God’s Blueprint Part II: The Passover & Spring Holy Days

by Russ Schmidt; 3/4/2025

The Passover

In Part II of God’s Blueprint series, I want to talk about the Spring Holy Day season, which is often just called the Passover. Now, of course we have the one day called the Passover, which falls on Abib 14 of God’s Hebrew calendar year, but also incorporates the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of First Fruits.

Most Christians have heard of the Passover and believe it is just a Jewish holy day, but many of those same Christians never heard of the Feast of Unleavened Bread or the Feast of First Fruits. This is unfortunate because, as I’ve said many times in other articles, these days are a part of a blueprint of God’s plan for mankind. And what they do is they portray the love of God, and His grace and mercy to every individual who has ever walked the face of the earth, and of course, that includes you who are reading this.

If you have not read part I of this series, I would recommend you go back and read that for more information on the importance of God’s Sabbath. But in a nutshell, there are seven Holy Days that God commands His people to gather on and to meet with Him.

The original Hebrew word used in describing these days, is the word “moed.” The word moed simply means, “an appointment.” However, in this instance in Leviticus 23, God is calling these appointments “holy convocations.” The original Hebrew word being translated as “convocation” means, an assembly, or public gathering. But this public gathering is a “Kodesh,” in Hebrew, and is translated as “holy.”

If God calls something holy, and never once says it is no longer holy, I think we as Christians should be listening to God rather than man-made traditions and man-made reasons for not observing those days. Once again, if you haven’t read Part I, I would recommend you do for more understanding.

So, since the Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of First Fruits are called holy appointments to meet with God, and given by God, we should at least look into these days and find out more about them.

When it comes to the Passover, most of us know the story of the very first Passover when God instructed Moses to speak to Pharoah of Egypt to let His people go from the captivity they were in for 430 years. If you are not familiar with the story, I would suggest you read the Book of Exodus to get to know the history, of not just the Jews, but of how it all relates to Christians today.

The very first Passover was a type and shadow of what was to come with Messiah, Jesus, and Him defeating sin by going to the cross as an innocent man, and taking upon Himself the punishment for the sins of all mankind, past, present, and future.

Let’s go through the story and see how it is a picture of what was to come. On the 10th day of the first month of God’s calendar, which He calls, Abib, and falls equivalent to our months of March and April, God instructs Moses to tell the Israelites to choose a lamb from the flock that is to be sacrificed and set aside.

This choosing of the lamb on the 10th day of Abib, corresponds with Jesus’ Triumphal Entry that also occurred on the 10thof Abib approximately 1,500-years later. This lamb in the exodus story, was to be slaughtered and eaten on the 14th day of Abib at twilight. Twilight is the transition time between daytime and evening time. This would be approximately 3:00 in the afternoon. 

The story of Jesus’ crucifixion on the 14th day of Abib, says He died on the cross at about the ninth hour. The ninth hour of the day would be approximately 3:00 in the afternoon or twilight. Just to clarify, back in those days, the time of day was divided. There were four watches of the night, which would encompass four 3-hour quarters; for example, 6 to 9 PM would be the first watch, 9 PM to 12 AM would be the second watch, 12 AM to 3 AM would be the third watch, and 3AM to 6 AM would be the fourth watch.

At sun up they would begin to count the day hours. For example, the scriptures tell us Jesus was put on the cross at the third hour of the day. This would align to approximately 9 AM, and He died on the cross at the ninth hour, which would be approximately 3 PM.

Now, getting back to the Israelites, God told Moses to tell them, when they slaughter the lamb, they were to take blood from the lamb and on the two door posts and lintel (top cross molding), they were to put some of the blood from the lamb on those three areas of their front entry door to the home.

This was to be a “sign” to the death angel that God was going to send that evening to kill the first born of all Egyptians. The sign was to alert the angel to pass over that particular home because it was the home of some of God’s people.

Now if you notice, I put the word sign in quotes in the previous paragraph. I did that just to highlight the word because of its significance. We don’t know for certain, but most scholars believe that the Israelites would have written the Hebrew letter “tav” with the blood on the door posts and lintels. The reason why is because the Hebrew letter tav means “a sign.” As I said, it would have been a sign to the death angel to pass by that house.

But what else was significant about the letter tav? Well, I’ll let the picture below give you a clue.

This is the originally paleo-Hebrew letter tav, it was a pictogram during the time of Moses. Amazingly, this letter tav, which means a sign, is in the shape of a cross. How amazing is God? But not surprising, when the Hebrew language was restored in the late 1800s by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the tav pictogram changed to the modern tav depicted below. 

There is no question why the tav would have been changed, but if you still don’t see it, the original tav clearly is pointing to Jesus and the cross, especially with the meaning of it being a sign. It would have been a type and shadow of Jesus being a sign to all mankind of God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness. I can confidently say that while restoring the Hebrew language, Ben-Yehuda could not leave the tav as the original; it would relate to closely with Jesus, since he would have been very well aware of the crosses significance.

Although we cannot be sure if the tav would have been used by the ancient Israelites, it is certainly intriguing to consider that possibility.

Feast of Unleavened Bread

Are you beginning to see how the Passover even relates to Christians today? And, this is only the beginning, the types and shadows within this one biblical story are many. Now we get to the Feast of Unleavened Bread and its significance.

