Passover Passed Away?

Lamb Chops in my trusty, well-seasoned black cast iron skillet

1 Corinthians 5:7-8

New International Version (NIV)

⁷ Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸ Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (Bible Gateway)

Eyes that Finally See

So I've been on a journey for quite awhile studying Messianic roots of my faith. Annnnndddd...I tend to travel kinda slow when I'm making a significant transition!

I was raised in a spiritually rich atmosphere where my parents ensured that I had the best spiritual training, particularly as it pertained to developing skill with the Scriptures and a fluency in understanding. To this day I am so very thankful for that.

Back in that day, however, it was clearly understood that all of the Jewish feasts and festivals were fulfilled by Christ. That meant, by extension, that followers of Christ were no longer constrained to observe any of these sacred times. As I have sought the Lord over these many years, however, I have read these passages of Scripture with new eyes...almost as though my eyes could only "look" before, but not actually "see."

Therefore let us keep the Festival....

Ah...yes...the Apostle Paul. Known for his apostolic "suggestions." WRONG. As a spiritual father, Paul was known for his apostolic imperatives. 

Translation: DO THIS. DO IT THIS WAY. DO IT RIGHT. THIS MATTERS!

Paul is telling us to clean ourselves up and pay attention to the things that matter. Christ is the Passover Lamb. The Perfect Lamb of God has been sacrificed. The Messianic prophetic aspects of this festival have been fulfilled. And we are to continue observing this Festival - permanently clean not because of a lamb's blood but Blood of The Lamb of God! We don't discard this Festival but we have an added dimension of celebration when we observe the Passover!

My goal isn't to attempt to convince anyone of the validity of continuing to observe feasts, festivals and sacred days. The Bible does that all by itself without needing any help from me. And the Spirit of God transforms us from having eyes that look to eyes that see. Again, He doesn't need any help from me to do that!

The purpose of this post is to examine an added dimension of the Passover: the protection God gave His people who attended to His directives and were spared when death struck an entire nation.

Egypt? Again???

Right now it appears that our nation - the United State of America - has completely lost all sense of heritage and identity as a people. We are in the midst of having our identity stolen and redefined by powerful people who have a very pronounced fatherless spirit. They don't seem to even know who they are, but they're going to redefine our identity as a nation.

That isn't a criticism as much as it is an observation.

I do that a lot...make observations that need to be clarified as "not criticism...."

So as God's people, we are having to re-examine our identity - not as Americans or political party affiliates or denominational adherents or any other formerly defining characteristic. We are having to allow the Word of God to sculpt our identity as only It can. That involves a forced examination of who we thought we were when we were secure and confident in our identity, and throws us into an encounter with the mirror of the Word. If I don't see the Word vibrantly active in my life, then I'm the one who needs to make the adjustments. The mirror of the Word isn't broken. That brokenness would be on my part to acknowledge and repair!

Who's in Charge Here, Anyway???

In the original Passover story, God kept ramping up His display of power by His signs and wonders in the nation of Egypt. This clearly wasn't so He could win the hearts of the Egyptians. They didn't have a long life expectancy due to the hazardous pastime of defying the Word of the Lord for Israel.

This was to delineate His vast power above every false god Egypt revered. It is only a short trip of logic to understand that being 400 years in slavery in a highly idolatrous nation had occluded the vision of the Israelites. Their new identity was "Slave of Egypt." 

And what about their faith system? The Bible does not indicate that they were followers of YHWH any longer. If they had been able to follow God during that 400 year period, would it have been necessary for Him to humiliate Egypt's gods in the eyes of the Hebrews? 

It was with the Hebrews that God would establish His ongoing relationship, so the signs and wonders of judgment was for their sake - not the Egyptians. He wanted to be absolutely certain there was no conflict in their hearts that the God of their Fathers was far more powerful than anything Egypt could have possibly worshiped   It also insured that they could transition their identity from "slave of Pharaoh" to "People of God."

Pharaoh??? Again???!!!

We seem to be in a national moment when the Pharaoh spirit is alive and well in our land. The Egyptian system seems to enjoy displaying immoral levels of abuse across the land.

Some of the unique characteristics of this foul Pharaoh spirit:

1. requiring people to work without just compensation for their labors;
2. making abortion the law of the land, thereby murdering the future of their race; 
3. rendering their personal & national identity as meaningfully irrelevant; 
4. robbing them of their voice as a people; 
5. marginalizing their self-governance; 
6. destroying hope; 
7. reassigning their identity as a people and forcing them to align with a soul-destroying system to attempt to survive; 
8. and - this is a biggie - saddling their generations with slavery due to abusive decisions made on their behalf.

In spite of this horrible situation, in some ways it is also a great situation. It is forcing us to again look to the God of our Fathers - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - to keep our identity from being stolen and reassigned. It is forcing us, too, to immerse ourselves in His Word to power-up for the signs and wonders that will operate through us.

It is also calling us back to the roots of our faith in terms of what we decided were no longer relevant, since Christ has fulfilled them all. Perhaps the Messianic aspects of the fulfillment opened up the way for the other prophetic aspects to now be seen.

My much-used and much-loved copy of God's Appointed Times by Barney Kasdan. Great primer for understanding the New Testament expression of important Bible holidays. 

Freshness Date on "Eternal?"

With my "new" eyes - you know...the ones that actually "see" now instead of just "look"...I am seeing that there is a profound level of protection afforded to those of us who will observe what God said would be an "everlasting ordinance" and an "eternal" observance.

Again I have to ask the defining question: Just how long is "everlasting?" And exactly what is the freshness date on "eternal?"

Oh...that's right...everlasting is just that: EVER. LASTING.

And eternal would be...something closer to FOREVER than just "fulfilled."

Joys of the Celebration!

So Passover this year is taking on new meaning for me. I am preparing my home for the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which are two separate observances but are back-to-back.

Those of you who know me will understand just how supernatural this is:

• Donna cleaning her house. 
• A.MA.ZING.
• Donna. Casting out the leaven. 
• Preparing her home for the celebration...that's right...CELEBRATION...of Passover.

Those who know me will tell you that I am totally...um..."relaxed" about housekeeping. In other words, I have absolutely no anointing for it, although I do have some skills. Sort of.

And as far as changing my diet to accommodate the absence of leavening, my Hubs and I have already been doing that while we attempt to lessen the load on the bathroom scales.

As far as celebrating the angel of death passing over us?

I'm not looking for a literal visitation of the death angel over the United States in the way he struck the land of Egypt. But I am pretty serious about seeing Death all over this nation. And I'm pretty certain that I don't want to give any hospitality to death in my home or life or family or anyplace else in Donna World. It makes much more sense to join with my spiritual ancestors and celebrate being exempted from death under an Egyptian system.

And - mainly - I'm all about anything that offers greater hospitality to the Lord.

This isn't a Passover observance that is fear-driven. That would be pointless. Whatever is not of faith is sin, including observing the Passover. But the scripture is very clear that Passover is a CELEBRATION!

And this woman...the one with the "seeing" eyes...LOVES to PARTY! Prepare the house! Prepare the lamb! And the lamb chops! And the black cast iron skillets!

Your thoughts?