Tanak Foundations-Concepts in Exodus-Chapter 12

Exo 12.1-51 will tell us about the institution of the Religious Calendar and Passover; the obedience of the people; Yehovah sends the final plague and the death of the first-born (bekor); Pharaoh reacts and lets Israel leave for three days. This last plague will be against all the gods of Egypt-Exo 12.12.

v 1…Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

v 2…”This (Hebrew “Zeh” and means God may pointed out to him the new, visible moon) month (new moon of Aviv/Nisan) shall be the beginning of months for you, it is to be the first month of the year to you (this is referring to the beginning of the religious calendar. Up to this point, all dates in the Scriptures were according to the civil calendar. From now on, all dates will be according to the religious calendar.  We are going to talk about one of the most controversial areas among the believers in Yeshua today. We are going to talk about the plagues, without going into the plagues. By Exo 12, we have had nine plagues, now we are in preparation for the 10th plague. In the nine other plagues, Israel was protected from them. However, in the 10th plague they will not be exempted from it.The number 10 is a significant number in Scripture. For example, we have the Ten Commandments, 10 is needed for a minyan (congregation), we have the ten virgins, 10 talents and the last 10 kings of Judah. We have Tishri 10 and Yom Kippur, we have the Yamim Noraim (ten days of awe), we have the 10 horns and 10 crowns. We also have the 10 kingdoms of the false messiah, the 10 sons of Haman. Nabal turns away from helping David and dies 10 days later and the 10 men with Ishmael who killed Gedaliah. We could go on and on. This number has positive and negative aspects to it, just like certain words in Hebrew. For instance, a “nevel” is a harp used in the Temple. A “naval” is a “rasha” or a “wicked one.” Matt 5.22 says we are not to call someone a “fool” and we all have done that. But, the word is “rasha” and we are not to call someone a rasha because that is to say they are so bad they will never have their name written in the Book of Life, and we don’t know that. That is not up to us to decide.  Now, the 10th of Nisan is when a lamb was to be taken from the flock for Passover. We have two dates in the festivals that are on the 10th and they are very significant. Exo 12.1 is a controversial verse in the non-Jewish Torah world and the topic of the calendar has created quite a stir. We have a rule already, Nisan will be the beginning of months, and we will expand on this later).”

v 3…Speak to all the congregation (“adat” or religious community) of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves according to their fathers households, a lamb for each household.

v 4…Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb (Exo 12.3-4 says that each person is to be counted. Deut 16.1-3 is going to be linked to this verse. A second animal can be used if the amount of people will be too much for one lamb. It can be from the herd of the flock, and it is called the “Chagigah” (festival offering). The lamb is called the “Pesach” (Passover). At a Passover Seder you could only have a maximum of 20 people. Why? Because you could only have two animals, based on Deut 16. If you had less than 10, you had to register (be counted) at another house. Including you, you could have no more that 20 people. You are required to be full from eating those animals. If you had up top 15 people, you only had a lamb. If you had more than 15 people, you added the chagigah).

v 5…Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or the goats.

