hebrew manuscripts have 2-Chron. as the last book of the Old Testament.

There's a great history to what God has done. We can always count on that there are always those men and those women who will hold to the Truth.

You will hear the sermon that I gave for the Sabbath after Unleavened Bread. You have the 7th day of Unleavened Bread on a Friday, then the Sabbath. I gave a sermon and I read from the translation of the Waldensians in the 1100s, where they said, 'We're close to the end.'

God has done such amazing things with so many people down through time. Kept His promise that the Church would never die out. Kept His promise His Word would always be there. Today, He's keeping His promise, like we have shown, with all of the technology of preaching the Gospel to the whole world—even to those people who do not have a written language. An organization called Hearing Comes By Faith. They have those who can read the English and translate it in the language of those who don't have a written language.

God is not going to leave a single human being on earth who can walk up to God, and say, 'God, you never told me.' In the last generation, what are we going to have? Two witnesses. What does it say when they're dead? Everybody on the earth is going to see them lie in the street of Jerusalem three and a half days! How are they going to do that?

Today we can come pretty sure, God's going to keep all of those satellites in tack where they need to be to keep the phones working.

Have you heard of Space-X the company? They're sending off satellites to put Wi-Fi so it will cover the whole earth, all around the earth and from the North Pole to the South Pole. What do you suppose that is for? Who do you suppose is making that happen? God is!

• Does Space-X know that they're doing it for God? Probably not!
• Have people done things for God, they don't know anything about? Yes!

Every Word of God is true! Everything is going to come to pass exactly as God has said! That's why every man and woman needs to realize that you're not going to tell God what to do! Can we as sinful, carnal human beings tell God what to do? God—Who is perfect—created the heavens and the earth and all that's in them! Think of the arrogance of that.

The 400 & 430 Years:

Exodus 12:40: "Now, the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years."

We've explained the difference between Gen. 15 and the 400 years—and the 430 years. Fifteen years after the sacrifice was given, Isaac was born (Gen. 15). That's 15 years! When Abraham took Isaac out to be offered, he's called a lad, so he had to be 15-years-old. So, you have 400, 15 and 15 equals 430. This was written after the fact, so the dating is correct.

If we can prove 415 is correct, and 430 is correct, then it has to be true that Isaac was only 15-years-old, because that's when God made the promises sure. Let's go there for just a minute. Today is not a regular, organized sermon, but that's okay, we'll live through it.

Gen. 22 talks about when God spared Isaac and provided the ram. You know that as they were walking up there for the burnt sacrifice that Abraham was looking around to see if there were any lambs or anything there to offer. Abraham knew he was going to offer his son. Think of that. Think of the parallel between that and God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Genesis 22:6: "And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering ad laid it upon Isaac his son.… [a type of Christ carrying His own cross] …And he took the firepot… [King James Version says fire in his hand. You don't carry fire in your hand unless you're God. It had to be a little firepot of coals] …in his hand and a knife. And they both went together. And Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, 'My father'…" (vs 6-7).

Abraham didn't tell him, 'I'm going to take you down here and I'm going to sacrifice you.' Can you imagine what a 15-year-old would do today? 'You ain't going to do that to me.' Isaac was obedient!

"…And he said, 'Here I am, my son.' And he said, 'Behold the fire and the wood. But where is the lamb for a burnt offering?' And Abraham said, 'My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.' So, they both went on together. And they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there… [whole stone, so it was a stony place] …and laid the wood in order. And he bound his son Isaac and laid him on the wood, upon the altar. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called to him… [angels carry messages] …from the heavens and said, 'Abraham! Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.' And He said, 'Do not lay your hand upon the lad, nor do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God…'" (vs 7-12). So how long does our testing go on? From baptism to the end!

"'…seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me'" (v 12). Ishmael[transcriber's correction] wasn't mentioned, but he was not the son of promise, Isaac was.

"…'Do not lay your hand upon the lad…'" (v 12). So, he had to be less than 20. We have 415 years already up to this point, so he had to be 15.

The next major point is when God the Father wants to send a message, He doesn't speak Himself. He sends an angel to speak the message! That's what He did at the baptism. That's what He did at the Transfiguration, etc.

Verse 12: "And He said, 'Do not lay your hand upon the lad, nor do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.' And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked…" (vs 12-13). It wasn't there before.

• How did it get there?
• Did God cause it to sneak up behind?
• Did God create it instantly?
• Could God create a ram instantly, stick it in the thicket?

