April 2007

Dear Friend,

This is the month in which most of the world's 14 million Jews will gather around the table with their families to commemorate the Feast of Passover (Pesach) with the Seder meal. The very word, "Seder," (meaning "order") implies the importance of following a prescribed ritual or tradition in remembering the events of Israel's Exodus from Egypt as recorded in Exodus 12.

The Apostle Paul makes a most astounding reference to Passover in his admonition to the Corinthian Church, recorded in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8:

Purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (emphasis added)

Be assured that Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, chose his words very carefully as he made the enormously significant connection between Passover and the Lord Jesus Christ whom he identifies as "our Passover." By the time these words were penned, Jews had already been annually observing Passover for 1500 years, but this was the first time a person had been called "Passover."

This Rabbi Shaul (Saul)--"Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless (Philippians 3:5-6)--draws the unequivocal conclusion that every Seder before the death of Jesus was prefigurative of Calvary and every Seder after His death has been commemorative.