This month is the last month of the Jewish festival calendar, Adar II. This is the month Jews traditionally prepare for the Passover feast, the first feast of the religious calendar, which is in the first month of the religious calendar. It is a pilgrimage feast, when everyone was supposed to come to the Jerusalem Temple to celebrate, and messengers from the Temple were sent out to help repair roads and cover graves that may have become exposed after the rainy winter season. If a pilgrim unwittingly stumbled on an open grave, he would become unclean and therefore unable to participate in the Passover. Therefore, the work of these men sent out from the Temple was very important. Meanwhile, women at home diligently clean their houses of any leaven, for no leaven can be present at the evening of Passover. There is even a special time when the father goes through the house with a candle to search for any remaining crumbs with leaven, then burns them. Leaven was and is a Biblical and rabbinical symbol for sin. All leaven is burned in a fire. The whole Jewish community is busy in preparation. And when the time comes to celebrate the Passover, everyone is to remember it as if they themselves were being delivered from slavery in Egypt. A first century rabbi said that you have to eat enough horseradish to make you cry, enough to make you feel the bitterness of slavery. Everyone was required to partake of the Passover lamb as the Hebrews in Egypt had when they spread its blood on their lintels to protect them from the Angel that brought death to every firstborn son, and it was to be roasted over open flames.
I think believers can find great relevance in this history. Passover is when Jesus, our Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7), was sacrificed for us. As we enter the spring, a season for new life, we must prepare ourselves to meet Him at His cross. As pilgrims through this world, we must guard ourselves from the uncleanness of the world. As we celebrate the Savior in our hearts, we must purge all sin from our entire being. When I have company over, I usually clean just the rooms where my company will be, and I move the clutter to rooms that will not be used during the visit. We cannot do so with Christ. We must open every closet door and sweep clean every corner of any crumb of sin. He is the guest of our hearts, come in to sup with us and simultaneously be our sustenance. This is the beginning of our journey with Him, when we meet Him at the cross, His hell on earth, where his heart was melted like wax in a flame (Psalm 22:14). This is where every person who claims to be a Christian must have a personal encounter with the Christ, that He saved you from your sin that day He died for you. You cannot claim identity with His death and redemption by saying your father was a pastor or that you have been going to church since you were a child or that you do more good than bad, so He will regard you. You must understand the bitterness of your own slavery to sin and find your redemption in His sacrifice for you. You must experience His salvation yourself. As the only Son of God, His blood spares each one of us who should be taken, each of us symbolically a firstborn son.
So I ask you, have you experienced salvation from slavery to sin through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God (John 1:29)? If not, will you take this as a time to prepare your heart to receive His grace and mercy? Knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior is the beginning of your days in a new life, and we are all required to come to Him and meet Him where He ordained us to gather at the beginning of our born-again journey, the cross, the Christ (Ephesians 1:3-10).
Now my redemption begins,
The inception of my days,
Now is the first of my time,
This moment and always.
Here I convene in the place
You chose to place Your Name,
To here I pilgrimage again,
This spot ever the same.
Cleanse me once and wash my feet,
That I be kept unstained
From the lingering filth, this road,
Its death that has remained.
Purge my heart of any sin
That lurks in corners dark.
Enter into all my doors
With Your flaming spark.
Do not be content with me
Til I am Your desire,
Sin burned away and I washed clean,
By Your Word, Lamp, Your Fire.
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Learning to Love 