Passover is one of the Feasts of Israel mentioned in the Old Testament. The oldest continuously celebrated Jewish holiday, it was originally celebrated at the end of Israel’s 430 years of Egyptian captivity. Occurring on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Nisan which corresponds with March/April on our calendar, it is a celebration of deliverance, by God’s grace, from oppressive bondage in Egypt.
The Israelites cried out to God for help but Pharaoh, the leader of Egypt, refused to let them go. In response to their cry, God sent plagues upon the land in order to motivate Pharaoh to release His people. It worked!
The tenth plague really got Pharaoh’s attention because it consisted of the death of every firstborn child in Egypt. But this calamity did not befall the Hebrew slaves. Why not? God instructed them to sacrifice an unblemished lamb and to apply its blood to the doorposts of their homes. When the angel of death passed through the land, he would “pass over” the homes of the Israelites because of their obedience to God.
Each year thereafter, Israel commemorated the time when the blood of the lamb saved them from the angel of death. This commemoration became a holiday known as Passover, or in Hebrew, Pesach.
These first lambs were sacrificed over 3500 years ago and provided release from physical bondage. But there was to come another unblemished Lamb of God who was sacrificed about 2000 years ago. His sacrifice provided release, not from physical bondage, but from the bondage to sin. His name is Yeshua, Jesus. And just as my ancestors were told to apply, in faith, the blood of those first Passover lambs to the doorposts of their homes, so also are we, Jew and Gentile, invited to apply to our hearts, in faith, the blood of the ultimate Lamb of God, Jesus.
The ancient holiday of Passover is a foreshadowing of the sin sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God. Paul, a Jewish person, made this statement in 1 Corinthians 5:6-7:
“Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”
In Exodus chapter 12 the observance of Passover is mentioned. Three items are to be included: the lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs. The lamb, as previously mentioned, represents redemption from bondage. The unleavened bread represents the desire to be free from the ultimate slave-master: sin. The bitter herbs serve as a reminder of bitter toil and a life of strife prior to redemption.
Even today, as Passover, a seven-day event, is celebrated by Jewish people all over the world, all food products containing leaven are removed. This process begins about six weeks before Passover and is typically performed by the woman of the house. The idea is to cleanse the home of all leaven because, in the Bible, leaven is frequently a symbol of sin, and, therefore, one of the reasons we eat only unleavened bread during Passover. Perhaps you’ve seen it. It is called Matzah and it is flat, striped, and has small holes in it to aid in the baking process.
The design of the Matzah offers a wonderful picture of Jesus, the sinless Bread of life. As the matzah is striped, so too was Jesus. Isaiah tells us that: “With His stripes we are healed”. And just as the matzah is pierced through, so too the Bible tells us that Jesus was “pierced through for our transgressions.”
The Passover celebration, called the Seder, can last up to four hours. The story of God’s gracious deliverance of His people from bondage is told year after year. And there is singing and, of course, lots of eating.
Each food item represents a part of the story of redemption:
• Karpas - greens representing the blessing of life
• Salt water - representing the tears of life spent in bondage
• Chazaret - a bitter herb representing the bitterness of slavery
• Moror - strong horseradish which helps us remember the tears of our ancestors and also makes your sinuses go wild
• Charoseth - a sweet concoction reminding us that even a life in bondage is sweetened with the promise of redemption
There are two other very interesting items. One is called Chagigah, a roasted, hard-boiled egg. Chagigah was the name given to the daily sacrifice for sin which was offered thousands of years ago at the Temple in Jerusalem. The second item is called Zeroah, the bone of a lamb. It too represents sacrifices for sin once offered at the Temple.
Now this leads to an interesting question: The Temple, which once stood in Jerusalem, was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70. Along with it, the altar of sacrifice was also destroyed. So, without the Temple and the altar for sin, what is the means for the atonement of sin today?
Our Rabbis have made suggestions including fasting, acts of charity, and prayers of repentance. But these alternatives to the atonement of sin just won’t do. Why not? Because the highest ranking Rabbi of all time, Moses, quoted these words of God in the book of Leviticus: “I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood, by reason of the life, that makes atonement.”
So you see, without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sin. No alternative will do - not religious tradition, not good deeds. Nothing but the shedding of blood can provide a covering for our sin.
We would be in trouble if God didn’t do something about our sin problem. Praise Him! He did. He provided the ultimate Passover Lamb whose shed blood was poured out to provide atonement for our sin.
One day, about 2000 years ago, there lived a man named Yochannon. You probably know him as John the baptizer. And, while baptizing in the Jordan River one day, he saw another man of whom he said: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
This man was none other than Jesus the Messiah. God sent Him. God sent His Son. God sent His sinless Son. God sent Jesus, the Passover Lamb, to take away the sin of Jewish people and of Gentile people who accept His sacrifice for their sin.
Now let me close with this: In ancient Israel, the priests began to prepare the Passover lambs for sacrifice at the third hour, 9:00 in the morning, the exact hour at which Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb of God, was nailed to the Cross.
Then, at the ninth hour, 3:00 in the afternoon, the high priest climbed the altar on which the Passover lamb was tied. He took a knife and killed it. At exactly this hour, the ninth hour, the Lord Jesus uttered a loud cry from the Cross and breathed His last breath.
He is indeed the Passover Lamb who died, was buried, but now lives in the hearts of all people who call upon His Name as their personal Savior.
Happy Passover my fellow Jewish and Gentile friends whose sins have been covered by the cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus, the ultimate Passover Lamb.
Hallelujah! God has provided the Lamb!
[If you would like more information about Passover, we encourage you to visit our Bookstore and ask for the DVD by Stuart Rothberg entitled: “Christ in the Passover”. You can view a full presentation of the Passover Seder with explanation of all of its age-old elements.]