The following Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and commentary for this week are more in line with what has become usual; for the following will most likely be familiar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath’s selection is whom will you follow, Christ or the Jews?
Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of February 9, 2013
The person conducting the Sabbath service should open services with two or three hymns, or psalms, followed by an opening prayer acknowledging that two or three (or more) are gathered together in Christ Jesus’ name, and inviting the Lord to be with them.
This Sabbath Reading is a continuation of the Reading for February 2, 2013.
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Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, "That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged." (Rom 3:1–4 emphasis added)
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In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the Lord, saying, "Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people. And let it be given into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord, and let them give it to the workmen who are at the house of the Lord, repairing the house (that is, to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons), and let them use it for buying timber and quarried stone to repair the house. But no accounting shall be asked from them for the money that is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly." And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord." And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, "Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord." Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read it before the king. When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. (2 Kings 22:3–11 emphasis added)
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And the king commanded all the people, "Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant." For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem. (2 Kings 23:21–23 emphasis added)
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To repeat, last Sabbath’s discussion of the importance of keeping the Passover didn’t arrive at its destination and has been continued in this week’s Reading.
Earthly Jerusalem has importance for outwardly circumcised Israelites that live outwardly by the Law, but it is heavenly Jerusalem that has importance for the “Israel” that is circumcised-of-heart. And in the distinction between earthly Jerusalem and heavenly Jerusalem is the difference between the Passover sacraments being the annual slaughter of a bleating lamb and the sacrifice of the Lamb of God at Calvary. Seder services are inherently unscriptural and mock both Moses and the Lord.
But Seder services originate in outwardly circumcised Israel no longer having a tabernacle or a temple standing in earthly Jerusalem; no longer having anywhere to sacrifice Passover lambs in accordance with instructions given in Deuteronomy: “‘You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, but at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make His name dwell in it, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, at the time you came out of Egypt’” (16:5–6). And without being permitted in Deuteronomy to offer the Passover sacrifice in just any town of Israel but only at the place where the Lord made His name dwell, the remainder of the verse as to when Israel shall offer the Passover sacrifice is meaningless … there are within Sabbatarian Christendom wannabe scholars that contend since Israel actually left Egypt late in the afternoon on the 14th day of the first month, roughly twenty-four hours after Passover lambs were sacrificed according to Moses’ instructions, the Christian Passover should be observed late in the afternoon of the day preceding the beginning of the 15th day of the first month, the great Sabbath of the Sabbath that is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This is also the reasoning employed by Pharisees of Herod’s temple who killed their Passover lambs about the ninth hour during the day portion of the 14th day of the first month—at the hour when Jesus died on the cross (Matt 27:46). For Pharisees, between the “evens” was halfway between noon (one even) on the 14th day and six p.m., the next even and the even that began the new day, the 15th day.
The rebuttal to these wannabe scholars is in the implementation of Deuteronomy—
Deuteronomy pertains to the Moab Covenant (see Deut 30:10), made with the children of Israel (present and not present) on the plains of Moab, a covenant made in addition to the Sinai Covenant (Deut 29:1). “Deuteronomy” as a word should not be translated as “the second giving of the Law,” but as “the second law,” with this second law being the Moab Covenant, the covenant that the Apostle Paul called “the righteousness based on faith” (Rom 10:6); for the Moab Covenant would not be implemented until after Israel rebelled against the Lord, was taken captive and was far from the Lord, then in this far land, turned to the Lord and believed Him and began to keep the commandments and walk in the ways of the Lord. This did not happen when a remnant of Israel returned from Babylon to build for King Cyrus a temple in earthly Jerusalem for the God of heaven (Ezra 1:1–2). This remnant that returned to the Land Beyond the River as a people was not circumcised-of-heart, but was a people “who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness [but] did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works” (Rom 9:31–32). … Before Israel is circumcised-of-heart, the hearts of Israel will have been cleansed by a journey of faith from the Babylon to Judea, thereby causing the person to live as a Judean regardless of whether the flesh has been circumcised or even can be circumcised.
