Exodus 12:18 - Forerunner Commentary

Exodus 12:18

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Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain Exodus 12:18:

Exodus 12:15-18
Excerpted from: Passover (Part 5)

In every Scripture in the Old Testament referring to the Passover itself, the Passover day is a memorial feast. It commemorates God's passing over—not Israel leaving Egypt! They are two distinct events.

Remember Leviticus 23:27 and 32. Ba erev ends and begins a day. Therefore, the fifteenth day begins when ba erev occurs at the end of the fourteenth. Brethren, we are talking about two different feasts. Passing over on the fourteenth, and coming out on the fifteenth. That is so clear.

Now look at some more differences, which we will not cover in any detail. With Passover there is no command not to work. The reason is that there is a lot of work associated with Passover—killing a lamb, roasting a lamb, burning a lamb, and those kinds of things. Passover is the preparation day for Unleavened Bread. There is a lot of preparation that takes place before one really begins to come out of sin. That is what God is teaching us. A lot of groundwork has to be laid before one can really begin to come out of sin. So it is the preparation for the holy day.

Passover memorializes the preparations necessary to seriously come out of sin. Unleavened Bread memorializes actually coming out! And so what kind of preparation has to be laid spiritually? We have to come to a knowledge of the plan and purpose of God. We have to come to a knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ and an understanding of a knowledge and a belief in His blood. And we have to begin to turn around. We have to repent. This is all preparation for actually beginning to come out. Then we begin to come out; and that is covered by what Unleavened Bread memorializes. That is, actually coming out—directly moving out from sin.

Notice the language in Exodus 12:17, again. "For on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt." Look again at another place:

So we see the same language here. They went out on the fifteenth. And verse 22, of this chapter, proves that none of these verses (17, 41, or 51) could refer to Passover day because (in verse 22) they had to stay in their houses until morning. They were still in their houses when daylight of the fourteenth came, and they had not even gone to Rameses yet.

So, they had to remain in their houses until boqer. When they left their houses, the morning portion of the fourteenth was beginning. The fifteenth would not begin until ba erev. So, the only time that they could have assembled in Rameses was during the day portion of the fourteenth. Thus during the fourteenth, brethren, what did they do? During this "day's delay," they continued their preparations for leaving. But what did they specifically do? They walked from their houses to Rameses! And they spoiled the Egyptians along the way. There was NO DELAY!

They went out, but they did not go out in a disorganized way. Everybody was not just tramping, tramping, tramping—running things over, or whatever. They were all lined up. And, because of Scriptures like this, I do not believe that Moses merely assembled everybody in one huge mass, like a huge crowd attending a rock concert, in some open area of Rameses. It would not have worked that way. The indication, from these Scriptures, is that he had them lined up as in a parade—according to their tribes, according to their families. It was not a milling mass of people, just running in every direction. Rather, he had them lined up—like a parade.

Exodus 12:18
Excerpted from: The First Day of Unleavened Bread (Part One)

Before we go any further, we have to clarify a difference between ben ha arbayim and another Hebrew word, ba erev. We are going to go back again to Exodus 12.

The last word in this verse—"even"—in this verse is not translated from ben ha arbayim but from ba erev (or ba ereb). It depends on what resource you look into. Ben ha arbayim is derived from ba erev. In contrast though to ben ha arbayim, which is a precise part of the day, ba erev is a general term covering a far larger part of the day in Hebrew usage.

So how does this apply here in Exodus 12:18? We kind of went all the way around the tree here, but it is necessary to do that in order to determine this. Ba erev ("even" here) sets the boundary for the Days of Unleavened Bread as being at the end of the 21^st of Abib. Not the beginning of the 21^st, but the end of the 21^st. The eating of unleavened bread begins as the 14^th ends and the 15^th begins, and ends as the 21^st ends. Unleavened bread is to be eaten until even on the 21^st. There is the boundary. That consumes the entire seven days, and does not include the 14^th—Passover.

From the end of the 14^th to the end of the 21^st—7 days. That is as clear as anything. Ba erev is used in both cases to indicate the end of a day.

