PASSOVER

by Avram Yehoshua

Unfortunately for most Christians today, they have not had the delight of understanding the Feasts of Israel in relation to Yeshua (Jesus). The Lord set these annual Feasts in motion for the express purpose of exalting His Reality and what He had done for Israel, and using them as practical teaching tools for generations yet unborn, to learn who their God was. These Feasts of Yahveh (the Name of the God of Israel, Exodus 3:15, commonly mistranslated as 'the LORD), exalt His Son Yeshua and the Holy Spirit as well.

Many Christians are coming to realize that a certain area of their ancient biblical heritage has been filled as they learn to walk in the Feasts of Israel found in Leviticus 23. When we look at Colossians 2:16-17, we find that, far from a text that 'does away with the Feasts,' on the contrary, it establishes them, speaking of the Feasts pointing still, to things in the future:

'Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a Festival or a New Moon or a Sabbath Day, things which are a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.'

This speaks of the Feasts as being able to paint a picture for us of what Yeshua is like. Just as a photo picture of a person is not really that person, but you can see so many different things about that person, so too the Feasts. They have been set up by God to show us a portion of His Reality. By not walking in the Feasts of Israel, one throws away a perfect Picture of God.

I once arrived at a church for a Sunday night service, where I was the guest speaker, before anyone else had gotten there. It was the middle of the winter but it wasn't too cold and I decided to walk down the street a bit to gather my thoughts. As I walked, my eye was drawn to this light that was coming from a front porch. There wasn't any fixture on the bare light bulb and I quickly glanced away, not wanting to stare into the light. On my way back, as I came to that porch, I intentionally looked across the street. To my delight, there was a perfect silhouette of a tree, on the school wall. The tree stood about twenty yards in front of the wall. The light from the porch across the street was so bright, that I could make out the smallest detail of the tree branches, by its shadow on the wall. There were no leaves on the tree and all the branches could be seen, imprinted on the wall.

The Feast Days are like this. We don't see Yeshua (the tree), in His Glory today. But He has left behind for us His Imprint in the Feasts of Israel. I could tell immediately by looking at the shadow of the tree, that it was a tree! Even if I wouldn't have seen the actual tree that made the shadow. I could tell that it was a tree, and not a lion!, or a car, or a human being. This is the Glory that our God has placed within His Feasts.

Shadows can be equally translated, 'pictures.' The Feast days are pictures of what is to come. And this is why many Christians are celebrating them today. They are finding part of their ancient heritage in the Feasts of Israel. The Feasts can be broken down into three sections:

1. The Spring Feasts:

Passover
The Feast of Unleavened Bread
The First Sheaf Wave Offering

2. The Summer Feast:

Pentecost

3. The Fall Feasts:

The Feast of Acclamations (commonly known in Judaism as The Feast of Trumpets or Rosh HaShana, the New Year, a biblical misnomer)
The Day of Atonement
The Feast of Tabernacles and The Eighth Day

Yahveh instituted these Feasts as a Picture of Salvation. They were a yearly cycle of celebrations of what Yahveh had done for Israel, and also a prophetic picture of what Yahveh would do for Israel.

THE SPRING FEASTS

PASSOVER

God created the world and placed things in it to act as symbols or pictures to make us aware of Who He Is, what He's Done, and What He Will Do. When we look at water, we know everyone needs it for survival. Without water we perish.

In Exodus 17:6 it states:

'Behold, I will stand before you there on the Rock at Horeb. And you shall strike the Rock, and water will come out of it, that the People may drink.' And Moses did so in the sight of the Elders of Israel.'

God gave Israel its most basic need for life: water, from a Rock. The Rock is Yeshua, as Shaul (the Apostle Paul) says in 1st Corinthians 10:1-4, and pictures Him being crucified for our most eternal need; Living Water.

'For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our Fathers were all under the Cloud and all passed through the Sea and all were baptized into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea and all ate the same spiritual Food and all drank the same spiritual Drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual Rock which followed them and the Rock was the Messiah.'

Here we find a number of interesting things. First, Paul says 'our Fathers' including the Gentile believers of Corinth with the Sons of Israel in the Wilderness. This compliments that the Gentiles have been grafted into the House of Israel (Romans 11, Ephesians 2), in a most dramatic way. They are fully brothers with the literal descendants of Israel in the Wilderness because of their belief in Yeshua.

Second, all Israel was 'baptized into Moses.' We know that baptism into Yeshua means that we die to self and are alive to Him. And that's what it should have meant to the Sons of Israel in the Wilderness, in relation to Moses, but their carnal nature led them another way.

Third, we come to the 'Rock' from which the Sons of Israel got water in the Wilderness. This was a picture of Messiah Yeshua giving the Water of Life to both Jew and Gentile who believe. Water from a rock is a pretty impossible thing. And making Man clean before God, is also impossible. But with God all things are possible. And so we see that water not only sustains life but we use it to clean ourselves with. The Rock is a picture of stability in a very shaky world. These and other symbols are constantly used by Yahveh and Yeshua to denote Their qualities. In Jeremiah 2:13 it says:

'For My People have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of Living Waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.'

And in Revelation 7:17 it states:

'for the Lamb in the center of the Throne will be their Shepherd and will guide them to Springs of the Waters of Life. And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.'

God uses the natural water to point us to Waters that are Living. (In the Hebrew, water is always plural: waters). When we look at the Earth, we see that we not only get our food from it, but we also live upon it. This is a picture of Yahveh as our Rock and our Provider. In Deuteronomy 32:4 it says:

'The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness and without injustice. Righteous and upright is He.'

This speaks of Yahveh as One who is stable, secure and can be trusted.

Communion is the eating of the Body and Blood of Yeshua, which is the Food of God for His People. The Earth and Heaven 'providing' it, as Yeshua is fully human, of the dust of the Earth, and fully divine, the only begotten Son of the Eternal God.

The Feasts of Israel picture Yahveh's ability to save or deliver from bondage, and sustain or provide for His People, both physically and spiritually, which is really one and the same thing in Hebraic terms.

WHY CELEBRATE PASSOVER TODAY?!

Passover is a Picture of Salvation: The Hebrew people went from Slavery to Freedom, or from Darkness to Light. And with the Second Passover, both Jew and Gentile were released from slavery to sin, Satan and eternal death, to walk into the Kingdom of Yeshua.
Passover remembers the death of the lamb in Egypt, which freed the Hebrews from slavery. Yeshua is called the Lamb of God. When Yeshua dies, He tells us that as often as we eat His Body and His Blood, we do it in remembrance of His Death, which means that we too must die to self.
The essence of the Passover is where communion comes from. Communion was in the ancient Passover all the time. When Yeshua says that the ancients said not to murder, but that He says that we are not to hate our brother in our heart, Yeshua isn't making up a new Commandment, and discarding the Commandment not to murder. He is explaining that the essence of the Commandment not to murder, is not to hate your brother. It was there all the time, at its very core or center or essence. And so too with communion in the First Passover.
Yeshua and every Apostle celebrated Passover all their lives. If we really want to know Who Yeshua was, and is now, we must realize that He not only celebrated Passover all His Life on Earth, but He commanded it to come into existence in the beginning. And as you'll see, He will be celebrating it with us in Eternity.
Passover is also your ancient heritage as a Gentile grafted into the House of Israel. It's time you started learning some of the Family values.
Passover offers you a great lead in with Jewish People. Tell a Jew that you celebrated or learned about the Passover and their ears will perk up. 'A Gentile knows about Passover?!' they'll think. It's a great way to begin a conversation about the Passover Lamb whose Blood will deliver us from the Wrath of Yahveh on the Day of Judgment, just as the blood of the lamb delivered the Hebrew people from the Wrath of Yahveh, that First Passover night in Egypt.

THE DUAL REALITY OF THE THREE SPRING FEASTS

Passover proclaims the death of the lamb that freed Israel from Egyptian slavery. And with the Death of the Lamb, Israel was freed from slavery to sin and eternal death.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread was a seven day picture of 'death to self' for Israel. Yahveh demanded holiness and sanctification from His People. This was symbolized by the eating of bread without yeast; matza (unleavened bread). It is during this Feast, that begins just a few hours after the death of the lamb, that Yeshua dies as the Grain of Heaven that is crushed, in order for His followers to eat of Him who is the (Unleavened) Bread of Life:

John 12:24-25: 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the Earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world, will keep it to Life Eternal.'

In this period of a week, we are called to evaluate our position in Yeshua: are we dying to self daily that His Life might be seen? Are we seeking to be made into His Image? This is pictured in communion: death to self; which is eaten, taken on the first day of Matza, and every day thereafter.

The First Sheaf Wave Offering always came on the Sunday of the Feast of Unleavened Bread week (except when Passover began on Sabbath, Saturday afternoon). It was the time that Israel recognized that Yahveh provided grain or food or life for His People, and that giving the first of it to Him, sanctified all the rest of the harvest for Israel. All the harvest is Yahveh's, for He caused it to come about, and He was seen as giving it to Israel for their needs.

This also pictures Yeshua as that Grain of Heaven risen from the Earth, caused to rise by Yahveh, and that all that follow Him will be acceptable to Yahveh. The First Sheaf is dedicated or given to Yahveh, thereby making the rest of the harvest acceptable for consumption by Israel. As Yeshua is risen, He is seen as the First Sheaf to rise from the dead. We as priests, can eat of Him, as He has been given to us by Yahveh, for our food for Life. And as we are made into His Image, others eat of Messiah Yeshua from us. The Aaronic Priests would be able to eat of the First Sheaf Offering as well.

THE MEANING OF PASSOVER

The first Passover in Egypt was a time of entering into Covenant, of being cleansed by the blood of a lamb, and of release from bondage or slavery. It is a time of new beginnings or new birth. Israel was birthed out of the Kingdom of Darkness and into the Kingdom of Light. The new birth that Yeshua speaks of is a picture of what Yahveh had already done for His People in Egypt.

In Adam we have the Creation of the World. In Moses we have the Creation of the People of Yahveh, Israel. In Yeshua we have the Re-Creation of the People of Yahveh, Israel; both Jew and Gentile.

Romans 8:18-25 tells us that everything in history awaits this new Creation. In Genesis 1:3, God's first recorded words are, 'Light Be!...' and it was. And now that Light is in us! For the Light that was made on the first day of Creation was not the sun, as the sun was made on the fourth day. The Light that manifested that First Day, was the Light of the World, Yeshua, the only begotten Son of God. Yeshua was not created. He is not a creature. He is the begotten Son of the Father, fully deity. And with His Conception in the womb of Miryam, fully human.

Israel was conceived in one man: Abraham. And the Re-Created Israel is conceived in one Man also: Yeshua. Abraham left his family and all behind him, to come to Israel. And so did Yeshua.

Three thousand, four hundred years ago, Yahveh moved in a way that He had never moved before. To Fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He appeared in dreams and visions. To Joseph, He worked behind the scenes. In Moses, Yahveh, the Great I AM, explodes upon history!

Egypt was the United States of its day, the superpower in the world, and therefore, the gods of Egypt were considered invincible by everyone. The Hebrew slaves were not in any position to negotiate their freedom. There was nothing that they possessed that they could offer Pharaoh in exchange for their freedom. Pharaoh owned them as slaves and therefore everything they had was Pharaoh's. There was no way out. And before Yeshua died, this was a perfect picture of our position to sin, eternal death, and Satan,.

Passover begins in Exodus 3 when the Messenger of Yahveh (commonly misnamed, the Angel of the Lord), and Yahveh, appear to Moses and send him to save the Hebrew slaves from Egyptian oppression.

In John, Yeshua refers to Himself as the Sent One about 42 times. Here are three references:

John 3:34: 'For He whom God has sent speaks the Words of God, for He gives the Spirit without measure.'

John 5:30: 'I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.'

John 6:57: 'As the Living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.'

A messenger is 'a sent one.' Someone sent with a message. In Hebrew, the word used for 'angel' is mahl-ahch, literally, a 'messenger.' Now generally, messengers sent from God are angles, but in the case of 'the Angel' of the Lord, we see that this Messenger is none other than Jesus. Why a number of English translations continue to use the word 'Angel' instead of 'Messenger' when all know that it refers to Jesus, is beyond me. This gives rise to doctrines of Satan that make Jesus out to be a created being. What else can an angel be? The text should be translated, 'the Messenger of the LORD' with a capital 'M' for Messenger.

In the places where the Messenger of Yahveh (the LORD) is seen, the Messenger not only receives worship, something that only should be given to God, but also speaks in the first person, as God Himself; something an angel of Yahveh never does. (See Genesis 16:13; 22:11; 31:11-13; 48:15-16; Exodus 3:2-6; Numbers 22:21-35 and Joshua 5:13-6:2. For a fuller understanding of these sites, see my 7th Newsletter: 'We Jews Don't Believe That A Man Can Be God!')

When we look at the Ten Plagues, we see that they are judgments against Egypt and their gods. The first plague, the Nile being changed into blood, gets the attention of the Egyptians in two very powerful ways. First, the Nile was the source of ancient Egypt's rich fertility or life. Without the Nile there would never have been an Egypt as we know it.

Second, because it was seen as the source of Life (water), religious hymns were song to the Nile, for it was considered a god. These hymns can be found in museums in Cairo and in London today. They are prolific. The Nile being changed into blood would also picture the last judgment upon Egypt, death; the blood of the first born of Egypt being required because of Pharaoh's stubbornness. The number ten, is the number one with a zero after it. The significance being that the number one remains the same in essence, but it is magnified.

The second plague was frogs. They symbolized fertility to the Egyptians. Yahveh said, 'You like to worship frogs, I'll give you frogs!'

All the plagues were directed at a particular god of Egypt's. The ninth plague was darkness upon all the land of Egypt, except where the Hebrew slaves dwelt, in Goshen. It was directed at their highest god, Ra, the sun god. Pharaoh was worshipped as an incarnation of Ra, or, the son of god in the flesh. Sound familiar? The incarnation of the son of god was a common ancient reality before Yeshua wedded Himself to humanity, by being born of the Jewish virgin, Miryam. Satan is a master at deception.

The tenth plague was the death of the first born of Egypt, and Pharaoh and Ra (Satan), could do nothing to protect their people or stop it. Pharaoh's son, next in line to the throne of Egypt, was killed, as well as all the other first born sons and all the first born of their animals. Yahveh struck at the very heart of Egypt. The first born sons represented Egypt.

Just as Adam is the Head of all Mankind, so the first born of Egypt were the head of their race. In the Passover, Yahveh claims all the firstborn of Israel for Himself. They belong to Him in a special way. They would have all been priests unto Yahveh, from every Tribe and Family of Israel, had Israel not rebelled in the incident of the Golden Calf.

Israel's first born were spared, saved or delivered from death, by a ceremony that sacrificed a lamb, and placed its blood upon the doorposts and the lintel of their homes. Passover literally means, 'to leap over; to pass over.' This pictures the Lord Yahveh passing over the homes of the Hebrews because of the blood of the lamb.

Exodus 12:23 reads: 'For Yahveh will pass through to smite the Egyptians. And when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, Yahveh will pass over the door and will not allow the Destroyer to come into your houses to smite you.'

This is a picture of what will happen to all believers in Yeshua on the Day of Judgment. Having the Blood of the Lamb within us means that the Wrath of Yahveh will 'pass over' us. We will be saved from eternal death.

And Exodus 12:27 has: 'you shall say, 'It is a Passover sacrifice to Yahveh, who passed over the houses of the Sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.' And the people bowed low and worshiped.'

The 10th Plague of death shattered the very fabric of the core of Egyptian reality. It was not only the death of the firstborn of Egypt, but the total destruction of their religious understanding; of how they perceived the universe. The Egyptian gods could do nothing against Yahveh, the God of the Hebrew slaves; the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Passover is a mini-Judgment Day. Yahveh could have destroyed all the Egyptians, but chose to keep some around to proclaim what He had done.

Exodus 12:1-14 gives us the biblical injunction to keep Passover, along with the three foods that are required for a biblical Passover. These are lamb, matza and bitter herbs.

Exodus 12:1: Now Yahveh said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

Ex. 12:2: This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.

Verse 2 tells us that the month in which Passover falls, will be the beginning of the months for the Hebrews, in distinction to the Egyptian calendar. (This is also in distinction to the Jewish calendar today, which starts the year in September.)

Ex. 12:3: Speak to all the Congregation of Israel, saying, 'On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers' households, a lamb for each household.

Ex. 12:4: Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb.

Ex. 12:5: Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

Verses 3-5 has Israel separating the lamb on the 10th day of the month, four days before the Passover. Interestingly enough, Passover is not a holy day, but the day the lamb is slain, in the late afternoon.

Setting the lamb apart for four days would have it to become like a pet. It would be very hard to sacrifice it. We see the picture that the Apostle's didn't want to see Yeshua crucified either, because they loved Him.

Yeshua came into Yerushalaim four days before His Death, 'to be inspected' by the people for flaws or blemishes; i.e., sins, and if He really was the Messiah, the Lamb of God. In John 12:1 we read:

'Yeshua, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.'

And in John 12:12:

'On the next day the large crowd who had come to the Feast, when they heard that Yeshua was coming to Jerusalem...'

tells us that He most probably went there the next day.

Without blemish means that the lamb would be healthy. It doesn't mean that it had to be pure white.

It would be a male of the flock, one year old and it would picture Yeshua in the prime of His Life. John the Baptist would declare,

'...Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.' (John 1:29)

John's disciple's might not have understood that as we do today, but they would have associated it with the Passover lamb who brought them forth from Egyptian slavery. How they might have understood it at that time was that the Messiah would deliver them from Roman oppression.

Ex. 12:6: You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the Congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight.

'The whole assembly killing it at twilight...' meaning that everyone, not just the ones slaying the lamb, and not just the first born whose lives were on the line, but everyone would have to see the sacrifice of the lamb. Every Hebrew man, woman and child who was to be delivered from Egyptian slavery, had to look upon the sacrifice of the lamb...to the Glory of Yahveh.

Anyone who desires to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven must enter into it through the Work of the Sacrifice of the Lamb of God: Yeshua. They must look upon Messiah crucified...to the Glory of Yahveh. The Heavenly Work of His Sacrificial Blood must be upon their lives.

Ex. 12:7: Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.

Verse 7 gives us where the blood was to be placed: upon the doorposts and the lintel. In cartoons, we see houses used as a picture of our body: the door is the mouth and the windows are the eyes. The blood of the lamb was symbolically being placed in the mouth of Israel. This is one part of Communion, for blood is symbolic of wine. Blood is represented in Scripture as wine. In Gen. 49:11 it states:

'He ties his foal to the vine and His donkey's colt to the choice vine. He washes His Garments in wine and His Robes in the blood of grapes.'

The juice of the grape is called 'blood.' In an allusion to Yeshua defeating His enemies and their blood flowing like wine. Rev. 14:20 has:

'And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses' bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles.'

In Deut. 32:14 it has:

'Curds of cows, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs and rams, the breed of Bashan, and goats. With the finest of the wheat and of the blood of grapes you drank wine.'

This dual reference, wine picturing blood and vice verse, is why Yeshua could use the wine at the Passover table to picture His Blood Sacrifice. And the wine was there, on the table, to symbolize the blood of the lamb that saved Israel from Egyptian slavery.

Ex. 12:8: They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

This verse gives us the three biblical foods for Passover: Roasted lamb which pictures Yeshua's brutal death. Bitter herbs which stand for the life of bitterness that the Hebrews had in Egyptian slavery, and matza. In Jeremiah 11:4, Yahveh calls Egypt an iron furnace:

'which I commanded your Fathers in the Day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, 'Listen to My Voice, and do according to all which I command you; so you shall be My People, and I will be your God.'

An iron furnace is a furnace so hot, it literally melts iron. It's symbolic of the intense suffering and pain that the Egyptians perpetrated against the Hebrews. For us it pictures the bitterness of trusting in self, before we come to Yeshua; and the fruitlessness of walking in carnality after we come to Him.

Matza, or unleavened bread, is a picture of pure bread, for it has no yeast in it. Yeast or leaven would be a picture of sin. Yeshua is the Bread of Heaven, pictured in the unleavened bread of Passover. For unleavened bread (matza) is a picture of sinless or holy bread.

Ex. 12:9: Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails.

This pictures that in His Sacrifice, Yeshua would die a brutal death, and that He would be 'whole' (and not dismembered or beheaded, etc.).

Ex. 12:10: And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire.

This refers to the one time Sacrifice of Yeshua. He doesn't have to come back in each generation and be sacrificed again.

Ex. 12:11: Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste it is Yahveh's Passover.

This verse tells us that they were to eat the Passover in preparation for leaving Egypt. With a belt on your waist means that they would lift up the bottom of their robes, to be held by the belt or sash, to make walking a long distance easier. Sandals on your feet would speak of the distance involved and of the necessity for protecting the feet. And with a staff in your hand, to help one to travel with.

Every time we take communion we need to be ready to leave our life of sin and indifference to Yeshua. It's a picture of what happened to us when we first said, 'Yes!' to Yeshua. He took us out of the Kingdom of Darkness and brought us into His Kingdom of Light.

Ex. 12:12: For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments, I am Yahveh.

Ex. 12:13: The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Verses 12 and 13 tell us of the destruction and judgment that Yahveh would cause to happen upon an Egypt that was stubborn. They would not take the blood of the lamb. Egypt pictures the world that refuses what Yahveh has done for it, in offering it His Son. When we take the Unleavened Bread and the Wine, the Body and Blood of Yeshua, we are saying that we are re-enacting the Passover drama and taking upon our self, Yahveh's provision for our salvation. Without the Blood of the Lamb, it would have been impossible for us to leave the Kingdom of Satan, as it was for Israel to leave Pharaoh.

Ex. 12:14: Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a Feast to Yahveh throughout your generations. You are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.

Verse 14 tells us to celebrate the Feast of Passover forever. Passover honors Yahveh and what He has done for His People Israel, in giving the Passover Lamb, to free them from slavery to Pharaoh, and then to Satan.

THE PASSOVER CEREMONY

In celebrating the Feast, a ceremony arose with the eating of the lamb, the matza and the bitter herbs. This ceremony would last all night and involved many different things. (For a visual presentation of the Passover ceremony, see my video in the Cassettes section.)

The Passover ceremony can be divided into three parts:

The ceremony before the meal
The meal
And the ceremony after the meal

The Lord Yeshua would take the already present matza and wine, after the meal, and inject Himself into their complimentary meanings. The matza pictured sinlessness and holiness and so those who eat of His Body, will become like Him. The wine pictured the blood of the lamb that God used to set Israel free from slavery to Pharaoh, and the wine now pictures the Blood of the Lamb that Yahveh has given us, to set us free from slavery to Satan. Both sets of meanings for Passover remain for us today. They compliment one another, for Yahveh has done them both.

I'm going to interweave an ancient Passover ceremony, one that Yeshua would have participated in all His life, and one that you might see today, if you were to be invited to a traditional Jewish Passover ceremony this April.

BEFORE THE CEREMONY

Traditionally, before the Passover ceremony, all yeast and regular bread would have to be out of the house, and out of the Land of Israel. Bread with yeast cannot be eaten for seven days, or even seen in the Land (Exodus 12:15-20).

Many times in the Gospels, Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are used interchangeably. Luke 22:1 reads,

'Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover.'

