Passover (Pesach)
The first feast of the Lord is Passover (Leviticus 23:5). The word Passover is Pesach in Hebrew and means passing over or protection. It is the foundational feast. It cannot be overemphasized as to how foundational Passover is in God’s eternal redemption plan.
Passover is the time of beginnings for Israel. This festival
ushers in the coming of spring on the Jewish calendar and is celebrated on the
fourteenth day of Nisan. Each of the first three festivals—Passover, Pentecost
and the Feast of Tabernacles—has an agricultural basis as well as an historical
significance. Many different things are celebrated during Passover including:
the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the growing season; the new
lambing time, and the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt during Passover.
The Jewish people have celebrated Passover annually till
this day since the time of Moses. Historically, there was only one Passover. It
occurred almost 3500 years ago in Egypt when the children of Israel were slaves
to the Egyptians. The Israelites cried out to God for help and He heard them.
He commanded Moses to tell the children of Israel,
“I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens
of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you
with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as My
people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God
who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring
you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I
will give it to you as a heritage: I am the Lord.”
Moses and his brother Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him
that the Lord said to let the Israelites go. Pharaoh refused to release the
Israelites, even for a brief visit to the desert to worship their God. Moses
had warned Pharaoh that God would send a series of plagues upon Egypt unless
the people were freed.
God did send the plagues to show the people that He is the
one true God. The tenth and final plague was the death of the firstborn. In
Exodus 12 God spoke to Moses and Aaron to tell the congregation of Israel to
take for himself a lamb of the first year without blemish on the tenth of the
month and keep it until the fourteenth, then kill the lamb at twilight. They
were to roast and eat the lamb the same night and none of the lamb’s bones were
to be broken. They were to take some of the blood and put it on the two
doorposts and on the lintel of the houses and none of them were to go out of
the door of his house until morning. “For the Lord will pass through to strike
all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, and when He sees the blood on the
lintel and on the two doorposts the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your
houses to strike you.”
Verse 14 says: “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.”
This was given to us not only to remember the first Passover
but to point us to the one true Lamb of God. The apostle Paul said in 1 Cor.
5:7 “Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us”
Jesus was examined and found without blemish.
He entered Jerusalem and the temple on public display for
four days on the tenth of Nisan.
He died in the seventh hour.
His bones were not broken
His blood was shed
He was crucified, suffered and died in the same night.
It is the applied blood of Christ that saves us
Jesus even celebrated the Passover meal. When we keep the
Passover we are following the ways of Jesus. Jesus also added to the Passover.
He told his disciples that whenever they ate the Passover meal, they should
remember Him using the special unleavened bread and the cup. In the Passover
ceremony this cup is called “the cup of Redemption.” Jesus wants believers to
observe this yearly institute to remember the deliverance of God’s people
physically from Egypt, and to recall the spiritual deliverance of God’s people
through Jesus the Messiah.
On this revival calendar Passover is posted for a full week.
It is actually one day but there is some controversy on whether it is the
fourteenth or fifteenth of Nisan. Some celebrate on the first day and some on
the second.
The gospels appear to say that the Messiah ate a Passover
meal with the disciples on the evening beginning Nisan 14, and John appears to
say Jews were having their Passover meal one day later.
The Sadducees and Pharisees disagreed on the day of
Passover. The Sadducees believed the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread
were separate feast days. They held Passover on the fourteenth as God decreed
in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Those of the majority opinion, including the
Pharisees, held Passover on the fifteenth. Jesus may have been following both
dates by having Passover with the disciples on the fourteenth and becoming the
Passover lamb on the fifteenth.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread is actually the feast that
lasts for seven days beginning on the fifteenth day of Nisan.
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