Saturday, November 14, 2020

Numbers 9:1-14 comments: restating the command to keep the Passover

 

Numbers 9:1 ¶  And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2  Let the children of Israel also keep the passover at his appointed season. 3  In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it. 4  And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, that they should keep the passover. 5  And they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at even in the wilderness of Sinai: according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel. 6  And there were certain men, who were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the passover on that day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day: 7  And those men said unto him, We are defiled by the dead body of a man: wherefore are we kept back, that we may not offer an offering of the LORD in his appointed season among the children of Israel? 8  And Moses said unto them, Stand still, and I will hear what the LORD will command concerning you. 9  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 10  Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto the LORD. 11  The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12  They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of it: according to all the ordinances of the passover they shall keep it. 13  But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the LORD in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin. 14  And if a stranger shall sojourn among you, and will keep the passover unto the LORD; according to the ordinance of the passover, and according to the manner thereof, so shall he do: ye shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land.

 

The ordinance of the Passover is given here to the day it is to be celebrated and also with emphasis that it to be observed even if someone is ritually unclean. If a person who is not suffering under that burden doesn’t keep the Passover they will be killed.

It is interesting to note that a Passover was to be observed here in the wilderness of Sinai (verse 5) but the original requirement mentioned that it was to be observed when the Hebrews came into the Promised Land.

Exodus 12:25  And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.

 

Joshua 5:10 ¶  And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.

 

It is worth it at this point to review the detailed instructions for the Passover and why it was to be honored from Exodus 12 and see the comments I made for whatever they are worth. I am going to place here the comments I made on the Passover and the surrounding events and commands.

Exodus 12:1 ¶  And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2  This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3  Speak ye unto 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 an house: 4  And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. 5  Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: 6  And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. 7  And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. 8  And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9  Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof. 10  And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. 11  And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD’S passover. 12  For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. 13  And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. 14  And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. 15  Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. 16  And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you. 17  And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever. 18  In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. 19  Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land. 20  Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.

God lays out the beginnings of the Hebrew calendar. The month that they leave Egypt is to be the first month.

Verses 3,4, & 5 give us an understanding of Christ.

3  Speak ye unto 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 an house: 4  And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. 5  Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:

He is a lamb, a sacrifice and ransom to God, the propitiation to satisfy God’s wrath for mankind’s sins against Him. He is the lamb, the only way to salvation. He is your lamb, who died for your sins on the cross at Calvary and rose for your justification.

Every man’s lamb was kept from the tenth day to the fourteenth day of the first month, at which time it was killed. Its blood was smeared on the side posts and on the header. There were specific rules as to how it should be cooked and eaten. Nothing was wasted and nothing was left. It was to be eaten with the person dressed ready to leave quickly.

This was to be called the Lord’s Passover. God is going to pass through the land of Egypt and kill the firstborn of man and beast. Even the gods of Egypt are being judged which is another reference to events going on in the spirit world that we cannot see. This is evident in descriptions in Revelation also that fundamentalists often try to make as events and persons in the physical world in which we live but seem clearly as things not visible to us but causing visible things, seen only from the heavenly realm itself. Again, here is another proof that there are events going on that we cannot see.

2Kings 6:15  And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? 16  And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. 17  And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

God will pass over and spare the Hebrews by virtue of the blood on their doorposts. It is the blood of their lamb that saves them and God’s recognition of it, nothing else. He didn’t say, “I’m going to spare you because you are a wonderful people of whom I am so proud.” No, it is the blood of a lamb, the lamb, their lamb that saves them.

This day is to be memorialized and never forgotten with a week of remembrance bracketed by the people drawing together in a holy convocation, an assembly, like a special church meeting today. For seven days they would eat unleavened bread, a symbol of their hasty flight and unpolluted. Leavened bread was a symbol for Christ of the pollution of the Pharisees, the religious elite of His day on earth, of God’s commandments in Luke 12:1.

Leaven is something added to dough, typically yeast, to make it ferment and rise. It would be something added to Biblical doctrine, for instance, additional rules God never intended.

Matthew 23:23  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

It renders faith meaningless to God. For instance, in prescribing long prayers to feel

spiritual.

Matthew 6:7  But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

It includes things that may have their uses but makes them a sign of your faithfulness to God when they are not something He required.

Mark 7:1 ¶  Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. 2  And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. 3  For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. 4  And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.

For instance, wearing a business suit to church may satisfy a man’s conviction to dress his best when he comes to church but when he makes it a doctrine for proof that another Christian who does not share that belief is not genuinely committed to worshipping God he, like a Pharisee, mingles leaven with God’s words.

There are many other things that can be included in this comparison like certain rituals, church words, ceremonial observances, and demands on time and money that would have been impossible for early Christians. The most striking leaven, though, would be to add something to the simplicity of Biblical Salvation in order to distinguish your doctrine from other people’s worship. You are probably about to add leaven after you say or think something like, “If they were real Christians they would…..”

