This day dates Israel's going out from Egyptian bondage to the month Abib, also called Nisan, the first month of the sacred year beginning in spring about April, on the fifteenth day, in the hurried escape after the death of the firstborn in close connection with the Passover. It appoints that deliverance with a strong hand to be kept as a yearly memorial feast to the Lord throughout generations, Passover being the first of the three annual festivals kept on the fourteenth day of the first month, with the feast of unleavened bread following from the fifteenth to the twenty-first of Abib because no leaven was eaten during its seven days. The feast was fitted to remember the time of the event, declaring how the fearful Egyptians hurried Israel away and how the destroying angel passed over their dwellings when Egypt's firstborn were doomed to die. That coming out in Abib demonstrated God's wisdom, love and mighty creative power in saving a nation, His ability and right to rule and Israel's obligation to obey, and it stands as a type of God's people being delivered from the dark Egypt of this earth. This annual memorial in Abib is distinct from the weekly Sabbath, for a weekly rest cannot fitly remember a flight that could come but once a year, while those who held a change in Sabbath reckoning teach that the fifteenth of Abib became Israel's weekly Sabbath thereafter until the crucifixion.
Context and Calendar Date
This day came out in the month Abib belongs to the account of the going out from Egypt in Exodus 2-23, especially Exodus 11-13, covering the hurried escape after the death of the firstborn in close connection with the Passover ordinance. It stands in the course that runs from Moses's first demand to let Israel go to worship God in the wilderness to Israel's song of triumph beyond the Red Sea. The exodus is a real event under Moses's direct supervision, stated as certainly as creation. Its events are not to be expected to receive direct mention in Egypt's public historical records, which recorded successes and triumphs.
Abib, also called Nisan, is the first month of the sacred year, beginning in spring and corresponding nearly to April. The verse dates Israel's departure from Egyptian bondage to that month in the setting of the Passover and liberation. Abib had been the seventh month of the civil year, which began with Tisri, corresponding to September and October, with New Year's Day on the first day of Tisri as the original first month. Because Israel left Egypt in Abib, God made Abib the first month, beginning the ecclesiastical or sacred year distinct from the civil year.
The Jewish year had twelve months of alternating thirty and twenty-nine days, making 354 days, with an intercalary month called Veadar added every third year or oftener so the months would correspond with the seasons. The flight out of Egypt was on the fifteenth day of Abib, the first month. Israel reached the wilderness of Sin on the fifteenth day of the following month before arriving at Sinai.
Memorial and Theological Meaning
This day in the month Abib is the Passover memorial of deliverance from Egyptian bondage with a strong hand, to be kept as a yearly feast to the Lord throughout generations by an ordinance forever. Passover was the first of the three annual festivals then instituted, kept on the fourteenth day of the first month. It was also called the feast of unleavened bread because no leaven was eaten during its seven days from the fifteenth to the twenty-first of Abib. Its date and observance were fitted to remember the time of the event commemorated.
The original Passover instructions in Exodus 12 and 13 were given for Israel in Egypt and on the journey to Palestine and were observed in the wilderness and for some time later. After the building of the temple the form of celebration was materially changed, with injunctions added in the later scriptures that were not in the former and were hardly possible to carry out in the wilderness. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was given to keep the hasty going-out in memory, declaring how the fearful Egyptians hurried Israel away. When sons asked what the service meant, the answer was that with mighty hand Jehovah brought them up from Egypt, while the Passover remembered how the destroying angel passed over their dwellings when Egypt's firstborn were doomed to die.
God ordained this annual feast in memory of eating unleavened bread when fleeing Egypt in Abib and of passing over Israel when smiting the Egyptians as a fitting annual memorial distinct from the weekly Sabbath. The flight was on the fifteenth day of the first month and is commemorated annually, while the Sabbath is a rest on the seventh day of each week, so the Sabbath has nothing in it to commemorate that flight. The weekly Sabbath is not a memorial of that deliverance, for a weekly rest cannot fitly remember a day that could come but once a year, and a rest cannot be a memorial of a rush.
The departure in Abib marks a change in Sabbath reckoning in which the original Eden Sabbath, which fell on the sixteenth day of Abib that week and is Sunday, was set back one day at the departure, so the day of leaving Egypt became the Jewish Sabbath thereafter until the crucifixion, when the Jewish Sabbath was abrogated and Sunday at the resurrection resumed its place as the Sabbath of the Lord. The fifteenth day of Abib, the day of flight and rest from bondage, was constituted by divine appointment as the weekly Sabbath of Israel that week and on that same weekday ever afterward till the crucifixion and resurrection, while the next day, the sixteenth of Abib, which from the beginning had been the seventh day, was constituted the first day in a new order of weeks, so Israel kept the day before the true Sabbath of the Lord. Abib is also presented as the starting point for a proposed annual reckoning of the Sabbath tied to Passover.
Coming out in Abib was part of God's wonderful deliverance in Egypt and at the Red Sea, moving Israel from oppression with the whole power of Egypt against them to triumph beyond the sea with Egypt's host overthrown. It demonstrated God's wisdom, love, and power, His ability and right to rule, and Israel's obligation to obey, yet left Israel to be tested whether they would walk in His law. It manifested mighty and creative power as never done in saving any nation. Their hundreds of years of slavery had unfitted them to comprehend His great salvation and required character, so God gave them a great multiple object-lesson in various forms and rites comprehending the whole plan of salvation, instructing Moses to take free-will offerings to make a sanctuary that He might dwell among them. The exodus from Egypt toward Canaan is a type of God's people being delivered from the dark Egypt of this earth.
