Understanding Difficult Passover Scriptures

Clearing up mistranslations and false teachings concerning compared to
the Truth of what the Bible really says

Fred R. Coulter—February 29, 2020

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Greetings, brethren! Welcome to Sabbath services! Tomorrow is the first of March and we're just a few weeks away from Passover. As a matter of fact, five weeks and a day.

{announcements left out of transcript}

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Because of problems and difficulties with the Passover, every question you could possibly have concerning the Passover. I know of brethren who start reading this about the middle of January and finish it by Passover time. That will be helpful, because it straightens out a lot of difficult things.

Why is there so much difficulty concerning the Passover? We'll cover that later!

But what I want to do is give just a brief overview of some things that are taking place in prophecy. I just did two segments on Church at Home (churchathome.org) on the power of prophecy and ten things that are happening right now, which fit into prophecy.

Remember that in Matt. 24 everything leading up to the abomination of desolation, those come in cycles over and over again. This is where a lot of people get all discombobulated concerning when Jesus is going to return. The key thing to keep in mind, even these things are going on… And right now we have the Coronavirus going on. In some ways it's seems to be terribly evil and in other ways, compared to flu, not very many people die. How is all of that going to work out? We'll have to see!

News Headlines:

• The Locust in Africa. I mentioned that before. There are big locust and it takes them just about an hour to completely wipe out a whole large plantation of food. So, there's going to be starvation there.

• Extreme weather, upset weather. I've got a picture of the sun that Ron Cary sent to me. What is interesting with that is that there are no sunspots! When there are sunspots, that means there's more radiation, more heat coming to the earth. This picture of the sun shows no sunspots. If it stays that way, we may be in what is called a solar minimum, which is that we will have cold and wet springs, and colder and wetter winters.

It's interesting that every time the global warming, or weather changing comes up… Remember that a couple of years ago they had a big meeting in Denmark and God sent so much snow that they had to cancel the meetings. Here they say that it's warming, so it looks like that if the solar minimum comes in, God is cooling it.

• A lot of flooding everywhere. Last year we had a lot and this year we have some, but not quite as much.
• Major earthquakes, and as a result of that:
• Volcanoes
• Coronavirus breaking out
• The African Swine flu
• Pig Ebola

Isn't it interesting that the Coronavirus is attributed to eating those unclean wild animals that God says not to eat? So, there's a reason why God says not to eat them. Here we have the Ebola Swine Flu in Africa!

• H5N1 bird flu—they had to kill thousands of chickens in China after they had already just several months ago, 147-millon hogs because of Swine Flu.

Add that to the Coronavirus, everything there, and China is going to be getting low on supplies of food, especially the pork.

• Another bird flu, which is even more frightening, has started up in numerous places on the globe. It made it's first appearance in Germany where the virus killed 44 chickens out of a flock of 69 in Southwestern Germany.

We'll see where that goes. Remember, all of these start with small insignificant things and grow larger. Now let's look at something else that is even more astounding:

Seventh-day Adventists, Roman Catholics and Evangelicals Sign a Historic 'Ecumenical Charter' that Affirms Faith in 'One, Holy, Catholic Apostolic Church' February 20, 2020 by Andy Roman {http://adventmessenger.org/seventh-day-adventists-roman-catholics-and-evangelicals-sign-a-historic-ecumenical-charter-that-affirms-faith-in-one-holy-catholic-apostolic-church/}

Go back in time and the SDAs have been vehement Catholics. So, what happened, it shows a picture of Cardinal Matteo Zuppi and Adventist Pastor Giovanni Caccamo in Italy, signing the Charter.

On Saturday, January 25, 2020, an historical "Ecumenical Charter" was signed by Seventh-day Adventists, Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, Evangelicals and Methodists. The signing ceremony took place in the San Paolo Maggiore Roman Catholic Church in Bologna, Italy. The document that was signed is a pledge of commitment to each other. Adventists pledged a commitment to Rome, and Rome reciprocated that commitment. Make no mistake…

This is going to split the SDA Church. The main leader of the SDA Church was there and he's playing two sides: for ecumenism and against ecumenism. We'll see how that goes. This was put out by the SDAs.

…the churches that signed this document promised to uphold the principles of the Ecumenical Charter, which includes affirming an allegiance to each other.

That's subordinates any commitment to God in spite of other people. There are quite a few things in that document:

…"one, holy, catholic and apostolic" and therefore the "inescapable ecumenical task consists in making visible this unity."

