Jesus Christ's Real Life Story, Pt. 2

Ron Weinland

April 1, 2017

Today we're continuing with Part 2 of a new sermon series entitled, Jesus Christ's Real Life Story.

As it was discussed last time in Part 1 most of the world of Traditional Christianity is now beginning to focus on such religious traditions as Lent and Easter, and so they're looking forward to Easter. We're looking forward to something totally different. That's what this series is about and yet the overwhelming majority of people do not know that such words like "Lent" and "Easter," they're not in the scriptures. They're not in the Bible. They're not even mentioned in any fashion or form in the Bible. You would think that people would ask why not, but people just don't even think that way! They don't even think that way at all. You think, what a horrible thing that people have observances and things they know nothing about. They don't know why they do what they do, and yet they learn it as children and they pass it along. They grow up and do it and then they teach their children. That's been going on for generation after generation after generation going back many hundreds of years now. What an incredible thing! Yet those things are about to change in this whole world.

The Bible has much to say about Jesus Christ, who is referred to as the Messiah in the Old Testament. A lot of people have heard that word. They don't even know that that word means the same thing as the word "Christ" in the English. There are two different words that are used in scripture – one of which is from a Greek word that means exactly the same thing as "Messiah" in the Old Testament. It means "The Anointed One." There was an anointing in the Old Testament on those who would serve God in very special functions. One was as a king. Those who were kings were anointed to be kings, and this is about an anointing to be a king. It's spoken of over and over again in the Old Testament and in the New, but people don't even know that. Sad. It really is sad when you think about it. They don't know so many things that we're going to be talking about in this series about the real life story of Jesus Christ, a true life story. It’s not one that people as a whole in the world listen to and hear when they grow up and go to Sunday school. I guess that’s what they call it, because it's on Sunday. Sunday school classes are where young people go and learn as children and never question, never think about later on in life and just accept fully what they've been told.

So in Part 1, again, we began this series by looking at the very first prophecy about the coming of Jesus Christ. That was in Genesis 3 where Satan had led Eve to sin by taking of fruit that God told her that she was not to do. As a result, God pronounced the first great prophetic thing that concerned the coming of Jesus Christ, right then and there directly to Satan, speaking to Satan about a seed that would come from woman, that would come from woman, a seed that would crush or break the head of Satan in time. It is still coming. It is still to take place.

And then we looked at another prophecy where the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 7:14 said this, Therefore, the LORD Himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and shall call his name Immanuel, which means "God with us."

Then this prophecy comes to life several hundred years later when an angel appeared in a dream to Joseph, who was to become Mary's husband, and this was well before Mary and Joseph were actually married. I'm going to read that again. Matthew 1:20—But while he thought on these things, talking of Joseph, because she was pregnant and she was getting larger and they had never come together. They hadn't even been married and it says he was thinking about these things. It was troubling to him. Doubts. Questions. Things. Yet something she would tell him: "No, I haven't slept with anyone. I haven't been with anyone."

And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, you son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, because he did. He had doubts. He had questions come into his mind, a normal human being, because of what was getting ready to be told to him, there was nothing like this ever heard of. Nothing like this had ever happened nor would ever happen again.

It's hard sometimes to go through a story like this and think about and put ourselves in that position. We can't fully. We can strive to appreciate some of those things and we can understand it in part, but unless you've really been through it and lived it you can’t, and no one has.

So he says, Do not fear to take unto you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the holy spirit. It's from God. What an incredible thing! And she (Mary) shall bring forth a son. Again, long before they had the little things they could put on the stomach with the gel and listen and look and see and say, "Ah, it's a boy!" This was long before that technology – a couple thousand years. …and you shalt call his name, as it says here, Jesus, and we talked about that. It is Joshua. We're not going to start calling him Joshua yet, but as soon as he returns I can guarantee you his name will be known from then on as Joshua. This name will be cleared up and cleansed because that which is materialized, etymology, words that are passed down through time, it isn't what it should be fully. Again, this word here meaning "Yahweh is Salvation." Words have such incredible meaning and purpose when given by God. It says, for he shall save his people from their sins.

Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of by the LORD through the prophet Isaiah, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Incredible story! Incredible, inspiring what God has revealed, given through time.

We then ended Part 1 while covering some of the things Paul was saying about the real life story of Jesus Christ, as him being our Passover. This is important to the world of Traditional Christianity, to understand that something was being spoken of that you don't hear of today at all! They're not told these things. They're not told such stories, and if it is, it's strictly in passing while reading something in passing quickly, but as a whole they're not even referred to or spoken of in any fashion or form, and for great purpose.

So again, this is so important because this is long after Christ has died and been resurrected. The reason that's important is because people like to say, "Well, once Jesus Christ died all these things that had been observed in times past were no longer required by God's people, by the Church." That is not the real story of Jesus Christ's life. It's not the true story of scripture at all.

So we'll pick it up there again today in 1 Corinthians 5 where we left off last time. Paul is dealing with some problems with the Corinthians, especially in the beginning of the Church when they went into some areas, new areas, and churches were being raised up. Here, Paul, the apostle to the gentiles, was working with the area of Corinth. Their lifestyle and what they had been indoctrinated in as far as their lives were concerned was not good, and some of the kinds of worship and ideas that they had in that particular region. So the primary one of those things that they were very loose in had to do with sex, the misuse of that which God gave. It is to be used in a right way within marriage, but they weren't using it in a right way in Corinth. Corinth was known for that. The term even began to be used, Corinthianize. There is a word that is a spinoff of the word for Corinth because of the decadence and the lifestyle that many lived.

Paul was telling them in a particular case here. Here they'd come into the Church and Paul was teaching them about a way of life that they're to live in honor toward God and God's way of life and basic commands about not committing adultery and so forth that are in scripture, and yet they were allowing something to go on that they knew of within the environment of the Church that Paul said, "You shouldn't have been allowing. You should have dealt with this. They should not be in fellowship with you and by your allowing this and by allowing them to continue to come you're sinning. You're sinning! Not just them, but you're sinning for doing so, because your silence is in essence upholding something that is wrong."

He said [verse 6] Your boasting is not good. What does it mean by that, "Your boasting is not good?" Well, it's being used as a term to say, "You're flaunting something before God that God says shouldn't exist, shouldn't be lived. It definitely isn't going to be lived in the Church! That's just the way it is." So that's why, in many respects, we talk about even the cleansing of the Church and things that God continues to do that are going on to this day. We learn from that to stand, to take a stand, to uphold things that are right and just before God. So he said, "Your boasting is not good. To allow such a thing is not good. It isn't right."

