The Miraculous Blessings of Passover

Although people throughout history have debated the keys to experiencing “a blessed life,” Jesus spoke to this issue after eating the Passover meal with His disciples and washing their feet. Encouraging them to follow His example of humility and servanthood, He made a stunning promise:

If you understand what I’m telling you, act like it and live a blessed life (John 13:17 MSG).

In essence, Jesus said, “I want you to live ‘a blessed life,’ and here’s how you can.” Other translations illustrate that it’s not enough just to know the principles of living in God’s favor. We must also put them into practice:

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them (NKJV).

Protected by the Blood

When God gave His instructions for the first Feast of Passover in Exodus 12, He said each family was to kill an unblemished lamb, and “they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat” (v. 7).

Rather than being just an empty religious ceremony, Passover was God’s means of protection:

I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt… And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you (vs. 12-13).

The Passover lamb symbolized the blood later shed by Jesus as “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29). Through His blood, we overcome Satan and are forgiven, protected, and given a covenant relationship with God (Revelation 12:11). Apart from any merit on our part, we have full access to God’s forgiveness, salvation, and blessings.

Not Leaving Anything Out

It’s significant that God’s people were told to consume “the whole animal” and make sure no “leftovers” remained until morning:

Make sure it’s roasted – the whole animal, head, legs, and innards. Don’t leave any of it until morning; if there are leftovers, burn them in the fire (Exodus 12:9-10 MSG).

The Christian life is not meant to be a cafeteria, where we can choose the parts we like and those we don’t. If we expect to live in the favor of God, we must consume “the whole animal” – willingly partaking of everything Jesus did for us through the cross.

When Jesus is truly your Lord, you can no longer pick and choose which parts of His will to obey.

He must be Lord of ALL!

Delivered the Same Day

Not only does Passover depict living in God’s favor, but the account also says the Israelites were given “favor in the sight of the Egyptians” that day (Exodus 12:36). Like Jesus the Messiah would later demonstrate, we can live in supernatural favor with “both God and people” (Luke 2:52 MSG).

The Israelites received this breakthrough as they obeyed God’s instructions for Passover:

Thus all the children of Israel did; as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. And it came to pass, on that very same day, that the Lord brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt (Exodus 12: 50-51).

After hundreds of years of slavery in Egypt, the obedience of the Israelites in celebrating Passover resulted in their deliverance “that very same day.” In the same way, your turnaround can come remarkably fast when you take a step of faith to draw near to God and obey His word.

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Want to learn more about the death and resurrection of Jesus? Watch this video