v 6…And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly (kahal) of the congregation (adat) of Israel is to kill it between the evenings (that is after the sun begins to go down to sunset-about 3 p.m.; Exo 12.5-6 says they kept the lamb till the 14th day, so we had an interval of 4 days (10th to the 14th) to investigate the lamb to make sure it had no blemish. The 4 days allude to 4000 years. The lamb is brought forth on the 4th day (10th to the 14th). This alludes to Yeshua coming from the 4th tribe (Judah), and he appears on the 4th day from creation (4000 years). Yeshua is called “Son of God” and “King of Israel” on the 4th day of the 7 days alluded to in John 1.19 to 2.1.  Yeshua rode into Jerusalem on Nisan 10 and he was inspected for 4 days by the people, the Romans, the Jewish priests and even the High Priest, and they found no blemish in him.   Now, one of the things that cause us problems is we don’t read the Gospels and Epistles the same way the Jewish people would have in the first century (when they were written). They would come away with a totally different take on a Scripture than a Christian today would. We have been raised in a Christian culture, and that is why we don’t see the things they do unless we retrain our minds.  For example, Matt 17.1 says, “Six days later” and then there was a transfiguration. Luke 8.9.28 says, “And some eight days after these sayings” and it is talking about the same event. The difference is perspective. After 6000 years of the Olam Ha Zeh we enter the Atid Lavo. Some will have glorified bodies during the Messianic Kingdom. After 7000 years, we enter into the “Eighth Day” or the Olam Haba when everyone will be transfigured. Rather than a  contradiction, this is alluding to the Jewish understanding of eschatology.  Time is reckoned differently biblically than what we have been taught. One can be in the Olam Ha Zeh but also in the Olam Haba. These time periods or ages are thought of in two categories, chronological and state of being. For example, when Yeshua died, he was in the Olam Ha Zeh (this present age). After the resurrection he had a glorified body. Now he was in the Olam Haba as far as state of being, but he appeared in the Olam Ha Zeh chronologically when he appeared to Mary. She was still in the Olam Ha Zeh, but he was in the Olam Haba, appearing in the Olam Ha Zeh. Again, the ages are going to relate to two things, chronological and state of being.  So, moving on, we have heard that some believe that Rosh Ha Shannah is not biblical and that it was a festival that was picked up while the Jews were in Babylon. Also, the calendar that is used today is a calendar they picked up in Babylon. First of all, how many deportations did Nebuchadnezzar use to bring the Jews into captivity? There were three different deportations. Form the time of the last dispersion to the time of the return was 39 years, not even one generation. From the time of the first dispersion to the time of the first return was 70 years. So, people in the last dispersion had a good memory of things if they came back in the first return.  Judges 21.25 is one of the saddest verses in the Bible. It says, “Everyone did what is right in his own eyes.” It describes what is happening today. This can include Jews and non-Jews. Some in the non-Jewish Torah world will say that Judges 21.25 is the greatest verse in the Bible because it means we all can read the word of God for ourselves and decide what to do. But, that view leads to confusion and walls of division between believers.  In the Mishnah, Rosh Ha Shannah 1.1 it says there are four days called a “new year’s day.” It says, “There are four ‘New Year’ days: on the 1st of Nisan is the New Year for kings and feasts; on the 1st of Elul is the New Year for the tithe of cattle (R.Eleazar and R. Simeon say: the 1st of Tishri); on the 1st of Tishri is the New Year for the reckoning of the years (of foreign kings) of the Years of Release and Jubilee years, for the planting of trees and for vegetables; and the 1st of Shevat is the New Year for fruit trees (so the School of Shammai; the School of Hillel say; on the 15th thereof.”  The calendar was not written for us in the United States, it was written for the Jewish people in the land of Israel. Not knowing this leads to different Torah-based groups to set calendars, years, and festivals in error. They will see this Mishnah as “rabbinical” and not biblical. In Exo 23.14-17 it says “the feast of the In-gathering at the end of the year.” This also means “the turning of the year.” Exo 12.2 says that Nisan (Aviv) “shall be the beginning of months for you” and it looks like this. The first month is Nisan, then Iyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Av, Elul, Tishri, Chesvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat and Adar. This is the religious calendar when the festivals were set. The festivals will be in two categories, joyous and solemn.  The joyous festivals are Hag Ha Matzah, Shavuot and Sukkot. The solemn festivals are Rosh Ha Shannah and Yom Kippur. The three joyous festivals are called the “Shelosh Regalim (three foot festivals because you walked to Jerusalem to keep the festivals). These verses speak of the festivals when all males will appear before the Lord. They are Hag Ha Matzah, the feast of Harvest (Shavuot) and the feast of In-gathering (Sukkot) Then we have the term “end of the year.” In this verse, we are after Exo 12 and our “beginning of the year is Nisan. But Sukkot is in Tishri, so how could it call Tishri “the end of the year” when we haven’t gotten to Adar yet?  The answer is they are using more than one calendar. There are several passages like this. Now to us, that seems foreign but it really isn’t. We use several calendars in the United States, most countries do. We have a calendar year, a fiscal year, a school year, a planting year and so on. More than one calendar does not wipe out the others. Deut 14.29 says, “At the end of every third year” and it refers to the second tithe, brought at Sukkot. 1 Kings 8.8 says that all Israel assembled before Solomon in the month of Ethanim. That is another name for Tishri, the seventh month, and this was for Sukkot (1 Kings 8.65-66). Here is a concept we need to remember. To calculate dates between Gen 1 to Exo 12, you use the civil calendar, with the first month being Tishri, then Cheshvan, Kislev and so on. After Exo 12, the biblical dates are calculated by using the religious calendar beginning in Nisan, then Iyar, Sivan and so on (already listed).

