The Hebraic Christian Global Community mission is to facilitate the move of God to restore the Hebraic foundations of the Christian faith to all believer.

They offer this fascinating information free.

If you’re just beginning your search for the Hebraic foundations of your Christian faith or if you’re a long-time student, These resources are for you.

	Our Lost LegacyThis is my favorite book to introduce someone to Hebrew roots becasue it is B-A-L-A-N-C-E-D!Read the entire text of Dr. Garr’s book, Restoring Our Lost Legacy. 246 pages free!
	Restore! MagazineA free e-copy of Restore!,a Hebraic roots magazine.
	Hebraic InsightA free e-copy of Hebraic Insight, HCGC’s inductive Hebraic Bible-study journal. 34 pp
	StabilityA free e-copy one of Dr. Garr’s Stability white paper series. 34pp
	Golden NuggetsConcise summaries of topics about Christianity’s Hebraic roots.
	More Resources audios, DVD, and much more from Hebraic Christian Global Community

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Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot in Hebrew) is the time for celebration of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, as well as a celebration of the offering of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest in agrarian Israelite society.

This festival was celebrated seven weeks or fifty days after the Passover, hence its name in Hebrew, Shavuot (weeks), and Greek, Pentecost (fiftieth). Actually, Shavuot is the longest of the biblical festivals, lasting fifty days. It began on the morning after the Sabbath after Passover and concluded on the morning after seven additional Sabbaths had passed, or fifty days later.

The day of Pentecost (the fiftieth day) was “fully come” (Acts 2:1). It was a festival of celebration for the wheat harvest, which featured a firstfruits offering of two loaves of bread that were waved before the Lord.

Pentecost has been historically celebrated by the Israelites as the anniversary of the giving of the law. This festival is the only one that shortly occurred after Passover; therefore, it must have been the feast that God referenced when he had Moses to tell Pharaoh, “Let my people go so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the desert” (Exodus 5:1). It was approximately fifty days after Passover that Moses ascended up into the mountain and received the tablets of the law.

Since the people of Israel so loved the Torah of the Lord, Pentecost became a time for rejoicing in the covenantal provision of God for their order and well being. It was at this time that God himself thundered the Ten Commandments and gave the code for living to the Israelites, the Torah that has kept the Jewish people as a covenant people for the centuries that have ensued since that momentous event.

It was only fitting, then, that when another of the great events in the lives of the Jewish believers in Jesus occurred, it coincided with the day of Pentecost. “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come . . . they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:1, 4). Just like the Torah had been given at Pentecost, so the Holy Spirit which was to empower the believers for service both as witnesses to the Messiah and as overcomers and fulfillers of the law of God was given to the church on the day of Pentecost.

The law of the Spirit of life in the Messiah came on the anniversary of the giving of the Torah law. The purpose of the Holy Spirit was to empower the believers to gather disciples to form the church. This gathering of believers is seen in the rich symbolism of the loaves of bread that were offered as firstfruits of Pentecost and the fact that the apostles recognized the church as being one bread (1 Corinthians 10:17), millions of particles of flour baked together into one loaf. The fact that there were two identical loaves in the offering of Pentecost suggests that God would make the one offering of the church from two people, Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 3:6).

When is Shavout?

There is much controversy as to the date of the celebration of the Feast of Pentecost, also called the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Harvest. The Sadducean party maintained a literal rendering of the Torah references to Pentecost by saying that the first day of the Feast of Weeks was the morning after the weekly Sabbath that followed Passover (Leviticus 23:11).

The Pharisees, who were the founders of Rabbinic Judaism, believed that the first day of the fifty days was on the morning after the first day of Unleavened Bread or the morning after the annual Sabbath of the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Others (notably the Samaritans) believed that the first day of Pentecost should be on the morning after the last day of Unleavened Bread. Still others believed that it should occur on the morning after the weekly Sabbath after the entire Feast of Unleavened Bread. In all likelihood, the position of the Sadducees was more accurate scripturally, so that the day when “Pentecost was fully come” (Acts 2:1), was always on Sunday.

The earliest church continued to observe the Feast of Pentecost. This is seen in the determination of Paul to be in Jerusalem for Pentecost (Acts 20:16) and in his reckoning his travel schedule by Pentecost (1 Corinthians 16:8). No doubt, this was a celebration of the great events that had occurred on that first Pentecost when God gave his Word to his people and on the first New Covenant Pentecost when God gave his Spirit to the community of believers.