Wouldn't that be a Divine sacrifice if God created it specially for the substitute? Think of that in relationship to Christ. Did God Divinely create Christ in the womb of the virgin Mary to be the sacrifice for all the sins of the world? Yes, He did!

Notice, this was not a lamb. It wasn't a stray little lost lamb, lost in the thicket. This was a ram, full grown. What was Christ? Full grown, having the blood of a priest and the blood the kingship within Him through His mother Mary. The high priest did not perform his service until he was 30-years-old, fully mature. This ram signified Christ as a substitutionary sacrifice.

"…and behold, behind him a ram was entangled in a thicket by its horns...." (v 13). How is a ram going to do that? Have you ever seen on these wild shows rams butting their heads together, fighting over who is going to have the flock of the females, and so forth? Have a ever seen a ram with his horns stuck in a thicket? No! God put it there!

"…And Abraham went and took the ram… [didn't fight. Did Christ fight? Didn't say the ram blurted out, nothing like that!] …and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide; so that it is said until this day, 'In the mount of the LORD it will be provided.' And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, 'By Myself…'" (vs 13-16). That's a message from God through an angel!

Right here proves that what was written, that God the Father was the God of the Old Testament is not true. {Note sermon series: God the Father was Not the God of the Old Testament}

An angel said this, v 16: "…'By Myself have I sworn,' says the LORD, 'Because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son; that in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens, and as the sand, which is upon the seashore. And your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice'" (vs 16-18). Fantastic thing at that time!

All the nations of the earth! What a prophecy. What does that cover? From that time, clear through till the second resurrection! Think about that for a prophecy! Think about the stupidity of men going in there trying to debunk the Bible.

It's like the blind trying to find the lead type. You never know which word is word because all the letters are backwards. You ever seen the lead type? Has to be laid out backwards, because when it prints, if you don't put it in backwards, when you print it, it's going to come out backwards. So, you put it in backwards, so you read backwards right to left.

'All the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed My voice.' One man! No one's going to enter into the Kingdom of God lest he comes through Abraham. What does it say of us? If you're Christ's, then you're Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise!

(go to the next track)

Night to Be Much Observed:

We covered the 430 years, Exodus 12:41: "And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, it was even on that very same day… [Gen. 15] …all the armies of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night to be much observed to the LORD… [people say it's invented. God invented it, not Herbert Armstrong. He taught the Truth concerning this] …for bringing them out from the land of Egypt…." Why could that not be the Passover night?

• they were to stay in their houses till sunrise
• Do you think that they could have spoiled the Egyptians at night? No!

"…This is that night of the LORD to be observed by all the children of Israel in their generations" (v 42). So we keep the Night Much to Be Observed to God.

We're brought out of the Egypt—or sin—of this world. That's why we have the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, because we do not even in the Church comprehend the depths of the evil of the carnal mind that we have. We have the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread so we focus in on what the carnal mind actually is and does and why we need to be converted and have our minds changed.

When we come to the last verse of Exo. 12, it should be the first verse of Exo. 13. Exodus 12:51: "And it came to pass the very same day, when the LORD brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies, then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Sanctify all the firstborn to Me… [that's the day after the Passover] …whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, of man and of beast.

Verse 3: "And Moses said to the people, 'Remember this day in which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for the LORD brought you out from this place by the strength of His hand. There shall be no leavened bread eaten'" (vs 51; 13:1-3). Put this in New Testament terms:

• Christ's sacrifice has paid for our sins
• God has called us out of this world
• We're no longer to live in sin

Verse 4: "On this day you are going out, in the month Abib." Then he says how to sanctify the firstborn. All males belong to God, redeem it with a lamb. All the females who are firstborn, they are redeemed by putting funds or animals into the Feast fund. That's how they're redeemed. All unclean animals are redeemed with a lamb or a kid, or you break its neck.

To put it in modern day terminology, you buy a brand new car, and it really is the first one you've ever had and it really came from God, and you don't give Him an offering to it, then smash it. Take it to the car cruncher and get rid of it.

So how important is the firstborn, if you put it in terms like that? Just think about that if you had your son's 20th birthday, you bought him a brand new car, first one he ever had. He says, 'Thank you, dad,' and runs out and doesn't say anything else.

Deuteronomy 6:5[transcriber's correction] in the Schocken Bible says: "Now you are to love YHWH [the Lord] your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your substance!" God gives every physical thing we have! That's why they were to redeem the firstborn.

