We are looking forward to another segment on our “Precepts and Principals in the Torah” series. And this particular segment we are going to be talking about: Passover, understanding it and applying it. We want to apply what we understand. As the graphic here depicts, we believe Messiah Yahushua is the living Word, and He is also our Passover Lamb.

You know, this Bible that we have is a pretty amazing book. It is a miracle. The words on the pages here are miraculous. Just the presence of His Word, the things that it says, the predictions that it makes, the power of the written Word and the fulfillment thereof in Yahushua the Messiah is quite an amazing thing.

And I do not think anyone could possibly have, in a natural state, anticipated the Messiah and what He would do for Israel to have tried to prewrite a story that would be fulfilled 1000-1500 years later. And the story we are talking about is the history of Israel.

It is a supernatural story and it has a supernatural fulfillment.

I mean, we have copies of the Old Testament that predate, according to dating methods, they predate the Messiah’s coming on the earth the first time. And yet, they accurately speak of the things that He would do and even things that nobody could possibly have imagined in a natural state of mind.

Only through inspiration could these things have possibly been done.

We are talking about Passover, and for those of you who are interested in the Passover dates, we have here the dates for Passover. This is the Roman calendar, which I know most of us follow, and so we are going to show you where the dates are. Here is the day we are here now (3rd month, March 2nd).

And the very first day of the new year, on the night of the 12th, if you look up in the sky just after sundown (look into the western sky), you will see a crescent moon shining within an hour after sundown. After that, you are not going to see it. It is going to go. You will not see it.

So, you need to kind of look out there right after sundown. Within 30 minutes after sundown you will see it. And since Yahweh’s days begin in the evening, that will start the new year, which is on the 13th. And this is the first day of the first month on Yahweh’s calendar.

And so, we count. And we understand that Yahweh’s days are going to be: here is the first day of the first month (the 13th), the second day (the 14th), third day (the 15th), fourth day (the 16th), fifth day (the 17th), sixth day (the 18th), seventh day (the 19th), eighth day (the 20th), ninth day (the 21st), tenth day (the 22nd).

That is an important day. That is the tenth of Aviv, as we are going to find out… eleventh (the 23rd), twelfth (the 24th), thirteenth (the 25th), and then here is Passover day (the 26th). It is not a Sabbath, but it is the day that the sacrifice of the Passover lambs would occur. And, of course, once again, this begins on the night before.

And then we have, starting this night right here– between the 26th and the 27th on the Roman reckoning– would be the first Sabbath of Passover. And by this time right here, we need to have all of the leavening out of our homes.

So, if you have any kind of leavening, any kind of yeast– we are going to get more into what kinds of leavening there are next week– but if you have those kinds of things in your home, it is a good idea to start getting those things set aside and start using up your leavening, because by the time Passover rolls around, we will have to get rid of it.

So, this is the First Day of Unleavened Bread (the 27th), the Second Day (the 28th), Third Day (the 29th), Fourth Day (the 30th)… going into the 31st– Fifth Day (the 31st), Sixth Day ( the 1st day of the 4th month — “April”), and then the Seventh Day of Unleavened Bread here (the 2nd) is a Sabbath, also.

So, if you are needing to take time off from work, those are the two dates that you will want to take off if you want to observe this festival as Yahweh commands in the Scriptures.

The 27th of what is called March and the 2nd of what is called April is going to match up with the First Day and Last Day of Unleavened Bread, which is the 15th and 22nd of Yahweh’s month.

And so, progressing in our “Precepts and Principles of the Torah,” we are at Exodus 23:14. It says:

Exodus 23:14 – Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year:

15 – You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty);

That is the festival we are observing right now coming up. In the month of (“v”) Aviv, as we discovered last week.

Exodus 23:16 – and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in [the fruit of] your labors from the field.

So, the “Feast of the Harvest” is the Feast of Pentecost. The date we are looking at, I believe, is the 27th of what is called May. I am sorry, it is the 28th…. no, no, no– it is the 26th of what is called May, I believe. We will get more into that. But that is Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks.

And then at the end of the year, at the end of the growing season is what it is talking about here, the Feast of the Ingathering. That is the Feast of Tabernacles. So, those are our festivals. And Yahweh says:

Exodus 23:17 – Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Master YAHWEH.

18 – You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor shall the fat of My sacrifice remain until morning.

You cannot have leavened bread being offered with the sacrifices. It says, “Nor shall the fat of My sacrifice remain until morning.”

So, we are going to take a look here at Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread in more detail.

Now, before we go there, the first thing we need to understand, the first thing that we need to grasp, is understanding who we are. We need to understand that.

I mean, hopefully, you know who you are, but a lot of us do not know who we are. We don’t have a clear identity, maybe, of who we are in Messiah, and I think it would be pretty important for us to at least examine a few scriptures of what and who Yahweh says we are.

We are, as believers in Messiah– we are Israel. That is who we are. We don’t have to look at the Jewish people and the people of Israel over there, and say, “Yeah, those are the Israelites over there and we are over here.”

No, we can look at the scriptures and identify ourselves with Israel. To me, that is exciting. And the scriptures plainly say so. In Galatians 3:7, it says:

Galatians 3:7 – Therefore know that [only] those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

That is us. We are the sons of Abraham if we are of faith. Now, if you are a son of Abraham, then, obviously, you are a son of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And Jacob is another name for Israel.

And Galatians 3:29 says:

Galatians 3:29 – And if you [are] Messiah’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

So, we are Abraham’s seed. Of course, Abraham begot Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob, who was renamed by Yahweh Himself. He was renamed Yisrael.

