Passover: ‘Once We Were Slaves—Now We Are Free’

Today, April 13, is the last day of Passover 2023. This Jewish feast commemorates the Angel of Death passing over the houses of the Jews enslaved in Egypt. That night, the firstborn of all Egyptian households died, but the Jews ate the lamb and unleavened bread in the manner prescribed by the Lord God, and spread the lamb’s blood on their doorposts, and so were spared. After that, tyrannical Pharaoh finally let the Israelites go free to seek the land the Lord promised to them.

”And you shall keep [the lamb] until the fourteenth day of this month: and the whole multitude of the children of Israel shall sacrifice it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood thereof, and put it upon both the side posts, and on the upper door posts of the houses, wherein they shall eat it…The first day shall be holy and solemn, and the seventh day shall be kept with the like solemnity: you shall do no work in them, except those things that belong to eating. And you shall observe the feast of the unleavened bread: for in this same day I will bring forth your army out of the land of Egypt, and you shall keep this day in your generations by a perpetual observance.”

God bless all those completing their celebration of Passover!