Do not forget. Exodus 12:43-51 Reflecting on how God saved us is often very important in maintaining a close relationship with Him. By consistently recognizing God's grace toward us before we repented and placed faith in Christ—thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit and the word of God—we are prompted to thank God for His love, even when we didn’t love Him. This realization helps us see how God's grace is active in our daily lives as believers, and it challenges us to dedicate ourselves to Him as His children living in a world of sin.
Celebrating Passover across generations has been a vital way for Jews to preserve their unique identity, even as they are scattered across the globe. Each year during Passover, Jews hold a “Passover feast,” which, in a spiritual sense, may now seem meaningless to God, but for them, it serves as a means to pass down to their children and extended family the fact that they are a covenant people. God made a covenant with Abraham, and through him, all nations of the world would be blessed. Every firstborn in a Jewish family is reminds of their place in God's eyes.
Sadly, very few Jews realize that our Lord Jesus Christ is the reason the people of the world can be blessed because of the covenant He made with Abraham. Our Lord is the fulfillment of the law and the “Passover Lamb” of deliverance for the Jews. The Gospel of Christ is “the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes; to the Jews first and also to the Gentiles.” How grateful we are that each person has the opportunity and privilege of being born again into the kingdom of God.
The Israelites who left Egypt after the Passover were enriched with wealth forced upon them by the Egyptians, who feared what might happen next. There was no hesitation or waiting for more words or actions. The time had come to leave, and all the Israelites and a “mixed multitude” left Egypt immediately. The Passover was a defining moment for them, and it still is today for Jewish people worldwide. Thousands of slaves became a nation overnight. Through that small nation, the world's nations have been spiritually blessed through the message of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
A covenant is established when a person acts in faith in God's words, and believers become “children of God by faith in Jesus Christ.” Our spiritual riches far surpass anything we can imagine. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for them that love Him.” God’s plans for the nations and people of the world are for them to be blessed. Even though sin still rules in the world today and in the mortal bodies of humans, blessings come to us now through Christ, and ultimately, nations will find peace through Him.
The Passover lamb died in place of the firstborn of the children of Israel, and similarly, God’s covenant with us is confirmed through the substitution of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the perfect “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” God's justice can be completely satisfied with Jesus as our substitute. God can be pleased with and accept us because He is satisfied with our Lord Jesus Christ. Based on this, the right relationship between us and God is established.
The Lord Jesus made “propitiation for our sin,” which means He took our place. No other word fully captures what He did for us because He was the only One who did this or could do it. The result of His action when He became our perfect Lamb/Substitute was a feat that has never been accomplished and cannot be done by any human for another. It had to be by our Lord Jesus Christ because He is the only God/Man in the universe. His propitiation for us was that He “turned away God’s just and holy wrath with the offering He made of Himself.”
There were three other groups of people who left Egypt with the Israelites but were not able to participate in the Passover. Foreigners came from different backgrounds and cultures. Sojourners were strangers from another place who were only temporarily there. Hired servants were typically day laborers hired for a short period to do a specific task, after which they would move on. Servants who were bought for money and strangers who became permanent residents could participate in the Passover feast if they joined the Israelites' family and followed the laws of God.
The mixed multitude that accompanied the Israelites from Egypt was a large group of people who did not want to stay in Egypt. Not everyone followed with faith in God and His word; some used the exodus as a way to escape the power of the Egyptian king. Likely, some were slaves from other nations or Egyptian indentured servants who saw this as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to start fresh.
People who have not been born again are not partakers of Christ or the blessings of eternal life through Him. The Lord’s Supper affirms that those who know Him as their personal Savior are members of His body and share in Christ Himself. Saying and doing Christian things does not make a person a Christian. Those who partake of the Lord’s Supper are those whom God has saved, who have testified to that fact by being baptized as believers, and who are committed to being a visible, responsible part of a local fellowship of believers of “like precious faith.”
Only Jewish males who were consecrated to the Lord through the rite of circumcision could participate in the Passover feast with their families. The full significance of the Passover and why it was so important needed to be understood and appreciated as much as possible by those involved.
The same is true of the Lord’s Supper. It is not merely a religious ritual we perform. It is a personal act of response by each individual to remember the Lord Jesus Christ as our own Savior, to demonstrate His death in a visible way that reminds us of the fact that He bore our sins in His body on the cross and that His blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins. It also reminds us of His bodily resurrection and His promise to return and take His own people from the world.
Those who participate in and partake of the Lord’s Supper should examine their hearts and actions beforehand. An awareness of the significance of the Supper and the grace that made it possible for us to be there should be evident in their actions, attitude, and motivation as they humble themselves before our living Lord and Savior.