The Three Passovers

Fred R. Coulter—March 15, 2008

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That which is eternal is always new, because it never gets old!

from the book The Day That Jesus the Christ Died!

Foreword: From eternity past, before the foundation of the world, God the Father and God the Son planned for and predetermined the day that Jesus the Christ would die. In the history of the universe, no other day can be compared with it. So profound was this day that it will always be remembered even into the ages of eternity to come.

This day of destiny was the ultimate culmination of the spiritual battle for the lives of men; a battle waged between Jesus the Christ, Son of God and Savior of mankind, and Satan the devil, adversary of God and destroyer of mankind. This fierce battle was centered in Jerusalem, but its outcome would determine the destiny of the world. It was the power of God versus the power of Satan, the Advocate vs. the adversary, love vs. hatred, good vs. evil, humility vs. pride, compassion vs. brutality, righteousness vs. sin and forgiveness vs. condemnation.

All the evil forces and powers of the world were gathered together against one man, Jesus the Christ—the Son of God. Who would be victorious? Would good finally triumph over evil?

For healing the sick, raising the dead and teaching the love of God, Jesus Christ was condemned, beaten, scourged, reviled, ridiculed and crucified. Yet, He was faithful to the end—giving His life as a perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Gen. 3 is actually an encapsulation and summary of the plan of God to redeem mankind from sin, because man does not know how to solve the problem of sin. Look at all the humanists who say that if they just 'get all the people to do good then we will overcome all the sin and lawless, if we just teach them to be good, teach them to be nice, then everything will be fine.'

But it never works because there's an element and component in human nature that is called 'the law of sin and death' that they cannot account for.

So, after Adam and Eve had sinned, Jesus Himself—Who was the Lord God of the Old Testament—gave this prophecy concerning Satan and Himself:

Genesis 3:15: "And I will put enmity between you… [the serpent] …and the woman… [Eve and also a type of the Church] …and between your seed… [all the children of the devil, because he has his children and the demons] …and her Seed… [the offspring of mankind and also Jesus Christ] …He [Christ] will bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel"—this is a prophecy of the crucifixion, which happened 2,000 years ago.

Bruising the head is the elimination of Satan, which we find in Rev. 20. this gives us an understanding why the beginning of Revelation starts out where Jesus said, 'I am the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.' The Passover was planned before the foundation of the world.

So, in a sense, this one verse in Gen. 3 tells what's going to happen in the rest of the Bible in the overall framework of it without giving us the details. The details come a little later.

One of the penalties of sin that Adam and Eve received—which comes to every one of us—is human nature, where we are a mixture of good and evil. The evil predominates the good.

Mark 7 is why we need a Savior and something—some power—within us, which we don't have. It has to come from God, which is His Holy Spirit to change human nature. Psychologists like to blame the environment. They like to say: 'he grew up here and this affected him' or 'she grew up here and this affected her.' But the problem that humanism cannot solve is the change of human nature within!

God's plan is to change human nature within and re-create us spiritually so we can enter into His kingdom as a spirit being at the resurrection.

But let's look at where we are as human beings first. This is all a result, as Paul wrote, 'by one man sin entered into the world' and 'by sin came death.' For this reason, 'all have sinned.' Having a nature of death means you're deficient. Because you're going to die, that means there is nothing that you can do of yourself, regardless of how good it is, that is going to last forever, because you're going to die.

What they haven't solved is… And every time a crime happens where there is someone who is supposed to be noted as 'good and upright and well liked'—like murderers and escaped and hadn't got re-captured, like one in Colorado. He was on the lamb for 20 years. He didn't violate one law for over 20 years. He even joined a church and became a leading member. Then one night on the TV show The Most Wanted, they had his picture and one of the parishioners recognized him and turned him in.

So, all the 'good' that he did, did it undo the evil that he had done? No! There has to be a change of nature within. Jesus talks about this nature, and He says:

Mark 7:21: "For from within, out of the hearts of men go forth evil thoughts…"—and can also be works, because in order to do something you have you have to think about it first. If you don't think about it you're going to have an accident.

"…adulteries, fornications, murders" (v 21). That follows right along with the Ten Commandments; that's why God said you shouldn't do these things.

Verse 22: "Thefts, covetousness, wickednesses, guile, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; all these evils go forth from within, and these defile a man" (vs 22-23).

