Every major event in Yeshua’s life happened on a biblical holiday. He died as the Passover lamb, and the Last Supper was actually a Passover Seder.

Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting gets it wrong—this was a Middle Eastern meal, yet everyone looks European. They’re eating fish and fluffy white bread, not Passover lamb and unleavened bread. It completely misses the kosher details.

In Egypt, God told Israel to slaughter a lamb and put its blood on their doorposts. Why a lamb? In Egyptian culture, the ram was a sacred symbol of their gods. By applying the blood, Israel was declaring that Egypt’s gods were powerless before the God of Abraham.

The lamb had to be without spot or blemish—tamid in Hebrew. Its numerical value is 490, the same as Bethlehem. This points to Yeshua, the spotless Lamb, born in Bethlehem, who redeems us by His blood.

Passover begins this year on April 1, the 14th of Nissan. In Hebrew, 14 is written with two letters—yud and dalet—which spell yad, meaning “hand.” God redeemed Israel with a mighty hand. Yeshua echoed this in John 10:28: “No one can snatch them out of My hand.” His pierced hands are our guarantee of redemption.

May this whet your appetite for Passover.

Thought for the Night

In Egypt, the blood on the doorposts wasn’t random—it formed the shape of a Hebrew letter. In ancient script, the letter tav was written like a cross. It was the symbol of ownership, used to mark domestic animals so they wouldn’t be mistaken for wild.

When Israel applied the blood, their ownership was being transferred. They had belonged to Pharaoh for centuries. Now, they belonged to God. Paul echoes this: “You have been bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Redemption means being purchased off the slave block. Yeshua paid that price to free us from the world, the flesh, and the devil.

The tav appears again in Ezekiel. God tells angels to mark the righteous in Jerusalem with a tav so they would be spared judgment. Once again, the cross-shaped mark meant deliverance.

The tav is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet—the seal. It represents truth and finality. Yeshua calls Himself the Aleph and the Tav, the Beginning and the End (Revelation 1:8). The One who shaped the cross with His own hands gave His life on a cross shaped like a tav.

We are sealed by the blood of the Lamb, just as Israel was sealed in Egypt. We are marked with the messianic seal of truth—and we belong to Him.