Passover and Christ's Sacrifice

Since Christians need to understand their connection to their Jewish roots in the Old Testament, I usually give a teaching for every Jewish holy day. Passover begins this year at sundown, Monday, March 25. This comes from the Lent Devotionals on christianbook.com:




The Passover feast was established to celebrate Israel's deliverance from Egypt and to remind the people of how God had delivered them from the plagues and slavery. From this point on in history, the Hebrew people would clearly understand that for them to be spared from death, an innocent life had to be sacrificed in their place. The unblemished lamb, now called the Paschal lamb, is a type of the true Lamb, Jesus Christ. The Crucifixion story, showing the justice of God's passing over and sparing those who are sprinkled with the blood of Christ, parallels the Passover.





The Passover was observed in the month of Abib, which corresponds to late March and early April on our calendar. A year old male lamb without blemish was selected and killed at dusk. Christ, perfect and without sin, died in the late afternoon hours (Luke 23:44-45). Caution was made to not break the bones of the lamb. So it was with Christ's body (John 19:31-37). The Passover occurred before the law was established in the Old Testament showing that it was the blood of the lamb that delivered mankind out of bondage, not the law. The lamb was a sacrifice, a substitute for the person who would have died in the plague. Christ is our substitute over the penalty of death. The lamb's death signified freedom to Israel. Christ's death redeems us.

At the Passover, it was not enough that the blood of the lamb was shed. It had to be applied to the door by the believer. The blood was to be sprinkled with a hyssop branch upon the sides and top of the door as an outwardly sign of accepting the blood's atonement. The hyssop represents faith in accepting the promise of God's protection. When we profess our faith in the blood of Christ, we will openly do our best to live and love for Him.