The feast of the unleavened bread.

1. The Ordinance of Unleavened Bread

The first constituent part of the Paschal institution was-the ordinance of the unleavened bread. It really constituted a special feast to the honor of God because he was to deliver the armies of Israel out from Egypt along with the rest of the people. The testimony says:

"Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread ....and ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whither he be a stranger, or born in the land." (Ex. 12: 15-19.)

The armies comprised all the young men that constituted the strength of the Hebrews. The children and the old men and women could be spared, but the strong young men, the working class of Egypt, how could the slaveholders let them go? They could be used in the Egyptian army in the time of war. United with the rest of the Hebrews, they would be dangerous to the very kingdom which had kept them under its yoke of bondage.

The ordinance of seven days consequently had a very deep signification. When we now trace the ultimate laws developing from that particular ordinance, it will be seen that the ordinance is connected with the prophecies covering the entire time from the exodus of the Hebrews to the real 'establishment of the kingdom of the Messiah. It also constitutes the basis of the prophetic chronology of the same length of time.

The Week of the New Covenant

The new covenant, of which the prophet Jeremiah speaks, when he says, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah," is based on the ordinance of the seven days and its foundation. The angel that revealed the future history of the two houses to Daniel, said to him:

"Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troubleous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolation's are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." (Dan. 9: 25-27.)

"And he (the Prince of the Covenant, the Messiah) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week."

A prophetic week—one day for a year, or seven years—was set apart for the establishment of the new covenant with the two houses. At the first advent of Christ, there was only one house in Palestine, hence he could not establish the covenant then with the one that was not represented. He was the "Prince of the Covenant," and what does that mean? The covenant comprises a restoration of the whole house of Jacob as an independent national power, and, as the Prince of such a covenant, he was the heir apparent to the throne. The restoration of the national power also included the restoration of the armies of Israel; the armies that would come under the direct command of the Prince of the covenant. If we turn to the 8th chap. of Daniel, where the angel reveals the influence and power of the Roman, or the fourth and last universal empire, we find that not only the sanctuary, but also the armies of the Prince of the new covenant should be trampled under foot by that power. It is represented under the symbol of a "little horn" that arose as a consequence of the dividing up of the kingdom of Greece or the third universal empire.

The seven-days-ordinance was instituted because the armies of Israel were to be delivered along with the people. The army and the sanctuary were inseparable at the time the kingly power of Israel manifested itself. Hence the two are referred to together in the prophecies, from the first to the last.

On the ordinance of the seven days also rests the entire prophetic chronology. The number seven constitutes the basis and then it is 7×70 and 7×360. When the true starting-point is found, it is easy to figure out the whole time specified by the dual plan concerning the development of the dual prophetic system.

The week of the covenant is the main point under consideration. The angel called Daniel's attention to the going forth of the commandment to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem. That commandment concerned the Jews, who then were captives in Babylon. The commandment was issued by King Artaxerxes about 456-7 B. C. (See Ezra 7.) From that point of time to the time the Prince of the new covenant should appear on the scene, seven weeks would first elapse—7×7 or 49 years, during which time they would rebuild the city. Then in addition to that, sixty-two weeks (prophetic days mean years) would elapse again before the Prince of the covenant would stand up. Thus, 69 times 7, or 483 years would be the length of time between the command to return to Palestine from the Babylonian captivity and the appearance of the Prince of the new covenant. 457 subtracted from 483, leaves 26. If we then add the four or five years that the Gregorian count, "Anno Domini," has been misplaced concerning the true time of Christ's birth, we find him to be about 30 years old when he appeared on his mission and announced that "the time was fulfilled."

(Compare Luke 3: 23 with the date given at the top of the margin on the same page: namely, A. D. 26.)

At that time then, the seventieth week—the week of the new covenant began. Thus the seven-years time is set apart for the covenant to become established. But the angel adds, that "the Messiah shall be cut off" (from fulfilling his office) in the midst of that week and the Desolator shall spread his abomination over both the city and the sanctuary. The Romans did that. Their army killed the Prince of the covenant and destroyed Jerusalem, but that was only a small part of their antichristian work, as we will show further on.

There remains three years and a half of the week of the covenant, set apart for the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning the establishment of the covenant with the two houses—Judah and Israel. That time of the week of the covenant set apart for the consuming of the desolating power which killed the Prince, trampled down his army and east down the place of his sanctuary, still remains, and that means a restoration of both the Prince, the army and his sanctuary. The abomination spread out by the Desolator, will return over his own work, his armies and his sanctuary.