Let's look at what Rev. 17 says; this is quite a thing when you really understand what it's telling us. We've been here many, many times, and it fits very carefully everything that we have said for years. Remember, this is a prophecy of the fullness of this coming to pass at the end-time.

Revelation 17:1: "And one of the seven angels who had the seven vials came and spoke with me, saying to me, 'Come here; I will show you the judgment of the great whore who sits upon many waters.'"

Verse 15—here's a Biblical definition of the waters: "Then he said to me, 'The waters that you saw, where the whore sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.'" Perfect description of what's going on here with this Ecumenical Charter!

Verse 2: "With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication…"

Many don't realize it, but one of the movers and shakers of the United Nations is the Roman Catholic Church. You cannot bring a world together without a unity of religion and a unity and alliance of nations. You've got to have them both. So, we see both of these coming together.

Right now President Donald Trump is doing a little disrupting of that, so we'll see what happens with that. But even if that changes things for a while, when the beast comes on the scene it will expand and come to the fore.

Verse 2: "With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication…"

Why does it say that? Because the kings of the earth ought to have their allegiance to God and not to any church! Don't take it for granted that there aren't a lot of Catholics within our government, and within our courts that even though right now they're ostensively following the Constitution of the United States, those things can change in the future in a blink of an eye.

"…and those who dwell on the earth… [a whole worldwide thing] …were made drunk with the wine of her fornication" (v 2). That means they don't understand the Truth! They don't understand doctrine! They can even read the Bible and not understand it.

Verse 3: "Then he carried me away in the spirit to a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet beast that had seven heads and ten horns, full of names of blasphemy. And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and was adorned with gold and pearls and precious stones; and she had a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominations and the filthiness of her fornication" (vs 3-4).

Then it describes exactly who this woman is, where she came from and how long it's been in existence.

Verse 5: "And across her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT…" It goes all the way back to ancient Babylon, way before the times of King Nebuchadnezzar.

"…THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And after seeing her, I wondered with great amazement" (vs 5-6).

Look at that carefully, there are two categories of martyrs: the saints and those who profess Christ! We've see a lot of the slaughtered by the Muslims. Are the Muslims now coming into alliance with the Catholic? Yes, we've covered that just recently! "…after seeing her, I wondered with great amazement" (v 6).

Verse 14: "These… [the ten horns/kings and eighth head of the seventh (vs 11-12)] …will make war with the Lamb…"

• When does that occur? When Christ returns!
• How does it also occur in other ways? By persecution and the killing of true Christians!

Remember, when Paul was on his way to Damascus, Christ knocked him down to the ground because he was persecuting the Church. Jesus said, 'Why do you persecute Me.' If he persecutes the Church, he's persecuting Christ. But the war is at the end-time.

"…but the Lamb shall overcome them; for He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful" (v 14).

What two categories of people, in general and in particular, do you have? The called, the chosen and the faithful! That's another description of the Churches of God. Then you have the whole population of the world made drunk through the abominations, fornications, policies and laws of the kings of the earth and the great whore!

Remember, it says 'the mother of the harlots.' Who are the harlots? All the other religions of the world! Are they all coming home to Rome? Yes, one by one! They're in contact with the Hindus, the Buddhists, the Muslims, the Confucians, the Protestants and now the Seventh Day Adventists.

You would think that the Seventh Day Adventists would be the last people in the world to go sign a concord with Rome! If you want it, you have to write for it—we have to make them up—3 DVDs on what is called The Jesuit Agenda for the SDA Church! That is an agenda of infiltration and changing doctrine, and the last doctrine to change is the Sabbath. The SDAs have already changed all the other doctrines:

• many of them believe in Christmas and the holidays of this world
• they believe in the resurrection on Sunday

All of those are infiltrated doctrines that have come from Rome!

Look at our church experience, what happened to the Church (WCG)? It was taken down by Rome and by the Jews in the person of Stanley R. Rader and Robert L. Kuhn! They were the major infiltrators—movers and shakers—to take it down.

Now what do you have with the remnant of the Worldwide Church of God called Grace International Fellowship? Outside of the other churches that scattered? The other churches were scattered, because Paul writes that if they don't adhere to the sound words of Jesus Christ, you withdraw yourself!(1-Tim. 6).  That's the way that God keeps the Church pure! It reduces the numbers to the actual ones who were truly converted.

