It might not have been called “New Year,” but the year began for the Jews with the month of Abib (Ex 13:4). Nine great miracles had been performed by the hands of Moses and Aaron, yet Pharaoh continued to dither. Then in the month of Abib, when the Israelites walked out of Egypt for good, a nation was born and the Lord said, “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you” (Ex 12:2). The month was called Abib until the exile (Ex 13:4; 23:15; 34:28), after which it was renamed as Nisan (Esth 3:7).
The Passover was the first important religious feast for the Jews. It was also called the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. It was celebrated on the 14th day of the first month of the year and commemorated the deliverance from Egypt. It also signified the establishment of Israel as a nation. The feast of Unleavened Bread began on the day after the Passover (Lev 23:5-8).
The word ‘Passover’ comes from the Hebrew verb ‘Pasach’ which means to pass or jump or skip over. On the eve of their departure, the malevolent death angel who slew the firstborn of the Egyptians, passed over the Israelites who were marked with the blood of the lamb slaughtered the previous evening. So this jubilee was called the Passover; and the lamb, the Passover lamb. The feast was celebrated from the 14th to the 21st of Abib (Nisan).
So the New Year started for the Jews in a festive atmosphere as the lamb was to be selected on the 10th day (Ex 12:3), just as our Christmas, New Year exhilaration starts on the first of December itself. The lamb would be slaughtered on the 14th, initiating the week-long celebrations. Pharaoh’s son, the crown prince died at midnight. So Pharaoh got up in the night to the wail of the Egyptians and urged Moses and Aaron to leave that very night (12:6). The people took their dough for the journey before it leavened. So, the day was to be a memorial to the Jews to celebrate throughout their generations (12:14).
The central event of the Passover was the smearing of blood on the lintel and doorposts to keep the destroyer out (Ex 12:21 -23). “Moses also...by faith kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them” (Heb 11:28). How excitedly the Jews would have started their New Year reminiscing their salvation by the blood of the lamb! How much more we, who are absolved by the blood of the Lamb of God! God saw the blood of Jesus Christ and passed over us! As we start the New Year, let us remember with thanksgiving, God who gave up His Son for us and the Son who gave up His life for us. Just as the Israelites walked out of Egypt and of their bondage to freedom, we walk out of our old shackled life to be free people in Christ.
During the week, no leaven was to be eaten. (12:15). No leaven should be found in the house(12:19). Every year before the celebration the Jews would remove all leaven from the house in preparation. Let this New Year be a holy one for us without leaven. “Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you are truly unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover Lamb was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor 5:7,8). The old leaven or our old self must be transformed to a Christ-like personality. Malice is a desire to harm others or to see others suffer.
Passover was a time of cleansing for the Jews and for many in the countryside, the journey to Jerusalem started early so they could be there before Passover started. “And the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went from the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves” (Jn 11:55). “Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. But they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover” (Jn 18:28). Distilled hypocrisy! They were planning a murder but would not enter a Gentile place and be defiled. No wonder Jesus spoke of them as whitewashed tombs, beautiful and decorated outside but full of foul bones inside. As a good deed every year they would release a prisoner at the Passover. But they were trading a murderer and robber for the innocent blood of Jesus. They celebrated the Passover with so much malice and insincerity. Let us root out all such evil desires hiding in the depth of our hearts. Sincerity is being ourselves, presenting no false appearance, not hypocritical but being truthful and honest. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. We cannot go as the world goes. We need to lead a separated life. Let’s examine ourselves to see if we are following the world in any way (1 Cor 5:6).
Jesus spoke of the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees as leaven. In these days of multimedia, when so much of teaching and preaching get into our ears, let us pray to God to give us the wisdom to discern sound doctrine (Mt 16:6,12). It is in this context too that Paul says that a little leaven leavens the whole lump (Gal 5:9). A little false teaching can destroy a person, a church or a mission. Why not we start this year with a Study Bible and read through all the notes from Genesis to Revelation? It will be a bulwark against the enemy.
