Participants: Alex Schlusser (Host), Rachael Hyman (Host), Sasha Bolotnikov
Series Code: BTOR
Program Code: BTOR000015
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00:01 What is the celebration of Passover all about?
00:04 If you would like to find out, 00:05 that and much more stick around today on Back to Our Roots. 00:30 Well, welcome once again to Back to Our Roots. 00:33 I'm Pastor Alex Schlusser. And I'm Rachael Hyman. 00:36 And we're so happy that you've decided to join us today. 00:40 Today, as always Rachael, I think we have 00:42 a really interesting program. So do we. 00:44 Today we're going to be talking about Passover. 00:47 Rachael, tell us just a little bit 00:49 about your experience as growing up with Passover 00:51 because I know you have some and so do I. 00:53 Oh, sure, I remember hiding the afikoman. 00:56 The what? 00:58 The special piece of matzah where if we find it, 01:01 we'd get a ton of money actually as a prize. Oh, wow. 01:03 That's better than whatever happened for us. 01:05 Well, what happened to you guys? 01:06 Well, we would maybe get lucky 01:08 and we get a cookie or something. 01:09 Oh, really? 01:10 But, yeah, you know, I remember 01:12 for us with Passover was the one time of the year 01:14 that our whole family would come together. 01:17 And I say, our whole family, 01:18 I'm talking about extended aunts, 01:20 uncles, cousins and everything. 01:21 And you know what, what's my funniest memory is that 01:25 when you got to a certain age 01:26 you got to move away from the kids table. 01:29 Oh, yeah. You know, what I mean? 01:30 All the adults would be in the living room 01:32 in a big table. 01:33 And then you know, we kids would be maybe in the kitchen 01:36 or something in a little cart table kind of thing 01:38 or something like that, you know 01:40 and then the day, it gets so excited, 01:42 we get to move to the table. 01:44 But you know, all joking aside, 01:47 I also remember how serious it was. 01:49 How my grandparents really took it to heart 01:52 and how we would read the story of the Passover 01:56 every year as part of the Seder 01:59 what it's called, the actual Passover, 02:01 celebration or meal. 02:03 And you know, I wonder Rachael, when we talk about Passover, 02:10 what would you say that most people would even say, 02:13 you know, what is Passover? 02:14 Oh, you know, God rescuing the Jews from Egypt, 02:17 when the angel passed over their homes-- 02:21 they didn't get the plague on them, 02:22 that went to the rest of the Egyptians 02:24 and so God delivered them. Right. 02:27 You know, It's interesting to that-- 02:29 I don't know that I'm really made the connection 02:33 growing up when I was young. Same here. 02:35 That it was just so much more a time 02:37 of family getting together. 02:38 Eating, matzo ball soup. Eating and all of that. 02:41 You know, there was this long ceremony thing of remembering, 02:45 you know, my grandfather reading 02:47 and us thinking, okay, when is it over so we get the-- 02:49 It's so boring. Yeah. 02:51 Right, because it was so long but now, 02:53 is it interesting how we come to our Messiah 02:56 to Yeshua to Jesus. 02:58 And all of a sudden it takes on such a whole different meaning. 03:02 And that's really what we want to get in today. 03:04 So we would like to invite 03:06 our Residence Scholar Alexander Bolotnikov. 03:10 We call him Sasha, our Rabbinic Wikipedia. 03:14 And hi, Sasha, how are you doing today? 03:16 Hey. It's good have you with us. 03:17 Hi, Sasha. Hi, Rachael. 03:19 So we're talking about Passover today, Sasha. 03:22 And we're gonna jump right in with both feet. 03:24 We want to talk about 03:25 the biblical origins of Passover. 03:27 Because I mean without the Bible 03:29 we wouldn't know anything about Passover, right 03:31 and that's where it comes from. 03:33 Primarily from Exodus Chapter 12. 03:36 So Sasha, why don't you get us started? 03:39 Well, Passover is indeed described in Exodus Chapter 12. 03:46 This is I would say, a little pause before the last plague, 03:52 the plague that would basically kill the first born of Egypt. 03:59 And this is one of the important chapters 04:05 in which we see the nature of God's charter. 04:08 Because people often misunderstand God 04:11 in this Egyptian plagues. 04:14 You know, people often even-- there are some people they, 04:17 who even accused Jews in genocide 04:21 against Egyptian, there are even people 04:23 who say, God is just so mean killing the first born and-- 04:29 But that wasn't his idea though, right? Absolutely not. 04:32 Yeah, see that's what people miss, 04:33 because the Bible does talk about that 04:35 Pharaoh was actually the one who proclaim the last plague. 