Is it to this people, outwardly circumcised Israel, a nation that was unfaithful (Rom 3:3), that a people of faith should look to determine when to eat the Lord’s Supper, the Lord’s Passover? No, it is not to this people, but to Christ Jesus, who ate the Passover on the dark portion of the 14th day of the first month, then was taken prisoner and interrogated before dawn, then delivered to Roman authorities to be crucified, and finally dying when Pharisees traditionally killed their Passover lambs between the evens on the 14th day. This day was the 23rd of April (Julian calendar) in year 31 of the Common Era, meaning that the first month began with the first observed crescent moon following the spring equinox. Jesus was then in the grave all day the 15th day, Thursday, the High Sabbath; in the grave all day on the 16th, Friday; was in the grave all day Sabbath, the 17th day; and was risen (gone from the grave) before daylight on the 18th day, the day after the Sabbath, the first day of the following calendar week, but also the fourth day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread … Jesus entered Jerusalem on the 10th day, Sabbath, of the 1st-month as the children of Israel entered the Promised Land on the 10th day of the first month, with earthly Jerusalem being a shadow and type of the Promised Land that is heavenly Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ. This will have Sabbath observance also being a type of the Promised Land (see Heb 3:16–4:11; Ps 95:10–11; Num chap 14) as well as a type of heavenly Jerusalem.
So that there can be no misunderstanding, the glorified Christ Jesus will marry His Bride, new Jerusalem (Rev 21:2, 9), in which there was no temple; for this city’s temple “is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (v. 22). This marriage will occur not when Christ Jesus returns as the Messiah as has been traditionally taught even within the Sabbatarian churches of God, but after the great White throne Judgment, after the coming of a new heaven and a new earth (v. 1), one that is not physical, for the first heaven and the first earth [the one on which we presently dwell] and the sea will have passed away and be no more forever.
Should the holy ones look to a people that were and remain unfaithful for so simple a thing as when to begin the sacred year? No they should not! For there are two modifying clauses in Exodus 12:2, not one. And the first clause (“‘This month shall be for you the beginning of months’”) pertains historically to Moses and to Israel, but the second clause (“‘It shall be the first month of the year for you’”) pertains to the calendar to be used by Moses and by Israel, with the Passover sacrifice to be made in the spring of the year, not in the fall of the year, regardless of whether the fall is identified as the first month or seventh month.
In the Millennium, the following will pertain:
Thus says the Lord God: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you [the princes of Israel] shall take a bull from the herd without blemish, and purify the sanctuary. The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and the posts of the gate of the inner court. You shall do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who has sinned through error or ignorance; so you shall make atonement for the temple. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall celebrate the Feast of the Passover, and for seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten. On that day [Passover] the prince shall provide for himself and all the people of the land a young bull for a sin offering. And on the seven days of the festival [Unleavened Bread] he shall provide as a burnt offering to the Lord seven young bulls and seven rams without blemish, on each of the seven days; and a male goat daily for a sin offering. And he shall provide as a grain offering an ephah for each bull, an ephah for each ram, and a hin of oil to each ephah. In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month and for the seven days of the feast, he shall make the same provision for sin offerings, burnt offerings, and grain offerings, and for the oil. (Ezek 45:18–25 emphasis added)
The sacrifices will return in the Millennium; for Jesus as the Lamb of God shall no longer bear the sins of Israel. Thus, unintentional sins will need a covering of blood, the reason for animal sacrifices. But note, the sacrifice for the Passover differs from the sacrifices for the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread; however, the sacrifices for Unleavened Bread are the same as the sacrifices for the Feast of Tabernacles so it matters but doesn’t really matter whether a person is in the southern hemisphere or the northern hemisphere, for the sacrifices of the first month and of the seven month become similar, with the first day of the first month not presently celebrated by Israel because until Israel left Egypt, Israelites were the serfs of Pharaoh as the shadow and copy of greater Christendom serving the Adversary until the Second Passover liberation of Israel. In the Millennium, the first day of the first month shall be observed (as Trumpets presently is) because the people will all be the children of God.