If you have a church full of unconverted or semi-converted people… What are semi-converted people? Those who are good people who just want to get along and have a church to go to! They're the ones who are able to transfer over to Sunday-keeping and Christmas, and so forth. The ones who are truly converted will not do that! That's quite a thing that is happening!

CORRECTION: I have one other thing to mention right here, since we're talking about heresy: I made a statement a couple of weeks ago about UCG—United Church of God—and their talking about the nature of Christ! Well, that was misled to me that they were going to change the nature of Christ and God, but that was not true. They still believe that Christ was the One Who was the God of the Old Testament called Yahweh. I need to make that correction and sorry for the information that I got that wasn't correct.

Nevertheless, we need to be on guard and I'll make sure that I'll checkout the information much more before I make any announcement like that. I just wanted to clarify that, and let you know that I talked to Andy Diemer who is one of the pastors of UCG and we have that all cleared up. We had a nice conversation. I knew him at Ambassador College, and he's doing quite well himself.

They weren't entertaining the idea of it, it was when a specific Church of God and several other ministers even among them—who have since left—were talking about that God the Father was the active God of the Old Testament. So, they were discussing that, and rejected that, and have said that the One Who became Jesus Christ.

It was good that they went over it and checked it out, but they weren't entertaining it to adopt it.

*****

Let's transition to something entirely different. I got some information about what the Jews believed concerning the Old Testament Passover, and how they reconcile what they're doing today. It was amazing!

A lot of people think, and the Jews give out that they do, they know the Truth of the Bible. But what is the thing that leads them astray? The traditional interpretations!

In reading what was sent to me—and this was covering Deut. 16, which we may cover part of today—they view the things concerning the Old Testament as the writer of Deuteronomy, rather than what God say about Deuteronomy, and what God said about Exo. 12-14 and so forth.

If there's an apparent conflict then you need to resolve the conflict. When we were first confronted with the problem in Worldwide Church of God, Robert L. Kuhn and Lester Grabbe asserted that the Passover was always on the 15th.

I've got that 44-year-old paper that they wrote. If you want it, I'll send it to you. But what we're going to do is look at the crux of the problem because of the King James translation of the Bible in Exo. 12.

They even said that they didn't know where the name of the Passover came from. But it clearly says here that this is the Lord's Passover. Why is it called the Passover? Because God passed over the houses of the Israelites and killed the firstborn of the Egyptians!

I've got my old handy-dandy King James version that I used for years. I'm going to read you what it is in the KJV. One of the things that we did with The Faithful Version was—one of the reasons that it was done… Let me back up a little bit:

The question came up in Worldwide: Why didn't they do a translation of the Bible? I asked Dr. Dorothy that when we had our Greek class! He told me it was political. The question was: Who would get credit for it? How could you have something that important come out from the Church if Herbert Armstrong didn't do it? Herbert Armstrong was not a scholar in any of the things relating to translation or the original languages!

So, everything was done this way: Whenever a sermon was given, they would say, 'This Scripture reads this way, but the Greek really means this…' or 'the Hebrews really means this…'

One of the reasons for The Faithful Version is to eliminate that. In other words, the ministers used that as leverage of exalted knowledge over the brethren. Whereas, if they could have a proper translation, they couldn't do that. The brethren could read it for what it is. That's what we've done with The Faithful Version—Old Testament and New Testament.

I remember the very first time that I heard a sermon before Passover, and that was in 1961, and I was attending in Sacramento and Ron Kelly was the minister there. He read this:

Exodus 12:3 (KJV): "Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, 'In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls… [people] …every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year…." (vs 3-5).

Most of the lambs are born in late February and early March. So, you can't have it from the year before, and a large animal. It was to be a small animal.

"…ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats…. [here's the key right here, and this is the beginning of the mix-up begins because it's not accurately translated]: …And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening" (vs 5-6).

What is the evening? There are two words that have been translated even or evening in the KJV. The first one is here, and the Hebrew word here is 'ben ha arbayim.' I even have a note in my Oxford Bible saying, between the two evenings! When is that?

Jewish tradition says anywhere from 3 pm to sunset! If the Passover falls on the Sabbath it's from 1 pm until sunset to allow for the killing of the lamb at the temple. Please note that there are no Passover lambs killed at the temple! That is a Jewish tradition!

That ended up being very much in force for at least half of the Jews from the time of coming out of the Babylonian captivity and forward. So, this is between the two evenings!

Do we have a clear Bible definition of what 'ben ha arbayim'—between the two evenings—means? If you can't find one then the Jewish tradition would be correct! This is what was brought into WCG.

