Information, Articles and Links to Learn about Passover - Pesach - One of the 7 Feast Days
The First Feast Day Commanded by Yahuah that believers in the Messiah and who are part of the House of Israel are to keep.
Finding Messiah in the Passover by David W. Brown
Passover is a celebration of freedom, in particular the celebration of God's deliverance of the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, but as we shall see, a Jew named Yeshua gave the celebration new significance. As you may recall from the story of the Exodus, the last of the ten plagues used to persuade Pharaoh to let the people go was the smiting of the firstborn. In the twelfth chapter of Exodus, the Israelites are instructed to sacrifice a perfect lamb, and smear its blood on their lintels and door posts. When the destroyer saw the blood, he would "Pass over" that house.
This is a type, or foreshadowing, of a greater redemption to come. To quote the Jewish scholar Philip Sigal: "This historic event became a theological paradigm that pointed to future redemption and took on cosmic proportions." (italics mine)
The original ordinances concerning the observance of Pesach, or Passover, are found in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Exodus. On the tenth day of the lunar month of Nisan (the first month of the Jewish year, corresponding roughly to the period from mid-March to mid-April), the Israelites were to take for each household an unblemished lamb from their flocks. On the fourteenth day, in the evening, the lamb was to be slaughtered and its blood placed on the doorposts and lintel on each house. The people were to eat the lamb roasted whole, along with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. Any flesh of the lamb that was left over to the next morning was to be burned, not eaten.
This was to be the Israelites' last meal in Egypt before their redemption from slavery. They were to sit and eat, prepared fro journey, sandals on their feet, staff in hand. That night an angel of the Lord was to travel through Egypt and "execute judgment," slaying all the firstborn of Egypt. Only those houses with the lamb's blood on their doorposts would be spared. These the angel would "pass over."
This day was to be commemorated as "memorial day" in generations to come. It was to commence a seven-day period of festival observance, during which time no leavened bread or leavening substance was to be found in any Israelite house. Unleavened bread (matzah) was to be eaten instead. The first and last days of the festival were to be "solemn convocations," during which no work could be done.
