Freshers week has been great. I have joined the Fencing club and the Rugby club (they have a tour in Barbados this summer!) My room mate in halls is a Christian. He invited me to his Christian Union meeting yesterday. I went along not wanting to offend but have come back very upset. They celebrated their communion service “only for those who are Christians”, exclusive or what! What really got me was that they have copied elements of our Passover. How dare they take the heart of our faith and muck about with it. Their explanation of how their Jesus was the one who fulfilled the Passover is quite difficult to take. Could you talk to Rabbi Simeon and get him to send me an email explaining our Passover and its history, then I can set them all straight.

See you in two weeks,

David

The Rabbi visited last Tuesday and I showed him your email. He wants to know why you weren’t paying attention in your lessons at the synagogue! Mind you he was delighted to have the opportunity to explain again. His notes are attached.

Hope you are still speaking to your room mate. Rabbi’s notes should help.

Dad

Open Attachment – Exodus history, Rabbi Simeon

The history of our people is a long and painful one, full of trouble and misinterpretation. I am aware of the Christian claims about their so called Messiah, Jesus but will come to that in another letter.

Our people were chosen by God when God called Abraham out of Ur and promised him descendants more numerous than the sand and the stars. As you know God blessed Abraham, then Isaac and Jacob and was with them until Jacob and his family went to Egypt. There in Egypt the twelve tribes of Israel grew in number to become a great nation. However the Egyptian Pharaoh forced us into slavery, a slavery that brought suffering and torment to our people. You can find the story in Exodus. How are we to be freed, for slavery surely was never what God intended for us? We had been promised a land flowing with milk and honey where we could worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For 430 years we were slaves to a regime of brutality and oppression. In those 400 years God was silent and we suffered. The Pharaoh was worshipped as a deity, his people worshipped hundreds of false gods and it seemed that they had the upper hand. In their brutal way they tried to curb population growth by having the boys killed. This scheme failed because of the brave Hebrew midwives. Into this world of violence and oppression Moses was born, the one whom God had chosen to lead us to freedom.

Moses was a special baby (Ex 2:1) whose parents risked everything to keep him alive. God however had a plan to train up this child to be the leader He wanted. He was found in a floating basket by an Egyptian princess who raised him as her own. There in Pharaoh’s court Moses learnt the ways of the evil regime and as he grew up he struck out for freedom and killed an Egyptian guard. This act of violence saw him fleeing for his life to the desert.

In the desert Moses joined the family of Reuel, a priest of Midian and there in the desert he learnt the ways of survival until at last he was ready. God called him through a burning bush to go and set our people free. At this moment in our history our view of God is transformed. God is no longer out there watching, he is here to intervene. He gives his name to Moses as the I AM. The God who is constantly with us, a God we cannot define, yet a God who hears and answers the cries of our hearts. So Moses, the man of God’s choice, empowered by God to produce signs and wonders returned to Egypt to take on the Pharaoh.

What happened next is the stuff of legend. Pharaoh would not let us go so through Moses God brought against Pharaoh 10 plagues. Each plague an apparently natural event yet controlled by Moses in when it started and stopped. Each plague striking a blow against the pantheon of Egyptian gods. Each plague demonstrating the power of our God Yahweh and the folly of worshipping Egyptian gods. Each plague systematically destroying the land, economy and people of Egypt.

By the time the last plague was announced Egypt was decimated but the last plague was no natural event. God struck down the first born in all of Egypt. At last we have come to the Passover. A way to avoid death was provided by God. This time not just to our people but to everyone who obeyed the word of God. As you should know from Exodus 12 each household was to choose a lamb, a spotless male lamb and watch it for 4 days to see that it was indeed clean. The lamb was to be killed at twilight and its blood painted on the doorposts and lintels of the house. The lamb was then roasted with bitter herbs to remind us of our bitter slavery. We ate unleavened bread to remind us to the haste of our departure. We ate with our cloaks tucked into our belts just itching to leave Egypt and this meal was called Passover.

Through the blood of the male lamb the life of the first born of each house was saved. It seems that God was willing to accept the lamb as a substitute. Our people, who obeyed God, were indeed saved from death and that night left Egypt. A freedom that was to be short lived. A few days later we find the nation trapped between the sea and a vengeance seeking Pharaoh. Once again God through the man of his choice, Moses provides a way out. Moses, just obeyed, the people, just stood and watched and God our great I Am not distant but present God performed His wonders again. A way through the sea was made. Our nation passed through the sea that should have caused our death yet instead provided a way through to life. The Exodus is truly about our sovereign God and His work in saving His chosen people. Salvation from an oppressive evil ruler. Salvation by breaking down all the power of Egyptians. Salvation by the blood of a clean male lamb. Salvation through the sea to freedom. This is the work of God alone, the work of God on our behalf. Our history shows us our God at work and He is to be praised.

We have our history and our Passover to celebrate. What can your Christians have with their crucified teacher that can compare to God’s work in our nations history?