So, that is who we are, because it is no longer we who live; it is Yahushua who lives in us. His identity is He is the embodiment of Israel. He is all that Yahweh wanted Israel to be. And so, we identify ourselves with Messiah. And He was an Israelite.

And there is no difference if you are a Gentile by birth or a Jew by birth. I am not talking about replacement theology, but we are Israel. And the scriptures say:

Ephesians 2:11 – Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh– who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands–

Remember this! Can you remember? Don’t forget it! Most people have forgotten this– “That you, once Gentiles in the flesh…” In other words, at one time you were a Gentile, but not anymore, “who are called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands.”

You are called the uncircumcision, but you are not the uncircumcision. It says:

Ephesians 2:12 – that at that time you were without Messiah, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without Elohim in the world.

It says “that at that time.” When? When you were once Gentiles. At that time you were without Messiah. Back in the day, when you were an unbeliever. At that time, when you were once Gentiles, you were as being aliens. At that time you were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.

But what are you now? You are not an alien anymore. You are not a stranger anymore from the New Covenant. The New Covenant is with Israel and with Judah. Look it up.

Ephesians 2:13 – But now in Messiah Yahushua you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah.

You have been brought near to what? Brought near to the covenants of promise and the commonwealth of Israel. That is what you are brought near to. So now we are Israel. We are within the commonwealth of Israel. That is the blessing of Messiah, and therefore we are partakers of that New Covenant. We are participants in the New Covenant. We are Israel.

And so, if we are Israel, then we can look at the events of Passover and we can say with confidence, “That is my ancestry. That is what happened to my fathers, through Messiah. I can identify with this.

“Because it is no longer I who live; it is Messiah who lives in me, and the life which I now live, I live by faith in the Son of Elohim, who loved me, and gave Himself for me. So, I can completely identify with what happened to Israel. That is my heritage now. I have taken on a new identity. I was once a Gentile.

“I was once a stranger from the commonwealth of Israel, but I am not anymore because Yahushua loved me and gave Himself for me. And now it is He who lives in me.” And since we are Israel, then we should be acting and behaving in the way Yisrael was called to be.

And when we look at the things that Yahweh did with Israel in taking them out of Egypt and bringing them into the promised land, the most mind blowing, the most amazing thing is what happened to Israel when Yahweh delivered them with an outstretched Arm and He brought them into the promised land.

The most amazing and mind blowing thing is that we, 3500 years later, can completely identify with what Yahweh did with Israel, because the way in which He saved Israel is an illustration of how He saved us today and how He will save us in the future.

He saw that Israel was under the bondage and slavery of Egypt. He saw how their taskmasters afflicted them and were cruel to them. And He saw us in the same condition. He saw how we were in bondage to the world by the elements of the world. Satan and his demons, being depicted as Pharaoh, were the ones we were enslaved to– the prince of this world.

And so, Yahweh brought Yisrael out of the place of bondage. He brought us out of the place of bondage. And He is saving us by the blood of the Lamb. Just as He saved them by the blood of the Passover lamb, even so we are saved by the blood of the Passover Lamb.

And even as they were baptized in the Red Sea and in the cloud, we were baptized in water and in the Spirit.

And even as they were guided through the wilderness toward the promised land and there He taught Yisrael His Torah and His commandments, His Law, even so we are in the wilderness, and He is teaching us and instructing us and showing us the way that we ought to go. And just as He tested them, we are being tested.

But it wasn’t Moshe who brought them into the promised land. It wasn’t. It was a man named Joshua, which in Hebrew is the exact same name as the Messiah– Yahushua. Yahushua, the son of Nun, brought them across the Jordan into the promised land.

And so, the picture is this: The Law can show you the right way to live, but the Law cannot take you into the promised land. For that you need a man named Yahushua.

Do you see how we can identify with Israel’s history? And nobody could have made that up. I mean, the Bible, the Old Testament, the Scriptures, and everything that is written– we have physical copies that existed prior to Messiah even coming… 200 B.C., we have Dead Sea Scrolls.

Nobody could have made that up. It’s a miracle! This Word that we have is a miracle. We are a miracle! And so, I am giving you this overview of how we can completely identify with what they went through, with how they were saved. But, you know, I want to do more than an overview. I want to dive in.

I want to dive in. I want to dive into the text. I want to ingest it and get every nuance of flavor I can, because it relates to me. What they went through is what we have gone through and we will go through. That is the big picture.

I cannot tell you how many times when I have found myself in trial and trouble and tribulation, and reminded myself, “I am in the wilderness. I am being tested. I am being tried. I am learning Yahweh’s ways. He is teaching me and instructing me. But there is a man named Yahushua who is going to take me across the Jordan.”

And that has been a source of strength and encouragement because I step back, look at the big picture and realize this is just part of the journey. They went through it. We all go through it.

And we are going to find here that Passover has so much to teach us and how a lot of churches today are really missing out on a blessing when they do not investigate the Hebraic roots and participate. You know, I am not just for investigation. I am for participation.

But they are doing themselves a disservice in claiming, “Oh, we are Gentiles. We don’t do Jewish stuff.” Wait a minute! Are we denying the work of Messiah? Didn’t the Scriptures say we are Yisrael?

So, it is not we who are participating in the things that Yisrael is called to do who are denying Messiah through our obedience to the festivals. It is those who cast off the heritage that He wants to give believers.

I am not saying they are unsaved, but their understanding is flawed to the sense that they are not really fully identifying and accepting with what Messiah has done, which is to join us to the commonwealth of Israel.

