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Article
From Easter to Passover . . . And Back
by Gordon Enger
Yesterday he was only an eight-year-old boy. Today he is
an eight-year-old king. There had been a period of violence
during which his father was killed. The conspirators were subsequently
put to death by the people of the land, culminating in young
Josiah being installed as king. The record shows that his father
was an idolater who followed after foreign gods. Of course,
idolatry came naturally to his father since his father’s
father also was an idolater. In fact, you can trace the mixture
of pagan practices all the way back to King Solomon.
King Solomon was given great wisdom which, for the most part,
he used for the benefit of the people. As time went on, however,
he began to multiply horses and wives. In the end there was
such a high tax exacted from the people to pay for his extravagant
lifestyle, that after his death, there was a revolt. The worst
part of Solomon’s reign was the fact that his many wives
influenced him to such an extent that he had idols and high
places installed in and around the temple. This perverted mixture
of paganism and God-worship became the accepted practice.
The nation of Israel was split into two distinct nations
after Solomon’s reign, each with its own king. The practice
of pagan-mixed worship continued almost unabated through both
nations. God dealt with Israel first and sent them into a captivity
and dispersion that has lasted to this very day. Judah, on
the other hand, was spared for a time. King Josiah came into
power sometime after the captivity of Israel, as the king of
Judah.
At the time, Josiah was handed the throne, the previous worship
practices had continued unchanged into his reign. Asherah was
worshipped in the temple along with Baal, her male counterpart.
Priests had been appointed to burn incense to these gods. There
were male temple prostitutes, as well, involved in their worship
service. Also, there were women weavers who wove tunics for
Asherah. This was all a part of the ritual being performed
in the temple of Yahweh. There were elements which we consider
to be Christian as well, such as eating unleavened bread. The
focus of these practices involved sex and renewal, celebrating
the springtime when all the earth is brought back to life.
Asherah is known by other names as well, some of which will
sound familiar to you. She was known in Phoenicia as Ashtarte,
In Phoenician colonies as Tanith, in Babylon as Ishtar, in
Arabia as Athtar, in Abyssinia as Al-Uzza, and in other parts
of the world, she had various other names. It was all the same
basic goddess however.
The story of the Babylonian Ishtar has this basic essence.
Ishtar had a son named Tammuz who was killed by a wild boar
while hunting. There was great weeping at the death of Tammuz,
but all was not lost. After his burial, he came back to life
at sunrise during the time of the spring equinox. Celebration
was the order of the day. What better way to celebrate his
resurrection than to have Ishtar ham with all the trimmings
up to and including hot cross buns with the sign of T for Tammuz.
The story takes a strange twist in that Tammuz becomes Ishtar’s
husband as well as her son. She is known as the queen of heaven,
the mother of god. Sound familiar?
Ezekiel had this to say about what he saw going on at the
temple. Let’s pick up the story at chapter 8 and verse
12. “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of
the house of Israel are doing in darkness, each at the shrine
of his own idol? They say, ‘The Lord does not see us;
the Lord has forsaken the land.’ Again, he said, “You
will see them doing things that are even more detestable.” Then
he brought me to the entrance to the north gate of the house
of the Lord, and I saw women sitting there, mourning for Tammuz.
He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You
will see things that are even more detestable than this.” He
then brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord,
and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico
and the altar, were about twenty-five men.. With their backs
toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east,
they were bowing down to the sun in the east.” (The
first sunrise service recorded in the Bible).
Josiah began his rule with these detestable things being
the order of the day. In fact, the scrolls of God’s word
had been completely forgotten and lost. There was a famine
of the word in the land. The Bible tells us that “In
the eighth year of Josiah’s reign, while he was still
a lad, he started to seek after the Elohim of his father David,
and in the twelfth year he started to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem
from the high-places, the Asherah poles, the carvings and the
molten images.” (2 Chronicles 34:3) For some reason,
even though his father was evil, Josiah had a heart to follow
God. He didn’t know exactly how to follow God, but some
things seemed obvious to him. For some reason he knew these
pagan symbols and practices were evil. Somehow, God had impressed
this on his heart because Josiah had a heart to follow God’s
leading.
