Unlike many traditions and customs of religions today, the origin of the Passover and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread is found in the scriptures. The depiction of the physical deliverance of Israel out of Egypt was only a shadow of the spiritual deliverance which is available to all of us today. God used Moses for the physical deliverance, sacrificing the lamb in place of the blood of man; however, the spiritual required his personal intervention and the shedding of his own blood.
Exodus 12:14-17 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.
Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.
As we begin to discuss the origin of this feast, let’s first understand that verse 17 directs God’s chosen to observe it and that it is to be observed forever. GOD has provided, in His Word, complete directions on how to worship Him in spirit and truth. The truth being found in His Word and the untruth being found to contradict His Word. Israel was directed to observe the feast at the appointed time. Only scripture can tell the true believer when that appointed time is. Easter is not an acceptable replacement. One reason is that it is not at the appointed time.
Exodus 13:10 Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in his season from year to year.
We must remember that the sacraments attached to this feast must also be done at the appointed time, not at a time of man’s choosing. This is God’s chosen time for us to receive the body and the blood of Christ. The adversary has made the sacraments symbolic rather than effectual by coercing man to do them at other times. It would not make sense to us if we were asked to celebrate other common memorials, such as, birthdays and wedding anniversaries on something other than a fixed calendar date every year.
Exodus 12:18-19 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.
Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.
The Passover lamb was sacrificed on the first day of the seven day feast. Deuteronomy 16:5 speaks of this being called assembly, not to be kept at home in our minds. It directs that we should make this sacrifice in the place that He chooses to place His name in.
Deuteronomy 16:1-8 Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.
Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passover unto the LORD thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place his name there.
Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.
And there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coast seven days; neither shall there any thing of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all night until the morning.
Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee:
But at the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt.
And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents.
Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread: and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work therein.
This scripture direction is not to eat leaven for seven complete days, not one day, or in one church service, as Easter would suggest. The one mention of Easter in the scripture is a mistranslation. Easter could not be a replacement of Passover (Pesach) in the Lord’s plan of salvation for us. The Passover occurred on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Leviticus 23:5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD'S Passover.
The reason for the feast is biblically explained in Exodus 12:17. The 15th day of Nisan, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, is the actual day that Israel came out of Egypt. Passover is one of three specially appointed feasts that we are commanded to appear before God and not empty (we must have gifts & sacrifice). The sacrifice we bring is the sacrifice of praise; presenting our bodies as living sacrifices. We give back to God according to the magnitude of His blessings to us.
Exodus 23:14 Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Exodus 23:15 Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)
GOD did not leave anything for man to determine, not even the rules of exception. When there was exception or question, Israel did not obtain the answer from man, but from God. Moses said, “ I will hear what the Lord will command…Numbers 9:8. we should still be looking to God today for the answers. You will find that answer in His Word.
Numbers 9:6 And there were certain men, who were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the passover on that day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day:
7 And those men said unto him, We are defiled by the dead body of a man: wherefore are we kept back, that we may not offer an offering of the LORD in his appointed season among the children of Israel?
8 And Moses said unto them, Stand still, and I will hear what the LORD will command concerning you.
9And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
10 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto the LORD.
11 The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
12 They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of it: according to all the ordinances of the passover they shall keep it.
13 But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the LORD in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.
14 And if a stranger shall sojourn among you, and will keep the passover unto the LORD; according to the ordinance of the passover, and according to the manner thereof, so shall he do: ye shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land.
However, for most of us we should reconsider the consequences of being able and not keeping the feast. We bear our sin because we have forsaken the method ordained of GOD to be released from the punishment of sin. [For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.] That soul is separated from GOD”S people and is therefore separated from GOD. We must understand the reality of some being in the church, right in the midst, but still cut off. When we are cut off, we are not able to obtain the full blessings of citizenship.