• Who's the Author of life?

The firstborn is a type of Christ the firstborn of Mary!

• Was He redeemed at the temple? Yes, He was!

All these things go all the way through. Let's finish about the Night to Be Much Remembered.

Numbers 33:3: "And they set out from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month…." They started leaving probably a little before sunset, because it took a long time for them to get all the column of the children of Israel out of Rameses.

"…On the next day after the Passover Day…" (v 3). They could not have left their houses a little after midnight and have that Passover and Night to Be Remember the same day, the 15th. There are still some people who believe it today. They couldn't go out of their houses.

"…the children of Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians" (v 3). That shows it started just a little before the 15th began.

Verse 4: "While the Egyptians were still burying all their firstborn whom the LORD had stricken among them. The LORD also executed judgments upon their gods."

I wonder what it was like in the temples of all of those gods. Probably had the angel go in there, knock over idol. Remember what happened to Dagon, lost his hands, lost his head. I wonder what the temples were like the next morning.

• Do you think after the death of the firstborn that the Egyptians got their shovels immediately and, say at 12:30, a half hour after they died, they were out there digging the graves?

or

• Do you suppose that they were still afraid that if they went out that night they'd be killed, too? Yes!

So, this had to be later in the day!

Think about the burial project that was, for there was not a house where there was not one dead, sometimes two: the father and the son, or the father and the daughter, or the mother and the daughter, firstborn. Think about your best donkey, your best camel. I don't know if he even got to the first clutch of chickens or not, who knows.

It only involved the literal firstborn. Other children don't count, even if the firstborn grew up and died or was killed previous to that in an accident, whatever. The other children wouldn't die, just the firstborn. That applies to the Church. God's not saving the world. He's saving the Church, and we're the few. But we're going to save the world.

They were still burying their dead whom the Lord had stricken. They went out the next day and day begins at sunset. Think about how many people that had to be to get out of Rameses, how long that had to take.

What I did in The Christian Passover book, I used the analogy of the New Years Day Parade in Pasadena. In order for that column to pass with the whole parade, it takes 2 to 2-1/2 hours. For them to be gone by night, they had to start a little bit ahead of time. That's not taking away because they left that night. They were gone!

Deuteronomy 16 & 2-Chronicles 35:

When you read The Christian Passover book, if you haven't read it, get it and read it again. I've had people tell me, 'Every year before the Passover, I read it.' You will find in The Christian Passover book one of the astounding things, and this is what helped me understand Deut. 16.

Deuteronomy 16:7: "And you shall boil…" The King James Version says roast. That is a blatant absolute mistranslation. But did we ever know that when we just went by the King James Version and we were told this is the best translation possible, which it wasn't. If you get into the New Testament, there are a lot of mistranslations.

Verse 7: "And you shall boil…" What was the command for the Passover lamb itself? You shall not boil it!The King James Version says, 'You shall not sodden it.' That's a good English word for boil.

I remember reading that, because I had Magill's Interlinear of the Book of the Law. This must have been like about 11 o'clock at night. I'm lying there reading this, as I'm looking for what does this mean, how can we understand the 14th-15th Passover. I'm reading this it said boil. WOW! That's it, you're not to boil the Passover lamb. You can't boil it.

I read in the Mishnah, where that the Jews are so particular that when they were roasting the Passover lamb, that if any of the juice came out on any of the metal on which they were roasting it, they had to cut off that portion of the meat. They looked upon the juice coming out and bubbling as boiling. That's how particular they were.

I read that—boil and eat it. We won't go to Hezekiah's and Josiah's Passover, but they say boil. King James Version says roast. The first edition of The Holy Bible in Its Original Order (1st Edition) we misconstrued it and didn't catch and we had roast there in 2-Chron. 35[transcriber's correction].

What is this? The Passover, they were told, to eat in their houses and 'don't go out of the door of your house until morning.' Let's come back and read from v 1 down to here.

Someone with a smart phone got real smart and got out of his Strong's Concordance and it says boil, but it also includes the word roast. Be careful of the definitions that you find, because they also put not just the definition, but how it was translated in different places, which does not mean roast. Boil is what it means, so you need to be careful.

You look up Strong's Concordance, you find certain words. It starts out: it means this, plus this, minus this, parentheses this, bracket that, and so forth. You don't know what it means. Why? Because it's just the broad definition of what he's trying to do with all of those different characteristics that it puts in the definition is to cover every where it is used, without having to get to the particular word.