But in the Millennium, there will be another change in the acceptable Passover sacrifice—when the sacrifice for Passover is a young bull provided by the prince, the acceptable Passover sacrifice is no longer a bleating lamb or even the Lamb of God … during the era of the third temple, the Passover sacrifice will again be “” to reflect the changed relationship between Christ Jesus and Israel. Initially, the Lamb of God was the spiritual reality foreshadowed by bleating lambs, then the reality realized at Calvary that was represented by the blessed bread and cup taken annually by circumcised-of-heart Israel, and finally the glorified Lamb having received the kingdom of this world as His own. It is this latter relationship that is represented by a bull symbolizing God …
The bull as a symbol of God was widely recognized in the Fertile Crescent; hence, the amount of pagan garnishments attached to the bull as a symbol have prevented the Church of God from spending time with the prophesies of Ezekiel that pertain to the Millennium … the man Jesus, bearing the sins of Israel, died at Calvary, thus fulfilling the role played by the Passover lamb in the symbolism of salvation, as well as the role played by the sacrificed-on-the-altar goat that was half of the sin of offering of Israel on Yom Kipporim. Then the resurrected and glorified Christ Jesus, the high priest of circumcised-of-heart Israel, fulfills the role of the Azazel as the other half of Israel’s sin offering dwelling in a far land when He bears (but doesn’t pay the death penalty for) the sins of circumcised-of-heart Israel. And this will have the entirety of the Passover season running from the 10th day of the first month through the 22nd day encapsulated in Yom Kipporim, with the eating of the bread of affliction [unleavened bread] equating to Israel afflicting its souls on Yom Kipporim by fasting.
The spring holy day season becomes the shadow and type of the fall High Sabbaths as the barley harvest in ancient Judea preceded the main crop wheat harvest as its shadow and copy. Together, the spring holy day season (Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Wave Sheaf Offering, Feast of Weeks) added to the fall High Sabbaths (Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles, Last Great Day) represents two harvests of God, that of the Firstfruits and that of the Main Crop, that together form one harvest as a man and is wife are one flesh, and as the God of living ones (Matt 22:32) and the God of dead ones [represented together in the Tetragrammaton YHWH] were one God.
And as bleating Passover lambs were a shadow and copy of the Passover Lamb of God, Christ Jesus, the bull provided by the prince in the Millennium is the shadow and type of Christ as the God of this world during the Millennium sacrificing His reign with the coming of the new heavens and new earth following Death and Hades being thrown into the lake of fire so there are no longer any physical things, living or dead.
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Jesus was killed as Pharisees killed the Passover lamb. Jesus was not killed at the hour when Moses commanded Israel to kill the Passover, then remain in their houses until dawn—if Pharisees had remained in their hours until dawn, they would not have taken Jesus and interrogated Him during the dark of the night. It is in Pharisees of Herod’s temple leaving their homes in defiance of Moses on the dark portion of the 14th day of the first month where endtime disciples see that the death angel has slain the firstborn son (Ex 4:22) of the Lord, what the author of Matthew’s Gospel discloses when he records,
So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves." And all the people answered, "His blood be on us and on our children!" (Matt 27:24–25)
Considering that Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus is not factual and that Mark’s Gospel does not support Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, it is likely that the crowd’s taking of Jesus’ blood upon themselves (an anti-Semitic declaration that “justified” pogroms during Medieval Europe) is also not-factual. But how else could the author of Matthew’s Gospel convey to infant sons of God the reality that Pharisees of Herod’s temple—collectively representing the firstborn son of the Lord (Ex 4:22)—by leaving their dwellings on the night when the selected and penned (on the 10th day of the first month) Lamb for the Second Passover liberation of Israel was sacrificed had themselves been the first victims of death angels that would pass over all the land at the midnight hour of this one long spiritual night … the Pharisees of Herod’s temple form the visible shadow and type of the “slain” firstborns that will be killed as Egyptians were killed in the days of Moses; for these Pharisees rebelled against Rome and were virtually eliminated during the Great Revolt. And their ideological descendants, rabbinical Judaism, have been hunted, penned in ghettos, and repeatedly slain for centuries, with the modern history of rabbinical Judaism unlike that of any other peoples in the world.
