And we are ready to begin our next segment on the Passover studies. We kind of did a little bit of an introduction of Passover on our last broadcast, and now we are ready to get into some of the deeper things concerning the Festival of Unleavened Bread and Pesach, or Passover.

I want to reiterate once again that we are going to do a kind of real quick overview, last week and this week. And the reason why is because last year we went into it pretty much in depth and covered a lot of different areas.

So, if you are interested in some more information above and beyond what we shared last week and this week, go back in the Archives.

If you go to the main page of EliYah.com, at the very top you will see a link that says “Archives.” Scroll down to about this time 2013, and there will be a series of four studies, one of which is on the calendar, the other three dealing specifically with Passover.

But, you know, I really feel that one of the greatest testimonies of how awesome Yahweh is and how amazing the Scriptures are that we have and we read from is how the plan of salvation is seen and literally found in the history of Israel.

It is a testimony. It is a testimony to the unity of Scripture and the physical salvation of Israel being redeemed from Egypt and how that mirrors our salvation in the good news of Yahushua the Messiah. And really, only Yahweh could do something as awesome as that as to write His plan of salvation in the history of a nation.

And so, we are going to be exploring some of these spiritual and symbolic meanings of Pesach, or Passover. So, our study title is: Spiritual Meanings of Passover.

Now, the first thing we want to understand is, and it is kind of a major problem in traditional Christianity, we need to recognize who we are. It is pretty important for us to understand who we are in Messiah because many times it is not taught today who we are as believers in Yahushua.

We are taught that maybe we are a Baptist or Methodist or we are whatever. You name a denomination, and that is what we are. But if we look in the Scriptures– I do not have to look very far, and I find out that those who are believers in Yahushua, we are Yisrael. We are the seed of Abraham.

And so, that is what the Scriptures say.

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

And so, if you are a person of faith, if you are a believer in the Messiah, what that means is you are a son of Abraham. That is who you are. That is your identity. You are a son of Abraham. And if you are Messiah’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

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

And so, this is who you are. You a son of Abraham, or a daughter of Abraham. And that is a Scripture that addresses identity. He is identifying us as Abraham’s seed.

And there is no difference in me telling you that either you are Abraham’s seed or me telling you that you are Israel. It is because it is through the Messiah, Yahushua, who is an Israelite. It is because He lives in us, and it is no longer we who live, that we are the seed of Abraham.

And since He is an Israelite, therefore, we are an Israelite. We are not strangers to the covenants of promise. We are not aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. We are brought near by the blood of Messiah Yahushua. So, if we are Israel, then what we need to do is, we need to act like Israel.

We need to behave like Israel. We need to be obedient to the things that Israel is called to be obedient to. And so, yes, we do observe Passover. We do keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because they are for us. Because we are the seed of Abraham.

And so, coming up here next month, the month called April, also the month called Aviv– the numbers of the days happen to line up together– so, on this day called April 14th, or Aviv 14, we are going to remember that day as being the day of Passover.

We are not forbidden from working on that day, but it is the day, at about the ninth hour of daylight of the day– it would be about 4 o’clock, or so, depending on where you live in the world, three to 4 o’clock, or so– and this time at the ninth hour would be when our Savior Yahushua would have died for our sins.

And then that night we are going to partake of Him in remembrance of Him. And that night also begins the First Day of Unleavened Bread, which is a Sabbath. And then we are going to not eat any food with leavening in it– no yeast or anything that would cause bread to rise– for seven days.

And on the seventh day we are going to observe this as a Sabbath as well. And so, this is the seven days of unleavened bread. And it is as a result of partaking of Yahushua here that we are unleavened, that we are without sin.

So, let’s take a look at what Yahweh did with Israel and find the beauty and the awesome way in which we can identify with what was done in the book of Exodus.

In the book of Exodus, we read the children of Israel were dwelling in Mitsrayim, in Egypt. They were increasing in number and size. In fact, there were so many of them that Pharaoh began to fear what would happen if they had gotten too large in number, right?

And so, he said to them that they had to throw their firstborn into the water, into the Nile. And so, Yahweh chose to judge Egypt as a result. And, spiritually speaking, our own Egypt is represented by the world we live in.

We live in a sin-laden world. We live in a world that is trying to glorify itself through its building projects and the things that it accomplishes in technology. And likewise, the world (from Israel’s perspective, Egypt) had them working for them, building their projects, doing different things as well.

And so, we live in this world, and we know that the enemy, Satan, is called the ruler of this world. And so, what do we see here? John chapter 12, verse 31:

 John 12:31 - “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.

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

Who is the ruler of this world? Satan, the devil. Now, he is called, also, the prince of this world. It says:

Now, Pharaoh was the leader of that world, of Egypt, and so he would be representing Satan, because Pharaoh ruled Egypt and Satan is called the elohim of this age. He is called the ruler of this world.

And just as Pharaoh was trying to destroy the children of Israel lest they become too large in number, Satan, the devil, is also seeking to destroy us lest we become too large in number and we leave his jurisdiction.