When God spoke to Moses, he also instructed him to tell the Israelites to bake bread without yeast. Yeast, or any leaven product that rises, like baking powder, symbolizes sin in one’s life. But the baking of the bread without yeast is two-fold in this story. First, it was because they didn’t have time to allow the yeast to rise the bread. The second and more important reason was the symbology of the removal of sin from the peoples lives.

Here is another type and shadow that represents what Jesus did by going to the cross; He removed the penalty of sin from all who would follow Him. So, we have the lamb the Israelites were instructed to slaughter as a representation of the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. We have the tav, which was most likely the sign they would have put on their doorposts that is in the shape of a cross. And the removal of yeast or leaven products that represent the removal of sin.

Let’s go back to the tav on the doorposts. There is more symbolism there. If we are correct and the Israelites wrote the letter tav on their doorposts and lintel, that would be three crosses, two on one side and one in the middle, which would be higher then the two side ones. Below is a common depiction of the crucifixion setting that is described in the Bible.

Now, scripture does not say that Jesus’ cross was higher than the two thieves He was between, but because of who Jesus was and what He accomplished His cross generally gets depicted as being higher. When you look at a door, the lintel is the top cross bar or molding, if you will; see the depiction below of a woman applying the blood on a door lintel.

Again, it is just speculation as to what they painted on the door posts and lintel of the doorway. But, let’s say, as in the depiction above they just painted the blood as shown there and didn’t use the tav. If Ben-Yehuda was changing the tav because it meant a sign and/or was in the shape of a cross, and he didn’t want anything pointing to Jesus as its representation, and changed it to what is showed above. He still might have unknowingly represented Jesus. If you look at the modern tav, and the doorway as depicted with the woman painting the blood on, it could certainly could look like a modern-day tav.

Now, some may say this type and shadow is stretching it a little bit, but think about it, either way it was depicted, God made it so it represents Jesus and the Cross, or as the sign, which even the modern-day tav means a sign.

Feast of First Fruits

But we are not done with the symbolism that runs throughout this whole story. I also mentioned the Feast of First Fruits as the third Holy Day of God that is mentioned in Leviticus chapter 23. The Feast of First Fruits falls three days after the Passover.

When did Jesus rise from the dead? Three days after the Passover. In 1 Corinthians 15:20, Paul writes that Jesus was the “first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” So, it’s no coincidence that God would set a feast day called First Fruits as a type and shadow of the coming Messiah. And it just so happens, Jesus resurrects, some 1,500 years later, on the very same day.

So, He was crucified as the Lamb of God on the very same day and time that the Israelites were instructed to slaughter a lamb. They were instructed to slaughter the lamb at twilight. Twilight is the time between afternoon and evening. Scripture tells us Jesus died on the cross at the ninth hour. Twilight and the ninth hour of the day would both be approximately 3 PM.

Then Jesus was resurrected on the very day God instructed the Israelites to observe the Feast of First Fruits. In doing so, the Israelites would offer up to God the first fruits of the spring harvest season. 

Yet, there’s more! After Pharoah finally let the Israelites leave, Moses took the Israelites and led them to the banks of the Red Sea. By this time, Pharoah had changed his mind and told his soldiers to go and pursue the Israelites. Now, we are not told whether they were to bring the Israelites back or to kill them, but the Israelites feared for their lives.

When we look at the Feast of First Fruits in Leviticus, God instructed them to take the first fruits of their spring barley harvest and to wave it up to the Lord as an offering. When we read the events of the Exodus, when they got to the Red Sea, they were trapped with no where to go. We are told Moses then raised his staff to the Lord and the Red Sea parted, allowing the Israelites to escape from the approaching Egyptian army.

This is all representative of Christ being lifted up on the cross and dying for you and me on that Passover day almost 2,000-years ago. There are other instances in scripture that are also types and shadows of Christ being lifted up on the cross. But again, we are not done yet with the types and shadows within this Exodus event.

The parting of the Red Sea and the Israelites going across through the parted waters is symbolic of water baptism that began with John the Baptist. He baptized with water, but goes on to say, “but the one who comes after me… will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” This has more to do with the Feast of Pentecost, which is the next Holy Day in this series of God’s Blueprint, but is an important type and shadow I wanted to share here.

So, in conclusion, I hope you can see the significance of these Spring Holy Days that have already been fulfilled by Jesus, exactly on the day God created them. There’s no mistaking that these days hold great significance in the blueprint of God’s plan for mankind’s redemption. To cast these days aside as meaningless or not necessary for Christians to acknowledge is doing a disserves to God.

Although we don’t view the days as the Israelites did under the Old Covenant where they still needed a Savior to redeem them from their sins, we view these days as a remembrance of where we came from and what God did to restore us from the penalty of death. And that plan is not complete yet. There are still three Holy Days that need to be fulfilled, and you can be sure God and Jesus will fulfill them when the time is right.

In the meantime, we should be embracing these days, not only as a remembrance, but as a learning experience for ourselves, and to teach to our children and anyone who needs to hear these truths of God. This is why we should continue to observe these days. Not out of legalism, as was the reason under the Old Covenant, but out of our thankfulness and as a memorial to the Father and Son, and what they did for us! 

I’ll end part II with this… in speaking of the law, God writes in Deuteronomy 11:18-19: 

“18 Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”