Passover relates specifically to the sacrifice of the lamb which would come in the late afternoon of the 14th of Aviv. The Feast of Unleavened Bread would begin at darkness, a few hours later. Yeshua would have eaten the lamb that night, on the 15th of Aviv, as darkness begins the next day in biblical understanding. ('...And the evening and the morning were the first day.' Genesis 1:5)

The symbolism or picture to Israel was this:

Leaven represents sin.

The house represents the person.

Seven days represent a complete unit or cycle of time; a week or a year. Also completion, perfection and holiness.

The Israelite saw this as removing sin from himself and his country, and walking in holiness for the 7 days. It also spoke to them of walking in holiness for the greater cycle of time: a year; till the next Passover.

Passover was a ceremonial reminder that Yahveh had freed Israel from Egyptian slavery, not to do their own thing, but to be holy unto their God.

THE CEREMONY BEGINS:

THE BLOWING OF THE SHOFAR

Numbers 10:10 tells us that the Silver Trumpets announced the beginning of the Holy Feasts to Israel. They would announce the Passover in Yeshua's time in Jerusalem. The Temple priests would blow the Trumpets from atop the Temple.

In many places, the shofar, or ram's horn would have been used to accomplish the same purpose. It would tell the people that Passover was beginning. In traditional Jewish homes today, the shofar isn't blown. Why not? Tradition.

THE LIGHTING OF THE OIL LAMPS OR CANDLES

Light symbolizes Creation (Genesis 1:1-5). The lighting of oil lamps in Yeshua's day, or candles today would thank God for the Light of Creation. The first Words of Yahveh in the Bible are: 'Let there be Light!' Before that there was only darkness. Israel is seen as coming out of the darkness of Egyptian slavery, into the Light of God's Freedom.

We too are called out of darkness, into His marvelous Light. 1st Peter 2:9 says:

'But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. That you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness, into His marvelous Light.'

This part of the ceremony is always done by a woman.

Isn't it interesting that Yeshua, the Light of the World, came through Miryam (Mary), a Jewish woman.

THE FIRST OF THE FOUR CUPS OR WINE GLASSES OF BLESSING

Four times during the ceremony, cups full of wine are raised and God is blessed and thanked in various ways. The four cups each symbolize something different.

The first cup is called the Cup of Sanctification. This officially begins the ceremony and has as its theme the sanctification or setting apart of this Passover meal in a very holy way. God has commanded it to be done (Exodus 12:14), and that makes it holy. The first cup pictures this. This is not an ordinary meal but one that God has called Israel to.

The second cup is called the Cup of Remembrance. It will take place just before the meal is eaten. It will call to mind that Israel's salvation cost the lives of many Egyptians. They were part of God's Creation also and it is a time to remember that.

The third cup is called the Cup of Redemption. It takes place immediately after the Passover Meal. It will be this third cup of wine that Yeshua lifts up and tells His followers to drink, for it is a Picture of the Blood of the New Covenant.

And the fourth cup is called the Cup of Praise. It will conclude the ceremony, giving praise to God for the Redemption that He has accomplished.

WASHING THE HANDS

In the Passover ceremony there are a number of Jewish traditions that have sprung up over the centuries. One of them is the ceremonial washing of the hands. Older children will come around the table with pitchers of water and a basin and a towel, and the people will wash their hands, saying the appropriate blessing to God.

Now I realize that in the Christian church, Jewish tradition has about as much value as legs on a snake! But we must remember that the Lord didn't come against all Jewish tradition, but only those which nullified the Word of God (Matthew 15:3ff, etc.).

Tradition is like a picture frame. If we were looking for a good picture frame to enhance the picture that we have, we wouldn't buy one that distorted or hid the picture. The Word of God is the Picture. Traditions can be either good picture frames or evil picture frames. They can either enhance the meaning of the Word of God, or they can distort, pervert or deny it.

The tradition of washing the hands and blessing God, has as its foundation a Scriptural picture, Psalm 24:3-4:

'Who has the right to climb the Mountain of Yahveh? Who has the right to stand in His Holy Place? He whose hands are clean, whose heart is pure, whose soul does not worship worthless things, and who never swears to a lie.'

By the washing of the hands, the participants are saying that they want clean souls. Yeshua uses this ceremony to springboard off of it and establish a tradition within Christianity. In John 13:4-5 we read:

'He rose from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet, and to wipe them with the towel in which He was girded.'

Of course, the 'supper' is the Passover Meal and the towels and the basin and the water were there as part of the hand washing ceremony.

THE THREE MATZOT: A MESSIANIC TRADITION

Matzot is plural for matza. If you were to be invited to the next Passover, by a Jewish man by the name of say, Max Goldstein, you would see a ceremony involving three matzot or matza's at this time in the Passover Ceremony. Store bought matza is usually square, about 10 by 10 inches and tastes very dry and plain. It's like a big cracker without yeast.

Max, as the head of the house, would take the three matzot and place them in a napkin or a special Passover linen pouch that would contain sections within it, so that each piece of matza would be in a separate compartment. He would then take out the middle matza, break it in half and put half back in the pouch and the other half he would wrap up in a napkin.

The half that was kept out of the pouch and wrapped in a napkin would be placed by Max's place setting until the Meal would begin. Then, while everyone was eating, he would discreetly get up and hide it somewhere in the house. Once the children finished their meal, they would be allowed to leave the table to try and find the hidden matza. Max would then present the child with a silver coin and lead everyone in thanking God for His Redemption of Israel. More on that later.

We Jewish People pride ourselves on being very smart. We normally have at least two reasons for doing anything we do. But if you were to ask Max why he just did what he did, in having three pieces of matza, and breaking the middle piece and hiding it, he would have absolutely no satisfactory answer for you.

The best that the Rabbis can do for this is to suggest possible groups of three:

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Fathers of Israel or,

the three layers of Israelite society: the Aaronic Priests, the Levitical Priests, and the rest of Israel.

The grouping of three is here but what the Rabbis cannot answer is why would Isaac, or the Levitical Priests, the ones in the middle that would represent the middle matza, have to be broken in half?! There is no satisfactory Rabbinical explanation for this. But what we see here in the ceremony of the matza, is a very ancient Messianic tradition that obviously found a home among the traditional Jewish Community as well. It is a Picture of the Death, Burial and Resurrection of the Messiah of Israel.

The Middle Matza is a Picture of the Middle Person of the Godhead: Yeshua.

The breaking of this Middle Matza is a Picture of His Crucifixion. And the wrapping of the middle matza in a napkin, originally a linen napkin, pictures Yeshua being wrapped as such, after His Death. (Matthew 27:59: 'And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,')

The hiding of this Matza is a picture of His Burial.

And the finding of the Matza is a Picture of His being found alive from the dead; of His Resurrection.

It's very interesting that Jewish People do this ceremony and don't realize that it is a Perfect Picture of Messiah Yeshua. During the time of Passover, my prayer is that as they break the matza, that the Lord Yeshua will manifest Himself to them and that they would give their lives to Him. I base this on Luke 24:30-31 where the two disciples who walked with Him on the road to Emmaus, recognized Yeshua only after He broke the matza.

Luke 24:30-31: 'When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him and He vanished from their sight.'

Two points here. One, the bread would have to have been unleavened (matza), as it was still the Passover week (the Feast of Unleavened Bread on that Sunday.) And two, when Yeshua 'blessed it' in Hebrew Yeshua would be blessing His Father, as the word for 'it' can also be translated as 'him' and in the Hebrew blessings, there is no 'it' that is blessed. The food is not 'blessed.' God, as the Giver of the Food, is blessed or thanked. The food is the blessing to us, from God.

THE FOUR QUESTIONS:

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AT ITS BEST, DESIGNED BY GOD

Exodus 12:24-27 and 13:8 set up the Ceremony to be unfolded to the next generation:

Ex. 12:24-27: 'And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. When you enter the Land which Yahveh will give you, as He has promised, you must observe this ceremony. And when your sons say to you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?' you shall say, 'It is a Passover sacrifice to Yahveh who passed over the houses of the Sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.' And the people bowed low and worshiped.'

Ex. 13:8: 'You must tell your son on that day, saying, 'It is because of what Yahveh did for me when I came out of Egypt.'

Even this April, when Max retells the Passover story, he will say that the Lord 'did it for me, when I came out of Egypt.' We Jews see ourselves as coming from the loins of our Fathers whom Yahveh delivered from Egyptian slavery, and if Yahveh hadn't saved us, we'd still be making bricks for Egypt.

Tradition assigns the four questions to the youngest child who able to read and understand. The logic behind this is divine. As the Passover was the highlight of the year, all would naturally imbue it with value and honor.

The only ceremony that was not done by the father as the head of the household, would be the lighting of the oil lamps by the wife, and the asking of the four questions by the youngest member of the family. The honor of being the youngest member of the family would fall upon every son, no matter how many sons the family had, as Passover would come around once a year, and the son that was in that position would enter into the honor of asking the questions.

This would of course, make a holy imprint upon him, that he had been able to be an active member of the Passover when there would be many people there who didn't have a part, and here he was, with a key role. This would help to reinforce the reality of the value of the Passover among all the Sons of Israel. And as we saw from Exodus 12:24-27 and 13:8, it was Yahveh, the God of Israel, who set the question up; 'when your son asks you...'

The first two questions are from the Scriptural account. The last two questions are from tradition:

Why is this night different from all other nights? On this night we eat only matza. Why?
On all other nights we can eat any herb we like but on this night we must have bitter herbs. Why?
On all other nights we don't dip, but on this night we dip twice. Why?
On this night we recline at table. Why?

The head of the household, the father, answers:

We eat matza because when we left Egypt, we had no time to wait for the dough to rise.

Ex. 12:33-34: 'The Egyptians urged the people, to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, 'We will all be dead.' So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls bound up in the clothes on their shoulders.'

Ex. 12:39: 'They baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt into cakes of unleavened bread (matza). For it had not become leavened, since they were driven out of Egypt and could not delay, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.'
(Yeast in dough must have time to set. If it is moved about, it won't properly effect the dough.)

The Picture for us as believers in Yeshua is clear: we must get out of the land of darkness as fast as our spiritual feet can carry us!, and not to go back!
We eat bitter herbs to reflect on the bitterness of slavery in Egypt. (In Dt. 4:20 and Jeremiah 11:4, both Moses and Yahveh call Egypt an iron furnace:
Deut. 4:20: 'But Yahveh has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be a People for His own possession, as today.'

Jer. 11:4: 'which I commanded your Fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, 'Listen to My Voice, and do according to all which I command you; so you shall be My People, and I will be your God,'
An iron furnace was a furnace that was so hot, it literally would melt iron. It's a picture of intense suffering, pain and humiliation. (Isn't that what Yeshua went through for us? And what many of us have gone through before we came to Jesus?)

The bitter herbs we eat is fresh, ground horseradish. This bring tears to the eyes, an appropriate response to the time of suffering in Egypt.

When I look back before I came to believe, I thought I was a Somebody, going Somewhere, doing Something. I was deceived by the Prince of Darkness. I was actually a Nobody, going Nowhere, doing Nothing!)

The next two questions are based on Jewish tradition:
Parsley is dipped twice into very salty water and then eaten. We dip twice in order to picture both Israel and Egypt going into the Red Sea. We swallow the parsley after the second 'dipping' to picture that the Egyptian Army was 'swallowed up' by the Sea.
We recline at the table, with a pillow on our chair, to picture that the Salvation that God has given us has made us a free people. In Egypt we had to stand and eat, there was no rest or freedom for us. We were slaves. And that's how we all were before we came to Yeshua: slaves to Satan.

