This article contains:
- Yahweh’s Annual Feast calendar
- Keeping Passover
- Prophetic Insights of Passover
- Questions and Answers
Cation: Be aware that some Jewish and Christian practises at Passover / Easter are not from Scripture and some Scriptural instructions are not practiced today. While these differences may or may not be beneficial, these articles attempt to stick to a more literal interpretation of Scriptures and only Scriptures, in order to understand Yahweh’s Feasts as He defined them and not as man practises them.
Yahweh’s Annual Feast Calendar
In order to appreciate prophetic meanings of Yahweh’s Feasts, it is useful to understand His calendar. Here is an abridged version of Yahweh’s calendar for keeping His feasts. It differs from the calendar that many Jews use today. Each year starts in the month when the Barley Harvest will become ripe to harvest.
Each month starts when a new moon is first sighted and is either 29 or 30 days long. (Twelve lunar months are shorter than a solar year so every few years a leap (13th) month is added to keep in sync.)
The Hebrew week is seven days long, and from the time of Moses this has been followed religiously. The 7th day is called the Sabbath. It is a day when customary work is to cease (where practical) and the 24 hr day is given over to doing God’s work.
Each Biblical Day starts at sunset (around 6pm), the beginning of night time. Generally there are 12 hours of night followed by 12 hours of day time starting around 6am. In scripture the word ‘day’ can refer to 12 daylight hours of a working day or a full 24 hour period. The context determines the meaning. The afternoon of the 14th Abib/Nisan is thought to be when the Passover lambs were killed at the Temple.
NB Jesus was crucified at the 3rd hour (9am) on Passover which would be around and died at the 9th hour (3pm), leaving 3 hours to be buried before the start of the next day (at 6pm).
Keeping Passover
Passover is the sacrifice of a lamb on the 14th day of the first month.
However, there are a number of elements to this feast:
- Passover is in the month that the barley is ripe to harvest.
- This passover lamb was selected on the 10th day of the month and kept safely with each family until the sacrifice (albeit that this no longer happens as the Temple does not exist).
- Travellers to Jerusalem might arrive the day before Passover and have a shared meal that evening. (As the Hebrew day starts in the evening, this meal is actually on the day of Passover.)
- The lambs were killed in the afternoon of the 14th day of the first month in the Temple.
- The lambs were roasted and eaten that evening (at the beginning of the 15th day) which is the start of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and lasts for 7 days.
- On the 1st day of the week (Sunday), during these 7 days of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of First Fruits is celebrated – the waving of a sheaf of Barley which indicates the barley is ready to harvest.
Prophetic Insights of Passover
Passover is fulfilled by the coming of the Kingdom of God
Jesus said that He would not eat of the Passover or drink of the vine until fulfilment by the coming of the Kingdom of God.
What is the significance of the B
Questions and Answers
Was Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem fulfilling the selection of the lamb on the 10th day?
On which day of the week did Jesus die?
Was the Last Supper the Passover Meal?
The last supper is not likely to be the Passover meal because the Passover meal was eaten after the Passover sacrifice. Jesus died on the day after the last supper which is the feast of Unleavened Bread. We believe that Jesus died on Passover, not on the feast of Unleavened Bread.
Also, the greek word for the bread in the Last Supper does not describe unleavened bread which was mandatory for the Passover meal.
Also, there is no mention of a lamb being killed, roasted or eaten, nor the sprinkling of its blood which are central symbols of the Passover.
Also, the last supper focussed on symbols of Bread and Wine, neither of which are central parts of the Passover Meal. These symbols belong to the New Covenant which is made possible by Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Also, Jesus relates the Bread and Wine to His return when He establishes the Kingdom of God on earth.
Why is Passover meal NOT eaten on the day of Passover?
Why is Resurrection Day always a Sunday?
In the same way that Christmas, 25th of December, falls on any day of the week, Passover is also on any day.
God’s calendar does not have names for each day of the week, they are referred to by number (1 to 7). The Sabbath is kept on the 7th day which is Saturday and starts on Friday evening, finishing 24hrs later (Leviticus 23:3). We know Sabbath is on Saturday because Jesus kept the Sabbath and the Jews have been keeping the seven day cycle ever since without out fail.
