5 Passover Secrets in Deuteronomy 16

God's Word tells us more about Passover than any other commanded observance, save only the weekly Sabbath. You'll find passages relevant to Passover throughout the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. This is because Passover represents the single most important event in all of human history: the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Yeshua the Messiah. He is our Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7) "slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). Passover is all about "Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). It always has been and always will be!

We find a particularly instructive Passover passage in Deut. 16. Here's Deut. 16:1-8:

1 "Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

2 "Therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover to the LORD your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place where the LORD chooses to put His name.

3 "You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

4 "And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until morning.

5 "You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you;

6 "but at the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt.

7 "And you shall roast and eat it in the place which the LORD your God chooses, and in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents.

8 "Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a sacred assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work on it."

Several crucial points here tell us exactly when to observe Passover.

Firstly, notice that v. 1 tells us God brought Israel out of Egypt by night, and v. 6 ties that event to Passover itself. God delivered Israel from Egypt on the night of Passover!

Secondly, in v. 3, God linked the entire 7-day Feast of Unleavened Bread (itself also called the Feast of Passover in Luke 22:1) with the Passover sacrifice: "Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread WITH IT." Notice! Seven days, not eight. And they were to eat unleavened bread for 7 days WITH the Passover sacrifice! This establishes the Passover sacrifice on the afternoon of Nisan 14th leading into the Days of Unleavened Bread, at the same time Jesus Himself died as our Passover Lamb.

Thirdly, the Passover sacrifice itself is linked to the First Day of Unleavened Bread in v. 4. The only way for this to be possible is if the Passover sacrifice began on the afternoon of the 14th, and the roasting of the lamb (which takes 5-6 hours) continued on into the night of the First Day of Unleavened Bread (the 15th). Remember, there are 7 days of unleavened bread, not 8! If one tried to argue that the 14th itself was the first day, that would result in 8 days of unleavened bread and contradict the Scriptures!

Fourthly, v.5 commanded the Israelites not to sacrifice the Passover lambs at any of their private residences, but only at the tabernacle or temple. We see this throughout the Old Testament, especially in 2 Chron. 30 and 35. Therefore, it would have been against God's law, and therefore sin, for anyone in Jesus' day to sacrifice a Passover lamb outside the temple. Both the Bible and secular history show that the Passover sacrifices in Jesus' day took place on the afternoon of Nisan 14th, at the same time Jesus Himself died as our Passover Lamb.

Finally, in v. 6, God commanded the Israelites to sacrifice the Passover lambs, not at twilight as the NKJV erroneously renders this verse, but at evening (erev; Strong's #6153). He commanded that this be done not just at evening, a very broad term, but specifically "at the going down of the sun." "Going down" is bo (Strong's #935) and means simply "coming, going, bringing," etc. In other words, it means "at the going of the sun," or even, "as the sun is going down." Thus, this passage also indicates that the Passover sacrifice fell toward the end of Nisan 14th, the time of Jesus' own sacrifice as our Passover Lamb!

Taking Deut. 16 as a whole, it seems almost inescapable to conclude that the Passover sacrifice happened on the afternoon of Nisan 14th, leading into the First Day of Unleavened Bread. It also seems inescapable that the death of the Passover lambs foreshadowed Jesus' own death as our Passover Lamb on the same day and at the same time of day!