Bo
For the week of January 31, 1998
4 Shevat 5758
Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household (Exodus/Shemot 12:3).
Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world! (John 1:29).
The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect (Exodus/Shemot 12:5).
Messiah, a lamb without blemish or defect (1 Peter 1:19).
Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight (Exodus/Shemot 12:6).
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7).
And they crucified him (Mark 15:24).
Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses (Exodus/Shemot 12:87).
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7).
That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast (Exodus/Shemot 12:8)
For the Messiah, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5:7,8)
The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt (Exodus 12:13).
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
The story of the Passover is one of the greatest in the history of the nation of Israel. It is not just the story of an oppressed people's liberation; it a story of God. Last week we saw how this event revealed the nature of God like never before (see last week's TorahByte).
By realizing that this is actually a story more about God than about the people involved, its impact carries over to our own day. God is still doing now what he did long ago. The liberation of Israel, great as that was, foreshadows the personal liberation we can all now experience through Yeshua.
We are all in bondage to sin. Everyday we struggle amidst the consequences of our wrongs and the wrongs of other. We cannot escape the effects of the evil all around us. But through faith in Yeshua - because of his sacrificial death on our behalf - we can live free of sin's grasp and escape eternal destruction in the life to come.