We continue our meditation on Jesus' Passover celebration meal with His disciples the night before His crucifixion. What happened during the first Passover? For the firstborn of Israel to be saved and for the nation to be delivered from Egypt, the place of slavery, 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 them into a bowl of some of the blood from the sacrificial lamb. The blood bowl was placed at the doorstep, and the hyssop dipped into the blood. The lintel and sides of the door frame were then struck with 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, Emphasis mine).
The context of the prophetic passage above is one of the protection of Jerusalem. The Lord describes Himself as watching over the city and shielding them from harm. Ceil and Moishe Rosen, in their book Christ in the Passover, have this to say about the Hebrew word translated into English as "pass over":
The verb "pass over" has a deeper meaning than stepping or leaping over something to avoid contact. It is not the common Hebrew verb, a-bhar, or ga-bhar, frequently used in that sense. The word used here is pasah, from which comes the noun pasha, translated as Passover. These words have no connection with any other Hebrew word, but they resemble the Egyptian word pesh, which means "to spread wings over" to protect.[1]
The picture is that of the Lord protecting His people from harm. It sheds new light on 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 the Lord said. All the firstborn 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 kept us under cruel slavery in our sins. Egypt is a picture of our world system, and Moses foreshadowed our deliverer, Jesus. Jesus is our deliverer and our sacrificial lamb Who laid 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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