Biblical feasts Pt 1

i would have loved to continue in samuel but it was time to move on before we got distracted i rerally dont know how long this series will take it will atleast be a few weeks its absolutly packed with information. Although if you feel led i would encourage you to continue through Samuel and study it out on your own

But today we are going to be starting out with the passover.

can anyone tell me what the passover was?

The Passover

The Passover was a special event that God commanded the Israelites to observe when He delivered them from slavery in Egypt.

The story is found mainly in Exodus 12.

so lets turn there

The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt, and Pharaoh refused to let them go. God sent ten plagues upon Egypt. can anyone tell me what some of those plagues were?

The final plague was the death of the firstborn.

God gave Moses specific instructions for the Israelites. Each household was to take a lamb without blemish, kill it, and put its blood on the two doorposts and the upper doorpost of the house.

lets read Exodus 12:1-32

God said:

“And when I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

Exodus 12:13 KJV what does smite mean?

That is where the name Passover comes from. When God brought judgment upon Egypt, He passed over the houses that had the blood on the doorposts. The firstborn inside those houses were spared.

The Israelites were also commanded to eat the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. in verse 15 id like if you would highlight that passage or write it down somewhere because we will be back to this in weeks to come. They were to eat in a hurry because they were about to leave Egypt.

That night, Pharaoh finally told the Israelites to leave. They left Egypt after hundreds of years of slavery and began their journey toward the Promised Land.

God commanded Israel to remember this event every year:

“And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations.”

Exodus 12:14 KJV

Why Is Passover Important to Christianity?

Passover is important because it points us toward the greater work of who? Jesus Christ.

The Passover lamb had to be without blemish, and its blood provided protection from judgment. I want us to recognize that God has always been the same threw all of biblical history.

In the New Testament, Jesus is identified as the ultimate sacrifice:

“For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.”

1 Corinthians 5:7 KJV

The Passover gives us a picture of salvation: Israel was delivered from slavery through the blood of the lamb, and we receive spiritual deliverance through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Jesus was also crucified around the time of Passover, connecting His death with the Passover sacrifice.

7 festivals those 7 festevals are in relation to 3 main ones and they are, The Passover at the begining if the year then pentacost in the middle and the festival of tabernacles at the end

and inside of the passover festival time there are 2 others can anyone take a guess of what the first one is? i asked if yall would highlight it.

the festival of unlevened bread and the festival of first fruits. for a total of 3 at the begining of the year, pentacostal was by its self in the middle of the year and at the end of the year you had tabernackle and inside of that was trumpets and day of atonement for a total of 7 feasts. and we will be going over all of these.

Leviticus 23:1-5

it sounds like it would be january 14th right? its not, its the Hebrew month nasan and it would be around march or april? And why that is is because the day they were brought out of Egypt was to be considered the first day of the year for them, they day they were delivered was day one for them. This is their start over, sound familiar?

Lets look at the word feasts in verse 2 its the hebrew word moed and means “appointed time,” “appointed place,” or “appointed meeting/season.”

we see it all the way back going to Genesis 1:14 “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:”

The Hebrew words translated into english for seasons was moed. so in the case of where we are reading it was just a day and specifically it was the sabbath. and why im adressing this is because i dont want us when we see this word to think it means sunday lunch, no it means an appointed day or time.

Lets turn back to Exodus 12 1:14

Exodus 12:1–14 — Understanding the Passover,

Exodus 12:1–2 — A New Beginning

God changes Israel's calendar immediately before their deliverance.

This is more than changing a date. Israel's national life is now being organized around what God is about to do for them.

They had spent generations in Egypt, but God was establishing a new identity for them as His people.

This connects with Deuteronomy 16:1, where Israel is commanded to remember the month in which God brought them out of Egypt.

Exodus 12:3–6 — Why a Lamb?

God doesn't simply tell Israel, “Be inside when judgment comes.” He provides a substitute.

Instead of the firstborn of the household dying, a lamb dies in its place.

This idea of substitution appears throughout Scripture.

in Genesis 22

Abraham had already spent years being tested by God. Jewish tradition commonly describes these as ten tests, much like the ten plagues of Egypt, with the final and greatest test being when God told Abraham to offer Isaac.

And this test is different from the others because Isaac wasn't just Abraham's son—Isaac was the promise.

God had promised Abraham that through Isaac his descendants would come. which is literally Israel who's enslaved to Egypt. Abraham had waited years for that promise. Then, after finally receiving Isaac, God tells him:

“Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest... and offer him there for a burnt offering.” Genesis 22:2 KJV

God had said, “Through Isaac your seed will be called.”

