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Second, it shows that the Jewish people are looking forward to the Messiah.
Although the Jewish people as a whole have rejected Yeshua as the Messiah,
they still have a messianic expectation and look forward to the coming of the
Messiah. This meal shows us that the Messiah is working, even if subtly, among
his people. As believers, we can celebrate this meal as a way to remember both
the first coming of Yeshua and the final redemption he will bring.
Celebrating the Past and the Future
The two seders of the Passover—one to remember the exodus from Egypt and
one to remember the future redemption—are powerful and tangible ways to
place Messiah and his work, both past and future, in our lives.
• This meal has held a special place in my family’s celebration of Passover.
Because the Meal of Messiah is a recent innovation, it contains a lot of
flexibility, so in our family, the meal normally begins in late afternoon and is
full of stories and songs about Yeshua, including remarkable legends from
early non-canonical Christian writings about the Messianic Era that show just
how Jewish the early believers were.
• Families can find ways to honor the Messiah in this meal that are unique to
each of them..
The exodus story is the base teaching in Scripture
for redemption, salvation, deliverance, and the future
kingdom.
The blood of the Lamb in the exodus story is the same for us
in the New Covenant with a personal testimony of redemption
(being purchased out of slavery to sin).
Failing to understand this leads to shallowness in the faith
today.
It then follows that not appreciating the exodus diminishes
the ability to see a future Greater Exodus.
Christians could learn much about their faith in the Messiah
and their future if they could see what Jews see and
Yeshua came after the Babylonian exile/return and before
the worldwide exile.
Yeshua was there to fulfll the “Lamb of God” prophecies
and to make a way for us to receive personal redemption.
The stage would then be set to share the good news that
the Messiah would then take us to the kingdom.
The same pattern came from the exodus.
Being redeemed out of Egypt was the work of the Lamb,
but the trip to the “promised land” (the kingdom) is
something else.
Yeshua has fulflled the redemption part, we are still looking
for the restoration and His leading of the Greater Exodus
When the prophets of Israel prophesy about the Messiah, it
is generally in the context of Him being a part of the Greater
Exodus.
Many Bible teachers refer to the message of the Messiah as
the Gospel (the Good News), and they are right,
but what they fail to understand in the Gospel is the
message of the Greater Exodus coming to the scattered
exiles!
Just as Moses was raised up to lead the people out of Egypt,
so the Messiah is prophesied to be raised
up from His countrymen to lead His people
to the “promised land.”
I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like
you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall
speak to them all that I command him. It shall come about
that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall
speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him. Deut. 18:18-19
• This is a dramatic prophecy of the Messiah to come; it is the
one from God to Moses.
• Why is the prophet (the Messiah) to be like Moses?
• Jewish Answer: He leads another exodus.
• This then is the basis for the prophets to speak of the future
Messiah. He is to have even more prestige
• than Moses had, and He will deliver and
• save the captives of Israel.
• Just as in the Israelite exodus from Egypt, the Passover sacrifice is a gift of
redemption to all who will accept the call. It is foretold that those among the
nations would throw in their lot with Israel and with the Jewish Redeemer and
follow the God of Israel (e.g., Genesis 12:3, 22:18; Isaiah 42:4, 51:5, 60:9-10,
66:18-21; Jeremiah 16:19, etc.). This occurred at the exodus Passover, when
free Egyptians chose to leave their lives of luxury to follow the God of Israel
and sojourn with the wandering Hebrews. This also occurred after the
Messiah’s sacrifice at Passover, when so many among the nations gave up their
ways of life to follow the Jewish Messiah.
• Every physical descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is born into the
covenant, whether we like it or not. Every Jew is “called,” every Jew is obligated
to take hold of this redemption. It is in the bold print of our contract—our
covenant—with HaShem.
However, with the Gentiles it is different. Very different. And in some senses
the call on Gentiles could be considered to be even more grand. The Gentiles
are not called by nation, they are called by name.
Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, “As
the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,” but “As the LORD
lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries
where he had driven them.” (Jeremiah 16:14-15)
• So let’s compare the exodus with the kingdom. Just as God’s name will be sanctified through
the mighty deeds he will perform at the advent of the Messianic Era, so was his name
sanctified in Egypt through the ten plagues. Just as God will gather Israel from the four
corners of the earth back to the land in the kingdom, so did he gather Israel and bring them
out of Egypt. Just as the prophets say that Gentiles who join themselves to God and Israel
will be gathered as well, so were Gentiles gathered as Israel left Egypt. And just as in the
kingdom the whole world will keep the Sabbath, so did all the people keep the Sabbath
together after the exodus.
• In Jewish tradition the Messianic Kingdom is called a “time that is all Shabbat.” When the
Torah says “So the people rested on the seventh day” (Exodus 16:30) it prophetically alludes
to the time when the whole world will be in the rest of God in the Messianic Era. As
Hebrews says, “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9). May it
be soon and in our days. Amen.
Every Christian is waiting expectantly for the
2nd return of Jesus Christ. He left as a suffering
Servant but one day He will return as a
conquering King. That will not happen until
the Tribulation period has been completed.
What will happen then? The Average Christian
has little or no knowledge of what will happen
after the ecclesia or the "called" out will be
raptured away by Jesus Christ. Our reward will
not only be to spend eternity with Christ, but
will also include special duties as we serve our
Lord and Savior for 1000 years during the
Millennial Kingdom. It will be a golden age
during which our Lord and Savior will rule and
reign from his palace and throne in Israel.
How will the earth be changed in the
Millennial Kingdom?
• What special role will the Jews play?
• What will be the worldwide political and
social structure?
• What are the Bema Seat, the Great White
Throne and the Sheep and Goat Judgments?
• Will the Millennial Kingdom have sin and
sinful people?
• Who will rule and reign during this
Kingdom?
• How will this world end?
• Where will we spend eternity?
• What is the New Jerusalem?
• What is the final fate of Satan and his
demons?
B. A Panoramic View of the Millennial Kingdom
By comparing the exodus narrative with the words of the prophets, we
can see the awesome scale of the messianic redemption.
• The eleven parallels below come from a liturgical poem called
“Passover of the Future.”[1]
1. The Salvation of Israel
After the Israelites left Egypt, Exodus states that “the LORD saved Israel
that day from the hand of the Egyptians” (Exodus 14:30).
In this age, we have only a measure of the Spirit, but in the age to come, we will
have the Spirit in its fullness. This is the partial. It is not the whole. “For now, we
know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial
will pass away” (1 Corinthians 13:9-10).
A Heavenly Country—Not a Country in Heaven
So what does the author of Hebrews mean by saying that Abraham sought a heavenly country? Did
Abraham know all along that God had no interest in the earthly Jerusalem?
• A Western mindset relegates what is spiritual to an invisible dimension. This is not the case in a
Jewish perspective. The prophets, with all their focus on the tangible land of Israel and the earthly
stones that comprise Jerusalem’s ramparts, never denied the spiritual, heavenly quality of that place
of promise. The difference between a city founded by men and one founded by God is not the sphere
of its existence. A city built by God is one that will not be destroyed and is filled with the glory of
God.
In his promise of the new covenant, Jeremiah declares,
Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when the city shall be rebuilt for the LORD from the
Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate… It shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.
(Jeremiah 31:38-40)
That is the heavenly country and the city founded by God that Abraham anticipated. The goal of
redemption is not to put an end to what is physical, but to unite the heavenly kingdom with this
material earth, as our Master said, “On earth as it is in heaven.”
Abraham’s children were promised a heavenly country, not a country in heaven. That place is none
other than the land of Israel. When Yeshua returns and his reward is with him, Mount Zion—yes, that
Mount Zion—will be his throne. This fulfillment will simultaneously be spiritual, impacting all
humanity, and physical, for Abraham and his descendants forever.