After hours of roasting the lamb, the Passover lamb would be eaten with bitter herbs and unleavened bread (Numbers 9:11) in the evening, at the beginning of the start of the next day, which would be the 15th day of the month.
So the Passover lamb is killed on the afternoon of the 14th day and eaten at the start of the 15th day a few hours later after roasting.
Biblical Timing of FirstFruits
Unlike Passover, which is on a fixed day of the month, the 14th, FirstFruits falls on the day after the Saturday Sabbath (7th day of the week), which is Sunday (Leviticus 23:10-11).
NB Yahweh could have defined it as the 1st day of the week but chose not to and called it ‘the day after the Sabbath’, the day after the 7th day. This pattern is repeated elsewhere where 7 days are followed by an 8th day.
The number 7 is believed to represent Perfection and Completion/Finished and 8 is also Completion but Completion with an Abundance for New Beginnings. In this way, the significance of ‘the Day after Sabbath’ has a very different association to ‘the 1st day of the week’.
FirstFruits is kept when the Barley is ready to be harvested (Leviticus 23:9-14 & Joshua 5:11).
FirstFruits falls during the week of Unleavened Bread. It effectively falls on whichever day is Sunday and therefore can be any day from the 15th of the month to the 21st.
Signs of the The Death, Burial and Resurrection
From year to year it is impossible to confidently predict which day of the week next year’s Passover will fall on. This is for two reasons:
The first month of the year cannot start unless the Barley will be ripe enough for the FirstFruits wave offering
The New Moon has to be sighted which can vary by a day or two. A lunar month is either 29 or 30 days.
By using this calender, Yahweh keeps us expectant, watchful and uncertain.
Jesus speaks about the timing of His Death
Jesus started predicting His coming Death and Resurrection shortly before it happened.
(Matthew 16:21, Luke 9:22). Prior to this Jesus was aware of the Jonah prophecy and said that He would be in the ground for three days and three night (Matthew 12:40).
It is not unreasonable speculation that when the 1st day of the 1st Month was confirmed that Jesus then determined that He would be three days and three nights in the ground from late on in the day of 14th up to the night of the 17th when FirstFruits would be celebrated that day on the Sunday.
NB When counting days, months or years it was the custom to count parts of a day etc as a whole day. For example, if a king reigned for three months then he would be described as reigning for 1 year.
In the year that Jesus died He was in the ground for 3 days and 3 nights.
Jesus was buried after the Passover sacrifice in the afternoon of the 1st daytime, Thurs 14th.
The 2nd daytime was on Friday 15th (1st day of Unleavened Bread – Holy Convocation)
and the 3rd daytime was on Saturday 16th
The third night time would therefore follow on Saturday night going into Sunday the 17th
Jesus rose from the dead before dawn, leaving an empty tomb to be discovered on Sunday morning on the 17th day of the 1st Lunar Month.
It is interesting that while Christians don’t celebrate Passover on the 14th of the month, they don’t have three days and three nights between Good Friday and Resurrection but they do keep Resurrection/FirstFruits, on the day after a Sabbath (Sunday), while Jews do celebrate Passover on the 14th of the month, but they changed FirstFruits and keep that on the 16th day of the month, which is rarely a Sunday and not three days and three nights.
The Jonah sign of three days and three nights is the sign given by Jesus.
Yahweh’s Feasts & Sabbaths are shadows of things still to come!
Yahweh was angry with Moses for striking the Rock instead of speaking to it because God uses His instructions as prophetic shadows for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see. ‘The Feasts (in Hebrew – Appointed Times), New Moons and Sabbaths are shadows of things to come.’ (Colossians 2:16-17).
There is much to be understood by not only studying Yahweh’s ways but by experiencing them. Studying them is like watching a video of a someone walking up a mountain. Walking in God’s ways is like being there in person.
Keeping Yahweh’s times, seasons, signs, feasts (Appointed Times) helps us understand His ways and therefore not only His prophecies that have already been fulfilled but the prophecies that have yet to be fulfilled. It requires extensive study of scriptures and Spirit led application.
Changing Yahweh’s Appointed Times and mixing them with man’s, removes the opportunities to discover Yahweh’s ways and how we can interpret the unfulfilled prophecies regarding His second coming and the 1st and 2nd resurrection of believers.