A stretch? Pharisees of Herod’s temple representing an earthly shadow and copy of the inner selves of Christians that will rebel against God on day 220 of the Affliction? Certainly Israel collectively at Mount Sinai forms a shadow and type of Christians rebelling against God on day 220, as does Israel in the wilderness of Paran (Num chap 14) form a shadow and type of greater Christendom’s rebellion on day 220. So it isn’t unreasonable to claim that Pharisees of Herod’s temple in condemning Jesus also represent Christendom’s rebellion.
Christ Jesus was the selected Passover Lamb of God, a Lamb without blemish (without sin) and a Lamb of the first year, with this first year being represented in type by Israel’s first year in the wilderness; that is, the year before the tabernacle was erected on the first day of the first month of the second year (Ex 40:1). And as the Lamb of God, He was sacrificed when Pharisees killed their Passover lambs—
But His disciples are not to walk in this world as Pharisees, but to walk in this world as He walked (1 Cor 11:1 et al); for His disciples will also be sacrificed as He was sacrificed. Note Jesus’ words as the author of Matthew’s Gospel presents them: “‘A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master’” (Matt 10:24–25).
The reality that disciples have been and will be slain throughout the entirety of the Christian era as Jesus was slain is inescapable. But they will be slain for they represent the spiritual Body of the Lamb of God … “one day” (unlike any previous day) began when Jesus ate the Passover with His disciples, with the midnight hour of this one day to occur when death angels again pass over the land to slay uncovered firstborns, an event yet to occur. And Pharisees of the temple as the representation of the firstborn son of the Lord (again Ex 4:22) were the first to be slain, this slaying continuing from the 1st-Century into the 21st-Century.
There is no good way to state the reality that the Elect—selected and chosen by God through being foreknown, predestined, called, justified, and glorified—as the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27) will almost without exception perish physically in the Affliction, the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years. Except for the Remnant (of Revelation 12:17), none of the Elect will cross into the Endurance of Jesus, the last 1260 days of the seven endtime years. The so-called Place of Safety is the grave where there is no concern for what the saint will eat or for what the saint will wear or for where the saint will find shelter. … The survivalist of a generation ago; the doomsday prepper of the present era; the person who has physically prepared to endure to the end may well survive the Affliction with great difficulty and in seemingly perpetual fear, but the saint who is slain because of his or her belief that Jesus is the Lord will no longer experience hunger or cold or fear. The saint’s next waking moment will have the saint being with the Lord, a fairly convincing reason for Jesus’ disciples to walk in this world as He walked (to walk in this world as a circumcised-of-heart Judean).
Jesus as the Lamb of God was the Pharisees’ sacrifice, not the sacrifice of Jesus’ disciples whose sins were covered by drinking from the blessed cup. And the tension between Pharisees and the Church of God was “formalized” in when each partook of the Passover.
Rabbinical Judaism is the modern derivative of second temple Pharisees whereas the endtime seven named churches are modern derivatives of the 1st-Century Church of God. Therefore, it should come as no surprise to anyone that rabbinical Judaism observes the Passover on a different day than does the Church of God—and not only on a different day, but several times in a decade, in a different month through starting its calculated calendar in the fall of the year instead of in the spring.
But first, in what location within the continental United States of America has the Lord God chosen for Israel to offer the Passover sacrifice of a selected and penned lamb of the first year, a male lamb without blemish? And even if an American had the means to travel to the modern State of Israel (because there is no place in the Americas where He has placed His name), where in earthly Jerusalem has God placed His name? The temple mount? How would sacrificing a lamb go over if done on the temple mount? The person would probably never get out of the psychiatric facility to which he or she was committed.
