No holy holiday surpasses peçach, the festival of the Passover, in the calendar year of the jews. In a previous post, Josiah – a Good King also Dies, we discovered that Passover had been completely forgotten by the Judah. The Law had not been read and Kings before Josiah had done evil in the sight of the Lord.
פֶּסַח
We also reviewed the meaning of Passover:
“a sparing, immunity from penalty and calamity.
The root word suggests from application of scripture in Exodus 12 that the Lord will pass over or spring over you when executing judgment. He will halt the punitive action in your case.
A Three-part Festival
Instructions for the Passover
Exodus 12:3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they must each select an animal of the flock according to their fathers’ families, one animal per family. 4 If the household is too small for a whole animal, that person and the neighbor nearest his house are to select one based on the combined number of people; you should apportion the animal according to what each will eat. 5 You must have an unblemished animal, a year-old male; you may take it from either the sheep or the goats. 6 You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month…
Preparation
The contemporary photo of an Israeli employee removing prayer notes from the western wall is just one example of a cleansing of sorts, associated with the sacrifice of Passover.
You must be spotless before the Lord. Not better than everyone else, one who does more good works than (perhaps) the one who does not achieve eternal life. Spotless. Cleansed of sin.
His place of worship in Jerusalem must be clean to begin the great sacrifice. Everything washed. Pure. This preparation to come before the Lord is symbolic of repentance.
Are you mostly good?
Not good enough (for no man or woman is good, no not one).
Yet we no longer sacrifice the blood of a lamb, for the Holy of Holies and the altar has been destroyed.
Passover Meal
Exodus 12: CSB/WLC שמות
… then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.
Exodus 12:6B
7 They must take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat them. 8 They are to eat the meat that night; they should eat it, roasted over the fire along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
Strict regulations also include: (9 Do not eat any of it raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over fire—its head as well as its legs and inner organs. 10 You must not leave any of it until morning; any part of it left until morning you must burn.)
What about now?
Beloved follower of the Lord in this 21st century after the Messiah Jesus, I ask you:
Even IF you strictly observance the Passover today, is your worship any more than symbolism?
Can the blood of a lamb (no longer sacrificed) atone for your sin? כָּפַר
11 וְכָכָה֮ תֹּאכְל֣וּ אֹתוֹ֒ מָתְנֵיכֶ֣ם חֲגֻרִ֔ים נַֽעֲלֵיכֶם֙ בְּרַגְלֵיכֶ֔ם וּמַקֶּלְכֶ֖ם בְּיֶדְכֶ֑ם וַאֲכַלְתֶּ֤ם אֹתוֹ֙ בְּחִפָּז֔וֹן פֶּ֥סַח ה֖וּא לַיהוָֽה׃
Here is how you must eat it: You must be dressed for travel, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in a hurry; it is the Lord’s Passover.
Exodus 12:11
Christian and Jew alike understand the significance of the events to follow the quickly eaten Passover meal and the account of Moses as redeemer from slavery in Egypt.
Christians ought to understand this same symbolism of the body and blood of the Lamb, the risen Messiah King, as in an upper room in Jerusalem, Jesus shared a last Passover meal with His beloved Disciple family nearly two millennia ago.
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all drank of it.
And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.
Mark 14:22-24 KJV
Passover Celebration
14 וְהָיָה֩ הַיּ֨וֹם הַזֶּ֤ה לָכֶם֙ לְזִכָּר֔וֹן וְחַגֹּתֶ֥ם אֹת֖וֹ חַ֣ג לַֽיהוָ֑ה לְדֹרֹ֣תֵיכֶ֔ם חֻקַּ֥ת עוֹלָ֖ם תְּחָגֻּֽהוּ׃
“This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to the Lord. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute.
- 15 You must eat unleavened bread for seven days.
- On the first day you must remove yeast from your houses.
- Whoever eats what is leavened from the first day through the seventh day must be cut off from Israel.
- 16 You are to hold a sacred assembly on the first day…
- … and another sacred assembly on the seventh day.
- No work may be done on those days except for preparing what people need to eat—you may do only that.
