The Year 2014
The First Passover
Requirements of the Passover
Jesus Christ
Symbolism
New Year's 2014 Chart
Astrology
The Arab Holocaust
Conclusion

The Year 2014

In spite of its historical significance, after being fulfilled at the Cross, the Passover is no longer a legitimate holiday.  Celebration of the Passover is now a sign of rejection of the very Salvation that it symbolized.  The Passover has been superseded by the advent of Jesus Christ and his substitutionary spiritual death on the Cross for the sins of the world.

The concept of passover is a division of passing over or crossing over as well as sparing or clemency.  For example, it may be crossing over a hurdle, a stream, a gulf, or chasm.  It could be fording a stream, crossing a lake, passing through enemy lines, running a draw play or a halfback dive, poll vaulting, broad jumping, pitching a ball, driving a golf ball, or throwing a forward pass.  It could be jumping a fence, scaling a wall, sky diving, or flying over the land.  It could be overcoming some obstacle or the breakout of an army.

The concept of passover could be applied to Peyton Manning throwing passes, George Washington crossing the Delaware, and Douglas MacArthur leapfrogging over islands in the Pacific.  Jonathan secretly crossed over to attack the Philistine garrison at Michmash through a steep ravine (1 Sam 14:1-15).¹  The promotion to Spiritual Maturity is passing over to a new Spiritual paradigm in life, as was the case with Jacob whose promotion was symbolized by crossing the Jabbok River after wrestling with the Angel of the Lord at Peniel (Gen 32:23-31).

As an example of the meaning of sparing or clemency associated with passover, Barabbas was spared when Jesus was sentenced to be crucified (Matt 27:26).

The First Passover

After Egypt had been destroyed by the Nine Plagues, the coup de grace was delivered on the first Passover when the Angel of Death (the Destroyer) passed over the homes of the Israelites and killed the firstborn of the Egyptians (Ex 12:23, 29).  There was a great cry throughout the land of Egypt.  Every home had someone dead (Ex 12:30), and Pharaoh and the Egyptians begged the Israelites to leave at once (Ex 12:31, 32).  Pharaoh asked for their blessing, and the Egyptians gave them gold, silver, and great spoils to get them to leave (Ex 12:33-36).

The twofold significance of the Passover is that Israel was delivered from slavery, and Egypt was destroyed.  Egypt is a symbol of the world.  Thus, the destruction of Egypt and the death of the firstborn symbolized the fate of the damned.  Those who have rejected Salvation will be sentenced to death in Hades.  However, Israel was delivered because of the blood of the lamb which was sacrificed for their sins.

After the first Passover, the feast was to be celebrated yearly by Israel throughout its generations (Lev 23:5; Nu 9:1-5; Deut 16:1-3).  The name, Hebrew, is associated with the Passover.  A Hebrew was one who crossed over, or one beyond the river. Abraham, the father of the Hebrew race, was from beyond the Euphrates and the Jordan (Gen 14:13).

Abraham was to be the father of a great nation (Gen 12:3).  That promise was fulfilled at the first Passover (Ex 12:2-3).  Another promise that was fulfilled on the first Passover was that Israel would be freed from slavery in Egypt after 400 years and inherit the Promised Land of Canaan (Gen 15:13-14; Gal 3:17).  The first Passover was celebrated 430 years after the Tribe of Israel went down into Egypt (Ex 12:41).  Note, 400 is the round number for 430.

After crossing the Jordan to enter the Land, Israel celebrated the Passover at Gilgal (Josh 5:10-11).  On that day they ate some of the produce of the Land, and the next day the manna stopped.  Because of apostasy, the Passover was not celebrated during the period of the Judges or the Kings until it was celebrated in the second month by Hezekiah, King of Judah (2 Chron 30:1-14) and in the first month by Josiah, King of Judah (2 Ki 23:21-23; 2 Chron 35:1-19).

Requirements of the Passover

1. The first Passover feast was to be celebrated by the new nation of Israel in Egypt during the first month of the year (Ex 12:2).
2. The Passover lamb for each household was to be set aside on the 10^th day of the first month (Ex 12:3-4).
3. The lamb was to be an unblemished male one year old.  It could be a sheep or a goat (Ex 12:5).
4. The lamb was to be killed on the 14^th between the evenings (between Sundown and dark, 3 to 6 PM) (Ex 12:6).
5. Blood of the lamb was to be placed on the door posts and lintels of the houses (Ex 12:7).
6. The lamb was to be roasted and eaten that night (on the 15^th) with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (Ex 12:8).  Hebrew time begins at 6 PM.
7. The lamb was to be eaten in haste with the people fully clothed and ready to travel (Ex 12:11).
8. The Lord would pass over the houses covered with the blood, but He would kill the firstborn of the Egyptians that night, and He would judge the demon gods of Egypt (Ex 12:12-13).
9. In the future the Passover Feast would be followed by the Feast of Unleavened bread for 7 days beginning on the 15^th (Ex 12:14-15).

