Yeshua, The Passover Lamb

Today, in the Jewish Calendar, is the 15th day of the month of Nissan.  This is a significant day as throughout the world, many a Jewish home will be celebrating the Passover feast, or, Pesach in Hebrew.  This feast is very symbolic and rich in food items that represent various meanings in the whole event for which Passover was intended to commemorate. I think for the Jewish household who is still awaiting the Messiah to come, it is a feast that continually looks back at the wonderful act of deliverance of God of His people from the clutches of Egypt.  For the Messianic Jew and for the born again " gentile" or spiritual Jew, the Passover is far much more than looking back.  So, with the mindset of a spiritual Jew I want to explore three areas that Passover means to me.

1.  Apart from being the national deliverance of Israel from bondage and slavery in Egypt, as recounted in Exodus 12&13, this event was a prophetic  statement of a deliverance that would come for the world from the bondage of sin.  The blood of the lamb, without question was the pivotal part of the entire story, for those who had the blood painted onto their door posts, were spared from the destroying angel.  The blood signified to that angel that those in the home was under the blood, so Passover to the next house.  There are a lot more significant happenings that took place that night nearly three thousand years ago that are prophetic statements, but I wanted to stick with one, the main one, and that is the blood of the Lamb.

2.  Jesus ate the Passover meal with His disciples.Luke 22: 8-16 on the evening of the 14th evening of Nissan, which was Infact the first day of Sedar.  The Jews celebrated Passover over a few days, but in order to be exact to the prophetic detail, Jesus stayed with events that took place in Egypt all those years ago.  Jesus was and is the fulfilment of Passover, and it was on the day that the sacrificial lamb was slaughtered that he was crucified.  This is the most significant event for me, as it was to the Israelite in Egypt to have the blood of the lamb on the doorpost in order to be spared the destroying angel, so the blood of Jesus covering my life spares me from the Judgement of God for my sin.  

1 Corinthians 5:7 (Amplified)

Purge (clean out) the old leaven that you may be fresh (new) dough, still uncontaminated [as you are], for Christ, our Passover [Lamb], has been sacrificed.

What an amazing saviour, what a sacrifice has been paid to redeem me from the clutches of satan and the world.  When God sees me, He sees the blood of the Jesus. I am free, I can walk free and what is more , I can enjoy fellowship with God.  Is this not worth praise, not only from my lips, but also from my life and lifestyle?

3.  Malachi 4:5-6

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

The Jewish Passover meal also looks ahead.  Traditionally at the Passover meal there is a fourth cup and an empty chair.  Each year the children of the household would, at some point in the meal, go and open the front door of the house to see if Elijah the prophet had come to declare that the Messiah is coming, and will sit in the chair and drink from the cup.  

Yeshua, our messiah has come and He will return.  He is coming back to claim His own, those who are covered by His shed blood, to lead us out of this world, as Moses led the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, free from slavery.  Yes, our deliverance was great, our deliverance is great and our deliverance will be great. Today, as we consider the Passover, let us be truly mindful of the price paid for our freedom, and thank Him, but let us look ahead to the soon and coming redeemer and in the meantime live in fellowship with Him.

Revelation 22:20

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!