“…and when I see the blood, I will pass over you…”
Ex.12:13
This Sunday the world entered into what is known as the Holy Week of Passover, the week which is traditionally known as the week when Yeshua rode into Jerusalem to the accolades of people with palm branches of victory strewn along the road, crying out: “Hosanna!”We call it Palm Sunday.
But have you ever wondered what festival Yeshua actually came to celebrate in Jerusalem that week? According to John 12, just like the rest of the people of Israel, Yeshua came to Jerusalem to celebrate the biblical festival of Passover; which God had commanded to celebrate for all generations. It commemorates God’s deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt and shows how the blood of an innocent lamb that was sacrificed was placed on doorposts, thus protecting the people of Israel from God’s judgment on Egypt.On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb… for a household. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 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 thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 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 12:3-14
Interestingly enough, Yeshua’s Last Supper was in fact Seder Pesach – the traditional Passover meal, which makes the Seder meal that much more profound! He was celebrating God’s covenant when the blood of a sacrificial lamb saved those that believed and applied that blood to their doorposts. Yeshua not only celebrated the biblical Passover as God had commanded, but He also came to seal that covenant of eternal deliverance with His own blood, becoming the perfect Lamb of God.“Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us…”
1 Corinthians 5:7
The profound significance of Passover is ever-present in our day when the whole world cries out for deliverance. Passover is such a special time of deep biblical significance, especially for us, believers in Yeshua, of what we are celebrating according to Exodus 12 – The LORD’S PASSOVER. We know the entire bible points to Christ, our Messiah, who was, and is, and is to come. The first Passover was merely a foreshadowing of the ultimate Passover – God’s deliverance of us through the sacrifice of Yeshua – the precious Lamb of God.