Theoretically all the sons of believers are the ones who should ask their parents these questions but because unfortunately times have changed so much, I shall try to behave like a son and I will ask these questions to my Father Yehoah Who is in the heaven and let us hear His answers. You will see that Yehoah, translated by the Lord in the bible, answers all our questions associated with this feast!
First of all, what are we commemorating during the night following Passover and starting the feast of unleavened bread each year?
Exodus 12: 21-27.
We commemorate the very severe punishment that Yehoah has inflicted on the Egyptians while providing a miraculous protection to the Children of Israel.
Exodus 13: 3-10
We also commemorate the end of slavery in Egypt as well as the exit out of Egypt.
By the way, do you know of other times when Yehoah asked us to remember the end of the slavery of our ancestors in Egypt and their liberation by His Almighty?
Think carefully !
Here is a first answer and always remember that it is our Father Who answers all the questions that you should be the ones to ask yourself on this very special day of celebration!
By reading Deuteronomy 5: 12-15, we understand that at each weekend, during the Sabbath, Yehoah is asking us to stop all working activities whatever they are. Moreover, any responsible person, including family heads, must also take care that all people under their authorities, women, children, working people and animals will also stop working. But Yehoah is drawing our attention that one of the reason to keep this sabbath day of rest is to remember that the Children of Israel, our spiritual ancestors, were slaves in the land of Egypt and that they were able to get out thanks to the Almighty Lord Yehoah!
So this is second opportunity, different from the Passover during which we are asked to commemorate the end of slavery in Egypt.
Do you know another time when Yehoah is also asking us to remember the end of slavery in Egypt?
You will find it in Deuteronomy 16: 9-12: At the feast following the seven days of unleavened bread, Shavuot/Pentecost, exactly 50 days after the first day of the week to be found during the seven days of unleavened bread, Yehoah is asking His flock to commemorate the end of slavery in Egypt.
What other very special and spectacular event is commemorated during this Passover night?
By reading Exodus 13: 11-16, we find that Yehoah killed all the firstborns, both men and animals, all over the land of Egypt in houses where the blood of the one year-old lamb has not been brushed on the lintels of the front door! This very special event will mark the beginning of a unique tradition in the history of the Children of Israel, that of the offering of male firstborns to the Creator.
First of all, it should be known that the firstborn children who passed away in Egypt during the night which followed the Passover sacrifice are the elders of each family. It means that they are also found among very old people as well as babies! Death of the firstborns in Egypt has struck in all generations, even the eldest son of the old Pharaoh. This son was the ruler of Egypt sitting on the seat of Pharaoh.
It goes without saying that many of these victims are not inherently evil people and this kind of biblical story is often used by modern Christian churches to make people disbelieve in such an apparently cruel and unjust Elohim. The Bible shows several examples where the Creator kills or puts an end to the earthly life of people even if they are just or good. This was the case for Enoch (Genesis 5: 21-24). In another example, the son of the illicit union between David and Bath-Sheva dies soon after his birth (II Samuel 12: 13-20).
This was also the case for the son of Jeroboam, the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel whose death is a punishment given against the idolatrous and odious behavior of the king (I Kings: 14 with in particular verse 13). It should be noted here that the one who dies is not the one who is suffering but it is the one who is surviving! The one who died will be brought back to life during one of the resurrections and in between, he is like sleeping person who does not have any feeling. All this to say that all the firstborns who died during the memorable night that followed Passover are not really those who suffered a punishment but it is essentially those who survived them, those who were in power, the pharaoh in the first place, who saw in a single night his whole country literally on the brink of desolation!
And Yehoah decided to apply to the Children of Israel the same fate as for the Egyptian. Indeed Yehoah will take for Himself all the firstborns of the Children of Israel; they will become the property of the Lord or, in exchange, the parents might keep them by offering their equivalent in money to the Lord. Moreover, Yehoah will also as a start take for Himself the whole tribe of Levi whose number almost corresponds to the number of firstborns in all of Israel! Let's read this in Numbers 3 from verses 12 and 13 then from verse 40 to verse 51.
This practice of offering the firstborn may have been followed with love by Anne, the sterile wife of Elqana. You can read this in I Samuel 1; 1-2, 10-11, 20-22 and 25-27.
About 1100 years later, Mary and Josephdid follow Anne's example without realizing the extreme scope of her action!
Please read this in Luke 2: 15-40
It should also be noted that just as it was the case for the very young Samuel, Yehoah was in very close contact with Yeshuah/Jesus and vice versa Yeshuah also took care of his Father's affairs with zeal especially at the Passover feast (Luke 2: 41-52).
And it was so throughout Yehsuah’s life until his last Passover on earth, until his very last moment of freedom as he himself confirms in John 17: 1-4.
