Passover is one of the holy days that God commanded the Jews to celebrate every year. “Let my people go!…” those were the words of Moses to the Egyptian Pharaoh as he followed God’s instructions in negotiating the release of the Jews from slavery. Learn how this scene from the Old Testament is a fulfilled prophecy of Jesus, the Messiah…
Where Passover started…
The story starts with the Burning Bush (Exodus 3) where God spoke to Moses.
But Pharaoh was stubborn. He wasn’t going to let thousands of slaves free just like that. Who would make the bricks to build the temples?
Moses would not take no for an answer — or God wouldn’t. So God sent plagues — one after another. He turned all the water to blood, sent frogs to cover the land, then the gnats, then flies. Still Pharaoh stood his ground. Then God killed all the livestock, but He saved the Israelites’ stock. Then all the Egyptians broke out in boils. Then hail. Then the locusts. So not just the livestock was gone, but so were the crops. Nope, Pharaoh said that was just “magic”. Then there was 3 days of darkness.
But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart once more, and he would not let them go. “Get out of here!” Pharaoh shouted at Moses. “I’m warning you. Never come back to see me again! The day you see my face, you will die!”
“Very well,” Moses replied. “I will never see your face again.”
Exodus 10:27-29
The Lord then spoke to Moses and told him that He’d send one more plague. All the firstborn children in the land will die. To protect the Jews, the Lord told Moses to have the Jews take lamb’s blood and put it on the door frame of their houses. And he gave them other very specific instructions (Exodus 12). The plague that killed all the firstborns “passed over” all the homes of the Jews and only affected the Egyptians. Finally, Pharaoh, after witnessing the death of his son, allowed Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
That “Passover lamb” is a foretelling of Jesus as the sacrificial lamb.
Modern-day Jews celebrate Passover every year on the anniversary of the original event in remembrance of their ancestors’ release from slavery. It begins on the 14th day of the Jewish month Nisan (March and April) – the first month of the Hebrew calendar year.
In one of his Daily Articles, Dr. Jim Denison quotes his wife’s blog about Passover:
But as Janet reminds us, the “passover” we need even more urgently today is salvation not from “the virus that is costing people their earthly lives, but the virus that is costing people their eternity.”
The enemy will use distractions of any kind to lure us away from what matters most. They may be tragedies such as the current pandemic or promises of a return to “normal” when it is over. They may be global or personal.
But anything that draws us away from God is a victory for Satan.
Denison Forum
The Last Supper
Jesus’ last meal with His disciples was celebrating Passover.
On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go to prepare the Passover meal for you?”
So Jesus sent two of them into Jerusalem with these instructions: “As you go into the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him. At the house he enters, say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ He will take you upstairs to a large room that is already set up. That is where you should prepare our meal.” So the two disciples went into the city and found everything just as Jesus had said, and they prepared the Passover meal there.
Mark 14:12-16
What Jesus does next astounds His disciples.
Soli Deo Gloria — to God Alone be the Glory!