Exodus 12:3…(Moses) Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, “On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, A according to the father’s households, a lamb for each household.”

The instructions were simple and straight forward.  On the first day of the month, every family was to select an unblemished lamb.  On the fourteenth day of the month, they were to slaughter it and smear its blood on the doorposts of their houses.  The blood would be a sign. God promised to pass over the houses marked with blood.  It would become a symbol.  Blood represents a life that was to protect them from the final plague which in turn would free them from the slavery of the Egyptians.

The Hebrew for “pass over” is pasach.  We translate the pasach as “Passover.”

The pasach lamb was a sacrifice, but it was not a sacrifice for sin.  We are not told anything about sin, confession, or atonement.  Not every kind of animal sacrifice was meant for taking away sin.  The blood of the Passover lamb was meant as a sign for God. 

Did God really need a sign”? Didn’t He know which houses belonged to the Hebrews: why did He need them to mark their houses with blood?

It is similar when we tell our children how to protect themselves in an emergency.  We teach them the necessary precautions which might someday save their life.

God therefore wanted to familiarize His people with the concepts of sacrifice and blood atonement.  If it was just a matter of making a mark on the houses, it would not have been necessary to use an unblemished lamb (one that is fit for sacrifice) or even to use blood at all.  The ritual of the lamb’s blood at Passover provided Israel with a marvelous object lesson and to prepare all of us for understanding the atoning work of Yeshua. 

The Passover lamb was the avenue of escape that God provided for His people in Egypt from the devastating tenth plague.  It wasn’t just for the Jews. If the Egyptians had done the same, they would have been spared.

The sacrificial death of Jeshua is our the avenue of escape that God has provided to spare us from condemnation and death.  One need not be Jewish to benefit; one only needs to be under the blood of Jeshua.

                               Why did Yeshua’s bones remain unbroken on the cross?

“When they saw that He (Jeshua) was already dead, they did not break His legs” (John 19:32-33)

It was Friday and both the weekly Sabbath, and the Sabbath of Passover began that night at sunset.  The Jewish leadership was concerned that the three crucified men should not be left hanging overnight.  Instead, the corpse must be taken down and buried that same day. 

The Roman soldiers therefore broke the legs of the two on the cross, but Jeshua was already dead.  None of his bones were broken.  So, what does this have to do with the first Passover? 

Most writings in the New Testament (The Apostolic Writings) relates back to the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament.  “These things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture…. “Not a bone of him shall be broken” (John 19:36).  Here John is alluding to “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of all of them.  He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken. (Psalm 34:19-20)

In writing this blog, I want to impress upon you that when you humbly and devotedly take the Lord’s Supper or Communion remember that it is a Jewish ritual.  Our Lord was a Jew and in his final meal with His apostles He Himself became the Passover meal.  He provided them and us with the greatest gift of salvation which unfolds in the story of the Exodus.  Just as the Passover lamb needed to be unblemished and flawless, we need a sinless substitute to take our place in judgment.  Just as the blood markings protected everyone in the house, we too need to take shelter under the spilled blood of the Messiah.   

                As the old hymn says………..”There is power in the blood!”