Perhaps the better question is, within whom has the Lord God communicated concerning the sacrifice of Passover lambs in the last century, or five centuries, or ten centuries? Who last spoke face to face with the Lord God as Moses did, as Jesus did? For visions are not necessarily reliable; to wit,
But the king [Ahab] said to him, "How many times shall I make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?" And he [Micaiah] said, "I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, 'These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.'" And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?" And Micaiah said, "Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; and the Lord said, 'Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?' And one said one thing, and another said another. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, 'I will entice him.' And the Lord said to him, 'By what means?' And he said, 'I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' And He said, 'You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.' Now therefore behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has declared disaster for you." (1 Kings 22:16–23)
There is a modern example of a lying spirit being placed in the mouths of prophets if the testimony of Latter Day Saints can be believed; for reportedly a spirit or several spirits declared to Joseph Smith what was not the truth. Hence, Latter Days Saints do not take the Passover, nor keep the Sabbaths of God, beginning with the weekly Sabbath. And much the same can be said about Ellen G, White who convinced Seventh Day Adventists not to keep the Passover.
So visions are not reliable when it comes to establishing what is of God. Moses speaking to the Lord face-to-face, followed by Christ Jesus speaking to His disciples remains the most reliable means for establishing what is the will of God. But even with Moses and Christ, endtime disciples must rely upon uninspired men to have been faithful in their chirographical inscriptions of the words of Moses for three millennia, and the words of Jesus for nearly a millennia and a half before the printing press froze scriptural texts into the form endtime disciples know them from reading the Bible.
The preceding paragraph is fully true but not the truth; for with receipt of a second breath of life via the indwelling of Christ, the Parakletos (usually translated into English as the Comforter or Advocate) that is “the spirit of truth” communicates the words of the Father directly to the inner selves of sons of God, which then have to get these words into the conscious minds of disciples. It is in the transmission of knowledge from God to unconscious mind to conscious mind where problems occur; for if the conscious mind cannot think the thoughts of God, the Parakletos cannot put knowledge from God into the person’s conscious thoughts—and even if a person has been born of God, if the person’s conscious mind remains undeveloped, or underdeveloped from limited use [the mind is spiritually as other muscles are physically], the person—a son of God—simply cannot think the thoughts of a more mature disciple …
The human person who doesn’t learn to speak as a child has extreme difficulty in ever learning to speak, as evidenced by wild children being reincorporated into human society. Likewise, the person who doesn’t learn as a child to think in abstract concepts has difficulty in ever perceiving the mysteries of God: this person’s ability to understand non-physical dual referents will not quickly develop. Thus, for practical purposes, the Christian who fellowships with spiritual fossils will him or herself become a spiritual fossil, unable to grow in grace and knowledge due to the underdevelopment of the disciple’s mind.
All of Judaism has been without the indwelling of Christ and without knowledge conveyed via the Parakletos; therefore, whatever understanding of the mysteries of God Judaism has—and it doesn’t have much—has come from realization of those things Moses addressed. Unfortunately, Judaism wasn’t faithful in keeping those things Moses declared before the nation went into captivity (why the nation went into captivity), and after captivity, Judaism, in seeking righteousness through the works of their hands, lost what little understanding it had, as evidenced by when Pharisees ate, and now rabbinical Judaism eats the Passover.
As addressed in the Reading for last Sabbath, Moses did not lead Israel out from Egypt on the same day that Passover lambs were sacrificed, roasted and eaten, with the instructions for keeping the Passover having in them sufficient vagueness that they must be “interpreted” by Israel, with whomever interpreted them from the days of the Judges through the eighteenth year of the reign of King Josiah getting it wrong according to Josiah and his advisors—
Do you see the difficulty here? If no Passover was kept as “‘it is written in this Book of the Covenant’” (2 Kings 23:21) from the days of the judges to King Josiah’s reign, then neither David nor Solomon kept the Passover as Moses commanded … that seems as if an on-going misreading of Moses had occurred, a misreading that became the tradition of the House of Judah so that the Book of the Covenant was not needed to continue the tradition. Only when the Book of the Covenant was read with fresh eyes could the misreading be corrected. Or it all could have been the other way around: Josiah and his advisors could have misread the Book of the Covenant and broke with the practices established by earlier readers of Moses?
