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The “Law of liberty” mentioned by the Apostle Ya’akob (James 1:25; 2:12) is connected to entering into God’s “rest” (Hebrews 3-4) and “walking in liberty” (Psa. 119:45). And the symbols of פסח Pesakh (Passover) show how God planned for this to work originally, at the time of Yeshua Mashiakh (Jesus Christ), today and at the future Day of the LORD.
We are looking at a few of the symbols you encounter in Passover, specifically what they were originally, what they were in the time of Messiah, what they are in the present and what they are in the future. You may have heard that the Appointed Times were only to celebrate agricultural cycles but not that we don’t live in an agricultural society, these Appointed Times don’t have any importance anymore. The Law of Liberty presented by the Apostle Paul in the Book of Hebrews is directly connected to entering into God’s Rest and walking in liberty.
The people of God are called to be in God’s rest. If you have ever participated in a traditional Jewish Passover Haggadah, one of the questions asked is “Why do we sit here reclined while our forefathers left in haste?” It’s a symbol of finding our rest. We are on a journey to our home. We can be at rest even though we are waiting for the full realization of the Kingdom of Heaven. What do we do in the interim? Do we wander aimlessly? No. When God took the children of Israel away from Egypt and into the Promised Land, He was also showing them how He wanted them take them away from the kingdom of this world to His kingdom. These lessons were not just relevant 3,500 years ago or 2,000 years ago but are relevant for us today and will be relevant for the generation that lives in the final days.
| Symbol | Original | Messiah | Present | Future |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Egypt | Ex. 2:3; Gen. 46:2-4 | Heb. 9:13-14 | 1John 5:16-20 | Rev. 11:8 |
| The Promised Land | Gen. 15:13-16 | Mt. 11:28 | Hab. 4:9 | Rev. 21:3 |
| The Lamb | Exodus 12 | Jn. 1:29; 6:53 | Rom. 3:25; Heb. 2:17; 1 Jn. 2:2, 4:10 | Revelation 6-9, 14:4, 19:7,9 |
| Matzah | Deut. 16:3; Ex. 12:39 | Mk. 8:15; Lk. 22:19; Jn. 15:3 | 1Cor. 5:7-8; Col. 3:1-17 | Revelation 19 |
| Maror | Num. 11:4-6; Isa. 5:20 | Mk. 14:32-42; Rom. 5:1-11 | 1Cor. 10:6-13 | Isa. 25:8; Rev. 7:14-17, 21:1-4 |
Egypt was a place of bondage and suffering. Why were the children of Israel there in the first place? God had brought them there through Joseph and Jacob. It was the place where God wanted them to grow into a great nation. Egypt was the temporary dwelling place of God’s people Israel. It enticed and trapped them with myriads of not-God options. Egypt was a powerful and great nation, but what makes a nation really powerful and great is not merely in military might but in the strength of your identity as a people. Do you know who you are and where you are going?
The plagues in Egypt and those recorded in Revelations were God’s “velvet hammer” it looks soft on the outside but watch out for the power behind it. God used the plagues to separate His people from Egypt. The Egyptians assumed that they had the upper hand on the Israelites but once they met Israel’s God during the course of the plagues, they realized who possess real power.
When we have to make a decision about right and wrong between yourself and a friend, you might say “you go your way and I go mine” but when we come up against a standard such as a stop sign, a don’t litter sign, etc., it stares at you, you have to make a decision on how to respond to that standard. You have to decide if you are going to go along with it or are you going to rebel and are you willing to pay the consequences of that rebellion.
You see this in the Exodus, when the plagues came along, Pharaoh had a choice at each point, whether it was blood in the Nile, flogs, boils, gnats, hail, to face the fact that his path is a path leading to death and go on a different one but he refused to change his course and so he had to face the fact that his sin was leading to the death of the first-born sons of his people. He ignored the signs.
Egypt wasn’t just something that is applicable to Moses or the Apostle Paul’s time, it applies to us today and even in what is to come in the future.
The sin that leads to death is the sin that leads away from God and towards rebellion. When you bump up against God’s authority, how do you respond? That is the question.
The book of Revelation is the Reader’s Digest version oof all the prophetic books that preceded it and shows us what is to happen in the day of the Lord. Rev. 11:8 has a cryptic reference to the place where they crucified the Lord as “Egypt and Sodom.” You see more why Egypt was dangerous, not only in the time of Moses, but in the time of Egypt and even today. It’s not the geopolitical Egypt but the sin of Egypt.
The Exodus is not just a path that Moses walked, but each believer walks that path, too.
God called them out of Egypt to make the people of Israel into a great nation, not only in numbers but in power. He did not do this because they deserved it but because God promised it and God always keeps His promises.
Changing your address is not going to change your behavior until you take stock of your dead works. Passover is not just a recollection of ancient history but it is also present history and future history, too.
Your home address is wherever you are but are you at peace? Are you content in all situations? If so, you have entered God’s rest. Stop trying to find God, God will come to you. He sent His Son for you. He sent His peace and rest to us. He sent His promised land to you. It’s more than a change of address, it’s a change of covenant, change of heart. Do you know who you are as a child of God, an heir of God, an ambassador of the Kingdom of God?
How do we go from Egypt to the Promise land? Through the lamb!
Who sent the destroyer? God? Who sent the lamb? God. God is, in a sense, blocking His own wrath. The wrath of God came against the world but the death of Yeshua blocked it with His blood.
What is Passover all about? It’s not just a barbecue. We are remembering Israel’s national redemption, but also our personal redemption.
The death of the first-born was required to free the children of Israel from Egypt and the death of God’s First Born was required to free us from our Egypt.
If you were to summarize Revelation in one sentence it’s this: There is a rescue mission in the midst of a military expedition.
Why does the symbol of yeast equate to sin? A clue is with Lot’s wife at Sodom (Gen. 19:15–26). What did she do? She looked back. She was lingering and the angels had to forcibly evacuate her. The yeast of Sodom had grown too much in her for too long.
We are called to not sugar coat our situation. The children of Israel were reminiscing about Egypt the “gold old days” with its leeks, onion, garlic and fish and conveniently forgetting the misery of oppression and servitude. If we refuse to see how bad our Egypt is, we won’t reach out for salvation from it. The old self is not that great either.
Your character changes when you realize where your true home is, when the old life is the old life and not the current life.
We need to understand where our home actually is. The journey of 1,000 steps starts with one, but it can be right here. We know where we are going but remember where we came from. We can be at rest, right here, right now.
Banner Photo: The freedom the world gives is fleeting but the freedom God gives is eternal. (Photo by Freeimages.com/ David Simmonds via Creative Commons License)
Speaker: Jeff. Summary: Tammy.
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