A Reflection over the First Night of Passover.

[Jacob Ben Avraham]

EREV PESACH  (First Night of Passover)  

   Tonight is April 22nd, The First night of Passover.  It must have been a night like this about 3500 years ago that thousands of lambs were sacrificed, and their blood placed on the doorposts of those houses.  This was done per instructions via Moses, and Moses received these instructions directly from God.  

    That night would be the night of all nights.  A night to remember.  Freedom from slavery was at the door.  God himself would pay a visit to the Egyptians, a visit of death.  Death to the firstborn of Egypt.  A debt would be collected.  Lives would be demanded.  Yet there would be a substitute. 
Or rather, substitutes.  Those were the lambs and goats that were sacrificed.  Their blood on the doorposts of the houses in Goshen would be a reminder that "blood was already shed in this house."  That household was obedient to the instructions.  That household was redeemed by the blood of that lamb.  So, on to the next house.  Would that household be obedient?  

     That Passover night a cry went out in all the land of Egypt.  Judgment was dished out to Pharaoh's household and all the Egyptians.  Were there Egyptians who put blood on their doorposts?  Perhaps a few since a "mixed multitude" left Egypt in the morning.  There were some Egyptians who placed their trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel.  

     The final plague gave the death blow to Egypt.  Egypt was defeated and humiliated, and God's people were set free, free from the bondage of slavery, free to follow a new master, a master who would love them and who would, someday, give up his own life for them. 

     About 1500 years later, another scene was taking place on a night like this, the first night of Passover. Our Messiah was in a large room and was gathered with his disciples.  It would be the final Passover supper with them.  They would have roasted lamb with bitter herbs and a sweet mixture of fruit and nuts with honey.  Unleavened bread of course was there along with wine.  The Unleavened bread spoke of Yeshua the Bread of Life.    All participated, all but one, the betrayer, Y'hudah, a man from Kariot, who learned nothing from the Master, who placed more importance in pocket change than a change of heart.  

     The bread was broken to symbolize Messiah's body which would soon be broken and torn apart by Roman fists and a flagellum.  Wine was drunk to symbolize the blood of Messiah which would be spilled.  The blood that brought back memories of the blood of lambs and goats 1500 years before on the first Passover night in Egypt.  Yeshua would be those Passover lambs.  As the Passover lambs were the substitutes for death back then, Yeshua would be the one and only Passover lamb to be our substitute in death.  He would take the curse of sin and death upon himself, and by His sacrifice, we would gain eternal life.  

     Is the Passover Lamb part of your life?  Have you invited the Passover Lamb to live inside you?  If not, Passover would be the perfect time for such an invitation.    

Happy Passover.

If you have never celebrated Passover, it's not too late.