It is a night of keeping-watch for YHWH, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; that is this night for YHWH, a keeping-watch of all the Children of Israel, throughout their generations.
Exodus 12:42
The Five Books of Moses, tr. Everett Fox
Keep Watch! This is God’s command concerning Passover for all generations. It is the context from which we understand Jesus’ final night in Gethsemane as He asked His disciples to watch and pray with Him. It was in keeping with the command of His Father concerning the very event that foreshadowed the great deliverance to come through His blood. As we approach Passover this year, may we be encouraged afresh to watch and pray in anticipation of mighty deliverance, signs, wonders and miracles.
Exodus 11:4 says, “At about midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die.” The Lord prescribed that the Lamb be slain and the blood be applied to the doorposts and lintel at twilight, however, the Israelites were to watch with their belts girded, their staffs in hand and their sandals on their feet in readiness and expectation for a great deliverance at the midnight hour. The time given was not exact and actually can be translated as “in the middle of the night,” yet the precise moment of deliverance had been written into God’s calendar for generations. The Jewish sages write:
…the Exodus was perfectly calibrated to conform to the prophecy to Abraham, for Isaac was born on the fifteenth of Nissan, and exactly four hundred years later, precisely at the deadline — at the end — of the prescribed time (v. 41), the Jews were liberated. The actual sojourn in Egypt lasted 210 years (Rashi). Accordingly, the verse’s reference to 430 years as the time they dwelled in Egypt means that the Egyptian exile had been decreed 430 years before the Exodus. Rambam cites this chronology as an illustration of how prophecies are often understood completely only after they come to pass. Until the Exodus, it was not known if the 400 years were to be dated from the prophecy to Abraham, the birth of Isaac, Jacob’s descent into Egypt, or the beginning of the Egyptian servitude. In this regard, R' Bachya notes that we too...should take heart and have faith that the prophecies of the Messianic Redemption will come true. And when that happens, we will understand the full meaning — and the manner of complete fulfillment — of all the prophecies.
The Lord instructed another famous watchman, “Write the vision and make it plain…for the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry” (Habakkuk 2:2-3).
In the same way that the children of Israel applied the blood in anticipation of deliverance, we have appropriated the blood of the Passover Lamb on the doors and lintels of our hearts. The price has been paid, and the promise of your deliverance, your healing, your salvation and every provision for your household stands. Psalm 105: 37 says, “He also brought them out with silver and gold, and there was none feeble among them.” God instructed them to take a lamb for a household. These promises are not just for us as individuals, but we can appropriate them for our families, our cities and our nation. In an instant God delivered, healed and provisioned over 3 million people from slavery and bondage from the most powerful nation in the civilized world. His blood has set us free. Do not dwell on the darkness of the night, or in the seeming delay of His arrival. Let us remain alert as we watch and pray for the fulfillment of His promises to us, to our families, to our nation and to His Church in these last days.
“At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You, because of Your righteous judgments.” Psalm 119:62
There is a long tradition of “watchmen” so named from the time of King David’s reign. David made a habit of “the watch,” which came about as the original Passover watch was extended as a spiritual discipline of personal experience and duty throughout the year. Many times David sings of the watch. Psalm 63:6 says, “I meditate on You in the night watches”; Psalm 16:7-8, “My heart also instructs me in the night seasons”; and in Messianic Psalm 22:2 foreshadowing our Paschal Lamb’s watch, “O My God, I cry…in the night season, and am not silent.” The Gemara quotes David as saying, “I was never sleeping at midnight,” and reports that his harp would awaken him every night as the midnight wind would blow over the strings, thus arousing him for another night of watching. This practice of watching was taken up by the Priesthood and is reflected in Psalm 134, “Behold, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who by night stand in the house of the Lord! Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord. The Lord who made the heavens and the earth bless you from Zion!” Many Hassidic sects still hold the watch to this day.
“I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent, and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” Isaiah 62:6-7
The Jewish sages write of the “keeping-watch” on that first Passover: “The word has two meanings in this verse. The first time, it refers to God’s pledge to Abraham; He reserved the night for the miracle and anticipated its coming throughout the 430 years. The second time the word is used, it refers to the protection from the plague that God extended to the Jews that night. From then on, the first night of Pesach became a time when God protects Israel.” This promise has its ultimate fulfillment as the Paschal Lamb that takes the sins of the whole world was slain on the cross at Calvary. His blood poured out brought redemption from the judgment of God due our sin and set all who are covered by its power free from the bondage to sin and death. It is this same covenant-keeping God who is “keeping-watch” over the natural descendants of Abraham to this day. May we be faithful as watchmen on the walls, praying for the protection of Israel and the Jewish people and reminding the Lord of His promises to make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. May we be faithful in praying for our nation to continue to bless Israel. May we pray that we elect leaders who will fulfill our nation’s destiny as a friend, ally and support of Israel and the Jewish people.
"Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, 'My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.' Matthew 26:36-38
2,000 years ago, on the eve of Passover, Jesus instructed His intimate friends to keep watch with Him, for on that night He had promised to visit His people with a mighty deliverance. The Lamb asks the same of us today. May we encourage you to join our Paschal Lamb in the Garden of Prayer this Passover season as we anticipate and keep watch for the fulfillment of a great deliverance from all of our enemies. Though it tarry, wait for it, for our God will come in the middle of the darkest hour and keep all of His promises to us, to our children, to our nation, to Israel and His Church.
