Pesach Preparations 3 – Speeding Up

Hi and welcome to a look inside Israel during the Passover preparations.  I know it’s already past, but our sis in Jerusalem sent all these lovely letters prior to Passover and I wanted to share them with you!   Thank you and God bless you and yours!  Now, here’s our sis . . .

Beloved sisters and brothers in Yeshua,

Blessings and greetings in Him Who is our Peace…the only sacrifice that can wash us from sin and set us free to have real PEACE within.  May all of His blessings be found abundant in you through His promises so freely given.  Wow!  We are so incredibly blessed!

Preparations for Pesach are gathering speed and it is in times like these that the fact that the blinders that have been ripped off of my spiritual eyes becomes even more wondrously precious to me then ever. Because of His great mercy I have access to Him Who is all in all and I don’t NEED to walk in the shadows.  Do I have all light?  Ofcourse not!  But I DO have access to the One Who does!  Halleluyah!

So…I couldn’t sleep. L  It was two a.m. and I was suddenly wide awake.  I was NOT happy about this.  Four thirty (when I USUALLY get up) comes soon enough on a work day, but on Fridays I leave even earlier then my regular 6:30.  I leave at 5:50 so that I can be at prayer meeting by 6:30 for a half hour before running to work at 7 for a very intense day.  I tried to fall back to sleep but could not get the thought of “the death of the firstborn” – the final plague upon Egypt preceding Pesach – out of my head.  It was a loosing battle.  I got out of bed, resigned myself to a strong cup of coffee, and went to my Bible. 

Preparing the heart is definitely the most important part of Pesach preparations. I have been reading in Prophets, Psalms and the Epistles so had not been reading about Pesach. Since I had this extra time, I turned to Exodus 11 on, and looked for last plague; the death of the first born.  I was immediately enraptured, caught up by His Word into His ways.  “Then Moses said, ‘Thus says the Lord: “About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt’ and the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all of the animals. Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again.  But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the Lord does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.’” Wow!  NOT very politically correct, is it!  But this is The Lord God Almighty speaking.  It brought me back to something that I have seen along this path of His.  His Word DIVIDES.  We seem to have a choice all along the way…either it is ‘Yes Lord…let it be done to me according to Your Word’…or to squirm under the ‘unfairness’, the ‘inhumanity’ of His judgments.  ‘Humanism’ becomes more ‘just’ then God…more ‘merciful’…I mean…how can He command the death of the first born of innocent animals?  Why would He make a distinction between the Hebrews and the Egyptians?  Over and over, with increasing frequency, I hear these arguments and my heart shivers. I thought of the disciples turning away when He spoke of eating His body and drinking His blood…they could not understand…so they walked away.  I am so thankful that somehow by His mercy I have sought for and been given (in not great enough measure yet) a fear of God.  I truly believe that His ways and thoughts are higher then ours.  I have come to understand that sin is costly and painful in ways far beyond my pea-brain understanding, but that a truly righteous, just and merciful God DOES in fact, need to judge these things.  As I read on through chapters 12 and 13, scripture after scripture jumped into my mind, flooding me again with the intricacy of His Truth and Way.  “…and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your house to strike you.” (12:23)  I flipped to 1 Corin. 10:1-13, on through Hebrews, scripture after scripture and back to Exodus; “So this day shall be to you a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generation.  You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.” Again and again He clearly lays out the directions.  They are simple really.  “For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land…”  The blood of the lamb saved them…The Blood of The Lamb still saves…for HE IS THE PASSOVER LAMB WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD! 

Five fifty came too soon.  I didn’t want to leave the wonderful Light of The Word and His Spirit to plunge again into the swirling drama of daily life here, but I had no choice.  The day was oppressively hot…our first sha’arav heat wave of the year arrived as the Tel Aviv marathon took place inspite of strong health ministry warnings against it: sport must go on, right?  The runners began at 6am but by 9:30 one was dead and about 30 hospitalized as a result of the extreme heat.  The locusts continue to invade from the south.  The war in Syria on our northern border continues to press southward.  Iran runs toward nuclear weapons and US President Obama is scheduled to arrive here on Wed, paralyzing the city until he leaves on Friday.  He plans to ‘meet the people, rather then address our government.’  Hum.  As of last night we finally have a government …or at least, we will have once it is sworn in tomorrow (Monday). 

And in the midst Pesach draws near. 

People scurry around purchasing gifts, food, cleaning products.  We have one more week.  Next Monday night at sundown the order of the table will be set and a last breath will be drawn in as the subtle change takes place and the drama unfolds … again.  According to scripture on the 10^th of the month of Nissan (which this year falls on Thursday the 21^st) the lamb was to be taken into the home – a lamb for a household – and kept for four days until it was sacrificed at the Passover.  We are preparing. 

Perhaps you would like to take a fresh look at the first 13 chapters of Exodus. It truly never gets ‘old’! 

Having so little time to write and then finally writing when I am tired is very sad to me, but it is what I have and I offer it to Him – the Lord, the Lamb, Yeshua, with love…and to each of you, dear brothers and sisters.  I am so thankful that we are one in Him!  Blessings to you, your sis in Jerusalem

ani b’derek