There is an additional piece of evidence that we have here in Exodus 12. Because God used ben ha arbayim in verse 6 to specifically designate the beginning of the 14^th, and then switched to ba erev in verse 18, this gives strong evidence He is using ba erev to designate the end of the day. In other words, He contrasted the two so that we would understand. Thus the Days of Unleavened Bread begin as the 14^th ends and the 15^th begins, and continue until the 21^st ends.

Exodus 12:15-20
Excerpted from: Unleavened Bread Basics

In verse 17, God gives the fundamental reason for this feast. It says, “for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt.” In other words, it is a memorial of God’s deliverance. That’s why God commands this Feast to be observed—to continually remember His deliverance. That’s the foundation. All the other aspects of this Feast build on top of it. The eating of unleavened bread and avoiding leavening are things we do in response, but the reason God gives for the feast is to memorialize His deliverance.

These verses contain something else. Even though rejoicing is not directly mentioned in the instructions, it is still a feast, and so rejoicing is implied. Granted, the food we eat is somewhat unusual compared to what we normally associate with a festive occasion. We have to rejoice without pretzels or pizza or cookies. Instead, our rejoicing includes the bread of affliction, which we will look at later. But nevertheless, this feast is an appointed time for us to remember God’s deliverance, and rejoicing should be the result.

This is a sidenote, but it relates here. We commonly refer to this week as the “Days of Unleavened Bread.” That phrase is only used in two places, both in Acts (Acts 12:3; 20:6). It refers to the time or season in which unleavened bread is used, and that span of time began before the seven-day Feast. But the Bible consistently calls the seven-day observance itself the “Feast of Unleavened Bread,” which shows that it is a time to celebrate. Physical Israel kept this Feast as a memorial of God’s deliverance from Egypt. Spiritual Israel keeps this Feast as a memorial of an even greater, spiritual deliverance.

Exodus 12:18-20
Excerpted from: Principled Living (Part 3): Growing in Righteousness

No leaven shall be found. Verse 18 said to eat unleavened bread. Verse 19 said no leavening shall be found, meaning do not eat anything leavened.

This reiteration of the command emphatically emphasizes these things about the Days of Unleavened Bread. It emphatically emphasizes the command regarding leavening. As we went through there we saw verse 18 was all about the positive aspects of eating unleavened bread. Verse 19 was all about the negative aspects of eating leavened products. And then, verse 20 hits them both, first the negative, and then the positive.

So you see, there is symmetry here: Positive negative; negative positive. God brackets the two negatives with the two positives. What we see here from just these three verses is that it is equally important not to eat leavened bread as it is to eat unleavened bread. We must do both of these things to fulfill God's command for this holy day season.

Exodus 12:18
Excerpted from: Passover (Part 3)

God leaves no doubt what ba erev means:

So the Days of Unleavened Bread begin when ba erev occurs on the fourteenth; that is, at the end of the fourteenth. Then, the fifteenth begins. We have to eat unleavened bread, and it continues precisely until the time that ba erev occurs on the twenty-first day (and the twenty-second day is beginning). That is so clear! Ba erev means sunset.

Articles
Countdown to Pentecost 2001  (2)
Pentecost Revisited (Part One): Counting Consistently

Bible Studies
Holy Days: God's Plan in the Holy Days

Essays
Deliverance and Unleavened Bread
Is Passover on the First Day of Unleavened Bread? (Part One)
Making the Cut (Part Two)
Rehearsing God's Plan
Should Passover Be Observed for Seven Days?

Sermons
Truly Unleavened
Principled Living (Part 3): Growing in Righteousness
Completing Sanctification
Do You Recognize This Man? (Part 2)
Considered Rather Than Commanded - Choose Life
Letters to Seven Churches (Part Seven): Repentance
Deleavening the Home
Sincerity and Truth (Part One)
Magic Doesn't Work (Part 3)
Deuteronomy 16, Passover, and the Night to be Much Observed
Principled Living (Part 2): Conquering Sin
Re-education (Part 2)
James and Unleavened Bread (Part 3)
James and Unleavened Bread (Part 1)

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