Now let's see what happens when you have unbridled, untrained human nature; untrained to be at least good and decent by knowing right from wrong.

I got a letter from a woman who said, 'When my grandmother was growing up they would go to school—this was back in the hills of Tennessee—it was a small school and the teacher would open with prayer and they would have the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. They would study the Bible and they were told what to do that was good, and what not to do that was evil.' By that teaching they were able to keep down the wildness of human nature. They still didn't change the heart from within, but at least they had some control.

Let's see what happens, and this (Gen. 6) is what we're seeing in the world today. The more lawlessness that exists, the more crime that is committed, and the more police that are necessary to control people, because they don't control themselves. This is what happened before the Flood. Remember, Jesus said concerning Noah and His [Christ's] return, 'As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of man.'

Genesis 6:5: "And the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

Now we have a lot of things to amplify it even more. One of the worst offenders is all the media and entertainment world and the electronic games that they have today. A lot of them get right into pure demonism. 'Everyone does what is right in his own eyes.' That's what we have today: be free, choose what you want. God says to choose the good, not the evil.

Verse 6: "And the LORD repented that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. And the LORD said, 'I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the crawling thing, and the fowl of the air; for I repent that I have made them.' But Noah… [one man and his family] …found grace in the eyes of the LORD" (vs 6-8).

Now, after the Flood and everything was destroyed. And there is evidence that they were mixing the genes, just like they are today. They've discovered with stem-cell research that you can make stem-cells out of the cells in your skin. You don't need to take the embryonic cells. I'm sure they had sophisticated way of even mixing kinds. You have to ask: Why did God destroy man and beast, unless the beasts were also polluted.

It says that Noah was "…perfect in his generations…" (v 9)—meaning the inheritance that he had that came down from Adam. There is something to that. After the Flood:

Genesis 8:20: "And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and he took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar."

What does this tell us? They had the law of clean and unclean meats at that time; that was also understood!

Verse 21: And the LORD smelled a sweet savor; and the LORD said in His heart, 'I will not again curse the ground for man's sake—although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will not again smite every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." (vs 21-22)—which tells you how their sins affected things before the Flood.

It doesn't tell us here, but we have to—by looking at the evidence of the shortening of the years of the length of man's life—conclude that that's how God compensated for the evil. He didn't let them live as long. So, it went down lower and lower to where in the days of Moses it was 70 years, and 'if by strength it's 80 and once in a while you meet someone who is over 100-years-old. There's a man in Britain that ran a marathon at 101-years-old. There are some around, but not very many.

The point is, you have to change the heart! The only way the heart is changed is by God's Spirit and believing in God.

Abraham: The first Sign of Passover in the Bible:

This also has to do with the overall plan of God, which was planned 'before the foundation of the world.'

Now we come to the time of Abraham, and the reason God chose Abraham was because he was willing to obey Him. Abraham at this point was 85-years-old. He hadn't had any children and he thought that since it was legal to do so, to take one of the servants and adopt him as a son and let him carry on the name, and that's how God was going to do it.

Genesis 15:4: "And behold, the Word of the LORD came to him saying, 'This man shall not be your heir; but he that shall come forth out of your own loins shall be your heir.'"

Here was the guarantee, the beginning of the covenant, and this was, as we will see, Passover Day and a covenant between God and Abraham.

Verse 5: "And He brought him outside and said, 'Look now toward the heavens and number the stars—if you are able to count them.'…." When can you see the stars? At night! What star do you see in the daytime? The sun! It's so bright that you can't see any of the other heavenly bodies. So, this has to be at night.

"…And He said to him, 'So shall your seed be'" (v 5)—that comes from your own loins (v 4)—and his wife at that time was 75-years-old. Not to much activity for child-production.

Verse 6: "And he believed in the LORD…." Now we're beginning to see some pre-cursers of New Testament doctrine. Jesus said to the Jews, 'If you do not believe that I AM, you shall die in your sins.'

 "…And He accounted it to him [Abraham] for righteousness" (v 6). We've talked about the two things that were done:

• James talks about the works, which was a confirmation of the covenant to Isaac later
• here He's talking about the belief

It was something that Abraham could not do. He couldn't count the stars, no one can count the stars. Only God knows them by numbers; He created them! When you look at the stars there is a glory to them. Later, Daniel prophesied that those who 'turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars of heaven.' Jesus said that those who are 'the children of the kingdom shall shine as the sun in its strength.'

We have here not only numbers, but we also have a spiritual eternal prophecy, which is that 'His seed will not only be numbered, but be like the stars.' This shows God's plan; not in detail as we have it today, but nevertheless, just like Gen. 3:15 it was there.

Verse 6: "And he [Abraham] believed in the LORD. And He accounted it to him for righteousness."

Just like today, we believe in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and it's counted to us for righteousness, and also for forgiveness and repentance of sin.

Verse 7: "And He said to him, 'I am the LORD that brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.' And he said, 'Lord GOD, by what shall I know that I shall inherit it?' And He said to him, 'Take Me a heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon'" (vs 7-9).

Obviously, he wasn't doing this at night, so this had to be the next day. So, we have night/day. Let's follow along with the sequence and see what happened.

First of all, let me explain that this was a special sacrifice of these animals. You'll notice that he didn't build an altar like Noah did to offer the animals. These were offered in a different manner, because this was a covenant sacrifice.

Verse 10: "And he took all these to himself, and divided them in the middle… [cut them down the middle, from head to tail, all the guts spilling out] …and laid each piece opposite the other…"—side by side. He took the heifer and one on the right and one on the left and left a path to walk down the middle of it. Same way with the ram, she-goat and turtledove. He didn't split the young pigeons, and put one on one side and one on the other.

Verse 11: And when the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away." We're going to see that Abram's name was changed to Abraham, and he did not walk down between those animals. This was for God to do in the special covenant that laid the foundation of the Passover for the New Testament; for the Old Testament and the New Testament, as we will see.

Verse 12: "And it came to pass, as the sun was going down…"—toward evening. We are going to see, and as you will find in the book, The Day That Jesus the Christ Died, the timing of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross follows the timing of the events with these sacrifices and the near death experience that Abraham experienced.

"…that a deep sleep fell upon Abram…." (v 12). What does the Bible liken death to? Sleep! This is a near death experience.

"…And, behold, a horror of great darkness fell upon him!" (v 12). God wanted Abraham to know the greatness of what was going to happen by this great appalling, horrible darkness that came upon him, which was the closest thing he could experience to dying.

{note sermon: How to Figure the 400 & 430 Years}

Then God made a promise, v 13: "And He said to Abram, 'You must surely know that your seed shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs… [that's true, they didn't inherit the land until Josh. 5] …(and shall serve them and they shall afflict them) four hundred years." The parenthetical statement separates the thought. "…in a land that is not theirs 400 years." That's the conclusion of the statement. It's awfully hard to get the true meaning in English vs the Hebrew. The Hebrew makes the parenthetical statement clear.

Verse 14: "And also I will judge that nation whom they shall serve. And afterward they shall come out with great substance. And you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.' And it came to pass—when the sun went down and it was dark…"

• v 5—counting the stars had to be at night
• vs 7-11—had to be the next day
• v 12—the sun was going down (the day ends at sundown)

Verse 17: "And it came to pass—when the sun went down and it was dark behold, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between those pieces. In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, 'I have given this land to your seed, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates'" (vs 17-18). Then He lists all the Canaanites.

What happened? Abraham saw this burning lamp and then a smoking furnace followed it! This was revealing in this vision to Abraham that God was passing between the pieces of those animal sacrifice in an absolute covenant. It's also called a maledictory oath. What God was doing was pledging His own future death to fulfill His covenant with Abraham. There were two seeds:

• the physical seed
• the spiritual seed

I'm sure that when Abraham awoke and looked where those sacrifices had been laid, there was nothing but ashes. And to show Abraham, by His Word, that He absolutely would do this.

Let's look at the promise. We know that Isaac was born and the covenant was reconfirmed to Isaac. When I say two seeds, I'm saying:

• Isaac
• Jesus Christ

Galatians 3:15: "Brethren (I am speaking from a human perspective), even when a man's covenant has been ratified, no one nullifies it, or adds a codicil to it."