In Yeshua's day, the Passover Table would be the shape of a square U. They didn't use chairs, the table being only a foot off the ground and flat platforms with pillows would surround the outer part of it. They would have actually laid down on the large pillows in Yeshua's day with their bodies and feet at a 90o angle to the table. In other words, their heads would be closest to the table. They would be leaning on their left side, and with their right hand they would pick up the food and eat it. Their torso would be perpendicular to the table, with their feet hanging slightly over the edge of the platform or 'couch'.

The open part of the U would allow for food and wine to be placed on the table and then taken up.

The youngest member in Yeshua's day, would be at the upper right hand corner of the three sided U. This would have been John. He would have asked the questions. And as we'll see, he will ask the most important question of the evening. One that wasn't on the traditional menu.

The host or the person in charge of the Passover Ceremony would have been Yeshua. He was throwing the party. And He would have assigned the other seating arrangements, including the Guest of Honor, the one whom the Host desired to honor. Yeshua would place Judas in the position as the Guest of Honor, as Scripture will show us, once we understand the complete seating (or literally, lying down), arrangements. John 13:21-30 has this:

John 13:21: 'When Yeshua had said this, He became troubled in spirit, and testified and said, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.'

John 13:22: 'The students began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking.'

John 13:23: 'There was reclining on Jesus' bosom one of His students, whom Jesus loved.'

This would of course, be John the beloved. He was able to be 'in the bosom' of Yeshua because John was laying with his back to Yeshua's front torso.

John 13:24: 'So Simon Peter gestured to him, 'Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking.'

We see from this exactly where Peter was; at the opposite side of the U table, facing John. This is very interesting as the assignment of places at the table was in order of importance; the youngest would be on the Host's right, then the Host, then the Guest of Honor, then the next in honor, the next, the next until the very last 'honored' at the opposite end of the U. This is where Peter was, in the most humiliating place at the table. He was symbolically being humbled by the Lord, in reference to what Peter would go through in the next three days. In Peter denying Yeshua three times, Peter's pride would be crushed; Peter would be humbled. In this state, Yeshua would be able to use him. For God cannot use those who walk in pride. Pride exalts itself above God and is at war with God. And pride in us is what the Passover is all about.

John 13:25: 'He, leaning back thus on Jesus' bosom, said to Him, 'Lord, who is it?'

John 13:26: 'Yeshua then answered, 'That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.' So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.'

The 'morsel' would be a piece of matza. The Lord would 'dip it' in the maror (bitter herbs), and give it to His Guest of Honor.

This ceremony pictures the honoring of the Guest of Honor, by the Host. It was where the Host would literally feed or serve the Guest of Honor (the matza scooping up some bitter herbs), that all could see that the Host was serving or honoring the Guest of Honor.

Yeshua serving or feeding Judas, the one that was about to betray Him is a Picture of Who Yeshua is. Earlier in this chapter of John 13, one can read that Yeshua, washing the feet of all His students (disciples), would certainly wash Judas' feet too.

In Yeshua's day, the only slaves who washed the feet of others, were the lowest slaves in the house. That's why Simon Peter recoils and rebukes Yeshua, when Yeshua wants to wash his feet (John 13:8).

Why did Yeshua wash Judas's feet and assign him the place of honor at the Passover Table? Because Yeshua loved Judas. He knew that Judas would betray Him, but as a father loves all his children, Yeshua as Creator loves all His sons and daughters. It is a very tender and poignant reality, that the King of the Universe, had taken on the role of the lowest slave in Jewish society, to show Judas, the other Apostles and all of us, that there is nothing that He will not do to serve us; to see us set free from sin and death; to help us to grow into His Image in this lifetime; to help us to overcome every physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and any other 'reality' that would seek to keep us from walking in intimate fellowship with Him now, and to live eternally with Him who is Life, in the future manifestation of the New Jerusalem. This is our Messiah.

John 13:27: 'After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Yeshua said to him, 'What you do, do quickly.'

John 13:28: 'Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to him.'

John 13:29: 'For some were supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Yeshua was saying to him, 'Buy the things we have need of for the Feast,' or else, that he should give something to the poor.'

Giving to the poor at the Feasts of Israel was a rabbinical understanding and one that everyone made a practice of doing, as a gesture of thanksgiving to Yahveh, for what He had done for them, so they gave to the less fortunate.

John 13:30: 'So after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night.'

Why hadn't the Apostle's realized that Jesus was fingering Judas as the traitor? Because it short circuited so to speak, their understanding. They couldn't put together that Yeshua honoring Judas by serving him the matza with the bitter herbs, could be the pointing of the traitor out.

HAGADA: THE PASSOVER STORY RETOLD

Hagada means 'to tell' and in this case, refers to the telling of the Passover account. It explains why the celebration is tonight. It may start at Creation and go on for hours!, as the host would recount how Yahveh chose Father Abram and changed his name to Abraham, and promised him a great seed or many people would come from him, and that God would give Father Abraham the Land of Israel and on and on and on and on, till he would finally come to the plagues and the Salvation of Israel from Egyptian slavery.

In the days before movies and television, this part of the Passover Hagada was what all waited for. It was a reinforcing of who we were as Jews and how we had come to be God's Chosen People. There was much joy and excitement at the table realizing that until just recently, in the course of human history, could every household have a Bible, and more than one. But the Passover Hagada goes back 3400 years during which most of that time, Jewish families would not have a Bible or scroll. So the Hagada or telling of the Passover was a very special time of remembrance, especially as Yahveh had commanded it to be so. Religious education at its best. This was the way that the faith was passed on, from the Fathers to the Sons.

THE PASSOVER SEDER PLATE

Pesah, Hebrew for, 'to pass over, or to leap over' comes into English as Passover. It pictures Yahveh passing over the houses of Israel, where the blood of the lamb was, and striking the houses of Egypt, where the blood of the lamb wasn't.

Seder is a Hebrew word for 'order' as in an arrangement of things, or the order in which the Passover ceremony proceeds.

The Passover Seder Plate is a plate that has the biblical and traditional Passover foods on it. Each food tells a story:

In the days of Yeshua, there would be actual Passover lamb meat at the table for all to eat. The lamb, eaten once a year, would picture both the lamb of Egypt at the First Passover, and the Lamb of God, as the Second Passover.

Today, Max and millions of Jewish People that celebrate the Passover, will not have lamb meat. There are two reasons for this. One, when the Temple in Jerusalem, the heart of the Jewish People, was destroyed by the Roman general Titus, in 70 CE, all sacrifice ceased. (CE; Common Era corresponding to AD, but the Jewish People, not recognizing Jesus as Messiah yet, do not use AD, as it is Latin for 'in the year of our Lord'.) This would include the Passover sacrifice not being done as well.

And yet, in the centuries after that, they would still have lamb at the Passover Table, but not sacrifice it. They would usually butcher it a day before the 14th of Aviv (Nisan), so that it couldn't be taken to be a sacrifice, as the Rabbis believed that sacrifice should only take place in the Temple.

It wasn't until ten centuries after the crucifixion, with the rise of anti-Semitism in the Church and the demonic 'blood libels' that Christians would accuse the Jews of, that the Jewish Community in Europe stopped having lamb at Passover, 'to show' the Christian Community that they didn't sacrifice any more. The blood libels leveled against the Jews throughout the last one thousand years says that at Passover time, the Jews kidnap Christian boys and murder them in order to use the blood for their matza. Horrible? Yes. But even in this day, Israel's Arab enemies still claim this and other demonic lies.

This charge would be preached as Gospel from the pulpits by the clergy and many a Jew would lose his or her life when Christian mobs, led by the clergy, would riot and destroy whole Jewish Communities, venting their rage at the 'devil Jews,' or 'Christ killers,' as they came to be known. Names given to them by 'great' Christian theologians such as Martin Luther, St. Augustine, Jerome, etc. Not a great way to win Jews to Jesus. Of course, this would culminate in six million Jewish men, women and children being murdered by the Nazis. Just because they were Jewish. And the Nazis, after the war, at the Nuremburg trials would use as their defense that 'they were just doing what the Church had been doing for centuries.' Unfortunately, there weren't lying. What a very sad commentary on 'the Church.'

I realize that not many Christians today know this dark fact about Church history, but validating this is not hard. Reading any Jewish history of the last 15 centuries, of which there are many paperback books out (these can be found at any bookstore under such titles as 'History of the Jews,' etc.), will give specific dates, towns and accounts where Jewish Communities have been burned to the ground and their property and goods plundered, their children taken from them, and many murdered, all in the Name of Jesus. This was Church theology toward God's Chosen People, the Jews. And much of that theology is still in place today.

In order to avoid the appearance of sacrifice, all Jews who have come from Europe, for every country of Europe turned against the Jews in the last thousand years, the Jews have stopped eating lamb altogether at Passover. Instead, they will have beef or chicken as the meat dish.

At Max's table in the United States and other places today, there will be the shank bone of a lamb (a part of one of the leg's of a lamb). This will symbolize the lamb of that First Passover in Egypt for Max and the others who don't as yet believe in Yeshua.

Maror or bitter herbs would also be on the plate. This is generally made up of horseradish. Remember, it's designed to get tears in your eyes to remember the life of bitterness in Egyptian slavery, and before one came to Jesus.

Parsley or lettuce is used for the tradition of dipping twice with salt water, very salty water, being used to picture the Red Sea.

Next we have a hard boiled egg which is also a traditional food that is used to represent Pharaoh's hard heart. There are people who say that God isn't fair because God Himself says that He will harden Pharaoh's heart. The reasoning of these people go like this: 'If God hardens someone's heart, what chance is there for that person to have anything but a hard heart?!' Sounds 'reasonable' but these people don't know the One True God. If any of us have any sense of 'fairness' or justice within us, it must come from God, who is Righteous.

In the Scriptures, Yahveh does say that He will harden Pharaoh's heart (Exodus 4:21; 7:3; 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10). But it also says that Pharaoh will harden his own heart (Exodus 8:15, 32; 9:34). So what is going on here?

The Lord Yeshua has given me an illustration for this: if a brick of clay and a brick of wax are placed on the pavement in the heat of the sun on a hot day in July, the brick of clay will harden, and the brick of wax will soften and melt. No one can rightfully accuse the sun and say that, 'it's the sun's fault!' It is the nature of the two bricks that will determine what happens to them. And so it is within the human heart. We can either harden ourselves before the Living God, or we can melt and allow Him to use us for His Glory; a glory that makes us become like Him. This is called, 'free will.' We all have the ability to choose God or Satan. And so did Pharaoh.

In Pharaoh's day, every plague was like 'a ray of very hot sunshine' revealing the One True God of the Hebrews. And after every plague, Pharaoh had an opportunity to free Israel under his own volition. Pharaoh obstinately chose to rebel against the Most High God, each plague hardening him or revealing his true nature. The price he paid is a Picture to us of all who rebel against Yahveh and reject the Blood of the Lamb of God over the doorway of their soul.

Another food on the Seder Plate is the dessert of the Meal: Haroset. It's a finely chopped mixture of apples, honey, nuts, cinnamon and wine. It's Delicious! Once the mixture is made, you can imagine that the apples will begin to oxidize though. This is done intentionally, for now the mixture will look like the mortar that we Jews were forced to make for Pharaoh in Egypt.

The question is though, 'Why would anything that is supposed to represent our painful labor under Pharaoh, taste good?!' The Rabbis say that it is symbolic of the 'pleasure' that Israel had, even in Egyptian slavery. It is a picture of the enjoyment of sin in the land of darkness. This is a great tradition from the Rabbis. And very appropriate for us also who believe in Messiah Yeshua.

