The deliverance of the Israelites, God’s chosen people, from the Egyptians was not only a physical deliverance, it was a spiritual deliverance as well. The Israelites were not only delivered from pagan influences but the deliverance also consecrated the Israelites to the service of God.
For the Jews, this physical and spiritual deliverance is a deeply Holy, significant observance. And while Passover begins today for our Jewish friends, it should be no less important and given no less significance in the life of Christians.
The Exodus from Egypt was not only one of the greatest events and epochs in the history of the Jews, but one of the greatest events and epochs in the history of the world. To that successful escape, Europe, America, and Australia are as much indebted as the Jews themselves. And the men of Europe, the men of America, and the men of Australia might join with us Jews in celebrating that feast of the Passover. C.G. Montefiore
We all know well the story of the first Passover. The details given in Exodus 12, the Word from God to the people of God, tells of the significance. I marvel at the step-by-step instructions given by God to His people for their deliverance and protection. Instructions and commandments that are still reverently observed today. Does that not speak to their importance? But, that’s not just in Exodus, is it? It is the theme of the entire Word of God. Our Deliverer is coming. Our Deliverer has come. Our Deliverer will come again. Hallelujah!
The first Passover and the Passover roughly 3400 years later, are strikingly similar. These two separate events in history allegorically, metaphorically and symbolically, rival Revelation. That should really come as no surprise to us Word of God people as the entire Holy Book points to Jesus’s coming, arrival, and returning. The Alpha and the Omega from the alpha to the omega.
In the tenth day of this month they shall take until to them every man a lamb…Your lamb will be without blemish, a male of the first year; ye shall take it from the sheep or the goats; and ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation shall kill it at dusk. And they shall take of the blood, and put it on the two side-posts and on the lintel, upon the houses wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire…Eat, not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; its head with its legs and with the inwards thereof…And thus shall you eat it: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and you staff in your hand; and shall eat it in haste—it is the Lord’s Passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will smite all the first-born, in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. Exodus 12:1-12 (Hebrew Text English Translation of the Pentateuch)
I encourage you to take your own plunge into the profound, there are mirrors upon mirrors in the Passovers. Here are a couple of my own aha’s from this text.
First, the cooking instructions for the lamb. They were told to prepare the meat by roasting. That would not necessarily be how we prepare roast lamb today. They would have prepared the roast lamb, out of doors, on a spit over an open fire. The profound plunge for me was that the spit most likely would have been made of a perpendicular and transverse pole. Two poles in the shape of a cross. Think about that.
The second aha moment came with the two side-posts and the lintel. The text does not say doorway or door jam. It specifically describes the structure. Two side-posts supported the lintel, which is a load-bearing construction element designed to support openings. A lintel is also described as a horizontal beam, a crosspiece, or headpiece that spans (a stringer) an opening. Wow! The importance of the lintel is that it carries the weight of the structure! Wow, again!
My visual is that I’m the left doorpost (sin), God is the right doorpost (Righteousness), and Jesus is the crossbeam (the mediator, the joiner). Because God and I could not coexist due to my sin, Jesus bore the load, took on my burden, spanned the opening. The only way God could get to me was for Jesus to die for me. Outrageous as it sounds, it is Truth. Don’t let anyone tell you different. The blood on the lentil and door-posts of the first Passover is the same blood that bridges the span between God and me. The blood of the first Passover lamb delivered the Israelites. The blood of the second Passover Lamb delivers us all. Think about that as we head into the Christian Passover.
God sent His son
They called Him Jesus
He came to love
Heal and forgive
He bled and died
To buy my pardon
An empty grave
Is there to prove
My savior lives
And because He lives
I can face tomorrow
Because He lives
All fear is gone
Because I know
He holds the future
And life is worth the living
Just because He lives