You know, Pharaoh was afraid that they would leave the land and be out from under his jurisdiction and be on their own. And so, he tried to prevent that.

And likewise, Satan is going about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he can devour, seeking to destroy the predestined children of Israel lest we become large in number.

And he is always working against us. He is our enemy. He does not want us to go out from underneath his control and his authority. He wants to be our elohim. He wants to be our ruler. He does not want us to submit ourselves to the King of Yisrael– Yahweh Elohenu, Yahweh our Mighty One.

Now, the only reason Satan has any authority in this world is because people give it to him. If nobody chose him as their ruler, he would not be the ruler. But in the garden of Eden, rather than Adam and Eve choosing Yahweh and His rules and His authority, they chose the enemy instead.

Likewise, we all have sinned and made the same choice. And so, we need to be redeemed. We need to be delivered from under his authority that we gave him. We gave him legal ground against us through our sin and our choices to pattern our lives after him rather than after the image of the living Elohim.

So, if people would choose Yahweh to be their Elohim, they would realize Satan is not their ruler anymore. And greater is He who is in us, than he who is in the world. But the fact that man has chosen the enemy as his ruler is what makes him the ruler.

Now, the children of Israel were oppressed, they were afflicted, they were in bondage, they were in slavery, and there were people called taskmasters who would afflict them who were in bondage.

Likewise, we had demonic taskmasters– the demons who were seeking to afflict us, to cause us to be under his rulership and slavery, to advance the kingdom of Yahweh’s enemy. And they are trying to afflict man and bring people under bondage and hard rulership.

But as we learned, we shared last week, Moshe was called by Yahweh to lead the children of Israel out of the land of bondage, out of the land of slavery into the promised land, to lead them into a land flowing with milk and honey.

That is the land we want to be a part of. That is the land that we want to join– the promised land flowing with milk and honey.

And Yahweh is promising to lead us there one day. One day Yahweh will be gracious to us if we choose to endure to the end. That is where we are going to rule from. We are going to rule with Him for a thousand years.

But Moshe’s purpose was to lead them and show them the way of righteousness and the way to get into the promised land through the keeping of Yahweh’s commandments.

And so, Moshe was appointed to teach the children of Israel Yahweh’s will for them– the Law– so that they would correctly walk in righteousness in this land flowing with milk and honey and that they would be able to live there and have a long life there in the land.

Now, this trek of the children of Israel going through the wilderness is a picture of our own walk as well. We see this in the book of Hebrews chapter 3, verse 14.

 Hebrews 3:14 - For we have become partakers of Messiah if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,

15 – while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

16 – For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, [was it] not all who came out of Egypt, [led] by Moses?

It says we become partakers of this, of Messiah, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence.

 Hebrews 3:17 - Now with whom was He angry forty years? [Was it] not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?

18 – And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?

Obedience is necessary for us. So, we see they could not enter because of what? Unbelief!

 Hebrews 3:19 - So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

See, unbelief and disobedience are directly connected. You cannot separate the two.

 Hebrews 4:1 - Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.

That is the future time we are looking forward to when we are at rest from our enemies. And how will we come short of it? By refusing to believe. By refusing to obey. Faith and obedience– faith in Messiah, obedience to Torah. Do we see that?

And so, we are in this wilderness. We are admonished to not rebel and disobey Yahweh like they did, but to overcome and inherit the kingdom promised to us. And this scripture illustrates the fact their trek from Egypt to the promised land is a mirror to our own road that we are taking personally.

And Yahweh’s plan of salvation through Yahushua and our walk with Yahweh today is mirroring what they went through. We are called to this. We are in this strange land. We are in the wilderness right now. We have been delivered by the blood of the Lamb like they were.

And we are called now to not disobey the Torah like they did, but to walk in faith and obedience.

Now, when they were in bondage, Yahweh heard the cry of the children of Israel who wanted to be delivered from their enemies, from this bondage. And Yahweh said in Exodus 3:7:

 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.

I love that. I love that part. “I know their sorrows.” You know, Yahushua was afflicted. He was under this rulership of the world. And He was beaten and mocked and whipped and hanged. And so, yes, He knows our sorrows, doesn’t He? He knows what it is like.

And so, how about you? You know what it was like when you were an unbeliever, the bondage that you were in and the negativity there. We were all enslaved at one point to the world and all of its burdens. But at some point, though, we chose to cry out to Yahweh. Here it says Yahweh heard their cry.

Well, likewise, He will hear our cry if we cry out to Him seeking to be delivered from bondage– to sin, to the world, to the enemy.

And Moshe was a spokesman for Yahweh. He was the mediator of the Old Covenant. Yahushua is a prophet like Moshe, and He is a mediator of a new covenant. Pharaoh did not want them to go out of Egypt. The same is true of Satan. He does not want us to serve Yahweh. He wants to keep us in sin and bondage all the time. He is always calling us back to Egypt.

And there are some who are discontent from following Yahweh in the wilderness. They do not like the neglect of the body, the neglect of the flesh. And so, they fall to the tests and they seek to follow their way back to Pharaoh.

