PASSOVER | FESTIVAL OF SALVATION
The Lord's Deliverance Through The Messiah


Passover celebrates the historical account of God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt. The Book of Exodus recounts the miraculous way God worked through Israel, specifically Moses and Aaron, in bringing this event about. Israel had become slaves in Egypt, as the Lord forewarned would happen to our forefather Abraham. Exactly what God said would happen did happen including the timeframe of Israel’s sojourn in Egypt. In the fullness of time God raised up a deliverer, Moses, whom He told to command Pharaoh, "Let my people go!"

Ten plagues were visited upon Egypt as God brought judgment upon it and its false gods. The final plague was a visitation from the angel of death. All the first born in Egypt were to die save those who took an unblemished lamb, slaughtered it, and applied its blood to the lintel and doorposts of their homes. For those so doing, the angel of death would “pass over” and they would be spared. Notice two facts: the need for blood to be applied and the need for Israel to act in faith and obedience to God’s word. What seemed like a foolish act was, in fact, God’s means to escape death. Every generation of Jews recounts this story as though we ourselves experienced this miraculous deliverance.

The Passover story recounted each year in the festive Seder (which means order) meal is told in a book called a Haggadah (which means the telling). God’s power, love, and faithfulness towards His people are clearly seen and reasons for rejoicing. This same God promised another, greater deliverer: a Messiah to someday come Who would destroy all the power of evil. This Promised One was told about in numerous places in the Tanakh (Hebrew Testament). Yeshua (Jesus) is that Promised Deliverer. His shed blood, applied to human hearts, for the forgiveness of transgressions, delivers from sin and death. As Israel of old had to act in faith and obedience in applying the blood of the lamb, so too must we apply His blood to our hearts. Faith and obedience are involved when we recognize Him as the One sent by God and our own need for His sacrificial death for our atonement. And like the lamb of old, it remains blood that is necessary for all who would pass from death to life. So Passover, like all the Biblical holidays has much to reveal and teach about Messiah. All those who were slaves to sin can find deliverance in Messiah. In so doing, they pass over from death to eternal life.