And so, with all these things as the backdrop to what I am going to share, let’s start with Exodus chapter 1, verse 7. It says:

Exodus 1:7 – But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.

8 – Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

9 – And he said to his people, Look, the people of the children of Israel [are] more and mightier than we;

They were afraid.

Exodus 1:10 – come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and [so] go up out of the land.

What were they afraid of? They were afraid that they would leave, they would go up out of the land. Interesting fear. It would be one way to get rid of Israel. But they must have known that they were being blessed.

They were being blessed. And so, they did not want Israel to go. And so, they set these taskmasters over them.

Exodus 1:11 – Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses.

And so, they did not want Israel to leave, and they were afraid that they would become large in number. You know, the enemy does not want us to leave his place either. He does not want us to leave his authority. And so, he afflicts us and enforces and enslaves us to try to get us to not want to leave, to not be able to leave if we wanted to leave.

And so, those who are not believers, they are in this condition of slavery, whether they realize it or not, to the enemy and to his ways. And he is a hard taskmaster.

They think they are free. They do. But they are not. You know, they say they are free, but they are bound. They are bound to the sin, to their passions, to the opinions of their friends. But we are free, although we are also bound– we are servants of Messiah, and He is a far better owner than the enemy is.

We can take of His yoke and learn from Him. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. And He will gently, as a good Shepherd, instruct us in the way that we ought to go– the way of freedom, the way to eternal life.

So, I would take my bound liberty over their liberated bondage any day, because the only thing that I am bound to is goodness and love and righteousness and holiness and what is good. But the things they are enslaved to are the things of this world, of hatred– of the things that are not of the Spirit of Yahweh, but the things that are not of love.

And so, they are bound. And Yahweh saw Yisrael was enslaved, and He said:

Exodus 3:7 – And YAHWEH said: I have surely seen the oppression of My people who [are] in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

He knew their sorrows. How did He know? How did He know their sorrows? Well, they were crying out to Him, I am sure, and describing what was going on… but didn’t Yahushua also bear our sorrows? Wasn’t Yahushua also mistreated and abused by those who were serving the enemy, the devil, and He was whipped as they were whipped?

He knew their sorrows. But before He could fully convince Yisrael to walk away from Egypt without fear, before He could really persuade them that He was trustworthy to lead them out, He had to first demonstrate to them He is offering them grace. He had to show them He was willing to favor them.

And so, He was sending plagues and judgments upon Egypt. Plagues like the Nile River being turned into blood for seven days. Other plagues like frogs and lice and flies and disease on animals and boils and hail and locusts and darkness.

I mean, we don’t have time to go over all these plagues, but assuming you have read the story already, you will see that many of these, starting with the plague of flies, He put a distinction between Egypt and Israel. He put a distinction.

I mean, how could there be darkness in Egypt where Pharaoh was stationed, but then in the land of Goshen there is light, for wouldn’t the light in Goshen be the light to the rest of the land? I mean, perhaps He put this cloud between the two lands. It doesn’t say that, but that is one possibility.

But He was making a distinction between Egypt and Yisrael, showing Yisrael He is offering them favor. He is favoring them. The word “grace” means “favor,” “unmerited favor.” He was willing to offer grace to them. How many of you can identify with that?

I mean, I don’t know how many believers I have met who have told me that they don’t even know how they survived their years as an unbeliever. I mean, my wife, as an unbeliever, some of the stories that she has told me, things that she survived, things that were impossible in the natural, things that are supposed to be deadly– and yet, nothing.

She was completely protected. Myself, I was protected I don’t know how many times. But Yahweh was showing us favor and grace in those times and knowing one day we would choose Him and choose to be saved by the blood of the Lamb. If we had not had these experiences, we may not have seen it.

But Yahweh did at some point in our life reveal to us how awesome He is and how He is greater than anything we could possibly put value in and that Yahweh is greater than all the gods and things people honor in this world. And Yahweh did this for Yisrael.

Numbers 33:4 – For the Egyptians were burying all [their] firstborn, whom YAHWEH had killed among them. Also on their gods YAHWEH had executed judgments.

On their idols. And so, He was demonstrating that He had control of the Nile River, which they worshiped. He was the Master of the flies, the Master of the frogs. He was the Master of everything… the sun. He can cause disease. He can cause boils. He can cause hail. He controls the weather. He controls whether it is dark or whether it is light.

He demonstrated He was the All-powerful One. And so, at some point in our life, too, we recognized Yahweh is Elohim. He is Elohim.

Now, the final plague was particularly important.

Exodus 11:4 – Then Moses said, Thus says YAHWEH: `About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt;

5 – `and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who [is] behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals.

Exodus 11:6 – `Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as was not like it [before], nor shall be like it again.

7 – `But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that YAHWEH does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.’

“Against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue.” That means the dogs would lick up the blood of the dead.

But why did He make a difference? Because they had the blood of the lamb. And He would save them from death as long as they trusted in the blood of the lamb.

Well, there could have been some that said, “Well, I don’t need the blood of the lamb. Pfft, I am not a bad person at all. I can make it. I am a good person. He will accept me.”

No, the only way to get from Egypt to the promised land was without suffering the death of the firstborn. The firstborn was like the head of the family in those days. So, the firstborn dying is representing the heads of that coming generation and which was a representative of the family.

I mean, He could have wiped out everybody, but that would not have accomplished His purposes– but the firstborn, being a representative of the coming generation. And so, we cannot enter into the promised land without the blood of the lamb, either. No matter how good we think we are, we need Yahushua.

So, here are the instructions in Exodus chapter 12. It says:

Exodus 12:2 – This month [shall be] your beginning of months; it [shall be] the first month of the year to you.

3 – Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: `On the tenth [day] of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of [his] father, a lamb for a household.

On this day, on the tenth day of the month.

Now, we discussed last week in great detail about what month is the beginning of the months, which month is the first month of the year. And so, now we are talking about the tenth day of the month.

Exodus 12:4 – `And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take [it] according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb.

5 – `Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take [it] from the sheep or from the goats.

So, what is the tenth day? Well, we have the first day of the new year being the 13th, here. And we count… here is one (the 13th)… there is two (the 14th)… three (the 15th), four (the 16th), five (the 17th), six (the 18th), seven (the 19th), eight (the 20th), nine (the 21st)… and here we are– the tenth day (the 22nd).

This is when the lamb was selected. Now, interestingly, if you were to research it, it would appear that Mary anointed Messiah for burial on the tenth day of Aviv, so indicating the lamb is selected at that time He was in Bethany.

He then spent the following days in Jerusalem, where He would have been on display until the 14th of Aviv. And on the 14th of Aviv, He would be slain as our Passover Lamb. He actually died on the Day of Passover.

And we see in what is called the New Testament this verse here– 1 Corinthians 5:7. It says:

How did you become unleavened? Messiah, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. In the same way the Passover lamb saved the children of Yisrael from death, Yahushua, our Savior, saves us from death, being our Passover.

And we will be seeing here that just as the Passover lamb was eaten by the children of Israel, we partake of the Lamb, the body and blood of Messiah, the emblems– the unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine. We partake of that at the time after He was put to death, which we will get into that in a minute.

But, you know, Christianity had the trouble often of, “What day do we take the Eucharist? Every Sunday?” I mean (some call it Communion), some partake of it every month, some twice a year. They do not know when, and they are having a hard time with it.

But wouldn’t it make the most sense to partake of Him around the time that He died rather than every Sunday? When you see these scriptures in what is called the New Testament about breaking bread, that is not always talking about the partaking of the body and blood of Messiah. “Breaking bread” is just a term, an idiom, describing what a meal was.

They would get together and they would “break bread,” and they would eat. And it may not have anything to do with partaking of the body and the blood of Messiah. And so, those kinds of verses have been kind of exploded a little bit in order to justify the church service mentality.

But to me, the fact He is called our Passover, that, in and of itself, indicates we need to have some kind of Passover service. I mean, what good is it if He is called our Passover Lamb if we do not even keep Passover to begin with? But we have a Lamb. We have an observance in place that He gave us. He says, “Do this in remembrance of Me.”

When did He die? On Passover! But if we ignore every Passover itself, we are not really doing it in remembrance of Him at the time that it happened. And so, you know, the Scriptures say:

Luke 22:19 – And He took bread, gave thanks and broke [it], and gave [it] to them, saying, This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.

When did He die? Well, someone might say, “Well, it says here, ‘as often.’ That means you have to do it often.” All right, well, “often” can be once a year. Here we see, Hebrews 9:24:

Hebrews 9:24 – For Messiah has not entered the holy places made with hands, [which are] copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of Elohim for us;

25 – not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another —

Here is that word “often.” What is he talking about when he says “often”? He is talking about “as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every…” How often? “Every year with the blood of another.”

So, this “often” here (the same Greek word) can refer to a once-per-year event as “often” (1 Cor. 11:26). “Often” doesn’t have to be every week.

And it makes the most sense that the same “often” would be used for both the Most Holy Place there (that is, once a year the high priest enters often), and we have the “often” of once a year for Passover. That is the anniversary of when He died.

And in 1 Corinthians 5:6, starting the context of this earlier verse, it says:

Keep the Festival! of what? Passover, Unleavened Bread. So, keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread with sincerity and truth. And if you look at the festivals, that is exactly what the unleavened bread represents.

Now, many of us have been taught to not take this literally, but could they be wrong, that we should take this? I mean, this is a spiritual application. Should we keep the Feast like it says here?

I mean, it is true that the unleavened bread symbolizes the sinless state of the body of Messiah, and we partake of Him. He cleanses us and causes us to be unleavened. But He died on Passover. He is called our Passover. When we partake of Him, we are partaking of Passover. It is a memorial of His death, which was on Passover.

Paul says, “Keep the Feast,” but without the element of pride and vain glory, and keep it with unleavened bread, representing sincerity and truth. It seems to me there is more than meets the eye of a typical western Gentile mind here.

I mean, we can all relate to the feeling of being in slavery and bondage to the elements of the world just as the children of Israel were in bondage to Pharaoh. I mean, how many of us can identify with the heavy burdens placed on us by demonic forces just as they had the heavy burdens placed on them?

How many of us can remember the time when Yahweh showed us how great He was? How many of us can remember the time that we chose to turn away from the ways of the world and we turned toward Messiah and we trusted in the blood of the Lamb? How many of us can identify with the time we were baptized?

As they were baptized in the Red Sea and in the cloud, we were baptized in the water and in the Spirit. And how many of us can identify with the rejoicing we felt after baptism, being finally freed from the enemy’s grasp?

My friends and my brothers, just as the children of Israel had a testimony to share with their children, so do we. And just as they were saved by the blood of the lamb, so are we.

And when we put communion back in its biblical and Hebraic context of being a part of a Passover service, this presents an opportunity to create an indelible imprint into the hearts of our children of just what our Savior has done for us. Every year a reminder.