04:39 Well, what actually the Passover idea is that anyone-- 04:47 yes, there was Angel of Death, 04:50 about to kill the first born. 04:52 But if someone actually take-- 04:55 want to take heed to what God is saying, 04:58 they got to take the lamb 05:01 and kill this lamb in their houses 05:06 and put smear the blood of this lamb on the doorpost 05:13 and that would save the first born. 05:16 Right. And then they would eat it. 05:18 Let me read a little portion here from Exodus Chapter 12. 05:23 "In this manner you shall eat it." 05:25 It's talking about the lamb. 05:27 "With your belt fastened, with your sandals on your feet, 05:30 with your staff in your hand. 05:32 You shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. 05:36 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, 05:39 and I will strike all the firstborn 05:41 in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, 05:45 and on all the Gods of Egypt 05:47 I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. 05:50 The blood shall be a sign for you, 05:53 on the houses where you are. 05:55 And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, 05:58 and no plague will befall you to destroy you, 06:01 when I strike the land of Egypt." 06:03 Now I really want to throw something in here 06:07 that I think that there were quite a few Egyptians 06:11 who after the plagues had all happen the way that they did. 06:14 By the time they got to the last one, 06:16 I'll bet you there were Egyptians 06:18 that didn't want to take a chance 06:19 that Moses was gonna be wrong, 06:22 that God wasn't gonna come through. 06:23 And I'll bet you there were Egyptians 06:25 that were in houses with those Hebrews 06:28 with the blood on the door. 06:29 Help save us. Absolutely. 06:31 And this is why, the notion which is very popular 06:34 unfortunately that Passover is Jewish 06:37 and people would say, Jewish Passover. 06:39 This is absolutely wrong. It was for everybody. 06:41 It was for everybody. 06:42 Yeah, more so, if God intended to save Jews 06:49 as a select cast of people, 06:51 He would not have them kill the lamb 06:54 and smear the blood on the doorpost. 06:56 It was more to save anyone 07:00 who actually believes the word of God. Right. 07:03 And actually indeed we have to know this, 07:06 that it says in verse-- in Exodus Chapter 13 that, 07:12 mixed multitude of people 07:14 with together with Israelites left Egypt. 07:18 It means all of those who decided not to take a chance, 07:21 who decided to accept the step of faith. 07:25 It is also important to see, how and why God made them 07:30 actually put the blood on a doorpost. 07:33 And you know for Jews--for Israelites, 07:36 you know, talking about Israelites at this time. 07:39 You know, 12 tribes of Israelites, 07:41 it wasn't a problem. 07:43 They were known and they were hated already, 07:47 because of their previous plagues. 07:50 For Egyptians it was a challenge. 07:52 You know, Egyptian who decided to save his son, 07:59 basically put himself at huge risk 08:02 in front of his family, his neighbors 08:05 because now he identifies himself with enemies. 08:10 So that was a very strong step of faith for those Egyptians. 08:15 Not to actually quietly 08:18 in the middle of the night come to the Israel, 08:21 and then say, can I be in your house, can I also get the lamb-- 08:24 Right, because it would be obvious 08:26 if their son survived after this plague was over. 08:29 Everybody would know how their son survived. 08:33 But you know, what it's afterwards 08:35 and now it's beforehand. 08:37 Remember 14 days before this was announced. 08:41 Take the lamb, let it sit in your house, 08:45 you know, 14 days Egyptians make known to their friends 08:50 and families that they are actually 08:53 accepting the truth from God of Israel. Yeah. 08:59 You know, we don't want to skip over the fact to that. 09:02 You know, this as I said is 09:04 the end the combination of the series of plagues 09:07 and it's important to understand too that 09:10 what God is doing here through these plagues 09:12 is not just proving that He is great and powerful 09:16 but He is dismantling 09:18 the Egyptian religious system of the time. 09:21 Not really for the Egyptians, 09:23 but for the Hebrews, for the Israelites 09:25 because they have been in captivity for so long. 09:28 They had become a custom, 09:31 had become connected to this religious system of worship. 