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By Dr. Don Meecha, Ph.D.,Th.

Many years ago as I delivered a Shabbat message, the words “this is a physical sign of a spiritual truth” came from my mouth.  I did not appreciate at that moment how this statement was going to lead me on a quest through the Bible.  My journey was an attempt to comprehend why God wanted us, as a people, to meditate on His great acts at specific times.

Then I came upon the words, “My appointed times…” in Leviticus 23:3.

I reflected on how we are commanded, year after year, “in the first month on the fourteenth day…” (Leviticus 23:5), to recount the great physical signs of Passover to our children that one day they may recount them to their children. It became clear to me that each Feast God established is for the purpose of commemorating something great He has done for His people and to point us towards the Messiah.

In pondering what God has done for us as a people, we can enumerate the wonderful things He accomplished as He delivered us from Egypt, the land of physical bondage.  He bestowed on us the wealth of the land and its people. He miraculously fed us and gave us water in the wilderness.  He brought us into Covenant fellowship with Him by revealing the Torah to Moses.

But we must realize that none of these great acts would be of any significance without the blood of the lamb placed on the homes of our people in Egypt.  It was this single act that resulted in the deliverance of His people and the judgment of our captors.

Reflecting on this event 3500 years later, with the help of history we can see God was directing our people to meditate annually upon this physical sign revealing a spiritual truth. By obediently placing the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their homes, our ancestors caused the “Destroyer” to pass over. God’s mercy was revealed to the family when He spared the first-born male in those homes. Today we can see this as a picture of God’s eternal plan, pointing toward the time when He would permit His own Son’s blood to be shed.

The Newer Covenant declares God’s Son, Yeshua, to be a “better sacrifice” than the Passover lamb. As well, the redemption He purchased was better than the silver and gold our people received as they left Egypt. Note what Kefa (Peter) states concerning this:

“… You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Messiah. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you…” (1 Peter 1:18-20).

This spiritual truth forces us to recognize that the lamb’s blood placed on the doorposts in Egypt was only a precursor of a greater sacrifice preordained and destined for a greater deliverance. We can also note that the historical Exodus is a physical sign to our people, not only of their past deliverance, but also of a spiritual deliverance.It encapsulates God’s master plan to redeem the world from sin. The shedding of His Son’s blood would not deliver man from the slavery of physical Egypt but, rather, from the bondage of sin of spiritual Egypt.

God has revealed Himself to us as united within Himself in perfect fellowship and in agreement with Himself. He has revealed to us, His creatures, that we also can have fellowship with Him through the precious shed blood of the true Passover Lamb, Yeshua, “slain before the foundation of the world.” This year as we meditate upon the great things that have been accomplished for us it is my prayer that we see how our Messiah, from before time, has caused the “Destroyer” to pass over us because of His blood applied to our doorposts and bring us into a united fellowship with our God.