THE 2nd CUP OF BLESSING: THE CUP OF REMEMBRANCE

After Max would have explained each food item and taken of some, along with the people present, the Seder Plate would give way to the 2nd Cup of Blessing. You'll remember that the 1st Cup was used to sanctify or 'set apart' the Table and the Ceremony as Holy, Yahveh commanding Israel to do so. This 2nd Cup, which would be used to begin the actual Meal, is called the Cup of Remembrance because it 'remembers' that the Egyptians who died in the last plague of judgment, were also part of God's Creation; and that Israel's freedom came at the price of death for many.

Max will fill up the as yet, unused 2nd wine glass, and place it on his plate, right in the center of the plate. (At each place setting, there will be four wine glasses, an not just one wine glass used four times.) He will then recite all the plagues that Yahveh did against Egypt, starting at the first, the Nile River being turned into blood, etc. Every time he mentions a plague, he, and all those present, will take their finger and dip it slightly into the wine glass to pick up some wine on their finger tip. They will then drip it onto the plate, in remembrance of those awesome plagues and the havoc, destruction and death that it cost Egypt.

With the 10th Plague finished, Max will lift up his slightly less than full wine glass and say the blessing, thanking God for the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. A full glass of wine symbolizes fullness of Joy. And what this ceremony pictures is that our Joy is slightly diminished in our knowledge that our freedom came at the expense of Egyptian lives.

And we also see that the price of our freedom has come by the Death of Yahveh's Firstborn Son, Yeshua.

Max will then bless God for the Meal and the eating will really begin. We Jews love to eat and the meal can go on for hours. As the children are always the first to get done with eating, the ceremony of the three matzot in the pouch was especially designed for them to be occupied in looking for the hidden matza, while the adults continued to eat and enjoy the time that the Lord had provided in the Passover.

The children would be dismissed to find the hidden matza and the one who found it would be given a silver coin. Silver in Scripture is a biblical metal symbolic of redemption:

Exodus 30:11-16: 'Yahveh also spoke to Moses, saying, 'When you take a census of the Sons of Israel to number them, then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself to Yahveh when you number them, so that there will be no plague among them when you number them. This is what everyone who is numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to Yahveh.'

'Everyone who is numbered, from twenty years old and over, shall give the offering to Yahveh. The rich shall not pay more and the poor shall not pay less than the half shekel, when you give the offering to Yahveh to make atonement for yourselves. You shall take the atonement money from the Sons of Israel and shall give it for the service of the Tent of Meeting, that it may be a memorial for the Sons of Israel before Yahveh to make atonement for yourselves.'

We see that the shekel that is spoken of above, is a silver shekel as the work on the Tabernacle tells us where all those half shekels went:

Ex. 38:25: 'And the silver of them that were numbered of the Congregation was a hundred talents, and one thousand, seven hundred and seventy-five shekels, after the shekel of the Sanctuary:'

Ex. 38:26: 'A bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the Sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty men.'

So the child in essence, is being rewarded in the form of what it has found: the Redeemer is Alive from the dead!, Redemption has come! Silver is a metal picturing redemption and Yeshua (salvation).

At this time Max would take the half piece of matza that was found, what I would call the Picture of the Resurrected (Found), Bread of Life, and what Max would call 'dessert' and he would say, 'All you who are hungry and afflicted, come to this Table and eat.'

Now, after eating for a couple of hours, no one is going to be physically hungry! But the profound significance of his declaration is that this Table is the Table of the Passover, the Table of Freedom. And the unleavened bread or matza, is a picture to Max and the Jewish Community, of that freedom. This is why Yeshua, when He sat down to His Passover Meal before His Death, could inject Himself, who is Freedom, into the matza that was already on the table. He wasn't making something new, but giving it a greater meaning, in freedom from sin and death, as we eat Him who is the Matza of Life.

How Max could not question this anomaly, of calling this piece of matza dessert, is beyond my understanding. This matza is so very symbolic, even to him. And to say that it is 'dessert' defies all reason.

After blessing God for the redemption that He has given Israel, Max and all present will eat of the 'dessert.' He will then take the 3rd Glass, fill it full with wine and bless God for delivering Israel from Egypt again. Yeshua takes this glass, after the Meal, and injects Himself into this also. This 3rd Glass is known as the Cup of Redemption, and this is the origin of what Christians call communion.

An interesting side point is that wine is not mentioned as one of the three biblical foods of the Passover (Exodus 12:8). Just lamb, matza and bitter herbs. So, one half of communion, the wine (or grape juice), comes from a Jewish tradition! Jesus had no problem with this Jewish tradition though. He used it to picture His Blood.

When one takes the Body and the Blood of Yeshua, the matza and the wine, one is taking the essence of the Passover. (This is the Lord's Supper. It is the Passover, or rather, a mini Passover Meal.) We can do this twice a day, biblically. But once a year, the Lord commands His People to observe the fuller, yearly Passover, in honor to Him, and the great deliverances that He has performed for Israel: the First Passover in Egypt, delivering the Hebrew slaves from Egyptian slavery; and the Second Passover in Jerusalem; delivering Israel, both Jew and Gentile from slavery to sin, Satan and death.

Matza is known both as the bread of affliction, and the bread of freedom. God is still calling people to this Table. More on that later.

What Max calls the middle matza is 'afi-komen.' This is a Greek word for 'dessert.' This is what I call Jewish sabotage. From the very first time that I heard that, the meaning didn't sit well with me. And when you think about it, why would Max have to use yet another piece of matza, bless God with it and say that it's dessert? In time, the Lord would show me another Greek word, very similar to it, that must have been the original Greek word for this piece of matza that is used to picture redemption. The Greek word is 'epi-komen-os' and means, 'the One we have waited for, in the fullness of time, has arrived.'

With the many tens of thousands of Messianic Jews in the first century, Jews like Peter that believed Jesus was the Messiah, this ceremony of the three matzot came into being. As you can see, it is very clear that it relates to the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Yeshua. (The breaking of the matza at the beginning of the ceremony is His Death. The wrapping of it in a linen napkin is His Burial, and the child finding the matza, is the celebration of His Resurrection.)

The book of Acts tells us that there were many thousands of Jews who came to Yeshua the first day of Shavuot (Pentecost):

Acts 2:41: 'So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.'

These 3,000 would be only the men, as the women and children were seldom counted in the tally (John 6:10). Luke continues and tells us that many more thousands of Jews came as the Lord added to them:

Acts 4:4: 'But many of those who had heard the message believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.'

Of course, these are all Jewish men, as the first Gentile doesn't come until many years after the resurrection. That would be Cornelius in Acts 10. And then later on in Acts, we read that there were many tens of thousands of Jews that believed:

Acts 21:20: 'And when they heard it they began glorifying God; and they said to him, 'You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law;'

The word for 'thousands' in this passage is the Greek word for an army made up of tens of thousands of men.

Now we can understand that their ceremony of the Resurrected Savior, would overflow into the traditional Jewish Community. Of course, the traditional Community that didn't believe in Jesus would have to change the name of the matza from epikomenos ('the One we have waited for, in the fullness of time, has arrived'), to afikomen ('dessert').

The traditional Jewish Community would have to come up with a different reason for three matzot being in the pouch, but everything else stayed the same so that today, when Max comes to this part after the Meal, he is in form, taking communion; the matza and the wine. That's why, in the breaking of the matza, Yeshua could be seen. He was broken for us that we might see God. And that's why I will pray at this Passover coming up, that the Lord Yeshua will reveal Himself to Max and all the Jewish People in the world, that He is the One who was broken for their Salvation from sin and death. I believe that it will happen one day for the Scripture says:

'I will pour out on the House of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of Grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.' (Zech. 12:10)

'In that Day a Fountain will be opened for the House of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem; for sin and for uncleanness.' (Zech. 13:1)

And just as the two on the road to Emmaus saw their Messiah in the breaking of the matza, so one day, millions of Jews will see Yeshua, as they break the matza for this ceremony. Passover is the time when they believe that Messiah will come and Passover will be the time when Yeshua will reveal Himself to them. Why? Because Passover is a picture of Freedom from slavery. And in that day all Israel will be saved as it is written:

'and so all Israel will be saved, just as it is written, 'The Deliverer will come from Zion. He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.' 'This is My covenant with them when I take away their sins.' (Romans 11:26-27)

And what better way to take sin away then at the Table of Freedom, the Passover Table. That this cannot apply to those who are already in the Body of Messiah is seen in that they are already saved, having their sins already washed away by the Blood of the Lamb. This is for the Jewish People who have not yet come to know their Messiah. This is Yahveh fulfilling His Word to Father Abraham when He said that He would be the God of his Sons:

'I will establish My Covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting Covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. And I will be their God.' (Genesis 17:7-8)

Communion comes from the Third Cup at Passover, the Cup of Redemption. When Yeshua sat down at the Table, the Table was already waiting for Him to inject Himself into it, because the First Passover is a Picture of the Second Passover that would come.

We see the foundation for communion in the Old Testament in three places: the Passover that we've covered, the Daily Sacrifice, and the last or ultimate sacrifice of the Mosaic Sacrificial System, the oblation and the libation. In the Daily Sacrifice we see that communion can be taken twice a day, biblically. We find the Daily Sacrifice in Exodus 29:38-42:

Ex. 29:38: 'Now this is what you must offer on the Altar: two one year old lambs each day, continuously.'

Ex. 29:39: 'The one lamb you shall offer in the morning and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight;'

Ex. 29:40: 'and there shall be one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and one-fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering with one lamb.'

Ex. 29:41: 'The other lamb you must offer at twilight, and shall offer with it the same grain offering and the same drink offering as in the morning, for a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to Yahveh.'

Ex. 29:42: 'It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway of the Tent of Meeting before Yahveh where I will meet with you, to speak to you there.'

The blood was here literally in the lamb sacrificed and symbolically in the wine. And the matza or unleavened bread is seen in the grain offering. It was done twice a day. At the beginning of light, and at the end of light. It's almost as if they were two 'pillars' that stood between light and darkness, or 'encapsulated' the light, and kept the darkness out; (because of the Lamb, Israel would have Light).

It's a Picture of the First Passover and how they came to walk in Freedom. Deut. 16:3 says for Israel to remember every day the Day of their Salvation (Passover). Should we do any less?

Deut. 16:3: 'You must not eat leavened bread with it. Seven days you must eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), so that you may remember all the days of your life the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.'

Of course, 'the Day,' was the time of the Passover lamb being slain and the beginning of the Feast of Matzot, the Celebration of Freedom from slavery to Pharaoh and Satan. Literally, it would be the first day of the Feast of Matza, the 15th of Aviv.

The lamb was a whole burnt offering meaning that Israel was to see itself as being totally consecrated to Yahveh. The fine flour without yeast (an oblation), pictured the matza of Passover. The libation or wine pictured the blood sacrifice of the lamb. All this pictures Yeshua as the Lamb of God. The lamb and the flour picture His Body, real Flesh, crushed like grain, and the wine, His Blood.

Another interesting point is that only the priests could eat of the flour (bread or matza), and the wine of the daily sacrifice. And we as priests can eat from the Sacrifice of our Messiah that is in the Heavens today. This is what the writer of Hebrews is talking about when he says:

'We have an Altar from which those who serve the Temple have no right to eat.' (Hebrews 13:10).

The reason the Temple priests had no right to eat from the Heavenly Altar, where the Eternal Sacrifice of Yeshua rests, is because they didn't believe in Him. But we who believe in Him take of His Body and His Blood daily. Because Yahveh set up the daily sacrifice of the lambs, for Israel to realize that it was the blood or death of the lamb that gave them their freedom, theologically, one can have communion twice a day; in the morning and in the late afternoon just before dark.

Also, this Altar mentioned here is not the Gold Altar where only incense was burned (picturing the prayers of the High Priest for His People Israel, and the prayers of Israel). No one ate of anything placed on the Gold Altar in the Holy Place. Only incense was placed on it. The only Altar that the priests could eat from was the Bronze Altar of Sacrifice. It is this Altar that Hebrews is mentioning, and it is the Eternal or Heavenly Body and Blood of the Lamb of God that is on it for us to eat of today, and to thank our Messiah for eternally.

