Passover

The first annual festival of YHVH (the LORD) as found in Lev 23:5

Passover is the time of beginnings for Israel. This festival ushers in the coming of spring on the Jewish calendar. It is celebrated on the fourteenth day of Nisan. Each of the three pilgrimage festivals (Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles) has an agricultural basis as well as an historical significance. Many different things are celebrated during Passover.

A few of these include: the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the growing season; the new lambing time, and the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt during Passover.

Israel's deliverance out of Egyptian bondage [Exodus 2:23-24] [Exodus 6:5-8].

God declared Passover to be a permanent celebration for all eternity.

The children of Israel were delivered from the bondage in Egypt by putting the blood of a lamb upon the doorposts of their houses [Exodus 12:2,6,13].

During Passover, the head of each household was to take a lamb of the first year on the tenth day of the first month and set it aside until the fourteenth day [Exodus 12:3-6]. In the evening of the fourteenth day, at exactly 3:00 p.m., the lamb was to be killed [Exodus 12:6]. The blood of the lamb was to be sprinkled on the lintel and two side posts of the household door. The lamb was to be roasted with fire, with bitter herbs, and with unleavened bread, and the entire household was to feast upon the body of the lamb [Exodus 12:7-8]. The people were instructed by God to eat the lamb with haste and to be dressed and ready to leave Egypt at the midnight hour. This would be the fifteenth day of Nisan [Exodus 12:10-11]. At midnight on that fateful evening in Egypt, the death angel passed through the land. Every house that did not have the token of the blood on the doorposts and lintel suffered the judgment of God [Exodus 12:12-15]. The Hebrew word for Passover is Pesach, which means "to pass or hover over." This word speaks to us about two things. First, it shows the passing over in judgment from death and sin to life in Yeshua (Jesus). Second, it tells us about allowing, by faith, the blood of Yeshua to hover over our lives and give us divine protection from the evil one .

Death of Yeshua on the tree.

Yeshua was the firstborn of Mary naturally, and the firstborn of God spiritually [Matthew 1:21-25] [Romans 8:29].

There is a progressive revelation of the Lamb in the Bible. First, there is a lamb for a house [Exodus 12:3-4]; second, a lamb for a nation [John 11:49-52]; and finally, a lamb for the world [John 1:29]. 

Repent and trust by faith in the shed blood of Yeshua.

Egypt is a type of the world and the world's system. Its ruler, Pharaoh, was a type of Satan. The bondage people are in when they live according to the ways of the world's system is sin [John 8:34].

Yeshua is the Lamb of God [John 1:29]. Yeshua is also our Passover [1 Corinthians 5:7]. Those who follow Yeshua are the house of God [Hebrews 3:6].

It is only through trusting by faith in the shed blood of Yeshua, our Passover, that we are free from the bondage of sin [Galatians 4:3-5] [Romans 6:7]. This is because the blood of Yeshua redeems us from sin [Leviticus 17:11]; [1 Peter 1:18-19]; [Revelation 1:5].

The Feast of Passover was given by God to be a rehearsal of the first coming of Yeshua. The Passover ceremony was observed in remembrance of the past and in preparation for the future. Many years after the Passover in Egypt, a person named John the Baptist, pointed to Yeshua and declared that He was the Lamb of God [John 1:29]. After John proclaimed Yeshua as the Lamb of God, Yeshua ministered for three-and-a-half years. At the end of that time, on the tenth of Nisan, the high priest marched out of the city of Jerusalem to Bethany where a lamb was to be slain. The lamb was led back into the city through streets lined with thousands of pilgrims singing the Hallel (Psalms 113-118). The people also waved palm branches as Yeshua rode into the city on a donkey in fulfillment of [Zechariah 9:9]. Today, Nisan 10 is known as Palm Sunday in the non-Jewish community.

The lamb that was to be slain by the high priest was led into the temple and put in a prominent place of display. Likewise, Yeshua the Lamb of God went on public display when He entered the temple and spent four days there among the people, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the scribes, asked Yeshua their hardest questions. Yeshua was questioned in front of the people for four days, showing Himself to be without spot or blemish, fulfilling [Exodus 12:5].

On the fourteenth of Nisan, at the third hour of the day (9:00 a.m.), the high priest took the lamb and ascended the altar so he could tie the lamb in place on the altar. At the same time on that day, Yeshua was tied to the tree on Mount Moriah [Mark 15:25]. At the time of the evening sacrifice (3:00 p.m.) for Passover [Exodus 12:6], the high priest ascended the altar, cut the throat of the lamb with a knife, and said the words, "It is finished." These are the exact words said after giving a peace offering to God.

At this same time, Yeshua died, saying these exact words [John 19:30]. Yeshua died at approximately 3:00 p.m. [Matthew 27:45-46,50].

(Deuteronomy16:16) says that all the congregation of Israel was required to be present at the feasts of Passover, Weeks or Pentecost, and Tabernacles. This explains why all were gathered to witness the death of Yeshua on the tree (Matthew 27:1-26).

Reference for this article, from the book.

The Seven Festivals of the Messiah
by Eddie Chumney