This week, we are celebrating the Passover, a feast that is observed every year to commemorate the deliverance of the Children of Israel from Egypt. As Jewish families, as well as a growing number of non-Jewish believers in Yeshua, gather around their tables, they will eat a traditional meal called a Seder. While enjoying the various foods attributed to the Passover meal, the leader of the Seder will read out of a book called the Haggadah (Hebrew word for “the telling”). This book leads those celebrating through the story of the Passover, making sure that all of the relevant experiences that took place in Egypt so many years ago are covered so that every new generation gets to hear the story. In this way, the Passover story may continue to be l’dor v’dor (“from generation to generation”).
The reason for the Haggadah and the Seder is much more important than just having a simple guide book to read through and tell a story of a miraculous event that happened so long ago. The Haggadah is, in fact, not just a book to read to guide us through our yearly meal. It is a part of the greater lesson of the Seder and a key to understanding both Biblical and modern day miracles.
This year, Messianic believers will read through the Haggadah and share how every event that happens during the Seder points to Yeshua as our Messiah—from the searching for the leaven to the eating of the afikomen (the remnants of the hidden matzah now found and redeemed). Every event described in the biblical narrative of the Passover points directly to the experience of Yeshua on that Passover day in Jerusalem. Yeshua’s death, burial and Resurrection are all prophetically foretold as we read about the Passover Lamb and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It was through this fulfilled Passover offering that Yeshua made a way for us to receive eternal life.
While understanding the provision for us to receive eternal life is valuable beyond measure, what is sometimes missed today is that for those who have been born again, eternal life has already begun. This eternal life, or life more abundant, is not something we are looking forward to; it is something we are supposed to walk in today. The question of how to walk in the eternal is answered partially within biblical Holy Days, such as Passover, and the instructions for observing them.
Passover, as an example, is celebrated by following the reading of a Haggadah as a part of a Seder. Earlier we read what the word Haggadah means, but have not yet defined the word Seder. While the Haggadah is important, it can be meaningless without understanding its context within the Seder. The word Seder means “order.” In our world, we live in a time where everyone wants to do things their own way. And the popular thing even among believers is to throw out the old in favor of the new and exciting. We serve a G-D who expects things to be in order. He created the world to have order, He created a family order, He created an order for Israel by priests, Levites and people and also division of tribes, etc. He also established a prophetic order of events and when they should take place. We have all read the words “in the fullness of time.”
As we study the Scriptures and we see that everything in them follows a creative order established by G-D, we will also find out that in every case in which a miracle happened in the Bible, the people who received that miracle were in fact following the prescribed order in their lives. The people of Israel were observing the Passover when Yeshua gave his life. Yeshua spoke the words “It is finished” and died at the same time the Passover lamb was slain by the priest. There are too many examples to provide in this one blog, but I encourage you to not only look at the Passover but at every miraculous event that takes place in the Bible. You will see that the commandments provided in the Bible are not burdensome weights to be grudgingly kept, but rather they are G-D’s pathway of walking in order, which opens the door for G-D to work miraculously in our lives.
You see, miracles are simply when something supernatural takes place. The natural is in regular order; the supernatural is out of regular order. So, the key to seeing the supernatural happen in our lives is to follow the patterns of order provided for the people of G-D in His Word, because He works the out of order when we are in order. {eoa}
Eric Tokajer is executive director of The Messianic Times and author of With Me in Paradise, Transient Singularity and OY! How Did I Get Here?: Thirty-One Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before Entering Ministry.
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