Now God says, “Offer Isaac.”

But Abraham goes.

He takes Isaac up the mountain, and Isaac even asks a question, and by now we can tell hes getting a little suspicious

“Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

Abraham responds:

“My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.”

When Abraham is about to sacrifice Isaac, God stops him. Abraham looks up and sees a ram caught in a thicket by his horns, and he sacrifices the ram instead of his son.

the first major point:

God Provides a Substitute

Isaac is spared because something else dies in his place.

Not that there was no sacrifice at all

That idea of substitution becomes a major theme throughout Scripture and eventually points toward Christ.

There's also something interesting about Hebrews 11:17–19.

Hebrews tells us what Abraham was thinking. Abraham believed that even if Isaac died, God could raise him from the dead. and there have been no biblical records that say there were any resurrections before this so abraham was trusting God so much that he believed he could do the impossible he believed he could do what had never been done before

So Abraham wasn't necessarily thinking:

“God won't actually make me do this.”

He was thinking:

“I don't understand how God is going to fulfill His promise, but I know God will fulfill it.”

Abraham had reached the point where he trusted the Promiser more than he understood the promise.

And then Genesis 22:14 says:

“And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh...”

Meaning “The LORD will provide.”

And look at the connection to Passover.

In Genesis 22:

A sacrifice is required → God provides a substitute → the son is spared.

In Exodus 12:

A sacrifice is required → God provides a lamb a substitute → the firstborn is spared.

Then in the New Testament:

“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John 1:29 KJV

And Paul says:

“For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” 1 Corinthians 5:7 KJV

So Genesis 22 isn't the Passover yet, but it introduces an important biblical pattern:

God provides the sacrifice.

And there is one more detail worth noticing: Abraham tells Isaac, “God will provide himself a lamb.”

God provided a ram that day, but thousands of years later, God provided Jesus Christ, the true Lamb.

And this is where we start seeing the idea of a substitute:

Isaac should have died → God provided a ram → the ram died instead.

That same idea becomes extremely important later with the Passover lamb and ultimately with Jesus Christ.

also in that pattern we see that there is action needed for the substitute the ram that God provided for abraham he still had to dig him out od the thicket which is much better than having to sacrifice his son, on the passover they had to do alot of things to offer the sacrifice and im sure was laborious, but us? The sacrifice was already made we just have to follow acts 2:38 Give our lives to the lord, and i dont mean that in a sentence i mean that in a way of living. but the sacrifice was already made for us but we dont want to stop some of the things we are doing.

Exodus 12:5 — Why Without Blemish?

The lamb had to be without blemish.

God would not accept a defective animal as the Passover sacrifice.

This becomes a repeated requirement for sacrifices under the Law. See Leviticus 22:20–21.

The reason becomes even clearer in the New Testament.

Peter describes Jesus as:

“a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Peter 1:19 KJV

Jesus wasn't merely another sacrifice. He was the perfect sacrifice because He was completely sinless.

Hebrews 4:15 says He was tempted in every way as we are, “yet without sin.”

because the way God set things up something without sin or i guess you could say blemishes had to die so our sins could be wiped away

Exodus 12:6 — Why Keep the Lamb for Four Days?

The lamb was selected on the 10th day and killed on the 14th day.

That means the family had the lamb with them for several days before it was sacrificed.

This gave them time to examine it and make sure it truly met God's requirements.

There is also an interesting connection with Jesus' final week.

In John 12:1, Jesus arrives at Bethany six days before Passover. Then in John 12:12–15, He enters Jerusalem shortly afterward.

The Gospel accounts place Jesus in Jerusalem during the days leading up to Passover, culminating in His death during Passover.

Paul then makes the connection

“For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” 1 Corinthians 5:7 KJV

The Passover wasn't merely a random Old Testament event. It literally established a pattern that the New Testament identifies with Christ.

Exodus 12:7 — Why Put the Blood on the Door??

The blood wasn't simply poured out and forgotten.

It was applied to the entrance of the house.

The door was the point of separation between what was happening inside the house and what was happening outside.

Judgment was coming throughout Egypt, but God provided a way for a household to be marked out from that judgment.

This connects with Exodus 12:22, where Moses tells them not to go outside the door of their houses until morning.

The blood wasn't a magical substance. The Israelites were trusting God's word and obeying His instructions.

That same principle appears in Hebrews 11:28:

“Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood...”

