Passover

This Passover has been especially meaningful to me this year. On Monday, April 5th 2010 I was admitted to the hospital after having had a heart attack. I had been experiencing intermittent chest pain for a month. When it worsened I went to the doctor. An angio gram-- a catheter into the heart—showed one coronary artery completely clogged, while the others had compensated for blood loss to that portion of my heart. Thus, I had no heart damage. The cardiologist placed a stent in the blocked artery.

I was back home three days later. So I literally observed God’s Passover during this time. He saved my life. This is what God did for all of Israelites before he brought them out of Egypt.

On the day that I went into the hospital God had showed me something special about the Passover that I had not seen before. There are many people who insist that Good works lead one to salvation. Of course, good works, called Mitzvah, had been instituted by the rabbis to be a substitute for Temple sacrifices after the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E.

But there can be no substitution for redemption of mankind by the blood of the lamb. The protocol for this had been established with Adam and Eve when God gave them clothes made from animal skin. Passover made this blood atonement official and the Temple sacrifices were but an extension of that moment when the angel of death passed over those who were inside their homes with the door post covered with the blood of an innocent lamb.

It was only after God brought the Israelites out of Egypt by the Passover that he then instituted the Torah. God did not give the Torah to Moshe until after He had redeemed them from bondage. This is what God had showed me. If God had instituted Mitzvah in order for redemption then He would have given Moshe the Torah in Egypt, brought them out of bondage and then instituted the Passover in the wilderness.

Blood and not good works is the means of redemption and salvation is predicated upon God’s shedding His blood for mankind when He became the Lamb of God in Yeshua HaMashiach. There is nothing we can do to earn or replace the greatest gift ever extended to man by God. The Passover is by far the greatest Feast Day of the seven. I am very thankful during this Passover season. Shalom.