09:36 And one plague at a time God dismantles it. 09:39 Now this is the whole idea Sasha, 09:44 of slaughtering the lamb 09:46 and of placing the blood on the lintel 09:48 on the doorpost of the house. 09:50 You know, this is gonna-- 09:51 the idea of the blood is gonna be 09:53 something that once God removes 09:55 the children of Israel out of Egypt 09:57 and begins to form them as a people 09:59 He's gonna build very strongly on 10:01 because this will become 10:04 really the sacrificial system 10:06 with the idea of blood, right? Yeah, exactly. 10:09 Because you know, I'll tell you Alex, 10:11 I don't know how you personally, 10:15 maybe you Rachael, how you took it. 10:17 But for me you know, studying the Bible, 10:23 studying it from the, you know, like many Christians do 10:26 from the New Testament perspective, 10:28 also it was-- always the question. 10:30 Now, Christians you talked about the lamb, 10:33 Christians would say right away, "Oh, this is Jesus." 10:37 You know, it's so obvious, 10:39 you know, when the New Testament-- 10:41 We never even thought such a thing 10:42 growing up as a Jewish family. 10:44 Exactly. You know, yeah, this is behold the Lamb of God, 10:49 John Chapter 1. 10:50 For our Passover is Christ, Romans. 10:54 It's so obvious if you're born and grown up 10:57 in Christian culture. 10:59 How are you going to say to-- 11:03 explain to a person, a Jewish person 11:08 who basis his faith on the Torah that this is actually Jesus. 11:13 The only place that does it is actually Passover. Yeah. 11:17 It doesn't talk specifically about Jesus. 11:20 But talk to you about the lamb 11:22 which is where we want to go to talk about. 11:24 It talks about the substitute. 11:27 Here is-- Which is the lamb. Exactly. 11:29 The lamb, it explains that the lamb is not the attempt 11:32 to kind of pay to God something, this is substitute. 11:36 Either if the lamb dies, or your first born die. 11:40 And that's the idea of the key point of our beliefs. 11:45 The substitutionary death of the Messiah 11:50 who dies so that we could live. Right. 11:53 Yeah, in the previous show 11:55 we spend some time talking about Yom Kippur 11:59 and the idea of atonement 12:04 and we have this, this idea of blood being shed 12:11 and God through Moses is gonna later teach this idea 12:15 that the life of the flesh is in the blood. 12:18 And I have given blood to make atonement for you. 12:20 And is this the--maybe the first real picture of God 12:27 beginning to paint this for His people. 12:29 Exactly. This is exactly that. 12:31 You know, the death and the spilling of the blood 12:36 that provides life for this first born. 12:40 Actually this is not the first, 12:42 you have another important anchor point 12:44 which is Genesis 22 12:47 when Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac. 12:52 And then suddenly God says stop and Abraham does-- 12:57 and Isaac is not being killed but Abraham turn his eyes 13:02 and sees the ram and sacrifices in place of Isaac. 13:06 And that's a picture of that substitution. 13:09 Yeah. And that's exactly. 13:10 These are two episodes in the Torah. 13:13 But this is the first time where blood is-- 13:15 God actually has the shedding of blood, right? 13:19 It's actually in this particular episode 13:23 it is important that the blood is actually on the doorpost. 13:28 It's a little--you know, the Passover sacrifice 13:31 is a little different than a temple sacrifice. 13:34 Yeah, totally. 13:35 Because in the temple, 13:38 Passover sacrifice, in fact is very unique. 13:41 More so, like when we talk about the later Passovers. 13:45 In Leviticus 23, they have commemorative Passover offering 13:52 which is different. 13:54 Only one time in history did Israelites 13:59 actually had a lamb slaughtered in their house 14:03 and then place the blood on the doorpost. 14:06 Because later we come Deuteronomy 16 14:09 and Deuteronomy 16 strictly forbids slaughtering 14:15 the lambs for Passover anywhere except the altar. 14:20 So that's the little different, 14:23 the Passover is the unique experience 14:26 and in this case slaughtering-- 14:29 the demonstration of the blood 14:32 was it's actually a public expression, 14:36 public manifestation of the person's belief 14:42 in God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 14:45 God creator of heaven and earth, not God the Pharaoh. 14:50 So this becomes like you said. This is a very personal thing. 