Verse 18 is talking about the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Remember that it said in v 5 that they were to kill it in the evening, 'ben ha arbayim.'

Verse 18 (KJV) "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even…"—'ba erev'! Here is a different Hebrew word, but you're not told what it is! And when Ron Kelly gave the first sermon that I heard, he said, 'This one is at the end of the day.'

• How do we know that the one in v 5 is at the beginning of the day?
• What is the difference between 'ben ha arbayim' and 'ba erev'?
• How do we define it?

To this very day, every year I get a paper stating that the Passover and the first day of Unleavened Bread are the same. That's why we have The Christian Passover book.

Notice that this is for the Feast of Unleavened Bread: v 18: "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even."

• What does that evening mean?
• Do we have a Bible definition given by God on what that means? That's the key!

This is what was presented at the conference in 1976 with the paper of Kuhn and Grabbe, and all the traditions of the Jews were brought out, and that the Jews could not be wrong.

I even have a video that I need to watch that is entitled: Did Jesus Die on the Wrong Day? I haven't seen it or know anything about it, but I need to find out about it, so I'll let you know about it next week.

Exo. 16 is the place where God uses both 'ben ha arbayim' and 'ba erev' and that becomes very important. Why?

Exodus 16:1 (KJV): "And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt."

We have a chart in the Passover book that shows that the 15th day of the 2nd month was a Sabbath Day. In 1486B.C. the Passover was in the middle of the week. So, the first month always has 30 days, and you just go 30 days forward and 15 days and you come out on a Sabbath. They were there on the Sabbath.

Verse 2 (KJV): "And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: And the children of Israel said unto them, 'Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger'" (vs 2-3)—quite an attitude!

You would think that after seeing all the plagues and everything that God did to the Egyptians that the children of Israel would go to Moses and say:

Please ask God to send us something to eat, we're out here and have eaten all the unleavened bread. We remember when we had the meat and we're really hungry. Could you please ask God to do something for us?

NO! They went and accused Moses!

Here's something in the Bible you need to understand: Many places it will tell you what's going to happen before it happens! Some people get that confused and think that it happened right then. But that's not the case. In Exo. 16 that's exactly what it's talking about here.

Verse 4 (KJV): "Then said the LORD unto Moses, 'Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.'"

A lot of these things are given: Are you going to walk in the Law of God or not? Think of that in relationship to the Passover and keeping the Passover! Doesn't that actually mean that in doing that we are doing what God has said in the way that God has said?

Verse 5 (KJV): "'And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day…'" Remember that the day He's speaking this is on the Sabbath! The next day is day one!

"'…they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.' And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, 'At even…'" (vs 5-6),

• What 'even' is this?
• 'ben ha arbayim'?

or

• 'ba erev'?
• What is the difference?
  • 'ben ha arbayim' means between the two evenings
  • 'ba erev' means sunset
    • What happens at sunset? Ends the day and begins the new day!

This was being spoken on the Sabbath. At sunset on the Sabbath, which ends the Sabbath Day. Keep that in mind!

"'…then ye shall know that the LORD hath brought you out from the land of Egypt: And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the LORD; for that he heareth your murmurings against the LORD: and what are we, that ye murmur against us?' And Moses said, 'This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat…'" (vs 6-8)— ba erev—sunset!

Remember, over here they were told to not go out on the Sabbath and look for any manna. So, what happened? Some went out looking for manna! What if God sent the quail during the Sabbath Day? He would be breaking the Sabbath Day by the work of sending the quail and making them work!

• When the flesh comes what do you have to do to it to eat?
• What did He send?
• What does this prove?

We will go through it, because we will see that this proves exactly that 'ba erev' means sunset, and 'ben ha arbayim' follows sunset!

(go to the next track)

Why is this so important? This helps us to understand the difference in the evenings; 'ba erev' on the one hand and 'ben ha arbayim' on the other hand. This is doubly important because God is the One Who is doing the speaking! This shows us how God defined the time.

Verse 9 (KJV): "And Moses spake unto Aaron, 'Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the LORD: for he hath heard your murmurings.' And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying… [this is God speaking]: …'I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, "At even ye shall eat flesh…"'" (vs 9-12).

Notice that over here it says, v 6 (KJV): "…'At even…" —'ba erev'—at sunset during the Sabbath Day, and the day was coming to an end.

Then in v 12 (KJV): "…speak unto them, saying, At even… ['ben ha arbayim'] …ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning… ['boqer'] …ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.' And it came to pass, that at even…" (vs 12-13).

