I know that even before God created man, He knew man would sin, so He already had a plan of redemption in place. I just never thought that there was more to it than that. Until last Sunday.
As you know, last Sunday was Easter, and as the sermon began, I was reminded that Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection were at the time of the Jewish Passover—that remembrance celebration of Israel’s deliverance out of bondage from Egypt—when the Lord passed through all of Egypt killing every first-born male of man and cattle.
BUT . . .
The Israelites were told to kill a lamb and apply its blood to the sides and tops of the door frames and then hunker down for the night. After midnight, when the Lord passed through the land of Egypt to kill the firstborn, He would “passover” those homes with the blood. The blood sacrifice would save them and Egypt, crushed by the death of their first-borns, would demand Israel leave.
So it made sense that Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection would be at the time of the Jewish Passover, for just as blood delivered one nation, Christ’s blood offered deliverance from bondage for an entire world for all eternity for everyone who accepted that blood sacrifice.
BUT . . .
I hadn’t quite realized why Passover was when it was—until I remembered that there are “no coincidences.”
Passover is always in the spring,—during the Jewish month of Nisan, and Spring is considered the season of rebirth—for that is exactly what Easter celebrates—our new lives in Christ because of what Christ did. We are a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
It shouldn't surprise me that the God who breathed us into existence, knew of our rebellion, created the seasons, and planned our redemption would do so so perfectly.
My Amish perpetual calendar had this saying on March 23: “Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.”
It certainly is, but Spring is also a reminder of what He can do with soiled and sinful souls.