14:54 Scripture talks about how each family 14:58 and it goes into of its 14:59 you know, too much for one family 15:01 then they were join together, but the idea is that 15:03 as you're saying that it's a very personal 15:05 each family was to bring that lamb in 15:08 and whenever I think of that 15:10 it starts moving me to think about 15:14 how they had to bring this cute little animal into their house 15:20 and for those prescribed days they had to watch the lamb. 15:25 And the idea being is they had to guarantee 15:28 that this lamb was perfect that it wasn't sick 15:30 that there was nothing wrong with it, right? 15:31 Because it had to be a perfect offer. 15:33 Yeah, that has to be a perfect offer. 15:35 So here they are and I don't know 15:38 if any of you have ever seen a little lamb, 15:42 but it's like one of the cutest little things in God's creation. 15:46 I mean amazing. 15:47 And could you imagine the children, 15:51 how the whole family must have become 15:54 really attached to this animal. 15:56 Because it wasn't, just okay, 15:57 bring it in and slaughter it. 15:58 No, it was bring the animal in 16:00 and the animal had to be with them in their home 16:03 and I think that God was trying to really build-- 16:04 For how long? For 10 days. 16:07 Yeah, to build the connection 16:10 that there was a real cost that was gonna be paid 16:14 that for them to sacrifice this animal. 16:18 Hope she'd see how the bad sin is. 16:19 Well, and to see the reactions of the children 16:23 must have had in the whole family to now. 16:26 God saying, okay, we've watch this little lamb 16:29 and it's perfect and it's fine and it's probably bonded to us 16:32 like a little dog and now-- And that's now-- 16:35 Now we have to kill it. 16:36 And that's now like, this cute little cuddly pet, 16:41 is supposed to die or otherwise your old son will die. 16:48 And of course the choice is very obvious 16:51 if you believe that it happens 16:53 and that's the real effect which God wanted to seek. 16:57 You know, you can't say that, 17:00 you know, people of Israel at this time look ahead 17:03 and they you're painted 17:05 you know, the cross and Calvary and all of this. 17:08 But they were clearly saw that for all this years ahead, 17:13 when the sanctuary will be built, 17:15 when they will be coming to bring their offerings 17:18 that they will have very clear picture 17:21 that these offerings are not like a pagan offerings 17:25 that this offerings were not like to pay to God 17:29 or to feed God. 17:30 This offerings were so that substitutionary in nature 17:35 to substitute for their sin 17:39 so that they would live while the animal dies. 17:44 Now I do want to point out also that 17:47 though in the context of that time period 17:50 and their experience I don't know 17:53 that it's necessarily inappropriate 17:55 as we where we are understanding all that we do 18:00 as we begin to see how Jesus fulfilled the Passover 18:03 because He does in a beautiful way 18:06 we're gonna talk about that. 18:08 It's not inappropriate for us to look back 18:10 at that first Passover experience 18:13 and see the types and shadows 18:15 that really existed that for our benefit. 18:19 Because you are right, 18:21 their understanding of what was happening 18:24 is by no means what our understanding would be. 18:26 But if we don't seek to grasp 18:29 what it was they really experienced, 18:31 then I think the problem becomes 18:33 we place erroneous notions. 18:36 And we don't really get the depth 18:38 of what exactly Jesus did 18:41 and how beautifully, He is truly the lamb. 18:45 But God didn't mean it for be to like a type, right? 18:48 To help for them to understand that. 18:49 But again we have the physical and we have the spiritual. 18:51 Right. You know. 18:54 So, Sasha, let's talk about 18:56 how Jesus fulfills the Passover now. 18:59 Well, first of all right away, 19:01 John the Baptist proclaims himself-- 19:04 him as a Lamb of God. 19:07 Right, when we saw Him behold the Lamb of God. 19:08 Right away, that's how He introduces Him 19:11 to his disciples right away. 19:14 And it's interesting that, 19:16 when he preaches before Jesus comes 19:18 you know, he preaches a strong message of repentance, 19:22 he preaches a strong message the Lord is coming. 19:25 And then as soon as that Messiah is coming, 19:29 he says that's the first time behold the lamb. 19:32 Behold the lamb. 19:33 He is gonna take away the sins of the world. 19:36 Now if you look from the first introduction of Jesus, 19:40 all the way back to the last hours of Jesus' life 19:45 you see how this was fulfilled. 