Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

My understanding is that, because God had commanded that no work was to be done on the Sabbath, the day prior to the Sabbath took on significance as a time when all needed actions for the Sabbath, such as the preparation of food, the gathering of wood for fires, the kindling of those fires, and other similar tasks that would have constituted work, had to be performed prior to sundown, when the Sabbath began.

This was also the case with other days of observance that God commanded in the Law given to Israel, where, once again, no work was to be done. Therefore, the day prior to the observance was a day of preparation, in order to get all needed activities performed and provisions in place before the day itself. These holidays where God commanded Israel to rest included:

The Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:31; Leviticus 23:32)
The Feast of Trumpets (Leviticus 23:23-25)
The Feast of Tabernacles ((Leviticus 23:33-36, 39)
The Feast of Unleavened Bread (first and last days of the feast)(Leviticus 23:1-8; Numbers 28:16-18, 25)

In the case of the Passover (again, as I understand it), the lambs were killed on the afternoon of the day of Passover (which foreshadowed the timing of Jesus' death), prior to and in preparation for the start of the Feast of Unleavened Bread at sundown during which (as I noted above) the first and last days of the feast were commanded days of rest.

March 27 2016 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report