Passover is a Jewish festival that lasts for eight days—in 2024, it begins at sundown on Monday, April 22, and ends on April 30. Passover celebrates God’s mighty power, protection, and provision that freed the Israelites from Egyptian captivity. God gave specific instructions to His people on how to celebrate and remember their deliverance from slavery. To read the full account of God’s instruction, please read Exodus 12.
Exodus 12:14 says, “This is a day to remember. Each year, from generation to generation, you must celebrate it as a special festival to the Lord. This is a law for all time.” In verse 17, God says, “Celebrate this Festival of Unleavened Bread, for it will remind you that I brought your forces out of the land of Egypt on this very day. This festival will be a permanent law for you; celebrate this day from generation to generation.”
Today, Passover is celebrated with a special meal called a Seder, which includes unleavened bread and other symbolic foods intended for the Jewish people to remember specific parts of the exodus and God’s deliverance.
When God first gave this command to His people to celebrate Passover (Festival of Unleavened Bread), they were still in Egypt in captivity (see Exodus 12:1); God instructed Moses and Aaron to have the people take a spotless lamb and mark their doorposts with its blood (v. 7). Then the Lord said, “On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the Lord! But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 12:12-13)
It’s interesting to note that in Exodus 12, when God gave specific instructions to His people on how to celebrate and remember their deliverance from slavery, they had yet to be set free! What a step of faith His people took by following His directive, trusting that God would do exactly what He said He would! From generation to generation—including today—the Jewish people still celebrate God’s faithfulness with the Passover Feast.
As we just celebrated Easter, we are reminded that as a Jewish man, Jesus celebrated the Passover festival with His disciples the night He was betrayed (The Last Supper). Jesus knew, but His disciples did not understand, that He was going to be the Passover Lamb that year and for all time. In God’s great wisdom and plan, God chose that Passover to carry out His great plan for our salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only true sacrificial Passover lamb for all of God’s people. He was led to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7), dying on our behalf (Romans 5:8-9), serving as the one-time-for-all-time sacrifice—allowing us to be in true community and relationship with our Father God!
We encourage you to spend time in prayer, meditating on the significance of the Passover for God’s people in Egypt and to us today. Thank Jesus for all that He’s done for us—serving as the perfect Passover Lamb for all of His people!
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
John 1:29
