The Lord's Supper

THE LORD'S SUPPER

Since there are so many different views on the subject of the Lord's Supper, I feel that this should be a very thorough and careful study. Some believe we should use only wine, some believe we should use only grape juice, and some believe we should not observe the Lord's Supper at all. In an effort to clear this controversy, I believe the best place to start our study is at the beginning; so, let us read from the Bible the description of the Passover.

THE PASSOVER

According to Exodus 12:40, the children of Israel had been in Egypt for 430 years. Their stay had been far from being pleasant and when the cries of God's people came up before Him, He sent Moses to lead them out of Egypt.

God poured out ten plagues upon Egypt, as recorded in Exodus Chapters 7-12. In the last and final plague upon Pharaoh

and his kingdom, God had proclaimed that all of the first born of Egypt would die at midnight.

The Israelites were instructed as to what they should do to escape the angel of death. We read in Exodus the eleventh chapter, verses four and five: "And Moses said, thus saith the Lord, about midnight, will I go out into the midst of Egypt: and all the first born in the land of Egypt shall die..." In chapter twelve of Exodus starting with the third verse we read, "Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, in the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house. And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls, every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb."

Please notice, we are merely told in verse three and four to take a lamb for a house according to the house of their fathers, and if the household be too small for the lamb, they should share with the next door neighbor. The question, then arises, how many persons should partake of each lamb?

According to the writing for the Jewish Historian, Josephus, Wars of the Jews, book VI, chapter IX paragraph II; no less than ten persons should partake of the lamb. He tells us that there were twenty in his company.

James M. Freeman, in his book on Manners and Customs of the Bible, page seventy-one, tells us not fewer than ten, nor more than twenty persons admitted to one of these feasts.

Let us continue now to read from our Bibles. In Exodus Chapter 12:5-14 we read; "Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year, ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats, 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. And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire, his head with his legs, and with the pertinence thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it, with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and ye shall eat it in haste, It is the Lord's Passover".

"For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generation, ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever."

By making the Passover an ordinance, this made it a law. So, here we have just read the instituting of the Passover, and the Israelites were to keep it a feast to the Lord throughout their generation for a memorial forever. The word memorial in the Hebrew is Zikrown (Zik-rone) meaning: A memento, memorable thing, or day, writing, a memorial, record. It was taken from the Hebrew word Zakar (Zaw-kar) to mark, to remember, to mention, to be mindful, recount, make to be remembered, think on. So, the Passover was to be observed each year as a memorial service.

In the encyclopedia Judica page one hundred sixty-three, we find the definition of the Passover is as follows: A spring festival, beginning of the fifteenth day of Nisan, lasting seven days. It commemorates the Exodus from Egypt. The biblical names for the festival are: (1) "hag ha-pesah", the feast of the Passover, so called because God passed over or protected the houses of the children of Israel (In Exodus 12:23) (2) "hag ha-mazzot", the feast of unleavened bread (Exodus 23:15) (Leviticus 23:06) (Deuteronomy 16:16) (3) "Pesah" is the paschal lamb offered as a sacrifice on the eve of the feast, fourteenth Nisan, in the Temple times. It was eaten in family groups after having been roasted whole. Exodus 12:1-28, 43-49, Deuteronomy 16:1-8, it continues, "As far as can be ascertained, the Passover festival was kept throughout the period of the Second Temple." Josephus records contemporary Passover celebrations in which he estimates that the participants who gathered in Jerusalem to perform the sacrifice in the year sixty-five C.E. were not less that three million. Josephus Wars 2:280

With the destruction of the Temple, the offering of the paschal lamb ended. When Titus destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D., the sacrifice was taken away. The Jewish people then took the ceremony in their homes, and they no longer sacrifice a lamb. The special home ceremony on the first night of Passover, the Seder (or order) is based on the injunction to parents to inform their children of the deliverance from Egypt. Exodus 13:8 "And thou shalt tell thy son in that day, saying: it is because of that which the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt." The feast of the Passover consists of two parts: The Passover Ceremony and The Feast of the Unleavened Bread. Originally, in Leviticus 23:4-6, both parts existed separately. However,