The King James has 'testament,' but a testament is different. A testament can legally be changed anytime before your death. A covenant must have the symbolic death of the person evidenced by a sacrifice. That's why those animals were sacrificed there. That's why when—you've seen this in the movies—the white man and the Indians would make a covenant they would cut on the palms of the hands and put the hands together mingle the blood. That was a covenant oath, meaning that their agreement was binding at the time that they had that covenant ratified by the mingling of the blood. God ratified the covenant when He walked through the parts. It was going to take place.

It had to do with the seed that came from Isaac, the physical seed to become the children of Israel, and it had to do with the spiritual seed that came through Christ, and was also reflected about us in the same manner of the children of promise.

Verse 16: "Now, to Abraham and to his Seed… [showing that it's referring to Christ] …were the promises spoken. He does not say, 'and to your seeds,' as of many; but as of one, 'and to your Seed,' which is Christ. Now this I say, that the covenant ratified beforehand by God to Christ cannot be annulled by the Law, which was given four hundred and thirty years later, so as to make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is by law, it is no longer by promise. But God granted it to Abraham by promise. Why then the Law?…." (vs 16-19).

In the King James this is another of those badly translated verses.

Verse 19: "Why then the Law?…. [that was given to Israel] …It was placed alongside the promises for the purpose of defining transgressions, until the Seed should come to whom the promise was made, having been ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator."

Let's see where the seed applies to Isaac, and it also applies to Christ; its also applies to us.

Verse 27: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (vs 27-29).

What was the promise? So shall your seed be as the stars in heaven!That's the spiritual seed! The physical seed were the descendants through Isaac.

Galatians 4:28: Now we, brethren, like Isaac, are the children of promise." There's the parallel between the two!

Let's pick up the story concerning the Passover. We will see that the Passover for Israel was different than this first Passover with Abraham.

The Passover and the Covenant with the Children of Israel:

The Passover of the children of Israel in Egypt was not a covenant day! That's important to understand. The Passover in Gen. 15—that was on the Passover Day—was a covenant day. The Passover that Christ gave before His death was also a covenant day. This day, Exo. 12, was not a covenant day.

Exodus 12:3: "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.'"

Verse 6: "And you shall keep it up until the beginning of the fourteenth day of the same month. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it between the two evenings."

What was this Passover for, though it's on the same day? As a sign of protection for the firstborn of both man and beast, male and female! We need to understand that the Passover with Israel was not a covenant Passover! It was to commemorate the passing over of the firstborn.

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 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" (vs 26-27).

When was the covenant day? We will cover that, but I want to cover something else first!

Let's see the promise of God to that very day, or that self-same day, that the children of Israel left. Remember the promise that God gave in Gen. 15 that they would leave. It was 400 years later or actually 430 from the time of the confirmation of the covenant.

Verse 40: "Now, the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years, and it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, it was even on that very same day, all the armies of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. It 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 to be observed by all the children of Israel in their generations" (vs 40-42).

What day was that? This is the beginning of the 15th, the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread! If you go back to Gen. 15 you have:

• the promises given on the night of the 14th
• the sacrifices given on the day portion of the 14th
• the smoking furnace and the burning torch after sunset, which begins the 15th

After God promised that they would be brought out of the land. Here it is exactly 430 years later that God kept His word to the very same day of what He did in performing that with Abraham! That means that's how we know that Gen. 15 is actually the first Passover. The one with Israel is the second Passover, and it's a little different.

(go to the next track)

We need to see the two-day sequence:

• Passover on one night
• the leaving on the next night

When did Israel enter into covenant with God? He entered into covenant with Abraham (Gen. 15). But nowhere here in Exo. 12 do we find that this is a covenant sacrifice. This is a sacrifice to spare the firstborn, but also a sacrifice so that God can begin dealing with the people directly. No one can come to God without a sacrifice.

That's why we have the sacrifice of Christ today through Whom we go. That's why Jesus said, 'No one can come to the Father except through Me,' because it must be through His sacrifice. There always has to be a sacrifice in approaching God.

The children of Israel left Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, came down to Mt. Sinai and God laid out the basis of His covenant. We know that the Ten Commandments were spoken on the 50th day, which became the Day of Pentecost.

I want to cover something that is important that we need to realize in how God operates. God gives what you would say is an overall agreement statement with the understanding that He's going to fill in the details later.
When they come to Mt. Sinai, God is ready to make the covenant with them. Here is the covenant proposal:

Exodus 19:3: "And Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him out of the mountain, saying, 'Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings…"'" (vs 3-4)—meaning God protected them and watched over them.

