Friday, March 8, 2013

Passover


In order to deliver His people out of oppression, fear and slavery, our Father had to break the will of a great power, Pharaoh of Egypt, the most powerful, richest, absolute monarch on earth at that time. There was no earthly power that could compel Pharoah to do anything he did not want to do. But the LORD had made a promise to Abraham centuries earlier, and He would keep His promise.
The LORD began to apply pressure on Pharaoh, finally using a plague of death in order to break Pharaoh's will. To protect His own people during this terrifying night of death, the LORD instructed His people to mark their doorposts and lintels with lamb's blood. Seeing the blood, the death angel would pass over those Hebrew homes. That night, He delivered hundreds of thousands, perhaps the numbers were even greater, of the Hebrews from bondage into freedom without losing even one. Death did not touch them.
On another Passover evening, another Lamb would be sacrificed for the freedom of God's people. Because of this Lamb, again, death would have no power over those covered by His blood. This Lamb's blood was very special. In scripture, our Father tells us in several places that the life of any creature, human or animal, is in the blood (Gen. 9:4, Lev. 17:11,14, Deut. 12:23). God very emphatically wants us to associate blood with life.
 John 1:4 reveals to us that in Jesus, the Word of God, was life. This form of life also contains light, and is the light in each one of us. 

"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."

So if blood=life, according to scripture, then we can take this verse to mean:
In Him was blood, and the blood was the light of men. We might even be able to say that He was born from the divinity of God into human form for His blood.
This precious man, God's Son, who was divinely purposed and sent by our Father, who did nothing and said nothing except what He saw His Father doing, and what He heard His Father saying, came to be our Passover Lamb.
And on the night He was betrayed by one of His own, on Passover evening, knowing that He would be returning to His Father, He removed His clothes, wrapped Himself in a towel, and washed His disciples feet. He dried their feet with the towel He had wrapped around Himself. He told His disciples that as He had done to them, they should also be willing to follow His example, and wash each other's feet.
By washing each other's feet, either by actual washing, or by the washing power of the Word of God, of our prayers and love, we cleanse each other from the cares and ways of the dirt of the world that wants to cling to our walk through life.
Later that same evening, Jesus took the Passover unleavened bread and broke it, and gave it to His disciples and told them it was His body. He took one of the cups of Passover wine, and told His disciples it was His blood. He told them to eat and drink, to receive the sacrifice He was making.
Because our Father keeps His promises, another Passover Lamb gave Himself, all of Himself as a sacrifice, humbled Himself to wash the feet of others,even the one who would betray Him. Yet, in so doing became, and is, King of kings and Lord of Lords. And like the Passover lamb before, the power of His blood delivers us from the power of sin, which is death. We have been delivered from the bondage, fear, and oppression of death. Like Pharaoh, it rules no more!

"He will swallow up death forever,
And the LORD God will wipe away tears from all faces;
The rebuke of His people
He will take away from all the earth;
For the LORD has spoken"
                                      Isa. 25:8

and

"Death is swallowed up in victory
O death, where is your sting?
O Hades (grave), where is your victory?"
                                   1 Cor. 15:54-55

"Lamb of God"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLVtp_b_SIU

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