If you never studied Greek or Hebrew, you don't know that. Remember this, and all ministers remember this, if you use Strong's Concordance, you better make sure that it's right. When you say Strong's Concordance or you write in a paper that you're writing Strong's Concordance, those who know better know that you don't know anything about the language. That's how mistakes are made.

Strong's is not an authority. Strong's can help you understand in certain cases, but you can't count on it as the final solution of what especially verbs and participles mean. Whenever there's a mistranslation, you must get the correct Hebrew definition.

2-Chron. 35, some of the things they offered were roasted with fire. Some of the things they offered were boiled. They had sin offerings to offer, which are fire. They had firstborn redemption, which they offered, which were boiled. You've got a combination there and you need to read The Christian Passover book to understand it. You need a further explanation going beyond.

You can't boil with fire, that's true, but when you boil you put it in a pot. That's different than roasting with fire, over fire. That's what that means. People can get confused on it. In those instances, you can't rely just on the exact spot of what's being said. You have to get the whole context.

How many thousands of from the herd that they had? How many calves did they have? Redemption of the firstborn was to be with a lamb.

When I read the word boil, I jumped out of bed and said, 'That's it!' What does this tell us? We'll go through and read it.

Deuteronomy 16:1: "Keep the month of Abib, and observe the Passover to the LORD your God. For in the month of Abib, the LORD your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night." But it wasn't the Passover night!

Where were they the Passover night? In their homes! When did they come out by night? The next night! However, if you just take Deut. 16, and you don't include the book of Exodus, you're going to misunderstand it.

What did they do on the day portion of the Passover? The Passover was at night. The day portion at sunrise they left their homes, gathered at Rameses! God told them to remember this day that they leave and you are redeem your firstborn.

On subsequent Passover Days they offered on the Passover Day portion at the tabernacle or the temple, because the Passover was always to be kept in the home—always! That's where the sleight-of-hand comes in, and makes Deut. 16 very difficult to understand. You could call a redemption of the firstborn given on the day portion of the Passover Day a Passover offering, but it wasn't celebrating the Passover. It was redeeming the firstborn.

That's why you need Exo. 12 and 13 before you can understand Deut. 16. Otherwise if you just take Deut. 16 as it is, and you don't read those, you would think they're all offerings for the Passover to be eaten for the Passover were offered at the tabernacle or temple. You could think that, and the Jews say that.

Verse 2: "And you shall, therefore, sacrifice the Passover offering to the LORD your God, of the flock and the herd…" Never were they to take a calf to be the Passover animal, but it could be redemption of the firstborn, either a lamb or a calf.

"…in the place, which the LORD shall choose to place His name there" (v 2). They say, 'See, God cancelled the domestic Passover.' Did not! This is preparation for the Night to Be Much Observed, as we will see. Where the tabernacle would be or the temple. Then the three seasons would come from that.

Verse 3: "You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it…" So, they offered this offering all during Unleavened Bread.

How can you eat unleavened bread with it seven days, if the Passover's only one day? You can't, so this is an offering offered beginning on the day portion of the Passover for the redemption of the firstborn and then spills over into all the other offerings for the rest of the days of Unleavened Bread.

"…Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, the bread of affliction, for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste, so that you may remember the day that you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life" (v 3). That is Unleavened Bread! That is not the Passover!

How is the Passover to be described when your children ask you what are you doing? Come back to Exo. 12 and see that. This is the Passover Day.

Exodus 12:24: "And you shall observe this thing as a law to you and to your children forever…. [subsequent Passovers] …And it shall be when you come to the land… [subsequent Passovers] …which the LORD will give you, according as He has promised that you shall keep this service" (vs 24-25).

How did they keep it? In their homes! This is talking about the Passover. What does the Passover mean?

Verse 26: "And it will be, when your children shall say to you, 'What does this service mean to you?' Then you shall say, "It is the sacrifice… [not offering] …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.'…." (vs 26-27).

That's what the Passover Day would mean. So therefore, when you come to Deut. 16 it cannot mean the literal Passover Day or the literal Passover sacrifice. It is a Passover offering, or an offering given on the Passover Day portion, but having nothing to do with the Passover that you ate the night before. Don't you keep the Passover at night? You show me where ever in the whole Bible that they offered sacrifices at night. No! This is why it's difficult.

It's like going to court and you're supposed to give the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but you come in with half the truth. Most of the evidence left out and you say, 'This is my case, your honor,' and he makes a wrong decision because he wasn't given all the facts.