Anyone who would like to keep the Passover must be circumcised (Ex 12:48). “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the foreskins of your heart...” says Jeremiah (4:4). In Christ, we “were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ” (Col 2:11). New Year is a time of taking stock of our old life and throwing away all that God hates. “He is not a Jew who is one outwardly nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God” (Rom 2:28,29) . For once, let us forget about what people think about us and set our minds on receiving praise from God. Let us not be like the rulers who loved the praise of men more than the praise of God (Jn 12:43). Eventhough they believed in Christ they did not openly confess Him. Shall we make a bold decision to proclaim Christ to anyone who is willing to listen?
1 Corinthians 7:19 is lucid when it says, “Circumcision is nothing as also uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters. Why not make a list of all the New Testament commandments? Don’t look for readymade stuff. Take a diary and start writing down. This exercise may take a year. But by the end of the year, you will be holier for sure.
God did not lead the Israelites by the way of the land of the Philistines at the start of their New Year, although that was near, for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt. So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea”(Ex 13:17,18). God knows us better than we know ourselves. If you encounter wilderness this year, remember, God’s delays are not denials. Take it easy this year. When God is leading you, be sure that He is taking you through the safest route. He will go before you in a pillar of cloud and by night in a pillar of fire to give you light (13:21). He cares for you.
The Israelites were to set apart to the Lord all that open the womb, that is every firstborn. When the firstborn would ask, “Why me?” the parents were to answer, “By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And it came to pass when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the Lord killed all the firstborn” (Ex 13:12-15). The firstborn among the Israelites who ought to have died survived the holocaust because of the mighty hand of God. Mary and Joseph brought eight day old baby Jesus to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”(Lk 2:22,23). When Jesus grew up, His parents would have explained to Him that He was consecrated to God.
I can imagine little Jesus running to His parents and asking, “Mummy, Daddy, why do we go to Jerusalem every year and what does all this mean?” He grew to understand the significance of His trips. What does New Year mean to our children ? Is it just feasting and fireworks? Let us teach our children the great deliverance we enjoy in Jesus and how they are “set apart” for God. Millions of children received very little affection and attention last year from their whirlwind parents. Let us, parents and grandparents spend more time with children this year to inculcate spiritual values to them.
When Jesus was twelve, just entering teenage, as usual He went to Jerusalem for the feast with His parents. His parents were so devout that every year they made it to Jerusalem in the first month of the year for the feast of Passover (Lk 2:41,42). May be they skimped and saved for this annual trip. Did Jesus realize that He was taken to Jerusalem as the Lamb of God?
After 21 years, at the age of 33, Jesus woke up to the New Year in a cold sweat knowing that in another 10 days, He would be picked up as the Pascal Lamb to be slaughtered. “Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill Him” (Lk 22:1,2). Little did they realize that they had selected the Lamb to be slain, that the destroyer might not touch the chosen ones.
Jesus repeatedly told His disciples of His death but they were insensitive to His feelings many times. But one woman, Mary could empathize with Him. She wanted to give a New Year gift to Jesus and gave the best she had—a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair, six days before the Passover. She had kept it for the day of His burial (Jn 12:1-3,7).
“Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb must be killed” (Lk 22:7). It was time to face the brutal truth. So He ate the Passover with His disciples. The time of His gruesome massacre was drawing nigh and He told the disciples that fateful night, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Lk 22:15).
This was the evening of the 13th day of the first month. Therefore it appears that the disciples assume they are preparing the upper room primarily for the special pascal meal which they expect to share with Jesus the following evening. Jesus seems to explain why it is important for Him to eat with them on the night before the actual Passover meal. In referring to His suffering Jesus is obviously anticipating that His own sacrificial death will take place later that day, preventing Him from participating in the actual Passover supper (The Narrated Bible, page 1455).