It doesn't mean that He carried them on His back. The eagle's wings means His unseen protection.

"…and brought you unto Myself…. [here's the beginning of the covenant]: …Now, therefore, if you will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant…" (v 5). Now God is ready to enter into a covenant relationship with them, which requires a sacrifice.

"'…then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a Holy nation.' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel" (vs 5-6).

This is an overall outline. Israel's purpose of the 12 tribes from that time even on down to this day was to bring the Word of God to the nations of the world. The whole story of the sins of Israel is that instead of doing that they wanted to become like the nations of the world and reject God.

Verse 7: "And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these words, which the LORD commanded him. And all the people answered together and said, 'All that the LORD has spoken we will do.'…." (vs 7-8).

It's kind of like this: a covenant is likened unto a marriage, and when the covenant was completed God was the husband to Israel. What we are seeing here with the overall outline is this, if we could liken it unto a proposal for marriage:

The man comes to his sweetheart and says, 'Will you marry me.' She says, ' But of course!' Do you know all the details at that point? No you don't; they all come later!

To keep the surprises down, it is until 'death do you part.' Every marriage is going to have its ups and downs, it's good and bad and difficulties involved. God gave the general proposal to Israel, 'Will you marry Me? Will you do what I say?' The wife is to obey the husband. All the people of Israel said yes.

"…'All that the LORD has spoken we will do.' And Moses returned the words of the people to the LORD. And the LORD said to Moses, 'Lo, I come to you in a thick cloud…'" (vs 8-9).

God says, 'Now that you have agreed this is the general thing that's going to happen. I'm going to come down on Mt. Sinai and I'm going to start giving them the details'

Verse 11: "And be ready for the third day…"

Here is the basis for the covenant that God gave to Israel. Of course, the Ten Commandments are here. We go to Gen. 26:5 quite often to show and prove a point that is important. A lot of people say that there were no Laws until the Ten Commandments were give by God when He gave them to Israel from Mt. Sinai. If there's no Law there's no sin! They are wrong in that!

Here God is talking to Isaac after Abraham had died, and He's reconfirming the covenant:

Genesis 26:3: "Stay in this land, and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your seed, I will give all these lands; and I will establish the oath, which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and will give to your seed… [the physical progeny from Isaac] …all these lands. And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws" (vs 3-5).

These are the same laws that God is going to give Israel in Exo. 20-23. It's very important because 'God is the same yesterday, today and forever.' All of His laws, statutes and judgments are all binding. But you go one step further: obey My voice! That's the key! Regardless of what God says, we do!

Let's go to where God began giving the laws and commandments, which would become part of the covenant. Remember that in every covenant there are always laws, commandments, statutes and judgments—always! You're not going to enter into a covenant with God—Who is Lawgiver—and expect to live a lawless life and do as you please. It will never happen! You can never be in covenant with God; you will be out of covenant.

God gave them the Ten Commandments. All the people saw the thundering and lightening and the noise and wind. They got afraid and said, 'O Moses, you speak to God and you tell us what God says. We will hear and obey.'

After giving the Ten Commandments and telling Moses that; Exodus 20:20: "And Moses said to the people, 'Do not fear, for God has come to prove you and so that His fear may be before your faces, so that you may not sin.' And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was" (vs 20-21). And Moses went up to speak to God.

What did God do? Read the rest of Exo. 20-23 for the statutes and judgments! In them you will find:

• the Sabbath
• the Holy Days
• how to conduct your life
• how you handle things concerning:
  • murder
  • theft

You have the Ten Commandments outlining the laws, then you have the statutes and judgment that tells you how you apply the Law in certain instances.

After Pentecost God entered into covenant with the children of Israel. After they entered into covenant, Moses went back up on the mountain for another 40 days and 40 nights to get other instructions, especially on how to build the tabernacle.

Exodus 24:1: "And He said to Moses…" You have to have witnesses, so God wanted to make sure that it wasn't just Moses and everybody had to believe only Moses. That's why at a wedding you have the bride's maid and the best man, and other people there to witness the marriage. This becomes a legal thing because everyone has seen it.