How are you going to know what it is the way it's translated in the King James? You won't! But at even in v 13 is 'ben ha arbayim.'

"…the quails came up, and covered the camp…." (v 13).

Why didn't God send the quail immediately during the daytime? He'd be breaking the Sabbath! Then when they went out to look for manna, He would say that 'you're breaking the Sabbath.' And they would say, 'God, You're breaking Your Sabbath.'

"…at even the quails came up, and covered the camp…" (v 13).

• Why cover the camp? So they wouldn't have to go out and look for them!
• Why? Because night was coming on!

"…and in the morning the dew lay round about the host" (v 13). Why? You have to go out and work for your food!

Verse 12—God's says: "…'speak unto them, saying, "At even… ['ben ha arbayim'] …ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God."' And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up…" (vs 12-13).

What do you have to do to quail before you eat them? They came on the camp and they had to kill them, skin them and with their fires going and quail doesn't take very long to cook!

At 'ben ha arbayim' they would eat flesh! So, before they could eat flesh at 'ba erev' God sent it.

This is extremely important because this is where in the Bible it shows the difference between 'ba erev'—sunset—and between the two evening. It also shows:

From the Faithful Version:

Exodus 16:12: "'I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, "Between the two evenings… [ben ha arbayim] …you shall eat flesh…"':

In order for your to eat flesh the quail have to come, drop on the camp and you have to kill them, clean them and roast them, before dark! The only light you would have is the campfire after dark.

"'…and in the morning… [boqer] …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). What does sunset do? Ends the day!

"…that the quails came up and covered the camp. And at sunrise the dew lay all around the camp" (v 13).

They had to get out there early in the morning because if they didn't, when the sun came up it evaporated, gone!

What does this tell us? God's use of the two terms 'evening' in the King James properly translated means sunset, ending the day, and 'ben ha arbayim' begins the next day.

When I was coming back from Daytona Beach we were flying from the east to the west. I could look out the window and see the sun setting, and right where the sun was setting it was light. I could see that it was gradually getting darker, because we're up at 35,000 feet.

What happens is that between the two evenings is a description of time between sunset and dark. Just like there's sunrise and sunset, there's between the two evenings.

What do you have in the morning before the sun rises? The opposite! You have the dark fading and the sun coming up!

Those are happening all the time, everywhere on the earth. So. God shows here that sunset takes place before between the two evenings, which is after sunset until dark!

When I was writing this for the first edition of The Christian Passover book I was with Jim Alexander and his wife and we were in San Antonio. They have a 400-foot tower with a restaurant on top. So, we decided to go eat there. In Texas it is all flat land. We went up in the evening and sat down, and it was one of the rotaries going around slowly. We could look out and see sunset, so we took the time when the sun went down and watched it for 'ben ha arbayim' from then until dark.

Guess how long that period of time was? An hour and 15 minutes!

That's plenty of time to get the quail, kill them, skin them., clean them and roast them and eat them. God said—'ben ha arbayim'—"…Between the two evenings you shall eat flesh…" (v 12). You can't eat the flesh until it comes!

Now let's eliminate another problem. Sunset—'ba erev' defines the ending of one day and the beginning of another, and the first element of time in the next day is 'ben ha arbayim' from sunset until dark.'

Exodus 12:6—speaking of the lamb: "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."

They all had their instructions. Moses gathered the elders together, gave them the instructions and they all went out. They were told to not go out of their houses until morning, which is 'boqer' meaning sunrise.

Grabbe and Kuhn said that morning can mean right after midnight, because they calculated time then the same way we do today. Nonsense!!!

• Who can tell when midnight is in; you don't have watches?
• What happened at midnight? God killed all the firstborn of the Egyptians, man and beast, everything!

The Israelites were spared because they put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost and on the lentil.

• When did they kill the lamb?

"…And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it between the two evenings" (v 6)—between sunset and dark!

In this case I imagine that it was this way: All their houses were in the land of Goshen, so they had particular ones on top of the houses watching the sun go down. As soon as the sun went down—'ba erev' is a space of time of about five minutes. That's how long it takes for the sun to touch the horizon as you look at it—appears to touch—until the sun is down. So, 'ba erev' is that short period of time, about five minutes. Then begins 'ben ha arbayim.' So, they would kill the lamb between the two evenings.

Verse 7: "And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and upon the upper doorpost of the houses in which they shall eat it." And in the instructions it says, 'None of you shall go out of the door of his house until 'boqer': sunrise!

