Celebrating Passover (Even if you’re not Jewish but just love Jesus.)
I absolutely love when people dig into scripture and desire to learn more about their Creator and His love for them. So, imagine my excitement when some families reached out and wanted to know why and how we celebrate Passover.
So, I started replying to them and giving them tips on how to turn water to blood and amaze their kids and a bunch of other fun tips. But, as I started typing, I decided maybe I should just make this a blog post and share it with anybody who wants it. So, here you go.
Passover was actually this past weekend but many families who are exploring God’s Feasts celebrate it on Good Friday. There are seven Feasts that God instituted. The Hebrew word for Feast is moed or moedim. It means appointment or appointed time and specifically refers to God’s, Yahweh’s Feasts. So, seven times a year the Father wanted His children to have a set-in stone appointment to worship and fellowship with Him. The scriptures surrounding the Feasts all say to teach them to your children. So, several years ago that is exactly what our family began doing.
If you are like me you probably did not grow up hearing about or learning about God‘s special appointments that He wanted with His people. Sure, I had heard of Passover but only as the churches I attended wanted to relate them to Easter. It was not until years later that I actually learned the two have no relation at all.
The biggest question everyone asks is why… why did we start and why did we keep doing it? So here are my answers in a synoptic way.
- The number one reason why is because the Holy Spirit prompted us to start digging in and understanding this part of God‘s word. So, my husband and I let Him guide us to information and understanding.
- Another reason why is because we’re entrusted to teach our kids the word of God and if we leave any part of the story out, we miss the fullness of His character and love. You can’t have the New Testament without the Old Testament. And, once you start looking for Jesus in the Old Testament and find Him throughout, it begins to blow your mind at God’s intentionality of everything He’s done in and through His family.
- And I would say a final reason why is because it’s one of the ways that we show love to our Heavenly Father. As believers and followers of Christ we are called to be like Him, and He absolutely kept His appointments with His Father. It was part of the perfection of who He was and is. It was part of the plan for Him to stand up against man made laws and traditions and show how to perfectly keep God’s laws without adding to or taking away from them. He was the perfect embodiment and demonstration, fully living out the Father’s commands down to the letter. And side note, if you ever look at a Torah scroll, it gives new meaning to every jot and tittle.
Now, let me be very clear before some of you get your undies in a wad, this has absolutely nothing to do with salvation. And you know what…it actually never did. God‘s laws had nothing to do with saving the people. But that’s another story for another time. For now, let’s get to the awesome stuff on how you and your family can dig in, have a marshmallow fight and learn about Passover.
You can’t study Passover without studying the plagues. And it matters that you understand why God picked the plagues that He did. He didn’t just randomly say, “oh you know what let’s throw some frogs at ‘em,” or “let’s send some locusts to eat up all their stuff,” or “let’s put on a show with the worst hailstorm anyone’s ever seen.” Everything that God does is strategic and has weight. So, every single one of the plagues had a purpose. The purpose was to overcome an Egyptian God. Father God, Yahweh, Creator, I AM WHO I AM, Abba, whatever you call him was proving to the Egyptian‘s and also the Israelites who the one true God was. Each plague conquered Egyptian gods. And He was so successful that on the night of the Passover not only were the Israelites painting their door posts, so were many of the Egyptians and people from other nations who lived there. Those people also fled with the Israelites in the exodus. But again, another story for another day.
How we celebrate:
We actually don’t do a full Seder plate. It’s great to do once, or every few years, but it’s not an every year thing for us. We try to stick only to scripture. As we learn more that may change, but this is where we are for now.
What does scripture say?
- To eat the meal with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. (Exodus 12:8)
- Eat it with you belt fastened and your sandals on your feet. (Exodus 12:11)
- This will be a memorial Feast to keep forever. A statute throughout all your generations. (Exodus 12:14, Exodus 13:10, and a whole bunch of other places)
- Teach it to your children. (Exodus 12:26, Exodus 13:8, and a whole bunch of other places)
So, we eat lamb (goat, beef, etc.) with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. We eat it fully dressed as if we are getting ready to walk out the door. We do it every year. And we teach it to our kids in fun ways. (Get the free activity sheets here.)
We also keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread and clean our house out of leaven. Man oh man, the intensity of understanding the practical parts of this Feast is mind blowing. I’ll do another post on that at another time. For now, I would encourage you to dig in and study Passover and either find somewhere to celebrate or make your own celebration at home. If you want to dig into the Seder and go all out, then absolutely live it up. But, don’t get overwhelmed thinking you have to do it all right. Just tell Jesus you want to learn and ask wholeheartedly for Him to lead you in it. Position your heart to receive what the Holy Spirit leads you to and ask Him questions as you grow. He’ll take you deeper if you want to go. Share your pics with us by tagging me via Facebook, post to our Facebook page or tag me on Instagram. I’d love to see all your creative fun while worshipping our great God.
Peace, Love, Shalom.
