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Monday, July 22, 2024

The Jewish Feast Of Passover And How It Points To Jesus Christ The Lamb Of God

Introduction: 

    Not too long ago I wrote a post that introduced readers to the major Jewish Feasts in the Bible here Growing Christian Resources: Introducing the Jewish Feasts, their meaning, and significance. My goal in that post was to highlight how the Jewish Feasts detailed God's relationship with His Covenant people, Israel, as well as prepare for the prophetic events surrounding the first and second comings of Jesus Christ. In that last posting on the feasts, I noted four reasons why it benefits Christians to study the Feasts of Israel:

A. To know Jesus better. 

B. Insight into Prophecy

C. Divine intervention in our lives. 

D. God keeps His promises.

    The first four feasts, the Spring feasts, point us back to Jesus’ first coming and the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. For the O.T, they commemorated the Exodus, the beginnings of the Jewish nation, the giving of the Law (Pentecost), and new spiritual beginnings. 

    The latter three Fall feasts, for New Testament truths, detailed what will be the situation of the Jews at the end of the Tribulation period prior to Christ’s return to earth. In the Old Testament, they signal the latter parts of the religious calendar and the beginning of the civil calendar. In today's post, we shall look at the Feast of Passover. I shall present major headings with comments to guide us through our discussion.

1. The Passover pointed to a saving event.

    Four main lambs in O.T. First Lamb (likely) Genesis 4:4; Passover Lamb Exodus 12; Sacrificial Lamb Exodus 29:39; Prophetic Lamb Is 53:7; The Person of the Lamb (John 1:29). As for Passover Lamb, it undergirded the other Old Testament portrayals of lambs. God used lambs to communicate the truth of substitutionary atonement. Jesus would come to fulfill all of the major meanings conveyed by the Old Testament portrayals, including the Passover Lamb. Whenever we look at the Passover's initiation in Exodus 12, we note the following characteristics and meanings of the Passover lamb. 

A. New beginning of new life. 

Exodus 12:1-2 "Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 'This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you."

B. Selection of the lamb. 

Exodus 12:3-4 "Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household. 4 Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb."

(1). Spotless Lamb. 

Exodus 12:5 "Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats." 

(2). Slaughtered Lamb.

Exodus 12:6 "You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight."

(3). Sprinkled blood of the Lamb. 

Exodus 12:7 "Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it." 

(4). Sufficient Lamb

Exodus 12:8 "They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails."

(5). Satisfying Lamb

Exodus 12:10 "And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. 11 Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is the Lord’s Passover." 

(6). Securing Lamb

Exodus 12:12 "For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt."

2. The Passover pictures our salvation. 

    In having looked at the Passover Lamb featured in the initial pronouncement of the Passover Feast, we can turn to consideration of the details of the Feast we find in the Jewish observance. Various details of the Jewish Passover or "Seder" meal includes the following components.

A. Removal of Leaven – cf 1 Cor 5:6-8 = our sanctification.

B. Elijah’s Cup (between the testaments) = Second coming

    This tradition was developed at some point in the Jewish observance of the Passover meal. Dr. Walter Kaiser explains the rite's significance:

"To this day, Judaism continues to reserve for Elijah a distinguished place and loosely to relate it to their fading expectation of the coming of the Messiah. This can best be seen in the cup of Elijah and the seat reserved for him at every Passover meal. The hope and prayer of every Jew at the conclusion of the Passover—”next year in Jerusalem”—is one piece of a larger picture of the coming Messianic era. And at the heart of it remains the open door for the new Elijah."

C. Four cups (blessing, sanctification, redemption, kingdom)

    The periodical "Israel my Glory", 2013 article on Seder (“Order”), notes how the Jews utilized the following passage from Exodus, with exposition on the meaning of the four cups. 

Exodus 6:6-8 "Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. 7 Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am the Lord.’”

(1). The First Cup. This is the Cup of Sanctification. It is consumed early in the meal. Sanctification means “set apart.” Jewish people acknowledge, remember, and praise God that He selected, exalted, and set them apart by giving them His commandments. A prayer of praise is offered before the cup is drunk.

(2). The Second Cup. This is the Cup of Praise. After the story of the Exodus—the ultimate account of liberation from slavery—is read, the Cup of Praise is drunk with a prayer of praise to God for being the constant source of deliverance in every generation of Jewish history.

(3). The Third Cup. This is the Cup of Redemption. It is drunk after the meal and after the afikomen is found. (See “The Marvelous Afikomen.”) In the ancient world, redemption referred to slaves being purchased and liberated. Jewish people thank and praise God for freeing them from Egyptian bondage. Not only did God deliver them from the physical hardship of slavery but also from the constant exposure to Egypt’s false gods. No longer would the Israelites and their children be forcibly subjected to the worship practices of a pagan culture.

    The third cup also has particular significance for Christians. It is the same cup Jesus took “after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you’” (Lk. 22:20). The Cup of Redemption symbolizes what Jesus did for us: He shed His blood to redeem us from slavery to sin. That is why the apostle Paul, a highly trained Jewish scholar, wrote, “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7).

(4). The Fourth Cup. Everyone partakes of this cup near the end of the dinner. It is called the Cup of Acceptance or the Cup of Anticipation and celebrates the relationship God desires with His Chosen People. This is the cup the Lord Jesus used to symbolize the ratification of the New Covenant and to institute communion. He did not drink it Himself, however, but said He will drink it when the Messianic Kingdom is established (Matt 26:26-29).

    Clearly the four cups in the Jewish Passover, observed when Jesus instituted the Passover to be transfigured into what we know today as the Lord's Table, only served to reinforce the connection between the Passover Lamb and Jesus Himself. We go on to note other features of the Passover meal.

D. Bitter herbs (horse radish usually, salt water), bitterness and tears in Egypt. 

E. Charoseth (apples, nuts, a claylike substance). 

F. Recounting of the Passover Narrative

G. Hiding of the Afikomen (which means “that which comes later”). Middle matzos bread (all three in a Matzah bag or linen covering. The tray is called an “echad” tray. Jews take it to mean “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob). Once afikomen is found, the meal is done. 

    These features convey the extraordinary meaning of the Passover to Christians. As we round the corner of the homestretch of today's post, let me draw the reader to see how what I just mentioned about the Passover has explicit New Testament verses attached to its ultimate meaning.

3. Passover personified by the Savior. 

A. A new beginning = 2 Cor 5:17

B. Selection of a lamb. Rev 13:8; Is 42:7

C. Spotless lamb 1 Peter 1:18

D. Slaughtered lamb Revelation 5:6-8

E. Sprinkled blood of the Lamb. Eph 1:7

F. Sufficient Lamb John 1:29; 1 Peter 2:21-25

G. Satisfying Lamb 1 Peter 3:18

H. Securing Lamb. John 10:27-29

Closing thoughts:

    No doubt the Passover celebration pre-figured what Jesus would achieve as The Lamb of God. His commemoration of the Lord's Table in conjunction with the Passover bridges the continuation of its importance to Christians today. We learned the following today.

1. The Passover pointed to a saving event, the Exodus, which in turn would pre-figure the ultimate saving event, the crucifixion of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

2. The Passover pictures the Christian's salvation, as it did Jewish salvation in the Old Testament. 

3. The Passover is personified in the Savior Himself, since He is the "Lamb of God". 


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