Here, Passover is one day, leaving Egypt is another day, but beginning toward the end of the day and on into the night to observe the Night to Be Much Observed unto the Lord. Do you have to prepare those offerings before the day begins? Yes!

Since the Night to Be Much Observed is the day after the Passover, what portion of the day are these offered on, the day portion of the Passover Day, but having nothing to do with the Passover night. Having nothing to do with the Passover that is to be eaten in the house. This is has to do with coming to the tabernacle and dedicating your Passover offering for the redemption of the firstborn at the tabernacle.

Deuteronomy 16:3: "…remember the day that you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life." Totally different than what the Passover sacrifice is.

Verse 4: "And there shall be no leaven seen with you in all your borders for seven days.…" Hence, you could not give your leaven to a Gentile living in the land to come back on the 8th day and get it back again. That's what the Jews do. Give it to a Gentile and say, 'I'll pay you $50 to watch all this good stuff while I'm gone.'

"…Nor shall any of the flesh which you sacrificed in the first day at sunset remain all night until the morning" (v 4).

That sounds like the Passover sacrifice, but it isn't! They were to eat it all. They stayed up, the way they keep the Night to Be Much Observed, all night. So, they ate it all up.

Note: A peace offering to God, which a redemption offering was, was to be eaten the same day, nothing left over.

Verse 5: "You may not sacrifice the Passover Offering within any of your gates, which the LORD your God gives you." That can't apply to the literal Passover. This is the sacrifice of the redemption of the firstborn offered during the day portion of the Passover at the tabernacle or at the temple.

Sidebar: When Jesus sent Peter and John to prepare the Passover, did He tell them to go to the temple and sacrifice a lamb? No, He didn't! He said, 'You go into town.' What are we going to do when we get in town? 'There's going to be a man come by.' How will we know which one? 'He's carrying a pitcher of water; follow him to whatever house he goes into and there prepare the Passover.'

Apparently, the head of the house probably had the Passover sacrifice, already killed and ready to start roasting when they got there. We'll show that next week.

Verse 6: "But at the place which the LORD your God shall choose to place His name in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover offering at sunset, at the going down of the sun, at the time that you came out of Egypt." That's the first day of Unleavened Bread.

The unfortunate part about it is that it's too easy to twist into a 15th Passover the way that it's listed as Passover offering, instead of the way it should be listed as we have back in Exo. 12, the Passover sacrifice.

Verse 7: "And you shall boil and eat it in the place which the LORD your God shall choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents." They stayed up all night!

Can you imagine what a wonderful time that was? Lots of lamb, lots of ram, lots of calf, lots of beef. I don't know if they had lots of turtle doves or whatever there with it as well. Lots of wine; everybody happy; everybody rejoicing. Turn to your tent and go sleep it off in the morning.

Verse 8: "Six days you shall eat unleavened bread…" If you've kept one day of Unleavened Bread, how many days are left to eat unleavened bread? Six! Only place in the whole Bible it says six days of unleavened bread. Every other place it says seven. Didn't we just read it here? Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it.

"…And on the seventh day… [this is conflicting; sometimes the Bible does this] …shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work. You shall count seven weeks…" (vs 8-9).

What is missing in the counting for Pentecost here in Deut. 16, that is absolutely vital? The 50th day! That's why you need to put it together properly!

All Scriptures from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version (except where noted)

Scriptural References:

• Exodus 16:12-13
• Leviticus 23:32
• Exodus 12:36-37, 40
• Genesis 22:6-18
• Exodus 12:41-42, 51
• Exodus 13:1-4
• Deuteronomy 6:15
• Numbers 33:3-4
• Deuteronomy 16:7, 1-3
• Exodus 12:24-27
• Deuteronomy 16:3-9

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Genesis 15
• 2-Chronicles 35

Also referenced:

Books:

• A Harmony of the Gospels by Fred R. Coulter
• Strong's Concordance
• Interlinear Hebrew-English-Old Testament by George Ricker Berry
• The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter
• Josephus
• A Compendium of World History by Herman L. Hoeh
• The Schocken Bible: Five Books of Moses by Everett Fox

Booklets:

• Which is the True Calendar of God? by Fred R. Coulter
• A Tribute to William Tyndale by Fred R. Coulter

Sermon Series: God the Father Was Not the God of the Old Testament

Sermon: Sabbath After Unleavened Bread: A Generational Shift (pre-recorded)

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 3-18-18
Formatted: 3/19/1/

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