Passover to Pentecost – Fifty Days!

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Passover to Pentecost – Fifty Days!        Week 1 Day 2

Leviticus 23: 16 – Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath.

Okay, why fifty days?  It does not fit any of the usual numbers we associate with trials and test.  The verse is referring to the harvesting of the barely crop (a symbol of Israel); is that the only answer?  With that asked I will turn to Jewish legend, which I am finding usually has more meat than myth.  This is the time it took for Moses and the Israelites, after Passover, to get to Mount Sinai and get the Laws of God.  Pentecost (Feast of Weeks) is celebrated as the point of spiritual freedom because they were given God’s Word.

Chabada.org gives the seventh day of Passover as when Israel went through the Red Sea which puts them out of Egypt on day eight.  No, you will not find that in Scripture, but I can live and work with that idea.  Seven is recognized as the number of completion and eight as new beginnings so it does make sense.

The events that occurred from the Red Sea to Mount Sinai are mirrored in other Passovers and their history:

  • Bitter water
  • Food
  • Water problems, again
  • Amalekites
  • Community structure
  • God at Mount Sinai

These topics will be visited later in this series.  An immediate point is Exodus 19:1; since I am not a Hebrew scholar this verse puts a time stamp on their arrival.  I would say that it was sixty days when they arrived.  Since it is a “tradition” as to when to celebrate things I think I will look for something else to nit-pick on.

Passover to Pentecost – Passover

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Passover to Pentecost – Passover        Week 1 Day 1

“Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Exodus 13:1 (NIV)

Passover is a foundational stone of the Jewish faith; for the Christian it is an historical event that shows Jesus and His redemptive work for our salvation.  The importance of this day is reflected in Exodus 12: 13 when God commanded, “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come” and Luke 22:15 when Jesus said, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”   The initial story is found in Exodus 12.

Passover, for the Jew, represents physical redemption from bondage and the path to spiritual liberation when they given the Laws of God at Mount Sinai.  In that redemption several things that occurred:

  • All of the Egyptian gods were judged (12:12).
  • The final plague occurred
  • A mass movement of people started.
  • The Egyptian people gladly gave away their wealth and possessions to slaves.
  • God’s timing of events and love for Abraham’s descendants was made evident.
  • God established rules for participation in Passover.

Leviticus 23 is where the “appointed feast” is explained.  The Feasts of the Lord start with Passover and is then followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost.  Passover starts the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Fristfruits begins the Feast of Weeks which starts the day after Passover.  This is the time after Jesus’ resurrection to Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came to the Church.

Over the next seven weeks we will look at references to this period of time in the Old and New Testament and the things that Jesus did before his Ascension, and we will explore more about the start of the Church in the Book of Acts.  Some of my references will be from Messianic websites as well Jewish websites.  If you look on the Jewish sites I am sure you will find things that are not pro-Christian.  Please do not be offended!  I wanted a Jewish prospective about the Feast and they provide an excellent resource.

So, “To look at things differently will improve your vision or make you shut your eyes.”

Yeast – Before Passover

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Yeast – Before Passover

“For seven days no yeast is to be found in your homes.” (Exodus 12: 19) NIV

God had prepared His people to be out of Egypt.  He had made the Egyptians weary of them and their God.  His Passover would be the final straw and He set the stage for them to go; He gave specific meal instructions.  It covered what to cook and eat and how it was to be done.  As Christians, we take a lot of symbolism from this meal and even more has come from Jewish traditions.  Getting rid of yeast is very important to the Passover Feast and is rich for us as Christians.  But why yeast!?

I like the spiritual lesson Chabad.org has in its post on Passover. (I am paraphrasing big time.)  The difference between crackers and bread is yeast.  It fills the dough with gas and makes it puffed up; while the cracker stays flat and humble.  Wow!  Yeast in most places of scripture carries a negative thought.

My question, “Why yeast” still stands?  Yes, we should take time and view our lives and houses and get rid of things that are not pleasing to God.  The Jews do this before Passover and they are serious about it.  How would these first participants in Passover make that connection when all yeast had ever done is make their bread rise?  For the most part, we Christians will say that yeast symbolizes sin, but Jesus compared yeast to the action of the Kingdom of God.  I believe that He would ban it on what it would come to shadow, but I also think more has been at play here.