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? So, as a whole, Traditional Christianity doesn't focus on this story and they don't like what it says in a little bit, but if they did, and those who do read their Bibles, when they read through something like this they don't understand. Why is he talking about leaven and unleavened? It has no meaning to them, as a whole, unless they've read enough that after a time they begin to pick up a little bit here and there, which is exceedingly rare. But in scripture, and for those who follow through and know traditions of the Bible, they understand that God uses leavening here to teach something in a very powerful way. That which is unleavened to teach something in a very powerful way. Leavening in bread puffs up. Its pride, boasting, prideful! And this example that Paul is using, he's using something that's happening in the Church about being puffed up before God, saying, "That shouldn't exist." There are analogies that go through scripture then; sin is like leavening. It puffs up. It only takes a little bit. That's what he's saying here, "Don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" It just takes a little bit mixed with flour and water, and ever how you make bread, and it causes things to begin to rise, to be puffed up so they can put it in the oven and you get bread.

But he says, Purge out, therefore, the old leaven. So he's giving an example here of something, relating it to sin, that that which is sin and leaven, we're to become unleavened, without sin in our life, in other words. Purge out, therefore, the old leaven that you may become a new lump. You know, we're to become something different when God begins to work with us, when people begin to dedicate their lives to God, to Jesus Christ, to the Church, to living a right life then there is that which follows. They're to walk in newness of life. There are scriptures that talk about that that people are familiar with out there, to walk in newness of life. When you're baptized you're to walk in newness of life. Sadly, a lot of people don't understand baptism and what that means and they do it to babies and don't understand it's not for babies. It's for adults when they make choices and decisions in life of how they want to live their life.

…that you may be a new lump even as you are unleavened. So there was something going on here at this time… again, that's sad. People have no idea what it's talking about. It's talking about a particular Holy Day season that God commanded hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years earlier that people were to observe, and it had to do with things that were unleavened. They were to take leavening and get it out of their homes. Their homes were to be unleavened. There wasn't to be any trace of yeast and leavening products found in a home for seven days. People don't know that. They read through something like this, they have no idea. They can't put anything together. Sad!

It goes on to say then, For even Christ our Passover… So a lot of teachers in the world, religious teachers, preachers don't like to quote these scriptures because then it raises questions in people's minds: "Well, what are you talking about, 'Christ our Passover'? What does that mean?" For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. So what is Passover? They don't have any ability to put it together with the Old Testament. It's just not in the mind.

Therefore, let us keep the Feast. Now, this, people read that and they're really blown away. Well, they're not really blown away, because you know what happens to human beings that don't understand something? They just read right over it. It doesn't make any sense so they just read right over it and just keep reading. It's a story so they just keep reading the story. This didn't mean anything. It doesn't mean anything to them and they just keep reading. This has incredible meaning to it, awesome meaning! For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore, let us keep the Feast. The reason it isn't preached by ministers in the world out here in Traditional Christianity is because they keep no such Feast. Those who have done a little studying, those who have gone to seminaries and done some research, have been taught in school and class, they know what this is talking about, but they choose to disregard it and ignore it. Keep the Feast? You don't want that question popping up in a congregation.

Paul is saying a long while after Jesus Christ is dead that we're to keep, the Corinthians, the Church, was to keep the Feast. Guess it wasn't done away with, was it? Guess it wasn't like what they like to say: "Nailed to the cross." No, it wasn't! Paul was telling them you're supposed to be keeping the Feast! Then they don't even know what Feast it is. Somebody that reads this would ask, "What do you mean 'a feast'?"

Then it goes on to say, Not with old leaven… See, this is the real life story of Jesus Christ. There's coming a point in time when people are going to begin listening. This series is going to be an incredibly important series as we go along. I believe with all my being it's going to be the most important video that's put out there above anything else that we do after this.

Do you realize that in the beginning with the ministry that began on Pentecost in 31 A.D., the Church and the message that went out, do you know what it was about primarily first and foremost? It was about the real life story of Jesus Christ! Because no one had ever heard it. Obviously, it had just happened and their job was to tell it in the world everywhere they went. That story has been lost through time, as a whole. The world of Traditional Christianity doesn't know it, yet they're about to be brought back to it before Jesus Christ returns. That's why this is going to be the most important video out there, of anything that's said, as a whole, of what we do.

Therefore, let us keep the Feast. Not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, sin, leaven; we’re not to live that way. People aren't supposed just to go to church on Sunday to somehow feel better when they leave, and then go right back into the same old lifestyle of things they're doing in their lives that aren't right. I think of country western music and I think of the Bible belt that sweeps through those regions of the United States. I think of all the adultery that goes on, even with those who are high up in the industry and that example the set that comes out of Nashville! And it does. It isn't a pretty sight because of how people live their lives and go from one person to another. That's the lifestyle out there. It's in the music. It's in their lives and yet that's the hallmark, in many ways, of Traditional Christianity! What's wrong with that story? Why are people going to begin experiencing some of the kinds of things they are in this ole' world?

Our government is falling apart. It's falling apart at the seams. It's going to get a whole lot worse before it begins to get better. We're just starting to see the tip of the iceberg in all this as God begins to bring things to the surface, so that if there is a way to bring people to repentance and to change maybe they'll be able to listen, maybe some, maybe some more than what would have taken place between 2008 and 2012. Maybe now some more will truly have an ability to say, "You're right. We can't govern ourselves. We've been proving that to ourselves. We, mankind, we cannot govern ourselves." So hopefully, prayerfully, at least the means is being made available to them, for people to be able to potentially repent now, whereas before so many wouldn't have even been able to address it. God is preparing people to be able to more readily address that.

So again, keep the Feast. Not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, sincerity, genuine, genuine before God. You’re not going to a service to somehow feel better when you leave about yourself, to feel these little fuzzy feelings and you did your duty for that week for maybe 15 minutes, or ever how long you were there, 20 minutes, a half an hour. Whoop tee doo! And somehow you leave there and you feel fuzzy and good because you talk about certain things. Then you go back out and live the same kind of life that was lived before. There’s nothing genuine and sincere about that at all. It’s not a matter of truth and living truthfully before God.

Then what is the truth about Christ being our Passover? You know this is spoken of in scripture but who pays any mind? The world doesn't. Only those whom God has drawn can pay mind, because only those can begin to "see" as they begin to change and make changes in their life. God is getting ready to do that with so much of the world now.

So people in Traditional Christianity know the word "Easter" and they have their own ideas of what this means concerning the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but there is no such observance given in scripture. It isn't in the Bible so where did it come from? There is so very much said, though, about the word "Passover," but that's ignored, and how that Passover, concerning Jesus Christ's life, is what he fulfilled. What a shame! So people need to know what he fulfilled.

