SUBJECT:  Passover and Holy Days of Spring Feast (Days of Unleavened Bread)

QUESTION:  Please explain these days to me

ANSWER:

Passover

This is not a Holy Day but a special service where we follow the example Christ set just before His death.  It is where we take the symbols of His body and blood, the bread and the wine.  It is kept the evening before because it is the only evening we could keep the day and still be within the 24 hours of the Passover day.  It is also the same evening that Christ kept His last Passover and instituted the symbols of the bread and wine.

1st Holy Day of the Days of Unleavened Bread.

This is a High Day.  All Holy Days are from sunset to sunset

Leviticus 23:5-8

5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD's passover.

6 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.

7 In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.

8 But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.

Verse 7 shows that this 1st day of Unleavened Bread is a "holy convocation".  Verse 8 shows that an offering will be taken up on this day.  This is confirmed in the following verse:

Deuteronomy 16:16

Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:

On the evening before, the church keeps what is known as the Night to be Remembered.  This is not commanded; it is not a commanded assembly.  It is a night of remembrance regarding the children of Israel the night before they came out of Egypt  (a coming out of sin).  The fact that this night shows this (a coming out of sin) and the Days of Unleavened Bread pictures a coming out of sin, it became a tradition to observe this night.

To observe it, members meet for a special dinner either in a private home or in a private area of a restaurant.  Since this is the evening before the Holy Day, only unleavened bread should be eaten there if bread is consumed.  Nothing leaven should be present.  Again, this is not a commanded assembly.  Since this is the evening after the Passover day, it takes place on the Holy Day.  It is a night of joy.

Church services are held on the Holy Day.

Unleavened bread is eaten everyday between the 1st and the 7th day.  We see this in verse 6 above.

2nd Holy Day of the Days of Unleavened Bread

This is a High Day.

Leviticus 23:8

But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.

Church services are held on the Holy Day.  An offering is taken up on this day.  The only time offerings are taken up are on the 7 Holy Days of the Year.

You might want to read the booklet, "God's Seasonal Plan" which is posted at the EA and Church web sites.  The address is:

http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/seasonal.shtml
 

The church calendar is located at our Church site.  The address is: