V RaptureChrist Newsletter
April 15, 2003

This Wednesday night, April 16, 2003 is the Passover Feast.  On this day there is always a full moon to illuminate the night.  It was on a Wednesday like this one, almost 2,000 years ago that our Lord Yeshua/Jesus was on the cross paying for our sins as the ultimate sacrifice.  

See  Did Christ Die on Friday?

Passover is a commemoration of the night when the angel "passed over" the houses of the Hebrew people who were in Egypt.  On that night every firstborn of Egypt died except for the Hebrews which preserved themselves by following orders from YHVH who told Moses that every Hebrew household should sacrifice a lamb and paint the sides and  lintel of the door with the blood of the lamb. 

Exodus 12:7
Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.

In this way when the angel passed over each house he would see the blood on the sides of the door and spare the firstborn from that household.

That night while the Hebrews were eating the Passover meal, they could hear the cries and lamentations of the Egyptians as the firstborns died.

Passover is a reminder of how YHVH could spare His people if we follow His commandments.  That night the Egyptian Pharaoh agreed to let the Hebrews leave Egypt, therefore the next morning all of the descendants of Israel left Egypt along with other people who joined themselves with the Israelites and left Egypt to serve YHVH.

Each year when this day arrives, we prepare to celebrate the Passover.  It commemorates both the escape from slavery in Egypt and the escape from slavery to sin.  By the sacrifice of the perfect Lamb, our Lord Yeshua we are made free from sin.

Let us rejoice with the knowledge that we are not anymore under the penalty of sin and look forward to celebrate Passover with Jesus.

Matthew 26:26
While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is My body."

Matthew 26:27
And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you;

Matthew 26:28
for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.

Matthew 26:29
"But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom."

It is a tradition to eat unleavened bread for seven days. We have to think, why?  Leaven is a symbol of sin. Just as we must make sure our house is clean and there is nothing that contains leaven during the Week of Unleavened Bread, we also have to think what things in our life are sinful or have been contaminated by sin, and figure out how we are going to take it out of our lives.

To realize what sin is, we must go back and look at the commandments that God has given us. As Paul says, without the law we would not know what sin is. And this makes the law good.

Romans 7:12
Wherefore the law [is] holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

And the apostle John tells us precisely that sin is breaking the law of God.

1 John 3:4
Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

Although thinking about all the laws makes us feel like we have a sudden huge responsibility on our shoulders, actually if we follow the law, we have no worry of all the horrible consequences that sinning brings into our life, and that gives us peace. 

Peace gives us happiness and confers on us a sense of freedom. So from the many laws that YHVH gives us, we derive freedom. According to scripture, one is not free unless one is "bound"; yes bound to the laws God gave us.

1 Peter 2:16
Be free men, and yet do not make your freedom an excuse for base conduct, but be God's bondservants.

So instead of so many people taking Prozac, maybe what they should be thinking about is how to follow God's laws and how to keep sin out of their lives.

In this Passover, let us read all the laws that God has given us, and meditate on how we might not be keeping them, and how to change that. We can not change the past, but we can change our future. We must also realize that Satan knows that keeping sin out of our lives will bring us happiness and peace, so he will bring temptation into our lives through things he knows we might selfishly want -- what may seem good for us could be Satan's trap. So we must ask God to keep temptation out of our lives, to keep us from sinning.

Deuteronomy 32:46
And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.

Deuteronomy 32:47
For it [is] not a vain thing for you; because it [is] your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong [your] days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.

Romans 2:13
For not the hearers of the law [are] just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.