All that God has given concerning the meaning of Passover is fulfilled in the life and death of Jesus Christ, and the resurrection as well. It's not about Easter. When Paul said that Jesus Christ is our Passover, is sacrificed for us, and that the Church was to keep the Feast, people in Traditional Christianity, again, don't know what he was talking about and churches are not keeping what Paul said they should.

Let's turn over to Romans 3. I could just read some of these, but we'll take time to turn there. Again, these are the same churches that refer to some of Paul's earlier writing to say that the law has been done away. Like this one here. Pathetic. Sad what teachers of religion have told people and people who depend upon them. "They surely wouldn't lie to me?" They go there and they listen. "Surely they wouldn't be lying to me. Surely they wouldn't be telling me things that are false and not true? Surely!" There's also, sometimes growing up I think about this kind of mystique that sometimes is in society about someone who is a minister and it's like there's something supposed to be special about them. It’s almost like they're supposed to be holy.

Just like this book; it's almost like it's "The Holy Bible." It's a Bible. It's a book. It's almost like for some people that if you write in it and take notes in it that you've done something bad to the book, because it's a holy book. It's a writing. It's about things that God has given mankind, but you're not to treat it as though there’s something religious about it. It's kind of like a flag. People get all worked up about things that are done to a flag and it's like it's a holy thing and you can’t do certain things to it. It is with things of religious relics or things that people look upon as being relics. Like a cross hanging on a wall, there's something special about it, and ministers who wear these little white things in the front here, that there's something special about that or the way they dress and there's something special about that and they're kind of to be held in awe and esteem. "And they surely wouldn't lie to me." Incredible. Why don't they teach this? Why don't they teach what's in the New Testament? Why don't they teach the things that followed Christ's story, of his beginning of his life and what he fulfilled? Because that's what Paul is talking about here. Incredible!

Romans 3:28. They like to quote some of these. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. They love verses like this. They don't quote it properly. They don't understand it, probably, and maybe they aren't really trying to twist and distort, but they do a good job of it because they were taught that in a seminary. Sad. …a man is justified, and the word means "apart from," the deeds of the law. We are justified by faith, but people don't really know what faith is. Faith is a matter of something you believe, and because you believe it, you do it, and that reflects your faith. That reflects your faith.

So people who believe in Easter and do it that reflects their faith. People who believe in going to services on Sunday morning, that's what they believe. You know, they believe certain things about the resurrection of Jesus Christ on a Sunday morning. That's what they believe and so their faith follows that. Paul is saying that, in essence here, that we are justified by faith, and we are. God gives you certain things to "see," to know, to believe, and if you believe what He says, if you believe the truth that He gives to you in life and you then choose to live by it, that living by it, that's the faith you live by. That's faith in your life.

But there are different kinds of faith. The faith of Paul, the faith of the early apostles is not what's reflected today in Traditional Christianity at all. They didn't believe the same things. They don't believe the same story about Jesus Christ. That's why we're going through this series, the real life, the true life story of Jesus Christ, of what really happened and what it all really pictures and what is in the Bible. Incredible!

Verse 31—Do we make void, and those who quote the previous verse, they sure don't go on to this one, Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: we establish the law. If only people really understood what Paul said, "Keep the Feast," the Feast that God gave a long time ago, long before Christ came along, and then Paul comes along and says we should still keep this Feast and he goes on to talk about a Passover. He goes on in Chapter 10 and Chapter 11 and builds upon and talks about the Passover and how it's to be observed and he said that they're going to observe it exactly the way Jesus Christ kept it, the same thing. A Passover. Yet the world doesn't do it? Traditional Christianity doesn't do it? See, that's a faith that those of you listening here live by. You believe it and so you live by it. You keep the Passover. You keep this particular Feast and because you do you establish the law. You establish it. You establish that in your life, that you are in agreement with God, that you believe God in your life and you're going to live that then in sincerity and truth in your life. Awesome to understand that, that by living by faith you are establishing the law in your mind, in your being, in your life, in everything that you do. Beautiful when you understand what it pictures.

Paul was explaining a difference here of something, that people aren't saved by how well they're able to do various things or obey God, in trying to receive salvation through doing various things in your life. God's making it very clear, "No, because you can't do it perfectly." In other words, there's still going to be sin in your life no matter what and you can't be saved by the deeds. You can't be saved by how well you're able to live your life before God because you're going to make mistakes and you're going to have problems and you're going to have sin crop up in your life, but thank God you can be forgiven of it and you can repent before God. So it's because of faith, Paul goes on, he explains about the faith of Abraham and so forth, and he makes it very clear that we are saved through, justified (better yet said), through faith. That's what God has attributed to us, how we live our lives, what we follow through because of what we believe and what we think and how we respond to Him then as a result.

Romans 6:14. Again, they like to refer to verses like this. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law—"See!"—but under grace. "You don't have to do the law anymore!" That isn't what Paul was saying. He already said you establish it by what you do, by what you believe and how you live your life living by faith in the things that are given to you. Incredible how they twist and distort and try to make things fit into a story that isn't true, a story that isn't true about the real life story of Christ and why he did what he did. "You are not under the law." If they would just put it all in context he's talking clearly about how you're not under the penalty of the law; the contrast is being made about being under the penalty of the law, which is death. If the law is over you, you've broken God's law, His way of life, then there's a penalty for that and it's making it clear you're no longer under that penalty; you're under grace that comes through Jesus Christ because you can be forgiven of your sins. He is our Passover! Sad. But the world isn't taught those things.

So let's go back to Leviticus 23—and we're in that season of the year that's leading up to all of this—and speak about some of these things that we do every Holy Day season anyway, as far as God's Church is concerned. For those who are listening for the first time, those who will listen for the first time, who have never heard such things, they don't know what Paul was talking about long after Jesus Christ had died, when he was telling the Corinthian Church about Jesus Christ being our Passover, who is sacrificed for us, and that we are to keep a Feast. This is a Feast, the Feast we're getting ready for as God's people.

Leviticus 23:1—And the Eternal spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, Concerning the feasts… Again, I marvel at how even within the Church we've come to understand and know things that God has revealed in time, but this isn't the word for "feasts." It's a word for "appointed times." A lot is taken away out of scripture by people who have translated from one language to another, and especially what happened in Great Britain (which isn't so great anymore), but what happened back there in time and some of the translations that took place in scripture and what most or a lot of people used at one time and then finally a lot of other Bibles broke out of that, but it’s referred to as the Old King James version. There were a lot of translators that purposely did things in a different way and sometimes they didn't do it on purpose because they really didn't understand, but sometimes they did it on purpose. God is talking here about appointed times. We have appointments today, now. You know, there's a time when people used to carry around these little books and they'd pull them out. No more. You just pull out a cell phone or whatever it is and you have your whole week planned out or your whole month planned out or your whole year planned out. As you go along you keep putting little things in there and it's right there at the fingertip anymore. Incredible world, technology, but God a long, long time ago determined that mankind that they were to have certain times they were to meet before Him. Appointments. Appointed times. That's what this word is.