In Exodus 12: 34 the people took their dough in the kneading troughs wrapped them in extra clothing and moved quickly out of town.  My second thought of “why” is the speed of their departure.  Adding yeast and letting it rise in order to bake can take time.  By the text, it sounds like they were leaving quickly and God knew they would be on the move for several days.  Flatbread cooks quicker than yeast bread.

A third “why” could be the Egyptian cult worship that involved yeast?  The frog goddess Heqet was also involved with yeast.  It was a bread-making/ beer cult and could have been one of the deities that Israel had become involved with. (See Frogs in the Bible)

Yeast in itself is not bad and could be used the rest of the year, but for this time period, it did pose a problem.  It could be one or all three of these or it may be something else, but for the trip out of Egypt, it had to go.  Please see my other posts on yeast: What I Learned From Studying Yeast;  Yeast, All Bad;  Yeast, A Model of Church Growth.

Take Away – A more “modern” custom that Jews may do in preparations for Passover is selling their yeast.  I see it as a picture of what Judas did to Jesus.  Jesus became our sin (yeast); Judas tried to give the money back but was refused.  Yes, modern Jews can buy back their yeast products after Passover.

http://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1742/jewish/What-Is-Chametz.htm

Fast of the Firstborn – Before Passover

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Fast of the Firstborn – Before Passover

Because I am following the days of Passover I need to add this.  There is much in the Jewish feast that is a shadow of Jesus (which is the real reason I choose to follow the Jewish days).  I am not trying to lay blame on God’s chosen people!  It is a shame that Christians in the past thought that it was their duty to punish the physical descendants of Abraham.  I am confident that God had a plan and still does for the Jews!

One of the things that happen before Passover is the Fast of the Firstborn.  (I am using information from Chabad.org, the link is below.)  The reason for this day is found in Exodus 13 where God claims all firstborn as His.  The firstborn of Egypt became the sacrifice for the firstborn of Israel, this is in Numbers 3:11 – 51.  The purpose of this day is to create a bond between God and man.  It occurs the day before Passover.

I can see a shadow of this in the Christian practice of Lent, where we are encouraged to give up “something” during the days that precede Easter.

http://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1723/jewish/Passover-Calendar.htm

Plagues – Before Passover

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Plagues – Before Passover

Exodus 7:14 – I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites.

Since this is the week before Passover I am dealing with things that had to occur before that night.  As Christians, celebrating Easter, we don’t think much about the ten plagues that occurred to bring about the first Passover.  My guess is that before each of us had our personal “Passover” we had things going on in our life that opened our hearts to Him.

My purpose here is not to discuss the plagues in detail; I have lightly touched on them in The Wonders That Plagued Egypt, Reflections on the Judgments in Exodus, and Frogs in the Bible.   My focus is their connection to Passover.  I don’t think that it took more than a year to do all of these and God had a timetable to watch; He brought them out on the anniversary of their arrival – Exodus 12: 41.  This website was a good read on the subject:  http://jesusalive.cc/ques219.htm .

To me, it seems that the wonders that were done had to happen for two groups of people: the Egyptians and the Israelites.

Egyptians – Pharaoh was the primary target of the plagues.  The decision to release the people had to come through him, and he had an attitude problem.  The people had to be conditioned to WANT to give away their riches.  They gave away a lot of stuff.  Read about the quantities of materials that were needed to construct the Ark and the Tabernacle; they really did plunder Egypt.

Israelites – The community was affected by the first three plagues and could have been affected by the last one if they had not followed instructions; starting with the plague of the flies in Exodus 8:20 God did not bring the rest of the plagues on His people.  It seems like God was teaching His people about Himself and trying to build their faith in Him.  I know for sure that since they ushered in Passover and the Exodus, which was the turning point for them as a people, they were important.  The story is talked about in many other places in the Bible I put some of them in a post – The Exodus Story in Other Places.

pic from  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amietophrynus_regularis#mediaviewer/File:Pantherkroete-04.jpg