Celebrating Passover in the Shadow of a Massacre and WarÂ
David and Josie Silver, Israel
Leviticus 23:4-7Â
The Lord's Passover begins at twilight on the 14th day of the first month. On the fifteenth day of that month the Lord's Festival of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast.GOD had heard the desperate cries of His people who had been suffering cruel slavery in Egypt for 430 years, and He had a plan to advance the covenant promises He had made with Abraham to give his descendants a land and make them a great people (Genesis 12:1-3).Â
At the beginning of the 1st month of the year, Nisan, YHVH gave Moses specific instructions to prepare the people for deliverance from their suffering. They were to take a spotless lamb on the 10th day of Nisan, inspect it for perfection for 4 days, and just before sunset on the 14th of Nisan they were to kill the lamb, roast and eat the flesh, and place the blood on the door posts of their dwellings. Later that evening YHVH came down and killed the first born sons and first born animals in all of Egypt, including the son of the Pharaoh, which caused him to finally set the Israelites free to leave Egypt and begin their journey to the Promised Land, which the next generation finally entered 40 years later, and we have been celebrating Passover ever since.After almost 2000 years of His people being exiled in the nations, the GOD of Israel began to fulfill His promise to restore the nation, and the people to the nation.
In 1948 the nation of Israel rose from the dead, and by the end of 2023 more than 8 million Jewish people were living in the Promised Land, most of them or their families having returned from almost every nation in the world, even from New Zealand, the literal end of the Earth from Israel, just as the prophets wrote.On Monday night, as Jews in Israel, and those still living in the nations, sit at their Passover tables with family and friends, the atmosphere will be very different than in previous years, because of the events of last October 7th, and the ongoing conflict with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in the north, and now the first ever direct attack by Iran. This year there will be close to 2000 people - soldiers, and civilians of all ages from babies to the elderly, who have been killed, missing from their family's tables.
There will be another 133 others missing as they or their bodies are still held in Gaza. And there may be hundreds more who have been seriously injured and may not be able to leave the hospital or the facility where they are being treated, to join their families at home to celebrate the Passover. Perhaps their families will take the Passover table to them. Also missing from the table will be the thousands of soldiers, navy and air force personnel who will need to remain at on duty in case the enemy has some evil plan to attack Israel again on one of the holiest nights of the year.  Amongst those who will be celebrating Passover on Monday night, there will be a very large number of children, young people and adults still deeply affected, physically and emotionally by the massacre of October 7th, the loss of loved ones, and by the more than 6 months of war since that tragic day which dramatically changed the life of most Jewish people here in Israel. Also this year we will celebrate Passover in the shadow of the possibility of an all out war with Iran, Hezbollah and others, if Israel retaliates for the Iranian attack that began last Saturday night.
The Jews celebrating in the nations may even be thinking (hopefully) about the rapidly rising anti Semitic violence, and decide to come to live in Israel.It is very important that we do not let the current circumstances that Israel is faced with prevent us from celebrating the event that set the Israelites free from slavery in Egypt, and that GOD instructed us to remember each year. Please pray that Israeli Jews will be able to celebrate Passover on Monday evening, and that the 7 days of Unleavened Bread will pass without incident. Please also pray that many Jewish people will have a revelation that the 3 sheets of unleavened bread in the center of the table, called the "Unity", represents the Father, Yeshua and the Holy Spirit, and that the middle piece which is broken and half of it wrapped in a cloth and hidden, represents the Messiah. It is called the Afikomen, a Greek word which means I have come. (past tense). Â
The LORD bless you as you bless Israel by standing in defense of her right to occupy and defend all of the land covenanted to the Jewish people by the GOD of Israel.
Please pray that all of the Jewish people will turn back to their GOD and Messiah. Do not be silent, but share this with your fellow Christians, share it with your pastors, and with anyone you have a chance to speak to. Lets also pray for a revelation of the real Messiah for the Muslims, and please remember to pray Angelic protection over all of the Israeli soldiers and pilots.
Shabbat Shalom & Passover Blessings
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