Passover

“So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance” (Exodus 12:14)

Every year, around Easter, our Jewish friends celebrate the Passover they call Pesach. It is a tremendously important holiday as it was God Himself who commanded its perpetual observance.

So, what happened? The year was 1445/1446 B.C. and the Pharaoh who now persecuted the Jews was Amenhotep II. They had been enslaved for 400 years and now it was time for God to free them from their bondage. God raised up a prophet and leader by the name of Moses who was born around 1525 B.C. He was now 80 years of age and he, along with his brother Aaron, would be used by God to bring deliverance to their Jewish kin.

After 10 warnings to this Pharaoh (title of a king, not his name), and the pursuant 9 plagues on Egypt, where the Israelites were held hostage, Moses instructed his people to take a lamb for each household and slaughter it. They then would take its blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they would eat its flesh. The 10th plague was about to happen – – the death of every firstborn in the land of Egypt! But those who were of the Hebrew households would be spared from the judgment brought about from the LORD. When He would see the blood, He would pass over them: therefore, it is called Passover! (You can read about it in Exodus, chapter 12).

As Christians approach Good Friday, it is imperative that we understand the very distinctly intended message: “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (I Corinthians 5:7). Through the shedding and application of the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God, the one believing and receiving His work on the cross would be bypassed by the judgment of God and would be freed from the slavery of sin.

What took place in Egypt physically, became a picture of God’s power to save His people and bring them into the Promised Land from that time on. Yes, Jesus the Messiah is the Lamb of God who bled for me!  He’s my Passover! Is He yours?