Thank God for the gift of good friends and good conversations.
This friend tells me how she never clearly understood the difference between Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread before she had started researching it for a co-op class she was going to teach.
Well, educate me. I don't know the difference either. Her answer is only a springboard for a hundred jumping questions. On both ends of the line, we start flipping pages. Exodus 12, Leviticus 23:5-7, back to Leviticus 12, and so on. Phones crooked in our necks, talking over each other at times, discovering, and confirming in our minds, TRUTH.
The passover meal foreshadows -in amazing detail- the Passion of Christ: his last supper and his trial and torture, the crucifixion and his death. The original Passover was observed because God was on the eve of executing his judgment on the Egyptians and passing-over the sons of Israel who had substitutionary lambs slain on their behalves. They were passed-over. God's judgment upon us was substituted on the slain Lamb of God and we have been passed-over.
REMEMBER THE PASSOVER BECAUSE ISRAEL WAS PASSED OVER PHYSICAL DEATH. REMEMBER THE CRUCIFIXION BECAUSE WE ARE PASSED OVER FROM SPIRITUAL DEATH.
ISRAEL DID NOT GET WHAT THEY DESERVED AND NEITHER DO WE.
-A Definition of Mercy
What next?
Have you ever tried to imagine yourself at the first Passover as it was being observed? Israel has seen God plague the Egyptians NINE TIMES. They have been shielded from the plagues, yet they remain in slavery. Did they believe God when he said that the tenth plague would be the final plague, that it would finish it, that it would LEAD TO THEIR FREEDOM? He told them ahead of time. Did they believe?
God tells them to get rid of the leavening and pack up. Get ready to leave.
What if the Israelites had been passed-over from death, but remained the bondage of Egypt? The words of Paul in 1 Cor. 15 come to mind: the most miserable of all men. But no, God promises them freedom! The second observance God commands to the Israelites in Exodus 12 is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In verse 17 God says, "Ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for... I brought your armies out of Egypt." They left in strength. FREEDOM FROM THE SLAVERY.
What if Jesus took the punishment for our sins, but then remained in death's bonds, not rising from the dead? In 1 Cor. 15 Paul says, "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins." We would be left in sin's bonds, indeed making us most miserable of all men.
No, God says you are freed from sin's power: Get rid of sin, and get yourself prepared to leave this world. Get prepared for the place I am preparing for you.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread reminds us of the PROMISE IN THE RESURRECTION! It is our promise of freedom from sin and life everlasting. (I Cor. 15:20-23) He broke the bonds of death and sin, he built the bridge, we can be with Him and the Father and the Spirit FOREVER.
REMEMBER THE FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD BECAUSE ISRAEL WAS FREED FROM PHYSICAL BONDAGE. REMEMBER THE RESURRECTION BECAUSE WE ARE FREED FROM SIN'S BONDAGE AND GIVEN LIFE ETERNAL.
ISRAEL GOT MUCH MORE THAN THEY DESERVED AND SO DO WE.
-A Definition of Grace
TWO EVENTS: The Passover Meal and the Feast of Unleavened Bread
TWO REMEMBERANCES: Being passed over from death and delivered from bondage.
TWO EVENTS: Crucifixion and Resurrection
TWO REMEMBERANCES: We are passed over from the penalty of death and we are delivered from the bondage of sin, being prepared for eternity with God.
ALL INTERTWINED. ALL ETERNITY.
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