Pentecost (Shavuot) celebration can be among the most festive of times for both Jews and Christians. Remembering the great event of the giving of the Torah is important for both communities, for without the Torah there would be no standard for righteous living. Likewise, for Christians, Pentecost is an annual time for renewing the Spirit and the calling to be witnesses to the Messiah in all the world. Various symbols and elements of biblical and Jewish history are helpful in accenting the celebration of Pentecost, including Torah scrolls, shofars, menorahs, timbrels (tambourines), tallits (prayer shawl), and banners.

For More Information

See  Our Lost Legacy: Christianity’s Hebrew Heritage by Dr. John D. Garr or go to www.HebraicCommunity.org to connect with the Stability series and other teaching materials about virtually any subject relating to Christian celebrations of biblical festivals and Christian use of biblical and Jewish symbols.

Learn the teaching method God uses to teach His children. The ultimate hands-on Bible lessons! Teach your children the way God instructed the Hebrews to teach their children –with annual events telling the story of His people and the coming of Jesus.

The symbolism in the Bible is an absorbing subject! This book reveals Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, all foretold in the Spring holidays, and find out how to recognize His second coming by learning about the Fall holidays! This giant, 585 page telephone-size book gives an an extensive look at the nine annual holidays: Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Tabernacles, Hanukkah, Purim and the weekly holiday–the Sabbath!

“In 34 years of publishing Messianic Catalogs we have never seen such a creative contribution to the body of Messiah …” Manny and Sandra Brotman, founder of The Messianic Jewish Movement International

Having this book at your fingertips is like having a library on the Bible holidays!

This book includes information that will fill ten books: one on each of the seven holidays in Leviticus, the Sabbath, plus Hanukkah and Purim, and tons of information about the importance of our Hebrew Roots. You’ll use this book over and over for year to come!

Dr. Marvin Wilson, Professor and Chairman of Biblical and Theological Studies at Gordon College, Wenham, MA and author of Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith said:

“I enthusiastically endorse this exceedingly creative project! This family guide is a Christian exploration of Biblical Holidays adaptable for all ages. This impressive work is visually attractive and sculpturally anchored. Here is a delightful educational tool serious students will appreciate, for it will provide them with a detailed understanding of one of the foundational instructional pillars of the earliest Jewish church. Explore wonderful basic foundational truths that are found in the only Bible the earliest church knew. The glossary is a real asset. “

Click Here to Download Free Excerpt Pages (39 pages PDF)

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Sample Pages

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I’m pro any wholefood plant-based diet  that excludes unclean meat, sugar, processed foods, and GMOs. Heart of Wisdom is the publisher of  Hope Egan’s excellent books. I also read books and listen to podcast by several authors.

Here is a list you can bookmark and access all the best nutrition information in one place. To get the most out of these, read the books while you petal on your stationary bike, listen to podcast on your daily walk.

*Follows Bible Dietary Guideline

Facebook Group

To get free daily health and nutrition information join Eating God’s Way Facebook Group

How I Feel About Meat

There is nothing wrong with eating meat (clean meat not pork). There are serious health problems from eating meat from animals raised artificially (jammed in cages,  fed unnatural food, pumped full of growth hormones, and antibiotics). Meat should be less than 10% of your diet and organic. See The China Study.

Dr Fuhrman’s Food Prymid

Dr. Fuhrman’s Nutritarian food pyramid is based on the principles of high nutrient eating as illustrated by his Health Equation: Health = Nutrients / Calories (H = N / C). Low-calorie, nutrient dense foods are at the base of the pyramid, and high-calorie, nutrient poor foods are at the top. As nutrient density decreases, the quantity of room in the diet decreases.

A Nutritarian diet is a way of eating which bases food choices on maximizing the micronutrients per calorie. Read more here. 

HOLY COW! Does God Care About What We Eat?

New 2012 2nd Edition published by Heart of Wisdom Publishing

This book is a simple-to-understand overview in plain words the differences between clean and unclean meats.

The author presents a balanced explanation of eating biblically and explains where some of the non-biblical traditions (such as separating milk and meat) come from. Egan addresses the verses that most Christians use to rationalize that all foods are clean (Mark 7 and Acts 10). She uses basic hermeneutic principles to properly interpret the text.

Eagan is very clear that our diets are not a salvation issue while also encourages obedience to God’s Word. I highly recommend this fine book.

Hope helps you see how science and Scripture brilliantly intertwine. Promoting neither legalism nor vegetarianism, Holy Cow! gently challenges you to take a fresh look at how you live out your faith!

PLUS: Man Alive! There’s More! in addition extra pages are included by by FFOZ Educational Director and Bible teacher D. Thomas Lancaster, Man Alive!

Does God Care What We Eat?

Article by Jennifer Schuchmann from Christianity Today 2006.

Are the Old Testament’s strict food laws relevant for today’s church?

Absolutely, says Messianic Jewish author Hope Egan.

