-Have you had a Passover experience? The more I look at scripture and unpack Passover the more I begin to see that if we have not had a Passover experience we will not be able to fully understand what Yeshua did for each one of us at Passover.

Can you imagine what was going through the minds of the Israelites as they chose a lamb and killed it and then did what they had been asked by Moses to do. If your house was not marked with the blood of a year old lamb, death would enter in and kill the 1st born son of the family. In some cases that could be the father as well as his first born child and even their pets or domestic animals. The Israelites were told to choose a year old lamb on the 10th Nissan and keep it in their homes till the 14 Nissan when they were to then sacrifice the lamb. Imagine the children, had they given the lamb a name, had it become like a pet. How hard it must have been to then kill that year old lamb. This is a small picture of what our Father in Heaven felt when Yeshua hung on the tree knowing that he was sinless and was willing to take All of our sin, the sin of the world on himself so that we can be reconciled to our Father, on condition that we allow the blood of Yeshua to be our covering. We also need to accept that Yeshua as the only way.

Let us consider a verse in Chapter 12 from the book of Exodus as we miss so much with the English. We are not all Hebrew and Greek scholars but can I challenge you to look up the Hebrew or Greek meaning of words and scripture will come alive as you do this. I am going to use the literal translation as this will help us understand . Exodus12:30 “And Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians and there is a great cry in Egypt, for there is not a house where there is not (one) dead.”

In this verse we see the English word cry. There was a great cry in Egypt. Now the Hebrew word used here is צְעָקָ֥ה transliterated tzeaqah cry ,cry out , out cry (Strongs 6818). The same word is used when the Hebrews cried out to G-d under the weight of their bondage in Egypt. It is also used and describes Esau's response to the loss of his blessing in Genesis 27:34. In the context used here a strong out cry frequently indicates that righteousness is absent or judgement is being executed. The Hebrews cried under the weight of their bondage in Egypt Exodus 3:7. The Lord heard their cry and came to deliver them through the mighty acts in Exodus. G-d promises to hear the cry of the afflicted, the alien the orphan and the widow (Exodus 22:22 Psalm 9:12). G-d however returns punishment to the wicked in kind. In response to the outcry of the Hebrews, the Egyptians uttered a great cry because of their sorrow over the death of their first-born. This is not a cry of what have we done to deserve this killing of our first-born this was a cry about having lost somebody. It was not a cry of deep deep grief.

There is another Hebrew word זְעָקָ֥ה zeaqah cry out, cry (Strongs 2201). This is similar to the word used above but is a cry from the heart, a very painful cry, a deep cry to G-d for help, a cry of what should we do so that the distress will depart This word is used when Mordechai cries out when he hears what Haman has planned for the Jewish nation.

The next verses go on to say that Pharaoh calls for Moses and Aaron, and tells them to take all the people, their flocks and herds of animals and go. He then says bless me. Amazing Pharaoh has seen all the plagues that G-d had brought against the Egyptians and they had not affected the Israelites but he is unwilling to repent for his behaviour. The great I Am has revealed himself to Pharaoh and the Egyptians but their gods are still far more important. They are not prepared to change. What can we learn? Are we a people who cry out to G-d with the wrong motives. Can we cry out like Mordechai and look past what has happened and ask the Lord to show us why these things have happened. Are we then willing to change to come to that place of repentance and weep like Yeshua wept over Jerusalem asking the Lord to come into our lives? Are we willing to put the blood of Yeshua on the doorposts of our heart so that Yeshua will Passover and even hover so that he can protects us from the evil one haSatan? Do we obey G-d's instructions even if we do not understand why we need to do certain things.

If you want to understand more about the significance of Passover then please read the next article on "The Messianic Significance of Passover"