As the season of Passover (3/4 April) and Feast of Unleavened Bread (4/5 April) draws near, let us reflect on how Moses directed the Israelites to prepare for the Passover.

Isn't Passover under the Law? How does this apply to us as we are under the New Covenant in Christ?

The Law given to Moses and its ordinances are a foreshadow of the actual prophetic fulfilment in Christ Jesus Himself and in His Body, the Church. In other words, they are parables which help frame our understanding so that we will recognise nearness of prophetic events when they are about occur.

Hebrews 10:1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves.

Colossians 2:17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

As Matthew 10:10-16 explains understanding “parables” are given to those who truly seek the truth. They can understand because their hearts are not calloused or hardened.

Why we keep vigil at Passover

Exodus 12:40-42 tells us that the “all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt” on the night of Passover after the midnight hour when the Lord struck down the firstborn of Egypt. We are reminded to “keep vigil to honor the Lord for generations to come” - that is, that we are to specially observe and keep vigil at the Passover.

Exodus 12:40 Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. 41 At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt. 42 Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come.

How to keep vigil at Passover?

Exodus 12:3 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. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.

7 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. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.

11 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.

Step 1: Preparing and taking care of the Passover Lamb

- Praying that the Lord will search and test our hearts, reveal to us areas of need in our lives.

- Praying in repentance for cleansing in the Blood of Jesus, our Passover Lamb.

Psalm 139:

23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

- Eating “bitter herbs” representing repentance and mourning over our sins, and eating “bread made without yeast” representing abiding in Christ and living in His sanctification and holiness.

- Putting on the full armor of God in readiness and full preparation - “your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand.”

The Midnight Hour at Passover

Judgment goes throughout Egypt at the midnight hour but those who are under the Blood of the Lamb are protected.

Exodus 11:4 So Moses said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. 5 Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. 6 There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. 7 But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any person or animal.’ Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.

Exodus 12:12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 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. 14 “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.

Three Annual Festivals

The Bible tells us in Exodus 23:14 that there are 3 annual festivals (also known as pilgrimage feasts) where we are to “celebrate” or “keep watch” to the Lord.

In particular, the Festival of Unleavened Bread is underscored as “the appointed time in the month of Aviv” for in that month “you came out of Egypt” which is clearly a reference to the rapture of the Church who obediently prepares and keeps vigil to the Lord at His Passover.

Exodus 23:

The Three Annual Festivals

14 “Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival [chag: make a pilgrimage, celebrate, dance, hold a solemn feast holiday] to me.

15 “Celebrate [shamar: keep watch] the Festival of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt.

“No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

16 “Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits [Pentecost or “Shavuot” also known as “Firstfruits” or Feast of the Harvest] of the crops you sow in your field.

“Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering [Tabernacles or “Sukkot”, also known as Festival of Booths] at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.

17 “Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord.

Shalom and Blessings!

Cecilia