And as we are going to see as we get into chapter 13, Yahweh tells them, “When your child asks you, tell them what happened.”

So, let us take a look at the context again.

Exodus 12:2 – This month [shall be] your beginning of months; it [shall be] the first month of the year to you.

3 – Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: `On the tenth [day] of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of [his] father, a lamb for a household.

Now, pay attention.

Exodus 12:4 – `And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take [it] according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb.

It says:

Exodus 12:5 – `Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take [it] from the sheep or from the goats.

6 – `Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.

Now, some translations have “in the evening,” some have “twilight.” The Hebrew reads: “between the evenings.” That is what the Hebrew reads.

So, when is “between the evenings”? Well, it is kind of a controversy. We are going to get to that in a minute.

But the lamb had to be set aside on the tenth of Aviv, and we understand Yahushua was selected as the Lamb on the tenth of Aviv. He was anointed for His burial, and He entered Jerusalem and was questioned and examined.

And He had to be because they had to find out (and this is what they would do with the Passover lamb), find out– you have four days to determine whether or not that lamb is a lamb without blemish. And the Lamb of Yahweh who takes away the sin of the world, He was without blemish.

We were redeemed with the precious blood of Messiah, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

And so, Yahushua, during those last days, was examined, cross-examined, thoroughly by chief priests, elders, Herod, Pilate. And even the thief who was impaled next to Him could not find any fault in Him. But for some reason they put him to death anyway, because they were under the influence of the devil.

But, ultimately, in the same way, it was Yahweh who provided the lambs for Yisrael of old. He is the Creator of all things. It is Yahweh who provides for us our Passover Lamb.

Now, there is a picture here in the story of Abraham. Genesis 22:6 says:

Genesis 22:6 – So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid [it] on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together.

Because Yahweh had asked him to offer up his son, to give up his son, his only son– the one he loved.

Genesis 22:7 – But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, My father! And he said, Here I am, my son. Then he said, Look, the fire and the wood, but where [is] the lamb for a burnt offering?

I love his response.

Genesis 22:8 – And Abraham said, My son, Elohim will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering. So the two of them went together.

He said, “Yahweh will provide the lamb.” And he was right. We all know the story.

Abraham did not have to offer his son. He was ready to do so in his heart, but they later discovered there was a grown lamb that was caught in the thicket. His horns were caught in the thicket of thorns. And I know a first year lamb can grow some good-sized horns in its first year. So, it is quite possible that it was a yearling.

But the thorns… I have a study on thorns. It is called “The Message of Thorns,” and if you ever get a chance, on the video Archives page, check it out.

Have you ever noticed that thorns symbolize sin throughout the Bible? When Adam sinned, the ground from which he was made became cursed with thorns. It was not part of the original creation.

And Abraham was asked to offer, as we saw, his son on the alter, but there was a ram caught in the thorns. And I am sure his head was all bleeding from the thorns and things.

Did you know the burning bush that Moshe saw was a thornbush, and yet was not consumed? Did you know that He was showing that man and his sinful and thorny condition would be able to dwell with Yahweh, a consuming fire, and yet not be consumed?

Thorns represent sin all throughout the Scriptures. And the fiery Law was delivered to them on Sinai. The word “Sinai” means “thorny.”

Yahweh commanded that they would make a tabernacle and an ark of acacia wood. Acacia wood is a tree that has thorns. And they would overlay it with gold. I will get to that later.

Now, prior to entering the promised land, Israel encamped at Abel Shittim, which means “Field of Thorns.” And Yahweh wanted Israel to utterly destroy all the heathen around them. Because He said:

Numbers 33:55 – `But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain [shall be] irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell.

There are also false prophets who are bearing thorns.

Matthew 7:16 – You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

He says you will know them by their fruits. And Messiah said that some seed falls among thorns, which by fast growth can choke out a good plant. That is what it is like to get caught up in worldly things.

The thorny plants come and suck up all the water and nutrients out of the soil, growing over the top of the good plants and shading it from the needed sunlight and from the nutrients. We need the Light, which is the Word, and we need the Water, which is the Spirit, granted to us through Messiah, in order to grow.

These are the two ministries that we need to keep us growing: 1) the Word to teach us 2) the Messiah to cleanse us. Yahushua, who bore the curse of the law at Sinai, the Thorny Mountain, became the curse for us, being crowned with thorns– a crown that we earned, but Yahweh placed it on Him instead.

He is the ram that Yahweh provided to Abraham with his head wounded in the thicket of thorns. And now we, who are worth thornbushes, can dwell with a consuming fire and not be destroyed. We are His dwelling place. We are His ark that was made from thorns, and yet overlaid with gold, which is Messiah’s glory.

And we now live in this land of thorns, Abel Shittim, but Messiah Yahushua will take us to the promised land, and He is coming with fire. And how quickly thorns are consumed with fire! The thorn-bearers will be destroyed unless they turn and allow Messiah to bear their thorns for them.

You know, the imagery here is inescapable. It is inescapable, and yet Yahweh provided the Passover lamb to be killed instead of the firstborn of Israel having to face death on the night of Passover. And Yahweh provided a lamb for each one of their families. He provides a Lamb for each one of our families that we might be saved from death.

And to me, it is just… the Word of Yahweh is a miracle! The Bible is a living miracle.

Exodus 12:6 – `Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.

7 – `And they shall take [some] of the blood and put [it] on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.

So, they were to take the blood, and they put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they would eat it.

Now, there is this “between the evenings” here. There is some controversy about what that is. When is the time the Passover lamb was actually killed? I do not think it is a coincidence, myself, that Yahushua died at the exact hour they were killing Passover lambs in Jerusalem.

And for that reason, and others, I would identify the timing of Yahushua’s death to be the timing of the giving of the Passover lamb, the time the Passover lambs are supposed to be slain. Others suggest that it would be between sundown and dark at the beginning of the fourteenth day, which is about a thirty-minute time period.

But if you want to research and really dig into it, there are plenty of discussions about it online. I have a study on this topic at: http://www.eliyah.com/15th.html– Points supporting a memorial supper to be done on the night after Passover day. But we do not have time to go over all the details of that at this point.

So, continuing as we were… they take the blood… The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will take part in killing the lamb. The whole assembly.

Now, there is something about that, as well, because wasn’t it the whole crowd that was chanting for Yahushua’s death? In reality, it is all of us, though, who have brought about the need for Yahushua’s death– all of us. And we need Him to deliver us from the wages of sin, which is death.

And we are the household of Yahweh. We are talking now about the door. The blood must be placed on the doorposts. And so, we are the household of Yahweh, and Yahushua’s blood is placed on the doorpost of our hearts. Our hearts are the key to everything. Our hearts are where sin can enter. Our hearts are what needs to be cleansed.

It is the Body of Messiah that has repentant hearts being filled with the Word, and that is the place where the Word is being written, is in our hearts. Yahushua fills the whole chambers of our mind and of our hearts with His word. He is the living Word, which was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

And so, we have entered this household of Yahweh because of the blood of Messiah being in our hearts. And we are the living temple of Elohim. We are His dwelling place now. That is what the blood is representing.

Exodus 12:8 – `Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread [and] with bitter [herbs] they shall eat it.

9 – `Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire — its head with its legs and its entrails.

10 – `You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire.

Now, when I went to Israel in 2009, we visited the Samarians who were there, and they have been keeping Passover. And there had been a continual community of Samarians since the first century. They have never been ejected or messed with in 2000 years. They have always been there according to their records.

And we met with their leader, and they shared with us some pictures of how they would roast the Passover lamb. And they had these pits, and they had these fires down in these pits, here. And they would burn fire inside them. And then they would tie the lamb to these sticks, and they would put these sticks with the Passover lambs down into the fire.

And that is how they would roast the Passover lamb. Here, you see, they have these sticks with the Passover lamb attached. And that is also the record in the Talmud of how Israel was doing it in ancient times as well, and actually, in first century times.

And so, I find that kind of interesting, because didn’t Yahushua die for us on a piece of wood? And wasn’t He fastened to that piece of wood and offered for us when He died?

I mean, in spite of the numerous depictions of the Messiah dying on a cross, the reality is there is not one single Bible verse anywhere that tells us Yahushua died on a cross. Not one. Not even one.

Now, your Bible may say “cross,” but we are going to show you that is not what Yahushua said.

John 3:14 – And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

15 – that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

And so, just as “Moshe lifted up the serpent in the wilderness…” All right, what was the serpent lifted up on?

Numbers 21:8 – Then YAHWEH said to Moses, Make a fiery [serpent], and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.

9 – So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

It was on a “pole,” which the Hebrew there is the word “nayce.” And that is interesting, because… “This is how I am going to be lifted up– even so, as Moshe lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, must the Son of Man be lifted up.”

So, the serpent is lifted up on a pole. Now, why would Yahushua be comparing Himself to a serpent? Well, it makes sense if we understand.

He (that is Yahweh) made Him (that is Yahushua) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of Elohim in Him.

Isaiah 53:6 – All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And YAHWEH has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

So, our iniquity was laid upon Him. So, at that moment when Yahweh laid upon Yahushua all of our iniquity and sin, He became the recipient of Yahweh’s just wrath for all the sin that is in the world, knowing that the serpent, the devil, was the one that provoked it all in the garden of Eden.

So, I can see why Yahushua would compare Himself to the serpent lifted in the wilderness, because on Him was laid on Him the iniquity of us all, and He became sin for us. And I can also see why when the people were bitten by venomous snakes, they could look to the bronze serpent on the pole and be delivered from death.

Because when they looked upon the item that was depicting a Savior that had the sin of the world laid upon Him, the One upon whom would receive wrath– which was inspired by Satan, the devil– it says when they looked at the bronze serpent they would live.

This is just one of those things where you go, “Come on, the Old Testament, and the New Testament fulfillment– no one could have made this up.” It is a miraculous Book we have in our hands. Now get this… He says:

John 12:32 – And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all [peoples] to Myself.

33 – This He said, signifying by what death He would die.

He said, “If I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to Myself. Everyone will look to Me and will live if you look to Me.”

And there is a scripture in Isaiah chapter 11. It says:

Isaiah 11:10 – And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious.

That word translated “banner” is the Hebrew word #5251, “nayce,” which is the same exact Hebrew word describing the pole upon which the serpent was attached. And it says,” For the Gentiles shall seek Him, and His resting place shall be glorious.”

This is a Messianic prophecy here. Isaiah 11 is a clear Messianic prophecy that even Jews today will acknowledge is a Messianic prophecy.

And here, we are talking about the One who is the Root of Jesse– in other words, he is before Jesse– who shall stand as a banner (nayce, that is the pole) to the people. For the people shall seek Him, and His resting place will be glorious.

So, He was lifted up as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness. And the Gentiles accepted Him, and we are waiting for the Jews to accept Him, but the Gentiles have. And Yahushua had to be lifted from the earth so that He would stand as a “nayce” and as One who would be a banner, something that people could look to and live.