19:49 As I mentioned the slaughtering the lamb in houses 19:53 was one time of history event. 19:56 Leviticus 23 when they institute Passover 20:00 as a temple festival, 20:03 they are changing the time of Passover sacrifice 20:08 into the last hours of 14th of Nisan, 20:15 because it was the other way around in Jude and Exodus. 20:19 The first hour as soon as the dawn 20:25 as soon as the sunset, 20:28 Israelites were supposed in their houses 20:30 to slaughter the lamb. 20:32 In the temple as soon as the 14th of Nisan 20:36 is about to end. 20:38 Right before the sunsets still in the 14th of Nisan, 20:42 they are supposed, they are supposed 20:44 to slaughter the lamb. 20:46 And it was interesting ceremony 20:48 because people were lining up to the temple 20:51 with their own lambs 20:53 and then they had around the temple 20:56 lots of like fireplaces where people would go 21:02 and roast them and they would sit 21:04 and congregate around the temple 21:06 and would eat this lamb. 21:08 And so right on that day, Jesus is arrested. 21:12 Right on that day, Jesus is tried. 21:15 Right on that day, 21:17 the high priest rush to push on Pilate 21:23 to make a decision, 21:25 because they don't want to defile themselves 21:29 since they are supposed to actually offer this lamb. 21:34 And so here Jesus walks carrying the cross, 21:40 He's on cross to the place of His execution. 21:44 And these priest are-- 21:46 are preparing in front of the big crowd 21:50 at the same time to start, 21:54 to slaughter the first altar, first lamb. Right. 21:59 And then suddenly we know what the story. 22:02 And Luke, it's interesting how the Gospel of Luke, 22:05 at the hours when it was happened 22:07 corresponds exactly with Mishnaic tradition 22:11 when it would happen. 22:13 Right at the hour Jesus says, "It is completed." 22:19 And He makes his last breath 22:24 and the earthquake start 22:27 and there is mayhem in the temple, 22:31 the ceremony is completely messed up 22:37 because the real lamb had just been slaughtered. 22:43 That's beautiful-- 22:46 It gives me goose bumps even just to think about it. 22:51 You know, that here He was just as God had promised 22:57 our Messiah, our Redeemer 22:59 and you know, God doesn't do 23:03 anything by coincidence, does He? 23:05 Just as He played it out so far before Jesus had come, 23:10 you know, it's also very interesting too 23:13 as if we back it up 23:14 just a little bit from that point 23:16 when He is on the cross to even to His entry into Jerusalem 23:21 and how He's the leaders of the day 23:25 Pharisees, Sadducees, whatever 23:27 they are constantly challenging Him 23:30 and trying to find fault in Him. 23:33 And it's almost as if God has put that perfect lamb 23:37 in front of them and said, inspect him 23:40 and see if there is anything wrong with him 23:43 and you have some people 23:44 that have seen Him and got close to Him 23:46 and I'm sure fallen love with him. 23:49 It's quite the story. Yeah. 23:52 And it's interesting that the whole-- 23:54 if you look at the whole gospel of Mathew, 23:57 this is kind of a-- we don't have time, 23:59 but it's a sort of rerun of the Exodus. 24:03 So, Rachael and I are gonna join together for the first time 24:09 since we've been doing these programs. 24:11 And we're gonna do a song together. 24:12 And Sasha, I think you're gonna tell everyone about the song. 24:17 Behold how good and how pleasant it is 24:22 to be with brethren together. 24:26 That's Psalm 133, 24:29 beautiful song of the pilgrims who 24:35 that was saying during the time 24:37 when they ascended to the temple of God 24:40 on the Passover to watch the Passover sacrifice. 25:56 Behold how good and how pleasant it is 26:01 For brothers to dwell together 26:05 Behold how good and how pleasant it is 26:09 For brothers to dwell together 26:13 In unity In unity 26:17 La la lai La la la lai lai 26:21 In unity In unity 26:26 La la lai La la la lai lai 27:29 The Psalmist said, "Behold, how good and pleasant it is 27:33 for brethren to dwell together in unity." 27:36 And that's what our Messiah Jesus has done. 27:39 He has given us a way to come together, one in Him. 27:44 We thank you so much for joining us, 27:46 may the Lord bless you and may He keep you 27:48 and may the Lord make His face to shine upon you 27:50 and be gracious to you. 27:51 May the Lord lift His countenance upon you 27:54 and bring you His peace. 27:56 God bless and join us again 27:58 on Back to Our Roots. |
Revised 2014-12-17