Why is the timing of Passover important for understanding God's appointed times? The Calendar God Set in Motion Leviticus 23:5 lays down the foundation: “ ‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the LORD’s Passover.’ ” • The very first “appointed time” God names is Passover. • It occurs on a fixed date—14th of the first month (Nisan)—not “around” that day. • Twilight (“between the evenings”) pinpoints the exact window when the lamb was slain (Exodus 12:6). Because God tied redemption to a calendar day, every other feast that follows receives its place and meaning from this first marker. Passover as the Anchor for the Remaining Feasts Immediately after Passover: 1. Unleavened Bread — 15th Nisan for seven days (Leviticus 23:6–8). 2. Firstfruits — the day after the Sabbath during Unleavened Bread (23:9–14). 3. Weeks/Pentecost — counted exactly fifty days from Firstfruits (23:15–22). 4. Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Tabernacles — all dated by the seventh month (23:23–44). Remove or shift Passover, and the entire sequence unravels. God built a prophetic chain—one precise link must follow another. Prophetic Fulfillment at the Exact Hour • Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12 — not one bone of the Passover lamb may be broken. • John 19:33–36 — Jesus, the true Lamb, dies at the very hour the lambs are slain, with no bones broken. • 1 Corinthians 5:7 — “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” • Luke 22:7–15 — Jesus intentionally aligns His final meal and death with the calendar God set in Exodus and Leviticus. If the timing were symbolic instead of literal, these fulfillments would lose their force. The clock mattered. Redemptive Pattern for the Whole Biblical Story Passover timing teaches: • New beginnings start with blood redemption: “This month is to be the first month of the year for you.” (Exodus 12:2) • Deliverance first, then cleansing (Unleavened Bread), then resurrection life (Firstfruits), then Spirit-empowered mission (Pentecost). • The autumn feasts yet future (Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles) remain anchored to the same calendar, assuring believers God will keep those appointments just as precisely. Living in Step with God’s Schedule • God rules time; the believer aligns life to His announced appointments. • Scripture’s accuracy about past feasts assures confidence in prophecies still ahead. • Remembering the exactness of Passover fuels worship, heightens expectation, and grounds faith in the Lamb who fulfilled the first appointment to the very minute. |
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