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8 Hope of Israel Ministries BIBLE Correspondence Course Lesson 12

MEETING of His people ‘A CONVOCATION’ they do in the morning? Exodus 12:10.
-- on each of the annual Sabbaths and on His 8. The Israelites were now gathered at
Festivals. These times are “HOLY” Rameses. As yet the Israelites HAD NOT LEFT
convocations because YEHOVAH is Holy, and EGYPT. What did they do on the night of the
He has commanded them. A Holy convocation is 15th of Abib? Verses 33-36.
a religious assembly called by YEHOVAH God COMMENT: The Passover occurred
for the purpose of worship. the night of the 15th. The Exodus from Rameses
3. Which specific days are set apart as occurred the following morning “in the sight of
holy convocations in the Days of Unleavened all the Egyptians” (Numbers 33:3).
Bread? Leviticus 23:6-8. Notice the additional testimony as to the
4. Must these annual Sabbaths fall at a date of the Passover and the first Day of
SPECIFIC TIME of the month? Verse 6. At a Unleavened Bread: “The ‘Feast of Unleavened
specific time of WHICH month? Verse 5. Bread,’ which COMMENCED in the Paschal
COMMENT: The first month of the [Passover] night itself and lasted for seven days,
Hebrew calendar, which YEHOVAH God derived its name from the Mazzoth, or
inspired the Judahites to preserve, was called in unleavened cakes, which were the only bread
Hebrew, Abib or Nisan. It corresponds to the allowed during that week” (The Temple, by
time during the months of March and April of Alfred Edersheim. Eerdmans Publishing
the PAGAN CALENDAR man has devised for Co.:1987, p. 249).
common use today. Abib means, “the time of Smith’s Bible Dictionary gives further
green ears of grain." The Sabbaths, or holy details regarding the sequence of events: “The
convocations, during the Days of Unleavened lambs were selected, on the FOURTEENTH
Bread are referred to in Exodus 34:21. The they were slain and the blood sprinkled [on the
annual Sabbaths during the Feast of Unleavened door posts], and in the following evening,
Bread occur during the season that grain comes AFTER THE FIFTEENTH DAY of the month
to mature growth -- “earing time.” had commenced, the first paschal [Passover]
5. Notice the Days of Unleavened Bread meal WAS EATEN. At midnight the firstborn of
begin immediately after the Passover. Leviticus the Egyptians were smitten. The king and his
23:5-6. When was the Passover Lamb killed and people were now urgent that the Israelites should
eaten? Exodus 12:6-9. start IMMEDIATELY, and readily bestowed on
COMMENT: As you learned in a them supplies for the journey. In such haste did
previous lesson, the Passover Lamb was killed the Israelites depart, ON THAT VERY DAY
“between the two evenings” -- just after the sun [THE 15TH], Num. 33:3, that they packed up
started its decline and before the sun had set. At their kneading-troughs containing the dough
the beginning of the 15th of Abib, after sunset, prepared for the morrow’s provisions, which
Exodus 12:9-11 describes how the Passover was not yet leavened” (Thomas Nelson
lamb was eaten. This meal took place during the Publishers: 1986. P. 485).
evening at the BEGINNING of the 15th of Abib. Josephus, authoritative Jewish historian
6. What else happened the night of the in the first century A.D. records: “In the month
first Passover? Verses 29-32. Wasn’t it after the of Xanthicus, which is by us called Nisan, and is
death angel passed over Egypt that Pharaoh the beginning of our year, on the FOUR-
called for Moses and Aaron -- therefore after TEENTH DAY of the lunar month...the law
midnight? Same verses. ordained that we should every year SLAY THE
7. Were the Israelites on that first night SACRIFICE which I before told you we slew
permitted to leave their homes during the night when we came out of Egypt, and which was
of the 15th of Abib? Exodus 12:22. What did called the Passover....The feast of UN-

Days of Unleavened Bread -- Your Part in YEHOVAH’s Master Plan