The meaning of Passover in the Old Testament

The meaning of Passover in the Old Testament – Preaching

Preaching Outline on Passover in Exodus 12:1-13 – The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, “This is to be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man must set apart a lamb or a kid for his household, one for each house.

Introduction to Exodus 12:1-13

The people of Israel lived in Egypt for approximately 430 years. The last few years of this period were hard years of slavery, as the reigning Pharaoh oppressed the people of Israel. For this reason, the people cried out to the Lord for deliverance, and He sent Moses to command Pharaoh to let the people leave for the Promised Land. Pharaoh didn’t listen to Moses’ words and God sent ten plagues to force Pharaoh to obey his Word.

The tenth and final plague was the plague of the death of the Egyptian firstborn, and it was at the time when this plague was coming that God instituted the Passover in order to deliver the people of Israel from death and free them from Egyptian captivity.

The word “Passover” means “passage” or “departure”

The people would thus “pass over” from slavery to freedom, that is, they would “come out” of Egypt to enter “Canaan”, the Promised Land. So Easter for us means our liberation from the power of sin, the world and death, into eternal life. It is the passage from the “old life” to a “new life”, through the death of the lamb that is the Lord Jesus.

On that day, the first of the month, God commanded Moses to instruct the people to take, on the tenth day, a lamb without blemish and without defect for each family, and to keep it in the house for four days. On the fourteenth day, at sunset, everyone was to sacrifice the lamb and smear its blood on their doorposts and lintels.

Their flesh was to be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, and their heads, feet and entrails were to be roasted in the fire, because at midnight the angel of death would descend on Egypt and kill the first-born, but he would not enter houses where there was blood on the door. That night God would be releasing all his people from captivity to lead them through the desert to the land of Canaan.

In this way, God showed us how our salvation would be processed

The lamb without blemish represents the Lord Jesus, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. The sinless, pure and spotless Lamb, the Son of God. His shed blood must be passed through the door of our hearts, to cleanse us from sin and deliver us from death. From then on, we need to feed on Jesus, because eating the flesh of the lamb means living according to his will, partaking of his nature and his intimacy, which are his entrails, the things inside the lamb.

Walking in his ways, which are the feet of the lamb, and having his mentality, represented by the head of the lamb. Nothing of it should be rejected, but eaten whole with unleavened bread, which means whole food, the bread of life, without appearances (because yeast makes you puff up), and bitter herbs, which point to the tribulations that are part of the life of a servant of the Lord.

When we live and understand everything, we are freed and begin to live in the “freedom of the children of God”.

THE MEANING OF EASTER TODAY

Matthew 26: 17 and Luke 22: 15

On the day that Israel was preparing to celebrate the Passover, Jesus gathered his disciples together and after they had eaten the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, as the Law commanded, he took the bread and shared it with them, saying: “This is my body which is broken for you…”, then he took the cup and gave it to everyone, saying: “This cup is my blood which is shed for you, drink from it, all of you”.

New alliance

The Lord Jesus was thus establishing the New Covenant, placing the Bread and Wine as the main elements, representing his Body and Blood, showing that through communion with his body, which is the church, and the purification of his blood, we would have eternal life.

Conclusion of Exodus 12:1-13

Today Easter is something that happens every day in our lives, because we live every moment feeding on the Lord Jesus, in communion with Him. His blood is on our hearts and lives, cleansing us of all evil. In this way we overcome death and the world, and await the moment when the Lord will take us to the “Promised Land”.

Today Easter is Jesus in our lives