Looking at it from another biblical perspective, we also see that the flour and the wine, the oblation and libation, are the highest sacrifice in the Mosaic Sacrificial system. This sacrifice spoke of transformation: Flour was once whole kernels. Wine was once grapes. Both had to be crushed in order for them to be eaten or drunk. Again, only the priests could eat from this sacrifice (Lev. 22:10-16).

Yeshua was the Sacrifice Lamb. All these things pointed to Him and they still point to Him! That's what the Apostle Paul is saying in Colossians 2:16f. When we take communion, we are walking in the triple biblical reality of the daily sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice in the Mosaic Sacrificial system (the grain and the wine), and the Passover.

COMMUNION: THE BODY AND BLOOD OF OUR MESSIAH

THE THIRD CUP OF WINE AND THE MATZA AFTER THE MEAL

In the last Passover that Jesus celebrated with His Students (disciples), we see Jesus taking the matza and the cup or glass of wine and investing it with greater meaning. Both the matza and the cup already meant freedom from slavery because of the blood and the body of the lamb slain in Egypt. Now Yeshua would inject Himself into that already present meaning and amplify it. But before I share on what communion is, I'd like to explain what it is not, and the Apostle Paul's admonition to those unlearned Gentile Christians in Corinth.

In 1st Cor. 11:23-32 we see Paul telling us about communion. Unfortunately, it is not his theological dissertation on communion, but mostly a negative rebuke to Gentile Christians to stop practices that were contrary to the Spirit of Messiah (1 Cor. 11:17-22).

To understand Paul's attitude in dealing with the problems of the Corinthians, and also to see an overview of the letter, I've included some highlights from a few chapters. What I'd like for you to realize is that Paul was very frustrated with those Corinthians. I think here is one of the places where we might expect to see Paul pulling out his Jewish beard.

In the 1st chapter we hear of factions! One is for Apollos, one for Paul and another for Peter!

In the 3rd chapter Paul rebukes them for their carnality, calling them infants in Christ.

In the 5th chapter a man is sleeping with his stepmother and is still a member in good standing in the church!

In the 6th chapter we find church members are taking one another to court, and that in front of unbelievers! Some of them are practicing fornication, which means they are having sex with temple prostitutes. This is quite a lively church!

In the 8th chapter Paul tells them not to eat food sacrificed to idols in the temple of their gods for it will cause a weaker brother to stumble.

In the 10th chapter verse 21, he warns,

'You cannot drink the Cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's Table and the table of demons.'

This implies that there were some who professed belief in Jesus, and drank the communion cup of the demon gods! What they drank would have been either real blood from an animal sacrifice, (to the god or goddess), or a blood substitute.

Finally, Paul comes to the Body and Blood of Yeshua, but he is still putting out brush fires! 1st Cor. 11:17-22 has him coming against them for their current practice of communion:

1 Cor. 11:17: 'But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse.'

1 Cor. 11:18: 'For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it.'

1 Cor. 11:19: 'For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you.'

1 Cor. 11:20: 'Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper,'

1 Cor. 11:21: 'for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk.'

1 Cor. 11:22: 'What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you.'

Then Paul goes on to speak about the Body and Blood of Yeshua:

1 Cor. 11:23: '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 of course, this bread that He injected Himself into had to be matza, unleavened bread, for it was the Passover and Feast of Matza when Yeshua gave it to the Apostles),

1 Cor. 11:24: 'and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'This is My Body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.'

1 Cor. 11:25: 'In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, 'This Cup is the New Covenant in My Blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.'

1 Cor. 11:26: 'For as often as you eat this Bread and drink the Cup, you proclaim the Lord's Death until He comes.'

1 Cor. 11:27: 'Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the Body and the Blood of the Lord.'

1 Cor. 11:28: 'But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.'

1 Cor. 11:29: 'For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the Body rightly.'

1 Cor. 11:30: 'For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.'

1 Cor. 11:31: 'But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.'

1 Cor. 11:32: 'But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.'

1st Corinthians 11:23-32 tells us very little of what communion really is, but more that we should not be unworthy in taking it. 1st Corinthians 11:27-28 declare that we should not take it in an unworthy manner, which would make us guilty of not taking His Body and Blood for the reason that it was given: to cleanse us and make us like Him. Paul tells us to examine our self and in verse 31, he tells us to judge our self.

What he is saying is that before we take communion, if there is sin in our life, if we have trouble forgiving a brother or a sister, we are to tell Him about this, and ask Him to help us to walk in forgiveness. We need to confess it and ask Abba El (Papa-God), to forgive us. Then we may take communion, relying upon the Blood and the Body to free us from that sin. This is the 'negative side' of communion. We are to judge ourselves; where our walk is with Yeshua.

What does it mean to proclaim His Death every time we take communion (1 Cor. 11-24-26)? It means that we are to die to self. We are to enter into His Death, that we might die to ourselves and be alive unto Him. We 'proclaim His Death' by dying to self, and if we take communion thinking that we don't have to, that we can walk in our own carnality, we take it to our own condemnation. He did not die to sanctify my carnality.

A word about unworthiness or condemnation. If one feels unworthy and refuses to take communion because of it, they are spitting in the Face of Jesus; they are nullifying the Body and Blood which were given to us. No one is 'worthy' enough in their own, to take communion. It is only for those who know their lack of worth before a most Holy God. The attitude of 'unworthiness' is really one of inverted pride. It doesn't trust in the Sacrifice of Jesus, but in self. It says, 'I will make myself acceptable to God, my way.' We cannot get 'good enough' to take the Body and Blood of Yeshua in our own strength or 'holiness.'

The positive side of the Body and Blood of Yeshua has three major aspects to it which all stem from the original symbolism of the First Passover. They are remembrance, table fellowship, and the attitude with which God wants us to take communion.

REMEMBRANCE

1st Cor. 11:24 tells us that the bread equals His Body. As the Lord passed the unleavened bread (Matza), around that Passover night, Paul says that the meaning is to eat it in 'Remembrance of Him.' The very next verse, 11:25, says that the wine equals His Blood and that we are to drink it in 'Remembrance of Him' also. Remembrance of His Death. The Price of our Freedom.

The concept 'to remember' in Hebrew means, 'to go back to the event and be a living part of it.' Exodus 13:8 says,

'And on that day you will explain to your son, 'This is because of what Yahveh did for me when I came out of Egypt.'

Corporate Identity is a term that theologians use to express the Body of Christ: past, present and future, and we who believe in Yeshua, are all part of that Body. Hebrews 7:4-10 states that Malkizedek was a greater priest than the Levitical Priesthood (or the High Priest Aaron), for Levy was in the loins of his father Abram, when Abram gave a tithe to Malkizedek, and Malkizedek blessed Abram (Gen. 14:18-20).

Therefore Hebrews tells us, without a doubt, the lesser is blessed by the greater. Levy, in a biblical sense, was tithing to a greater priesthood, even though he hadn't been born yet. Corporate identity allows us to consider Levy doing this, even though the Levitical Priesthood wouldn't come into existence until after the Passover, 400 years later.

When we Jews sit at our Passover Table, we envision ourselves at that First Passover in Egypt. This is seen from the above passage where God commands us to say that we (I), came out of Egypt (Ex. 13:8). As believers in Messiah, both Jew and Gentile, we come to see ourselves also at the Second Passover, with Jesus and all the Apostles and all the saints present. For this is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. This is where the BrideGroom initiates the Covenant of Marriage for His Bride, the Body of Messiah.

The Marriage Supper of the Lamb is nothing less than the Heavenly Passover. We know that as we eat the Passover Bread and Wine, we are eating and drinking our God, and becoming like Him. This is how Yeshua can marry us. For in our earthly state, we are not fit for Yeshua to marry us. He being sinless and we still in our mortal bodies sinning. But, as we become like Him, and that is what His Body and Blood are all about, He is able to marry, 'after His kind.'

All the creatures that were created could only marry after their kind; Man with Woman, an eagle with an eagle, a lion with a lioness, etc. And so in order for God the Messiah to have a Mate, that Mate would have to be like Him. The original Creation was a Picture of the Heavenly Creation, God taking a Bride for His Son called Israel. A wife for Adam came from the side of him, and so a Wife for Messiah came from His Side. Yeshua's Side was pierced and Blood and Water came out, unto the Earth (Man: Israel His Bride). The Blood is for cleansing and the Water for Eternal Life. The reality here is that our nature, Adamic, will one day be made like the Nature of Yeshua's, deity.

As we truly eat of His Flesh and drink of His Blood, which is real Food and Drink, pictured in the matza and the wine, we call upon the Holy Spirit to bring into our presence, the Reality of this great salvific event, that Second Passover with Jesus, and all that it implies for us.

His Death means that we enter into it, by dying to ourselves, which is what Passover is all about, and baptism also:

Romans 6:1: 'What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that Grace may increase?'

Rom. 6:2: 'May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?'

Rom. 6:3: 'Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Messiah Yeshua have been baptized into His Death?'

Rom. 6:4: 'Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Messiah was raised from the dead through the Glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.'

Rom. 6:5: 'For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His Death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His Resurrection,'

Rom. 6:6: 'knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;'

Rom. 6:7: 'for he who has died is freed from sin.'

Death is the basic concept behind both Passover and Baptism. Baptism is done at the beginning of our walk with Yeshua and Passover is done once a year. And as we have seen, the mini-Passover (the Lord's Supper or Communion), can be done twice a day.

FRIENDSHIP

When anyone in the ancient Middle East would break bread with anyone else, even an enemy, they were now bound to become like blood brothers. This is how powerful table fellowship, or eating together, was. It was a sign of the strongest possible friendship. Here, at the Passover Table, we have God and Israel at the Table, sitting down and becoming friends. We who were enemies of God, as Paul says, are now friends. We are seen as friends of God, because of the Blood and Body of the Lamb. Jesus makes it possible for God the Father, and us, to be friends, because of His Passover Sacrifice. This is a very powerful Reality and not something to be taken lightly. The God of Israel is our Friend. If we have any need, He will meet it. That's just the nature of friendship.

THE BIBLICAL ATTITUDE FOR COMMUNION

Exodus 12:14 has Yahveh explaining what the proper attitude for Passover must be:

'And this day will be for you, a day to remember (or enter in to), and you must celebrate it, a Feast (Celebration) to Yahveh for all your generations, an eternal decree. You must celebrate the Feast.'

The word celebrate means 'to dance, to reel about, to be giddy and to rejoice.' To rejoice mightily! The picture that best captures the emotional reality that God desires for us to have at communion, is seen on the face of the Israelites when they watch their enemies, the Egyptian Army and charioteers, who wanted to murder them, engulfed in the Red Sea. The Psalmist rejoices in Yahveh and tells us that Passover is one of the Great and Mighty Deeds of Yahveh (Psalm 77:12-20; 114, etc.). (Creation being the other Mighty Deed or Act; Psalm 115, etc.)

The Crucifixion though, is the Great and Mighty Deed of Yahveh, and He wants us to realize this when we have communion. It combines both Creation and Redemption. We have been set free from our enemies: Sin, Satan and Eternal Death, and given His Nature, and God wants us to rejoice, sing and dance unto Him, at the very least, in our hearts, and through our mouths. This is the biblical attitude for taking the Body and the Blood.

