Passover Celebrated

 

Ezra 6:19-22

 March 10, 2021

 

 

Passover Celebrated

On the fourteenth day of the first month, the returned exiles kept the Passover.  For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were clean. So, they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves.   It was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile, and also by everyone who had joined them and separated himself from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to worship the Lord, the God of Israel.   And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for the Lord had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them so that he aided them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.

 

When the Scripture talks about being clean and how the Jewish people and the priest when about the process, do you have an understanding of being clean?  If one is very religious but does not do as instructed by God’s word, “Study to show yourself approved by God, a workman that needs not to be a shame.” They will not understand Isaiah 1:16-18.

 

Let us give thought to how one becomes clean and what God has allowed the prophet Isaiah to see in the future.  “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.  “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”

 

A  person who is like Martin Luther who wrestles with being clean before a holy God tries everything in his power to win God’s approval.  But the Scriptures declare our good deeds are like filthy rags in Isaiah 64:6, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”  Is Isaiah teaching it round and square or has God allowed him in on what is coming?

 

We find the answer in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  It should be clear that we all have a problem with sin and God sent His only Son to solve our problem.  We find the answer in 2 Corinthians 5;16,17, “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.^[  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”  It should be clear your identity is not in your flesh.  The old has passed away; you are a new spirit, with a lot of unlearning to be able to walk in this new truth.  The answer is; to get into God’s Word and see how He accomplished this.

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice