The Passover

The Passover event took place in Egypt where Israel had been in bondage for four hundred and thirty years.  God told Abraham, when He made covenant with him, that his descendants would be slaves to the Egyptians for four hundred and thirty years.  God used Moses to perform ten terrible plagues in an effort to get pharaoh to release God’s people.  The last plague would be God’s judgement against all the gods of Egypt.  God told the people to kill a lamb, put its blood over their homes, and then eat the lamb.  The event would be called the Passover.  An angel would visit the land and smite the first born of every family, but where there was blood he would pass over that house.  Egypt lost all of their first born but no Jews died.
 
Exodus 12:14 This day shall be a memorial for you as a feast forever, throughout all generations.
 
Israel celebrated the feast of Passover once a year.  They killed a lamb, put the blood on their dwelling and ate the lamb.  Jesus went to Jerusalem every year to celebrate the Passover with His mother and father.
 
Mathew 26:2 You know that in two days is the feast of the Passover, and the Son of man will be betrayed and crucified.
 
Jesus tells His disciples that He will be slain during the feast of the Passover, the timing was not a coincidence.  The Passover meal He shared with His disciples would be the last supper He would have with them.  Jesus would be the last Lamb ever offered for the Passover feast.  He was God’s Lamb, not man’s.  He told them the bread was a type of His body and the cup was a type of His blood.  They did not comprehend what He said to them.  He said He was going to die so they were afraid to question Him.  After His resurrection He explained to the Apostle Paul  what He said at the last supper.  Jesus became the eternal sacrifice.  No more lambs need to be offered, it is finished.
 
1 Corinthians 5:7 For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

When we eat the Passover bread we partake of His life and when we drink the cup all of God’s judgements “Passover” us.  Israel’s lamb had to be taken every year because it was a natural offering.  But the New Testament believer who eats the Passover meal of God’s Lamb has His life within himself forever.  The sacrifice is complete and finished.  We are redeemed and protected whether we take the Passover meal or not!  We take the Passover, we now call communion, to remind ourselves of what Jesus did for us.
 
Plead the blood.
 
Pleading the blood is our way of drawing the devil’s attention to what Jesus did for us.  The blood of the lamb is gone but the blood of God’s Lamb is eternal.  It separates us from the works of the devil.  When we plead the blood, we remind the devil of his defeat at the cross of Christ.  We are redeemed because cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.  The devil’s defeat was made complete when Jesus rose from the dead.  When we plead the blood, the devil must pass over us, he may not touch down or land on us.  We must all come to one main conclusion; God loves us so much He sent His only Son to be our Passover Lamb.

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