hallel.info/passover
When we observe the commandments of God, we are like the flatbread: nothing added, nothing taken out. In this discussion on the Torah reading Bo (“come,” Exodus 10:1-13:16), we learn are not to add to God’s commandments and we are not to treat any traditions we keep on the same level as God’s commandments. Matzot gives you life but it also give you some affliction and difficulty. God’s mitzvot are the same, they give us life but they also bring some difficulty to life.
The Pesach (Passover) is one of the most solemn of God’s appointed times (a.k.a., feasts or festivals), it is the only feast inaugurated when God Himself shed blood. The Pesach is also the only feast with a “second chance,” which seems apropos for a God who is all about giving people opportunity for repentance and second chances. God also shows, through the Cloud, that when He says “move” we are to move. When God says, “Stay put,” we are to stay put.
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 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.
As we prepare ourselves for the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, let’s focus our attention on the group of Psalms that are called “The Egyptian Hallel.” The phrase “Hallelu Yah” — praise the Lord — shows up frequently in these Psalms. That is why they are nicknamed “the Hallel.” These are the Psalms that Jews in New Testament times commonly sang during the Passover seder and we see in the Scriptures that Yeshua and the Apostles sang “The Egyptian Hallel” with Him for the last time before His death.
The Apostle John tells us that John the Baptist was the first one who proclaimed the primary purpose of Yeshua’s mission. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” (Jn. 1:29, 36) But this Lamb did not show up the way the experts wanted and when Yeshua refused to fulfill the violent desires of the religious experts, they inflicted grave violence on Yeshua, but Yeshua expected that, and so did John the Baptist, even though he didn’t live to see it.
Lamb Selection Day is closely connected with Yom haKippurim (Day of Atonement). Both occur on the 10th day of their respective months: first month for Lamb selection day and seventh month of Yom Kippur.
And the words of the herald for the Mashiakh (Messiah), Yokhanan the Immerser (John the Baptist), that Yeshua was “the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn. 1:29) further connects these two memorials of God’s salvation plan.
On the 15th day of the first month, the first day of what God established as Khag Matzot (Feast of Unleavened Bread), Israel left Mitzraim (Egypt). We’ll explore why the Bible talks more about the Matzot than Pesakh (Passover).
Pesakh commemorates God’s breaking the chains of Mitzraim that held Yisra’el there, and Matzot, God’s breaking the power of Mitzraim via the sea.