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Jesus is not everyone's passover.

In ancient Israel the passover lamb was sacrificed to spare the lives of the first born son of every Israelite household.

Later God claimed those lives. But instead of taking each first born son from every Israelite family he substituted the tribe of Levi in their place.

*** Num 3:11 Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

*** Num 3:12 “Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn who open the womb among the children of Israel; and the Levites shall be mine:

*** Num 3:13 for all the firstborn are mine. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I made holy to me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and animal. They shall be mine. I am Jehovah.”

So the sacrificial lamb 'bought' the tribe of Levi who no longer had an inheritance with the rest of Israel because God became their inheritance.

The same is true of the 144,000. They are taken OUT OF the 12 tribes of Israel just like the first born who were then substituted.

*** Rev 7:4 I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel.

They no longer have a portion upon the earth because their inheritance is heavenly with God.

== Also notice the meaning of the word "Levi":==

*** Gen 29:34 She conceived again, and bore a son. Said,“Now this time will my husband be joined to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore was his name called Levi.

It means "joined" and it is to do with a husband taking his bride - think of the "bride of Christ"!!

So when Jesus' was sacrificed, like the passover lamb, Jehovah 'purchased' all the 'first born' of his people for his sacred service. They are the "first fruits":

*** Rev 14:4 These are those who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed by Jesus from among men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb.

Notice they are not defiled with "women". That is they are not fornicators with other gods just like the original Levites:

*** Exod 32:24 I said to them,‘Whoever has any gold, let them take it off:’ so they gave it to me; and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

*** Exod 32:25 When Moses saw that the people had broken loose,(for Aaron had let them loose for a derision among their enemies),

*** Exod 32:26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said,“Whoever is on Jehovah’s side, come to me!” All the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.

== CONCLUSION ===

The passover was not simply about saving everyone's life. It was initially about saving only the firstborn sons of Israel.

However everyone's salvation very much DEPENDED upon the passover sacrifice because Pharaoh would never have let them go if Jehovah had not struck down the firstborn of Egypt.

So the blood of the passover lamb saved everyone because first it bought the lives of the firstborn sons of Israel and secondly it bought all Israel salvation from bondage to Egypt.

Similarly Jesus' sacrifice saves TWO groups. First it saves the 144,000 first fruits from mankind and second it saves all mankind who is obedient to Jehovah God.

Just as Paul says in Romans 8 there are TWO hopes for reconciliation to God. The one for ALL creation (mankind) and ANOTHER one for the first fruits:

*** Rom 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.

*** Rom 8:23 Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.

Clearly TWO groups receiving salvation independently:

1) "the whole creation" - mankind obedient to God (Christians)
2) "the first fruits" - the 144,000 (anointed Christians)

We understand tha Bible ONLY by reading the WHOLE Bible and not by making doctrine out of the Greek Scriptures only.

The New Covenant arrangement is fashioned after the Old Covenant arrangement:

*** Heb 8:4 For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, seeing there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law;

*** Heb 8:5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses was warned by God when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, “See, you shall make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.”

So the ONLY way to understand the New Covenant is to understand the Old Covenant.

How many of you who believe that EVERYONE should partake have studied both the Old Covenant AND the New Covenant in any detail?

Or do you just partake because of what mere men told you do do?

The Bible does not repeat every piece of information. It told us the old system was a pattern for the new one so that we would know how the new system worked without being re-told everything.

So to understand the PASSOVER we need to look at what it was there fore. What did it achieve. What people did it buy into Jehovah's inheritance? Was everyone bought into Jehovah's service through the passover sacrifice? Or were only a select few bought by this sacrifice?

The reason the PASSOVER sacrifice is the PATTERN for who should partake at the memorial is because the PASSOVER sacrifice was the foreshadow to what Jesus' sacrifice would achieve with respect to purchasing people for God's exclusive service.

*** 1 Cor 5:7 ...For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place.

You see? Christ is the PASSOVER to certain people. Everyone? Well who was the ORIGINAL passover sacrifice for?

Answer: Only the FIRST-BORN of every Israelite family. NOT all of them!!

=== NEW PASSOVER ===

*** 1 Cor 7:23 You were bought with a price. Don’t become bondservants of men.

*** 1 Cor 6:20 for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

*** Rev 14:4 These are those who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed by Jesus from among men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb.

*** Luke 22:31 The Lord said, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat,

*** Rev 7:4 I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel:

1) New Covenant
2) First Fruit
3) Undefiled
4) Bought with Christ's blood for God's service.
5) Sifted as wheat
6) Taken from among all Christians

=== OLD PASSOVER ===

*** Num 3:11 Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

*** Num 3:12 “Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn who open the womb among the children of Israel; and the Levites shall be mine:

*** Num 3:13 for all the firstborn are mine. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I made holy to me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and animal. They shall be mine. I am Jehovah.”

*** Mal 3:3 and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer to Jehovah offerings in righteousness.

1) Old Covenant
2) First Born
3) Made Holy
4) Bought with lambs blood for God's service.
5) Refined in a furnace
6) Taken from among all Israel

The passover was to save the firstborn


as the FIRST begoten "born" saves the entire world.

Hebrews 7:25...

"Therefore, because he always lives to intercede for them, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him.

We need such a high priest-one who is holy, innocent, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.

He has no need to offer sacrifices every day like those high priests, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he sacrificed himself.

For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever."

...

Jesus fulfils all the roles:

Mediator: Moses => Jesus (Mediate the terms of the Law/New Covenant with Jehovah)
High Priest: Aaron => Jesus (reconcile peoples sins before Jehovah)
Passover victim: lamb => Jesus (purchase people for Jehovah's special service)

Jesus is foreshadowed by many aspects of the Mosaic System

All of those functions used blood. Moses sacrifices a calf to inaugurate the Law Covenant, Aaron sacrificed lambs to atone for peoples sins and the passover lamb was sacrificed to purchace a people for Jehovah's special service.

Hi Wibby

You say/teach..."Jesus (purchase people for Jehovah's special service)"

Scripture says/teaches..."...he did this once for all when he sacrificed himself."...and..."... save completely those who come to God through him."

Please consider Jesus' words Wibble...

John 6:47...

"Truly, truly I tell you, the one who believes in me has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness and died.
This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a person may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. And the bread I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
Then the Jews debated angrily with each other, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

So Jesus told them, "Truly, truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves.
The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him to life on the last day.
For my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink.
The person who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will also live because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven, not the kind that your ancestors ate. They died, but the one who eats this bread will live forever."

John 6:65... So he said, "That's why I told you that no one can come to me unless it be granted him by the Father."


gogh

Prophetic and anti-typical pronouncements were made in pantomime in Semetic culture.

The firstborn of all were symbolized later by the Levi tribe.

God first tells these Hebrews that all firstborn were his- Exodux 13:1+

Consider to that Foreigners, and Hebrews could celebrate the first Passover, Exodus 12:48.

What ever anti-type some may want to read into the Levite model probably takes place in the reward phase of the kingdom where duties are handed out in connection with the new heavens and new earth.

designs

The Levites become the High Priest's (anointed become Jesus')

*** Num 3:9 You shall give the Levites to Aaron and to his sons. They are wholly given to him on the behalf of the children of Israel.

*** Num 8:19 I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel...

Compare:

*** Rom 1:6 among whom you are also called to belong to Jesus Christ;

*** Gal 5:24 Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.



The Levites get a different inheritance: (anointed get heaven, not earth)

The promised land foreshadows the future paradise earth.

*** Num 18:24 For the tithe of the children of Israel, which they offer as a wave offering to Jehovah, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance: therefore I have said to them, ‘Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.’”

*** Deut 18:1 The priests the Levites, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion nor inheritance with Israel: they shall eat the offerings of Jehovah made by fire, and his inheritance.

*** Deut 18:2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers: Jehovah is their inheritance, as he has spoken to them.

*** Josh 18:7 For the Levites have no portion among you; for the priesthood of Jehovah is their inheritance.


The Levites prefigure the anointed congregation who are refined in the Lord's Day after Jesus takes up rulership:

*** Mal 3:1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, behold, he comes!” says Jehovah of Armies.

*** Mal 3:2 “But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderer’s soap;

*** Mal 3:3 and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer to Jehovah offerings in righteousness.

Compare:

*** Rev 6:16 They told the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,

*** Rev 6:17 for the great day of his wrath has come; and who is able to stand?”

The thing is you don't read of a strict Levite type Christian in the NT.
This would suggest that the Levite's if they had a anti-type application would be representative of faithful Christians.

Even Revelation with its mention of the 144,000 says they are taken from the Tribes of Israel not a single Tribe. We need to be careful in reading to much into symbolic language.

Hebrews 8-12 basically conjoins all elements of the Israelite system into one saving Atonement for all- 9:11+ Bull, Goat, Red Heifer

There may be some application of a strict Levite model but its to early to tell.

designs

Wibble, you obviously have not read what has been written on this subject before. The first part of what you have said, the bit based on the Bible, is correct. The ensuing 'logic' is not.

Probably all!

Resolute pointed out what you typed about the firstborn and the purchase/ exchange of the Levites many moons ago on Watchman's board. Then when he couldn't get around her logic he got cross. Eventually as you know he kicked us off.

Let's start again, but use logic.

All the Israelites partook of the original passover, not just the first born. The entire family or even families gathered together for this meal.
So we have an enormous group which is going to be saved through the highlighting of a second group, a group within the group. They all left Egypt that night, the Israelites including their beloved firstborn.
There was a third group that attached themselves to the Israelites, a vast mixed crowd that came out of all the nations, tribes, peoples and tongues. (Egyptians and probably slaves of other nationalities).

This third group had been convinced Jehovah was the true God by going through, and coming out of the great tribulation of plagues.

These three groups (Israelites, firstborn from within the Israelites, and the vast mixed crowd) all left Egypt (enslaving false politico-religious system), and all ended up in the first covenant inaugurated by Moses.
The faithful decendants of these three groups also ended up partaking the passover before entering the promised land.

