THE PASSOVER - PART 6
How and why Passover is now different from what God instructed Moshe
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DESCRIPTION
This is Part 6 of a Seven (7) Part Series to help you understand the Biblical roots of the Passover. Also, to help you understand WHY and HOW the Passover being celebrated today is different from that given to Moses in the instructions by God in Torah / Exodus Chapter 12. HOW did the changes come about and WHY? You will have a deeper understanding and love for your LORD after this study!
Especially relevant in this Part 6 are more UNVEILED SECRETS of the Aphikomen ... and the specifics of WHEN the Passover Dinner celebrated now changed from the original Passover Seder.
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THE PASSOVER – PART 6
Because Rabbi Shaul (the Apostle Paul) wrote: “Messiah our Passover is sacrificed for us,” there was no more need to kill a Passover lamb. Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Anointed One) was “the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world”. To ever remember His great sacrifice, the early followers of Messiah put the shinbone upon the Passover table. They used the unbroken shinbone because it was also written of Him, “no bone of His shall be broken.” Psalm 34:20 prophetically tells us:
"The righteous person suffers many evils, but Adonai rescues him out of them all.
He protects all his bones; not one of them gets broken."
In the Brit Chadashah (New Testament) we read ... For these things happened in order to fulfill this passage of the Tanakh:
“Not one of his bones will be broken.” [Psalm 34:20]
And again, another passage says,
“They will look at him whom they have pierced.” [Zechariah 12:9-10]
The little piece of matzah hidden away on a high shelf was to the early Jewish Messianic believers a picture and remembrance of Messiah’s ascension into Heaven; bringing it down the next year reminded them of the promise of His coming again.
The use of the wine also comes from the early Jewish Messianic believers. It is essential for the Passover because Yeshua (Jesus) took the cup, gave thanks and gave it to the disciples. The wine must be red, resembling blood, because Yeshua said: “This is my blood of the New Covenant, shed for many for the remission of sins.” And everyone must partake of it during Passover because Yeshua said: “Drink you ALL, of it.”
And what about this mysterious word “APHIKOMEN?" This is not a Hebrew word; rather it is a Greek word and reads exactly as Jewish people pronounce it. What is the meaning of this mysterious word “Aphikomen?” It looks like a Greek word. Most scholars are agreed that it is, but different opinions exist as to its meaning. Some say it comes from “Epikomos” and means “dessert”. But that does not seem to be correct, since a great deal of violence had to be perpetrated on the word “Epikomos” in order to turn it into “Aphikomen.”
But there is another Greek word, which gives a full and satisfactory explanation, and where etymological violence is not at all necessary to give it meaning. It reads exactly as our Aphikomen. What does it mean? According to the Greek lexicon it means, “I CAME.”
Who came? The One, obviously, whom the broken Matzah represents, namely, the Lord Yeshua, the True Pesach! [1]
[1] The Mystery in the Passover Seder: The story that could not be forgotten. By Solomon Birnbaum.
Imagine the setting that night in the upper room when Yeshua Himself was participating in the Passover: the very ceremony that prophesied His death! The One whom the Passover had promised to every age of believers was keeping the feast himself and the next day he would keep it literally: not with symbols … but with His body on the cross-stake! His blood for men’s souls instead of the blood on the doorposts.
Yeshua was … and still is … saying: “The Angel of Death who spared the Children of Israel because He saw the blood of the lamb on the doors of their houses, will spare you from ETERNAL death because he will see My BLOOD on the doors of your hearts though faith! As your fathers were delivered from the bondage of Egypt, so you will be delivered from the bondage of sin and death.”
It is interesting how the “Lord’s Supper” became the core of the Jewish Passover. The first Messianic believers were almost ALL Jews in the early days of the Christian era. Every one of the first talmidim of Yeshua was Jewish, with the possible exception of Luke. It has been estimated that almost 1,000,000 Jews became followers of the Lord Jesus in the first century AD.
The old time synagogue in the first century accepted Messianic Jews (the followers of Yeshua). In the makeup of the synagogue in those days there were Pharisees, Sadducees, Hellenists, Essenes, and many other groups of Jewish belief systems. So when large numbers of Jews began to accept Yeshua as Messiah, they were still allowed to stay in the synagogue. They were known as Nazarenes, and were given respect and attention.
Now while the other Jews celebrated the Passover as instituted by Moses, Jewish believers in Messiah celebrated the same occasion with bread and wine, depicting in the observance the suffering, death and resurrection of the Lord. There were TWO (2) KINDS of Passover being celebrated, and as more and more Jews became followers of Messiah, there were more and more Jews who kept the Passover the NEW way: the way it is observed today!!
With the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in C.E. 70, the Old Testament Passover as commanded by Moses ceased. The only Passover observance, which survived within the Jewish nation, was that of the Messianic Hebrew followers of Yeshua. The Messianic Passover, therefore, became the celebration of ALL Israel: the MAIN features of which were the bread (matzah cakes) and the wine.
Every year during the Passover Seder, when our Jewish brethren partake of the unleavened bread (matzah) and the wine, they are unconsciously celebrating the fact that Messiah’s body was broken for us, His blood shed for us, and that He is going to return to set up His Kingdom where He will celebrate with us the Passover!
Baruch haba b'Shem Adonai.
Your friend in Messiah, Prince Handley
NOTE: For more information on the Aphikomen, go here >>> THE PASSOVER SERIES: PART 5.
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