 This week we will pause our review of the Book of Mormon and observe Passover for the next two weeks. The Prophet Isaiah predicts that God will set His hand a second time to recover His people - Israel - during the Endtimes at Isaiah 11:11,12. If that is so, then can we expect that God will employ a different method to recover His people then when He recovered/restored His people the first time? This week we will consider Passover as an Endtime paradigm that God uses to recover the House of Israel at the end of the world. Israel’s First Restoration Since God is unchanging and history predicts the future as we see in the prophecy of Isaiah, we can feel pretty confident that God will employ an Endtime scenario to recover Israel similar to Israel’s first restoration. So let’s review the sequence of events of Israel’s first restoration, which occurred at Israel's occupation of Egypt in the Book of Exodus. Bondage – Israel in Apostasy The Book of Exodus opens with Israel in bondage to Egypt. The Torah expressly lists bondage as a covenant curse for violating the Laws of God. So Israel was in a state of apostasy. And we see the cycle of apostasy and restoration at play here at the beginning of Exodus. One of the repeating themes and warnings that we see in the Book of Mormon are that the Gentiles don’t repent and are taken captive or are brought down into bondage. In America, we are seeing this happen right in front of us as the biblical principles of self-government woven into the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution are corrupted and laid aside. In other words, God’s judgments that He declared in the Torah will come to pass in America as they did with Israel anciently. In Endtime prophecy, this bondage is actually worldwide as Satan erects his own world order. Elijah at the Seder Table One of the Jewish traditions practiced at the Passover Seder is setting a place for the return of Elijah. This practice recognizes the prophecy in Malachi when Elijah is to return before Jehovah’s Endtime day of judgment. We see a direct correlation between Malachi’s Elijah and Isaiah’s Endtime Servant who appears at the end of world to vanquish the wicked and who saves the righteous. Who then prepares a righteous remnant to meet the returning Messiah. We also see this Servant wield God’s power to execute these Endtime events. This Endtime Servant is also characterized as a deliverer like Moses. The Abrahamic Covenant One of the conditions that God sets to participate in the Passover is that all males are to be circumcised. Male circumcision is the Sign of the Abrahamic Covenant. Though male circumcision is not required for the Messiah’s redemption from Universal Sin, it is required to be God’s sanctified people who overcome Personal Sin and become His Zion people. We can see this in our Process of Transformation.
The Threshold Covenant Anciently, the door threshold was the place where fathers of families would enter into compacts with the deity that the father recognized as his God. It was also the sacred boundary of dominion where two sovereigns came together to make covenants; hence, the Threshold Covenant. The Threshold Covenant recognized the father as king over his home and family and Jehovah-Yeshua as the father’s and Israel's Savior-God. Messianic Covenant Integral with the Threshold Covenant is the Messiah’s redemption from Universal Sin. The Messianic Covenant was represented by the sacrifice of an unblemished male lamb and its blood applied to the frame of the door at the first Passover. The covenant Sign are the Messiah’s Nail Prints in His hands and feet.  Yeshua's Nail Prints - Sign of the Messianic Covenant Today, instead of sacrificing a male lamb and placing its blood on our doors frames, we can place the Name of God over our front doors to recognize Jehovah-Yeshua as our Savior-God.  So what we have here are the three covenants that initiate a relationship with Jehovah-Yeshua, Israel's Savior-God.
The Passover Seder Anciently the consuming of a meal between parties sealed a contract. We see this same sort of thing with the Lord Sacrament of bread and wine prior to His crucifixion. There is significant symbolism in the foods consumed during the Passover Seder. Flesh of the Lamb – consuming the flesh of the Lamb represents the taking-in of the attributes of the Messiah that we see at John 6:59. Wine is also included in with the Seder. Unleavened Bread – Yeshua referred to himself as the Bread of Life. Most see that leavening in bread here represents sin, but if we look deeper we’ll see that leavening in bread or yeast is a living organism that causes bread to rise. So when we make bread without yeast - we literally make it “without life”. So unleavened breaded represents not only not having immortal life through the Messiah but it also means not receiving life now through God's Law. Bitter Herbs – represents the bitterness of bondage, which can also be linked to not living God’s law that provides freedom. Deliverance The direct result of the Passover anciently was that Israel was freed from bondage, which should be a cue for us as God's judgment of bondage comes upon us during the end of times. Feast of Unleavened Bread After Passover, we have the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days. Though traditionally leaven represents sin and unleavened bread would represent living without sin. We can also see the leavening represents life since yeast is a living organism. So unleavened bread is bread without life and represents what mortality would be without God's Law that gives life and Yeshua's sacrifice that would mean no resurrection or immortal life. First Fruits First Fruits represents paying tribute to our king who is Jehovah-Yeshua. The House of Israel's Second and Endtime Restoration When we look at God's interactions with His people Israel, a logical conclusion is that God will use the same pattern that he used previously to restore/recover His people. And that is why Jehovah made it an everlasting memorial so that it would be a reminder that Jehovah will reclaim His people in the same manner. That being said, it is really surprising for Gentiles - Israel's Mixed Seed to think that they will be an instrument to restore Israel without the ritual observance of Passover..
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