Fascinating Foreshadowing

"This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord-a lasting ordinance." Exodus 12:14 (NIV)

The Bible fascinates me. It is so cohesive from beginning to end and all the parts relate and support one another. Some relationships are dramatic and others are more obscure, but when God reveals them to you it is such an exciting and holy revelation! Of course, I rarely, if ever, receive a revelation that hasn't been given to some Bible scholar in the past. But it always excites me to go and study it after I recognize it and have my new knowledge confirmed by someone who has made Bible study their life's work. It helps me to realize that I am learning to listen to God and recognize His clues rather than relying on the wisdom of someone else to teach me about my God. For I want to learn from the One who WROTE IT!

I have been studying the Passover this week since we are nearing Easter which is the Christian holiday that coincides with the Jewish festival. As I began to read and study the original Passover in Exodus, so many interesting things just jumped off the pages. The Passover was originally announced by God as a way to save the children of Israel during their exile in Egypt, right before He told Moses to lead them out and He parted the Red Sea for them to escape. The Israelites were to get a young male lamb, one year old and without defect, and slaughter it. They were to put the blood on the door posts so that God would "passover" them when He came to claim the firstborn of every household in Egypt. Every home had someone dead when the night was done, except for the homes with the blood on them. Exodus 12:6 says "all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight." This foreshadows Israels rejection of Christ and their eagerness to have Him put to death. It was the Israelites, and no one else, who would slaughter the Passover Lamb. Luke 23 says "it was now about the sixth hour, and the darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining." (44-45) God made twilight to come upon the land while His ultimate Passover Lamb, who was "without defect" was sacrificed. Exodus 12:46 reports God's command "do not break any of the bones" and Numbers 9:12 says "they must not leave any of it till morning or break any of its bones." This is the foreshadowing of Christ's crucifixion. John chapter 19 says "but when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs" (33) and "these thing happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "not one of his bones will be broken..." (36) And Jesus was removed from the cross before night so that He would not be hanging during the Sabbath that was the following day. I Corinthians says "For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth." (7-8) "Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry..." (John 6:35)

Let us take time this Easter to truly begin to understand God's will for humanity and how His plan has come to fulfillment throughout the ages. Knowing why we believe what we believe is the amazing fulfillment of our faith in Christ. Knowing these things makes me so excited for the final days when Christ returns because He loves me, for I know He will because the "Bible tells me so" as the sweet children's song goes.