Daniel 9:25b …there shall be seven weeks…
The context of this series of posts is the course of the Jewish people for the initial 49 years of the 483 year period communicated from the angel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel. The city of Jerusalem has been rebuilt post exile. These events are covered in Nehemiah 8-13. Israel is returning to God’s Law. The focus has shifted to God’s appointed holidays. The monthly offering of the Temple service was covered last week. This week, Nehemiah reminds the Jewish people of God’s appointments or the feasts.
Nehemiah 10:33 …the appointed feasts…
There are seven God appointed holidays communicated through the Old Testament Law. They are Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles.
The first three spring holidays were fulfilled on the appointed holiday by Jesus Himself. The names of the feasts covered today are: Passover and Unleavened Bread.
The first of God’s holidays is Passover or Pesach in the Hebrew. The holiday begins on the 14th day of the Hebrew month Nisan (March or April on a Gregorian calendar). There is a play on words in the original Hebrew. A “pesach” is an unblemished lamb which was required for the sacrifice. After the “pesach” was sacrificed, the blood was to be smeared on the wooden posts of the house. When God saw the blood on the door posts, He passed over or “pasach” and the house was spared judgment.
The original directions for the Passover were given to Moses and Aaron in Egypt. The statute and happenings are noted in Exodus 12. God defines the purpose of the holiday to Israel.
Exodus 12:26-27a “And when your children say to you, ‘What does this rite mean to you?’ you shall say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to the LORD who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.’”
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The second of God’s holidays is Unleavened Bread or Chag haMatazt in the Hebrew. The holiday begins on the 15th of Nisan and runs for seven days.
The directions of Unleavened Bread are noted in Exodus 12:14-20. The focus of the week is to live a life without leaven, the symbol for sin. Leaven is not to be in the house. Leaven products are not to be consumed. Bread without yeast, matzah, is to be eaten.
Exodus 12:14-20 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”
Who is the sacrificial Passover Lamb of God? Who is the sinless Bread of Life? Got Jesus?