v 7…Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel (the letter “Tav” in early Hebrew; a sign of the covenant and cross-Ezek 9.4-6) of the houses in which they eat (marking those inside as out of bounds)

v 8…And they shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire and they shall eat it with unleavened bread (“matzah” a type of sincerity and truth-1 Cor 5.7) and bitter herbs (“marorim” and a picture of the afflictions they endured).

v 9…Do not eat any of it raw (a pagan custom), nor boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, with its head and its legs along with its entrails (roasted in the form of a cross over a fire-Mishnah, Pesachim 5.9, 7.1; the Bedouins in Israel still do this today).

v 10…And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but what is left of it until morning you shall burn with fire.

v 11…Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded and your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste-it is the Lord’s Passover (in honor of the Lord, or unto the Lord; this applied only in the egyptian Passover; this will change in Num 9.1-14).

v 12…For I will go through the land of egypt on that night and will strike down all the first-born (bekor) in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of egypt  I will execute judgments-I am the Lord (I am Yehovah).

v 13…And the blood shall be  a sign (Hebrew “owt” spelled with an aleph (head or leader), and vav (a nail) and a tav (cross), meaning “a leader nailed to a cross”) for you (in your interest) on the houses where you live, and when I see the blood (the mark; he sees life in the blood) I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

v 14…Now this day will be a memorial to you (for you to remember) and you shall celebrate  it as a feast (hag) to the Lord; throughout your generations (successive) you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance (Hebrew “olam” meaning as long as certain conditions exist).

v 15…Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats  anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day (15th to the 21st of Nisan), that person shall be cut off from Israel (from the congregation-12.19).

v 16…And on the first day you shall have a holy (“kodesh”-kedusha is the setting apart of something for the service of God by formal and legal limitations and restrictions; the kedusha of periods of time are marked by limits and restrictions on man’s activities, work and construction) assembly (Hebrew “mikrah” or rehearsal), and another holy assembly on the seventh day; no work (ordinary servile or handicraft work) at all shall be done in them, except what must be eaten by every person, that alone may be prepared by you (acceptable to cook on these days-Exo 16.23).

v 17…You shall also observe the Unleavened Bread (festival of), for this very day (the 15th of Nisan) I brought you out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations by an ordinance forever (“olam” or as long as certain conditions exist.

v 18…In the first month (of the religious calendar, or Aviv/Nisan), on the fourteenth day of the month at evening (sundown), you shall eat unleavened bread (matzah) until the twenty-first day of the month at evening (sundown).

v 19…Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses, for whoever eats what is leavened shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an alien (“ger” or non-Jewish resident of the land; they were not to interfere with the religious practices of Israel) or a native of the land.

v 20…You shall not eat anything leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.”

v 21…Then Moses called for the elders (zekanim) of Israel, and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families (the elders were to teach this-1 Tim 3.2; Heb 13.17) and slay the Passover (the lamb was called the Passover).

v 22…And you shall take a bunch of hyssop (called the striking plant and a symbol of spiritual purification in Psa 51.7, and used in the Red Heifer and cleansing of a Leper ceremony for instance) and dip it in the blood which is in the basin (that received the blood when the lamb was slain), and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts (a sign of the letter “tav” and the cross when connected); and none of you shall go outside (to be safe) the door of his house until morning (the blood protected them; this was only applicable at this passover because of the destroying angel).

v 23…For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel and the doorposts, the Lord (Yehovah) will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer (the destroying angel as in 2 Sam 24.16 and the one used against the Assyrians in 2 Kings 19.35) to come in to your houses to smite you (this alludes to the second death which will have no power over a believer).

v 24…And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever (Hebrew “olam” or as long as certain conditions exist).

v 25…And it shall come about when you enter the land which the Lord has given you as he promised (you can’t keep the Passover outside the land) that you shall observe this service (avodah).

v 26…And it shall come about when your children will say to you, ‘What does this service (avodah) mean to you?’

v 27…that you will say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord  who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians, but spared our houses.’ ”  And the people bowed and worshiped (they had a deep sense of the mercy shown to them).

v 28…And the sons of Israel went and did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did (prepared the passover).

v 29…And it came about at midnight (of the 15th of Nisan when people were safe in their beds) that the Lord struck all the first-born (bekor) in the land of Egypt (causing great horror), from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on the throne to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of cattle.

v 30…And Pharaoh arose in the night (being awakened by the cries of the people) and all his servants and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry (of agony) in Egypt, for there was no home where there was not someone dead (meaning a lot of houses; the greatest part of them).

v 31…Then he called for Moses (not in person but through a message because of Exo 10.28) and Aaron at night and said, ‘Rise up; get out from among my people , both you and and the sons of Israel, and go, worship the Lord, as you have said (three days was the only time discussed).

v 32…Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said (Exo 10.25-26), and go and bless me also (pray for me that no other plague come upon me).”

v 33…And the Egyptians urged the people (Israel) to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, “We shall all be dead (not only the first-born, but the rest of their families might be struck next).”

v 34…So the people took their dough before it was leavened (they had put no leavening in it), with their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders (that night; they were going to the family ancestral land holdings in Canaan).

v 35…Now the sons of Israel had done according  to the word of Moses, for they had requested (previously) from the Egyptians articles of silver and articles of Gold, and clothing;

v 36…and the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have their request.  Thus they plundered the Egyptians (Hebrew “natzalem” meaning to save, to be delivered, to snatch away, pluck up-Zech 3.2; they saved the Egyptians from hatred and revenge; see the book “The Pentateuch and Haftorahs” by Joseph Hertz, p. 217 for a deeper understanding of this word; the Hebrew term for the “rapture” is “natzal”).

v 37…Now the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses (Qantir, a city in the land of Goshen) to Sukkot (just a few miles apart, the Faiyum is called “Succos” in Greek), about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children.

v 38..And a mixed multitude (Hebrew “erev rav”; “erev” is used to describe knitted material; non-Jews were woven into the Israelites-John 7.34-35, 10.16; Eph 2.11-22; Rom 11; Isa 56.6-8; they were of the same “seed” and can be mixed together; you can’t mix two different seeds together-Lev 19.19; Dan 2.31-45; 2 Sam 6.23; Gen 3.15; Luke 8 with the sower and the seed) also went up with them, along with flocks and herds, a very large number of livestock.

v 39…And they baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt into cakes of unleavened bread.  For it had not become leavened, since they were driven out of Egypt and could not delay, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.

v 40…Now the sojourning of the sons of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt (at that time), was four hundred and thirty years (total from the promise of Isaac in the Covenant between the Halves in Gen 15; the Israelites were in Egypt about 210 years).

v 41…And it came about at the end of the four hundred years and thirty years, to the very day (it was the 15th of Nisan that God made a covenant with Abraham called “the covenant between the halves” in Gen 15.16), that all the hosts (armies) of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.

v 42…It is a night of observations (Hebrew “shimurim” or to make many observations; watching or keep it in mind); this night is for the Lord for having brought them out from the land of Egypt, to be observed by all the sons of Israel throughout their generations.

v 43…And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover (which is a picture of Yeshua’s death, blood of the lamb, and salvation; no foreigner (Hebrew “nekar” or non-Israelite who has not chosen to enter the covenant of Abraham; one who passes through the land for business, etc) is to eat of it;

v 44..but every man’s slave purchased with money (and enters the family), after you have circumcised him (by his own consent and enters the covenant), then he may eat of it.

v 45…A sojourner (“t’shav” who lives in the land) or a hired servant shall not eat of it.

v 46…It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring forth any of the flesh outside the house (cannot be eaten outside their houses; Messiah can only be “eaten” in the house of God, called the Kahal, by believers with circumcised hearts), nor are you to break any bone of it (Yeshua’s bones were not broken on the cross-John 19.32).

v 47…All the congregation (adat) of Israel are to keep it.

v 48…But if a stranger who sojourns with you (a ger tzaddik), and celebrates the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised (this is given to exclude the pagan), and let him come near to celebrate it, and he shall be like the native of the land (Num 15.14-16-there is one law in reference to the Passover and it applies to both the native born and the ger tzaddik).  But no uncircumcised person may eat of it (this was given now because of the mixed multitude, or erev rav, that came out with the sons of Israel from Egypt).

v 49…The same law shall apply to the native as to the stranger who sojourns among you.

v 50…Then all the sons of Israel did so (killed the passover); they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron (being taught by them).

v 51…And it came about on the same day (Nisan 15) that the Lord brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts (that the passover was instituted and performed; it was the night of Passover that Israel became a nation/army, and they chose to serve the creator God over service to the false god Pharaoh).

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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