And now, what is the most important lesson we can learn from the events that took place just before and at the time of Passover?
To discover this important lesson, let's go back to Egypt at the time of Moses' return.
On the one hand, there are the Hebrews who are exhausted slaves ...
Indeed, the Hebrews are a population at the very end and completely exhausted by the savagery of the Egyptian power. You should also know that most of the Hebrews before this slavery were perhaps like many of us today who do not especially believe in the omnipotence of Elohim; they were perhaps even unbelievers or even they were worshipping the pagan gods of the Egyptians! But when they reach the brink of death, suddenly they start to turn themselves to Yehoah and call Him for help. So Yehoah, whom they had mostly rejected, will hear their call and act by sending Moses to save them. (Exodus 2: 23-25).
But in front of this people without power and in slavery, we find the omnipotence of Egypt with its Pharaoh, his court, his wealth, his powerful army: this does not suggest for a moment that a few months later, the Hebrews , in the process of extermination and without force will flee with power and with all the riches of Egypt and leave behind an Egypt completely bloodless, destroyed and ruined!
This miracle can only be understood if one believes in the Omnipotence of Yehoah. And yet today, about 3,500 years after the Exodus, most scientists are brainstorming theories to make men believe that all of these events are not the instant fruit of the will of the Almighty but are simply due to natural phenomena. Even Israeli scholars have also built theories as to why all the wounds that struck Egypt and the crossing of the Reed Sea are not miraculous, but are completely natural and explainable by science. Human pride tries by all means to make men believe that there is no Elohim.
But do you know of another very similar example that has happened in history?
What happened to the Jewish people in the face of Hitler's omnipotence and the Nazi armies that dominated almost all of Europe? Isn’t that a little bit like what happened in the days of Egypt?
The Jewish people were almost exterminated at the end of the second world war, with six million people led to death. The few survivors are scattered all over the earth and a majority are left with almost nothing, many of those who have been freed from the concentration camps are transferred to other camps because the nations do not know what to do with them! It is with this people with apparently no value if any that the Almighty is going to revive the Jewish nation which had disappeared as a nation for over two thousand five hundred years. It is from this ragged people and whose only good was their own life that the Creator will bring out the Jewish State of Israel that will take by surprise most of the nations of the world to start with the Arab countries when they discover that with their hundred million, they will fail to wipe it off the map.
But today about 70 years later, now that the State of Israel feels overpowered, most of the Israelis forgot the only one who is their true Protector! Instead of asking for help and seeking to follow His commandments, the State of Israel puts all its confidence in the power of its armies, the pride of its force! Yehoah might do to these armies what He did to Pharaoh and to his armies which He swallowed in the Red Sea according to Leviticus 26: 14-20.
Do you know that, 500 years after the exodus, the Philistines did not want to repeat the mistake of Pharaoh who blindly opposed against Yehoah’s will?
The Philistines took indeed this into account so as not to show the same pride that had animated Pharaoh. On the contrary, they showed humility. It happened in the time of Samuel and you can read this story carefully in I Samuel 4:12 to 6:12. This is a very good example of a pagan kingdom who remembered 500 years later how the pride of Pharaoh cost him his life and also cost the lives of so many Egyptians. This prompted the Dukes of the Philistines and their priests not to show the same pride and to honor instead Yehoah by making offerings of gold on his ark and letting him decide where to go.
Yehoah can reveal His Omnipotence even among His chosen people even if they are in an extreme state of weakness!
So, we must never put our trust in human power nor be too sure of ourselves, in other words we should not be proud! On the contrary, we must be aware of our extreme weakness and therefore of our vital need for the omnipotence of Yehoah.
Today more than ever we have to realize that we are very small with such a lack of power:
• In 2011, we have seen what nature can do to such a technologically advanced country as Japan
• We also remember the 230,000 dead during the Tsunami in South East Asia in 2004
• Let us remember the 316,000 deaths in Haiti following the earthquake in 2010
• Let us also remember how few well-trained and motivated terrorists have caused the death of 4000 people by destroying with airplanes the New York Twins which were the pride of the USA!
• Look also at what is happening in so many countries where revolutions have driven out dictators who seemed so powerful: in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and the list is probably not over.
• To conclude, let’s read the story of the most pwoerful king of Babylon who learned so dearly to give honor to Yehoah and to know that everything comes from Him in Daniel 4.
This story of the king of Babylon should give us one of the great Passover teachings to which I wanted to draw your attention. We have to be very careful not to put our confidence in appearances of power because they are often misleading. Indeed it is not towards people who boast of their own power that Yehoah turns his eyes but rather towards those who are in extreme weakness and who are aware of it; it is then that He will reveal his Omnipotence to the unbelieving world!