This day dates Israel's going out from Egyptian bondage to the month Abib, also called Nisan, the first month of the sacred year beginning in spring about April, on the fifteenth day, in the hurried escape after the death of the firstborn in close connection with the Passover. It appoints that deliverance with a strong hand to be kept as a yearly memorial feast to the Lord throughout generations, Passover being the first of the three annual festivals kept on the fourteenth day of the first month, with the feast of unleavened bread following from the fifteenth to the twenty-first of Abib because no leaven was eaten during its seven days. The feast was fitted to remember the time of the event, declaring how the fearful Egyptians hurried Israel away and how the destroying angel passed over their dwellings when Egypt's firstborn were doomed to die. That coming out in Abib demonstrated God's wisdom, love and mighty creative power in saving a nation, His ability and right to rule and Israel's obligation to obey, and it stands as a type of God's people being delivered from the dark Egypt of this earth. This annual memorial in Abib is distinct from the weekly Sabbath, for a weekly rest cannot fitly remember a flight that could come but once a year, while those who held a change in Sabbath reckoning teach that the fifteenth of Abib became Israel's weekly Sabbath thereafter until the crucifixion.
Context and Calendar Date
This day came out in the month Abib belongs to the account of the going out from Egypt in Exodus 2-23, especially Exodus 11-13, covering the hurried escape after the death of the firstborn in close connection with the Passover ordinance. It stands in the course that runs from Moses's first demand to let Israel go to worship God in the wilderness to Israel's song of triumph beyond the Red Sea. The exodus is a real event under Moses's direct supervision, stated as certainly as creation. Its events are not to be expected to receive direct mention in Egypt's public historical records, which recorded successes and triumphs.
Abib, also called Nisan, is the first month of the sacred year, beginning in spring and corresponding nearly to April. The verse dates Israel's departure from Egyptian bondage to that month in the setting of the Passover and liberation. Abib had been the seventh month of the civil year, which began with Tisri, corresponding to September and October, with New Year's Day on the first day of Tisri as the original first month. Because Israel left Egypt in Abib, God made Abib the first month, beginning the ecclesiastical or sacred year distinct from the civil year.
The Jewish year had twelve months of alternating thirty and twenty-nine days, making 354 days, with an intercalary month called Veadar added every third year or oftener so the months would correspond with the seasons. The flight out of Egypt was on the fifteenth day of Abib, the first month. Israel reached the wilderness of Sin on the fifteenth day of the following month before arriving at Sinai.
Memorial and Theological Meaning
This day in the month Abib is the Passover memorial of deliverance from Egyptian bondage with a strong hand, to be kept as a yearly feast to the Lord throughout generations by an ordinance forever. Passover was the first of the three annual festivals then instituted, kept on the fourteenth day of the first month. It was also called the feast of unleavened bread because no leaven was eaten during its seven days from the fifteenth to the twenty-first of Abib. Its date and observance were fitted to remember the time of the event commemorated.
The original Passover instructions in Exodus 12 and 13 were given for Israel in Egypt and on the journey to Palestine and were observed in the wilderness and for some time later. After the building of the temple the form of celebration was materially changed, with injunctions added in the later scriptures that were not in the former and were hardly possible to carry out in the wilderness. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was given to keep the hasty going-out in memory, declaring how the fearful Egyptians hurried Israel away. When sons asked what the service meant, the answer was that with mighty hand Jehovah brought them up from Egypt, while the Passover remembered how the destroying angel passed over their dwellings when Egypt's firstborn were doomed to die.
God ordained this annual feast in memory of eating unleavened bread when fleeing Egypt in Abib and of passing over Israel when smiting the Egyptians as a fitting annual memorial distinct from the weekly Sabbath. The flight was on the fifteenth day of the first month and is commemorated annually, while the Sabbath is a rest on the seventh day of each week, so the Sabbath has nothing in it to commemorate that flight. The weekly Sabbath is not a memorial of that deliverance, for a weekly rest cannot fitly remember a day that could come but once a year, and a rest cannot be a memorial of a rush.
The departure in Abib marks a change in Sabbath reckoning in which the original Eden Sabbath, which fell on the sixteenth day of Abib that week and is Sunday, was set back one day at the departure, so the day of leaving Egypt became the Jewish Sabbath thereafter until the crucifixion, when the Jewish Sabbath was abrogated and Sunday at the resurrection resumed its place as the Sabbath of the Lord. The fifteenth day of Abib, the day of flight and rest from bondage, was constituted by divine appointment as the weekly Sabbath of Israel that week and on that same weekday ever afterward till the crucifixion and resurrection, while the next day, the sixteenth of Abib, which from the beginning had been the seventh day, was constituted the first day in a new order of weeks, so Israel kept the day before the true Sabbath of the Lord. Abib is also presented as the starting point for a proposed annual reckoning of the Sabbath tied to Passover.
Coming out in Abib was part of God's wonderful deliverance in Egypt and at the Red Sea, moving Israel from oppression with the whole power of Egypt against them to triumph beyond the sea with Egypt's host overthrown. It demonstrated God's wisdom, love, and power, His ability and right to rule, and Israel's obligation to obey, yet left Israel to be tested whether they would walk in His law. It manifested mighty and creative power as never done in saving any nation. Their hundreds of years of slavery had unfitted them to comprehend His great salvation and required character, so God gave them a great multiple object-lesson in various forms and rites comprehending the whole plan of salvation, instructing Moses to take free-will offerings to make a sanctuary that He might dwell among them. The exodus from Egypt toward Canaan is a type of God's people being delivered from the dark Egypt of this earth.