Passover / Easter - Original
This is a quick look at what this actually means in Hebrew and Christian era’s, and the original is recorded in Exodus chapter 12 for further reading.
Ancient: This is the memorial of the actual time that opened the door in Egypt for the children of Israel to Exodus from Egypt after 400 years of bondage and slavery to go the Promised Land, or from Sin/this World unto Salvation/Heavenly Promised Land and the New Jerusalem.
God declared Passover to be a permanent celebration for all eternity (Exodus 12:2,6,13-14). The Spiritual application is that God wants us to understand this: Egypt is a type of this world and this world’s system. Its ruler, Pharaoh, was a type of Satan. The bondage people are in is when they live according to this world’s system of sin (John 8:34).
During Passover, the head of each household was to take a lamb of the first year on the 10th day of the first month known as Nisan and set it aside until the fourteenth day (Ex 12:3-6). In the midst of the evening of the fourteenth day, at exactly 3:00pm, the Lamb was to be killed (Ex 12:6). The blood of the lamb was to be sprinkled on the lintel and two side posts of the household door. The lamb was to be roasted whole with fire on a vertical pomegranate stake and crowned. The roasted lamb was eaten with bitter herbs, and with unleavened bread, and the entire household was to feast upon the body of the lamb (Ex 12:7-8). Whatever was not eaten or consumed was then to be added back into the fire and consumed away by the fire, that way there was to be absolutely nothing left over at the end of the meal. The bitter herbs were a reminder of the bitter oppression that they had been experiencing under Pharaoh/Satan/Sin. The people were instructed by God to eat the lamb with haste and to be fully dressed and ready to leave Egypt at the midnight hour; this was no leisurely laid back feast or banquet. One was dressed and packed ready to go out the door at a moment’s notice, in modern times it is with tramping boots on feet and back pack hoisted on your shoulders and strapped on well with your walking staff in hand. This would be the fifteenth day of Nisan (Ex 12:10-11).
Unleavened bread was eaten, because leavening/yeast is symbolic of sin, and sin is symbolic of Egypt and slavery, so the bread Israel was to be eating by faith was the sin free bread of the Promised Land. I guess that there is also a linking between unleavened bread and the manna that Israel was about to eat for the next forty years; forty is also linked to a delay in time, very interesting as their trip to the Promised Land was not by high speed express, straight on through, it was by the slower procession of a community walking together, bonding as families and tribes. I guess Pentecost in their future was a very similar experience being of, one heart, one mind, one people together moving forwards.
In Rev 5:6 there is a Greek word found here and in only one other place in scripture, and that is John 21:15, which is a wee pet lamb. In Exodus, the children kept the wee Passover lamb on a cord for the whole four days and wherever the children went, the little lamb is sure to follow, so the children got very emotionally attached to that wee Lamb. At exactly 3:00pm, the Lamb was to be killed, and then the roasting and the very simple meal preparations immediately followed. Then after the meal and at midnight on that fateful evening in Egypt, death passed through the land. Every house that did not have the token of the blood on the doorposts and lintel suffered the judgment of God (Ex 12:12-15) for their failure to be obedient and to comply with his word. The Hebrew word for Passover is Pesach, which means “to pass or hover over.” This word speaks to us about two things. First, it shows the passing over in judgement from death and sin to real life in Yeshua/Jesus. Second, it tells us about allowing, by faith (emunah), the blood of Yeshua to hover over our lives and give us divine protection from the evil one (Ha Satan). Question; is the door of your heart covered by the Blood of the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the World? If not then please go to him right now and make your life right with him.
It is interesting to note that the very first Passover was in Egypt, but the next, or second Passover was exactly 40 years later, and to the very day, and that one was in the Promised Land, freshly over the Jordan River, and safe in the Promised Land. Joshua Chapter 5 is a good place to start to read those details, and to note that the steps and the principles there look back to Egypt and go forward right throughout scripture. Remember that this is a Sacrifice, so the Lamb must be male and perfect; this is also to point our minds forwards to Yeshua/Jesus who is the fulfillment of that wee pet Lamb.
Quote’s and concepts from Eddie Chumney’s Book “The Seven Festivals of the Messiah”.