Similarly there are four groups in Revelation 7, three of which survive.

1. Cleansed spiritual Israelites, survive
2. a group of 144,000 highlighted from within this group. survive
3. All nations tribes peoples and tongues.
From these spiritual gentiles, the ones that do not submit to the kingdom...........
4. a great crowd comes out from the great tribulation and is cleansed in the blood of the lamb, and also survive

I suspect group No. 4 has not formed yet as we have not been through the Gt. tribulation or the time of the seven plagues.

That means we have group 1. and group 2. already worshipping Jehovah.

I don't think group 2. has been highlighted, measured (Rev. 11) and sealed yet.
It doesn't matter since all spiritual Israelites should be partaking of the passover, just as the whole nation of Israel did in Egypt and eventually came into the first covenant.

I don't think that a holy spirit experience is necessarily the same as the sealing, no more than Paul was totally certain he had a sealed heavenly calling.

All three groups come into the new covenant, just as the Israelites, their first born, and the vast mixed crowd came into the first covenant. And all eventually got life under the blood of the lamb, demonstrating this by all keeping the passover before entering the promised land.

But wait:

This is important because the passover lamb purchased first-born from all the tribes of Israel. Only later did Jehovah consolidate that debt into one single tribe - Levi:

*** Num 3:11 Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

*** Num 3:12 “Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn who open the womb among the children of Israel; and the Levites shall be mine:

*** Num 3:13 for all the firstborn are mine. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I made holy to me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and animal. They shall be mine. I am Jehovah.”

Compare:



*** Rev 7:4 I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel:



Also note "first-born" means essentially the same thing as "first-fruits".

Heb 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels,

Heb 12:23 to the general assembly and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect

Saying "assembly of the first-born" implies that it is a special group, not including all.

Where is your logic Wibble?

Sure the firstborn were purchased, were exchanged for priests, in the same manner as the 144,000, but all the Israelites had to show faith in the blood of the lamb, all ate the lamb and the unleavened bread, all came into the first covenant.
(The wine was not mentioned as that was possibly introduced after the exile.)

Explain who the four groups in Rev. 7 are and what is their destiny. The WT has made people blind by their mantra of only talking about two.

What happens to the cleansed spiritual twelve tribes (idolatrous Dan and Ephraim removed) in Rev. 7, and why do they gloss over the fact that 'all nations tribes peoples and tongues' are in contrast to the spiritual Israelites? They are the spiritual gentiles.
Even Russell grasped that one!

Eating the passover meal represented the spiritual food that we all partake of. Not the memorial emblems. Yes all Israel ate the lamb. Just as all Christians benefit from the spiritual food provided by the body of Christ.

Those who partake of the emblems signify their part in the body of Christ. They signify their special service on distributing the spiritual food that the WHOLE congregation consumes.

The true bread is the spiritual knowledge. NOT the emblems that are mere tokens of it.

Look at when Jesus fed the 5000.

He passed the bread to his disciples who had organised the great crowd into many congregations.

The disciples then took this brad to the congregants.

So too is the spiritual feeding arrangement. Those disciples who have the special responsibility to pass the food from jesus to the congregations signify this by partaking of the bread emblem during the last supper. That signified their part in Christ's body.

But at all times we should remember that the true bread is spiritual and consumed by the great crowd in congregations, seated on the grass..

To show that Paul meant an inclusive view of the faithful he says in Hebrews 12:23-24 that Jesus reached out to all men with a New Covenant.

Like the Covenant with Israel it included Foreigner and Hebrew, all of the Tribes. Bull, Goat, Red Heifer (for the foreigner).

Levites had duties for the ceremonies and especially on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) but all of the Nation was blessed.

All Partook of the Passover.

Regards

designs

Prove that! Why did the Israelites have to take an unblemished male lamb into their home and look after it, inspect it, kill it without breaking any bones, if this just symbolised spiritual food not the body of Christ? Why eat bitter herbs? Why eat unleavened bread? Were these not symbols of something more than food?

So you think the firstborn in Israel partook of a symbol of spiritual food only.
So logically the firstborn of the spiritual Israelites are only taking in spiritual food when they eat the unleavened bread.

Why do you use the word ATE and then balance this sentence with the word BENEFIT and interject the spiritual food provided by?

This is WT speak.

Two balanced sentences are:
Yes all Israel ate the lamb.
Just as all Christians eat (not benefit) the the body of Christ.

The original 'manna' was to teach people to appreciate the knowledge of Jehovah:

Deut 8:3 He humbled you, and allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Jehovah.

Neh 9:20 You gave also your good Spirit to instruct them, and didn’t withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst.



The true manna (spiritual knowledge from God):

John 6:32 Jesus therefore said to them, “Most certainly, I tell you, it wasn’t Moses who gave you the bread out of heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread out of heaven.

John 6:33 For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.”

Matt 4:4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”

Rev 19:13 He is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood. His name is called “The Word of God.”

Jesus is the true manna, the word of God spiritual nourishment. Not the physical emblems consumed at the memorial.