Every year when Passover arrives, Jews all over the world sit down at the Seder table. When the Haggadah is recited, we remember the faithfulness of the Holy One, Blessed be He which liberated our fathers from slavery in Egypt and who brought them to freedom after 430 years. The deliverance that led to the Exodus came through Moses the Servant of God. That was a powerful day in the history of the people of Israel, which is recounted by the Haggadah and passed on from generation to generation. Children sit and sing songs in anticipation of the Messiah, hoping that they may see Elijah the Prophet. Who, when he appears, will proclaim the era of peace and the rule of the Messiah.
About 3500 years ago, God brought the ten plagues upon Egypt because of Pharoah's stubborn refusal to release the children of Israel from bondage. The last plague effected freedom for the children of Israel because it was the plague that brought death to the firstborn. God killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both of man and beast. ".... and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die" (Exodus 11:5). God will sentence punishment upon everyone who sins and does evil because He is the God of righteousness and truth. Yet there is an opportunity to escape through the provision of the atonement that brings forgiveness. If you'll follow after the righteousness of God and humble yourself, then God will grant a pardon. When it's raining everywhere, only someone under the protection of the umbrella will not get wet. When the judgment fell on Egypt, God made a provision of escape through the blood of the Passover Lamb that appeared on the door posts of the houses.
The night that the firstborn died was a night of terror and horror to all those who ignored the instructions of God. For He commanded them to sprinkle the blood of the lamb upon the door posts of their house. Yet to all those who trusted in God and did as He commanded them was this night one of hope for deliverance from slavery to freedom. Our fathers heard the bitter cries of depression by the Egyptians. For they had anticipated the time when the Angel of Death passed through the houses of Egypt in accordance with God's judgment. The people of Israel knew that outside their doors which had the sign of the blood of lamb, was only death. But they didn't fear, because their houses were shielded by the blood on the doors. Right in the face of death they went out from slavery that night, because the blood of the Passover lamb was in exchange for the death that was closing in on the people of God, the people of Israel.
430 years of pollution in Egypt was swept away and cleansed from the children of Israel, making them acceptable before God Almighty. Surely, there is a solution to sin as there was to the slavery in Egypt. The Tenach (Jewish Bible {Old Testament}) proves that our natural preference is to remain as slaves to sin: "For there is no man that is righteous in the land and that does good. And there is not one who doesn't sin" (Ecclesiastes 7:20. "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51:5). On judgment day, God will quickly judge every man for his sins, and the wages of sin will result in death. Just like in Egypt, one can reject the revealed love and mercy of God and so miss the opportunity to receive the substitutionary atonement for the sin of mankind.
Isaiah the Prophet wrote: "All we like sheep have gone astray, but the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). God sent Jesus the Messiah, His son into the world, to be the sacrificial lamb for all those who are seeking to trust in him. The Messiah Jesus is seen so evidently by the great power described in the book of Proverbs. For in that volume there are six questions that show the supernatural activities of God and of His son the Messiah: "Who ascended into heaven and descended? Who gathered the wind in his fists? Who bound up the waters in a garment? Who established all the ends of earth? What is his name? And what is his son's name, if you can tell?" (Proverbs 30:4). Again it states in the Psalms: "I will declare the decree, says the Lord to me, you are my son, this day have I begotten you.".... "Do homage to the son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled a little, blessed is everyone that trusts in him" (Psalm 2:7,12).
Nearly 2000 years have passed since the Romans controlled the land of Israel. The people of Israel lived under the thumb of their wicked conquest and were compelled to accomplish the ends of the Romans, but received wages like a slave nation. They expected the Messiah to come and deliver them from the oppression of the Romans. They expected and hoped for a victorious Messiah. When Jesus the Messiah came and died upon the cross as a sacrifice for the sin of mankind, the people of Israel rejected God's plan of salvation. The New Testament describes this condition: "He came unto his own and his own received him not" (John 1:11).
On the night of the Passover Seder, when every Jewish home chants from the Psalter the verses from Psalm 118: "I will praise you because you heard me and became my salvation. The stone which the builders refused has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, this is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalm 118:21-24). The Messiah was that stone which the builders cast away, yet even this was according to the will of God. The Messiah, who was refused and rejected was like the stone that didn't fit at first, but became the head of the corner, as the most important stone of the building. This is God's plan of salvation that is so far above our understanding, yet we should rejoice and be glad in what he did!
The Messiah was crucified on the feast of Passover almost 2000 years ago. He arose from the dead three days later. So, he fulfilled the will of his Father and became the sacrifice for our sins (not only our sins, but the sins of all human beings that trust in him). Not only that, but he fulfilled that which was spoken by God to Abraham: "....and in him, I will bless all the families of the earth" (Genesis 12:3). Our stance of rejection of the Messiah, thwarts God's longings to forgive us and to bring us into his friendship. It also hinders his work of conviction about our great bondage to sin and refuses his attempts to receive us as children of the sacrificed Messiah.
The day is coming when we shall look upon the Messiah Jesus. Who will return according the description of Zechariah the Prophet: "And it shall be in that day, I will seek to destroy every nation that comes against Jerusalem. And I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn" (Zechariah 12:10). In the future, the people of Israel shall behold the Messiah that was pierced - for the transgression.
Messiah Jesus came as the Son almost 2000 years ago and every Jew can find for his soul the wisdom and strength needed to receive him by faith. Authentic Jews need no proof for the salvation of their whole being, because only by God alone is there salvation. He that believes not, is one who uses arguments against or tries to undermine the righteousness, wisdom, wealth and power of God. Yet he knows! He knows that he is without forgiveness of sins, and has no right to salvation or chance of drawing close to God.
When God appears, you need to investigate choosing a higher faith. Thus it will be impossible to hide your bondage to sin, because the Tenach will completely convince you from the word of God. Remember: "For God knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked he will destroy" (Psalm 1). "Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7 NASB).
Jesus the Messiah is the lamb of Passover. The blood of the Messiah has been offered for the forgiveness of sins and for life with God. When this happens, then there shall be days of holiness and happiness for the whole house of Israel. Then we shall know peace with God and with man.
Written by Meno Kalisher, a native-born Israeli believer in Jesus. For more information contact Meno at:
Edward J. Dickinson
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Witness of the Light]
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