Festival of Unleavened Bread
… You must observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent statute.
Thus, we remember how the Lord used Moses to bring Israel out of Egypt, where the Lord led and purified a people chosen to His for entry into a land promised to Abraham as his inheritance. Yet the Lord has used saviors besides Moses to redeem his faithful from the chains of this life.
Other Saviors Redeeming God’s Faithful
We know well the saving of the Jews from Pharaoh. Some would look to Moses or Joshua as their redeemer or savior. Certainly Joseph saved Israel in Egypt until in the generations he was forgotten.
Others see David as Israel’s king triumphant. A few recognize Ezra for bringing back worship in Jerusalem. All of these would give the same glory instead to the Lord God.
One more mention of the unleavened bread in the generation of Abraham may have missed your notice. You may not believe it, though Moses tells it. Once again, it was served quickly and judgment by the Lord followed.
The Doom of Sodom
If any family should have been celebrating a festival of unleavened bread it would be the families of Abraham, who faithful followed the Lord from place to place as the Lord commanded. The Lord’s covenant with Abraham preceded the Law of Moses.
As you may know, Lot, son of Abram’s brother Haran, also followed the Lord to both Canaan and Egypt before settling in the city of Sodom. It was a walled city with a gate like other cities of its time.
Genesis 19:
The two angels entered Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in Sodom’s gateway. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them. He bowed with his face to the ground…
… He prepared a feast and baked unleavened bread for them, and they ate.
Have you ever considered it? Lot prepared a feast of unleavened bread for the two angels who saved him from Sodom.
Lot was unaware of their mission and events which had already taken place between the angels and Abraham.
The Lord appeared to Abraham
18 וַיֵּרָ֤א אֵלָיו֙ יְהוָ֔ה בְּאֵלֹנֵ֖י מַמְרֵ֑א וְה֛וּא יֹשֵׁ֥ב פֶּֽתַח־הָאֹ֖הֶל כְּחֹ֥ם הַיּֽוֹם׃
Three angels had appeared to Abraham. Lot would only know that his uncle and aunt in their nineties were childless. He had been like a son to them.
16 The men got up from there and looked out over Sodom, and Abraham was walking with them to see them off.
17 Then the Lord said, “Should I hide what I am about to do from Abraham?
Lot, of course knows nothing of the conversation to follow which has already taken place when two angels come to him at the gate of Sodom.
The Lord had judged Sodom for the sin of all of its residents. Then Abraham intercedes, pleaing for the Lord to spare Lot and his family. Abraham saves them from the sentence of death, all except Lot’s wife who sinned even after the warning of angels.
22 The men turned from there and went toward Sodom while Abraham remained standing before the Lord. 23 Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will you really sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
Genesis 19:15 “Get up! … or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”
29 וַיְהִ֗י בְּשַׁחֵ֤ת אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־עָרֵ֣י הַכִּכָּ֔ר וַיִּזְכֹּ֥ר אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶת־אַבְרָהָ֑ם וַיְשַׁלַּ֤ח אֶת־לוֹט֙ מִתּ֣וֹךְ הַהֲפֵכָ֔ה בַּהֲפֹךְ֙ אֶת־הֶ֣עָרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁר־יָשַׁ֥ב בָּהֵ֖ן לֽוֹט׃
So it was, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the middle of the upheaval when he demolished the cities where Lot had lived.
Genesis 19:29 WLC,CSB
A Savior at the gate of Jerusalem
As the LORD in Person
Came to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre,
As the LORD in Person
Came to Moses at Sinai,
The LORD in the Person of the Son With Us
Came to Jerusalem’s gate.
—
The Lord in Person sacrificed
On a Cross beyond its walls,
Jesus, Messiah and King
Risen! in Person,
Jesus, in flesh and blood shed
Our King comes on the clouds again!
Roger Harned
The Lord will return
Will you bow down to your Lord and King?
Or will you yet crucify Him?
The choice of judgment is yours, yet your redemption or just punishment will be His.
Is Jesus your Lord? Or will you justify your sin without Him?
To be continued... [eternally]