Concerning the appointed times, the appointed meetings. It can be translated both ways, and some places is. So, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them concerning the appointed times of the Eternal, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, that word "convocations," holy because God is in it, convocations because it's about a convening, a commanded convening of God's people at these times, during these appointed times. …even these are My appointed times. The word, same word.

Six days shall work be done. So He starts out in the simplest of ways, telling us how our lives should be lived. Six days shall work be done. So we're to work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation. God set aside one day of the week in every cycle, every seventh day starting from the time when He first put man on this earth, starting in that first week of recreation of some of the things that were placed on this earth, the life that was given, and then finally mankind. And in the seventh day, it says, God rested. Other scriptures then refer back to that time, so that we always remember, we always understand where we came from in human life, and on that seventh day that never changes—it's always the same through time—that we're to keep ourselves a time to convene before God, to look to God, the one who created us, the one who made us, that He gives us instruction of how we're to live our lives. That's what it's for. God set aside that time to teach, to teach us of why He put us on this earth.

What a sad thing. People don't know why they're on the earth. They don't know the purpose of existence, and especially when you bring science into it then it really gets more confusing (so-called "science"), for those who crawl up out of a swamp several hundred billon years ago, or million years ago, and began to have some kind of a life form and then evolved through time. It just muddles things up to where people aren't really sure. It's hard to believe that there's a God out there that created us, put us here for a reason. And what's the reason? So some people have a hope for when we get through this little cycle of life. We start getting older and you don't really think about it too much until you are older. Then when you really start getting older and you start falling apart and then you realize that your days are numbered and you don't have much more time because your parent or your grandparent or whatever died at a particular point in time and you've already passed that. That causes a little concern and you realize it's running out. So what is it all about? "Well, I hope there's something afterwards." Different religious around the world, they hope that something happens, hope they come back as something. As a cow in India. As another human being in their family line somewhere if you're living in Asia somewhere and you think you're going to be, come back in reincarnation in another human being. So what's it all about? Why are you here? What happens? Others, they hope that they're going to be whisked off to heaven and be up there somewhere doing something. Some talk about looking on the face of God for all eternity. How long is that going to last? You get bored when a commercial comes on TV! How quick are you going to get bored by just looking at the Great God of the universe? Do you think the Great God of the universe just wants you to look upon Him for all eternity, to be in some kind of a doped up morphine state, in a "I feel great! Give me some more!" People can't get past that. You think, what a sad world!

I’ve talked about how they talk about going up there, "Joe's up there fishing!" That's going to get boring after a while. How long does it take? What do you do if you go to the lake and you fish, or you go to a river and you fish? Well you want to come home and you want to enjoy it – yes – but you don't want to stay there fishing for all time. Dumb! People don't think things through. What's afterward? They have no idea. We'll talk about that in some of the story because it has to do with the real life story of Jesus Christ.

So the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a Sabbath of rest, an appointment that people are to keep with God. It didn't change when Jesus Christ came along. It didn't change to Sunday. Some men in Rome changed it to Sunday. Some men in Rome who started a church changed it to Sunday and they began to put to death people who kept it on Saturday! That's how bad it got. It became a state religion of the Roman Empire. If you kept any other day you were killed or you were taken a slave somewhere to do things for Rome. Nearly 300 years after the death of Jesus Christ man changed it officially as far as rule was concerned over an empire and said, "Now the 'church' teaches that you're to keep Sunday worship." It was at the same time—amazingly so—that they introduced Easter and they said, "No longer is Passover to be recognized." But it was in the Bible. It was by the apostles. It was by Paul. So why don't people hear the whole story? And that's sad. It really is pathetic what's happened in this world.

I am so tickled that that is all about to be rectified and changed in this whole world soon… soon. But the world has to experience some pretty tough times first. It's going to get really nasty, really bad first. We're not too far away from it. We may experience some of that in this country and in Ephraim soon. I hope it lasts a little bit longer before we have to experience some of those things, but its coming.

These are the feasts, again, appointed times, same word, of the Eternal, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their, now they use the word "seasons" in the King James. Same word in there, "appointed times." God's people have always been told that when these times come around that you're to proclaim specific things. There are certain things in those particular seasons. There are certain things you're to do or to teach.

Verse 5—In the fourteenth day of the first month… People don't know when that is. "Oh, you mean January?" No, we don't mean January. The first month of God's calendar. "Oh, God has a calendar?" Yeah! They don't know. You know, the scriptures talk about a calendar. There's a timing of events in the world and God's timing for mankind to observe as far as appointed times that He's given and things that have meaning starts in the spring of the year and not in dead winter. So this is the first month that God gave to mankind, of something to be observed, and it generally falls sometime in late March to early-mid April. This is what it's talking about here.

In the fourteenth day of the first month, that God gave to man to observe time by, at even, and this is a unique word that talks about between the evenings, is the Eternal's Passover. All it's telling us is that other scriptures make it very clear in how God counted time starting with Genesis, that there is a period of time when the sun goes down, that entire night time, and the entire day that follows, the daytime, the light period when the sun is shining, is one day. That's how God gave us to count time. So as soon as the sun goes down on that day you start a second day. It doesn't start in the morning when your alarm goes off and the sun pops up in the east. That's not when a day begins. It doesn't start at midnight. It starts at a particular time as far as God's word is concerned, when the sun goes down. That's what it's talking about here. There is a period of time between two evenings, between two periods, when the sun has gone down, one that begins on the fourteenth. As soon as the sun has gone down on the thirteenth it starts a day, the fourteenth. It makes it hard for some people to grasp this because it starts a day; a day includes a night time and a day time, or light, period. That's when it starts. People who observe God's Sabbath, they begin to do so like the Jewish people do to this day, as a whole. If they observe a Sabbath, it's from Friday, the sixth day of the week. When it's sundown on that particular day a new day begins. So on Friday at sunset a new day starts. It's the Sabbath. It's the seventh day of the week. They start observing that particular period of time until the sun goes down again. Then it starts all over. As soon as the sun goes down on the seventh day the first day of the week starts. People have a hard time with that because many parts of the world calendars are all messed up now too. They've changed calendars.

