All throughout Egypt you could smell the roasting of a lamb for each household. Normally the smell of food would have one sense with it, happiness. But this barbecue brought a somber feeling as the Hebrews then applied the blood of the lamb to the doorpost that the destroyer may pass over as the death of the firstborn is carried out.
Have you ever stopped to think about the death of the firstborn? It wasn’t just babies, but someone’s dad, grandfather and great grandfather may have been someone’s first born. Have you ever thought of the principle of sowing and reaping where this is concerned? The only reason there is a Moses was because his mother put him in a basket to save his life and later he delivered his people.
Fast forward a few thousand years and Herod issued a decree that all children two years and younger be killed. An angel warned Joseph to flee with the mother and child. The blood of the first Passover allowed for the blood of the lamb slain for the foundation of the world.
Without a Passover there could have been no crucifixion. Without a Red Sea crossing there could have been no resurrection. We are free on Good Friday because they were freed on the first Passover.
As Christians we must watch out for spiritual pride because Paul wrote in Romans that we need to remember that as wild branches the root supports us, we do not support the root. In Galatians 3:9, 13-14 MEV “So then those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us—as it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” — so that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”
This Passover and Good Friday my prayer is that we as Christians would see our connection to our Jewish roots so that we can enter in to a full understanding and appreciation for what this season represents.
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 MEV “Therefore purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new batch, since you are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old yeast, nor with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
In the Old Testament (First Covenant) blood was sprinkled seven times. The blood of the New Covenant (New Testament/Renewed Covenant) was shed by Jesus in seven places; the garden, whipping post, crown of thorns, nails in his hands and feet, pierced at His side, and His bruised heel when He defeated the enemy.
Read and meditate on the words of the Prophet Isaiah concerning The Messiah. Isaiah 53:3-11 AMPC “He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him. Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy]. [Matt. 8:17.] But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has made to light upon Him the guilt and iniquity of us all. [I Pet. 2:24, 25.] He was oppressed, [yet when] He was afflicted, He was submissive and opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who among them considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living [stricken to His death] for the transgression of my [Isaiah’s] people, to whom the stroke was due? And they assigned Him a grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. [Matt. 27:57-60; I Pet. 2:22, 23.] Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief and made Him sick. When You and He make His life an offering for sin [and He has risen from the dead, in time to come], He shall see His [spiritual] offspring, He shall prolong His days, and the will and pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see [the fruit] of the travail of His soul and be satisfied; by His knowledge of Himself [which He possesses and imparts to others] shall My [uncompromisingly] righteous One, My Servant, justify many and make many righteous (upright and in right standing with God), for He shall bear their iniquities and their guilt [with the consequences, says the Lord].”
It is because of this that I remember Moses and the children of Israel. It is because Jesus and His disciples celebrated Passover that I celebrate. Because Christ my Passover has been sacrificed I celebrate with joy my own salvation and deliverance.
As you reflect on this Good Friday, as you read the account of Jesus’s last week, read Exodus chapters one through twelve. Ask Holy Spirit to show you the connections between Passover and Good Friday. If you can watch Pastor Larry Huch teach tonight on Christ in the Passover at 7pm CST. You can watch online, on YouTube and on Facebook. To go deeper in your studies of Jewish roots, read the other series on the blog and check the recommended reading page.
Connect to your Jewish roots during this Passover season and continue through to Pentecost and beyond. It is an amazing journey that will impact your relationship with Jesus in ways you could have never imagined.
If you would like to celebrate the feast by giving an offering, I invite you to join me in partnering with Larry Huch Ministries and supporting Project AliyahProject Aliyah which brings persecuted Jews home to Israel and helps them get settled in the land.
Have a BLESSED Passover and Resurrection weekend. Next week we will close our Passover 2019 series by looking at steps to freedom and how to stay free.
Last week we looked at why we give during the feasts of the Lord. As I said in the last post, we are free to give or not give a first fruit offering. I teach and participate in first fruits because even though I can come to God at any time, three times a year He sets aside a specific time to come near to us as we give.
Excited does not begin to describe how I feel about this Passover season and my expectancy for this year! I don’t approach Passover and resurrection lightly. Each year we get to remember how God led the Hebrews out of Egypt and how Jesus ultimate sacrifice for us not only brought salvation to us, but complete wholeness; spirit, soul, and body.
In closing this three day Purim series I want to continue off of yesterday’s post on standing with Israel and the Jewish people. We looked at how walking in THE BLESSING is connected with standing with the Jews and how we can walk in higher levels of revelation when we embrace our Jewish roots. That is the first half of being aligned with the Jewish people and the nation of Israel. The second half is being willing to stand up to Anti-Semitism.
In celebration of the Feast of Purim, we are going to take three days and look at different aspects of the Book of Esther and what it held for the time it happened and what it means for Christians today. We will not be able to look at every verse and chapter, so I encourage you to take time and read and pray through the book of Esther this week.
As we continue in our faith series, we are going to look at the four soils for faith found in Mark chapter four. In Matthew’s account of the story in the Amplified Classic it says the same kind of seed. This teaching has nothing to do with the seed but the soil it is planned in. The Word of God has the ability to work the same for everybody, it’s what we do (or don’t do) with the Word that affects the outcome.
Faith is a topic most of us would say we have a pretty good grasp on. Faith as it concerns our religious beliefs, believing God for something or trusting him though a situation. Last summer the Lord spoke a theme for 2019, “The Spirit of Faith”.
It’s a couple days after Christmas and our attention is beginning to turn to 2019. Some of you are thinking about what resolutions you are going to make, (we’ll talk about that in a second) and some of you are trying to talk yourself into taking down the Christmas decorations.
It’s Friday night, Jews around the world are resting in the peace and stillness of the Sabbath and I’m sitting in a recliner, writing this post after several days of reflecting on my first Chanukah (or Hanukkah) and my journey of discovering the Jewish roots of Christianity in general.
Go into all the world and preach the gospel and make disciples of all nations, these are probably some of the most familiar words to the Christian’s ears. We know these words under the banner of the great commission found in Matthew twenty eight. We know these words, we hear these words preached but what about the words of Acts 1:8?
I have been believing for physical healing for twenty one years. Actually that’s probably not accurate, I have had seasons of wavering and even giving up on healing in these twenty one years and that’s what this post is about. How do we keep our faith built up when answers seem slow in coming? While I’ll be specifically talking about physical healing, these principles can be applied to anything.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. These words in Hebrews chapter four have given all of us encouragement at one time or another. It is so wonderful knowing we can go to God at any time for anything.
Today I want to look at the purpose and power of the prophetic word being spoken in our lives. I want to 