God Is In The Details

Peter T. Timmins

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“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17).

 

What did Jesus mean by fulfilling the law? The easy answer is to say He means to do those things the law mandates to be done and not do anything the law prohibits. He obviously lived that way as a man, but I don’t think that is only what He was getting at.  Jesus came to fulfill both the spirit and the letter of the law. The key word He used is fulfill. 

 

Notice He did not say follow. While similar in meaning, there is enough of a difference to really matter. Looking at the same passage in the Complete Jewish Bible, the word He used translates as complete. It also translates that way in the Orthodox Jewish Bible, and the Expanded Bible reads “I have not come to destroy them but to bring about what they said [fulfill/complete them].” 

 

We know He meant more than to just physically do or not do what the law mandates since that would lead to a works based salvation. That is not to say the correct physical fulfillment is not an important requirement, but that it isn’t the only requirement. We know He meant that He would actually complete, in total; what until then had only been done in type. I want to focus on the biggest fulfillment He has done so far: Passover.

 

The specific directives for Passover can be found in Exodus 12 and Deuteronomy 16. In the interest of space I won’t list them all here. We know that a reading of these and all other OT prophecies concerning the crucifixion then comparing them to the gospel accounts show they were fulfilled in how it was done. However, there is one part of the gospel accounts that some might think appear to NOT be in accordance with the specific directives of Exodus and Deuteronomy; the day it is supposed to occur.

 

The NT is quite clear the Last Supper was the Passover feast; therefore our perfect Passover Lamb was sacrificed the next day. So, how could Jesus fulfill both the spirit and the letter of the law if He died on the wrong day?  He didn’t, because the Jewish calendar is off by a day.

 

When the Last Supper and the crucifixion took place, the Jews, as they still do, used a sundown to sundown day. However, the early Hebrews used a sunrise to sunrise day just as God did/does. The creation account of Genesis 1:1-31 shows that God uses a sunrise to sunrise day. These creation passages lay out for each day in order; creative event of that day, then evening, then morning and then the beginning of the next day.

 

This shows that God reckons a day from sunrise to sunrise. If He used the current Jewish practice of a sundown to sundown day then it means He began the creative process before the beginning of the first day. That would mean that He didn’t use 6 days and therefore the Bible, and therefore God, are in error right from the beginning. We know that is impossible.  

 

Next, look at Exodus 12:6-12. This is where God instituted the Passover. Verse 6 reads: “And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.”  The Orthodox Jewish Bible reads “And it will be with you for mishmeret (examination, checking for blemishes) up until the fourteenth day of the same month; and kol Kehal Adat Yisroel shall slaughter (shachat) it in the afternoon [before dark].” 

 

Jewish custom has the actual slaughtering occurring at around 3:00 in the afternoon.  Verse 8 begins “And they shall eat the flesh in that night…” referring to the night of the day in which it was killed in vs. 6.  Also verse 12 begins with “For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night…” meaning the same night it is eaten.  These passages (emphasis added) show that the Hebrews at that time still used a sunrise to sunrise day.  If they didn’t then how can you kill the lamb in the afternoon and then eat it “in that night,” and how could He “pass through the land of Egypt this night”?  So why did they change to a sundown to sundown day? Thanks to the Babylonian captivity, that’s why.

 

Thirty minutes or so on Google will get you a ton of information about the ancient Egyptian, Babylonian and Persian Empires. In order to keep this short I won’t go into detail. Bottom line, the multitude of websites I looked through on this all say that the Egyptians used a sunrise to sunrise day for their calendar while the Babylonians used a sundown to sundown day. 

 

They also say the Persians initially used the Babylonian calendar system after they conquered them.  Deuteronomy 16:1 is one of the few places in the pre-exilic books that actually names a month of the Ancient Hebrew calendar. It starts with “Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover unto the Lord thy God…” Abib is the original name of the first month of the Hebrew year, which is now called Nisan. Nisan is derived from the Babylonian Nisanu. 

 

read more at Rapture Ready:

 

http://raptureready.com/soap2/timmins3.html