The petite, 5-foot-4 woman stepped up to the podium at a Chicago church and lowered the microphone; her auburn curls framed the gentle smile on her face. Hope Egan doesn’t look like a revolutionary, but her recent book, Holy Cow! Does God Care About What We Eat?, and her passionate endorsement of Old Testament food laws for today’s New Testament Christians have been stirring up discussion wherever she goes.

This crowd of 200 Christian women listened intently as Egan shared her struggles with compulsive eating, her discovery of a “biblically kosher” diet, and God’s role in the journey.

“I was consumed with thoughts of food,” she began. At work, she visited the candy machine several times a day. Though she sat at the same table when eating with others, she wasn’t fully present. Instead, she fixated on the food, obsessing about something as simple as a plate of cookies: How many should I eat? We each get three, but I’ve already eaten my three; there won’t be enough if I eat more. Why aren’t they eating their share of the cookies? Don’t they like these cookies? Will anyone notice if I eat just one more?

Faith in food

Hope grew up in a secular Jewish community where faith was more cultural than religious. “When I was little, I remember asking my parents whether we were Jewish or Christian because I would forget” she says.

Like most of her Jewish girlfriends, she attended synagogue, took Hebrew lessons, and had a Bat Mitzvah. For Hope, the best part of synagogue was the location–across the street from Carson’s Ribs, home of her favorite meal. While the family dabbled in celebrating religious holidays, Hope’s memories are of the food, not the faith. “God just wasn’t on our radar screen” she says.

Hope’s food issues affected those who loved her. As a CPA, she was analytical about balancing input and output. Knowing that she could maintain her weight through compulsive exercise, she would forsake time with friends and family to spend it in the gym.

“If it was sweet, I couldn’t have it in the house” she recalls. She didn’t stop after one doughnut or cookie; she ate the whole box or bag. “I would throw food into the trash and then later pull it out and eat it.” She learned to take drastic steps like pouring water on food before throwing it away.

Hope thought she was in control until a car accident left her unable to exercise. Frustrated by her food compulsions and fearful of gaining weight, she joined a 12-step program–Overeaters Anonymous. The first three steps involved admitting she was powerless over food, acknowledging a higher power, and giving Him control.

“I was leery but desperate” says Hope, who began attending meetings. “Didn’t God have anything better to do than keep me from eating another chocolate chip cookie?” But the changed lives around her were compelling. “I began to dabble in the steps and think maybe God could change me.”

On her knees, she accepted the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as her own and gave Him control over her life. “I had been doing such a lousy job eating and managing my relationships, but after that moment they improved just enough for me to believe that God was real and active in my life.”

Rethinking Jesus

That Jesus was not the Messiah was a belief deeply entrenched in Hope’s family history, but her newfound appreciation for God and His ability to work miracles caused her to reconsider. “If God could create the world in six days, maybe the Jesus stuff was true too,” says Hope. She sought the truth with an open mind, discovering information about Jesus that contradicted her traditionally held beliefs. That truth eventually produced fruit in every area of her life. While her family didn’t celebrate her choice, they were pleased to see the positive changes.

As a new believer, Hope was encouraged to read the whole Bible and to take it literally. She did, starting with Genesis. She quickly came upon some things that disturbed her new beliefs. “It seemed a lot of Jewish things that were in the Christian Bible weren’t in Christianity.” She was used to things adding up, and this one didn’t. “I was shaken because the Bible didn’t reconcile with the way I saw Christians practicing their faith.”

For most of us, the connection between God and food is a loose one; maybe we pray before eating or meditate during Communion. But ordinarily, the God we serve has little to do with the food we serve.

That’s what confused Hope. Most Christians ignored Old Testament food laws. This became a stumbling block as she tried to grow in her new faith.

“I took in the Christian beliefs about eating pork and shellfish through osmosis. Even when I got in and read the Bible, I continued to ignore the Scriptures because it was easy to go with the flow. People smarter than me were eating these things.”

When Hope asked why Christians ate foods that were contrary to the guidelines in Leviticus 11, she received theological answers about why it was okay. The apostle Peter’s dream in Acts 10 was often referenced. “It was the answer I wanted to hear,” she admits. She continued to eat ribs.

Sick of food

Later, however, a chronic illness forced Hope to revisit the food issue. The only cure was a strict diet that eliminated common foods and ingredients such as sugar and wheat. She could no longer eat out; she learned to cook healthy and tasty meals from scratch.

“It was a huge blessing,” she says. “My body healed, I lost a few pounds, and I began feeling better.”

But a big question remained: How should she eat for the rest of her life?

