Passover Prep 2011

First of all, I realize that I haven't posted in a while, but things have gotten really busy. Next week is Passover and the other Spring Feasts. I have the privilege to host a Passover (with a full meal) for a group of 40+ people at a church in Traverse City. Most of these people haven't gone through something like this, so I thought I'd begin with a few opening comments. The following comes from the first 3 pages of the Haggadah that we'll be using. The idea about God marrying Israel comes from some recent teaching from Ray VanderLaan currently being held at Central Wesleyan Church in Holland, Michigan.

Passover is the Beginning of a Journey to a Wedding

Why did God redeem the Jewish people from slavery? To bring them to Himself as His bride.

Jeremiah 2:2 "Go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the LORD: "I remember you, The kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, When you went after Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

Exodus 20 is like a Ketubah – which is a marriage contract, 

often beautifully illustrated: 

The 10 commandments are like marriage vows:

Exodus 20:2-20

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land

 of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

1 You shall have no other gods but Me. (no other lovers)

2 You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain…

3. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  (Like “date night”.) The Sabbath is like a wedding band.

 etc.

What is God’s love language? Obedience.  Obey his commandments.  God’s love language hasn’t changed!

Hosea 2:16-19

"And it shall be, in that day," Says the LORD, "That you will call Me 'My Husband,' and no longer call Me 'My Master,' For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals, And they shall be remembered by their name no more. In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the creeping things of the ground. Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth, to make them lie down safely. "I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the LORD.

Rev 19:9

Then he said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!'" And he said to me, "These are the true sayings of God."

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Haggadah means “the telling” - of the greatest redemption story in history.

It is a story that has been retold for thousands of years, just as God had commanded:

Exodus 12:24-25:

“Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as He promised, observe this ceremony.”

This was later codified in the wilderness:

Leviticus 23:4-7:

“These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times: The LORD’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. On the fifteenth day of that month the LORD’s Feast of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.” 

The Passover ceremony, is then, not a Jewish thing; it was and is the LORD’s. It was so foundational to the life of Israel that God commanded that they change the first month of their calendar to the month of their deliverance (Nisan). When Israel left Egypt, it was a forsaking of the world; their rebirth as a nation. Crossing the Red Sea was like a Mikvah (baptism). The Bible mentions only a few times when Israel celebrated the Passover: when Israel finally entered the land (Joshua 5:7-9), during the reign of King Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 30), during the reign of King Josiah (2 Chronicles 35:1-17), and after the remnant returned from the Babylonian captivity (Ezra 6:19). In the New Testament, all of the Jews observed it regularly in Jerusalem, including Jesus, His family, and the disciples.

One of the key activities that a family did to prepare for the Passover was to remove all leaven from their home. Exodus 12:15 states “For seven days you are to eat matzah (bread made without yeast) – on the first day remove the leaven from your houses. For whoever eats chametz (leavened bread) from the first to the seventh days is to be cut off from Israel.” Preparation began with a thorough cleaning, culminating in a ceremonial search for leaven, called bedikat chametz. Leaven, in the Bible, usually represents sin. God was saying that He wanted them to remove sin from their lives, from their homes.

There is a parallel here in the actions of Yeshua (Jesus). On the last week of his earthly life, just as Passover was about to begin, Jesus came to the Temple area and turned over the money changer’s tables. He said to them, “It has been written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are making it into a den of robbers!” (Matthew 21:13) In Hebrew, the temple is called the “Beit HaMikdosh” or “the Holy House”. Jesus was removing the leaven (sin) from His Father’s house before Passover. He then proceeded to spend four days in the Temple courts preaching and teaching as the authorities tried to find fault with Him, but they couldn’t. This is exactly what was done to the Passover lamb. It was put on display in the Temple area for four days to make sure that it was without spot or blemish. Then it was sacrificed, just as the original Passover lamb or goat was. We will cover this in more detail later.

These items were chosen to cause our senses to interact with the event. You are part of a dinner theater tonight. We will experience, in a small degree, what happened at the first prophetic Passover.  In so doing, we can better appreciate what happened when the Lamb of God came to take away the sins of the world. For He said to his closest friends:

So they prepared the Passover. When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” Luke 22:13b-16

Leader:

As we kindle the festival lights, we pray for the illumination of the Spirit of God to bring great personal meaning to this, our Passover celebration.

A Woman: (lighting the candles)

Barukh Atah Adonai Eloheynu Melech ha’olam asher kidshanu b’Yeshua HaMashiach, Or ha’olam u’Pesach shelanu

Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who sanctified us in Yeshua the Messiah, the Light of the World and our Passover Lamb

Leader:

It is appropriate that the woman of the home lights the candles that bring light to the Passover celebration. It reminds us that Messiah Yeshua, the Light of the World, is the promised “seed of the woman” who will restore truth and overcome the powers of darkness. (Genesis 3:15)

And so the night that is different from all other nights will begin.

Shalom.

Let My People Go, Part 4 (RVL)

March 21, 2010 Ray Vander Laan Let My People Go, part 4

When Joseph and his extended family of 70 settled in the bountiful and isolated area of Goshen, the political conditions were in their favor. The country was ruled by the Hyksos who weren’t really Egyptian, but rather Semitic, like the Hebrews. Here is a quote from the web on this time period: (www.freemaninstitute.com/Gallery/joseph.htm)

“Around 1720 B.C., a group of foreigners referred to as Hyksos, invaded the land of the Nile and erected their capital at Avaris (Tell ed-Dab'a) Though they penetrated Egypt at a time of political disintegration that had resulted in a proliferation of local rulers throughout Lower Egypt (the western delta had already seceded to form an independent kingdom), the success of Hyksos imperialism should be attributed largely to their exploitation of a number of Asiatic technological innovations. Those may have included the horse-drawn war chariot, the battering ram, and the composite bow. Soon after 1560 B.C., however, the Hyksos were expelled from Egypt by native princes, and the so-called New Kingdom period of Egyptian history was inaugurated.”