Yours

Rabbi Simeon

I attended your CU meeting last week and was very disturbed by your communion service. I feel that you have robbed elements of the central meal of my faith, the Passover and have mistakenly applied it. Please find attached a document putting things in their proper historical context. I would be interested in your comments.

Yours

David Samuels

I am sorry that you found our service upsetting, and have read with great interest the document that you attached. In reply I have tried to take the events already described so clearly and accurately by Rabbi Simeon and see them in the light of a greater story. The story of Salvation, not just of your people the Jews but all people.

The story of the exodus is a picture of God and His work of salvation that was achieved through Jesus Christ. In Genesis 22:18 Abraham is promised that all nations will be blessed through his seed, as a singular word, and that seed, the child of the promise is Jesus (Gal 3: ). As we look at Jesus life the parallels with the life of Moses are striking to say the least. Jesus was born, a descendant of Abraham, into a nation that was oppressed by the Roman Empire. Within a year of His birth King Herod had tried to have Him killed, circumstances similar to Moses childhood. Jesus too was a special child, announced by angels as the Messiah, worshipped by wise men as a king and growing up in a difficult and dangerous world. Christians believe that Jesus was more than just a man. He was the Son of God. God Himself announced this at Jesus baptism “This is my beloved Son with Him I am well pleased” ( Matt 3:17).Jesus is the God who met Moses at the burning bush, now present and involved, the I AM. John puts it like this “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling amongst us ( Jn 1:14). The New Testament teaches that Jesus had come to set not just His people free but the whole world free from the oppression of sin. Just like your people in Egypt all men are slaves to sin (Ro 3:23), dominated by the evil regime they live under yet unaware of how deadly it is. Like Moses, Jesus ministry involved signs and wonders. This time not attacking the gods of Egypt but systematically showing His authority over our world and the evil powers that rule it.

In Jesus first miracle recorded in John, He turns water into wine, a blessing, whilst Moses turns water into blood, a curse. Jesus next two miracles are miracles of healing. He heals both the nobleman’s son and the invalid by the pool, quite the opposite of the plague of boils. Here Jesus demonstrates His power over sickness. Jesus’ 4th miracle in John is the feeding of the 5000. Whilst Jesus gives abundantly to the crowd, Moses takes away with the plagues of frogs, flying insects and dying cattle. In John 6, Jesus walks on water and calms a storm. Moses however brings destructive hail. Jesus next miracle is to give sight to a blind man, bringing light and joy and we see Moses calling down the plague of darkness. The final sign recorded by John is the raising of Lazarus. Here Jesus brings life whilst the final plague to hit Egypt is the death of the first born. We can see through John’s account of Jesus that He had total power over all things. How He brought down and demolished the powers of darkness and displayed His own might, the might of the great I AM!

The plagues in Egypt culminated in the death of the first born son, but God had provided a way for those who trusted God to survive. Rabbi Simeon described so clearly the Passover and in your Passover we see God showing us again the saving work of Jesus. Jesus a male, living amongst His people so they could testify to His perfect life. Jesus, who was taken and crucified, His blood smearing the upright and cross piece of His cross. Jesus, who if we trust in His substitutionary death, will save us. Jesus truly is the fulfilment of the Passover. That is why, on the night He was betrayed, at the end of the Passover meal He took bread and wine and gave us a new meal to remember him. The bread shows us His humanity as we remember His body nailed to the cross. The wine shows us His deity as He died; His blood was shed, to take away our sin, the work of a perfect substitute. No wonder we celebrate the communion, it means so much to us. Moses and His life and work are a mere shadow of what Jesus, Gods son accomplished on the day He died for us. Of course Jesus did not remain dead but rose triumphantly to life 3 days later, proving His final victory over sin, death and hell.

As you can see, both stories are true, but the salvation story of Jesus has an eternal perspective. The offer of not just life, but eternal life!

Where do you stand, David?

Yours

Peter

What an experience these last few days have been, as I have come to understand my history, in the bigger context of God’s work of salvation. It has quite literally been life transforming! My room mate has used both your letters and the rest of the Bible to help me see that it is true. I feel like those friends of Jesus, on the way to Emmaus whose hearts were warmed and whose eyes were opened, as Jesus explained how he was the fulfilment of all the Old Testament.

I have been studying and you both stopped too soon. It seems to me that the crossing of the Red Sea is a picture of what has happened to me. I have passed from death to life, from sin to salvation but that is not the end. It’s just the beginning. As God led my people to Sinai and entered into a covenant relationship with them, He has done the same for me. Just as God through the Tabernacle came to live among His people, so too, God has come to live in me through His Holy Spirit. As God gave His Law to His people, a new way of living completely separated from the influence and ideologies of their Egyptian slave masters so He has called me to a new life. To live for Him, not because I have to but because He has done so much for me, that it is the least I can offer. Oh I am free to serve Jesus. He took the initiative, His power alone has saved me and I dedicate my life to Him.

David

Ps I want to get baptized