Again, Hope turned to the Bible to see what God had to say. She sought the counsel of Christian doctors, scholars, and others who had done similar research. She was surprised to find an entire Christian subculture that followed biblical food laws, believing that the Hebrew Scriptures are still relevant. This gave her the confidence to study the food-related scriptures herself.

Brian, her husband, was concerned. He feared her questions had more to do with her Jewish heritage than her Christian faith. He adamantly quoted New Testament verses that seemed to promote eating pork.

“God had always been the glue that kept us together, but my husband was extremely opposed to the road I was going down.”

A wedge formed between them, until Brian reluctantly studied the issues on his own. This became their turning point. “After he did his homework, he joined me on the journey,” says Hope.

Together they learned that just as mothers have opinions on the foods their children should eat, God our Father cares about the foods we eat. From Genesis, Hope learned the importance of plant-based foods, such as fruits, nuts, vegetables, grains, and seeds. But other scriptures were confusing. Did God arbitrarily declare some animals clean and other animals unclean? Again, the CPA tried to reconcile things.

The ‘clean/unclean’ dilemma

Hope discovered that God’s classification system wasn’t as arbitrary as it seemed. On a surface read of Leviticus 11 it appeared that God randomly chose which animals were clean and which were unclean, but a closer look revealed that these distinctions were in place since the time of Noah.

Further investigation showed that the classification of clean and unclean animals was part of an intelligent plan. Clean mammals have a “split hoof” and “chew the cud.” These animals are herbivores; in other words they eat plants. Herbivores avoid many of the diseases, parasites, and worms that meat-eating animals acquire, so they are a healthier food choice for humans. Herbivores, like the cow, process their food differently than other animals. As the food works its way through their multi-stomach digestive system, the food is purified before toxins are absorbed into the animals’ bodies.

Compare the cow to an unclean animal such as a pig (which has a split hoof but doesn’t chew the cud); a pig’s food goes to the stomach where it is directly absorbed during the digestive process.

When you consider that pigs are omnivores–they eat everything: plants, dead animals, small rodents, garbage, and even feces–this is an important difference. Animals like the cow, chicken, or tuna were designed as safe food sources, and God designated these animals as clean.

Others, like pigs, catfish, and vultures, were created to be scavengers to clean the environment and were designated as unclean. Hope learned that God’s commands regarding clean and unclean animals weren’t arbitrary but rather an indication of His love for us.

When God’s plan is ignored–like feeding ground-up cattle parts to cows to get them to grow faster–we end up with unintended effects, like Mad Cow Disease. Hope’s study of God’s food laws strengthened her faith as she saw His intelligent design.

Excited by what she learned, Hope stopped eating the meat of unclean animals, including ribs. She also increased the amount of fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds in her diet. Today, at 39, her health has never been better, nor her faith stronger.

While Hope has finally found the answers that “add up” for her, she acknowledges that not everyone is bothered by the same questions. “There are theologians who have drawn different conclusions,” she says.

Her intention in writing her book wasn’t to get everyone to stop eating pork and shellfish, but rather to encourage Christians to study the issue for themselves, just as she and Brian did. She hopes her testimony will inspire believers to improve both their physical and spiritual health.

What’s on God’s Menu?

Discussion Starters

• Do you think believers should obey the Old Testament’s food laws? Why, or why not?
• Read Mark 7:1-23. What do you think Jesus is trying to tell the religious leaders in this passage?
• Read Acts 10. What do you think Peter’s dream means?
• What are your eating habits like? Could you see yourself adopting a “biblically kosher” diet?

delves further into some of the most challenging Scripture passages mentioned in the main part of this book. Fasten your seatbelts and get out your Bibles; this may be the richest Scripture study you have ever experienced.

Buy this book at the Heart of Wisdom Store

Also by Hope Egan

What the Bible Says about Healthy Living Cookbook

Join biblical health author Hope Egan and lifelong healthy eater Amy Cataldo as they unveil the long-awaited follow-up to What the Bible Says about Healthy Living.

Helping you incor porate God’s ingredients into your life—simply and without sacrificing taste—this companion cookbook shows you how to prepare meals, snacks and desserts based on the principles outlined in What the Bible Says about Healthy Living. For years biblical health experts have been telling you how to think about biblical eating. Now there is a complete cookbook that helps you take action:

“I am enthusiastic in my recommendation of the What the Bible Says about Healthy Living Cookbook. It is, in many ways, the long-awaited companion to my book, What the Bible Says about Healthy Living.”–Rex Russell, M.D.

“These simple to prepare recipes should inspire anyone who wants to honor their body—God’s Temple—and feed their family from a biblical perspective.”–Jordan Rubin–New York Times best-selling author of The Maker’s Diet.