JESUS: THE MATZA (UNLEAVENED BREAD) OF LIFE

Isaiah 53:5 gives us an incredible Picture of our Messiah Jesus as the Crucified Matza (unleavened bread):

'Yet He was pierced through for our open rebellion, crushed for our perverse heart; on Yeshua lies a punishment that brings us Shalom (Peace) with Papa God, and through His stripes we are healed.' (my translation from the Hebrew)

For those of you who haven't seen or tasted matza, today, store bought matza is like a thin cracker that is pierced through. This is done in order not to have heat 'bubbles' in it. In the days of Yeshua, the matza was also pierced through, but the texture was more like bread without yeast. Made with water, salt and olive oil, it was supple and had a wonderful taste and nutritional quality to it.

We know that Yeshua was pierced through. Not only were His Hands and His Feet pierced through, but also His Side:

John 19:34: 'But one of the soldiers pierced His Side with a spear, and immediately Blood and Water came out.'

The Blood would be a reference to the blood of the lamb in the First Passover, slain for Israel's Salvation, and the Water would be a reference to the Water that was given to Israel from the Rock in the Wilderness, that Moses struck once:

Ex. 17:5: 'Then Yahveh said to Moses, 'Pass before the People and take with you some of the Elders of Israel; and take in your hand your Staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.'

Ex. 17:6: 'Behold, I will stand before you there on the Rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the Rock, and Water will come out of it, that the People may drink.' And Moses did so in the sight of the Elders of Israel.'

The striking of the Rock pictures the crucifixion of Yeshua and the Provision of Living Water that would be given to all who desire. This is especially evident when we see 40 years later, that Moses is told to speak to the Rock, for Water this time, but Moses, in his frustration, and separation from Israel ('...you rebels!' Numbers 20:10), as the mediator between God and Israel, strikes this Rock twice. In so doing, he incurs a very severe penalty for his sin of disobedience. He is told by Yahveh that he cannot enter the Promised Land that he has been leading Israel to, for the last 40 years (Numbers 20:12).

At first this might seem harsh of Yahveh to do this to Moses, but when we realize that even in Moses' sin, he is a picture of Messiah, we come to see the reason for this. Moses, because of his sin, would die before the Sons of Israel would enter the Promised Land. And we see that Yeshua the Messiah, must also die, before anyone Jew or Gentile can enter the Promised One.

The matza was once very hard kernels of wheat. It had to be crushed in order for it to be baked and made edible. The punishment we deserved is crucifixion, for we have all rebelled against God. This is where Yeshua was crushed for us, so that we might be able to eat of the Matza (Bread) that would give us Life, His Life.

The brown markings on the matza are known as stripes or bruises. They come from being placed on a rack. Jesus' back was lashed open by the Romans until His Flesh was torn in pieces. And by His Stripes we are healed.

The matza that we are to eat for communion, coming from the Passover Table, thus forms a perfect Picture of the Crucified Messiah, Yeshua and why Yahveh institutes matza for that First Passover.

Next we come to the wine. It comes from grapes. They too had to be crushed so we could drink it. This pictures His Blood that we can drink because of His being crushed. The Rabbis say that the wine for Passover must be red, for it has to reflect the sacrificial blood of the Passover lamb. And in so doing, it also represents the Blood of Yeshua.

Wine in the Bible is both a symbol of death (sacrifice) and life (the joy it brings), i.e. Psalm 104:15, 'And wine which make's man's heart glad...' Wine is not a part of the biblical commandment in Exodus, but Yeshua uses this Jewish tradition to form one half of Christian communion.

You see, everything was already there for Jesus when He came upon the scene 2000 years ago. The Stage had already been set by His Father 1400 years earlier in the First Passover. In Yeshua's time, as He came to the 3rd Passover Cup of wine, He injects Himself who is Freedom (Redemption) and Salvation, into the Matza and the Wine, which already pictured Freedom and Salvation from slavery, thus overlapping and intensifying the picture of the Passover matza and the wine.

The Next Time You Have Communion, Take These Realities

Remember His Death. Ask Him to help you to die to self that you might experience His Reality more in your life, and that you might truly be made into His Image. Dying to self is true freedom from sin.
Examine your self and be washed and cleansed: From John 13:5 we know that Jesus washed the feet of all His followers, including Judas. You are at the Table and Jesus is washing your feet. If you have any bitterness, resentment, emotional pain inside you, Jesus looks up into your face and asks you to give it to Him. He will heal you. His Body and Blood are your forgiveness for sin and wholeness. He came to set the captive free. This is the aspect of forgiveness and cleansing.
Yeshua and Papa God are your Friends. You are at the Table, He gives you His Body and His Blood and He calls you His Friend. Yeshua is pleased with you because you walk in His Blood Sacrifice and you rejoice in Him, trusting Him to cleanse you of your sin and provide Salvation for you. God has chosen to deal with sin by the Death of His Son and He wants us to rejoice before Him. Not only at the Passover Table in His Day, but the One in the Future! If you need anything: forgiveness, life, health, wisdom, we have it in Yeshua. He has committed to serve you! To make sure you make it!

He supplies our food; both physical and spiritual. He is the Matza of Life.

He provides our shelter; the homes we live in, and the fortress we go to when the storms of life batter us.

He gives us our clothing; and clothes us in His Righteousness.

Because we eat of Him, this makes us one with Him. This is the aspect of marriage, or union.
Celebrate! Meditate on what Yeshua is to you and what God has done for you and you'll find yourself wanting to sing and dance unto Him. This is the attitude of true thanksgiving and celebration and one in which communion should be taken. He has defeated all our enemies and we are to rejoice in our hearts. And He promises to make us like Himself.

Communion: the essence of the Passover. Freedom by the Lamb that was Sacrificed for us. Thank you Papa God, Lord Yeshua, and the Spirit of the Holy One!

A PLACE SETTING FOR ELIJAH

At every Passover Table there is a place setting for Elijah. Food is placed on his plate and wine is poured into his glass. Why? Because the Jewish People believe that before the Messiah was to come, that Elijah would proceed Him:

Malachi 4:5-6: 'Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of Yahveh. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their sons and the hearts of the sons to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the Land with a curse.'

And this is why the students of Yeshua asked Him about Elijah:

Mark 9:11-13: 'They asked Him, saying, 'Why is it that the scribes say that Elijah must come first?' And He said to them, 'Elijah does first come and restore all things. And yet how is it written of the Son of Man that He will suffer many things and be treated with contempt? But I say to you that Elijah has indeed come, and they did to him whatever they wished, just as it is written of him.'

At this point in the Passover Ceremony, Max will allow the children to leave the table and go to the front door. They'll open it and shout as loud as they can, 'Elijah!, Come quickly!' It's quite a scene.

The Jewish People realize that the Prophet must come before Messiah and so they want Elijah to come so that he can herald the coming of the Messiah.

THE 4th CUP OF WINE: THE CUP OF PRAISE

This Cup praises Yahveh for His completed work of Redemption, as seen in the Passover and Red Sea. The Hebrew People that came out of Egypt were completely saved from Egyptian slavery.

Just about everyone that I know, who believes in Jesus and does the Passover, drinks from this 4th Cup. There's a problem with this though. Jesus didn't! Matthew 26:29, which takes place immediately after Yeshua drank from the 3rd Cup that He said was His Blood, has Yeshua saying,

'I tell you, I will not drink this fruit of the vine again until the Day I drink New Wine with you in the Kingdom of My Father.'

The term, 'fruit of the vine' is taken from the Greek and is a direct quote from the traditional Hebrew blessing to Yahveh for wine. The blessing or 'thanksgiving' that Yeshua would have said over every cup of wine that night would be this:

'Blessed are You, Yahveh our God, Eternal King, who creates the fruit of the vine.'

In the Greek, the phrase 'the fruit of the vine' is literally what it says. Because of this we know that Yeshua said the traditional Jewish blessing, thanking His Father for the fruit of the vine (wine). And if He blessed His Father with the traditional Jewish blessing for wine, it seems that He would have also blessed His Father with the traditional Jewish blessing for the matza (bread):

'Blessed are You, Yahveh our God, Eternal King, the One who causes the bread that we eat, to come forth from the ground.'

Of course, both of these refer to Yeshua as the Wine from Heaven, and the Bread or Matza that comes forth from the ground (death).

Traditional Jews drink from the 4th Cup because the Work of Redemption (Salvation), from Egyptian slavery was complete at the First Passover and the Red Sea. We shouldn't, because our Redemption won't be complete until we stand before God on Judgment Day, and become like our Messiah, Glorified. This is Salvation for us. Before that Day, we have the Heavenly Promise, sealed by the Death of Yeshua, and the Holy Spirit within.

The 4th Cup symbolizes the completed work of Redemption for Israel. That's why Yeshua didn't drink that Fourth Cup that night, we are not yet like Him. This is the New Jerusalem, coming down from the New Heavens. Yeshua will drink it with us then, when we are glorified like Him. This is the Praise to Papa God, who has wrought this Great Redemption, the picture of the Fourth Cup, and why Yeshua didn't drink of it that night, on the Second Passover. But He will, with us, on the Third Passover.

God is still calling people to this Second Table! It's as though Time has stood still for 2,000 years and has allowed us who weren't literally at that Second Passover Table with Jesus, to sit down and eat of His Body and Blood, that we might be part of the Kingdom of God. This time period will end on the Day of Judgment, the Day of Yahveh, when all those who have really eaten of Him, will have the Wrath of God Pass-over them, but those who haven't, will spend eternity in Hell Fire.

HALLEL: THE PSALM SONG

In Matthew 26:30 it states,

'After singing the Hallel (hymns), they went out to the Mount of Olives.'

Hallel means praise in Hebrew.

Hallelu is 'you praise!' It's in the imperative or command mode, the 'you' understood.

Halleluyah is (you) Praise Yahveh! The 'yah' being a shortened form of Yahveh. (In Exodus 15:2, in the most ancient Hebrew poetry we have, the Song of the (Red) Sea, (in the Hebrew), it reads, 'Yah is my Strength and my Song, and He has become my Salvation!')

Psalms 113-118 and 145-150 are known as the Hallel and are traditionally sung or read at the Passover and that's what the reference of 'hymns' refers to. The Lord Yeshua and the Apostles sung those Psalms that night, lifting up the God of Israel as the Lord of Creation and Redemption.

The Lord Yeshua and the Apostles go out that night to Gethsemane and He desires that they pray with Him. Exodus 12:42 tells us that the Sons of Israel weren't to fall asleep on this night because Yahveh 'kept watch' for them that night:

'It is a night to be much observed unto Yahveh for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of Yahveh to be observed of all the Sons of Israel in their generations.'

The word 'observed' means that the Apostles should have stayed up all night long, as the first generation of Hebrews did. Yahveh commands this because He 'kept' that night, to bring Israel out of the Kingdom of Pharaoh. All Israel was to stay awake, as it came around year after year, to also imitate Israel leaving Egypt. On the first Passover, no Hebrew slept that night: they had to be ready to leave the Kingdom of Pharaoh. Can you imagine falling asleep and waking up the next day and everybody gone?!

In Matthew 26:43, we read the account of the Apostle's falling asleep and breaking the Commandment, and also failing Jesus:

'Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.'

If the Apostles had known that this Passover would require the Death of Yeshua, they would have forced themselves to stay awake, as the Hebrew slaves did that night. But they thought this Passover would be like the all the other Passovers that they had observed before it.

Gethsemane means, 'oil press.' This is where the olives would be crushed by a massive stone rolling over them, to squeeze out the oil from the olive. It was here that Yeshua determined to do the Will of His Father:

'saying, 'Father, if You are willing, remove this Cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.' (Luke 22:42)

Because Yeshua was willing to surrender His Life and be crushed, the Oil of the Holy Spirit that was within Him, is available to those who call upon His Name.

There are really 'only' three Passovers: the First in Egypt. The Second in Jerusalem. And the third in the New Jerusalem. At each Passover, Yahveh moves in such a way that He never did before, or will again.

At the First, we see the death of the first born sons of Egypt and the sparing of Israel's first born, because of the blood of a lamb; and the freeing of Israel, God's People, from Pharaoh's slavery.

At the Second, we see the Death of the First Born Son of Yahveh, Yeshua, and the sparing of Israel's first born sons (which we all become in Yeshua), from Satan's Kingdom.

And at the Third Passover, because of the Blood of the Lamb, we have the Wrath of God Pass-over us and we are changed into Glory, to the Praise of Abba El (Papa God). He has brought this Great Redemption to His People Israel, at the Cost of His Son.

PASSOVER AND THE GENTILE

Passover is for the Gentile believer too. I hope you have seen how celebrating Passover glorifies the Lord, and is still a Picture of things to come (the Marriage Supper of the Lamb). More and more Christians each year are experiencing the Passover in their homes and churches. Church history records that all Christians celebrated Passover till about 90 AD. Then, what would later become the Catholic Church in Rome, substituted Easter for it. (Easter is a pagan holy day that commemorates the resurrection of the god Tamuz, by his mother-wife, Ishtar, her name being where 'Easter' comes from.) But well past 400 AD, many Christians were still celebrating Passover. Why did the Catholic Church change it? Because they didn't want to associate with anything 'Jewish.' Little did they realize that what made the Jewish People 'Jewish' was their observance of the Ways of Yahveh. Passover was given to the Jewish People by God, the Jewish People didn't make it up.

In 1st Corinthians 5:6-8, we see Paul assuming that all Christians would keep Passover:

'Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?'

This is nothing new to the ancient peoples. All Gentiles knew that a little leaven leavened the whole lump.

'Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened.'

This would only have meaning to them if they understood the Feast of Passover. No other ancient or modern people has a feast in which yeast is taken away from the people.

'For indeed, Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.'

An event in the past.

'Therefore let us celebrate the Feast...'

A present ongoing action.

'...Not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.'

The very attitude that the Israelites were to walk in for their Passover: holiness.

Measures against the Jewish People, wherever they lived, whether in Israel, Greece, Egypt, Rome, etc., would grow because the Jewish People would not bow down to the Roman Empire. In order not to be mistaken for a Jew, the Gentile believers in Rome began changing things like the Passover and the Sabbath Day. We read of one of these repressive measures in Acts 18:2. (This happened before the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans.) It shows us the general attitude of the Roman Emperor Claudius toward the Jewish people in Rome:

'And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontius, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.'

When the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman Army in 70 CE, many Jews around the Roman Empire rioted in their cities. The Temple was the heart of the Jewish People as you well might imagine. Many repressive Roman measures would be enacted against the Jews.

In 135 CE, after the bar Kochba rebellion in Israel, the Romans forced all the Jews to leave Jerusalem. They could not enter their city and they changed the name of it to Anatolia Capatalina. A name modeled after one of their gods.

In Samuele Bacchiocchi's book, From Sabbath to Sunday (pages 161, 198-199), we see that the celebration of Passover in Christian Communities continued for hundreds of years after the Resurrection of Yeshua, even though the 'Church' that wanted to snuff it out was very powerful. Here are some excerpts:

Epiphanius, the bishop historian who lived from 315-403 AD, tells us that: 'The controversy arose (literally, 'was stirred up'), after the exodus of the bishops of the circumcision, 135 AD, (of which there were 15), and it has continued until our time.' (Epiphanius, Adversus haereses 70, 10, PG 42, 355-356)

'The bishop makes specific reference to the 15 Jewish Christian bishops who administered the Church of Jerusalem up to 135 AD, and who up to that time had practiced the Quartodeciman Passover since they based themselves on a document known as the Apostolic Constitutions, where the following rule is given:'

'You must not change the calculation of the time, but you must celebrate it at the same time as your brethren who came out from the circumcision. With them observe the Passover.' (Ibid., PG 42, 357-358)

'as your brethren who came out from the circumcision' would speak of the Jews who believed in Yeshua.

The historian Eusebius, 260-340 AD, speaks of the Passover being celebrated by Christians in the second century and the conflict within the Church because some wanted it changed. Bishop Victor of Rome, 189-199 AD, 'threatened to excommunicate the recalcitrant Christian communities of the province of Asia which refused to follow his instruction.' (To stop celebrating Passover.) This would be the entire Christian Community of Asia Minor which would have included all the churches spoken of in chapters two and three of Revelation, which is present day Turkey.

'Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus and representative of the Asian Churches, strongly advocated the traditional' (biblical), 'Passover date of the 14th of Nisan, commonly called 'Quartodeciman Passover.' Polycrates, claiming to possess the genuine Apostolic tradition transmitted to him by the Apostles Philip and John, refused to be frightened into submission by the threats of Victor of Rome.'

Quartodeciman breaks down into 'quarter' (fourth or four), and decimal (ten). This four and ten equals fourteen, or the day that God commanded Israel to celebrate the Passover; on the 14th day of the first Hebrew month (Exodus 12:4), the date corresponding to approximately mid April. And that's why the controversy was labeled as the 'Quartodeciman Passover.' (The Church of Rome, wanted to celebrate Easter at the traditional pagan time of Easter Sunday.)

Exodus 12:6: 'You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the Congregation of Israel is to slaughter it at twilight.'

'Athanasius of Alexandria mentions the 'Syrians, Cilicians and the Mesopotamians' as observant of the Quartodeciman Passover.' Gentile Christian observance of Passover was very prevalent and not confined to just one locality: all of Turkey, Syria, the Middle East, Iran and Iraq. This is confirmed by Jerome.

Jerome paraphrases a statement from Irenaeus' work (176 AD), On the Paschal Controversy, where the latter warns Pope Victor not to break the unity with 'the many bishops of Asia and the East, who with the Jews celebrated the Passover, on the the fourteenth day of the new moon.' Jerome lived from 347 to 420 AD.

'Severian, Bishop of Gabala (400 AD), strongly attacks those Christians who still maintained the Jewish Passover ritual.' But all this shows us is that as the 5th century began, Gentile Christians were still celebrating the biblical Passover! That's 400 years after the Resurrection.

'Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis (315-403 AD), tells us that the Quartodeciman controversy was very widespread in his time.' It would take a long time, many hundreds of more years, for the Roman Catholic Church to stamp out the biblical observance of Passover among Gentile Christians so that today, most Christians don't realize what has been taken away from them by the Roman Catholic Church. There were no large Protestant groups around to vie with the Roman Church. They won't make an impact until the Reformation in Europe in 1500. For all the good they would do, they would still take Rome's 'holy days' with them. Holy days that were pagan through and through. Like Easter. The biblical celebration of Passover is an ancient heritage for the Body of Messiah today, that the Lord, by His Spirit, is revealing once again, to His Body.

In Daniel 7:25, it says that Satan would change the Times of God, as well as other things of God:

'And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.'

And that's exactly what has happened for 1900 years with the Catholic Church throwing out the Passover and bringing in Easter, a pagan holy day. And the reason why the Protestant churches celebrate Easter (or the now fashionable, 'Resurrection Sunday'), is because they got it from the Catholic Church and never scrutinized it in the Light of God's Word. (As for Jesus being resurrected on Sunday, there is no biblical evidence for this. Please see the time of First Sheaf, that follows after this, Passover, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.)

In our day, the Lord is restoring what Satan has buried.

WHY SHOULD YOU CELEBRATE PASSOVER?

On this night, Yahveh moves in a way that He never does again, whether the 1st Passover, with the Sons of Israel being freed from Egyptian slavery, by the blood of the lamb, and the death of Egypt's 1st born sons, or the Second Passover, where God offers His 1st born Son Jesus, to die for us, to free us from slavery to sin, eternal death and the Kingdom of Satan.

Passover is your ancient heritage, given to us by Yahveh to honor what He has done in setting you free from sin and death by the Blood of Yeshua, the Lamb of God. God has commanded it for His People Israel, forever; both Jew and Gentile (Exodus 12:14; 1st Cor. 5:6-8).

If you are a Gentile believer in Jesus then you have been grafted into the House or the Family of Israel (Romans 11 and Ephesians 2). You learn of their, now your, Feasts. What the Church did was to throw out God's Holy Days, and bring in Satan's. But Yahveh is restoring the Family rules and regulations. You have been adopted into the Family, to become like the Family; not that the Family now has to become Gentile, which at it's root, means pagan. It's not for the House of Israel to celebrate pagan holy days, even if the Name of Jesus has been plastered upon them for 1900 years. Christmas, Easter, Sunday, Thanksgiving, Halloween and Valentine's Day, are all pagan holy days, commemorating various gods and goddess'. If God's Truth matters at all to you, then you owe it to yourself to investigate these matters. If they are true, then why would you want to participate in celebrations that are pagan, offering them up to Jesus? And if what I have written about the Passover is true, then you need to begin to walk in this Celebration of God.

It was no coincidence that Yeshua was sacrificed in the season of the Passover. The Gospels are not uniform in their depiction of when He was sacrificed, the Synoptics declaring that He ate the Passover lamb and then was murdered; John seeming to write that Yeshua was sacrificed at the time of the Passover lambs being slain in the Temple. Either way, Yeshua laid down His Life in this time period, and was known as the Passover Lamb.

I think Yeshua ate the Passover on Tuesday night, was crucified on Wednesday, dies at three and is buried by six, and three days later, on Sabbath afternoon, He is raised. On Sunday Yeshua is first seen, and He will fulfill the ceremony of First Sheaf, but He is not resurrected on Sunday. The Lord says that the only sign or miracle that He would give the adulterous and perverse generation would be the sign of Jonah:

'for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matt. 12:40) (Mt. 16:4 and Luke 11:49 each speak of the sign but don't mention three days and three nights.)

Passover: A Celebration Of Yahveh's Salvation

Passover remembers or honors what Yahveh has done in saving Israel from slavery by the Blood of the Lamb. And Passover reaffirms the Covenant that Yahveh made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and paves the way for Yeshua to come as the Lamb of God. It is also a time when God commands us to celebrate His Reality and what He has done for us (Ex. 12:14).

The next 3 Feasts all date from Passover, which always falls on the 14th of Aviv (Nisan in modern Judaism), the middle of the lunar calendar for that month, when the moon is full. It's the first full moon of the new year, which begins after the vernal (spring) equinox. The first new moon after March 21st is the new moon of Aviv, the new moon of the biblical year. Fourteen days later, the 14th of Aviv (Nisan), is the Passover of the God of Israel.

Passover really refers to the sacrifice of the lamb. This would have been about 5:00 PM on the 14th of Aviv in Egypt, for the First Passover. The eating of the sacrifice does not come till that evening, the lamb having to have been skinned and roasted. The evening, or darkness, begins what would be the next day in the Bible; the 15th of Aviv. This day is known as the First Day of Unleavened Bread (a Sabbath), or the beginning of the Feast of Matza.

THE ALTAR IN HEAVEN

Ever wonder why there is an Altar of Sacrifice in Heaven? The continual burnt offering (Exodus 29:38-43), pictures the Eternal Sacrifice of Yeshua as the Lamb of God, on the Heavenly Altar. The Holy Spirit couldn't come into Jew and Gentile to abide in us, until the Sacrifice was made ('except I leave the Holy Spirit won't come'). Now, cleansed by the Blood of the Lamb, the Spirit abides in whomsoever will. This is the beginning New Creation.

The point I want to make though, is that I think that the Altar in Heaven has the Body of the Lamb of God on it 'continually' or, for Eternity. Today we can draw our Food from this Altar. (As priests of Messiah Yeshua we are able to eat from this Sacrifice.) It will be a continual, concrete 'reminder' of what our God has done for us through Eternity. Why else would there be an Altar in Heaven?!

Revelation 6:9: 'When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the Altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the Word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained;'

Rev. 11:1: 'Then there was given me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, "Get up and measure the Temple of God and the Altar, and those who worship in it."'

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