Sermon Notes

(A basic transcription with modifications for style and clarity)

THE SECOND PASSOVER

Scott Souder, May 27, 2023
Many people in America associate springtime with baseball, consisting with spring
training and the opening day. One of the more famous American teams is the New York
Yankees. Opening day this year was March 30th. It was a chilly day with a high around
46 degrees. The only weather condition they were concerned about was the wind. The
wind was going to gust between 11 to 15 miles an hour making the day feel a bit cooler
than it really was.
In 1982, it was a little different. The opening day for the New York Yankees had to
be postponed from Tuesday, April 6th until Thursday, April 8th because of a heavy
snowstorm with gusty winds hitting the area delayed not just the opening day but also
travel in general. Why do I want to mention 1982, after all that was 41 years ago and
maybe you’re not even a baseball fan.
Let me share another story on that same day in 1982. April 6, 1982, I’m reading this
from the Worldwide News, a publication of the Worldwide Church of God. I quote, “A
blizzard on the night of Passover hampered Church meetings in northeastern United
States and part of Canada according to ministerial services. Snow fell in depths of 12 to
24 inches in some part of northeastern United States.” This is according to the pastor of
the Boston, Massachusetts Church at the time. It goes on to state, “The winds were
reported at 75 miles an hour and there was one 50 car pile-up that was on a freeway
that would have been used by members trying to get to services. This inclement
weather forced the cancellation of Passover services in Boston and Springfield,
Massachusetts, Providence, Rhode Island, Meriden, Connecticut and Albany, New
York, not to mention hundreds of brethren elsewhere who were unable to attend
services. They will all take the second Passover.”
Today, in 2023, we don’t hear much about the second Passover but I was asked by
someone about it so I thought, do you know what, I think I would try to cover it today.
Missing the Passover on the night of the 14th of Nisan because it’s not convenient
because you’re traveling or because you might think you have something important to
do and there is a second Passover you can take later, that’s not an option. What is the
second Passover and why was it instituted by God? I mean, after all only God has the
authority to institute something like this, a Holy Day or a Holy service.
Turn with me if you would to Numbers 9 and verse 1. We’re going to see where the
second Passover is first brought up.
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Numbers 9:1 (NIV) The Lord spoke to Moses in the Desert of Sinai in the first
month of the second year after they came out of Egypt. He said,
2 “Have the Israelites celebrate the Passover at the appointed time.
3 Celebrate it at the appointed time, at twilight on the fourteenth day of this
month, in accordance with all its rules and regulations.”
Here, God’s reminding Moses about the Passover and the necessity to keep it. The
Passover was not something that was once and done. It was going to be an event that
was going to be remembered and done each and every year. It’s the beginning of God’s
Holy Day cycle. A cycle which will really not fully be understood for centuries. The
Passover, itself will be magnified in its full meaning, only understood after the sacrifice
and death of Jesus Christ. As I mentioned, the Holy Day cycle will not be understood
until the 20th century.
Let’s continue on in verse 6.
6 But some of them could not celebrate the Passover on that day because they
were ceremonially unclean on account of a dead body…
7 and said to Moses, “We have become unclean because of a dead body, but why
should we be kept from presenting the Lord’s offering with the other Israelites at
the appointed time?”
Unclean is the Hebrew word, tame (TAW-MAY), meaning unclean or defiled. They
had taken care of a body. They were doing a necessary job. What if the death of that
person was caused by a disease, or a bacterial infection, or a viral infection. There had
to be a period of wait.
Numbers 19:11-12,14,16 NKJV ‘He who touches the dead body of anyone shall be
unclean seven days.
12 ‘He shall purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh
day; then he will be clean…
14 ‘This is the law when a man dies in a tent: All who come into the tent and all
who are in the tent shall be unclean seven days;
16 ‘Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain by a sword or who has
died, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
Numbers 9:8-11 NIV Moses answered them, “Wait until I find out what
the Lord commands concerning you.” (He didn’t have an answer. He went to God)
9 Then the Lord said to Moses,
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10 “Tell the Israelites: ‘When any of you or your descendants are unclean
because of a dead body or are away on a journey, they are still to
celebrate the Lord’s Passover,
11 but they are to do it on the fourteenth day of the second month at twilight…’
(and that is what they did)
There is another place in the book of Chronicles where we can see the second
Passover taken. This is when Hezekiah became king at 25 years old.
2 Chronicles 29:3-6 In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the
doors of the temple…
4 He …assembled the Levites and Priests…
5 and said: “Listen to me, Levites! Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate
the temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Remove all defilement from the
sanctuary.
6 Our parents were unfaithful; they did evil in the eyes of the Lord our God…
Consecrate has a couple of meanings, it could be to make or declare sacred or holy
or to dedicate one’s life, dedicate one’s time to a specific purpose. Consecrate means
the same as sanctify as when God said to sanctify yourselves or sanctify the temple.
In chapter 30, Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah inviting them to Jerusalem
for the Passover. Not the first Passover but the second Passover. Hezekiah began
cleaning on the first day of the month and it took them eight days to consecrate the
portico and then it took them eight days to consecrate the temple which means they
finished on the sixteenth day of the first month. They were two days too late for the
Passover.
Prior to 1982 and the inclement weather that we read about here in the northeast
United states, there must have been some other inclement weather affecting the
Passover in 1959 too. I wanted to read an excerpt from a letter written by Mr. Herbert
W. Armstrong about the Passover in 1959. It says, “Dear Friends, since you were
unable to take the Passover on the 14th of the month, I’m writing this letter to inform you
of a God given alternate date for taking the Passover. Any person who, through
circumstances beyond his control is unable to take the Passover on the 14 th of Nisan,
may take the Passover one month exactly thirty days later on the 14 th of Iyar, the
second month”.
The second Passover was something that the Church recognized and utilized only,
when necessary, circumstances beyond their control. Back to the spring of 1982, our
members in the northeastern United States and part of Canada had to take the second
Passover due to circumstances beyond their control. I reached out to the minister who
pastored the Providence, Rhode Island and Boston, Massachusetts at the time and he
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said it was like an experience he had never seen before. He had never heard of
something like that ever happening before or since.
The spring of 1982, the government had shut the roads down and travel was
forbidden. Circumstances beyond their control. But interesting enough, he said, was
that the roads were cleared the next day, the Night to be Much Observed, and the Holy
Day plans were not affected. All in all, he remembered the second Passover for his two
congregations being about 250 baptized members. Not wanting to speculate but figure
3 more congregations plus scattered brethren, let’s just suffice it to say there were
several hundred people in 1982 that had to take the second Passover.
Today, the circumstances would be much different, and we’ve experienced this. In
2020, we experienced COVID and travel, once again, was restricted by the government,
however, God had provided for us, the body of Christ, a technology which enabled us to
keep the Passover at the right time. We were able to download and use a recorded
Passover service or connect via Zoom, or via cell. Travel in that sense was no longer an
issue. Not some circumstance out of our control.
Just to bring in a side tangent, as a literal example, recall in the book of Acts when
the apostles decided to cast lots for the twelfth apostle after Judas Iscariot went awry.
They cast lots for him. That’s the last time that lots were cast in the Bible as being
acceptable because after that time, the Holy Spirit was given, and casting lots never
happened again. Once the Holy Spirit was given, several things changed. Recall
Hezekiah and Levites and the Priests, he told them they needed to be sanctified and to
sanctify the temple.
John 17:16-17 NIV ‘They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
17 ‘Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.’
We have been sanctified. As for sanctifying the temple, let’s take a look at what Paul
wrote:
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 NKJV ‘Do you not know that you are the temple of God
and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
17 ‘If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of
God is holy, which temple you are.’
We are to remember to partake of the Passover at the appointed time which is on
the evening of the 14th day of the first month of sacred calendar. God has set this day.
Should government restrict travel, God provided means for us to observe the Passover
at the appointed time.
In thinking about the dead bodies, I reached out and talked to one of our members
who was a trained mortician. He said that the seven days would be nothing now, just
like going to the Feast. You just tell them ahead of time, “I can’t do this for seven days”
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or if it comes in, it goes into a cooler and it’s stored there for seven days. The idea of
touching a dead body, maybe accidentally, but as a career path, is a moot point. The
only time it would really be acceptable today is if you were in the hospital or a loved one
was in the hospital with a heart attack or on the way to Passover, you were in a terrible
car wreck. Those are circumstances beyond our control. Then it would be acceptable to
take the second Passover. We have been sanctified. We have been set apart. Each and
every one of us is a part of the temple and unless there are extreme extenuating
circumstances, we are to gather together in unity for this solemn occasion.