Free Excerpt (28 pages)

Booklet Cover

Printable Messianic Haggadah

Download Exodus Lapbook Booklets

1. Hebrews in Egypt
2. Baby Moses
3. Moses Educated in Egypt
4. Moses Objects
5. Moses Escapes to Midian
6. Call of Moses
7. Ten Plagues booklet
8. Passover
9. God Leads His People
10. Crossing the Red Sea
11. Song of Moses

See Bible Lessons to Go With Each Booklet Here

Passover Teaches us About Jesus

Passover Teaches About Jesus

• Jesus shared the Passover meal with his apostles saying, “I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.” (Luke 22:15-16)
• Jesus is the final Passover Lamb sacrificed to free us spiritually from the slavery of the sins just like the lamb had once been instrumental in physical deliverance of Hebrew slaves from bondage in Egypt.
• The Passover celebration is a memorial and tribute to Jesus for his great sacrifice and tortures that he suffered for the mankind.
• The unleavened bread was to represent Jesus’ body and wine to represent his blood and the New Covenant. Jesus himself took the place of the traditional lamb.

The First Christians Observed Passover

• Paul speaks of taking the physical reminders of Jesus’ body and blood (1st Cor. 11:23-34), we are told that as often as we do it we are to remember His death. What the Apostle is presenting in Hebraic terms is that we are not only to identify with Jesus in His death (Rom. 6; death to self; new life in Him).
• The Bible holidays were commemorated by Jesus and His apostles – and continued to be observed by Jesus’ followers in the first century even after His death and resurrection.
• The early believers in Jesus, both Jew and Gentile celebrated the Resurrection in the context of the Passover: Matthew 26; Mark 14; Luke 2, 22; John 2, 6, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19; Acts 12:4; 1 Corinthians 5:7.

The Passover Seder is a Special Fellowship with God

• The Passover that Jesus celebrated before His death is a picture of the sacred banquet that is seen in Luke 13:28-30 and Rev. 19:6-9. God the Father, in Jesus, and Man at that Passover table, were eating and fellowshiping together. It’s the strongest possible picture of the Father’s friendship with us. In the ancient Middle East, if two hostile enemies ate at the same table they became the closest of friends. That’s how powerful table fellowship is.  (Avram Yehoshua)

Passover is a Biblical Command

Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the LORD.

Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters.

And thou shalt shew thy son in that day, saying, This is done because of that which the LORD did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt.

And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the LORD’s law may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath the LORD brought thee out of Egypt.

Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in his season from year to year. (Exodus 13:6-10)

Did Easter Replace Passover?

Check in nearly any Bible help or encyclopedia to verify these facts:

• Easter cannot be found in Scripture.
• Easter was never instituted by God.
• Easter was never sanctioned by Jesus Christ.
• Easter was never taught by Christ’s apostles.
• Easter was never observed by the early New Testament Church.
• What do eggs and rabbits have to do with Christ’s death and resurrection? Easter history is that of pagan fertility gods and goddesses worship.

Messianic Passover Haggadah

This little booklet will walk you through your Seder step-by-step!

Haggadah is a Hebrew word that means the telling.The Haggadah is the Order of Service for the Passover Seder Dinner. A copy is used by each participant and is essential for understanding and participation. This Haggadah is inexpensive and functional and for a Christian Seder. This 24 page booklet tells us each step of the seder illustrating the first passover and the symbolism of Christ our Passover.

This is an Electronic Book. You can print this Haggadah from you computer in color or black and white and fold it into a a 6″ by 4.5″ booklet.

By having this $5 book on your computer you can print out new Haggadahs each year or print out extra copies for company attending your seder.

Click to view illustrated pages of this Hagaddah.

To print more than 12 copies please see  Classroom rights Haggadah

Moses was chosen by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. God commanded Moses to tell the children of Israel:

Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the LORD (Ex. 6:6-8).

Passover is the time of beginnings for Israel. This festival ushers in the coming of spring on the Jewish calendar. It is celebrated on the fourteenth1 day of Abib (the first month of the Jewish religious calendar, later called Nisan). Each of the three pilgrimage festivals Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles has an agricultural basis as well as an historical significance. Many different things are celebrated during Passover. A few of these include: the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the growing season; the new lambing time, and the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt during Passover.

It cannot be overemphasized as to how foundational Passover is in God’s eternal redemption plan. Only Nisan can be the first month in God’s calendar. Though other cycles and other aspects of life in the LORD are important, it is the sacrifice of the Lamb that gives it all meaning. Except for the sacrifice of the Passover and the blood on the doorposts, Israel would have suffered the same fate as the Egyptians.

The promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would have then become void. With no Passover sacrifice and with no blood on the doorposts, then no Torah could have been given and no other celebrations could have followed. Apart from the sacrifice of the Passover and the blood on the door posts, there would have been no basis for Messiah, our Passover, to be sacrificed on the anniversary of that momentous occasion. We would have no hope and remain dead in our sins; however, the command was obeyed and deliverance was accomplished. Indeed, for us, this is most certainly the first of all the months, the first month of the year, truly the real beginning of all spiritual life (Michael 1996).

God directs parents, this special night of the year, to take on the role of teacher, and pass down His story of the exodus from Egypt to future generations. This ceremony not only looks back to the miraculous story of God delivering His people, but it also presents the promise of Messiah’s death and resurrection. It is an exciting experience centering on a mixture of ritual foods. The matzah, bitter herbs, wine, and the rest, provide a lasting link through the march of history.

Israel’s Redemption from Egypt

The Old Testament story of Passover has more light, more splendor, more vividness, and a richer application to life than any other story in the book of Exodus. Moses and his brother Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him that the Lord said to let the Israelites go. Pharaoh refused to release the Israelites, even for a brief visit to the desert to worship their God. In fact, he made life for the Israelite slaves even worse. Moses had warned Pharaoh that God would send a series of plagues upon Egypt unless the people were freed.

God sent the plagues to show the people that He is the one true God. He confronted the things that the Egyptians called gods. The ten plagues were righteous plagues, and justly inflicted upon the Egyptians because each plague had something to do with the false gods that the Egyptians worshiped. God makes those false things that we worship a burden to us.

The word plague is from the Hebrew word oth, which means “sign”. The Egyptians believed in magic. They were always trying to override the laws of nature to perform their “tricks” God used the laws of nature to bring about His signs and wonders.

The entire episode of the plagues is supposed to have happened within eight to ten months. Each of the plagues spoke as a sign to the Egyptians, showing them that He is greater than their so-called gods. The first three plagues affected all the people, even the Hebrews. The next three plagues were much more intense and only happened to the Egyptians (I will put a division between my people and thy people v. 23). Before each plague, God commanded Moses and Aaron to warn Pharaoh, Let My people go or I [God] will bring a plague upon you. Before each plague, for three weeks, Moses warned Pharaoh. The actual plague lasted one week.

Seder

During the Passover celebration, Jews and Christians remember this great event by eating special foods associated with the bitterness of slavery and the sweetness of freedom. The entire meal, called the seder, is eaten as the story of Israel’s freedom is told. Everything in the Seder is directed toward the prime command from the Bible: And thou shall shew thy son in that day saying, This is done because of that which the LORD did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt (Exod. 13:8). See a Messianic Seder Process in the next chapter.

Redemption

The great miracle of the splitting of the Red Sea is the climax of the departure from Egypt and the inspiring wonder that forged a group of slaves into a nation. The redemption from Egypt is not only that of Israel but also a salvation by faith in general. The celebration of redemption from Egypt will be a pattern for salvation from all other evil.

During this God-ordained night we celebrate the doctrines of our salvation. Thus, like ancient Israel, we are sovereignty brought to the edge of the “sea” with no hope except to trust His deliverance and to follow Him. We marvel at His overwhelming sufficiency. Like ancient Israel, when we trust Him for deliverance and walk through the “sea” with Him, we end up singing and dancing on the other side. That’s Pesach! (Berkowitz 1996)

Passover Explained by a Three-Year Old

Note: A day on the Jewish calendar begins at sunset. When a date is given for a Jewish holiday, the holiday actually begins at sundown on the preceding day.

An excellent Passover video is available from Sojourner Ministries.  The Unleavened Messiah Video

Messianic Passover Haggadah

This little booklet will walk you through your Seder step-by-step!

Haggadah is a Hebrew word that means the telling.The Haggadah is the Order of Service for the Passover Seder Dinner. A copy is used by each participant and is essential for understanding and participation. This Haggadah is inexpensive and functional and for a Christian Seder. This 24 page booklet tells us each step of the seder illustrating the first passover and the symbolism of Christ our Passover.

This is an Electronic Book. You can print this Haggadah from you computer in color or black and white and fold it into a a 6″ by 4.5″ booklet.

By having this $5 book on your computer you can print out new Haggadahs each year or print out extra copies for company attending your seder.

Click to view illustrated pages of this Hagaddah.

To print more than 12 copies please see  Classroom rights Haggadah

John the Baptist introduced Jesus by saying, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29).

The Jews had been celebrating Passover for 1,500 years. They understood the significance of John’s statements.

Isaiah 53, written hundreds of years before Christ, records the suffering the human lamb would experience.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand (Isa. 53:7-10).

