Leviticus 17:11 – “for the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the LORD. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible.” – NLT
On this Passover, I’d like to pay homage to my Jewish roots and tell you the story of Good Friday from a Jewish perspective and give you the true meaning of Passover [Pesach in Hebrew].
It all started way back in Exodus. JAH sent Moses to Pharoah to let His people go. He wouldn’t and JAH unleashed 9 plagues on Pharoah and Egypt to this point:
1. Water turning to blood [Exodus 7:20]
2. Frogs [Exodus 8:1-6]
3. Lice [Exodus 8:16-17]
4. Flies [Exodus 8:20-24]
5. Pestilence of livestock [Exodus 9:1-7]
6. Boils upon men and beast [Exodus 9:8-12]
7. Thunderstorm of hail and fire [Exodus 9:13-26]
8. Locusts [Exodus 10:12-15]
9. Darkness for 3 days [Exodus 10:21-23]
Still Pharaohs heart was hardened as JAH had hardened his hear to destroy him and show Himself mighty before Israel.
So, the 10th plague was unleashed upon Pharaoh and Egypt:
“4 And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt:
5 And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.
6 And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.” – Exodus 11:4-6
So now JAH gave Moses specific instruction to hold the first Passover:
Exodus 12:2-27
2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:
4 And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:
6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.
8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
9 Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.
10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.
11 And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s passover.
12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.
13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.
15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
16 And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.
18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.
19 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.
20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.
21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover.
22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.
23 For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.
24 And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.
25 And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the Lord will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.
26 And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?
27 That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.
Innocent blood shed to free a nation… And now Jah provided Himself a lamb to free the world:
In Genesis JAH told Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering to Him. Abraham took off with Isaac and would but no lamb. When Isaac asked where’s the lamb Abraham responded:
8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
Genesis 22:8-9
Now an angel of the Lord stopped Abraham from offering up Isaac. Instead:
13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. – Genesis 22: 13
So, too JAH provided Himself a lamb to remove forever the sins and judgement from us all:
“And the day after, Yohannan saw Yeshua (Jesus) Who came to him and Yohannan sad: “Behold, The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” – John 1:29 Aramaic Bible in Plain English
In the Torah, JAH set the sacrifice offered by individuals: the age and type of the animal… So, whether you committed adultery or stole or lied… the offering was the same… So if you stole a lot or a little the penalty (the type of sacrifice) was the same.
You see, to God sin is sin… He doesn’t measure it by size or impact! Adam sinned and put the entire human race under God’s judgement. We are born in sin even before we do good or bad.
Why? So that God may impute righteousness just as sin was imputed to us.
Now let me share some portions of scriptures with you from the Tanakh [New Testament]:
Romans 5:19 – “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 – “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Romans 4:22-25
22 And therefore it was imputed to him [Abraham] for righteousness.
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;
24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
Rabbinical Writings thought that In Old Testament times a sacrifice offering was meant to be a deeply spiritual and personal act… they believed that the sprinkled blood on the alter represented to them a person’s passions (hot Blooded!) and the burnt fat their pleasures. It was further believed that through the sacrifice, the offer was making sure that his passions and pleasures were righteous and holy rather than carnal and sinful.
In this line of thinking, the animal bought to the slaughter was symbolic of one’s sinner self, instincts and primal desires being slain and put to death…
Let’s take a look at Hebrews 10:
1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
God made away that would go beyond just restoring man to what he had before the fall… But to give him what he never had: Placement As A Son. The Spirit of Sonship by which we cry ABBA Father!
If you stuck this far with me I hope what I wrote has touched your soul and revealed to you the true Mashiach: Yeshua Hamashiach – Jesus The Anointed One.
May you have a blessed and spiritually uplifting Pessach
Chag Same’ach!