The Passover Feast
Today, we are beginning our study on the different feasts. Not only are we going to look at the significance of the feasts, but we are also going to see how Jesus Christ has fulfilled them, and in the case of the last three feasts, how He will fulfill them. As I pointed out last week, the Hebrew word for feast means appointed time, this is why it is important to understand how Jesus Christ fulfills the different feasts, it allows us as born-again believers to see where we are at in Biblical times and understand where things are going. So today, we are going to begin with the first feast. The Passover Feast.
This feast ought to be an easy one for believers and is one of the most widely celebrated Jewish holidays. Passover takes place in the spring, for Western countries it occurs close to Easter (as we will study in a couple weeks), typically early- to mid- April.
The significance of the Passover feast can be found in Exodus. It is the celebration to remember how the Holy Spirit would literally pass over houses that had been marked by the blood of a lamb over their doorway. Exodus 12:21-22, “21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. 23 When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.” It was with this final plague that the pharaoh released the captive Jewish people and as such, God commanded the Israelites to remember this with a feast. Exodus 12:24-28, “24 “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27 then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. 28 The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.”
So, how did Jesus fulfill this feast? For the born-again believer, this should be an easy answer. He became our sacrificial lamb. 1 Corinthians 5:7, “Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”; Revelation 5:12, “In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” While the Jews were preparing to celebrate the Passover, Jesus was preparing for the cross. Luke 22:14-16, “14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” It is through applying His blood to our lives by faith. Just as the Jews who trusted in God when they applied the blood of the lamb to their doorways, it is through the blood of Christ that we are saved from death.
Seek the truth and encourage one another,
Alex