Triumphal Entry of the Lambs

In the first century, a lamb was chosen by the high priest outside of Jerusalem on the tenth of Nisan. Then the priest would lead this lamb into the city while crowds of worshippers lined the streets waving palm branches and singing Psalm 118, “Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord.”

Jesus our Messiah entered Jerusalem this same day, on a donkey (usually ridden by a king), probably right behind the High Priest’s procession. The crowds that had just heralded the entrance of the sacrificial lamb heralded the entrance of the Lamb of God.

Accordingly, Jesus identified himself with the Passover sacrifice (John 12:9-19). The next day, as Jesus entered Jerusalem, His entry fulfilled prophecy.

Enthusiasm filled the air. All Israel knew that it would be in Jerusalem where Messiah would be enthroned as their King. Edersheim writes,

Everyone in Israel was thinking about the Feast, Everyone was going to Jerusalem, or had those near and dear to them there, or at least watched the festive processions to the Metropolis of Judaism. It was a gathering of universal Israel, that of the memorial of the birth-night of the nation, and of its Exodus, when friends from afar would meet, and new friends be made; when offerings long due would be brought, and purification long needed be obtained and all worship in that grand and glorious Temple, with its gorgeous ritual. National and religious feelings were alike stirred in what reached far back to the first, and pointed far forward to the final Deliverance.

The High Priest would then take the lamb to the Temple, where it would be tied in public view so that it could be inspected for blemish. In the same way, Yeshua sat and taught in the Temple courtyard for four days. He was inspected and questioned as the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the teachers of the law sought to trip him up in His words and entrap Him. They could not, because He was perfect and without blemish (Lancaster1996).

Passover Pronounces Redemption

To believers in Messiah, the Passover feast has a special meaning. Though we are not slaves, as God’s people in Egypt, we were slaves to our sin, our own wants and desires. Sin was our master until Jesus, the Passover Lamb, delivered us from our Egypt. The lamb slain during Passover is a foreshadow of the redemption we find in Jesus, the Messiah, our Passover lamb. The principle of redemption is the concept of bondage to the slavery of sin and freedom from its domination (John 8:31-36). To be “redeemed” means to be purchased from slavery. Jesus Christ purchased our freedom with His blood as the payment for the redemption (Ps. 34:22; 1 Peter 1:18,19; Gal. 3:13; Eph. 1:7; 1 John 1:7).

Jesus ate the Passover meal with eleven of His disciples (see Passover in Bible Times). Just as the priest was to teach, pray, and offer sacrifice, Christ, the High Priest, taught, prayed, and then offered Himself as our sacrifice.
After the Meal

When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples. (John 18:1).

Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane. The garden has many ancient olive trees today, some of which may have grown from the roots of the trees that were present in Jesus’ time. (All trees in and around Jerusalem were cut down when the Romans conquered the city in 70 a.d. Olive trees can regenerate from their roots and live for thousands of years.) The name Gethsemane comes from the Hebrew Gat Shmanim, meaning “oil press” (Kollek). Since oil is used in the Bible to symbolize the Holy Spirit, it may be said that the garden is where “the Spirit of God was crushed” (Missler 1995).

It was here that Jesus agonized in prayer over what was to occur. It is significant that this is the only place in the King James Version where the word agony is mentioned (Strong’s concordance). The Greek word for agony means to be “engaged in combat” (Pink). Jesus agonized over what He was to go through, feeling that He was at the point of death (Mark 14:34). Yet He prayed, “Not my will, but thine be done” (Terasaka 1996).

Of medical significance is that Luke mentions Him as having sweat like blood. The medical term for this, hemohidrosis, or hematidrosis, has been seen in patients who have experienced extreme stress or shock to their systems (Edwards). The capillaries around the sweat pores become fragile, and leak blood into the sweat. A case history is recorded in which a young girl who had a fear of air raids in World War I developed the condition after a gas explosion occurred in the house next door (Scott). Another report mentions a nun who, as she was threatened with death by the swords of the enemy soldiers, “was so terrified that she bled from every part of her body and died of hemorrhage in the sight of her assailants.” (Grafenberg) As a memorial to Jesus’ ordeal, a church which now stands in Gethsemane is known as the Church of the Agony (ibid).

Immediately thereafter, He was betrayed by Judas (Mark 14:43), and captured by the high priest and taken for trial before Caiaphas (Luke 22:54). Consequently, Jesus was crucified between two thieves, fulfilling His own prediction that “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14). Most of His disciples fled at His arrest; only a group of women and one disciple, called “the disciple whom He loved,’ were present at the cross when He died (John 19:25-27; compare Matthew 27:55-56; Mark 15:40; and Luke 23:49).