So, if all the world now is depicting Messiah as a Man who is hanging on a cross, how can the Jewish people see? “Well, that’s not predicted.” But we see here in Isaiah 11:10 that He was on a pole.

Now, the word translated “cross,” if you were to look at it: the LSJ Lexicon– what is the first definition? The first definition is always the most reliable: an upright pale or stake.

The Strong’s has: 4716 stauros stow-ros’ from the base of 2476; a stake or post (as set upright). Thayer’s Lexicon: 4716 stauros {stow-ros’} Meaning: 1) an upright stake, especially a pointed one. And then they go on and say it is a cross, too.

To me, they are getting a little theological in their view of what the word means. But the literal first meaning is an upright stake or pole. And in fact, the term “crucify” is from: 4717 “stauroo” {stow-ro’-o}. It means: 1) to stake, drive down stakes 2) fortify with driven stakes, to palisade.

But you do not drive down a stake with a cross. You have something straight like a pole. Now, some have suggested, “Okay, well, when He was crucified, then how was He attached? Were there two poles?”

No, it just says pole. I mean, He was attached at His feet, and He was attached with His hands. Okay? And there were two nails. In John 20:25, it says:

John 20:25 – The other disciples therefore said to him, We have seen the Master. So he said to them, Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.

And every manuscript I have found verifies it is plural here (nails). So, there were nails. There was more than one nail involved.

And so, if He were on a pole and His hands were above His head, they would not have been together. They would have been separate and with one nail in each hand and then with a nail going through His feet, or maybe even two nails, I don’t know, going through His feet. It is sad to even think about it. It would be kind of hard to get one nail through.

Anyway, there are other scriptures that say He was nailed on a tree.

Acts 5:30 – The Elohim of our fathers raised up Yahushua whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.

Now, the word translated “tree” here is translated “clubs” in Mark 14:48.

Mark 14:48 – Then Yahushua answered and said to them, Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs to take Me?

The word translated “clubs” is the same word translated “tree” when it says Messiah was nailed to a tree. Do they have clubs in the form of crosses? I don’t think so. And yet, the word translated “clubs” is the same word translated “tree” in this and in other verses.

And also, Acts 16:23. It says:

Acts 16:23 – And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw [them] into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely.

Talking about Paul and Barnabas.

Acts 16:24 – Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

All right, your feet are going to be put in a piece of wood that would enclose them so that you cannot move your feet. And so, I don’t think that little crosses are attached to their feet.

And here it is translated “tree” (the same word) in Revelation 22, verse 2. Talking about the tree of life.

Revelation 22:2 – In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, [was] the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each [tree] yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree [were] for the healing of the nations.

So, no matter how you look at it, the word translated “tree” does not mean “cross.” I mean, no matter how you look at it, you cannot say, for a fact, that He was even nailed to a cross.

That may have been one way they did it back then, but the evidence in the Greek, and in other places, indicates He was on a pole, just like the serpent in the wilderness. And so, I would tend to go with that more than anything else.

Now, the cross actually is a favored symbol in a lot of pagan religions. Even Egyptians worshiped an idol, and it was a bull, and in between the bull they would put this little sun disk over its head. And the bull was supposed to be a manifestation of a dead Pharaoh.

And this bull would have a sun disk behind its head. And how did they depict Messiah? A dead king on a crucifix having a sun disk behind His head.

And the halo, as seen in this Egyptian ankh here, if you will notice what they are carrying, is like a cross. It has the little disk above the cross. And the modern depiction, which is often an obscene image of a man with a loin cloth, is Yahushua dying on a cross.

And so, there is a connection here, actually, between (I don’t have time to get into it), but between this golden calf and the cross and the ankh and the different things. And so, I do not trust the Church history’s depiction of Messiah being nailed on a cross.

And I am sharing these things because we are talking about Passover, which is a picture of the Messiah’s death. And the Passover lamb, historically, according to both Samaritans and the Jews, was attached to a pole. And so, as we dig into the Hebraic roots of things, it appears to me the cross isn’t really even mentioned in the Bible.

And the idea of the lamb being sacrificed on an upright stake is in the Bible. The idea of Messiah saying, “I am going to be raised like the serpent was raised on a pole,” is in the Bible. And He died on this stauros, on this stake, at the same time the Passover lambs were being offered, which was the ninth hour.

Luke 23:44 – Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.

So, the ninth hour has arrived.

Luke 23:45 – Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two.

46 – And when Yahushua had cried out with a loud voice, He said, Father, `into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ Having said this, He breathed His last.

And so, at this ninth hour, this is the hour He was waiting for. Six hours on the tree. He was waiting for this.

It just so happens, an historical record here, Josephus says: Wars of the Jews 6:423-425 – “So these high priests, upon the coming of that feast which is called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices, from the ninth hour till the eleventh (which is Passover, which is the day Messiah died).

“But so that a company not less than ten belong to every sacrifice, for it is not lawful for them to feast singly by themselves, and many of us are twenty in company, found the number of sacrifices was two hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred. (That is a lot of lambs! Which is one reason I don’t think it can happen in a half-hour time period.)

“Which, upon the allowance of no more than ten that feast together, amounts to two million seven hundred thousand and two hundred persons that were pure and holy.”

But the point being here, this is when the masses, according to the historical record, were partaking of and considering the Passover lamb. And so, that is one reason I believe Yahushua is our Passover, because of that very thing. And I really do not know any way around that.

There are some today who believe they need to go out and literally get a Passover lamb and go kill it. There are multiple reasons why we shouldn’t, and I will get into that in the coming weeks. But the way it was done after Exodus 12 is pretty much the way that it was described there in Josephus. It says:

This is Josiah’s Passover here.

What are they sprinkling? They are sprinkling the blood of the Passover offerings on the alter. So, the people would slaughter, and then the priests would sprinkle the blood on the alter. And the reason for this (they had to go to Jerusalem), it says:

Deuteronomy 16:5 – You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which YAHWEH your Elohim gives you;

6 – but at the place where YAHWEH your Elohim chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt.

And so, that is the precept and the principle from that time forward. Now, when they were in Egypt, the regular common people were to slay the Passover lamb, but after that, as we will get into more in the coming weeks, it would be the priests, and it had to be in Yerushalayim. And it just so happens, Yahushua was killed in Yerushalayim.

So, when we partake of the Messiah on Passover, we are partaking of the Passover Lamb that was slain in Yerushalayim.

So, it says:

Exodus 12:10 – `You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire.

Now, this, to me, is very fascinating. They were not to let any of it remain until morning. And Yahushua was not hanged and left on the tree overnight either. And it says:

Exodus 12:11 – `And thus you shall eat it: [with] a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It [is] YAHWEH’S Passover.

All right, now this is interesting– a belt on your waist, sandals on your feet, staff in your hand. Get ready to go! Be prepared to leave Egypt.

Yahweh wanted Israel to demonstrate their willingness to depart from Egypt as they partook of His Passover. He wanted them to be ready.

So, they eat with a belt on their waist, sandals on their feet, staff in their hand– ready to go, which showed in their hearts they are turning away from Egypt and they are heading toward the promised land.

In a similar way, for us to partake of the Passover Lamb, Yahushua, we must be a people who are willing to, in our hearts, turn away from Egypt– a repentant people who want to walk away from Egypt (the world) and from its residing prince, Satan, the devil.

We no longer want to be under the enemy’s yoke. We want to be free from the bondage that Pharaoh (Satan) has sought to put us in. We want to be free! And so, we place ourselves in Yahweh’s care instead, and we begin this journey toward the promised land.

But first, we need to recognize it is the Passover Messiah who saves us from death and we need to repent. That means we need to turn away from the ways of Egypt, turn toward the promised land.

We turn away from the world toward righteousness, away from the path of destruction and toward the promised land.

That is why Yahushua taught repentance. That is why the disciples taught repentance. That is why Paul the Apostle taught repentance.

Acts 20:20 – how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house,

He is talking to the Ephesians here.

Acts 20:21 – testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward Elohim and faith toward our Master Yahushua Messiah.

Which is two things: Repentance toward Elohim and faith toward our Master Yahushua. That is what they were doing as they partook of the Passover with a staff in hand, sandals on their feet, a belt around their waist.

Repentance was in their heart and they were putting their faith in this Passover Lamb to save them from death.

And Mark 8:34– Yahushua says:

Mark 8:34 – When He had called the people to [Himself], with His disciples also, He said to them, Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

We have to have a staff in our hand, too. We have burdens. We have a stake, a stauros, to bear. We all have something that we need to crucify or impale or put to death the old man. And it says “with sandals on our feet” and “with our waist girded.”

Ephesians 6:14 – Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

15 – and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

The good news of peace. There we go. And we go forth to the promised land, having received Yahushua as our Passover Lamb, the One to guide us along the way.

And as we continue to explore Passover, we are going to learn, also, about being baptized in the sea and in the cloud and what that means as we face troubles and trials and tribulations in the wilderness, as they did, in this land between Egypt and the promised land that we are in now.

Where we are learning the Law, where we are having Yahweh’s Law written in our hearts by the Spirit of Elohim, that we might be prepared for that Kingdom life in the promised land, and that we who know the rules will become the rulers of the Kingdom to come, which will be governed by the Law of Yahweh with all its festivals.

And it will continue to be a memoriam to the awesome plan of salvation Yahweh has provided for us all.

You know, Passover and the history of Israel have so much to teach us, and there is so much we can relate to. And I am only bouncing across the surface like a water skier. We could continue this journey for many months if we wanted to, but we are going to take a few weeks at this.

Yahweh wants us to understand it. It’s for too long that we, as believers in Messiah, have been setting aside Passover and festivals as being unimportant and something we cannot relate to today– “That’s just for those Jews back then. That is just part of that old Jewish stuff.” (In their words.)

But Passover is completely relevant today. It is relevant today because salvation is relevant today. It is relevant today because Yahushua is still our Passover Lamb today. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. And when we learn about Passover, what we are learning about is Him. It is all about Him.

He is our Passover. And if we care to learn about Him, we must also care to learn about Passover and all that He is. And we can rejoice in it. And if we want to really understand Him, partake of Him at Passover, with all the other things that are going to be included, at Passover– at the time appointed.

He died at Passover at the time appointed. Partake of Him. Follow the pattern He set for us that night He was betrayed. Follow that pattern.

And as we go through exodus 12 and all these other relevant scriptures that are so important for us today– to understand and can bless us so much– as we do these things, we can rejoice and see Messiah all over the place!

We can participate in a Passover service that glorifies Him as the Lamb, and yet holds to the precepts and principles of the Torah as well– the precepts and principles of the Passover service Yahweh wants us to do to glorify Him.

So, until next week, brothers and sisters, may Yahweh be with us to teach us. And may Yahweh bless you, and may Yahweh have mercy on us all.