The clock was ticking and nobody could stop its hands. Even the plea of Jesus quoting a promise, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You” could not make God stop the pirouette of the clock. Jesus was arrested and hauled up before the sleazy high priest by impertinent Jews. He was shuttled from there to Pilate and then to Herod and back. “Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover and about the sixth hour. And he (Pilate) said to the Jews, “Behold your King” (Jn 19:14). Thereafter a chain of events took place with the momentum of an avalanche. The grisliest of murder was executed.
It seems the ram’s horn would be blown in Jerusalem when the Passover lamb was killed, to let the people know. The killing of the lamb and the death of Jesus happened precisely at the appropriate hour on that day and the horn was blown when Jesus bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
His abused, worn-out body hung on the cross, stigmatised, silhouetted against the skyline with the inscription THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS in Greek, Latin and Hebrew. Hallelujah! What an irony! What the religious leaders and their henchmen would not accept or concede was announced at the crossroads of the nations for all to read! What the religious establishment would not do, the Government did. So Jesus died after three harrowing hours and rose on the third day, in the first month Nisan to the joy that was set before Him. His life was not cut short as everyone thought. He awakened to eternal life. So, that was His New Year celebration, heralding the dawn of a new era.
As we start the New Year, all may not be rosy. God may not fulfill all the Scriptural promises we quote and claim. But when our prayer is, “Thy will be done,” surely we will enjoy the joy that is set before us (Heb12:2). What else can be a HAPPY NEW YEAR?
Dr. Lilian Stanley
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91 9843511943
lilianstanley@gmail.com
Blessing Youth Mission
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91-416-2242943, +91-416-2248943
hq@bymonline.org
www.bymonline.org
Click here for more options
To buy books written by Dr. Lilian Stanley, kindly reach to us in the follwing address
Blessing Literature Centre
21/11 West Coovam River Road,
Chintadripet,
Chennai 600 002, India.
+91-44-28450411, 8806270699
blc@bymonline.org
It might not have been called “New Year,” but the year began for the Jews with the month of Abib (Ex 13:4). Nine great miracles had been performed by the hands of Moses and Aaron, yet Pharaoh continued to dither. Then in the month of Abib, when the Israelites walked out of Egypt for good, a nation was born and the Lord said, “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you” (Ex 12:2). The month was called Abib until the exile (Ex 13:4; 23:15; 34:28), after which it was renamed as Nisan (Esth 3:7).
The Passover was the first important religious feast for the Jews. It was also called the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. It was celebrated on the 14th day of the first month of the year and commemorated the deliverance from Egypt. It also signified the establishment of Israel as a nation. The feast of Unleavened Bread began on the day after the Passover (Lev 23:5-8).
The word ‘Passover’ comes from the Hebrew verb ‘Pasach’ which means to pass or jump or skip over. On the eve of their departure, the malevolent death angel who slew the firstborn of the Egyptians, passed over the Israelites who were marked with the blood of the lamb slaughtered the previous evening. So this jubilee was called the Passover; and the lamb, the Passover lamb. The feast was celebrated from the 14th to the 21st of Abib (Nisan).
So the New Year started for the Jews in a festive atmosphere as the lamb was to be selected on the 10th day (Ex 12:3), just as our Christmas, New Year exhilaration starts on the first of December itself. The lamb would be slaughtered on the 14th, initiating the week-long celebrations. Pharaoh’s son, the crown prince died at midnight. So Pharaoh got up in the night to the wail of the Egyptians and urged Moses and Aaron to leave that very night (12:6). The people took their dough for the journey before it leavened. So, the day was to be a memorial to the Jews to celebrate throughout their generations (12:14).
