We are continuing our meditation on the Passover celebration meal that Jesus had with His disciples the night before His crucifixion. What happened during the first Passover? God required faith in the blood of the Passover lamb. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). The Israelites took a bunch of hyssop plants and dipped the hyssop into a bowl of some of the blood from the sacrificial lamb. The bowl containing the blood was placed at the doorstep, and the hyssop dipped into the blood. The lintel and each side of the door frame was then struck with the blood, forming an image of a cross over the door. The Lord describes what is happening in Isaiah 31:5:
Like birds hovering overhead, the LORD Almighty will shield Jerusalem; he will shield it and deliver it, he will 'pass over' it and will rescue it" (Isaiah 31:5).
The context of this passage above is one of the protection of the city of Jerusalem. In this prophetic word, the Lord describes Himself as hovering over the city and shielding them from harm. Ceil and Moishe Rosen, in their book Christ in the Passover, has this to say about the Hebrew word translated into English as "pass over":
"The verb “pass over” has a deeper meaning here than the idea of stepping or leaping over something to avoid contact. It is not the common Hebrew verb, a-bhar, or ga-bhar, which is frequently used in that sense. The word used here is pasah, from which comes the noun pasha, which is translated Passover. These words have no connection with any other Hebrew word, but they do resemble the Egyptian word pesh, which means “to spread wings over” in order to protect."[1]
The picture is that of the Lord's protection of His people from harm. It gives us new light to the passage about Jesus grieving over the city of Jerusalem. He said: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing” (Luke 13:34). The God we have come to know and love yearns to bring us close to His heart. He wants to wrap His arms around us to protect us as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. The blood of the substitute lamb brought the protection and presence of the Lord to those who believed God's Word:
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 (Exodus 12:23).
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). As a destroying angel went through the land, God's presence was over the household whose faith was in the blood of the substitute lamb. The blood showed that they were under covenant with God, and the destroyer could not touch the household, due to their obedience to what God said. All the first-born of those disobedient to the message of salvation died. The Passover celebration meal was a celebratory meal that spoke about the deliverance from slavery in Egypt, but it was also prophetic of what the Messiah would do to deliver His people from the bondage of sin.
The Passover is a picture of our Passover Lamb, i.e., the substitute in whom we place our faith. Pharaoh is a picture of Satan, who has had us under cruel slavery in our sins. Egypt is a picture of the world system in which we live, and Moses foreshadowed our deliverer, Jesus. Not only is Jesus our deliverer, but He is also our sacrificial lamb Who Himself would lay down His life to deliver us if we place faith in His shed blood applied to the door of our hearts. God wants "to presence" Himself over the home of our hearts and to live with us for eternity. Paul the Apostle wrote, "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). Keith Thomas
Taken from the series on the Gospel of Luke, study 59. The Last Supper
[1] Ceil and Moishe Rosen, Christ in the Passover, Printed by Moody Press, Chicago, 1978. Page 22.
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