The Passover Thanksgiving Feast

The night of Passover. A night that would finally convince Pharaoh to let God’s people go. A night that every home that didn’t have the blood of the lamb around the doorway would experience death. But what was the significance of that event? It’s easy to think of it simply as the final plague to prove
God was more powerful than Pharaoh. However, the more you read the bible the more you’ll probably notice how many times that story is retold with the intention of reminding the Israelites what God is looking for.

The Passover was to be celebrated every year to serve as a reminder of the blessing of obedience to God – death passes over your house. Unfortunately, the Israelites forgot the lesson from that dinner of thanksgiving instituted by God.

Approximately 600 years had passed from the time of the Judges to Josiah king of Judah, and the Passover apparently hadn’t been practiced at all, or at least not properly during that time.

2 Kings 23:21-22, “Then the king [Josiah] commanded all the people saying, 'Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God as it is written in this book of the covenant.' Surely such a Passover had not been celebrated from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah.”

Basically, they forgot what God was trying to tell them through that Thanksgiving feast. Romans 15:4, “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” True for us. True for them.

But the Passover was a symbolic feast representative of God’s plan for deliverance of His people – those who will trust Him. The unblemished lamb was intended to be a representative “scapegoat” for our sins. Although, as Hebrews 10:4 says, “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” But there would be a lamb that was capable of take away sins… “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Jesus, the perfect lamb, was sacrificed for our sins. The night that took place, Jesus explained it (in part) to His disciples as they sat around the table at the Passover feast in the upper room. In John 13 Jesus modeled for them the example they should be to the world, an act that would be what signifies to the world who they belong to.

Hopefully, we can see the connections between all the events that surrounded that scary and amazing time of the exodus from Egypt, AND our exodus from a sinful life into a “Promised Land” kind of life. This Thanksgiving, we’re privileged to reflect on some of our nation's own events that help to remind us of important moral attributes that speak volumes to a world of greed and selfishness. Those moral attributes are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control…” (Galatians 5:22-23). Share these with those in your life!