Our Passover
"Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, since you are unleavened. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old yeast, or with the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Corinthians 5:7,8 CSB)
There is a crimson stain...a scarlet thread running through history's tapestry.
It ran through the blood of the sacrificial ram God provided Abraham in place of Issac...when the Passover was foreshadowed:
"Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, 'Abraham! Abraham!' 'Here I am,' he replied. 'Do not lay a hand on the boy,' he said. 'Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, 'On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided' " (Genesis 22:10-14).
It ran through the blood of the lamb splashed over the doors of the homes of the children of Israel...when the Passover was established:
It ran through the blood of the lamb splashed over the doors of the homes of the children of Israel...when the Passover was established:
“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt" (Exodus 12:12,13).
It ran through the cord Rahab hung in her window...when the Passover was echoed:
"Now the men had said to her, 'This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house. If any of them go outside your house into the street, their blood will be on their own heads; we will not be responsible. As for those who are in the house with you, their blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them. But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.' 'Agreed,' she replied. 'Let it be as you say.' So she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window" (Joshua 2:17-21).
It ran through the cord Rahab hung in her window...when the Passover was echoed:
"Now the men had said to her, 'This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house. If any of them go outside your house into the street, their blood will be on their own heads; we will not be responsible. As for those who are in the house with you, their blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them. But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.' 'Agreed,' she replied. 'Let it be as you say.' So she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window" (Joshua 2:17-21).
It ran through the wine Jesus served His disciples at the Last Supper...when the Passover was celebrated:
"Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, 'Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.' 'Where do you want us to prepare for it?' they asked. He replied, 'As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, 'The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.' They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover. When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, 'I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God' " (Luke 22:7-16).
And it ran through the fountain of forgiveness...when the Passover was fulfilled:
"It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end" (John 13:1).
Christ our Passover has sacrificed...and by His stains, we are saved.
* * * * * *
"There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
E'er since, by faith, I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme
And shall be till I die."
(From "There Is a Fountain;" traditional American melody, arr. by Lowell Mason; words by William Cowper.)
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