In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Eternal's Passover. God begins to lay everything out for us as human beings. We've already been told about in the previous verses here a weekly service, a weekly observance, a weekly meeting or appointment with God every seventh day. It talks about the Sabbath, but now it's starting to go into some annual things that are done once a year. The first one is Passover.

I love this because everything that God does has such meaning to it and just going through some of this I find it awesomely inspiring and exciting all the time because everything is so simply laid out in so many respects. It's so clear when you understand these things. The very first thing is about our Passover because the reality is you can't proceed forward into the rest of God's plan and know about God's plan or understand God's plan, let alone live what God has planned for us except for this. You've got to start here. So this is how God begins it all. Passover. Beautiful! Everything step by step has meaning as to our lives and how we're to live and where we're going to end up one way or the other. So, In the fourteenth day of the first month at even, between the two evenings, is the Eternal's Passover.

Verse 6—And on the fifteenth day of the same month… So when is that? Well, you have the fourteenth day, it started at sunset, the fourteenth day, the day time period, and then at sundown on the fourteenth you have a new day. God said that is a Holy Day. It's an annual Holy Day on the fifteenth. At sunset on the fourteenth begins the fifteenth. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That's the Feast that Paul was talking about, "Therefore, let us keep the Feast!" I think people in Traditional Christianity read that and they have no idea it's referring back to the Old Testament and a time that God says is an appointed time that people are to observe forever. As long as there are human beings on this earth this is to be observed forever. It's commanded for human beings, for mankind forever, and there is never an interruption in it. So it was being observed by the people in Corinth. It was being observed by Paul. He taught it, to do this, to live this long after Jesus Christ had already died and been resurrected. So it wasn't "nailed to the old cross," as they like to say. It's still in force to this day.

So, on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread unto the Eternal. It's to be observed unto the Eternal, the Great God of the universe, because He tells us to do it. He tells us to keep this appointment so it's unto Him that we're to observe it. Beautiful! You must eat unleavened bread seven days. Ah, more about what Paul talked about. See, if people only read these stories! It goes together with what Paul was talking about to the Corinthians. Beautiful!

You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. In the first day you shall have an holy convocation. So this annual day that starts on the fifteenth is an annual observance. It's a holy convocation, a convening of God's people that are come together just like on the seventh day of the week on a weekly basis. Now on an annual basis, on this day, the first Holy Day of a year, God's people are to come together. And you shall do no work on it. Just like on the weekly Sabbath, you're not to go about your normal routine, your work, your job, whatever it might be, or your normal work you might be doing at home like laundry or whatever other things, house cleaning. People don't do that on the Sabbath. Neither are you to do it on a High Day, an annual Holy Day. God just makes it really clear. It's a special day to set aside unto Him, to honor Him, to obey Him, to recognize Him as the one who put us on this earth, who has purpose for us. We’re to live to Him. So, In the first day you shall have an holy convocation. And you shall do no normal work in it.

Verse 8—But you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Eternal seven days. For seven days they offered up offerings to God. Now, again, I find this so pathetic that when people read the book of Hebrews in Traditional Christianity and they try to say certain laws are done away with, they don't understand. Indeed it does talk about certain things being done away with that had to do with the law, but it's this law. It's the law of sacrifices. It's the sacrificial system. That's what ended. That's what ended when Jesus Christ died, the sacrificial system. As far as the Old Testament and as far as the Israelites, the Jewish people were concerned. At that particular point in time, it was no longer to be done because Jesus Christ fulfilled the whole thing, everything about the sacrificial system in His life. "For Jesus Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." No longer were there to be bulls and goats and lambs and whatever offered on an altar before God, because Jesus Christ fulfilled it all.

So when people read through the book of Hebrews and read about some of those things, they say, "See! It was done away!" No, it's the sacrificial law that was done away and fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Incredible, if you know these things, what you know. How blessed are you? There are a lot of people out here never heard such things, never been told such things. And in the years that remain, which aren't that many, think about all the people who are going to begin to hear and to listen and learn. Awesome!

…but you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Eternal for seven days. And in the seventh day, so the first day and the seventh day, is an holy convocation. And you shall not do any normal work.

So again, what is the real meaning of Passover? Why did Paul say that Jesus Christ is our Passover who was sacrificed for us? Well, to come to know and to understand what this means is to go back into the Old Testament writings and see where God first begins to introduce Passover. So we're going to take the time to do that. Back in Exodus 12.

About the closest anyone has come in Traditional Christianity to seeing some of this is to maybe have seen The Ten Commandments in a movie. It is an awesome movie in many respects; it’s not fully accurate in some spots. But, incredible what God did. So people have a bit of a relationship with that story in the sense of maybe having seen it in times past, but to plug it together with what Paul was talking about, to understand the timing of it and that this was the first Passover ever observed? It was a very physical thing, but God wanted people to learn from it, to begin to build upon it because He would use that to teach many things as time went on and things about the real life story of Jesus Christ. Incredible!

Exodus 12:1—And the Eternal spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be to you the beginning of months. So it was the first month in the springtime. Here the Israelites had been captive in Egypt for some time now and God has chosen a particular time to begin to lead them out of Egypt. He chose Moses to be the prophet, to be the instrument He would work through to accomplish this. Some of us know well the story of Moses and the things that took place there, but we're picking this up at a point here when he's in the land of Egypt and with part of his family here, as it talks about, and with Aaron, and God telling them, This month shall be to you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house, so barely starting then in this first month. God says when the tenth day of that month comes there is something you're to do. Families are to go out and pick out a lamb. This becomes important later on. It's going to come up in the story later on, of something that happened on the tenth day in the life of Jesus Christ and things he began to do that are so awesome, so incredible, yet people have no idea how it all fits together. They’ve never heard the story; they don't know it, don't understand it, don't comprehend its purpose. Sad.

Verse 3—Again, On the tenth day of the month they shall take to them, every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house. 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 people. So in other words they were to calculate, they were to figure then how many it would take, in essence, to eat a particular lamb. If the house was too small, take another family that's small as well, and join together so that it would be about the number it would take to eat a particular lamb. That's what it's talking about here. Do it in this regard. …and every man according to his eating shall make this accounting for the lamb.

Verse 5—Your lamb shall be without blemish. Right here, starting right here, it began to teach something about something that should be fulfilled on a greater plane later on. Here was something very physical being done by them, but it was to picture something on a far greater scale to be fulfilled later on:  Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who is without blemish, who never had a sin in his life. Only because of that are we able to be saved from our sins, to be forgiven of our sins, because he had no sin and became our Passover who was sacrificed for us. Awesome story! Awesome truth and the way God revealed this through time, starting here with something very physical, a lamb without blemish.

