Passover

I just wanted to share some thoughts on the recent holiday of Passover. After spending time in Israel and with people who are Jewish I have learned more about their faith and their traditions. Passover is a time when they remember that the Angel of Death passed over them while they were enslaved in Egypt, as long as they had blood of a lamb on their doorpost. If not the firstborn male would be killed. They eat food that represents the bitterness of their slavery, that reminds of the mortar they used to build Pharaoh's monuments and that reminds them of the sweetness of God's grace amongst their captivity.

As Christians we also have a passover to celebrate. The fact that the blood of the Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ is spread over us and therefore we are not condemned to an eternal death. We are also reminded of the bitterness of the slavery that we are held in due to our sin and how we can become slaves to other things and people. We are also reminded of the sweetness of God amongst our trials and troubles of life.

I am so thankful to our Lord for his sacrifice so that I can one day spend eternity with him. I am thankful that God's just judgment will be withheld from me and that I will be in his presence. I am thankful that he offers this to all people, not only the Jews but also the Gentiles. The people who can't clean their lives up, who can't get rid of addiction, who fail every day to follow Christ. To me, my husband and my two sweet children.

I pray that the Lord would reveal the true meaning of Easter to us this Sunday and that we would be in awe of his crucification and resurrection. That it wouldn't be taken lightly, and that we wouldn't find ourselves numb to the horrible death Jesus endured for us.

Isaiah 53:2B-12

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
⁴ Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
⁹ He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
¹⁰ Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
¹¹ After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.