Nathan Jones: In Part 1, we took a verse-by-verse look at Exodus 12:1-14 and learned how the very first Passover meal was to be prepared and eaten. Now Dr. Richard Hill, a “Jew born anew” and who serves with CJF Ministries and as the Messianic pastor of Beth Yeshua Messianic Congregation in Las Vegas, Nevada, will reveal the true Passover Lamb.
The True Passover Lamb
Tim Moore: A later prophet, Jeremiah, would come on the scene and reveal that there’s a coming deliverance for the Jewish people that is even greater than God’s deliverance from their bondage in Egypt (Jeremiah 16:14-15; 23:7-8). This Passover feast that’s been commemorated for thousands of years and is so culturally central to the Jewish identity will be surpassed by a latter-day deliverance when God brings the Jewish people back into their own land a second time. The world has begun to witness the miraculous second regathering within our lifetimes. Still, people have yet to recognize that today’s regathering of the Jewish people from the four corners of the world back to the Holy Land is a greater miracle than even the Exodus.
Nathan Jones: Yes, the Jewish people regathering, as Isaiah 11:10-12 and Ezekiel 36:22-28 prophesy, and Israel being reborn as a nation again, as Isaiah 66:7-8 and Zechariah 12:3-6 prophesy, and then the Messiah soon returning to Israel, was prophesied to be remembered as greater than their deliverance from the Exodus had been. That’s just mind-boggling!
Richard Hill: Yes, there were to be two prophesied worldwide regatherings of the Jewish people. The first was a return from Babylon, and now we are living through the second which will finally culminate at the end of the Tribulation.
Tim Moore: I think it’s fascinating that even as Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac — at the last instant — God intervened and commanded, “Stay your hand!” Nearby there was a ram caught up in the bush. Like the Passover sheep or goat, God in providing a replacement animal was foreshadowing the ultimate sacrifice He would provide for all of the people of the world. While the Jews commemorated their deliverance every year that there remained a Temple by killing a lamb, the act pointed to an even greater Lamb who was to come. It took all the way to John 1:29 where John the Baptist in seeing Jesus coming toward him declares, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The Passover comes full circle in pointing to the Lamb of God — Jesus Christ.
Richard Hill: Why did John call Jesus the Lamb of God? Because Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover. He became the Passover lamb — the one and only. Christ would take the sins of the world upon Himself by His own sacrifice.
Nathan Jones: Richard, I’ve attended a few messianic Passover seders, some even hosted by Jews for Jesus, where they show that the Old Testament Passover ceremony, as well as all of the other Jewish feasts, purvey Messianic implications. As we just read what John the Baptist declared saying, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” are we to say then that this declaration was meant to help the Jewish people to see Jesus Christ when He died on the cross and make that connection to the Passover sacrifice? And, if so, why haven’t they made that connection? Only a messianic remnant like you yourself seems to have understood the Passover symbol.
Richard Hill: Yes, John the Baptist meant to make the obvious connection between the Passover lamb and Jesus. The Jews needed to see Jesus as the Messiah — the Passover Lamb — the one who would die for the sins of the world.
We Jews have a really difficult time understanding that a human being can die for another’s sin. That’s a very difficult concept for us to understand. We don’t classify Jesus as only human, of course, for we consider Him to be God as well — 100% God and 100% man. But, Jews often don’t understand that, and yet we have to be able to try and reach Jews with that message.
Nathan Jones: Why haven’t many of the Jewish people made the connection between Jesus and Passover?
Tim Moore: There’s a veil that the Lord has allowed to cover their spiritual eyes due to a greater glory coming. I think the answer to that question is because in the end God will be glorified even greater when He fulfills His promises to the Jewish people, for it really is all about Him.
Richard Hill: But, it also has a lot to do with Jewish persecution under the name of Jesus. That’s really been the issue for the Jews over the past 2,000 years. Jewish people have been persecuted under Jesus’ name. Hitler claimed to be a Christian, and yet he killed six million Jewish people. Other what I call mashugana leaders — crazy leaders — have killed Jews under the name of Jesus, and so Christianity is a big problem that blinds a lot of Jews to anything related to Jesus.
Nathan Jones: But, then we read the book of Malachi, and it’s all about how the Jewish people were bringing blind, lame, blemished, and even stolen animals for their sacrifices. They didn’t understand why they had to sacrifice, why the lamb had to be white, why it had to be unblemished, why it had to be a certain age, and why its bones couldn’t be broken. It’s strange that for a feast that’s been practiced for say 3,400-3,500 years, the elements in it seem to have been lost to so many people, not just during the Church Age.
Tim Moore: Or, they get caught up in the elements alone without realizing that they point to something greater. These are merely the shadows of something greater to come.
In the third and last part of this look into the Feast of Passover in prophecy, we’ll show why the Passover is tied to the Last Supper and Communion!