In the Chronicles of the kings we find,
Josiah kept a Passover to [YHWH] in Jerusalem. And they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month. He appointed the priests to their offices and encouraged them in the service of the house of [YHWH]. And he said to the Levites who taught all Israel and who were holy to [YHWH], "Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. You need not carry it on your shoulders. Now serve [YHWH] your God and his people Israel. Prepare yourselves according to your fathers' houses by your divisions, as prescribed in the writing of David king of Israel and the document of Solomon his son. And stand in the Holy Place according to the groupings of the fathers' houses of your brothers the lay people, and according to the division of the Levites by fathers' household. And slaughter the Passover lamb, and consecrate yourselves, and prepare for your brothers, to do according to the word of [YHWH] by Moses." Then Josiah contributed to the lay people, as Passover offerings for all who were present, lambs and young goats from the flock to the number of 30,000, and 3,000 bulls; these were from the king's possessions. And his officials contributed willingly to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the chief officers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings 2,600 Passover lambs and 300 bulls. Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave to the Levites for the Passover offerings 5,000 lambs and young goats and 500 bulls. When the service had been prepared for, the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their divisions according to the king's command. And they slaughtered the Passover lamb, and the priests threw the blood that they received from them while the Levites flayed the sacrifices. And they set aside the burnt offerings that they might distribute them according to the groupings of the fathers' houses of the lay people, to offer to [YHWH], as it is written in the Book of Moses. And so they did with the bulls. And they roasted the Passover lamb with fire according to the rule; and they boiled the holy offerings in pots, in cauldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the lay people. And afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were offering the burnt offerings and the fat parts until night; so the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron. The singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their place according to the command of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer; and the gatekeepers were at each gate. They did not need to depart from their service, for their brothers the Levites prepared for them. So all the service of [YHWH] was prepared that day, to keep the Passover and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of [YHWH], according to the command of King Josiah. And the people of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days. No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, and the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah this Passover was kept. (2 Chron 35:1–19 emphasis and double emphasis added)
Whatever Book of the Law Josiah read-from was again lost; for we have no such instructions for keeping the Passover in the books of Moses that have come to endtime disciples. What we have is much simplified:
These are the appointed feasts of [YHWH], the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is [YHWH]'s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to [YHWH]; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. But you shall present a food offering to [YHWH] for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work." (Lev 23:4–8)
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And [YHWH] spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, "Let the people of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time. On the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time; according to all its statutes and all its rules you shall keep it." So Moses told the people of Israel that they should keep the Passover. And they kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that [YHWH] commanded Moses, so the people of Israel did. And there were certain men who were unclean through touching a dead body, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day. And those men said to him, "We are unclean through touching a dead body. Why are we kept from bringing [YHWH]'s offering at its appointed time among the people of Israel?" And Moses said to them, "Wait, that I may hear what [YHWH] will command concerning you." [YHWH] spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If any one of you or of your descendants is unclean through touching a dead body, or is on a long journey, he shall still keep the Passover to [YHWH]. In the second month on the fourteenth day at twilight they shall keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break any of its bones; according to all the statute for the Passover they shall keep it. But if anyone who is clean and is not on a journey fails to keep the Passover, that person shall be cut off from his people because he did not bring [YHWH]'s offering at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin. And if a stranger sojourns among you and would keep the Passover to [YHWH], according to the statute of the Passover and according to its rule, so shall he do. You shall have one statute, both for the sojourner and for the native." (Num 9:1–14 emphasis and highlighting added)
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On the fourteenth day of the first month is [YHWH]'s Passover, and on the fifteenth day of this month is a feast. Seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work, but offer a food offering, a burnt offering to [YHWH]: two bulls from the herd, one ram, and seven male lambs a year old; see that they are without blemish; also their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil; three tenths of an ephah shall you offer for a bull, and two tenths for a ram; a tenth shall you offer for each of the seven lambs; also one male goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for you. You shall offer these besides the burnt offering of the morning, which is for a regular burnt offering. In the same way you shall offer daily, for seven days, the food of a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to [YHWH]. It shall be offered besides the regular burnt offering and its drink offering. And on the seventh day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. (Num 28:16–25 double emphasis added)
Finally, it all unravels to reveal what rabbinical Judaism and Pharisees before did not understand: the Passover is NOT the Feast of Unleavened Bread when bulls are to be sacrificed as they were when Josiah keep the Passover as it had not been kept since the days of the Judges. Josiah combined the Passover with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, forming one festival from two observances and a feast [Passover, Unleavened Bread, Wave Sheaf Offering], with the author of John’s Gospel using this same designation in a somewhat derogatory sense: The Passover of the Jews (John 2:13; 6:4; 11:55).
