The controversy rages on even after so many years of proving that there is only one midnight per day!!
How can we say that the Passover is at the end of the fourteenth if we follow God’s Word and simply believe
what it says! “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (II Cor. 11:3).
Some say we are to partake of the Passover service at the beginning of the fourteenth of Abib, and others say
we should partake of it at the end of the fourteenth! Who is right? Let’s allow God’s Word to be the answer. In
Exodus 12 we see that God gave to His chosen people, the children of Israel, the beginning plan of salvation! This
plan was not given just to the Jews. Notice; “The LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you” (Exo. 12:1-2).
“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: 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. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from
the sheep, or from the goats: 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” (Exo. 12:3-6).
In God’s calendar a day begins at sunset and ends with the following sunset. There is only one evening and
midnight per twenty four hour day. In Exodus 12, verse 7 God says, “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.” “For I will pass through
the land of Egypt this night, [at midnight of the 14th after the flesh of the lamb or goat had been eaten] 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. 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, [at midnight on the 14th Exo. 12:29 and Exo. 11:4] and the plague shall not
be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. 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” (Exo 12:12-14). God gave further instruction about the Passover in verse 21 through 29. “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 (before midnight on the 14th not the 15th). 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. 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 [at midnight of the 14th]. And ye
shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. 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. And
it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? 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. And the children
of Israel went away, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. 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” (Exo. 12:21-29).
This took place at midnight of the 14th.
The passing over of the houses that had the lamb or goats blood on the door post represented the protection
from the death angel. This ensured the first born would not die when the death angel passed over at midnight!
As God’s people we are to partake of the wine as a symbol of Christ’s sacrificed blood on the stake for us. The
sacrificed life’s blood of Jesus Christ is what the Passover [blood on the door posts] represented in the days of
Moses. It takes blood to cover sin. Blood represents life. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given
it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the
soul” (Lev. 17:11). Only the blood of our Savior Jesus, the Christ, the very Son of God can pay for the sins of all
mankind. The blood of bulls and sheep could never pay for the sins of the whole world! “But Christ being come
an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say,
not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God? And for this cause He is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption
of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal
inheritance” (Heb. 9:11-15).
The point that seems to be missing when following the teachings of Judaism is that the death angel passed
over at midnight of the 14th not the 15th! “In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’s passover”
(Lev. 23:5). Remember only one midnight per day! This is why in the New Testament, Christ and His disciples kept
the Passover meal one day prior to the Jews traditional 15th.
What was involved in the killing, roasting and eating of the lamb or goat? How long did it take to kill, roast
and eat of it? According to several commentators the killing, bleeding, dressing and preparing for the Passover meal
a lamb or goat of young age would take no longer than about an hour and a few minutes. Cooking twenty to thirty
pounds of young tender animal flesh would probably take about four and half to five hours! Eating a meal like this
in haste would take about a half of hour. They were told to “..eat the flesh in that night” (Exo. 12:8). Night--Strong’s
Concordance #3915 --- implies obscurity. “God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the
evening and the morning were the first day” (Gen. 1:5). The rest of that night would have given the Israelites time
to burn up what was commanded!
The teachers of Judaism never obeyed the whole law of Moses. “For had you believed Moses, you would
have believed Me: for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not His writings, how shall ye believe my words?” (John
5:46-47). They added to God’s Word by using man-made Babylonian practices, mixing religions and traditions.
Christ realized that the Judaism of His day practiced man’s traditions. “And He said unto them, Full well you
reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition” (Mark 7:9). This is why Christ kept
Passover with His disciples at the beginning of the 14th of Abib. “And He sent Peter and John, saying, Go and
prepare us the passover, that we may eat” (Luke 22:8).
The killing of the Passover lambs was observed by the Jews on the late afternoon of the fourteenth and the
Passover meal was eaten on the fifteenth. If this were true then the death angel passed over at midnight of the
fifteenth. This is not scriptural!! The death angel passed over at midnight of the fourteenth, after the blood was
placed on the door post. “In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’s Passover [midnight]. And
on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat
Unleavened Bread” (Lev. 23:5-6). Judaism does not keep the correct day for Passover. They do not
recognize and accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Judaism does not keep the right day for Pentecost, and they did
not and have not today received God’s Holy Spirit. By following Judaism we miss the true Passover and the
protection that occurred at midnight on the 14th!
We must keep our eyes on the simplicity of God’s Word. God shows through His Holy Word the
way to keep the Passover and all of His Holy Days. Judaism does not know there is a plan of salvation!
Judaism does not know that each Holy Day represents another step in God’s plan. We, as the people
of God must follow God’s Word in spirit and in truth. “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24).