Jesus’ Trial, Death, and Resurrection

Many of us have a hard time grasping the pain and suffering Christ went through on the crucifixion day. Television today has de-sensitized our feelings pertaining to the horrifying violence of the torture and slow death of Jesus.

The following is just a portion of an article by Dr. C. Truman Davis, M.D., M.S., titled: “The Crucifixion Of Jesus: The Passion Of Christ From A Medical Point Of View,” which explains some of the agony of Christ:

In the early morning, Jesus, battered and bruised, dehydrated, and exhausted from a sleepless night, is taken across Jerusalem to Pontius Pilate. The prisoner is stripped of His clothing and His hands tied to a post above His head. A short whip consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near the ends of each is brought down with full force again and again across Jesusÿ shoulders, back and legs.

The condemned man was forced to carry the patibulum [cross bar], apparently weighing about 110 pounds, from the prison to the place of execution. Without any historical or Biblical proof, medieval and Renaissance painters have given us our picture of Christ carrying the entire cross.

Many of these painters and most of the sculptors of crucifixes today show the nails through the palm. Roman historical accounts and experimental work have shown that the nails were driven between the small bones of the wrists and not through the palms. Nails driven through the palms will strip out between the fingers when they support the weight of the human body. The misconception may have come about through a misunderstanding of Jesusÿ words to Thomas, “Observe my hands.”

Anatomists, both modern and ancient, have always considered the wrists as a part of the hand. A titilus, or small sign, stating the victimÿs crime was usually carried at the front of the procession and later nailed to the cross above the head. A small bundle of flexible branches covered with long thorns (commonly used for firewood) are plaited into the shape of a crown and this is pressed into His scalp. The heavy patibulum [crossbar]of the cross is tied across His shoulders, and the procession headed by a centurion, begins its slow journey along the Via Dolorosa. In spite of His efforts to walk erect, the weight of the heavy wooden beam, together with the shock produced by copious blood loss, is too much. He stumbles and falls. The centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifixion, selects a stalwart North African onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross.

The crucifixion begins. The legionnaire drives a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. The patibulum is then lifted in place at the top of the stipes and the titulus reading, ÿJesus of Nazareth, King of the Jewsÿ is nailed in place.

Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves up and down against the rough timber; then another agony begins. A deep crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart.

The body of Jesus is now in extremis, and He can feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. This realization brings out possibly little more than a tortured whisper, ÿIt is finished.ÿ

His mission of atonement has been completed. Finally He can allow His body to die.

With one last surge of strength, He once again presses His torn feet against the nail, straightens His legs, takes a deeper breath, and utters His seventh and last cry, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit”  (Truman 1965).

Jesus died as the lambs for the Passover meal were being slain. Not a bone was to be broken in these sacrificial lambs (Ex. 12:46; Num. 9:12). Jesus, the Lamb of God, was the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world (1 Cor. 5:7).

The story does not end with the death of Jesus. His body was placed in a new tomb that belonged to a man named Joseph of Arimathea (Luke 23:50-56; John 19:38-42). The greatest event that separates Jesus from all others is the fact that He overcame death. In three days He rose again and lives today. He arose from the grave on the Feasts of Firstfruits!

On Nisan 17, when Israel emerged from the Red Sea, this emergence was a shadow of the fulfillment of the day of Firstfruits (Lev. 23:9-14). This was the first of Godÿs people to emerge from sin (Egypt). It was fulfilled 1,478 years later on Nisan 17, 30 a.d. when Jesus was resurrected and ascended to heaven as our high priest, the Firstfruit of the resurrected (John 20:17).

Two Passovers?

The gospels appear to say that the Messiah ate a Passover meal with the twelve on the evening beginning Nisan 14, and John appears to say Jews were having their Passover meal one day later. There are different theories to explain this.

1. The Sadducees and Pharisees disagreed on the day of Passover. The Sadducees (more conservative group) believed the Feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread were separate feast days. They held Passover on the fourteenth as God decreed in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Those of the majority opinion, including the Pharisees, held Passover on the fifteenth. Jesus may have been following both dates by having Passover with the disciples on the fourteenth and becoming the Passover lamb on the fifteenth.

2. Thousands of people would come to Jerusalem to have their lambs ritually slain in the Temple. If they only had one day in which to prepare for the Passover, it would have been extremely difficult to have slaughtered all the lambs brought in to be sacrificed. Therefore, they worked on two different time scales. The northern part of the country went with the old way of dating (starting from morning and going to the following morning). The southern part of the country followed the official dating method (from evening to evening). Thus, there were two times when lambs were being killed in the Temple for sacrifice.2

This controversy as to what day Passover should be is not the purpose of this. You must study to decide for yourself which day is correct. Some families celebrate both days, one with their church and one at home