I think of a particular time we were actually in Egypt, my wife and I, and it happened to be at a time when they were killing animals. Basically, it was kind of a system like that, but similar. You'd see these white outfits they had on, and even young children learning, they'd teach their children, and you'd see them covered in blood. They had lambs on the side of the street, and goats and stuff, and people would buy them. But their custom, we found out, for them was that they would give to the poor and to others to observe and have this, but they picked out ones that had blemishes. They picked out ones to give to other people who had problems, lame and so forth. I thought, what an incredible thing! Anyway, human nature. But supposedly this to be a religious thing to God and why they do the things they do.

So they were told to take of this. Verse 5—Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You shall take it out from among the sheep and from the goats. In Egypt they had donkeys and different animals that were pulling some of the carts there in the streets of Cairo. They had these old carts; they had poles going down and kind of roughly made, little wagons, I guess you can call it, filled with carcasses because of all the animals they were killing and all the bones and all the stuff that's piled in there. I remember one of those. I can't help get that out of my mind right now. But anyway, something you don't normally see when you're driving an automobile down a highway or down a road and all of a sudden you see this cart being pulled with this animal and it's filled with everything that everybody can see around them.

You shall take it from among the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the month. Now, this is an incredible thing. Families were to do this and if you grew up on a farm and if you've ever been around an environment like this you can get attached to animals. You can go out and feed the chickens. You can go out and feed the ducks. You can go out and feed certain ones. Some people have trouble then when one day they have to go ahead and eat "Henry." You know, they give them names! I grew up and we had all of our cows that we milked. We had names for all of them. I don't know if it was a family thing. We knew which one was which. You know what animals are what. You give them names. Certain sheep, they had names and you knew them. Hogs! We gave them names. But you get attached to certain animals. I know some people in the Church who have talked about killing certain ducks or chickens or whatever that they've raised and it can be a tough thing because you've gotten familiar with them and you know what they're like and how they act. And to think about eating them, it can be a little tougher.

Anyway, there are lessons to be learned. And this example here, four days ahead of time they were to pull out this lamb, special, and look forward to a particular point in time for it to be brought in closer, separated from all the rest, given more attention. Human beings can get attached. Children can get attached. And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day. So pick it out on the tenth and keep it up until the fourteenth of the same month. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. In other words, everyone was to do this, but when the fourteenth day came they were to kill it. They were to put it to death. There's more to the story. They were to eat it. They were to roast it and to eat it.

And they shall take of the blood (of that lamb). So the first instruction here has to do with the lamb. They were to save the blood of the lamb, and they shall strike it on the two side posts of the upper doors of the houses in the places where they shall eat it. And they shall eat the meat in that night; roast with fire, and unleavened bread. So God instituted something then at that moment in time because the lamb pictured something, without blemish; it was about Jesus Christ and what he would fulfill in a far greater way in meaning and purpose in his life, through his life. One without blemish, and they were to eat, then, that lamb, but now with unleavened bread, which again is about Jesus Christ because he was without sin. He had no leavening in him and so they were not to eat anything leavened when they ate that lamb. They were to eat the lamb with unleavened bread. …and with bitter herbs shall they eat it. Do not eat it raw, nor seethed or boiled at all with water, but roast with fire—his head with his legs and with the eatable inward parts thereof. That's what it's talking about. There are certain parts that aren't eatable, that aren't meant to be eaten, but those that were, were to remain there and it was all to be roasted on a fire and then they were to eat it. And you shall let nothing of it remain until the morning. So when the sun was to begin to come up it was to be gone one way or another. None of it's to remain until the morning. …and that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire. So if there's anything remaining that you couldn't eat God says burn it with fire.

And thus you shall eat it: clothed for journey, your shoes on your feet and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Eternal's Passover. I love the way it says that because it's God's Passover given to mankind. That's what's important about that. It's the Eternal's Passover. God gave that time to mankind. He gave that observance to mankind, to learn from it, to be able to grasp and comprehend what it really means for our lives on a daily basis if we grasp and understand.

Verse 12—For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and I will slay all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt will I execute judgment: I am the Eternal. Awesome what He told them! So we understand here, we didn't read the story about some of the plagues that had taken place already and Moses and Aaron going back and forth with Pharaoh saying, "Let my people go."  This is what they were told and told that to Pharaoh. They wanted to go out and worship and honor God in the wilderness and keep this period of time, to observe this before God. God was letting them know He was going to separate them completely, entirely, but they were working  back and forth and finally came down to this one here, the last great plague that was going to take place in the land of Egypt.

So it says here, And the blood shall be to you for a sign upon the houses where you are. So they were to take this blood, as it talks about here, and He's going on and discussing what it is and how they were to do some of this. He talked about passing through the land of Egypt. And I will slay all the firstborn of the Land of Egypt, both man and beast: and against all the gods of Egypt will I execute judgment: I am the Eternal. And the blood shall be to you for a sign upon the houses where you are. There is blood that is to be a sign to us, of what Jesus Christ went through for us, when that soldier came up and speared Jesus Christ in the stomach area, and it says, "out came water and blood," and then he died. That blood that poured out to the earth, he gave his life. It's about the blood of Jesus Christ and how we are able to be saved, how we're able to be forgiven of sin and why he gave his life.

So it's a beautiful story, in that respect, and God teaching us things that we need to grasp and understand about why we're here on this earth and how we can become something different in life, what we're to go on to in life, what our purpose is in life. It starts here. And the blood shall be to you for a sign upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. It's because of the blood of Jesus Christ that death has passed from us, in that respect. There is a Passover we have and it's because of the blood of Christ. What an incredible story! What incredible meaning contained in these things. And I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, see, because the penalty for sin is death, and all human beings have sinned except for one. That's Jesus Christ. He was without blemish. He was without sin. He was totally, fully, unleavened in his life, never with leaven, never with sin. I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be there to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Verse 14—And this day shall be to you for a memorial. Now, the closest the world comes is something they have tarnished and twisted and distorted that's spoken of in scripture here and by Paul, and in the book of Corinthians and to the Corinthians, of something they call "communion" that's done every week where people can take a little wafer of unleavened bread and drink a little wine and they tarnish and they besmirch and they take away from the meaning of Passover that was to be a memorial to be done once a year that's about Jesus Christ. They go through a ritual and a routine that has taken away the meaning that God gave. They have given something else.

And this day shall be to you a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast, a feast that's to come, a Feast period, Passover season. That's what it's talking about here because there is that which follows immediately after Passover. …to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever. It means what it says.

Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread. It's talking about the Feast. It starts with the first day of Unleavened Bread. Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread. Even in the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day, meaning the fifteenth, as soon as it's sundown on the fourteenth after the Passover is complete and that Holy Day begins, until the seventh day, that person life shall be cut off from Israel. And in the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and in the seventh day, in other words, on the twenty-first day of the month, there shall be a holy convocation to you. And no manner of work shall be done, in other words, prepared as a means, perform, in them; except that which every person must eat—and that only must be done of you.

Verse 17. There is a lot more could be said here. There's no point in it, but just to go through mainly the story here and what God is revealing about these periods of time for the first time. You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, so they were told this first before the book of Leviticus was written, given, and those things that were recorded there. This is the first Passover. This is the first observance of a period of time that God was giving to them. You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for in the selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. I think about some of the things some people in the scattered Church went through at periods of time and didn't understand some of the basic things about Passover and Unleavened Bread and the sequence of events of when things happened. They became confused and some began to think the Passover should be observed into the fifteenth or on the fifteenth. Simple, basic things that people lost track of. Sad!

For in the selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, shall you observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever. So God starts out right away in the very beginning when He tells the Israelites this, "This is what people are to do forever."

In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, in other words, beginning at sundown, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at even. So it's making it very clear here there's a seven day period that begins at sundown on the fourteenth and goes for seven days, until seven days are complete. And during that entire seven days people are not to eat leavened bread. They're to eat unleavened bread.

Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses, for whoever eats that which is leavened, even that life shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a born in the land. And you shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations you shall eat unleavened bread. So again, the admonition for us as we come to understand it in greater meaning is there isn't to be leaven in our lives. We're to be unleavened. We're to strive to be unleavened, to be at-one with God, to strive to be at-one with God, to be without sin. That's what we're to strive to accomplish in life. We're very imperfect in that but we're to strive for that. That's what God's instruction is to us.

Verse 21—It goes on to say, Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said to them, Draw out and take a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. And you shall take a bound portion of the hyssop plant and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the upper door posts and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. This is very strong instruction here that they were to observe exactly. There is so much to learn from that. Do things exactly the way God says. Don't add to it and don't take from it. Do what God says! Who does that as far as human beings are concerned? Very few.

Verse 23—For the Eternal will pass through to slay the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood upon the upper door posts and on the two side posts the Eternal will pass over the door and will not allow… Here people have trouble with translations again, because it's like God didn't do this, He sent someone else to do this. It's not what it says. The word "destroyer" isn't there. It's talking about destruction. And He will not allow the destruction to come upon you in your homes to slay you. God did this. God slew the firstborn, it says, of the Egyptians and of the animals and so forth. People like to have this idea of some kind of angelic being, whether good or bad they don't really know, that went about and did all this stuff. Well, God did it. I think about what God's going to do at the very end here, at the very end, some of the things He's going to do directly on this earth. Powerful, things that people are going to witness. Not just man, that man does to himself, but things that God Almighty is going to do.

Verse 24—And you shall observe this thing for an ordinance to you and to your children forever, to keep the Passover, to observe the Passover, and so there is a way it was observed on a physical plane up to the time of the death of Jesus Christ, and then Jesus Christ instituted a new way of observing the Passover. In John 13 it tells the story. Paul tells the story beginning in 1 Corinthians 10, 11, and in through there. He tells what we're to do and how we're to live our lives as well.

Verse 25—And it shall come to pass, when you have come into the land that the Eternal gives to you, according as He has promise, that you shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What does this service mean? That you shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Eternal's Passover. I love that verse for what it says, because it's something that God Almighty had to sacrifice for us, His own Son. He allowed His own Son to be beaten in a horrifying way, to be whipped with leather strips that had metal attached to the ends to rip off skin and flesh off the body. That's what Jesus Christ went through. He was so marred from his face on down that people didn't recognize him, couldn't recognize. It says they couldn't recognize who he was. He went through a horrible beating, and God Almighty, He was watching His own Son go through this, but because of a plan and a purpose for all mankind and things we learn from it, He purposed it.

We learn from that, powerfully so, that to live God's way as human beings requires sacrifice. Sacrifice. Awesome to understand! So this was the Eternal's sacrifice for all mankind to enable us to have a means whereby we can enter into and come into a relationship with God Almighty that reveals things in the future that are awesome and that people have never heard. They don't understand what they're to do. They're not going to go up there fishing someway. They're not going to go up there looking on God's face for all eternity. That's not what it's about. It's far more meaningful. It's about a relationship with God Almighty for eternity, but doing things that are awesome and exciting forever… forever, from then on, age everlasting.

It is the sacrifice of the Eternal's Passover, who passed over the homes of the children of Israel in Egypt, when He slew the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed their head and worshipped.

Verse 28—And the children of Israel went away and did as the Eternal had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. And it came to pass, that at midnight the Eternal slew—the Eternal did, not a destroyer, but God Almighty did it—slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the prison; and all the firstborn of the livestock. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry throughout Egypt; for there was not a home where there was not one dead. Incredible, what took place. Incredible how stubborn human beings are, to hold on to their own way, and Pharaoh and the Egyptians reflected this in a very powerful way.

When I think of that I can't help but think about where we're headed right now and what has to happen before some people will start listening to this video and listening to this message because that's what the last message is all about. If you will listen, God will listen, but if you won't, you're going to suffer. It's going to be hard, without hope. Sad how stubborn human beings are. Sad what had to happen to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, for they'd come to a point where they would finally say, "Leave! Go! Worship God. Do your thing. Get out of here, for we're all dead!" Incredible! So this great cry went throughout all of Egypt.

Verse 31—And he (Pharaoh) called for Moses and Aaron by night. So some stories have it that Moses and Aaron went to him. No, they did not! He sent emissaries. He sent people to Moses and Aaron, but Moses and Aaron didn't come out of their houses because God Almighty told them not to come out of their houses – no one until the morning – else they would die. That was God's command, in essence. So people don't follow the story. They don't believe what God says. Amazing how something is so simple, but not so simple when human beings get involved.

Again, Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron by night and said, Rise up… So this was a message, in essence, he sent to them because Moses said something to Pharaoh in the meeting before this. And this is the fulfillment, part of the fulfillment of it. We'll come to that later, I believe, here in the story. And Pharaoh called for Moses by night and said, Arise, Get you forth from among my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go and serve the LORD as you have said. Also, take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone. You know, every time before this he would back away from something he would say and then he would promise something and take his word back. This time his own son died, he was killed, plus all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, and this cry came up, and the things that everybody knew within the land of Egypt that had happened. It finally took this to break him, to break him enough to where he said, "Leave!" To where there was enough fear where he said to leave. Didn't last long though. Think about what people are going to have to go through. How long is it going to last? …and take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone.