But we do not want to do that. It is far better to be obedient to the will of Yahweh than to be under the enemy’s afflictions again.

Now, we have been delivered from that bondage. And just as Yahweh demonstrated His superiority over all the gods of Egypt through the plagues that He sent, Yahweh at some point in our life has revealed to us His superiority over any gods that we were worshiping or serving, whether it be lust, pride, drugs, money… whatever.

Whatever sins came between us and the Father, Yahweh demonstrated He is able to destroy them. And the idols of this age are all doomed for destruction. In the same way Yahweh destroyed Egypt through His plagues, Yahweh wants us to destroy the idols we may have clung to in our past.

And so, Yahweh is demonstrating His superiority over all the idols of Egypt and His superiority over them. So, the last plague– a very important plague. And that is, Exodus chapter 11, verses 4-7.

 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.

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.

 Exodus 11:7 - `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.’

And Yahweh makes a difference between us and those who are of the world serving the other master.

Now, Yahweh planned on making this difference between the Egyptians and Israel, and He did so only because of the blood of the lamb. If you did not have the blood of the lamb, you would not be spared. Your household would not be spared. You could only be saved by the blood of the lamb. And isn’t that the good news?

It is not by our works that we are saved. It is by the blood of the Lamb that we are spared from death.

 Exodus 12:3 - “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.

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, on this tenth day of the month, this tenth day of Aviv– which is going to correspond to, actually, April tenth this year– the lamb would be selected and they would examine it. And if you research it, it appears Yahushua the Messiah was actually anointed with this expensive oil on the tenth day of Aviv.

And He would have been on display, and He would have been examined. And He was cross-examined and questioned by the chief priests, by those in Jerusalem, to see whether or not He had any blemish. And the reality is, He did not have any blemish. And yet, they killed Him anyway.

Likewise, the lamb in which would be selected here has to be without blemish, because Yahushua was without blemish. And so, we are saved. And instead of us being killed, there was a Lamb that is being killed. There was a Lamb that is being slaughtered.

So, the picture there that they would have gotten was pretty clear– “Rather than us and our households having to face death, there was a lamb who is dying for us.” And likewise, Yahushua, our Passover Lamb, rather than us perishing, we have a Lamb that is dying for us.

 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, the timing of this lamb’s death is between the evenings. And they would take this blood and they would put it on the doorposts of their homes.

Now, we look at the time of when this “between the evenings” actually is. Now, there is some controversy as to when this “between the evenings” is. My perspective is, the correct time of “between the evenings” would be the time that the Messiah Himself became our Passover, and that is Matthew 27, verse 46. It says:

 Matthew 27:46 - And about the ninth hour Yahushua cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My Elohim, My Elohim, why have You forsaken Me?”

This is at the ninth hour of the day.

 Matthew 27:47 - Some of those who stood there, when they heard [that], said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!”

48 – Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled [it] with sour wine and put [it] on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.

49 – The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.”

 Matthew 27:50 - And Yahushua cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

And when was this? This was the ninth hour, right? So, at this time, Yahushua died for our sins.

It just so happens, historically, according to Josephus, that they offered Passover lambs in Jerusalem at the ninth hour. That was also the time of the evening sacrifice.

And Yahushua, this Lamb without spot, this Lamb without blemish, was offered for us.

So, the Lamb of Yahweh, being examined many times (His last visit to Jerusalem), found to be without spot and selected on the tenth day of Aviv. And He was killed on the fourteenth day of Aviv at the exact time they are offering Passover lambs and killing Passover lambs in Yerushalayim. To me, that is just amazing.

And ultimately, it was Yahweh who provided the Lamb, wasn’t it? It was Yahweh who provided for us our Passover Lamb, Yahushua the Messiah, so we could be saved from death and from damnation.

Remember the ram Yahweh promised to Abraham, when the ram’s head was caught in the thicket, and rather than his firstborn son dying, Yahweh supplied a ram?

And likewise, Yahweh provides for us the Lamb for the offering. And instead of Abraham’s own firstborn having to suffer, of whom we are, the seed of Abraham, the Passover Lamb is offered instead.

And, you know, when an animal gets caught in these thorns and in the thicket and everything, there is going to be, obviously, blood all over the head of this ram from the thicket, from the thorns.

And who was the one who was crowned with thorns? Yahushua Ha Mashiach. To me, that is amazing. Absolutely amazing!

 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.

Notice it says “the whole assembly” has to do it. Well, the whole assembly did do it.

 Matthew 27:24 - When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather [that] a tumult was rising, he took water and washed [his] hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see [to it].”

25 – And all the people answered and said, “His blood [be] on us and on our children.”

And so, the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel took part in killing of Messiah, the Passover Lamb. That is a good thing, actually, if His blood would be cleansing us, wouldn’t it, because His blood was on us? Absolutely! They did not know what they were saying.

Then, Exodus 12:7:

 Exodus 12:7 - `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.