"…'Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu… [sons of Aaron who were to be priests] …and seventy of the elders of Israel… [the leading ones from all the tribes] …and worship afar off. And Moses alone shall come near the LORD, but they shall not come near. Neither shall the people go up with him.' And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, 'All the words, which the LORD has said, we will do'" (vs 1-3).

In a marriage ceremony do you promise to 'love and obey'? Yes! Do you promise to provide? Yes! That's what they were doing.

Verse 4: "And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar at the base of the mountain and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the children of Israel who offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of bullocks to the LORD. And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the Book of the Covenant… [no oral tradition here; it was written down] …and read in the ears of the people…." ((vs 4-7).
They wanted to be sure, because it started out with: God says 'You're going to be a kingdom of priests to bring My Word to the whole world.' How are you to conduct your life, and we'll enter into covenant on it; so Moses read all the words, everything in Exo. 20-23.

"…And they said, 'All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient.'" (v 7). This becomes a binding covenant with these following actions, because remember, no covenant is binding unless there are sacrifices!

Verse 8: "And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, 'Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you concerning all these words.'"

The Passover with Israel was not a covenant Passover. The covenant with Israel came after Pentecost, so this is about day 52 or 53. Nevertheless, they entered into the covenant. After that was all done and the people said yes, now you have to have the witnesses go up and see the other half of it.

Verse 9: "And Moses went up, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the heavens in clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay his hands. Also they saw God… [though the Sea of Glass] …and ate and drank" (vs 9-11). So, you have a covenant meal.

• you have the covenant proposal
• you have the words of the covenant
• you have the sacrifice of the covenant
• you have a covenant meal

Verse 12: "And the LORD said to Moses, 'Come up to Me in the mountain, and be there. And I will give you tablets of stone, and the law, and commandments which I have written, so that you may teach them.'" So, he went up there for 40 days and 40 nights.

The first tables of stone were cut by God. The second tables of stone were cut by Moses and then God wrote on them. There's one step removed whenever there is sin.

This is when the covenant with Israel took place. This covenant was going to be in force until the New Covenant, which was prophesied in several places. You can see what happened with the covenant, how Israel sinned against God. Because they didn't keep the covenant and they didn't have the Spirit of God, and God's plan was to actually come and die Himself for the sins of the children of Israel and the people of the world, God was going to establish a new covenant, which would be on the Passover Day.

We have the covenant given by God on the Passover Day to Abraham, and sealed when God passed through the path of the animals and they were burned up. Then the covenant with Israel, which was not given on a Passover Day. Now we come to the proposed New Covenant. In Jer. 31 God gives an outline of it just like He did in Exo. 19 when He gave an outline of His proposal to the children of Israel.

The New Covenant Passover:

In the same manner that God gave the outline of what He was going to do with the children of Israel, now He gives an outline of the New Covenant without the details. But He gives some important things that are going to change the situation that was with the children of Israel.

Jeremiah 31:31: "'Behold, the days come,' says the LORD, 'that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah… [that also has a lot of historical background] …not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which covenant of Mine they broke, although I was a husband to them,' says the LORD; 'but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days,' says the LORD, 'I will put My Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall no more teach each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, "Know the LORD"; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,' says the LORD. 'For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more'" (vs 31-34).

We find that the New Covenant began exactly with that. We had those from the children of Israel, were they not all apostles from the children of Israel? Yes, indeed!

Let's see where Jesus introduces the New Covenant, when it becomes a reality. When it came time to institute the New Covenant, the apostles did not have a clue that He was going to institute the New Covenant. This came after three and a half years of teaching them. They knew that everything was going to be different and new, but they didn't know how. It couldn't be new and different until Jesus established the covenant with them, the New Covenant!

We find that this was done on the Passover Day, and we're just going to review just a couple of Scriptures:

Matthew 26:17: "Now, on the first of the unleaveneds…" Everything was unleavened on that day, which took place before the Passover occurred.

"…the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, 'Where do You desire that we prepare for You to eat the Passover?' And He said, 'Go into the city to such a man, and say to him, "The Teacher says, 'My time is near; I will keep the Passover with My disciples at your house'"'" (vs 17-18).

