Let Us Keep the Feast!

The rise of anti-Semitism in our own country is devastating. I've been really pondering how it is that this evil spirit that promotes hatred of the Jewish people has risen again, all across the world. What is this spirit and how does it so easily gain a foothold in the minds of so many? 
Tom Teepen of the Atlanta Constitution once wrote this in an article:
​"It's the viruses of the spirit that most elude us, isn't it? Smallpox was eliminated from the world in 1977, polio eradicated from the Western Hemisphere. The rest of the world should follow within a few years, and widening immunizations make it possible to free human life from at least a few other diseases, especially those of childhood, by century's end. But no serum, no vaccine, yet reaches the soul." The article continues expounding upon anti-Semitism in Russia and Eastern European countries and then he said this: "The disease isn't only Eastern European. France has suffered. The infection has cropped up in Japan, where anti-Semitic books have been selling briskly to a readership that doesn't even quite know who Jews are."

That is the terribly curious part of this new wave of anti-Semitism in America, particularly in our universities and college campuses.  The students hold protests and rallies to support the Palestinians and blast the familiar chant "FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA!"  When asked what river and what sea, most do not have a clue. They don't know who the Palestinians are either, or why they should take up their cause. No one has educated them to understand that there has never been a Palestinian race of people or a Palestinian nation with a legitimate government. Like most young people, they have a need to fight for something, to champion a cause, and this infection (as Teepen referred to it) found more places and people to invade.  

Please understand that to chant "from the river to the sea" is to call for the genocide of the Jews, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. That encompasses the land of Israel. That is the ancient battle cry to "drive the Jews into the sea!"

It's the day before Passover, friends, and my heart hurts. I was all lined up to lead a beautiful, holy Passover celebration at a large church near me. Most of the people of this church had never experienced a Passover Seder and my heart was overjoyed at the opportunity to show them how every single element of this ancient celebration is fulfilled in our Messiah - and the Messiah of the Jewish people also!  Jesus came to earth born of a Jewish woman. He grew up in a Jewish family and learned the Torah (the first 5 books of our Bible). He recruited all Jewish disciples and just before He was crucified, He gathered with those disciples to keep the Passover. Why WOULDN'T we, as His believers, want to do this too, in remembrance of Him?  

Yes, we do this in our churches when we take communion, the bread and the cup. As the Apostle Paul said, "For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”  In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”  For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). It is good that we do this, as the Lord commanded us, proclaiming His death and His resurrection until He returns for us. Yet, the keeping of the Passover is that and SO MUCH MORE! It is the remembrance of the great deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt - pointing to our own deliverance from sin through the blood of Jesus, who became the Passover Lamb. Instead of just keeping and celebrating a small part of God's story, the Passover gives us the opportunity to celebrate the WHOLE STORY, His grand eternal plan of Salvation!

Yet, we are suddenly thrust into another time of this Jew-hatred virus, spiraling throughout the world, fomenting acts of violence and prejudice. It comes directly from the source of all evil, my friends, from Satan himself. He knows the time left to him is short and he will be working overtime to kill, steal, and destroy, with a sniper-sharp focus on the Jewish people, through whom the Deliverer will come. He is operating right now on the world stage, as Israel once again battles for its very survival. But he is operating also, ever so stealthily, in the schools, in the churches, in the minds of all who do not cling to and worship Yeshua, the Son of God, the Redeemer.  I want to love what God loves and hate what God hates. The Bible makes that ever so clear for us. God says of His people Israel, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful! Sing with joy for Jacob; shout for the FOREMOST OF THE NATIONS. Make your praises heard and say, 'O LORD, save your people, the remnant of Israel.'" (from Jeremiah 31)

Teepen concludes his article: "The health of humankind is not measured just by its coughs and wheezes but by the fevers of its soul. Or perhaps more important yet, by the quickness and care we bring against them. If our history suggests unreason's durability, our experience teaches that to neglect it is to indulge it and that to indulge it is to prepare hate's triumph."

May hate not triumph in us or in our children. May our Passover tables be filled with the good things of God that remind us of His miraculous parting of the Red Sea to rescue His people from cruel bondage. May our hearts be singing and dancing as Miriam did. And may we eat the matzah and lift the cups, boldly and passionately continuing to proclaim Yeshua's death - and His resurrection - until He comes again. Behold the Lamb of God! Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us - THEREFORE LET US KEEP THE FEAST!

Shabbat Shalom! 
And if you desire to keep a small, family Passover together at YOUR table, email me right back and I'll send you the simple, beautiful Seder service you can do in your own home. May it be a blessing!