[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Monday, April 14, 2014

[Paul]

Hello and good day to you all and, for our Messianic Jewish believers, a happy Passover.  I don't know if it's tonight or tomorrow night, but I pray that, when it takes place, it will be meaningful for those who receive it, along with their families.

Sorry to be a little late today, but my computer guy came to the house and hopefully fixed the issue I had with Windows XP, at least for the time being.  It also helps to know that he's a Christian in every sense of the word and also a family man.

And now for the article in question.  It was written several years ago by Pastor Robert Rathbun, the blind pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lowell, MA as well as being the head of the Bible Department at the Hadley School for the Blind, the world's only institution of that kind.  He also, as I stated previously, conducts a Bible study over on the New Visions Network.  With that as background let's delve into his contribution for today entitled "Passover," rendered as follows:

The Jewish feast of Passover finds its origin 3500 years ago when the Jews were enslaved in Egypt.  God had performed nine devastating plagues on the land of Egypt, and the tenth and final plague was soon to follow.  God told the Jews that He was going to slay the firstborn of every family and of all cattle in Egypt.  The Jews, however, would be spared this judgment if they would kill a lamb and and place its blood on the doorposts and above the doorway of each Jewish home.  The lamb was to be roasted and eaten that evening together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.  Passover derives its name in that the judgment of death passed over Jewish homes because of the blood at the entrance way of each house.  As the hymnwriter has declared:  "When I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you."

It was this Passover meal that Jesus celebrated with His disciples the night of His betrayal (Matthew 26:17-30).  As with all these Jewish feasts, Jesus is its fulfillment.  "Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.  For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:  Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (I Corinthians 5:6b-8).  Jesus is the Christian's Passover Lamb.  When a person turns in faith to Jesus as his/her sacrifice for sin, judgment passes over and will not touch that believer.  That's great news!

The Jews have continued to celebrate Passover to this very day.  The meal is called the Seder.  It contains much ceremony and a lot of good food.  A little booklet called the Haggadah gives the ceremony, and it tells the story of the Jews' enslavement in Egypt and of how God delivered them out of Egypt.  Of special interest to the Christian is the matza.  Three matza crackers are covered with a napkin, and the middle matza is broken.  After the first of four cups of wine, the middle matza is carefully wrapped in a napkin by the father of the household and hid away.  This middle matza is called the afikomen, a Hebrew word meaning, "I myself have come." The bitter herbs on the table represent the bitterness of slavery, and a dish consisting of raisins, apples, and cinnamon, looking much like mortar, represents the mortar with which the bricks were made.  After all of this is explained, they have the main meal with the second cup of wine.  Then the children look for the afikomen.  When they find it, it is unwrapped, and everyone breaks off a piece and eats it.  The rabbis say that the afikomen represents the Passover lamb.  Then they drink the third cup of wine, called the cup of redemption.  What a beautiful picture of Messiah this is--His body broken for us, hid away until the third day wrapped in linen, and then found and partaken of for spiritual nourishment; "this do in remembrance of Me." Thus, a beautiful picture of Christ is eaten at every Seder meal, yet they do not understand the meaning of it.  Blindness in part has happened to Israel.

People sometimes wonder about how the dates for Passover and Easter are determined.  Passover falls on the full moon.  The full moon at the start of Passover is always the one that follows the first full day of spring, March 20 (in 2014).  The date of Easter is linked to the same full moon.  It is the Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or after March 21.  Therefore, it falls between March 22 and April 25.  The decision to establish Easter in that manner was made at the first Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.

The Eastern Orthodox faith calculates Easter by the same method except that the holiday must always occur after Passover.  The celebration of Easter by the two groups can range from the same day to five weeks apart.  The Julian calendar is used by the Greek Orthodox Church, while the rest of Christendom uses the Gregorian calendar.  The former is thirteen days behind the Gregorian calendar, and thus spring does not come till April 3.  Passover begins on the evening before the 15th day of Abib (Nisan) in the Jewish calendar.  Since the first day of Abib is determined by the new moon, Passover falls on the full moon.  The Jewish calendar is a lunar one, and Passover is always in the spring.  This is ensured by adding an extra month seven times in a 19-year cycle.

Jesus, our Passover Lamb, died on Passover, rose on Easter Sunday, and is alive for evermore.  Praise be His name!

And there you have it for today.  My pastor, Jason Meyerson of Calvary Morning Light, may wish to comment or add insights to Pastor Bob's article, as he is also a Messianic Jewish believer, which I'll share with you all, if he doesn't mind.  I hope that you found the article spiritually enriching, and that you learned something that you didn't know before.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Lord willing, tomorrow there will be another Daily Thought message for you.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul