Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) spoke of the kingdom of God as being composed of treasures new and old. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Passover story where there are spiritual treasures both in the New Covenant and the Old Covenant.
The story of Passover begins four hundred years before the actual events took place. The Lord had prophesied to Abraham that his descendants would be in exile for four hundred years; after that God had promised to redeem His people and bring them back to the Promised Land.
At the appointed time, God raised up Moses to deliver the Jewish People out of Egypt. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he refused to let the Jewish People leave, thereby setting the stage for a showdown with the God of Israel. Even after Egypt was hit with nine devastating plagues, Pharaoh still refused to let the Jewish People go. God had one more plague left which would reveal both His judgment and His mercy at the same time.
God would bring judgment against all the firstborn in the land of Egypt; all of them would die, including Pharaoh’s firstborn child. However, God would redeem the firstborn among the Jewish People in a very special way. Every family was instructed to take a lamb on the tenth day of the month and keep it until the fourteenth day of the month. At twilight on the fourteenth, they were to kill the lamb and spread the blood of that lamb on the doorposts and on the lintel of their house. The reason is given in Exodus 12:13: “Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”
At midnight all the firstborn of Egypt died, all those who had not placed the blood of the lamb upon their door as the Lord had said. This last plague moved Pharaoh to finally release the Jewish People from the harsh bondage and slavery he had imposed upon them. The people of Israel left Egypt in such haste that their bread did not have time to rise in their ovens; thus they took unleavened bread with them.
These momentous events are commemorated yearly during the feast of Passover by the Jewish People. This feast represents the birth of the nation of Israel through redemption by the blood of the Passover lamb. God’s plan for the Jewish People was truly progressing.
Fifteen hundred years later, God marvelously fulfilled Passover, which impacted the entire world. Now was the time for the promised Messiah to be revealed and to give His life for the eternal redemption of both the nation of Israel as well as every other tongue, tribe and nation.
Upon seeing Yeshua, the prophet Yohanan, (John the Baptist), cried out, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Which lamb was he referring to? The very one which the Jewish People commemorate each and every year during Passover — the lamb whose blood was applied to the door and the lintel of their houses in Egypt. This was the lamb whose blood caused God’s judgment of death to “pass over” their firstborn child.
It is amazing that Yeshua was put to death during Passover in direct fulfillment of the ancient Jewish feast inaugurated fifteen hundred years earlier. As we apply His shed blood to our hearts and lives, God’s eternal judgment of death most certainly “passes over” us! The apostle Peter confirms that we were redeemed, “with the precious blood of Messiah, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1Peter 1:19).
To establish the veracity of these claims beyond any shadow of a doubt, God raised Yeshua from the dead during Passover as the First fruits of all who would believe and follow Him.
For believers in Yeshua, both Jew and Gentile, Passover is a treasure, new and old. It reveals God’s faithful love for His Covenant People Israel. He promised to redeem us and He did. He promised to send the Messiah and He did. It also reveals God’s faithful love for the world. God had promised that through Abraham’s seed, (The Messiah) all the nations of the world would be blessed. He who promised proved faithful so that, “the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Messiah Yeshua…” (Gal.3: 14). Truly, Yeshua, the Passover Lamb is a Treasure to us all!
Messianic Rabbi Jeffrey Forman
Friend of Answers2Prayer
Appearing in the Thursday, March 28, 2002 edition of Answers2Prayer newsletter