The Daily Word of Righteousness

The First Four Feasts

This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: (Exodus 12:2,3)

Passover

Passover symbolizes the protection from God's judgment and wrath that is given us through the blood of Christ. Because the sentence of death overshadows the gods of the world, we apply by faith the blood of Jesus to ourselves and our household.

When the destroyer approaches us he sees the blood of the righteous Jesus which, in obedience to God, we have sprinkled by faith over our life. The Divine executioner, recognizing we have appropriated the blood of Jesus, "passes over" us without harming us and continues on his way carrying out the judgments of God.

In the same spirit of obedience we eat of God's Passover Lamb (I Corinthians 5:7).

The feast of Passover teaches us of the importance that God places on the blood of Christ as the covering for our sinful and rebellious personality. We can witness in our own day the judgments of God in the land—the turmoil, and the distress of nations. Our refuge from the destroying storm is the blood of Jesus applied to our household by faith in obedience to the Word of God.

The Passover marks the "beginning of months" to the Christian. When an unsaved person approaches God he is confronted with Christ on the cross. God meets man only at the cross of Christ.

Just as the Hebrew approaching the Tabernacle of the Congregation encountered first the Altar of Burnt Offering, so the man or woman, boy or girl, who would enter the Christian salvation must first accept God's offering—the Lord Jesus Christ.

The point in time at which we accept by faith the blood of Calvary's cross becomes to us the start of a new life. Our existence before the cross is of little consequence. Our true life begins the moment the Lord Jesus Christ becomes our personal Passover.

Notice that it is a "lamb for a house" (Exodus 12:3). The words of Paul are brought to mind: "Thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:31).

When a person accepts Christ his whole household comes under the protection of the blood (I Corinthians 7:14). The believer then should pray that God will grant each family member repentance unto life, that each individual will receive Christ for himself or herself.

The Passover was to be eaten "in haste." The Lord Jesus commanded us to "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh" (Matthew 25:13). In like manner, the Passover is to be eaten "with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand" (Exodus 12:11). We work diligently and conscientiously while we are in the world but in our hearts we are strangers and pilgrims. We always are ready to follow the Lord Jesus wherever He leads us.

To be continued.