Ready or Not Here I Come (Part 2)

What many of you may not realize is that Passover began on Wednesday, April 8^th. Most of you will be familiar with Easter. That is what I knew about growing up in a Christian home. It was only much later in life that I came to the understanding that Easter and Passover are not the same. As I wrote in my book “The Treasure Within – Searching Beneath the Surface” Church history explains that when Emperor Constantine tried to merge Christianity with Paganism, it sounded great to followers of Jesus because he was legalizing Christianity. He outlawed Passover and declared Christ’s death and resurrection to be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. This is the spring festival of the pagan fertility goddess, Ishtar, also known as Eastre. 

Church leaders and prophetic voices around the world are saying that this year’s Passover will be like no other save the first one in Exodus. Even Jews in Israel will be shut up in their homes this Passover as was the case when they were preparing to leave Egypt. And here we are around the world locked up in our homes. 

What is interesting when you read the account of the first Passover is that in verse 11 of Exodus chapter 12 it reads in the KJV: “And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.” There is that “gird” word again. The Lord through Moses was commanding the Israelites to gird themselves; to prepare themselves for action; for a hasty departure out of the land of Egypt on their way to the Promised Land. 

What He instructed them to do for the Passover was to not eat leavened bread. Leaven meaning yeast. Because they had to leave in haste there was no time to allow the bread to rise. Later in Scripture leaven or yeast symbolizes sin. The Feast of Unleavened Bread starts the day after Passover and lasts seven days. This feast shows Yeshua (Jesus) as the sinless, unleavened Bread of Heaven. The Feast of Firstfruits  is  two days  after  Passover  and  as  described in 1 Corinthians 15:20, Christ is the Firstfruit of those raised to eternal life.

At the first Passover, God instructed Moses to tell the children of Israel to take a lamb for each household, to kill it, and take some of the blood and put it on the doorframes of their houses. The motion they used when applying the blood to the doorframes replicated the Hebrew letter meaning “life”. They were to roast and eat the lamb and stay in their houses as the angel of death flew over Egypt. In every house that did not have the blood of the Lamb on its doorframes, the firstborn child died. 

The blood of the lamb protected the children of Israel from God’s judgement in the same way that Yeshua’s, the perfect Lamb of God, blood covers those who have accepted His sacrifice on the Cross and cleanses them of their sins. 

Sin is a plague. It is what brings death to our spirits. As it says in Hebrews 12:1, 2: “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

According to this scripture sin is a weight and is what so easily ensnares and entangles us. It keeps us from girding ourselves and running the race set before us. Just like God instructed the Israelites to remove leaven from the bread, may we be reminded that He is instructing us to remove any sin that is so easily entangling us from our lives.

My favourite devotional writer is Oswald Chambers. I’ve been reading his devotional “My Utmost for His Highest” for virtually the past 30 years. It challenges me every time I read it. These questions are taken from today’s devotion and I thought worth passing onto you in light of what I’ve been sharing.

“Are you prepared to let the Spirit of God search you until you know what the level and nature of sin is in your life – to see the very things that struggle against God’s Spirit in you? If so, will you then agree with God’s verdict on the nature of sin – that it should be identified with the death of Jesus? You cannot “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin” (Romans 6:11) unless you have radically dealt with the issues of your will before God.”