Dear Family and Friends,

Less than a month from now, as Christian families around the world pause to commemorate Good Friday and celebrate Easter, Jewish families around the world will also be pausing – to celebrate Passover.

Have you ever noticed that Easter and Passover are usually close in dates?

I think we all know that it’s not a coincidence.

The Bible clearly tells when Jesus was crucified and was resurrected. For example, when Jesus gathered with His disciples for supper, He said, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” ‭Luke‬ ‭22:15‬ ESV

But have you ever wondered if the only connection between Easter and Passover is proximate dates in the calendar?

Have you ever wondered if God and Jesus purposefully chose that Friday to be Good Friday? Or was it just a coincidence that it was the day of Preparation for the Passover (John 19:14)?

The book of Exodus tells of how the people of Israel were living as slaves under the rule of Egypt’s Pharaoh, forced into heavy labor and poor living conditions.

The entirety of the Bible speaks of how mankind are slaves under satan, forced to live a life of sin. As 1 John‬ ‭5:19‬ ESV says,“The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” ‭‭

God, through Moses, told Pharaoh to ‘Let my people go’ ‭‭(Exodus‬ ‭5:1‬), but Pharaoh refused. So God unleashed plague after plague upon Egypt; none could change Pharaoh’s mind.

That is until the final plague, the death of firstborn sons throughout Egypt.

Moses instructed the families to sacrifice an unblemished lamb and smear its blood on the doorposts of the house. And as a result, the first born sons of Israel were spared, or ‘passed over,’ from that final plague, Pharaoh finally relented, and the people of Israel were set free.

‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭2:22,24‬ ESV says this of Jesus. “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

The similarities between Easter and Passover are hard to deny. Both are too similar to be a coincidence.

Both are centered around the Father’s love for His children.

Both involved an unblemished sacrifice. 

And both have a similar ending – the once enslaved set free to a new life.

I imagine by now you may be asking yourself, this is all very interesting – but what’s the point?

To answer your question let’s take one last look at a similarity between Easter and Passover; this one involving the Israelites after they were set free from Egypt and all of us after we have been set free of our sins and death.

We begin with a portion of Stephen’s speech to the Sanhedrin found in Acts 7:35-42 ESV where he spoke of the rebellion of the Israelites in the wilderness.

“This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.

This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’

This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.

Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’

And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven (foreign gods).”

In essence, Stephen told the council that those who were set free not only rejected Moses, God’s appointed, they turned to worshipping idols and rejecting God Himself.

And while God did not withdraw their salvation (by sending them back to Egypt), the sad truth is God turned away from them.

The first lesson for all of us today is: Making God unhappy or sad is never a good idea.

The second lesson for us today is: The story of the Israelites need not be our story.  

Can you remember a time in your youth when you disappointed your parents?

Or if you’re like me and that was too long ago, perhaps you can recall when your child once let you down?

I’m guessing that for most of us, anger subsides rather quickly. But disappointment is different. It can linger for awhile, can it not?

For us as parents, disappointment usually ends when we see a change in ways.

For God, it’s when we repent. 

My friends, we still have time for our story to differ from that of the Israelites – to do what we must to follow Jesus.

Can we be encouraged today to start writing our own story?

Perhaps the best place to start is to not do what was the most egregious sin of the Israelites – worshipping an idol. 

Now you may be thinking, ‘I don’t worship golden calves, so I’m good.’

No, I am referring to the Israelite’s worship of themselves. It’s called self-worship.

The constant complaining, the refusal to submit to authority, the rebellious spirit are all indications of the Israelites putting their wants, their comfort, themselves before God.

Can you see how self-worship plagues our society as well?

Let’s not fall into that same satanic trap. Let’s instead keep to our pledge to follow Jesus, to be as faithful to Him as He is faithful towards us. To put Him first in everything we think, say and do.

In love always,