They couldn't leave at midnight! They left their houses in the morning, gathered at Rameses in their marching orders and then they left Rameses the next night!

They would have been killed if they left shortly after midnight. How long did it take to kill the firstborn? Well, it may have come in waves through all of Egypt! So, if they would have left, they would have been killed because God told them not to and they would not be under the blood!

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…."

When did the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread begin? 'ba erev' or sunset of the 14th, which begins the 15th!

We will see in Lev. 23 in a little bit that the 15th day of the 1st month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That begins at sunset of the 14th.

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…."

Did God bring them out of their houses on the Passover night? No! So, they had to gather at Rameses!

"…Therefore, you shall keep this day in your generations as a law forever. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at sunset… [ba erev, ending the 14th, beginning the 15th] …you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at sunset" (vs 17-18)—ending the 21st day! Count 15th-21st; that's what it's showing.

Let's see about the children of Israel coming to Rameses, v 37: "And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth… [that wasn't very far] …the men being about six hundred thousand on foot, apart from little ones. And also a mixed multitude went up with them, and flocks and herds, very much livestock" (vs 37-38).

In order for that to happen you've got to have it all organized for them to go. Think of the confusion that it would have been if they would have left their houses a little bit after midnight. It was nearly a full moon, but it was dark.

• How are you going to herd cattle?
• How are you going to herd sheep?
• How are you going to herd goats?

You're not going to!

Verse 39: "And they baked unleavened cakes 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. Now, the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years" (vs 39-40)

How do you get the 430 years? I'll see if I can explain that a little later!

Verse 41: "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…" (vs 41-42).

Some people say that it was a night designated by Herbert Armstrong to keep.

"…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" (v 42).

That's the next night after the Passover. Here's the sequence right there in Exo. 12:

Took the lamb on the 10th kept it until the 14th; right after sunset as 'ben ha arbayim' began they killed the lamb, got it ready, roasted it—according to the instructions—and they were not to boil it, but roast it! That becomes important when you get to Deut. 16. Then it gives the instructions for the Passover.

• What is the first day of Unleavened Bread?
• What is this day especially set aside for?

The Jews don't even mention this!

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."

Exodus 13:1: "Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Sanctify all the firstborn to Me, … [the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread] …whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, of man and of beast. It is Mine.' 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. On this day you are going out, in the month Abib. And it shall be when the LORD shall bring you into the land of the Canaanites…that you shall keep this service in this month. You shall eat unleavened bread seven days, and in the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. And there shall be no leavened bread seen with you, nor shall there be leaven seen with you in all your borders'" (vs 1-7).

You think about unleavening your home for the days of Unleavened Bread. Think about how you would unleaven the city of Hollister. What do you do with the leaven? On the day portion of the 13th, they had special men who came around with disposals to take all the leaven and they would burn it before the 14th began!

I remember a man when I pastored Torrance, CA, and he was a prospective member and guess what he owned? A bakery! He said, 'How do I keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread?' I said, 'You've got a big problem! Consider this: Make specialty unleavened bread.' And that's what he did and he did quite well.

Verse 8: "And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, 'This is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out from Egypt.'"

Passover is commemorating passing over the firstborn. Now then, the firstborn are coming out, what does God want of those who are still alive dedicated to Him from that time forward? The ones who are born from that day forth would be dedicated to God with a sacrifice on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread!

The Jews miss the whole point of this; they don't understand that in Deut. 16.

Verse 9: "And it shall be a sign to you upon your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that the LORD'S Law may be in your mouth, for with a strong hand the LORD has brought you out of Egypt. You shall, therefore, keep this law in its season from year to year. And it shall be, when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and shall give it to you, you shall set apart to the LORD all that opens the womb, and every firstborn that comes of any animal which you have; the males shall be the LORD'S" (vs 9-12).

What if it's a female? That was kept for observing the Feast! To be eaten by them, to be used for the Feast (Deut. 14). The males were not to be sacrificed and eaten. That went to the priesthood.

Verse 13: "And every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What does this mean?' you shall say to him, 'The LORD brought us out of Egypt by the strength of His hand, from the house of bondage. And it came to pass when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, the LORD killed all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of animals. Therefore, I sacrifice to the LORD all that opens the womb that are males. But all the firstborn of my sons I redeem'" (vs 13-15).

That's why they had all of these sacrifices on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

When I was researching all of this out, Deut. 16 by the Jews tell it this way: The Passover was changed from a domestic observance to a temple sacrifice. That is incorrect!

Why? We will see that there's a verse that says, boil and take of the flock and the herd. Have you ever heard of a Passover calf? Even the smallest calf in the world, if that were killed for the Passover sacrifice, could a household eat the whole thing from sunset until sunrise? That's a lot of meat!

Deuteronomy 16:1: "Keep the month of Abib, and observe the Passover to the LORD your God…. [the 14th] …For in the month of Abib, the LORD your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night"—the 15th; so you have the two days right here!

What was that night to be? The Night to be Much Observed!

Verse 2: "And you shall, therefore, sacrifice the Passover offering to the LORD your God, of the flock and the herd…"

Why is it called a Passover offering? Because they changed the name of Unleavened Bread to Passover, and to this day they have eight days of Passover, beginning with the 15th and ending on the 22nd!

What do they have in place of the Passover meal since they can't sacrifice outside of the land of Israel? A Seder meal with a shank bone! They call this the Passover. But it's not on the Passover Day! And its not the Passover of God! It is the Passover of the Jews!

Numbers 9 shows that they can't keep the Passover outside the geographical territory of Israel. What did they do when they were out of the land? If they could get back by the second month they could keep the Passover in the second month. But otherwise they just kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread—called the Passover—wherever they were.

• What was the sacrifice of the Passover to be?
• What did we read in Exo. 13? You redeem your sons with a lamb! The firstborn are given whole, alive, to the priesthood.

When they lived in the land, they were given Levitical cities and priestly cities. When it came time, if they couldn't get to the temple they would give it to the Levite and the Levite would own it. Or give it to the priests and then it could be taken to the temple and sacrificed. But if they all went to Jerusalem, to the temple, to keep the feast—which this is depicting—then they would bring the sacrifice to be given on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

They had a lot of sacrifices of the redemption of the firstborn, and those were called the Passover offerings, because God passed over their firstborn on the Passover night, and this is a commemoration that God spared the firstborn and they left on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

"…in the place, which the LORD shall choose to place His name there. You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it…" (vs 2-3). This shows they had many sacrifices during all seven days of the Feast! Could all the redemption sacrifices be given in one day? No! Seven days!

"…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. And there shall be no leaven seen with you in all your borders for seven days… [tie in with Exo. 13 with the dedication of the firstborn] …Nor shall any of the flesh, which you sacrificed in the first day at sunset remain all night until the morning" (vs 3-4).

That sounds like the Passover, but it's not, because this offering was also a peace offering, which had the same instruction! You're not to leave it over beyond the first day.

Verse 5: "You may not sacrifice the Passover offering within any of your gates, which the LORD your God gives you"—for the redemption!

But the Passover Sacrifice, that's different than the Passover Offering. Passover Sacrifice if you live within the border of Israel you could keep the domestic Passover at home.

• What if you went to the area of Jerusalem to keep the Passover and the Feast?
• What happened there?

We'll cover that in just a bit!

Verse 7: "And you shall boil and eat it…" Back in Exo. 12, of the Passover Sacrifice it says that you shall not boil! So, this cannot refer to the Passover Sacrifice. The Passover Offering for the redemption of the firstborn, you were to boil!

When I read that in searching out this I was in bed and I had a Hebrew Interlinear. I was reading the English. The King James  says 'roast.' I was reading it and this says 'boil.' So, I got out the concordance and looked it up and sure enough this word is for boil! This could not be the Passover Sacrifice. But it could be the redemption of the firstborn!

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."

• What does this tell you?
• When could they make this offering? On the Passover Day they would boil it and it would go into the night!
• What happened?
• On the Night to be Much Observed, what did they do? They stayed up all night!
• Why did they do that? Because when they left Rameses as sunset they went to Succoth and they were up into the wee hours of the morning!

"…And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents" (v 7).

Those who were there keeping that at Jerusalem, they would come and have tent cities. Keeping the Feast of Tabernacles at Big Sandy many years ago they had little booths and lots of tent and camper areas. That's what this was like. They had thousands and thousands of people. In addition to a the food that they were eating you know they had a lot of flagons of wine as well.

Verse 8: "Six days you shall eat unleavened bread…." What does that mean? After the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, how many days are left? Six! That's the only place in the whole Bible that it says six days! But it means six days after the first day.

"…And on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work" (v 8).

