What is the New Covenant Passover?

In Rabbinic and Messianic Judaism there are many and varied traditions that are associated with Passover. Most are not found in the Torah (first five books of the Bible). Most Jewish denominations, i.e. the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform branches of Rabbinic Judaism as well as Messianic Judaism,  have produced booklets that their constituents follow when celebrating the Passover. These booklets are called the Haggadah which literally means “the telling”.

The point being that the Passover instructions in the Scripture are quite simple. The elements include the slaughtering and eating of a flawless lamb, the eating of unleavened bread for seven days and the offering of various animal sacrifices at the Temple.

This left a lot of room for our Jewish people over the centuries to develop creative extra-Biblical traditions and ways to retell the Passover story that became a part of Passover celebrations. 

This brings me to the New Covenant Passover. Did you know…

…that the Christian Communion, that is celebrated at various times throughout the year, depending on what denomination and church you are associated with, is actually a Passover celebration. In other words the Last Supper was a Passover meal.

Da Vinci's "The Last Supper"

This of course is no accident. The Messiah Yeshua’s (Jesus) crucifixion and resurrection was closely associated with the feast of Passover.

New Messianic Traditions

In I Corinthians 11:17-33 the Messiah follows in the Jewish tradition of creative Passover storytelling by instituting a new wrinkle to Passover observance. At the last Passover supper with His disciples, within hours of His crucifixion, He broke the matzah (unleavened bread) that they were all eating and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.“

Then He took the cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

What did He mean by this? 

Matzah

 Unleavened bread had two important and prophetic meanings in the Scripture. First The Torah calls it the bread of affliction and symbolized Israel’s suffering in Egypt. But leaven is also a Biblical symbol for sin. So Yeshua was saying that when you celebrate the Passover and remember Israel’s deliverance from suffering in Egypt, remember my suffering for your sins. Of course the disciples did not fully realize at that moment what this meant until after His death and resurrection.

Secondly, though the cup of wine was not a part of the Passover in the Exodus account, by the time of Yeshua (and even today) the cup(s) of wine were an established part of Passover observance. In the Scripture wine is often associated with blood and so Yeshua, after the meal was over, instructed His disciples that His blood represented a New Covenant.

So what is the New Covenant?

The New Covenant is the most important of all covenants between God and man. Just as the lamb’s blood in the Exodus account caused the angel of death to pass over Jewish homes and spare the firstborn in each household, so the covenant between God and man is that the Messiah’s shed blood covers the sins of an individual who accepts that atonement for their sins. Only then does God eternally forgive that person’s sins. They pass from eternal death to eternal life.

That’s why we faithfully observe the New Covenant Passover.

We must never forget the incredible and undeserved sacrifice God made by sending Ben Elohim (the Son of God) to take away the sin of the world.

Remember…and always be grateful.

Joel Chernoff

~The views contained in The Joel Chernoff Report are not necessarily views held by the MJAA~

 

Has God Hardened the Hearts of Modern Arab Pharoah’s?

One of the curious and interesting facts about the Exodus account of Israel’s supernatural deliverance from Egyptian oppression is that God says to Moses (Exodus 7:2-4),

“You shall speak all that I command, you and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of this land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,  Pharaoh will not listen to you.” 

The question I ask myself is why would God find it necessary to harden Pharaoh’s heart? Is that really fair to Pharaoh? He could have accomplished the exodus of Israel from Egypt in perhaps one or two plagues…maybe three. I (as Pharaoh) may have been able to “tough it out” through the first two, water to blood and maybe frogs…but the third plague—-gnats-— would have sent me “over the edge” for sure.

The answers are more complex. 