Yes, it was back in chapter 10:29. You can just jot it down if you want to, but this is where Moses said something very specific to Pharaoh: "I will see your face no more again." So again, Moses didn't leave the morning, and he didn't go to see Pharaoh then, and God told them they weren't to leave until the morning anyway. So he didn't see Pharaoh again, period. He didn't go and talk with him.

And so Pharaoh had sent this message, Go and be gone; and bless me also. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land quickly. Quickly! They wanted them out of there. ...for they said, We will all be dead men. All their children, all the livestock that was dying.

And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs (their bowls) being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. They were already told to prepare to leave, to prepare for journey: "While you're eating your Passover be ready to leave."

And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and so they, whatever they asked of the Egyptians… Most translations have it "borrowed." They didn't borrow. There was no intent to ever give anything back. It wasn't about that that they “asked.” In some words this is sometimes even used "required." "This is what I must have. This is what you're to give to me. Give me your silver. Give me your gold. Give me your jewels. Give me your livestock." And so they, whatever they asked of the Egyptians, just what it says, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing, and whatever they had need of they were to ask, and they asked.

And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they gave, that's the word, they gave unto them such things as they, same word, requested (required). And they spoiled, a word that means "to strip away from, took away from, or to take away from," the Egyptians. "They spoiled the Egyptians." They took these things from them. There wasn't any borrowing involved, no intent to give anything back. They were leaving and never coming back.

So during the daylight portion of the fourteenth they were gathering toward Rameses. Let's go on in verse 37. So there's a part of a journey here, of something that was taking place and it's good to note some of this, of the timing involved in some of this, but I think of the process we go through in coming out of Egypt. That's what it's talking about here, a journey, a journey out of sin.

And verse 37—And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand. I've heard all kinds of numbers thrown out. We don't know. It does mention a specific number here of 600,000, and the word really means, basically, "strong." It's not just about men. It's not about men or women, and obviously it was men and women who left, but those who were strong, standing, those who could march out of Egypt, that's what it's basically talking about. It's not really the word just for men at all. And so six hundred thousand on foot that, again, were people. It's not just a word here talking about men. It's about strength. It's about being strong. It's about standing, how it's used and translated many other ways as well. …besides children. So again, those who are able to easily leave and those who were strong and stronger, and it's talking about age; they went out. They were strong, and then children as well. It's just breaking it down and referring to different ones, but it doesn't give a number for them, but it does for those who basically were able to walk out of Egypt.

Thought I'd read Numbers 33 here as well, a couple other scriptures would be good before we continued on here. Let's turn over to Numbers 33 and just notice a part of this journey before we continue on because it talks about them gathering at a particular area here. There was a particular period of time here. So this is the daylight portion of Passover. They were told to stay in their houses all night long, but during the daylight portion they were taking from the Egyptians, they were starting their journey, they were preparing certain things to meet in a certain locale there in Egypt. They were kind of trying to get organized so they could fully leave. There was a part of here just gathering together and gathering the things they needed for the journey as far as spoiling the Egyptians. This is what we find here when it talks about them gathering, in this respect, toward Rameses—that's the meeting area—it says about 600,000 strong.

Numbers 33:1—It says, This is the journeying of the children of Israel, who went forth out of the land of Egypt with their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron. And Moses wrote about their going out according to their journey by the command of the Eternal. And these are their journeying according to their going out. And they departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month. So when it talks about back there in Exodus on the fourteenth and they were gathering together in this particular area, this is where they were fully organized as almost like an army, if you will, fully organized. It says they went up in a very organized fashion and by families. They used terms that are very similar to an army. It wasn't disorganized and in chaos, because some people have different ideas about how all these people left. They were very organized, and by tribes, by people.

It goes on to say …on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the morrow after the Passover the children of Israel went out with an high hand in the sight of the Egyptians. So they gathered together. We can't even begin to imagine, if you look on a map and look at some of these things and know where they were located, basically, in a particular region, but still they gathered together. Some of the Egyptians went out with them as well. So different ones got together and it talks about, then, finally leaving from Rameses, because that's where the gathering and the organizing location was. All these things aren't given in scripture except by an overview. Many things are like that in the Bible. You get just a little bit of a story. Just like going to Numbers here, you have to go to another area to find out more of the story. A lot of it's a matter of piecing together all these stories and the timing of some of these things.

So again, it says, And they departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth. So this is a High Day. This is a Holy Day. They started their journey and they were finally able to fully depart at the end of this particular Holy Day season. Awesome what God reveals and what took place. Again, God continues to reveal and help to see some of these things, of what actually took place and the timing of some of these things. …and on the morrow, after the Passover, in other words the next day. That's all the word means. …after the Passover the children of Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians. For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which the Eternal had slain among them. And upon their gods also the Eternal executed judgments. So we know some of the stories about some of the things that God used as plagues are some of the things that Egyptians worshipped, some of the crazy things that they believed and did. God used some of those things for a purpose.

Verse 5—And the children of Israel departed from Rameses, and pitched in Succoth. Interesting word. It means "booths," something that God addresses in different places. We went through some of these verses during the Feast of Tabernacles this past fall and read about some of the story and about how that God had them remember certain things, how that He brought them out of the land of Egypt as they dwelt in booths. Here a city that means that very thing, a very thing.

…and they pitched in Succoth. Booths. And they departed from Succoth and pitched in Etham, which is at the edge of the wilderness. And they departed from Etham. So here is this movement, slowly by slowly. It's a lot of people, a lot of things taking place here and they're moving from one location to another going up toward the Red Sea. That's what, in essence, was happening here. …and they departed from Etham, and they turned again, so they're continually moving here and God tells how they did this, and they then turned unto Pihahiroth which is before Baalzephon. And they pitched before Migdol. And they departed from before Pihahiroth, and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness. So they came right up to the Red Sea. This is talking about this journey and all these places where they camped, if you will, where they were along the way until they got down here and finally were able to leave Egypt through the midst of the sea, as it says, and then on into the wilderness.

I think this is a good place to stop today. We'll stop here. We're going to come back to a particular part of the story here in Exodus. But again, this is just leading up to the point in time they've been told to get out of Egypt. Awesome story! The beginning of stories as far as an introduction to what Passover is all about and the Days of Unleavened Bread and what the Israelites pictured by their journey of coming out of Egypt. Beautiful, awesome what God reveals. So we'll continue with the real life story of Jesus Christ in Part 3.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1