Op-Ed: THE PASSOVER REDEMPTION STORY

As we approach the time of the Lord’s Passover to remember the redemption of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt the question arises, “How was such an event possible?”

The Jews in bondage in Egypt did not rebel and rise up against the Egyptians, nor did they fight against them. The Lord Himself fought for them and He alone sent the plagues upon Pharaoh of Egypt.

Consequently, the Passover is not about the Jewish people, or about Moses, its all about the God of Israel and what He chose to do for the Jewish people.

The Jewish people watched in silence as plague after plague came upon their oppressors. Even when they were commanded to make bricks without straw they did not rebel. Also, like many of their forefathers, the Jews were certainly not deserving of redemption, as many worshiped idols and the god’s of Egypt.

As it was with Abraham, so it was with Israel. Both were chosen by the sovereignty of God for a special purpose, and a nation came into existence chosen by God with a specific mission.

Deuteronomy 7:6-8

“For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the covenant which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

Notice in these verses of Scripture it is all about the God of Israel!

You are a holy people to the Lord your God.

God has chosen you to be a people for Himself.

He chose you to be a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.

The Lord did not choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples.

He chose you because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep His covenant which He swore to your forefathers.

It is I, the Lord who has brought you out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

All of these events took place solely by the will and sovereignty of the God of Israel. The Passover and redemption from slavery in Egypt had absolutely nothing to do with human will. The Jews were being brought out of Egypt because the God of Israel chose by His divine will to bring them out, and to make them a nation, when they were not a nation.

The only choice the Jewish people had to make in the entire process was to choose to spread the blood of the lamb over the doorpost of their homes. They had a choice. It involved faith, to believe what God had spoken to them through Moses and to act upon it; or to rebel and refuse to put the blood on the doorposts of their homes.

They believed the word of the Lord through Moses, and the angel of death passed over their homes and did not kill their first born. Their choice involved faith and action!

As we approach Passover in 2018, we find a world writhing in birth pangs like a woman in labor. We see anti-semitism arising in Europe, England, and all across the globe. We see the nations once again rising against Israel to divide her land, seeking to divide Jerusalem, and to give the land God promised to give the Israelites as an everlasting possession over to the god of Islam, a foreign god.

Yet, as the celebration of the Passover seder approaches we become aware that something truly prophetic is happening in our world. Just as the Jews silently watched events in Egypt unfold, we also are watching events unfold we can do absolutely nothing to change, because they are all ordained by the hand of God.

The foundation of what is taking place has to do with one word – Covenant! It is the God of Israel who made the covenant with Abraham and his descendants regarding the land of Israel. He declared He would give them all of the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession.

Genesis 17:7-8

“I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. “I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

With God, Everlasting means everlasting!

An event took place in December 2017 that truly shook the nations. President Donald Trump declared that Jerusalem is Israel’s eternal and everlasting Capital City. Furthermore, the President has ordered the United States Department of State to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in recognition of this fact.

Just as the Lord declared in the Psalms, He did not forget Jerusalem, and He led His servant, Donald Trump, to prove and verify His word in 2017.

Psalm 137:5-6

“If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
May my right hand forget her skill.
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
If I do not remember you,
If I do not exalt Jerusalem
Above my chief joy.”

As we approach the Passover in 2018 many of the nations of the world rage against the fact that Jerusalem is the Capital City of the nation of Israel. They do not understand the reality and meaning of the Passover. They do not understand the reality of God’s covenant regarding the land of Israel and Jerusalem.

Pharaoh did not understand this reality as well, nor did he understand the reality of the prophecy written in Genesis 12:3.

God made a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12:3, and it was directly related to his blood line descendants, the Jewish people and nation. It declared either “Blessings,” or “Curses,” on how nations and people treated the descendants of Abraham.

“And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

No prophecy in human history has proven to be more valid than this one. Where are the Babylonians, the Medes, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the great Spanish Empire, the Third Reich, British Empire, the former Soviet Union today? They are all in the dust bin of history.

Why? Because they failed to understand the reality of the prophecy of Genesis 12:3, and because they failed to understand the reality of the story and meaning of the Passover.

The reality of Israel today is an affront to the nations, and particularly the Muslim nations. In 2013 Egypt had become particularly virulent against Israel, and the Lord God of Israel sent them a reminder of the plagues of the Passover.

God sent the plagues against Egypt, not man. God chose to bring the Israelites out of Egypt by a strong hand and many signs, not man. God used the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of the Israelites to shield them from the angel of death of their first born, not man.

It would be well for each of us to remember and understand the lessons of Passover. It would be well for the nations of the world and their leaders to understand the historical lessons and consequences of Genesis 12:3, and the Passover.

Isaiah 45:18

“For thus says the LORD,
Who created the heavens,
Who is God,
Who formed the earth and made it,
Who has established it,
Who did not create it in vain,
Who formed it to be inhabited:
“I am the LORD, and there is no other.”

We wish you a blessed Passover

Trumpet-er