The central event of the Passover was the smearing of blood on the lintel and doorposts to keep the destroyer out (Ex 12:21 -23). “Moses also...by faith kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them” (Heb 11:28). How excitedly the Jews would have started their New Year reminiscing their salvation by the blood of the lamb! How much more we, who are absolved by the blood of the Lamb of God! God saw the blood of Jesus Christ and passed over us! As we start the New Year, let us remember with thanksgiving, God who gave up His Son for us and the Son who gave up His life for us. Just as the Israelites walked out of Egypt and of their bondage to freedom, we walk out of our old shackled life to be free people in Christ.
During the week, no leaven was to be eaten. (12:15). No leaven should be found in the house(12:19). Every year before the celebration the Jews would remove all leaven from the house in preparation. Let this New Year be a holy one for us without leaven. “Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you are truly unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover Lamb was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor 5:7,8). The old leaven or our old self must be transformed to a Christ-like personality. Malice is a desire to harm others or to see others suffer.
Passover was a time of cleansing for the Jews and for many in the countryside, the journey to Jerusalem started early so they could be there before Passover started. “And the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went from the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves” (Jn 11:55). “Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. But they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover” (Jn 18:28). Distilled hypocrisy! They were planning a murder but would not enter a Gentile place and be defiled. No wonder Jesus spoke of them as whitewashed tombs, beautiful and decorated outside but full of foul bones inside. As a good deed every year they would release a prisoner at the Passover. But they were trading a murderer and robber for the innocent blood of Jesus. They celebrated the Passover with so much malice and insincerity. Let us root out all such evil desires hiding in the depth of our hearts. Sincerity is being ourselves, presenting no false appearance, not hypocritical but being truthful and honest. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. We cannot go as the world goes. We need to lead a separated life. Let’s examine ourselves to see if we are following the world in any way (1 Cor 5:6).
Jesus spoke of the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees as leaven. In these days of multimedia, when so much of teaching and preaching get into our ears, let us pray to God to give us the wisdom to discern sound doctrine (Mt 16:6,12). It is in this context too that Paul says that a little leaven leavens the whole lump (Gal 5:9). A little false teaching can destroy a person, a church or a mission. Why not we start this year with a Study Bible and read through all the notes from Genesis to Revelation? It will be a bulwark against the enemy.
Anyone who would like to keep the Passover must be circumcised (Ex 12:48). “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the foreskins of your heart...” says Jeremiah (4:4). In Christ, we “were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ” (Col 2:11). New Year is a time of taking stock of our old life and throwing away all that God hates. “He is not a Jew who is one outwardly nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God” (Rom 2:28,29) . For once, let us forget about what people think about us and set our minds on receiving praise from God. Let us not be like the rulers who loved the praise of men more than the praise of God (Jn 12:43). Eventhough they believed in Christ they did not openly confess Him. Shall we make a bold decision to proclaim Christ to anyone who is willing to listen?
1 Corinthians 7:19 is lucid when it says, “Circumcision is nothing as also uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters. Why not make a list of all the New Testament commandments? Don’t look for readymade stuff. Take a diary and start writing down. This exercise may take a year. But by the end of the year, you will be holier for sure.
God did not lead the Israelites by the way of the land of the Philistines at the start of their New Year, although that was near, for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt. So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea”(Ex 13:17,18). God knows us better than we know ourselves. If you encounter wilderness this year, remember, God’s delays are not denials. Take it easy this year. When God is leading you, be sure that He is taking you through the safest route. He will go before you in a pillar of cloud and by night in a pillar of fire to give you light (13:21). He cares for you.
The Israelites were to set apart to the Lord all that open the womb, that is every firstborn. When the firstborn would ask, “Why me?” the parents were to answer, “By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And it came to pass when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the Lord killed all the firstborn” (Ex 13:12-15). The firstborn among the Israelites who ought to have died survived the holocaust because of the mighty hand of God. Mary and Joseph brought eight day old baby Jesus to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”(Lk 2:22,23). When Jesus grew up, His parents would have explained to Him that He was consecrated to God.
I can imagine little Jesus running to His parents and asking, “Mummy, Daddy, why do we go to Jerusalem every year and what does all this mean?” He grew to understand the significance of His trips. What does New Year mean to our children ? Is it just feasting and fireworks? Let us teach our children the great deliverance we enjoy in Jesus and how they are “set apart” for God. Millions of children received very little affection and attention last year from their whirlwind parents. Let us, parents and grandparents spend more time with children this year to inculcate spiritual values to them.
When Jesus was twelve, just entering teenage, as usual He went to Jerusalem for the feast with His parents. His parents were so devout that every year they made it to Jerusalem in the first month of the year for the feast of Passover (Lk 2:41,42). May be they skimped and saved for this annual trip. Did Jesus realize that He was taken to Jerusalem as the Lamb of God?
After 21 years, at the age of 33, Jesus woke up to the New Year in a cold sweat knowing that in another 10 days, He would be picked up as the Pascal Lamb to be slaughtered. “Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill Him” (Lk 22:1,2). Little did they realize that they had selected the Lamb to be slain, that the destroyer might not touch the chosen ones.
Jesus repeatedly told His disciples of His death but they were insensitive to His feelings many times. But one woman, Mary could empathize with Him. She wanted to give a New Year gift to Jesus and gave the best she had—a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair, six days before the Passover. She had kept it for the day of His burial (Jn 12:1-3,7).
“Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb must be killed” (Lk 22:7). It was time to face the brutal truth. So He ate the Passover with His disciples. The time of His gruesome massacre was drawing nigh and He told the disciples that fateful night, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Lk 22:15).
This was the evening of the 13th day of the first month. Therefore it appears that the disciples assume they are preparing the upper room primarily for the special pascal meal which they expect to share with Jesus the following evening. Jesus seems to explain why it is important for Him to eat with them on the night before the actual Passover meal. In referring to His suffering Jesus is obviously anticipating that His own sacrificial death will take place later that day, preventing Him from participating in the actual Passover supper (The Narrated Bible, page 1455).
The clock was ticking and nobody could stop its hands. Even the plea of Jesus quoting a promise, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You” could not make God stop the pirouette of the clock. Jesus was arrested and hauled up before the sleazy high priest by impertinent Jews. He was shuttled from there to Pilate and then to Herod and back. “Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover and about the sixth hour. And he (Pilate) said to the Jews, “Behold your King” (Jn 19:14). Thereafter a chain of events took place with the momentum of an avalanche. The grisliest of murder was executed.
It seems the ram’s horn would be blown in Jerusalem when the Passover lamb was killed, to let the people know. The killing of the lamb and the death of Jesus happened precisely at the appropriate hour on that day and the horn was blown when Jesus bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
His abused, worn-out body hung on the cross, stigmatised, silhouetted against the skyline with the inscription THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS in Greek, Latin and Hebrew. Hallelujah! What an irony! What the religious leaders and their henchmen would not accept or concede was announced at the crossroads of the nations for all to read! What the religious establishment would not do, the Government did. So Jesus died after three harrowing hours and rose on the third day, in the first month Nisan to the joy that was set before Him. His life was not cut short as everyone thought. He awakened to eternal life. So, that was His New Year celebration, heralding the dawn of a new era.
As we start the New Year, all may not be rosy. God may not fulfill all the Scriptural promises we quote and claim. But when our prayer is, “Thy will be done,” surely we will enjoy the joy that is set before us (Heb12:2). What else can be a HAPPY NEW YEAR?
Dr. Lilian Stanley
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91 9843511943
lilianstanley@gmail.com
Blessing Youth Mission
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91-416-2242943, +91-416-2248943
hq@bymonline.org
www.bymonline.org
Click here for more options
To buy books written by Dr. Lilian Stanley, kindly reach to us in the follwing address
Blessing Literature Centre
21/11 West Coovam River Road,
Chintadripet,
Chennai 600 002, India.
+91-44-28450411, Mob:8806270699
blc@bymonline.org