The 15th day of the first month begins at sunset of the 14th day—and the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins at sunset between the 14th and 15th days of the first month in the spring of the year (regardless of hemisphere, north or south). But the Passover is the previous day, the 14th day of the first month, the day that began at sunset of the 13th day. And this is according to a real time scenario of what Israel under Moses did in Egypt on the first Passover.
The Passover sacrifice is a sin offering: “If anyone who is clean and is not on a journey fails to keep the Passover … that man shall bear his sin” (Num 9:13).
Jews have habitually been unfaithful, even in Paul’s day (“What if some were unfaithful?” — Rom 3:3); so it should come as no surprise that they are today unfaithful in even keeping the calendar:
[YHWH] said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, "This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. (Ex 12:1–3)
But the present year according to rabbinical Judaism’s calendar began last fall—
The Hebrew calendar [ha'luach ha'ivri] that determines dates for Jewish holy days and the public reading of the Torah began the year 5773 on 16 September 2012, with this year continuing until 4 September 2013 … unfortunately for Judaism, this will place the beginning of Nissan (the 1st of Aviv) on 12 March 2013, almost two weeks before the equinox, thereby making the first month of the year that begins after the equinox the month of Iyyar. The seemingly coincidental aspect of this is that working backwards, the Hebrew calendar would have placed the Passover in the year 31 CE in the month of Iyyar: Jesus ate the Passover, the Last Supper, on 23 April 31 (Julian) as Philadelphians this year will eat the Passover on 23 April 2013 (Gregorian). The same day to date alignment exists this year as existed in the year 31 CE (the 15th day of the first month being Thursday of the third full week of April).
Over time, the Hebrew calendar has “evolved” farther and farther away from Moses: before the so-called Tannaitic period (that is until 10 CE), months were set by direct observation of new moon crescents, with an extra month added to keep Passover in the spring as the Church of God will add a month to this present year and as rabbinical Judaism will add a month next year (5774, the year beginning September 5, 2013 on Judaism’s calendar, which employs an offset).
The so-called Tannaitic period (10 CE to 220 CE) is the era of Tanna, “repeaters” that posed as teachers, rabbinic sages whose words are recorded in the Mishnah. These repeaters were not interpreters [Amoraim], but simply ones who repeated what had previously been declared. Thus, they passed along whatever error they had received in the manner that the author of Luke’s Gospel passed “justified” those things that Theophilus had been taught. And the root for the word tanna is Talmudic Aramaic, the language of Jewish scholarship.
The calculated calendar that rabbinical Judaism presently uses to prevent Jews from ever even accidently taking the Passover as Moses commanded came into existence by the time Maimonides compiled the Mishneh Torah in the 12th Century … the Apostle Paul died more than a millennium before the calendar of truly unfaithful Israel came into existence; so it cannot be logically or intelligently said that the calculated calendar is an oracle of God entrusted to the Jews.
The concept of the Passover occurring in the spring of the year and on the dark portion of the 14th day of the first month, with this month beginning with the observed new month crescent following the spring equinox, negates the importance of any universal solar calendar or of any hybridized lunar-solar calendar such as Judaism’s calculated calendar.
Previous Sabbath readings near the Passover season—as meat is preached in due season—will more fully give the timeline for Jesus’ crucifixion in the year 31 of the Common Era.
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The person conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal.
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