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

Now, I know that we are the household of Elohim, right? And the only way into the household of Elohim is through the door. Who is the door? Yahushua says, “I am the door.”

 John 10:9 - “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

And so, the blood is placed on the door. The Messiah is the door and His blood was shed. We are the body of the Messiah. That means we have been joined to the body of Messiah, and therefore His blood we partake of at Passover.

Now, one of the clearest evidences in my mind that we, as Yisrael, should be keeping the Feast Days is in this commanded observance by Yahushua the Messiah.

Now, many churches will practice this and call it the “Eucharist” or “the Lord’s Supper” or “Communion,” maybe every Easter or every Sunday. But most of them, I wonder, do they really understand what they are doing?

I mean, because if we observe Passover as Yahushua instituted it, then we are not going to divorce the Messiah from the Hebraic roots. We are going to understand what we are doing here. We are partaking of the Passover Lamb.

When? Obviously, if Messiah is the Passover and He died at the ninth hour of the day, then we would partake of Him at the anniversary of His death, though it would be at night. So, it would be on the night after Passover Day, from my perspective.

So, Yahushua said in Luke 22:15:

 Luke 22:15 - Then He said to them, “With [fervent] desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;

16 – “for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of Elohim.”

17 – Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide [it] among yourselves;

 Luke 22:18 - “for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of Elohim comes.”

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.”

20 – Likewise He also [took] the cup after supper, saying, “This cup [is] the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.

Now, He is the Passover that was being partaken of that night. The true Passover is going to be eaten with unleavened bread first of all. And leavening represents sin, and we know that there is no sin in Yahushua. Yahushua is commanding that this be done by them. And so, we would do this in remembrance of Him.

Now, Scripture, as we said earlier, indicates Yahushua died at the time of Passover. And so, we partake of the Passover, this partaking of the bread, to remember Yahushua’s broken body. And then we partake of Him that night after He died.

Now, He did not die for us every Sunday. He did not die for us on Easter. He died on Passover. And so, if we are going to recognize or remember His death, then why not do it at the time in which He appointed?

And what does this mean? What is the bread and the fruit of the vine? What is this all about? What is it representing?

Now, we know in Scripture, John 1:14, it says:

 John 1:14 - And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

So, the Word became flesh. And He said, “This is my body, which was broken for you.” Do we see a connection between Him (His body) and the Word (the Word of Yahweh)?

So, when we partake of His body, we are partaking of the Word. Yahushua said, John 6:47:

 John 6:47 - “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.

48 – “I am the bread of life.

49 – “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.

 John 6:50 - “This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.

51 – “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”

“I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread (as we do at Passover) he will live forever, and the bread that I shall give is My flesh (the Word became flesh and dwelt among us), which I shall give for the life of the world.”

So, bread is symbolic of the Word of Yahweh.

 Isaiah 55:1 - “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price.

2 – Why do you spend money for [what is] not bread, And your wages for [what] does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat [what is] good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance.

3 – Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you — The sure mercies of David.

That is the New Covenant that we partake of. So, we are partaking of the good bread, the Word of Yahweh. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh, right? So, we see a connection there between the Messiah and the Word. I hope you see that.

So, we need the Word. The Word enables us to live. We need physical bread in order to live. Likewise, we need spiritual bread in order to live spiritually.

So, what about the fruit of the vine? What is that? Yahushua said:

 Matthew 26:27 - Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave [it] to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.

28 – “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

I know that when I partake of unleavened bread it is kind of dry. It soaks the saliva out of my mouth. And I partake of that and I am immediately thirsty. I feel like my mouth needs to be replenished with some kind of liquid.

Well, you know, the same is true when we partake of the Word. When we read the Word, we realize– “Look, we have not been keeping this Word. We have not been obedient to this Word. We have failed Yahweh. We need something more than just the Word.” And so, we have the blood of Messiah.

Since bread represents the Word of Yahweh, reminds us of our sin– the Law reveals our sin to us– and once we have our sin revealed to us, we realize we need redemption, we thirst for it. We desire it. We need salvation. And so, that is why we partake of the fruit of the vine symbolizing Yahushua’s blood.

Because once the Word convicts us, it points us to the need for Yahushua’s blood to cover us and cleanse us from all sin that the Word of Yahweh has revealed to us. And so, the body and blood of the Lamb is applied to our dwelling place so that we may live and be delivered.

That is why Scripture says the Law is our schoolmaster or tutor or pedagogue to lead us and bring us to Messiah, so that we would be justified by faith, right? And so, we partake of Messiah.

And these are the two ministries you are going to see in Scripture. Both ministries are necessary, and both need to be a part of our life.

We need two things. We need Torah and we need Messiah. Over and over again, if you will notice this, all throughout the whole Scripture– Torah and Messiah, Torah and Messiah, Torah and Messiah.

Even the Psalms… Psalm chapter 1– Torah, Psalm chapter 2– Messiah. I mean, it is everywhere. And you see this all throughout Scripture from beginning to end.

So, yes, we need the blood of Messiah. We need it. And so, this is the covenant:

 Jeremiah 31:33 - “But this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says YAHWEH: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people.

34 – “No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, `Know YAHWEH,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says YAHWEH. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Torah and Messiah. Do we see it? It is everywhere. Over and over and over again. The Law to tell us how to live and the Messiah to redeem us for not having lived the way we are supposed to. And having the Torah in my mind and in my heart is going to enable me to walk out the Torah.

So, getting back to Exodus 12. It says:

 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.

And so, they were partaking of the lamb. Likewise, we partake of the Lamb, which is symbolized in the unleavened bread. We partake of Messiah. And now it also says “with bitter herbs they shall eat it.”

Now, this Hebrew word here translated “bitter,” what is that? If you look into the scriptures, and you look in a Lexicon, it is rooted in this word family “meror,” meaning “a bitter thing,” “a bitter herb” and “bitterness.”

And, actually, the word “bitter” comes from this particular herb right here, which is named after bitterness, which is “myrrh.” And so, what I use for a bitter herb, when I am setting out the unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine, we use myrrh for a bitter herb.

And when we are partaking of Messiah and the fruit of the vine, we do so with bitter herbs, just as they were told to do so with bitter herbs. It says “with bitter herbs you shall eat it.” And so, we are following Passover. We are completing the picture.

Yahushua did not say do this with bitter herbs, but since we understand He is our Passover Lamb– we are partaking of our Passover Lamb– and Yahweh commanded in Exodus 12 verse 8 to eat the Passover Lamb with bitter herbs, we include the eating of bitter herbs as part of what we do as a Passover service.

What we use is myrrh. Some people use other plants– horseradish, or whatever– but the closest thing I can come to is the myrrh, biblically speaking.

So, all right. Exodus 12:46 says:

 Exodus 12:46 - “In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones.

And we find later… Yahushua the Messiah. Normally they would break the bones of one who had been hanging on a tree, but what happened?

 John 19:32 - Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him.

33 – But when they came to Yahushua and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.

And so, not a bone was broken. That was also predicted in Isaiah 53. “I can count all my bones.” And it just so happens that it says, yeah, “You shall break none of His bones.” And in another place it says, “You shall not let the flesh of this offering stay there all night.” And, of course, Yahushua had to be taken down from the tree before sundown.

So, anyway, kind of an interesting parallel there. But, you know, it makes perfect sense why Yahweh would have instituted a Passover in which none of the bones of this Passover lamb would be broken.

Now, another thing we look at here– Exodus 12, verse 9. It says:

 Exodus 12:9 - `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.

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.

Now, why were they eating it with sandals on their feet, a belt on their waist, and so on, and staff in hand? Because they were going to have to leave pretty quickly. And so– “Be ready to go! At any minute!”

So, we know Yahushua is the Lamb, and we are partaking of Him. And so, when we are actually doing the Passover service here, we actually go out in the woods and get us a nice little staff, and we wear sandals, and we get a belt around our waist, and we take the staff in hand.

And we partake of the Messiah– the unleavened bread, the fruit of the vine. We actually get grapes with seeds in it, and we squeeze it for our Passover fruit of the vine. And we do it that way. That way we are not getting whatever junk is out there. Hopefully, not anything chemically.

You know, with wine, you are always going to have sulfites and things like that in it. So… just grape juice.

And so, we partake of Him when we partake of the unleavened bread. We actually do so with a staff in the other hand and sandals on our feet, and all that. So, we do the whole bit there. I don’t know if I have ever heard of anybody else having a Seder quite like that, but that is what I see Him telling them to do.

And so, this is signifying our haste with which we desire to leave this world and be in the promised land with Yahweh and Messiah– Messiah being King. That is what it is signifying.

So, we take up our stake, take up our staff, and we are going to follow Messiah.

 Matthew 16:24 - Then Yahushua said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his stake.” That is the word “stauros.”

 Matthew 16:25 - “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

26 – “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

And so, this is representing our desire to take up our stake and follow Yahushua into the promised land.

And we eat it with a belt on our waist.

 Luke 12:35 - “Let your waist be girded and [your] lamps burning;

36 – “and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately.

We are ready to go! Ready to go, leave Egypt, and be in the promised land with Messiah. I am ready! How about you?

 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;

We need to be ready to go! Let’s get out of here! I am ready to go. That is what it is all about. And those are awesome lessons for our little ones.

Back to Exodus 12.

 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.

And so, we eat it in haste. It is Yahweh’s Passover. And I think the significance here is the quickness with which we desire to eat it.

And so, when we partake of the unleavened bread, we eat fast, and we eat in haste, to say, “Okay, let’s go! I have decided to put the world behind me, put Yahweh’s Word before me, and I am going to follow Yahushua.” That is the picture we are looking at. And that is the blessing of Passover.

Leviticus 23, verse 5, says:

 Leviticus 23:5 - `On the fourteenth [day] of the first month at twilight [is] YAHWEH’S Passover.

Or, actually, “between the evenings.”

 Leviticus 23:6 - `And on the fifteenth day of the same month [is] the Feast of Unleavened Bread to YAHWEH; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

7 – `On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.

That is going to be April 15th this year, on the Roman calendar.

 Leviticus 23:8 - `But you shall offer an offering made by fire to YAHWEH for seven days. The seventh day [shall be] a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work [on it].'”

And so, again, that is called April 21st, for that particular Holy Day. And what I want to point out here is, that unleavened state that we are in, when we partake of Yahushua the Messiah, we are no longer leavened. We are unleavened bread ourselves because we are the body of the Messiah. And so, we do not bring leavening into our bodies.

And we are told to get the leavening out of our houses as well, out of our dwelling places. And so, we rid our home of anything leavened.

The Hebrew word there has to do with anything that causes bread to rise. In this case, it was sourdough. It was easy in those days. I mean, they would just take the sourdough ball and toss it out, sweep the house, and they were done.

For us, we have all these boxed foods, and we have to look at the ingredients. You know, it is a lot more complicated now. But, you know, we have all these sophisticated ways now, also, of causing bread to rise– baking powder, and even baking soda, I guess, can do it, and others things– all these alternate methods.

But we don’t want to follow Yahweh’s Word like it is some kind of rigid code. The point is, we don’t want to try to find loopholes in Yahweh’s Law. We want to look at the spirit behind it. And so, for me, I am thinking, anything that would cause bread to rise, I want to get rid of it.

If it is in my home, if it causes bread to rise just as it sits, I would want to get rid of it. There are a lot of different kinds of things that can cause bread to rise.

So, in this case, if you are interested in seeing a list of leavening agents, you can read this list. Some of them you may not feel convicted about, some you might, but at least you have a list you can look at and make your own decision. That is on: www.eliyah.com/leaven.html.

Now, as far as the unleavened bread itself is concerned, how do you make it? Very simple. Get yourself a cup of whole wheat flour, a little extra for dusting. 2 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. And 1/2 cup of water. That is all you need. Combine the ingredients, put the dough on a floured surface and knead it for five minutes.

Roll it out to about 1/8th of an inch thick on parchment paper or a greased cookie sheet. Bake it in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. You are done. Anyone with an oven, hopefully, can do that. You can find this recipe on this particular webpage at: www.eliyah.com/passoverservice.html.

And on this particular page (www.eliyah.com/passoverservice.html), I have, actually, a Passover Seder, or Passover Service, in video or audio form that you can use– you and your family– along with a list of the things you want to bring and set up. And you can follow along in the video.

You can download it as a Windows Media File and play it on your laptop, or whatever, and just follow along. And that way you are able to do a Passover Service, even if you are by yourself or if you don’t know how to do it.

I am not saying the way that I have it on there is the only way to do it, but to the best of my understanding, it is the closest thing to Scripture I can come up with. So, that is what we are doing.

So, our trek toward the promised land– the whole walk of Israel, historically, just lines up parallel, beautifully, with our own walk. And in the same way He delivered them by the blood of the lamb, we are delivered by the blood of the Lamb. And so, Yahushua is our Lamb that we partake of.

I do not kill a lamb on Passover. I already have my Lamb– Yahushua Ha Mashiach. And so, since He is my Lamb, when I partake of the body and blood of Messiah, I have partaken of the Passover and I have done what Israel was called to do.

Now, after Exodus 12, the way in which the children of Israel actually did the Passover was, they would slaughter the lamb, and they would take the blood of the lamb and they would sprinkle it on the altar. That is the way they did it. That is the way it was done in the first century.

That was the way it was done. I believe it was either Hezekiah’s or Josiah’s Passover that mentions that. And so, apart from having an altar, you cannot kill a literal lamb in Jerusalem, or anywhere– unless there are high priests involved, a temple standing, and things like that.

And so, we do have, nevertheless, Yahushua our Passover Lamb. And actually, if you look in Ezekiel 45:21, when it talks about the future Passover in the one-thousand year reign, it is kind of curious that there is no lamb even mentioned. Instead, a bull is offered on Passover.

I don’t know if that is just a coincidence, or what, but when we received Yahushua, we left behind the leavening. And so, for the seven days we are going to partake of unleavened bread. And that is what Yahushua does for us.

And once we repent, once we believe in Yahushua, we should desire Torah. We should desire to follow righteousness. And that is why Kepha says:

 Acts 2:38 - Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Yahushua Messiah for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

39 – “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as YAHWEH our Elohim will call.”

So, we need repentance. We need to follow the Word. And we also need baptism in the name of Yahushua Messiah for the remission of sins. And when we do that, we receive a promise. This promise is the gift of the Holy Spirit. And that is to everyone, to as many as Yahweh will call. Even to those who are afar off. Everyone.

And so, just as the waters of baptism separate us from the old man and the old ways, there was a watery baptism that separated the children of Israel from Egypt– from the world. And that baptism was in the Sea of Reeds.

At that moment, they were finally separated from Egypt. The Egyptians could not bring them back anymore. Likewise, we are also separated from the world, and no one can take us from our Father’s hand.

