Understanding the Passover, the time of Jesus Christ’s death and the Day of First Fruits
The Truth of Genesis: The Seven Feasts Of Yehovah, Part 4.
The moadim of First Fruits controls when all of the other feasts are observed.
At the end of the 12th month, called Adar, the barley is inspected to see if it has reached the stage of ripeness, called “aviv”. Originally, the first month of the Hebrew year was called Aviv. If the barley is aviv, then the sighting of the renewed Moon starts the new year. If the barley is not yet aviv, as occurred this year (2016 AD), a second month was observed, called Adar Bet, meaning “second 12th month”. The barley must be aviv in order to be used as the First Fruits Offering on the Sunday following the 15th day of the month.
The feast of unleavened bread, which we spoke of in Part 3, always starts at sundown on Passover, making it the 15th day of the first month, since Passover is the 14th day. The first fruits moadim mostly occurs on the next first day of the week, which is the following Sunday, except when Passover is on the Sabbath day, in which case another seven days must go by before the appointed time of First Fruits. The following is what goes on.
And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of David king of Israel.
photo John per wikimedia commons
King David put in place the ritual of the temple service, and the procedures which the High priest would follow concerning the Passover, and the First Fruits Offering. On the 10th day of the first month, the High Priest would go to Bethlehem to pick out the premiere perfect lamb that would be sacrificed, and bring it back thru the Damascus gate in Jerusalem, thru the streets and up to the Temple Mount to be inspected by the people. This is the path that Jesus took when He came thru the gate a half hour ahead of the High Priest of the Temple, riding on a donkey. On the 14th, after killing the last of hundreds of lambs, the last one being the premier or principal lamb, the priest would shout “it is Finished”. That’s what Jesus said on the cross.
The Kidron Valley runs north-south between the Mount of Olives and the eastern wall of the Temple Mount and the town of Bethlehem. This valley actually continues all the way from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea. The total length of the valley is 20 miles, and it descends about 4,000 feet.
Before sunset at Passover, the High priest and his associates would leave the temple mount after putting the last Lamb in the oven, and walk to the Kidron Valley, crossing a bridge, into a field of barley that is alongside of the Mt. of Olives, where there is a large cemetery. The barley crop near Jerusalem is marked by tying about 10 bundles together, without pulling or cutting them from the roots. This could occur any day of the week, from Sunday to Saturday, depending on when the first day of the month begins.
Passover is in part, the day of the slaying of the thousands of Lambs, the 14th day of the month, and is the sacrifice itself. The remaining part of Passover is after sundown, which starts the 15th day of the month. It is that evening and night when Yehovah went throughout Egypt and killed the first born of every house, but He “passed over” houses that had the lamb’s blood on the door posts.