This would be called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For one week from the 14th through the 21st of the month only unleavened bread would be eaten. There was to be no leaven at all in their homes.

Luke 22:1  Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover.

Exodus 12:21 ¶  Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. 22  And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. 23  For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. 24  And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. 25  And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. 26  And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? 27  That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD’S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped. 28  And the children of Israel went away, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.

Moses summarizes the instructions to the elders and gives them a curious warning that has doctrinal implications for us. If they follow the instructions the LORD will pass over their door and will not suffer, which means permit, the destroyer to come into their homes.

Who or what is the destroyer? It is not capitalized as a proper name. There is some agent, an angel or spirit who destroys. But, who can that be?

Is this the angel of the LORD, the presence (Isaiah 63:9) of Jehovah God who devastated the Assyrian army?

2Kings 19:35  And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

Or performed the slaughter at Jerusalem when David counted the people?

IChronicles 21:14  So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. 15  And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

We will see in the next passage that the LORD, Jehovah, did smite the firstborn. We know from other passages that He often uses a spiritual agency or individual to accomplish His purpose yet He Himself is said to be the cause of it, hence the reference to the destroyer.

Judges 9:23  Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:

1Samuel 16:14  But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.

The complexity of reality, from our finite minds’ position, is that these kinds of things, God’s agency and exerting power on our physical universe, are happening so many times a second that it is impossible for us to fathom it. Here, though, is a very special event, a monumental moment in human history where God’s power, as God’s power, is being displayed to the world and to posterity after hundreds of years of the spiritual decay of mankind from the Fall of Adam. There was Creation of the physical universe, the fall of man introducing death into life, the Flood that reduced mankind to a few people, there was Babel that divided mankind into different languages and dispersed them around the earth, and there is the Exodus from Egypt where the world’s greatest superpower of the time was brought to its knees. In these actions and judgments, we see a big picture of God’s power and sovereignty.

Verse 28 shows us that this was one of the few times that the children of Israel did as they were told.

Exodus 12:29 ¶  And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. 30  And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead. 31  And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as ye have said. 32  Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also. 33  And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men. 34  And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneadingtroughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. 35  And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: 36  And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.

So, now God kills the firstborn from the highest to the lowest to the cattle. There was no one higher than Pharaoh or lower than a prisoner in his dungeons. Even the cattle were affected that the state and the populace depended on so for food. Cattle includes several different animals that mankind was dependent on.

Genesis 47:17  And they brought their cattle unto Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses: and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year.

Exodus 9:3  Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain.

Exodus 34:19  All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male.

Why this seemingly symbolic death among the firstborn of the cattle? What was the significance of this? First remember God’s possession.

Psalm 50:10  For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

Exodus 13:2  Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine.

No one owns property and no one owns an animal. All property and all life belongs to God, who created it. Under Capitalism everything belongs to an individual; presumably the hardest working, most ambitious, the most clever, or the strongest and well-born. Under Socialism everything belongs to the people through the government which then consists of  ambitious, clever, strong, and ruthless individuals. Both are blasphemous lies. All things belong to God and He will give all things to His people in time.

1Corinthians 3:21 ¶  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; 23  And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

Man is a steward of God’s possession and the Christian must remember that. We have dominion under authority of God. Dominion is power over something as defined in Ephesians 1:21 and Jude, verse 25.

Exodus 19:5  Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:

Psalm 50:12  If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

The firstborn of man and beast was to be set apart or sanctified for God’s purpose. This plague foretold what God would require of the Hebrews.

In typology man is born like a wild ass’s colt and can only be redeemed with a lamb, who is Christ.

Job 11:12  For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt.

Exodus 13:13  And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem.

1Peter 1:18  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20  Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21  Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

Every household in Egypt suffered under this judgment. If you believe in the world of spirit, that is, if you believe in the Bible, there is a seamless flow from this physical world of flesh and blood into the world of spirit where an entirely different type of life, which we hardly can begin to understand, exists. As the physical universe represents less than 5% of what must be, as even atheistic scientists believe, the world of spirit is far greater than anything we can imagine. So, little babies and innocent beasts did not simply cease to exist or began suffering in some kind of manufactured place like Limbo but take their place in that world.

The Pharaoh is now ready to drive the Hebrews from the land. This is a terrible tragedy. The firstborn among men was to inherit and all of the heritage of a man passed through his all-important firstborn. The firstborn among beast was to be set apart for God and we will see this in Exodus 13:2. Keep in mind that all beasts belong to God but the firstborn among the Egyptian and later the Hebrew beasts were His for a special purpose.

            The Hebrews are ready to leave Egypt and the Egyptians weigh them down with abundant necessities for the trip and much treasure. Good riddance, I can imagine they thought. Just go away lest we all die.”

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