The prophetic message of the Passover

In the Book of Exodus, God instituted the Passover Feast as a memorial to the way in which God delivered the people of Israel from the bonds of Egyptian slavery. But there is more to the story.

In Exodus, God told Moses the reason why He instituted this feast. “²⁶ And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ ²⁷ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians’” (Exodus 12: 26-27). Moses repeats this to the people of Israel, as The Lord instructed.

But when God describes the feast, there is without a doubt a hidden prophetic message that helps clear any doubt that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. Here are some brief prophetic symbols:

• The day on which Jesus was crucified was the day of the Passover Feast (John 18:28).
• Jesus was crucified at about the same time as the Passover lamb would have been slaughtered. Jesus is referred to as “The Lamb of God” (Matt. 27: 45-50; John 1:29, 36).
• The feast includes three pieces of unleavened bread (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). The matzo bread looks like a saltine cracker—pierced with holes and is striped. The middle matzo bread is broken and wrapped in a white cloth and hidden (representing Jesus’ burial). After the Seder meal, the hidden bread is ‘resurrected’ (http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/passover.html).
• During the Passover meal with His disciples, Jesus spoke about the bread as being Himself, ‘broken for you.’ He was also instituting a replacement of the Passover feast—Communion. (Matt. 26:26-30).

It is difficult to understand how the Jewish people have missed these symbols for all these years. What is more is that although we are believers in Christ, many Christians have never caught on to the symbolism, either.