He rose again, and, clad not in the resplendent robes of that Divine Nature He had before the world, but in the garb of our human nature, He ascended into the Heavenly Sanctuary, the antitype of the Jewish Sanctuary on earth, and there pleads, and will for ever plead, the merits of His blood before the throne of God. CHAPTER V. _THE GREAT FESTIVALS._ EXOD. XXIII. 14–17; LEV. XXIII. 1–22; NUM. XXVIII. 16–31; DEUT. XVI. 1–16. THE great Historical Festivals, at which all males amongst the Israelites were required to appear before the Lord, were, as has been said already, (i) _The Passover_; (ii) _The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost_; (iii) _The Feast of Tabernacles_. (i) _The Passover._ The original institution of this Festival has been already noticed. The directions for its yearly celebration are given in Ex. xxiii. 14–17; Lev. xxiii. 5–8; Num. xxviii. 16–25; Deut. xvi. 1–8. As in Egypt, so now, on the 10th day of _Nisan_ or _Abib_, corresponding to the close of March or the beginning of April, each Paschal company, which might not exceed twenty or be less than ten, was to select a lamb or kid, a male of the first year, and keep it till the 14th day. If pronounced by the priests to be free from blemish, it was to be slain _between the evenings_, in the Court of the Tabernacle, and its blood poured round the Altar of Burnt-offering. It was then, after being flayed, to be taken to the house where the Paschal Company intended to assemble, to be roasted with fire, whole and entire without the breaking of a single bone, and to be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The Festival lasted from the 14th to the 21st of Nisan, and during this period nothing but unleavened bread might be eaten, and all leaven was to be carefully removed from the house before the 14th. The daily sacrifices for the nation consisted of (i) a _Burnt-Offering_ of two bullocks, one ram, seven yearling lambs, accompanied by the usual meat-offering, and (ii) one goat for a _Sin-Offering_. Thank-offerings, called by the Jews _Chagigah_, might also be offered by individuals during the Festival, especially on the 15th, the first day of Holy Convocation. (Comp. Lev. vii. 29–34; 2 Ch. xxx. 22–44; xxxv. 7.) On the 16th the first ripe sheaf of barley was to be brought into the sanctuary, and there waved by the priest before the Lord, and at the same time a yearling lamb was offered with a meat- and drink-offering (see Lev. xxiii. 9–14). Till this sheaf had thus been waved, and this offering presented, no produce of the now ripening harvest, whether bread or parched corn, or green ears, might be eaten (Josh. v. 11, 12)[100].