The Passover

The Passover is one of the most important feasts that God has granted. Through the Feast of the Passover, we receive the blessings of forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

In the Old Testament times, God appointed the prophet Moses to ask Pharaoh to release the Israelites, who had been slaves in Egypt for 430 years. However, Pharaoh refused and God brought upon Egypt a total of nine plagues. Finally, God decided to send the tenth plague, which is to kill every firstborn in the land. To save the Israelites, God commanded them to observe the Passover.

Exodus 12:1-14 … The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect… Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight … This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover … The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt … This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.

The blood of the lamb became a sign for God’s people, such that the last plague was able to “pass over” them. Thus the Passover was also known as the day when the Israelites were freed from the land of slavery.

This was a shadow of the things to come—that God’s people will be set free from this land of sin and death, and be protected from disasters in the New Testament times. Then, what blessings do we receive when we keep the Passover in the New Testament times?

John 6:53-54 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.

God grants us eternal life by allowing us to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Let us examine how can we eat and drink Jesus’s flesh and blood.

Matthew 26:17-28 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover … While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Just as the Israelites were delivered from Egypt after keeping the Passover in the Old Testament, we are redeemed from the slavery of sin and death on this earth through the Passover of the New Covenant.