Water baptism and Spirit. We are baptized in the cloud and in the sea– the watery baptism, accompanied by a baptism of the Ruach Ha Kodesh, the Holy Spirit.

And just as they saw the bodies of the old men being buried in the waters, and they were unable to come out of the waters, and they were killed– our old man, likewise, dies and a new man rises up, separating us from Egypt once and for all.

And what happened? What happened after He baptized them into the sea and the cloud? What happened? Yahweh started to teach them His Law, His Torah. Yahweh started to tell them how to live. He tested them.

As soon as they come up, Exodus 16, they are all rejoicing and the tambourines are going and they are just having a great ol’ time. Then no water for three days. Welcome to the wilderness! Right? And after we become a believer in Messiah Yahushua, sometimes we will get tested, too. Often times, right after baptism.

And then He gave them manna to eat. And so, we feed on this Word of Yahweh, this Torah, on this manna that came down from heaven– this Messiah Yahushua, who feeds us with words of everlasting life.

And so, we need to seek to be led by the Holy Spirit. As we are walking through this wilderness land, we need to seek and follow the Spirit of the living Elohim.

Just as they had the cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night and when the cloud moved, they moved– when Yahweh’s Spirit moves, we move. We follow Messiah through this wilderness land that we are in.

Now, let me ask you a question. Do you like living in this land of oppression, this land of affliction that we are in? We have pain. We have suffering. We have negativity. We have things happening to us that we do not like. How do you like it?

Well, it is not the ideal situation, but, you know, through that entire trek of them in the wilderness, where Yahweh tested them, He enabled them to hunger– it was all to teach them: Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh.

And likewise, let us not murmur as they did about where we are or what stage of life we are going through. Let us not complain. Let us not be discontent. Let us accept this is where we are now. And we will be glad when we get to the other side of the Jordan, won’t we?

But, you know, Moshe taught them all this way. He taught them the way of righteousness. He taught them the way of truth. He taught them how to live. But Moshe himself needed to stay on top of a mountain and look from afar. And He himself was not able to go because he also failed Yahweh.

He did not hallow Yahweh in the eyes of Israel. He struck the rock. He said, “Must we bring forth water from this rock, you rebels?”

I read a story this week. I guess Benjamin Netanyahu has been really getting into the Scriptures lately. And he met with a bunch of Rabbis, and they all had a Bible study (he is the Prime Minister of Israel), and he wanted to know the answer to the question: Why did Yahweh not let Moshe go into the land of Israel?

And all these scholars, these experts in Jewish law, they gave all these responses. And one of the responses I remember was, “Well, you know, they needed a different leader. They needed more of a warrior kind of leader than the kind of leader that they had before.” And they had all these reasons.

And I thought, “Why do this? Why not just come out and say, ‘Why did Yahweh not let Moshe enter the land? It was because of this: Then Yahweh spoke to Moshe and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me.”‘”

 Numbers 20:12 - Then YAHWEH spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

Did not have faith. And the lack of belief resulted in the striking of the rock. And he did not hallow Yahweh. He did not cause Yahweh to appear to be holy in the eyes of the children of Israel.

And the other answer they gave was, “Well, there was no mediator for Moshe. Nobody said, ‘Hey, let’s let Moshe come into the land.'” They come up with these other reasons, but here is the reason: Moshe did not believe Yahweh, and therefore he struck the rock, and said, “Here now, you rebels! Must we bring forth this water out of the rock?”

And so, Yahweh was not seen as being glorified when man stepped in, and said, “Must we bring this water out?” you know, as if he by his little stick was able to bring out the water. And Yahweh was almost not even a part of the equation there. But we see the reason Yahweh gave–lack of faith and lack of obedience.

Messiah and Torah. Messiah and Torah. Over and over again, we see in the Scriptures: Messiah and Torah.

So, if I were to sum up the principles of Passover, they would be this: We are Yisrael. Ephesians 2, Romans 11, Galatians 3– all make that very clear. That is who we are. That is our identity.

At one time we were in bondage to Pharaoh and Satan. You know, he is represented by Pharaoh.

Yahweh demonstrated His superiority over the idols of this world, over Egypt.

We were offered grace. We were offered deliverance just as Israel was offered grace and deliverance.

They set aside a lamb on Aviv 10. Our Lamb, also, was– Messiah Yahushua. Their lamb was offered on Passover Day. Our Lamb, Messiah, was also.

Messiah is our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7). And partaking of Him is partaking of Passover. We must examine ourselves before we partake of Him. Take an inventory. Take it seriously. It is a solemn occasion.

We want to eat a regular meal before we partake of Him because we do not want to come to that hungry (according to 1 Corinthians 11:34). The bread must be unleavened bread. The bread represents the Word. The fruit of the vine represents the Messiah’s blood, His sacrifice.

And for our Passover Service: We examine ourselves. We eat the regular meal. We partake of it with bitter herbs or myrrh. And we eat it in haste.

