CELEBRATE PASSOVER LIBERATION
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: EZRA 6:13-22
KEY VERSE
There are times when people find themselves in unpleasant situations and they have no power or ability to free themselves. One of the worst situations is called slavery when more powerful people capture and control others and use them to work for them. These slaves have no freedom and they are always abused.
The people of Israel became slaves for the Egyptians and God sent Moses to tell Pharaoh to set the people free. He refused. God sent plagues to show him he had to obey God but he still stubbornly refused until the final plague. In this plague the angel of death was sent by God to kill the firstborn of man and animals if the angel of death did not see the blood of a slain lamb on their doorposts.
The people of Israel had been warned by God to prepare to leave Egypt for they would be freed when this disaster of the death of their firstborn came on the Egyptian, their king, their rulers, and the people.So the people of Israel killed a lamb, ate the meat, and put the blood on their doorposts so that the angel of death could not touch them. God protected the people of Israel so that the angel of death “passed over” their houses.
When they were freed from slavery God told them through Moses to celebrate a Feast to God called the “Passover” to celebrate their deliverance and their liberation from the tough life of slavery. This Feast named the “Passover” would remind them of their liberation from bondage or hard service in Egypt.
The next Feast they had to celebrate was the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This came the very next day after Passover. Leaven in the Bible is used to stand for sin and so Israel was told to get rid of all the leaven they used to make bread and eat bread made without leaven, This act would remind them that they should get rid of every evil in their life and walk as holy people before God.
So immediately after celebrating the Passover Feast Israel would celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Sadly the people of Israel sinned and God warned them to stop but most did not stop. So in punishment they were captured by their enemy and taken into slavery in Babylon for 70 years. This was predicted by the prophet Jeremiah.
When the people of Israel were freed from slavery in Babylon after 70 years and were allowed to return to their homeland by the Persian King Cyrus and later Darius, their first task was to rebuild the Temple that the Babylonians had destroyed.ItIAfter a long delay they managed to rebuild the Temple and this took four years of hard work with the elders and leaders working alongside the people, the priests, the Levites, and everyone who had left Babylon to come back to the land of Israel.God also has done great things for usG
They worked had and finally the Temple was finished. They had a big celebration and dedicated the Temple to the worship of God.
They made themselves clean, got rid of the sins that had been committed, pledged to follow God faithfully, sacrificed many animals in worship since they remembered that the blood of animals had to be shed in this worship as a substitute to remind them that this was necessary or their blood would be shed for their sins. Liberation meant this shedding of blood just as the blood of the Lamb had to be use to paint their doorposts so that the angel of death would not kill them in the land of Egypt. The Egyptians who did not have this blood of the slain Lamb on their doorposts suffered as all the firstborn in Egypt was killed and the horrified Egyptians hurriedly liberated and freed the people of Israel from slavery and let them leave.
The celebration at the building of this Temple was huge. Everyone of the Jews who had returned from captivity in Babylon joined in. They were all in one unity.
This teaches us that the Temple of God is very important. The Bible tells us that our bodies are the Temple of God. We therefore should get rid of leaven, that is, evil in our lives, remembering that the blood of Jesus was shed on the Cross for He died as a substitute for us so that we did not have to die for our sins. God the Father would forgive us if we accepted the work of Jesus and His dying instead of us and bearing our sins.
We do not have to sacrifice Lambs to suffer and to bear our sins for the perfect sinless Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ has already died and bore our sins.
So let us follow His commandments, live holy lives, get rid of sin by asking Him to forgive us of any we have done. He is faithful and will keep His promise to save us.