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How Often Should We Partake of the Lord's Supper? 7
ites go. You will find the events recorded in the 12th
chapter of Exodus.
On the lOth day of the first month (the Hebrew, or
sacred year, began with the new moon in the spring, near
the equinox, not midwinter), they were told to take a
young lamb without spot or blemish, a type of Christ, the
Lamb of God. This lamb was to be kept until the 14th day
of the first month, Abib, when they were to kill it "in the
evening" (verse 6). The literal Hebrew, margin, is "between
the two evenings," and from the
Jewish Encyclopedia
we
find this is the twilight period between the time the sun
goes down, when the new day has commenced, and the
darkness when the stars are out. So the lamb was killed in
the very beginning of the 14th of Abib.
As soon as it was killed, the blood was to be sprinkled
over the doorposts of their houses. The lamb was to be
roasted, and eaten in haste. At midnight that night the
angel of the Lord passed through the land, striking dead
all the firstborn of the land. But, "when I see the blood, I
will
pass over
you," the Lord told the Israelites.
For seven days they ate only unleavened bread. The
14th of the first month, Abib, was the Passover, and the
15th was a feast day, or annual holy day (verses 15, 16 and
Numbers 28:16, 17). The 15th was the first of seven days of
unleavened bread, and the seventh of these, or the 21st of
Abib, was also a holy feast day, or annual Sabbath, called
a "high day" even still today by the Jewish people.
The lamb was killed as the sun was going down (Deut.
16:6), yet it was eaten
in
the 14th day (Lev. 23:5, 6), not
after it was passed.
Year after year Israel continued to observe the Pass-
Instituted an Ordinance Forever
Now notice Exodus 12:17,24. The Passover was insti–
tuted an ordinance
forever.
Some will say circumcision
was not done away, but was changed- today it is in the
heart (Romans 2:29). In both cases God meant forever,
and so, as we have seen, at the last Passover supper Jesus
changed the manner of observance of this ordinance. No