Verse: Revelation 2:4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
Read pp. 20-28 Messiah in the Feasts of Israel by Sam Nadler
On the day before the tenth plague was released, Moses was instructing Israel on the details of how
they were to kill the sacrificial lambs and place the covenant welcome for YHWH on their door posts and
sills. At that time YHWH included the instructions to keep that particular day and the week following as a
memorial day forever.
Exodus 12:14
This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout
your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. ESV
The instructions for the memorial day came even before the actual event transpired. That’s how
important this event is in the mind of God!
This day marked the day of deliverance that Moses was commissioned to deliver. It was the birth of
Israel and a sign for the ultimate deliverance through Jesus the Christ—the Lamb of God and Savior of
the world. Remembering how it all begins is critical for us to keep a grateful heart, remain humble, and
stay teachable so we can attain the completion of every covenant provision that is yet to come.
The command for the memorial day in Exodus is the origination of the tradition of the Passover Seder. It
is the oldest and most widely-known celebration for the Jews. “Seder” means “order” and it is an
ordered meal shared by families that include rich symbolism and the explanation of how and why God
delivered Israel with “an outstretched arm and mighty acts of judgment” (Exodus 6:6). In the next
chapters, we will explore some of the significant elements of the Passover Seder in more detail.
Passover also represents the memorial day for our personal deliverance into the kingdom of God
because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross at Passover. This day we remember when we stepped out
of darkness and saw a great light (Isaiah 9:2). It is the day we became fellow citizens with the saints and
members of the household of God (Ephesians 2:19). It is also the day that salvation came to our house,
as we also became a son of Abraham. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:9-10)
and this is God’s delight that we find the Son and step into His eternal benefits.
When Moses first returned to Egypt, Israel did not know or trust YHWH, they were hopeless and
despondent from the oppression of their hard labor, but that all changed by the time the last of the
plagues was about to be released. On the day of Passover their faith was very pure and simple. It was
their first love. They completely trusted God with their whole heart, the fear of Egypt was gone, and
they had no other desire or agenda to compete with His plan.
Remember your first love (Revelation 2:4): this is the foundation of the Passover memorial. We must
remember how we started, to tell our children how God acted on our behalf, and to broadcast the good
news of our deliverance. This memorial is the “beginning of our days”.
Revelation 2:2-7:
“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those
who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them
to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have
not grown weary. But I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If
not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this
you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree
of life, which is in the paradise of God.” ESV
Passover is our first love--it is the day we found Christ. No matter what the date or the situation, the
experience and the results are the same. We are born from above. YHWH tells us to reckon that month
the beginning of days. He resets our life when we find our deliverance in Messiah.
Philippians 3:13-16
But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press
on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who
are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to
you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. ESV
Ephesians 2:1-7
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course
of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the
sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out
the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of
mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even
when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have
been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ESV
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