My parents just authored a new picture book for children that provides a Messianic Jewish perspective on Passover, showing how it points to the Messiah. Our friend Melody Hemmer illustrated it with outstanding paintings. We were thrilled to have the books arrive at our house from the press just this past Monday. The new book, Passover Next Door, is now available! Check out the description here.
“This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.” - Exodus 12:2
Passover begins tonight at sundown, the 14th of the month Nisan on the Jewish calendar. (Biblical trivia: this month was originally known as Abib or Aviv (Exodus 13:4, 23:15, 34:18), but ever since the Babylonian captivity it became better known as Nisan (Nehemiah 2:1, Esther 3:7). It’s also spelled Nissan.)
Passover commemorates the redemption of Israel from slavery in Egypt, and it was so important that God told Israel that this shall be the first month (rather like a birthday). The focus is redemption, and in Jewish tradition, the month of Nisan is the month of redemption. Interestingly, also in Jewish tradition, the redemption from Egypt was viewed as a foreshadowing of something even greater:
The Babylonian Talmud (Tractate Rosh HaShana 11a) recounts a prevalent opinion among the sages that, “In Nissan our forefathers were redeemed from Egypt and in Nissan we will be redeemed.”
Redemption was indeed completed in Nisan, by the Jewish Messiah at Passover around 30 AD (Matthew 26:2; Luke 22:7; John 19:14).
There’s good reason to celebrate redemption this month.
Consider this. According to Jewish tradition, the month of Tishri was the month of creation, followed by the fall. Then God redeems Israel, his covenant people, from slavery in Egypt, and by explicit commandment changes the first month from Tishri, the month of creation, to Nisan, the month of redemption. And He promises a future redemption –a prophet like Moses but greater than Moses. This was fulfilled with the redemption of Yeshua in the month Nissan a millennium later. He came to His own people at the time that He had already taught them about.
The psalmist twice (vv. 67, 71) reflects on the learning he received from God’s chastisement. This reflects the teaching expounded in Hebrews 12:5–11, that God as a father corrects us, and though this does not seem “joyous” while it is happening, afterward, the good fruit will become visible. As the psalmist was able to say, “It is good for me” (v. 71).
An important distinction is present between pagan self-flagellation and Biblical affliction-as-discipline. Pagans self-inflicted their suffering, in hopes of personal expiation of sins, attainment of holiness, hopes of showing spiritual superiority, and even with the desire of manipulating the gods in conformity with man’s actions. It was all humanistic: man set his own terms for spiritual attainment. Much of it was also prideful: man can control circumstances and even gods by his own rituals.
By contrast, in Scripture, God administers corrections to teach us. Self-inflicted suffering is unwarranted by the biblical conception of discipline, and is indeed meaningless in that context. Further, it is prideful. Man is not commissioned to determine sanctions upon himself for disobedience, and to do so claims power from God. Where man does have the power to administer sanctions for wrongful conduct, it is expressly delegated power from God, to specific jurisdictional spheres (i.e., family, church, state). There is no general delegation of power to self-flagellate, and to claim such a power is just as wrong as claiming any other power not delegated to man.
Today is the Mendelssohn bicentennial. Felix Mendelssohn (born February 3, 1809, died 1847) was truly one of the great composers of the nineteenth century, and one of the great child prodigies of all time. In his short life, he composed an enormous amount of music. He was also responsible for helping to recover the music of J.S. Bach, which at the time was rarely performed. Mendelssohn considered Bach’s music “the greatest Christian music in the world,” and through Mendelssohn’s advocacy, Bach’s music began to be performed again in what historians have called the “Bach revival” of the nineteenth century.
Among all these accomplishments, one of the lesser known facts about Felix Mendelssohn is that he was a Jewish believer in Jesus as the Messiah. His grandfather, Moses Mendelssohn, was an important Jewish philosopher who tried (rather unsuccessfully) to harmonize Judaism with the humanism of the Enlightenment. Felix’s parents had their children baptized into the Lutheran church out of a desire to assimilate with respectable society rather than conviction, but evidence indicates that Felix embraced faith in Jesus wholeheartedly. (See Patrick Kavanaugh, Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers, for documentation.)
So, happy birthday to a great Messianic Jewish composer today!
As one component of our humorous skit at tonight’s Hanukkah party, we (mostly Mommy) created a Hanukkah poem. I thought you might enjoy it (pardon the sometimes inconsistent stanzas - ’twas typed in haste):
‘Twas the night before Hanukkah, when all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even the mouse;
Except for the mothers, who were stirring like mad,
Potatoes and onions and flour with Dad,
And mixing up gobs and just gobs of the batter,
And frying in oil and watching it splatter
The candles in boxes were carefully stacked,
Behind the menorahs we just had unpacked,
The Hanukkah music we found the last year,
Was lulling the children to sleep with good cheer,
When down in the kitchen they heard such a clatter,
They sprang from their beds to see what was the matter
A scream and a crash could be heard round the house,
When out from the kitchen there scurried a mouse
It seems he was nestled quite snug in the bag
Of potatoes till Dad reached the last one to grab
Then mom screamed and up on a chair she arose
‘Cause with no shoes or socks the mouse ran o’er her toes.
The chase now was on to the children’s delight,
Till they finally caught the mouse - oh what a night!
Dad and the boys donned their coats with the hoods,
And drove with the mouse in the box to the woods.
While mom and the girls cleaned and made a surprise
And when Dad and the boys saw - what joy filled their eyes!
The table was set with the latkes all fried
The candles were lit, and hot chocolate beside:
So they prayed and they ate, then Dad said with delight
Happy Hanukkah to all, and to all a good night!