Deliverance

Tonight is the beginning of Passover, one of God's feasts in Scripture which he told Israel to keep as an eternal ordinance.

At Passover, God told each house in Israel to select a perfect, spotless lamb, to be the sacrifice lamb. In Egypt, the blood was put on the door posts of Israel so that when God went to strike against the captors, death would pass over Israel. Unleavened bread (bread without yeast) was eaten, as well as bitter herbs to remind us the bitterness of slavery in Egypt.

In the New Covenant, Messiah celebrated the Passover with his disciples. He told them, "When you do this, do it in remembrance of me." So we celebrate the Passover not only in remembrance of God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt, but also of Messiah's deliverance of us from sin and death."

A Messianic rabbi friend, Derek Leman, has something quite profound to say in Passover As a Spiritual Journey, touching on this dual remembrance that we, as believers in Messiah who keep the Lord's Passover, are in a position to carry out:

Passover calls us to think not only about Israel’s journey, but our own. God brought not only Israel out of Egypt, but us as well.

So then there is the second telling of the story, the one that begins with slavery:

And the Egyptians abused us . . . they afflicted us . . . and they subjected us to harsh servitude . . . We cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our plea and saw our affliction, our misery and our oppression . . .

And this is another way of looking at our story. It is the crisis perspective, looking at the things we needed saving from (and still do — let’s not kid ourselves about how far we have come).

It is good at Passover to think about these things also:

–What traps were we caught in? What dangers did we face (including judgment for sin)?

–How aware were we of our misery when we sought God? What was happening?

–How do we need him to save us over and over again? I don’t mean in the Christian sense of the word “save” as a technical term for becoming a part of God’s people. I mean, in what ways do we find again and again we need God’s forgiveness and help in escaping the worst tendencies in ourselves?

–Put our own issues into the following sentence: And _________ abused us and _________ was our affliction and __________ was my harsh servitude and we cried to the Lord . . .

This year, as you celebrate Passover, why not take a minute to journal about these things. And put your writing inside your favorite Haggadah. You’ll read it from year to year and maybe even add to it. It is your own personal Haggadah.

In a moment of introspection, ask yourself who or what has abused you? What has been your affliction? What was your harsh servitude? What's been holding you down, suppressing you, stifling your relationship with God? What's caused you to cry out to the Lord, asking earnestly for deliverance?

I know I can fill in those blanks with some damning, ugly sins of my own. I can't even count the times I've cried out to the Lord for deliverance from the things the evil one has tripped me up with as I attempt to live a life for the Lord. Like Israel's journey out of bondage, we've lived our lives captive to sin -- even more so in this backwards culture! -- but the Father is drawing us out.

Messiah's atoning sacrifice, the once-and-for all sacrifice, is the thing that can deliver us from this bondage, make us clean before God; we need only come in sincere repentance to him, as we clean out the leaven from our lives and walking more in-step with the Lord, day by day.

Here's to remembering the Passover Lamb, Seh HaElohim, Yeshua HaMashiach. May He come quickly in our day and restore justice to this perverted world.

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