We are going to eat it with a belt around our waist, sandals on our feet, staff in hand. We are going to give thanks for the bread– Messiah. We do not slice it ahead of time. We break it after the prayer and then distribute it after the prayer. That is what He did.

We are going to cease from work on the first and seventh days of the Feast. That is going to be corresponding to April 15th and the 21st. And we eat no leavened bread during the seven days of the festival. And, also, no leaven in our dwelling places. And so, those are the principles.

One other thing we are going to look at. We are going to give thanks for the cup, as Messiah did, and drink from it– the fruit of the vine.

And then, we also– and this is what we do before we actually do the Passover service, before we partake of Messiah– we wash each other’s feet in preparation for examining ourselves, and our service to Yahweh and His people.

We do this prior to partaking of the Messiah, because I think this is part of what Paul was talking about: Let a man examine himself, and then partake of the cup. And this is an act of humility, of serving, of blessing another person. That is what it is intended to do.

And even though Yahushua was a King, nothing was beneath Him in terms of service. On the night He was betrayed, He was teaching His disciples what it means to be a King. What does it mean to be a King?

 John 13:3 - Yahushua, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from Elohim and was going to Elohim,

4 – rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.

5 – After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe [them] with the towel with which He was girded.

 John 13:6 - Then He came to Simon Peter. And [Peter] said to Him, “Master, are You washing my feet?”

7 – Yahushua answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”

8 – Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Yahushua answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

 John 13:9 - Simon Peter said to Him, “Master, not my feet only, but also [my] hands and [my] head!”

10 – Yahushua said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash [his] feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”

That is another signal that it was done beforehand, because Judas was still there.

 John 13:11 - For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.”

12 – So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?

13 – “You call me Teacher and Master, and you say well, for [so] I am.

 John 13:14 - “If I then, [your] Master and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

15 – “For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.

And so, that is what we do.

 John 13:16 - “Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.

17 – “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

If you do them! Do we do them? That is the question. Do we do them? Are we serving our brothers in the faith often? That is the question for us. Blessed are you if you do them.

Are we serving each other? In what ways are you serving the brethren today? If you cannot think of anything, if we are scratching our heads, we are missing something, brothers and sisters. We are missing something.

Serving the brethren is what He was all about. And I know distance will separate us sometimes from being able to serve one another as we would like, but do we realize that we are not on this journey alone? Do we realize that we are in this wilderness together? Just as the children of Israel were in the wilderness together.

And how many times Yahweh identifies Himself by this awesome act of bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt! He would often say, “I am Yahweh who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” Brothers, He wants to identify Himself in that way with you.

He wants to bring you out of Egypt. He wants to be the Elohim who brings you out. We just need to never look back.

There are a lot of captains out there who want to take you back. Don’t let them be your captain. Let Yahushua be your King.

We look and we see the great work Yahweh has done to reveal to us that is what He wants us to do, and take us out of Egypt and bring us into the promised land. In order to do that, we need to walk as Yahushua walked. We need to walk in His steps. We need to do what Yahushua would do.

What would He do if He were on the earth today? Answer that question. What would He do? Would He be serving the brothers? Would He be serving His fellow man? Is that what we are doing? Even if no one goes with us, even if we are just Caleb and Joshua– two men out of millions to make it– we have to go.

We cannot fear. The enemy is bread for us. With Yahushua and His Word before us and Egypt behind us, we need to press on. Do not stare at that rear view mirror too long. If you keep staring at that rear view mirror, you are going to crash. You are not going to know where you are going.

We have to press on to the promised land, where righteousness will reign and Yahweh will be King. Let’s make Him our King right now. This year, let’s seek diligently for the leaven Yahweh wants to purge out. Let us set aside our own things and seek the things of the Father.

Let’s set aside the noise of Egypt, and let’s allow Yahweh and His Spirit to be the voice we listen to.

This year, let us allow Him to reign over us at all times– every minute of every day. Let it be, the King of Kings reigns on the throne of our hearts for good. And through it all, brothers and sisters, we will have a time of rejoicing awaiting us. And through it all, He will be with us.

All of heaven will be on our side. And He will give us a joy within our hearts and a peace within our hearts that will surpass all understanding. Let it be so, in Yahushua’s name.

Abba Yahweh, Thank You, Father, for all You have done in our lives. Thank You for watching over us in the way You have. Thank You, Father, for Passover. Thank You for Your festivals, which are yearly reminders of Your goodness toward us, of the need that we have to exit the land of Egypt and enter the promised land.

Deliver us, Father Yahweh, from Egyptian ways. Deliver us from unholiness. Sanctify us as Your people. And help us, Father, to walk as Yahushua would walk. That is what we want. In everything, show us the cloud and the fire, and let us press on toward the places where You lead.

We trust You. You are the most powerful Being in the universe. We trust You. Through and by Your Son, Yahushua, in Him alone, we have righteousness. As it is in His name we pray. Blessed be Your name, forever. Amein.

And as we make that journey, my brothers and sisters, may Yahweh bless you, and may Yahweh have mercy on us all.