We do not know how many years after this the Hebrews endured their new environment. We might wonder why this turn of events was necessary. It was because they were doing so well under the Hyksos that they never would have left the green pastures of Goshen for the arid regions of Palestine without a compelling reason. The carvings on the stone walls show cruel reminders of how the new Pharoahs treated their enemies. They show piles of hands that were cut off and Pharoah beating bound prisoners. 


Ray showed some pictures of an Egyptian chapel that had a hole in the outside wall where people would come and say their prayers. They would rub their hands on the wall as part of the ritual and deep grooves are still visible. They were literally talking to a wall, but the Biblical God heard the prayers of his people. There is a Hebrew word, that like hagah, has an emotional punctuating sound to it: ze’akah. This is a painful, pathetic scream and the Jews were crying it. The Egyptians wanted to kill the boy babies and the taskmasters lashed the whip. Ze’akah is still being expressed by the unborn heading for abortion, the hungry, widows, and orphans. 

Pharoah is shown in countless ways smiting something. Moses did this too, so he was banished into the wilderness where he underwent 40 years of on-the-job training to learn how to lead people by leading sheep. When his time was up, God appeared to him in the burning bush. But Moses said to God: “Who me?” God said, “You’re perfect for the job: you know the customs, the language... and I’ll be with you, every step of the way.” Eventually, he accepted the offer. God is looking for people even now who can push back evil - who can be the message, not just say the message.

The war that God is waging against the demonic strongholds which have Egypt in their grip is played out in the 10 plagues. For example, the plague of frogs is against the god Heket- Egyptian Goddess of Fertility, Water, and Renewal; the Nile turning to blood is against Hapi- Egyptian God of the Nile; the three days of complete darkness is against Ra- the sun god, etc.  In our Passover seder, we dip our finger into the second cup of wine and splash it against the plate as we recite the name of each plague. Note that in the sentences of this paragraph, the verbs are in the present tense. This confrontation with the demonic is relevant today as Ray explained. This whole series of Let My People Go is being made into a DVD and he showed us some footage that was filmed in Egypt. In the Valley of the Kings, there is a chapel without windows that dates back to this time period. Its walls are decorated with pictures of these gods and other hieroglyphics. Ray and his entourage of students had been filming throughout Egypt without much difficulty. But when they approached this building their sound equipment stopped working. They switched batteries and units but nothing worked. They finally had to use a hard-wired microphone to capture the words. The video shows Ray going into the room by the light of one lantern and addressing the gods. He said he could feel the spiritual darkness and the hair on the back of his neck stood out as he dismissed their power. When God’s kingdom advances, the power of satan has to be pushed back.

Ray had two closing thoughts:

God is looking for people who will live the kingdom life and defeat evil (and the evil one) by the power of the Holy Spirit wherever they find it.

When Jesus faced evil for the last time, he beat him. HaSatan (The Satan, as it is spelled in Hebrew) still has power, but he has been beaten.

Thank you God that you didn’t give up on our broken world. The Exodus story points to the time when the lamb of God would come to bring us the ultimate redemption, victory, and peace.

Shalom.

Unpacking Luther’s Baggage, chapter 3, page 4

I would like to look at a few Bible verses to show how understanding the context sheds light on the true meaning of the verse. The first verse I want to look at is Acts 20:7.

"Now on the first [day] of the week, when the disciples came together to

break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and

continued his message until midnight." (NKJ

This verse, as you might recall, sets the stage for the famous “downfall” of Eutychus!  But I want to look at the word in brackets.  The word “day” is in brackets, because it is not in the original Greek. Let’s check the verse out in the Greek using the Blue Letter Bible (www.blueletterbible.org):

Notice the Greek word for “of the week” is sabbaton, which is plural for sabbaths. So “day” is not there and “week” is not right either. Let’s look at the context.  In the previous verse, Paul mentions that they... 

“sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread, and

in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven days. “

The Feast of Unleavened Bread occurs the day after Passover and lasts for a week. During this period of 7 days, the Feast of First Fruits occurs on the day after the Saturday Sabbath.  Acts 20:7 takes place after the Spring Festivals have passed (Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits). The next event on the calendar is the Festival of Shavuot, or the Feast of Weeks, which occurs as a singular break in the long hot summer before the Fall Fasts and Festivals begin.  In Leviticus 23, God says to count off 50 days from First Fruits until the Feast of Weeks. This period of 50 days includes 7 Sabbaths. The counting of this time is known as the counting of the Omer, which is a reference to the measure of grain that is offered to the Lord at the festival. Each day provides an opportunity for reflection and mounting anticipation as the food crops ripen. Because counting 50 days can get rather tedious, the Jews counted the Sabbaths as an easier way to mark the time. The first Sabbath after First Fruits is therefore called the First of the Sabbaths. This is what Acts 20:7 is talking about. If Paul spoke into the night after the Sabbath day ended, then it was indeed Sunday, but the day was not observed as we think of it today. Paul maintained his observance of the Biblical calendar and it would be many years before the Gentile Church marginalized this system and created their own.