Jesus Christ

After eating the Passover meal, Jesus Christ was put on trial and subsequently crucified on the 15^th.  Jesus Christ thus became the Passover Lamb of the Church (1 Cor 5:7-8; 1 Pet 1:19).

1 Corinthians 5:7-8
7 Clean out the old leaven that you all may be a new lump, just as you all are unleavened.  For, indeed, our Passover has been sacrificed, Christ!
8 Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of absolute purity and truth.

1 Peter 1:18-19
18 Having known that you were not redeemed with perishable things, such as silver or gold, from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,
19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the Blood of Christ!

The Cross became the focal point of human history.  The sins of Old Testament saints from the time of Adam were passed over (clemency) until they could be Judged in Christ (Rom 3:25).  When Jesus Christ was on the Cross, God the Father imputed all the sins of the world to Jesus Christ and Judged them (2 Cor 5:21).  With sins no longer an issue, the door is open for Salvation to all who will believe in Jesus Christ, whether Jew or Gentile (Rom 1:16).

Symbolism

The Passover symbolizes the fulfillment of the Adamic Covenant.  All of human history is a struggle between Good and evil.  The Passover symbolizes the penultimate meaning of human history in terms of deliverance of those who choose the redemption solution and judgment of those who reject it.  All of human history is bound up in the acceptance or rejection of the Passover lamb, which symbolizes Jesus Christ.  It is the blessing and the curse.  Those with faith in the blood of the lamb are saved and blessed, whereas, those who do not believe are judged and cursed.  The blood of the Passover lamb symbolized the blood of Christ, which is His substitutionary spiritual death.

The Passover symbolizes the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant.  The nation of Israel was born on the first Passover, crossed the Red Sea, and later crossed the Jordan and conquered the Promised Land.  The enemies of Israel were destroyed just as Egypt was destroyed.  However, before that occurred, the apostates in Israel were destroyed by the Sin Leading to Death (Jude 5).

The Passover also symbolizes the Second Advent when Israel will be delivered and the world will be destroyed.

The number, 14, means 'pass over' because the Passover was celebrated on the 14^th day of the first month.  Thus, inherent in the meaning of the number, 14, is a gap, or barrier, of separation that divides those who are delivered from those who are doomed.  This is the syncretism of push-pull in which the opposites of push and pull combine for maximum effect.  The saved are blessed and the lost are cursed.  The good get better, and the bad get worse.  Freedom allows both success and failure.

New Year's 2014 Chart

The Stellium of four planets, including the Sun and Moon, in Sagittarius symbolizes the great War of Armageddon.  The Sun symbolizes the angelic army (Lk 2:9, 13), and the Moon symbolizes the Church (Rev 19:14), both of which will return with Christ at the Second Advent.

The New Moon on New Year's day symbolizes the lack of response of the Right Woman for the Right Man corresponding to the apostasy of the Church.  This symbolizes the darkness of the Fall, the demonization of Marriage before the Flood, and the lawlessness in the Great Tribulation prior to the Second Advent.

Astrology

The Arab Holocaust

Conclusion

The term, passover, applies to passing or crossing over and to sparing or clemency.  Hurdles in life must be overcome.  Streams must be forded.  Gulfs must be crossed.  And transitions must be made.  The old must be left behind to pass over into the new, as in the New Year.  The Christian must leave the old life with its sin behind and transition into the New Spiritual life in Christ Jesus.  He must advance to the high ground and cross over into the new paradigm of Spiritual Maturity.   And he must continue to the new paradigm of Spiritual Rapport.  The ultimate passovers are passing over from death to life and the Resurrection, when the physical body will be transformed into the Spiritual body.

The year 2014 will be full of passovers.  There will be the extrapolation of division in which blessing is extended on the one hand while cursing is compounded on the other.  The blessing of Abraham will be extended to Israel and the destruction of the world to Egypt and its partners in the Arab holocaust.  The concept is expressed in the anthropopathism, "Just as it stands written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated" (Rom 9:13).   Of course, only believers in Jesus Christ are true Israel and the descendants of Abraham (Rom 9:6-7).  Blessing in the Church Age comes through the Church, which is the friend of Israel.   Satan has worked overtime to isolate Israel, but now it has backfired, and God is demonstrating the concept of the Passover with deliverance of Israel and destruction of the world.

Every day of 2014 will be an opportunity to choose Life.

Deuteronomy 30:19
I call to witness against you today Heaven and Earth.  I have set before you Life and death, the blessing and the curse.  Therefore, choose Life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,

Author:  Larry Wood