Passover Begins

Prayer – Lord, Passover is one of the greatest festivals and feasts of the year and You made this last one before Your crucifixion extra special. We recognize the ultimate sacrifice that You made—fulfilling the initial sacrifice of animals to create coverings for Adam and Eve when they disobeyed God and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Evil was let loose in the world. On the cross You won that spiritual battle against the principalities of the world—and now we await the final war as described in Revelation—but we know, You win!  Hallelujah!        

Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread arrived, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John ahead and said, "Go and prepare the Passover meal, so we can eat it together." "Where do you want us to prepare it?" they asked him. He replied, "As soon as you enter Jerusalem, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him. At the house he enters, say to the owner, 'The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?' He will take you upstairs to a large room that is already set up. That is where you should prepare our meal." They went off to the city and found everything just as Jesus had said, and they prepared the Passover meal there. When the time came, Jesus and the apostles sat down together at the table. Jesus said, "I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. For I tell you now that I won't eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God." Then he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. Then he said, "Take this and share it among yourselves. For I will not drink wine again until the Kingdom of God has come." He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me." After supper he took another cup of wine and said, "This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you." Luke 22:7-20

 

Meditate. Consider Passover, an eight-day celebration, which actually started at sundown yesterday.

The first Passover occurred in Egypt when God set the Israelites free from their Egyptian slave masters. There were actually the ten plagues that God imposed on the Egyptians, with the last being the death of the first-born, while the angel of death passed over the Jewish homes that had lamb’s blood sprinkled on their door posts. The plagues, as recorded in Exodus 7-12, are remembered in recitation of the events as part of the Passover Seder. They include:

1.      Blood

2.      Frogs

3.      Lice

4.      Flies

5.      Pestilence

6.      Boils

7.      Hail

8.      Locust

9.      Darkness

10.   Killing of the firstborn.

The Sacrificial Passover Lamb

The plagues were generally associated with Egyptian idol worship of their gods, rather than worship of the one true God. The plagues demonstrate to the Egyptians the power of God and strengthened the faith of the Israelites. Read for yourself this powerful portion of God’s word and seek out an understanding of God’s choice in these particular punishments. This last plague, the Passover, is significant also because it represents an animal sacrifice, that of an unblemished lamb, to take away the sin of the world. Jesus became the ultimate sacrificial lamb when He was hung on the cross. After that, there was no need for animal sacrifice.

Part of the Passover is commemorated with the unleavened bread and wine, eaten just as the Israelites did before the great exodus from Egypt. Note that Jesus not only included this in His last Passover meal, but He personalized it…"This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me." After supper he took another cup of wine and said, "This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you." My body. My blood. No one else could or had made that statement before or since. Do you identify Jesus’ statement as His sacrifice for you personally? Once again, Passover has begun.

Verse of Salvation ~ All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. 1 Peter 1:3-5

 

© 2023 Text, photos, and illustrations by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved. 

All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless otherwise noted. 

New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. 

Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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