Hebrews interprets the Passover as an act of faith.

They believed God's warning, believed His provision, and acted accordingly.

when death saw the lambs blood on the door he was stripped of all power, literally just like the lord did for us, he stripped death of its power for his children and gave us the ability to have eternal life through him which is why its so important to have the Blood of jesus on our lives

The blood represents Christ's sacrificial death, and the biblical response to that sacrifice is faith expressed through repentance, baptism in Jesus' name, and receiving the Holy Ghost.

Exodus 12:8 — Why Unleavened Bread?

The bread had to be unleavened because Israel was leaving Egypt in a hurry.

Throughout Scripture, leaven eventually becomes a picture of something that spreads through the whole lump.

i dont want to go super deep into this because this will be our next study but

Jesus uses leaven as a picture of corrupting influence in Matthew 16:6–12, and Paul uses it in 1 Corinthians 5:6–8 as a picture of sin.

Notice what Paul does in that passage:

He talks about leaven, then immediately says:

“For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.”

Paul connects the Passover imagery with living differently because of Christ's sacrifice.

So the Passover wasn't only about being brought out of Egypt.

It also became a picture of being separated from the old life.

Exodus 12:8 — Why Bitter Herbs?

The bitter herbs were a physical reminder of the bitterness of Egyptian slavery.

Israel was about to experience freedom, but God wanted them to remember what they had been delivered from.

This is important because remembering what God saved you from should produce gratitude.

Israel would later forget this repeatedly.

Judges 2:10 says a generation arose that did not know the LORD or the works He had done for Israel.

The Passover was designed to prevent that kind of forgetting.

Question: Why is remembering what God brought you out of important after you've been delivered?

Exodus 12:11 — Why Eat Ready to Leave?

Their clothes were on.

Their shoes were on.

Their staffs were in their hands.

They were eating as people who expected God to move.

They weren't settling into Egypt.

They were preparing to leave it.

This becomes an important picture throughout Scripture: God's deliverance requires a response.

Israel had to leave Egypt physically.

Likewise, when Jesus calls people to follow Him, He doesn't call them merely to believe information about Him.

He calls them to follow Him.

Jesus said:

“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” Luke 9:23 KJV

Question: What is the difference between believing God is going to deliver you and actually being ready to follow Him when He does?

Exodus 12:12 — Judgment Against Egypt's Gods

God says:

“and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.”

The plagues weren't random.

Again and again, God demonstrates that Egypt's gods have no power against Him.

For example, Egypt worshiped the Nile, but God turned the Nile to blood in Exodus 7.

Egypt worshiped various animals and creatures, yet God demonstrated His authority over creation through the plagues.

The final plague reaches the firstborn, including Pharaoh's own household.

This fulfills something God had already told Pharaoh:

“Israel is my son, even my firstborn.” Exodus 4:22 KJV

Pharaoh had attempted to destroy Israel's sons in Exodus 1:16.

Now God demonstrates His judgment against Egypt while delivering His own firstborn people.

Exodus 12:13 — “When I See the Blood”

This is the heart of the passage.

“When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

The Israelites weren't spared because they were more righteous than the Egyptians.

They were spared because God provided a way of escape from judgment.

This is why the Passover becomes such a powerful picture of salvation.

lets Compare:

Passover: A lamb dies → blood is shed → blood is applied → judgment passes over.

Christ: Jesus dies → His blood is shed → He provides redemption → we are delivered from the punishment our of sin.

Peter says:

“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things... But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Peter 1:18–19 KJV

And Revelation repeatedly identifies Jesus as the Lamb.

One of the Biggest Connections — Exodus 12 and the Cross

The Passover gives us a pattern that becomes clearer as Scripture progresses:

A people in bondage → Israel in Egypt

A coming judgment → The tenth plague

A substitute → The Passover lamb

An innocent sacrifice → The spotless lamb

Blood → Applied to the door

Deliverance → Israel is spared and leaves Egypt

Then the New Testament shows the fulfillment:

Humanity in bondage → Sin

Coming judgment → Judgment for sin

A substitute → Jesus Christ

An innocent sacrifice → Jesus without sin

Blood → Christ's blood

Deliverance → Salvation through Christ

And Scripture doesn't leave us to make that connection ourselves.

Paul says:

“For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” 1 Corinthians 5:7 KJV

So when you get to the Passover, you're seeing one of the earliest and clearest pictures of substitution and redemption in Scripture.

Question: If the Passover is a picture of what Christ would eventually accomplish, what details stand out to you as the strongest connections?**