Now let's see the events that took place. And I might mention that in the book A Harmony of the Gospels we have the Gen. 15 covenant sacrifice and the sacrifice and death of Jesus paralleled side-by-side so you can see the timing of it. Now let's see what took place, and they did not know that this was going to occur. The foot-washing had already taken place. They came to eat the Passover of Exo. 12 with the roasted lamb, the bitter herbs and so forth.

Now He was going to do something different. He was going to tell them about the New Covenant.

Verse 26: "And as they were eating, Jesus took the bread…" Unleavened bread because that was the name of the day and they were commanded to eat unleavened bread with it.

Most of the tricky arguments that come from people concerning questions in the Bible, come because they don't understand the Bible and also because there are many times that people do not understand and confused. The reason is because there is also someone who is 'the author of confusion—Satan the devil'—and that's not God!

"…and blessed it; then He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body'" (v 26). We'll see later on when we come to some of these again, that He says, 'being broken for you.'

1-Corinthians 11:23—Paul says: "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and after giving thanks, He broke it and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body, which is being broken for you. This do in the remembrance of Me'" (vs 23-24). I'm sure they didn't understand that. Nevertheless, they did because He was making the covenant with them.

There has to be shed blood to seal the covenant, and that blood is going to be the blood of Jesus Christ. So, rather than the actual blood of Christ, and the actual body of Christ, the bread became the symbol of His body—sinless and broken—and the wine became the blood of the New Covenant.

Here's where He instituted what He prophesied in Jer. 31.

Matthew 26:27: "And He took the cup; and after giving thanks, He gave it to them, saying, 'All of you drink of it; for this is My blood, the blood of the New Covenant, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins'" (vs 27-28).

The blood of the covenant they understood. They didn't understand how it was going to be His blood, yet, because they didn't know that He was going to be crucified. They couldn't understand it until after He was resurrected from the dead and explained it to them.

Verse 29: "But I say to you, from this time forward I will not drink at all of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it anew with you in the Kingdom of My Father."

So, there going to be another covenant. That will be the marriage covenant after we're resurrected. The wine became symbolic of His blood.

In Exo. 12 it said that only those who were circumcised could partake of the Passover. Today, under the New Covenant, the circumcision is of the heart and that takes place with baptism for the beginning of the changing of your nature. Only those who are baptized should partake of the Passover.

After the foot-washing, which comes first, then the eating of the unleavened bread and the wine with meaning of that explained during the Passover service. Then we have the words of the covenant, though different timing of how God gave the covenant to Israel and then filled in the details after they said yes.

Well, likewise after the apostles partook of the first New Covenant Passover, then afterward John 14-17 contain the words of the New Covenant. This New Covenant is establishing something different between God and those whom He calls.

Instead of coming to a temple with a physical altar, now you come to God the Father in heaven above and the spiritual altar and the sacrifice is Jesus Christ.

When you go through—I suggest that you read all the way through—John 14-17, you will find that every aspect of what we will be experiencing:

• in our relationship with God
• with the difficulties that we will have in the world

All of it all combined. We have that when we enter into the covenant and the details are given to us, we understand what is expected of us.

• the Passover Day is the covenant day for the New Covenant
• the Passover Day with Abraham was the covenant that God gave to Abraham (Gen. 15)

That's why it's mentioned in Gal. 3-4 that we're Abraham's children and heirs according to the promise. In both cases we have:

• the covenant
• the instructions
• the pledge
• the sacrifice
• the Word of God

That gives an overview of the Passover that was planned before the foundation of the world!

All Scriptures from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version

Scriptural References:

• Genesis 3:15
• Mark 7:21-23
• Genesis 6:5-9
• Genesis 8:20-22
• Genesis 15:4-18
• Galatians 3:15-19, 27-29
• Galatians 4:28
• Exodus 12:3, 6, 26-27, 40-42
• Exodus 19:3-9, 11
• Genesis 26:3-5
• Exodus 20:20-21
• Exodus 24:1-12
• Jeremiah 31:31-34
• Matthew 26:17-18, 26
• 1 Corinthians 11:23-24
• Matthew 26:27-29

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Revelation 20
• Joshua 5
• Exodus 20-23
• John 14-17

Also referenced:

Books:

• The Day That Jesus the Christ Died by Fred R. Coulter
• A Harmony of the Gospels by Fred R. Coulter

Sermon: How to Figure the 400 & 430 Years

FRC: bo
Transcribed: 4/1/18