Passover Begins!

The Day of Passover begins at sundown this evening.

The Israelites were promised by YehoVAH to be liberated from Egyptian bondage. God brought ten plagues upon Egypt.

The final plague consisted of the firstborn being killed on a certain night. To avoid the punishment the people would kill a sacrificial lamb (sheep or goat) and paint the door posts of the house with the blood of the lamb. When the Lord passed through the land, He would not kill the firstborn of the houses that had shown their trust in His provision of salvation.

YehoVAH commanded the Israelites to remember this event on the 14th day of the month of the Aviv in Exodus 12:

And יהוה spoke to Moses and to Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This new moon is the beginning of new moons for you, it is the first new moon of the year for you. “Speak to all the congregation of Isra’ěl, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this new moon each one of them is to take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. ‘And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the beings, according to each man’s need you make your count for the lamb. ‘Let the lamb be a perfect one, a year old male. Take it from the sheep or from the goats. ‘And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same new moon. Then all the assembly of the congregation of Isra’ěl shall slay it between the evenings. ‘And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. ‘And they shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted in fire – with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. ‘Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire, its head with its legs and its inward parts. ‘And do not leave of it until morning, and what remains of it until morning you are to burn with fire. ‘And this is how you eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Passover of יהוה.

(Exo 12:1-11)

In Colossians 2:16-17 Paul tells Christians that God’s appointed feast days are shadow pictures of good things to come, namely, in Christ Jesus. Including Passover, they were a REMEMBRANCE, a REHEARSAL, and for us, a REMINDER of how God keeps His promises.

Just as Passover caused the Israelites to REMEMBER God’s provision for their salvation and to REHEARSE for the coming Messiah, this appointed Day of YeHoVAH calls us to be REMINDED of how God has provided for US by offering His sinless Son Yeshua (Jesus) as our Passover Lamb (1 Cor 5:7).

Jesus actually fulfilled the Passover at the same moment the nation’s Passover lamb was slain. “Between the evenings” represents a Hebrew term meaning between noon and 6 pm, i.e. 3pm. When the high priest cut the throat of the lamb and proclaimed “It is finished!”, outside the city wall on Calvary Jesus said, “It is finished,” and gave up His spirit.

Loretta and I placed this red sash over the lintel and doorposts of our home to proclaim our trust in Jesus and His blood sacrifice for our sins. We placed a sprig of a hyssop type plant dipped in red to symbolize Jesus’ saving blood. A palm frond we included to proclaim Hosannas, blessed is He who comes in the Name of YehoVAH. Loretta tied the glorious palm to the bloody hyssop with a white ribbon to remind us of Jesus sinless perfection as our Passover Lamb.

All this is to remind one and all who have read this far that the death angel will someday come for each of us. We need to have the blood of Yeshua/Jesus covering the doorposts of our HEARTS in order to be saved. There is no under name under heaven by which we can be saved. (Acts 4:12)