This week’s musings…
Another short(er) Bible study if anyone is interested.
I have been thinking a lot about Passover and a couple of Scriptures that have always been a bit of a mystery to me.
But first, a scripture to set this up that is not such a mystery.
We see that when the Passover was first instituted it was to be a lasting ordinance.
We find this in Exodus 12:23-26 “For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. It will come to pass when you come to the land which the LORD will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service. And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ that you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’ ” So the people bowed their heads and worshiped.”
So we see this is a permanent thing to be observed and remembered.
But then we see not once but TWICE in Jeremiah:
““Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.”
Jeremiah 16:14-15
And again in Jeremiah 23:5-8
““Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. “Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that they shall no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ And they shall dwell in their own land.””
Jeremiah 23:5-8
So twice, Jeremiah assures us that a time is coming when they will no longer say, “As the LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt” - yet we know that the Passover is a lasting ordinance that will always be remembered in some form or fashion.
So my takeaway is that the Passover will always be remembered, but someday it will be remembered for a miracle even greater than the original Exodus out of Egypt.
We do know that the Last Supper and crucifixion of Jesus was a fulfillment of the Passover as Paul wrote
“Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.”
I Corinthians 5:7
However again my takeaway is that Jesus’ Last Supper and crucifixion did not supplant the original Passover since Jews still celebrate it to this day and it does not seem that Christ’s passion fulfilled either of the Jeremiah scriptures where the Egypt exodus was forgotten because of it.
So it remains to be seen what will fulfill the Jeremiah Scriptures. Certainly it can be said that the children of Israel have returned from the land of the north (Russia) and from all the lands where He had driven them. (Jews have returned from all over the world to Israel)
But again, while these things have happened- it does not seem to have made such a stir as to cause the Egypt exodus to be forgotten yet.
Even Jesus seemingly makes a reference during the Passover Last Supper, that there is more to come…
He said “When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; “for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
Luke 22:14-16
So even Jesus was saying that the Last Supper and His crucifixion was not the ultimate fulfillment of Passover but that there will be something even grander in the Kingdom of God.
So here’s the summary.
- The Passover is a lasting ordinance that will always be remembered.
- Jeremiah prophesied twice that one day God is going to do something so big that the original exodus from Egypt won’t even be remembered
- The children of Israel have returned to Israel from the land of the north and from all over the world and yet the exodus from Egypt is still currently remembered
- Jesus fulfilled the Passover but even He proclaims that there is another Passover that He will participate in in the Kingdom of God that will be a much grander fulfillment than anything we have seen so far.
Conclusion:
God is about to do something big, and it will be on some Passover that will eclipse the events of the original Egypt exodus Passover.
When Jesus talks about eating the Passover with us in the Kingdom it makes me think of
Revelation 19:7-9
“Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.””
I don’t know if the wedding supper of the Lamb will be the Passover that causes the original Egypt exodus Passover to be forgotten or if it’s something else, but it sure could be.
Maybe the reference to the Lord gathering Israel out of all the places Israel was scattered isn’t about the physical regathering, which has seemingly happened already and has not eclipsed the original Passover- maybe it’s a different gathering of the scattered. When the Lord gathers His Church it will certainly be said that He gathered all of “spiritual” Israel from the north and all the nations, and many of physical Israel who are Christians as well. Let this statement not be confused with the heresy of replacement theology in any way. God is not done with Israel!
All I know is if He raptures His Church on some Passover and takes us to the marriage supper of the Lamb, I could say with certainty that I wouldn’t be thinking about Passover in terms of the Egypt exodus anymore, but Passover would always be ingrained in my mind with the catching away to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Who knows if it will be this Passover or some other Passover in the future- but it seems that God still has some BIG plans for Passover!
One other p.s.
I have seen others write about this idea and I just wanted to concur that Passover would be a perfect time for the rapture and if we are at that time in a quarantine and the rapture happens, what a perfect cover up! Our disappearance could be easily explained by the powers that be saying that we died of the virus in quarantine and they had to dispose of our infected body.
Feel free to share this with anyone as long as it’s in it’s entirety.
Maranatha!
Derrick Drew