This is why you need the Passover book to read. During Jesus' day there was the temple sacrifice of the Passover lamb by the Pharisees and Sadducees. There were also the Sadducees who kept the domestic feast in Bethany, where they lived, and on the Mt. of Olives, which was the mount east of the temple and on into Bethany and Bethphage they had little tent cities. There a lot of the domestic Passovers were kept.

Mark 14:12: "And on the first day of the unleaveneds… [a literal translation] …when they were killing the Passover lambs…"

This presents a problem, which is: If this were the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread then Jesus kept the 15th Passover. But this is not referring to the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This is referring to the first day that is unleavened, which is the Passover Day.

Here are the disciples with Jesus and they're up on the Mt. of Olives. They looked down and see all of these tents of the pilgrims who are there. They were not killing these lambs at the temple. They did that the next afternoon. So, they were the Passover lambs.

Jesus didn't tell the disciples where they were going to keep the Passover. Why didn't He do that? Because He didn't want Judas Iscariot to know where it was.

Judas Iscariot was with Him, because Judas had already promised to betray Him. So, let's see what Jesus did:

"…when they were killing the Passover lambs…" (v 12)—they could see this going on! This is right after sunset.

"…His disciples said to Him, 'Where do You desire that we go and prepare, so that You may eat the Passover?' And He sent two of His disciples, and said to them, 'Go into the city, and you shall meet a man carrying a pitcher of water; follow him'" (v s 12-13).

This was all set up! The angels were guiding everything that was going on. You tell them to go into the city and you're going to meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Well, Jesus knew that that was already being setup by the angels.

Verse 14: "And whatever house… [note that Jesus kept a domestic Passover in a house] …he shall enter, say to the master of the house that the Teacher says, 'Where is the guest chamber, where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?' And he shall show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. There prepare for us" (vs 14-15).

What do you suppose probably happened? The master of the house killed the lamb, skinned it and it was all ready to roast!

They brought up into the room where they probably had a place to roast it. They prepared the unleavened bread, they set everything ready to go for the Passover.

Verse 16: "And His disciples went away: and when they came into the city, they found it exactly as He had said to them; and they prepared the Passover. Now after evening had come…" (vs 16-17).

What does this refer to? Between the two evenings! So, this was the latter part of between the two evenings! This was right when it was starting to get dark. The lamb had been roasted, everything was all ready and Jesus comes with the rest of the disciples.

Verse 18: "And as they sat and were eating, Jesus said, 'Truly I say to you, one of you shall betray Me, even he who is eating with Me.'"

Then we go through the whole thing with the Passover. This whole section tells us something very important: Jesus kept a domestic Passover in a house!

He did not tell the disciples to go to the temple and get a lamb sacrificed. He said, 'Go into the city and follow a man and tell him that 'the Master desires to have the Passover here,' and everything will be ready.

Judas didn't know where they were to keep the Passover until he got there, because Jesus didn't want the Passover upset with the arrest during the time they were eating the Passover, because He had to institute the New Covenant Passover.

There's a lot more that goes with it, so if you haven't read all of this in the Passover book, get it! This will help unravel all the misunderstandings, mistranslations and trouble that's wrapped up with the Passover that different ones to this day cannot get resolved.

I hope you're able to follow along with all of this and understand what we covered today. We'll have all the things for the Passover and Unleavened Bread ready for you and we will get it out to you before the beginning of the Passover.

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

Scriptural References:

• Revelation 17:1-6, 14-15
• Exodus 12:3-6, 18
• Exodus 16:1-13, 12
• Exodus 12:6-7, 17-18, 37-42, 51
• Exodus 13:1-15
• Deuteronomy 16:1-5, 7-8
• Mark 14:12-18

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Revelation 17:11-12
• 1 Timothy 6
• Exodus 13-14
• Deuteronomy 14
• Numbers 9

Also referenced:

• Booklet: The Prophesies of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament by James Meister
• Transcript book with CD: How to Overcome the Sin Within
• Book: The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter
• Article: Seventh-day Adventists, Roman Catholics and Evangelicals Sign a Historic 'Ecumenical Charter' that Affirms Faith in 'One, Holy, Catholic Apostolic Church' February 20, 2020 by Andy Roman {http://adventmessenger.org/seventh-day-adventists-roman-catholics-and-evangelicals-sign-a-historic-ecumenical-charter-that-affirms-faith-in-one-holy-catholic-apostolic-church/}
• DVDs—The Jesuit Agenda for the SDA Church

FRC:bo
Transcribed: 3/5/20

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