The story goes on to say that, “In the eighteenth
year of his reign, when he had cleansed the land and the
House, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the chief
of the city, and Joah son of Joahaz the recorder to repair
the House of Yahweh his Elohim. When they came to Hilkiah
the great priest, they delivered the silver brought into
the House of Elohim, that the Levites, the keepers of the
threshold, had gathered from the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim
and from all the remnant of Israel, as well as from all of
Judah and Benjamin and the dwellers of Jerusalem .” (2
Chronicles 34:8-9)
The purpose of all this was to pay for the restoration work
of the Temple. While the silver was being brought out of the
deep recesses of the temple, “Hilkiah the priest
found a scroll of the law of Yahweh given by means of Moses.
Hilkiah responded and said to Shaphan the scribe, “A
scroll of the law have I found in the House of Yahweh.” And
Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan. Then Shaphan brought the
scroll to the king and furthermore rendered a report to the
king, saying, “All that was put in the hand of your officials,
they are doing. They have poured forth the silver that was
found in the House of Yahweh; and they put it into the hands
of the supervisors and into the hands of those doing the work.” Then
Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, “There is a
scroll that Hilkiah the priest has given to me.” And
Shaphan read from it before the king.” (2 Chronicles
34:14-18)
When we are confronted with the law of God, there is conviction
that occurs. “It came to pass as the king heard the
words of the law, he tore his garments.” It is the
law that brings us to repentance. It is the same in our day
as it was in Josiah’s time. After hearing God’s
instructions for his children about living holy lives, Josiah
set out with a fervor to cleanse the land of the abominations
that were taking place. When a delegation was sent to the prophetess
to inquire of God about what would happen to Josiah and to
his kingdom, the prophetess informed them that God had seen
Josiah’s repentance and would not destroy the kingdom
during his rule.
After hearing the report from the delegation, Josiah set
out to educate the priests and the Levites and all the people
from the scroll of the covenant. He contracted with God to
keep his instruction, his testimonies, and his statutes with
all his heart and with all his soul and to perform the words
of the covenant as they were written on this scroll. This sounds
something like what Christ said. “Love the Lord your
God with all your heart, mind, and soul and love your neighbor
as yourself.”
After this, Josiah dumped Ishtar and caused the people to
celebrate the commanded Passover in its place. He put together
the greatest Passover ever celebrated in the history of the
world. We assume that throughout the history of Israel and
Judah, they were faithful to God’s commands and faithful
to his commanded feast days. This is a false assumption on
our part. We are told in the Scripture that Josiah’s
Passover celebration was the greatest of the few that were
actually kept.
Even though the Passover of the death angel in Egypt was
past, there was still another Passover to come. Christ was
slain as the Passover lamb on the Feast of Passover. Christ
said, however, that there is a Passover yet to come. “I
have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I
suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds
fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 22:15-16)
Why have we stopped keeping Passover? God’s feast days
are pictures and memorials of events past and events future.
Josiah observed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the
first month which, coincidently, is the commanded date, not
the equinox. He instructed the Levites to put the Ark of the
Covenant back in its rightful place in the temple and to serve
Yahweh their God. He donated to the people 30,000 small cattle
and 3,000 large cattle for the Passover sacrifice and meal.
Others donated 7,600 more small cattle, he-lambs, and goats
as well as 800 more large cattle. This was quite an event.
They not only celebrated the Passover but the seven days of
unleavened bread which is a part of the Passover. Josiah and
Judah went from celebrating Ishtar (Easter) to celebrating
God’s appointed feast day of Passover.
Is this the end of the story? Unfortunately not. After the
death of Josiah, the people went back to their old ways. It
seems as though it was only Josiah and a handful of others
who really wanted to be obedient. The crowd wanted to do the
things that were traditionally handed down to them and it wasn’t
long before they went back to Ishtar.
The rest of the story is that some three hundred years after
the Passover Lamb (Messiah) died, the church began to incorporate
Ishtar and other abominations into the Roman Church. These
practices have been handed down to us. We feel comfortable
with them. We enjoy them. We are considered strange when we
want to go back to the Old Way. To God’s way. So, you
see, God’s people went from Easter to Passover….and
back again. |
