Passover

2 Chronicles 34:25-35:1 – Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and aroused my anger by all that their hands have made, my anger will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched.’ Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord. Now I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place and on those who live here.’” So they took her answer back to the king. Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. He went up to the temple of the Lord with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites—all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the Lord. The king stood by his pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord—to follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, and to obey the words of the covenant written in this book. Then he had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin pledge themselves to it; the people of Jerusalem did this in accordance with the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors. Josiah removed all the detestable idols from all the territory belonging to the Israelites, and he had all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God. As long as he lived, they did not fail to follow the Lord, the God of their ancestors. Josiah celebrated the Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem, and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month.

Jeremiah 22:9 – And the answer will be: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and have worshiped and served other gods.’”

Deuteronomy 18:9 – When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.

Exodus 12:5,7,11,13,21 – The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats…Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs…This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover…The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt…Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.

Application:

• ·         The Israelites had forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and had worshiped and served other gods.
• ·         The people are not to resort to magical or spiritistic arts for their information, guidance or revelation. Rather, they are to listen to the Lord’s true prophets.
• ·         Jesus was like “a lamb without blemish or defect”.
• ·         Blood symbolizes a sacrifice offered as a substitute, one life laid down for another.
• ·         “Passover” was explained to mean that the Lord would “pass over” and not destroy the occupants of houses that were under the sign of the blood.
• ·         Just as the plagues were miraculous signs of judgment on the pharaoh and his people, so the Lord’s “passing over” the Israelites who placed themselves under the sign of blood was a pledge of God’s mercy.
• ·         Christ is “our Passover lamb”, sacrificed “once for all” for us.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV