SEASONS - THOUGHTS ON THE HISTORY OF PASSOVER

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Passover is coming soon.  Passover for the year of 2016 begins on the evening of Friday, April 22 and ends on the evening of Saturday, April 30.   Many do not realize that Passover is not just one day, but a season that lasts for eight days. 

It all started not long after Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden and they began to till and harvest the land.  Every year they enjoyed a celebration of the harvest of the spring barley crops and the new lambs.  We can understand this from the stories of Cain and Abel.  One brought vegetables and one brought meat.   It was a set aside time that God had ordained each year at the ending of the rainy season and the beginning of the growing season. 

Adam and Eve passed this down through the generations right up until the flood.  Noah was the grandson of Enoch.  Enoch had walked with God and he taught Noah.  Noah taught his sons and kept God's calendar even during the time on the ark and the flood.  After the flood Noah's son Shem was made the family high priest.  He established a school to teach God's ways to the people of the earth.  Shem passed on the Holy Days of God to the generations after the flood.  Abraham was the next family high priest after Shem.  Abraham knew and passed down God's Holy Days to his sons and his household.

Many years before the redemption of Israel from Egypt, God instructed Abraham about the sacrifice of a lamb.   We know that Abraham offered up many lambs for sacrifice, and was even prepared to offer his own son, but God would not allow it.   

The word Pesach, as the Hebrews call it, was first derived from the instructions given by God to Moses.  It means “passing over” or “protection.”  God had promised that the Angel of Death would “pass over” the people who had put the blood of the lamb over the door posts of their homes.  The time of the year was right in line with the same clock that God had given men from the beginning.  It was the season of Passover when God told Moses to tell the Israelite people that He would bring them out of the bondage of slavery to the Egyptians.  

God was officially calling His people out and stating that He would lead them to the promised land, the land that He had promised to the seed of Abraham in a covenant long ago.  This was a land that would be known as the land of the people of God.  These people of God were the ones from which would come the promised Messiah.  It was a time of new beginnings for Israel.  They were leaving an old life and entering a new life.

  

After the Exodus, during temple times, people came up to Jerusalem every year singing joyous songs, bringing their lambs to the temple for sacrifice.  A sign hung around each lamb naming the family that brought them.  

Sometimes there were 3 million lambs offered up for the sins of the people in Jerusalem in one 24 hour period of time.  The priests blew the trumpet when the lambs were slain and they caught the blood of the lambs in a special silver or gold bowl.  Hymns were sung as this happened and the priest carried the bowls to the altar.  The service ended with incense on the altar after the lambs had been roasted on a special pole made specifically of pomegranate wood. 

The lambs were eaten at a special meal.  Anything that was not eaten was burned up with fire until none remained.  Unleavened bread and herbs were served with the lamb as well as red wine and water.  The people always remembered how God led them through the wilderness out of slavery into a new promised land where they lived in freedom and luxury.

By the time Jesus walked the earth this offering had been a required offering for many years.  He too went up for the Passover every year with his family.  Every Jewish male was expected to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem during the Passover.   It became a week long festival.  It was a time to repent, to  give the offering for atonement, to cleanse your house of all leaven (sin) then celebrate the harvest with an offering of the first fruits of your crops. 

The offering of the lamb was made on Passover.  The first fruits waive sheaf of barley was offered and waived before God in the first few days of unleavened bread which came to be known as The Day of the FirstFruits.   The people, who had put away sin and cleaned their homes of anything ungodly came up and celebrated the first fruits of their crops with Thanksgiving before God. 

The disciples of Jesus also kept the Passover.  They celebrated The Passover with Christ just before He was crucified.  Having celebrated this set-aside sacred time all of their lives, and understanding the history of their people, they realized when Jesus died for them that He had become their true Passover.  His resurrection on the third day, the day of Early First Fruits was positive proof to them that He was Messiah.  He was the perfect lamb of God offered up for the sins of mankind. 

Even after Jesus once more ascended to heaven; the disciples remembered that Jesus had commanded them to “remember Him” with this special Passover meal every year.  The Messiah is remembered weekly in The Holy Eucharist celebrated on The Sabbath and remembered annually with the great ritual and symbolism that tells the whole extensive story at Passover.  

The disciples continued year after year to remember the Passover, Unleavened Bread and Early First Fruits.  Each generation taught their sons and daughters, and the Church now understands the offering of Christ was fulfilled by keeping the Passover.  Now we do this to remember that He was once The Suffering Servant, but now is The Resurrected Lord of Lords and King of Kings and He will come again for His people.  He has commanded us to remember the story.  

We retell the whole story each year with The Passover.  The symbols and the whole eight days teach our children how to live in the truth of The Messiah. 

 With the season of Passover every year we learn and grow in God's grace as we celebrate all He has done for us.  We remember His resurrection on the day of Early First Fruits and we look forward to our own resurrection day when we will be with Him forever.