The Easter Week or Passover that Jesus Christ – Yahshua lived joined extreme persecution and the great victory over death through His resurrection. Each experience however has a previous event in the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Israel. The lives of the people of God in history would be adding events that would build up the Easter Week - Passover, until reaching what we live today as the Passion of the Christ, while we are persecuted as Biblical Christians in Passover – Easter Week, in an antichrist world that reaches its end, in the fulfilling of the prophecies revealed by God through centuries, in the Bible.

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or Israel lived their lives with God in a way that the nations around them did not understand, because they did not know God, as it is happening today in most of the West, as in the rest of cultures, with the opposition and incomprehension of a humanity enemy of His Creator, where now the demons fight freely against the Church, and against man, planting chaos, as they did in the first century.

 

PASSOVER OF THE PATRIARCHS ABRAHAM, ISAAC AND ISRAEL

Abraham had his loved son Isaac, son of the promise of Yahweh, from his wife Sara when she was ninety, Genesis 17:17. God commanded Abraham that he would offer his loved son, the one he had in his old age, after an entire live waiting the fulfilment of that promise of God, and he obeyed God. If the angel of the Lord hadn't stopped Abraham he would have sacrificed his son Isaac on Mount Moriah, the one that latter would become Temple Mount, possibly in the place where our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified.

The Lord blessed Abraham for his obedience, He made him father of nations and multiplied his descendants like the stars of the heaven; in his seed all nations of the earth would be blessed, Genesis 22:18. Abraham did not avoid offering Isaac in sacrifice, which in its historic context we may suppose that some cultures then, use to offer human sacrifice; what explanation would Abraham give Sara and his people? but he only looked onto God not counting on the consequences, the hate, nor the persecution. Then, God, our Father would give His Son Jesus Christ – Yahshua on the Cross for us. What do we think of this, and that do think those to whom we tell and invite to come to God through the Gospel?

The Lord blessed Isaac, that child who went with his father to that Mount Moriah and did not fight with him, because being Abraham old and Isaac young, he could have escaped from his father and go free from the sacrifice. But he did not do it, but he let his father tie him, for he was aware that he feared God who he loved, a faith that he would also have received by then in his heart. In the same way Jesus Christ – Yahshua would convene with the Father to give His life voluntarily, because He loves us and the Father, to save us, Isaiah 53. Who has believed in our report? Things which angels desire to look into. Isaac married Rebecca and from them Jacob was born, called by God, Israel.

The Lord blessed Israel who through his zeal for God obtained the primogeniture, the blessing that his brother despised and would sell for a plate of lentils. Hated for his love to God he would have to flee far, but God appeared to him, like to Abraham, in the famous dream of the “Jacob’s ladder”, which standing on earth reached Heaven and through which angels of the Lord where ascending and descending, Genesis 28:12, but above the ladder God was standing who spoke to him, and found grace from God, and promised the land where he was laying, which would become Israel, and he called the place Betel (House of God). Latter he was enriched and had two wives, Lea and Rachel, and became the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, amongst which is Judah, from which the Messiah Jesus Christ – Yahshua would descend, Matthew 1. Jacob fought with the angle of the Lord in Peniel and prevailed, according to the Biblical revealed story: “...And He said, “...Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Genesis 32:18. He reconciled with his brother Esau. Prophesised over his sons, went to Egypt do to famine. Jacob, now Israel thought he would never see his son Joseph again, the one who loved the Lord.

Joseph, another of the hated for the sake of God is the one called to save the others, as the story tells about his loved son Joseph, after being sold by his brothers as slave and serve in the Egyptian prison. Due to the gift of interpreting dreams on behalf of God, was called to serve as interpreter to Pharaoh in the famous dream of the seven fat cows and the seven gaunt cows, interpretation that made him governor of Egypt. Jacob comes to life again when he knows about his son and glorifies God as he sees His plan to save his people.

 

THE EVENT FOR WHICH WE ARE PERSECUTED

Persecution against Christians has a spiritual origin and it comes from the love to God, the same love that the patriarchs had for God and His Word. The war is fought in the celestial dimension but has earthly repercussion. The battle of powers can be seen more clearly every time and it is reaching to the end of days, as we find in the deterioration of humanity, in forced marches in these last years. Society of all cultures increase their chaos in all ways, something that the Text reveals to us about the fall of Babylon, a key name of civilization that is found in Revelation 18. Easter or Passover today announces, in this, our time, close to the end, that the plan of God is our salvation in His Son Jesus Christ – Yahshua, and that who believes in Him, even though he dies, he shall live, because He is the resurrection, John 11:25. The resurrection of Jesus Christ- Yahshua grants us access to the new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells, 2 Peter 3:13, which are going to be established for eternity. To announce this message produces that we are persecuted, because we announce the celestial order, against demonic chaos, because we announce the new and eternal order of things under the righteousness, the moral and the love of God.

 

CONCLUSION

This Easter Week – Passover, one year to go to the first generation of 70 years since the state of Israel (state which exists as fulfilment of Genesis 17:8, Isaiah 43:5 and Romans 11) and in the same year of the 500 anniversary of the Protestant Reform, which initiated what should be the return to the Christianity of the beginning, the world attacks Christians more every time and the hate of the world against those who identify themselves with the Bible and the plan of God, and of his salvation through His Son Jesus Christ – Yahshua.

The Easter Week, or Passover is the message that changed the destiny of everyone who believes in God and in His salvation through Jesus Christ – Yahshua and His work, for His love for us, to the point to give His Only Begotten and loved eternal Son Jesus Christ – Yahshua on the Cross on that Mount Golgotha, or Calvary, or also Moriah, where once, almost 6.000 years ago a man of faith called Abraham, went to offer to God in obedience, the promised son who was born from his beloved Sara in the old age of both. Let us have that faith of Abraham which awaits an entire life, the faith of Isaac who let his father tie him in the altar to be given to the Father, the faith of Israel who fought with the Father and prevailed, and the faith of Joseph who, hated by all, lived in the hope of God. Let us carry the message that changes the man of every time, the Gospel, even though we are persecuted like the patriarchs, like the prophets, like the first church, like we, all Christians are today, some to death, for there is no bigger love than the work of Christ who died for us, raised from the dead and will soon return to establish the Paradise, precious and with righteousness, which is the Kingdom of God to which we are all called through faith in His work on the Cross. Easter Week, Passover, the Passion of the Christ, Via Crucis of remembrance, in our heart until He returns, for His glory and for His grace.

“...For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. Amen!