• In previous blogs I outlined how Israel’s deliverance was prophesied to Abraham over 400 years in advance. So the time for mercy was now passed and God’s wrath and judgment on Israel’s oppressor, Egypt, had arrived. Part of that judgment was that God would amplify the pride already resident in Egypt’s king/Pharaoh and turn it against him in judgment.
• He was also judging the Egyptian people and indeed the entire country suffered greatly through each and every plague.
• God is also jealous for His own name. The Egyptians worshiped a pantheon of gods. Every plague targeted one of their gods. In Ex. 7:5 God says… “the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” Hardening Pharaoh’s heart had the effect of stiffening Pharaoh’s resistance against letting the Israelites go. He wanted everyone in Egypt to know that the God of Israel alone was God. All others were imposters.

Today I see a similar phenomena happening.

Arab leaders seem to act stubbornly and at times irrationally. They resist any notion of coming to a peace with Israel even if there is great benefit for their nation and even themselves. Abba Eban, a recently deceased and great Jewish historian, once put it this way…

“the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity”

Yasir Arafat was a great example.

President Clinton had negotiated a seeming winning formula for peace, although at great price to Israel. He had convinced Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to return well over 90% of the Judea and Samaria to Arafat and the PLO. Incredibly, Arafat turned it down much to the shock of both Barak and Clinton. This despite the fact that had he made the deal he was essentially being granted his own kingdom with him at the head. In addition it would have significantly weakened Israel’s security had there been a convenient “falling out” at some later date. For many reasons he just couldn’t make the deal.

An amazing opportunity missed…thank God!

There are many strategies our Arab brothers could pursue if they wanted to successfully wrest control of Israel from our people but somehow they seem to always do the thing that makes success impossible.

It seems that each and every Arab leader is suffering from a severe case of God inspired “hardness of heart”. I for one am very thankful for this condition.

One word of caution to Arab leaders around the Middle East…

Hardness of heart is a sure sign that God is preparing to pour out his judgment on Israel’s oppressors or enemies. Beware–God is jealous for His name. The God of Israel and the God of Islam cannot both be God and all agree that there is only one God.

Joel Chernoff

~The views contained in The Joel Chernoff Report are not necessarily views held by the MJAA~

Deliverance Has Its Own Timing: Lesson #2, Part 2

Lesson: Sometimes deliverance will to be delayed for reasons that have nothing to do with you directly.  Unbeknownst to you, God might be completing His agenda elsewhere so that He can answer your prayer today. What feels like a delay is actually God’s perfect timing.

Example: The Canaanites

When God called Abraham to move from Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan (modern day Israel) He promised to give Abraham and His seed after him Canaan as an inheritance. Thus the genesis of the phrase ”promised land”.

Canaan & Mesopotamia

So Abraham moved his family to Canaan in obedience to God. In the book of Genesis chapter 15 God gives him a vision. In the vision God reveals/prophesies to Abraham the following: (Genesis 15: 13, 14 and 16)

And God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve and afterward they will come out with many possessions…Then in the fourth generation they shall return here for the sin of the Amorite/Canaanite is not yet complete. “(NAS)

Remember…this prophecy was given over 100 years before Abraham’s son Jacob took his family to Egypt to avoid famine in Canaan.

But why 400 years? Why so long?

There are two very good reasons:

Modern Day Israel

1. Though God had promised the land of Canaan to Abraham’s seed (Israel), Abraham’s family was not large enough to possess the land. It took 400 years for the people of Israel to grow to over 2 million people and thus be ready to possess the land God had promised them.

 2. God is fair, just and, fortunately for us, full of mercy. God gave the Canaanites 400 more years to repent of their sins and get right with Him. Only after the 400 years could Israel possess Canaan. In fact Israel was God’s hand of judgment for the Canaanites as later Babylon was God’s hand of judgment for Israel.

Today…

…we can see in hindsight how God was working over a long period of time to fulfill His promises to Israel and deliver them from the hands of their oppressors.

Even as I write this blog I am myself convicted to cultivate more patience when I pray. I need to learn over and over to trust God and believe that he will keep His promises in His perfect timing.

Chag Pesach (Happy Passover),

Joel Chernoff

~The views contained in The Joel Chernoff Report are not necessarily views held by the MJAA~