⛪ Lesson 5: Passover
📘 5.6 Summary
✨ Passover: Remembrance of Redemption and Judgment
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🟦 Introduction
Passover is much more than a Jewish festival – it is a spiritual foundation for understanding redemption, grace, and divine judgment. In this lesson, we see how God gave His people hope and identity in the midst of plagues and judgments. Through symbols such as the blood of the lamb, unleavened bread, and the shared meal, God’s character is revealed: both just and merciful. These principles are as relevant today as they were then.
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📖 Bible Study
🔹 5.1 Another Plague – The Final Warning
The three days of darkness were God’s final invitation to repentance. But Pharaoh’s hardened heart revealed the depth of human rebellion. Moses did not react out of egoistic anger but with divine justice.
🔹 5.2 Passover – The Meal of Remembrance and Hope
God prepared His people spiritually before delivering them physically. The command to celebrate the Passover meal was an act of trust, even before the exodus. The blood on the doorposts was a sign of faith – not of works.
🔹 5.3 Pesach – Sign of the Blood, Sign of Redemption
Every element of the feast – the blood, the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs – was a foreshadowing of the true Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. The Old Testament salvation became a shadow of the greater redemption through the cross.
🔹 5.4 Passing the Torch
Parents were not only to tell stories but to pass on Passover as a living experience. Faith was not transmitted by books alone but through personal participation and remembrance.
🔹 5.5 Divine Judgment – When Justice Is Revealed
The tenth plague struck the heart of Egyptian power – the firstborn. It revealed the powerlessness of all idols. God’s judgment was a response to decades of oppression and murder – not arbitrary, but deep justice.
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✨ Spiritual Principles
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God is patient but just.
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Faith is shown through obedience.
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God’s protection is real and tangible.
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Remembrance strengthens faith.
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Judgment is part of redemption.
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🧩 Application for Daily Life
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Expect God’s intervention: Even if we are still “in Egypt”, we may already celebrate in faith.
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Set signs: Like the blood on the doorpost – our decisions, words, and actions should reflect our faith.
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Live out traditions: Children learn faith through lived experiences – consciously invite them into spiritual moments.
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Trust God in crises: His grace protects, even when judgment is near.
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Judge justly, not harshly: Like Moses – sorrowful over judgment, not triumphing in it.
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✅ Conclusion
Passover is a call to remembrance, repentance, and hope. It unites judgment with grace and shows: God acts faithfully. The story of Israel is also our story – a story of blood that saves. The exodus from Egypt becomes a picture of our liberation through Jesus Christ. And as then, we are not only to receive but also to pass it on.
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💭 Thought of the Day
“God’s grace protects us from judgment – not because we are worthy, but because the blood of the Lamb speaks.”
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✍️ Illustration – – The Night of the Lanterns
How a Child Carried the Light in a Dark City
Chapter 1 – The Silent Festival
Chengdu, South China – Spring 2022
The city was full of colors, but in Meilin’s heart it was quiet. In the narrow alleys of the old town, lanterns hung in rows, children ran laughing with flickering lights through the night, and everywhere the scent of sticky rice balls and roasted sesame filled the air.
But for Meilin, nothing was like it used to be. Since her mother’s death, the house had been quiet. Her father was far away, somewhere on a construction site in the desert. Only Grandma Lin remained – with old songs and stories that felt like faded ink paintings.
“Tonight is not just the Lantern Festival,” Grandma whispered, “It is also the night of deliverance.”
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Chapter 2 – The Forgotten Blood
The Story of a People – and a Grandmother
Meilin watched as Lin took down the red silk cloth from the shelf. Inside was a worn Chinese New Testament, filled with handwritten notes in fine script.
“In Egypt,” Lin began, “a people were in bondage. And God sent signs, warnings… and finally – judgment. But He told them: ‘Mark your door with the blood of a lamb. Then the angel of death will pass over you.’”
Meilin swallowed. “That sounds… harsh.”
Lin nodded. “Yes. But it wasn’t an angry God. It was a just God. And He gave a way out – the blood. A sign of trust.”
“Like a code?” Meilin asked.
“No,” Lin said softly. “Like a decision. Faith made visible.”
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Chapter 3 – The Red Lantern
An Ancient Sign in a New Time
That night, as the power went out in parts of the city, Meilin remembered her grandmother’s words. The lanterns flickered, some went out completely.
Lin suddenly stood up, took a piece of red ribbon from her old sewing box, and tied it outside on the door.
“Like back then,” she said.
Meilin watched. “Do you really think it helps?”
“It’s not the ribbon that helps,” Lin answered, “but it reminds me whom we trust.”
Soon after, a radio alert announced a gas leak in a nearby district – an explosion had damaged several homes, just a few streets away.
“Why not us?” Meilin asked.
“Maybe… because God sees us,” Lin whispered. “And because tonight, you are the one carrying the light.”
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Chapter 4 – The Child Who Carried the Light
Faith in Motion
The next day Meilin decided to take the red ribbon with her to school. Some kids laughed. Others asked questions.
“Is it for a project?” the teacher asked.
“No,” Meilin said, “It’s… a sign. That I believe God protects. Like He did my people – and maybe even me – on that night.”
The teacher, a quiet woman, looked at Meilin for a long time. Then she whispered, “My grandmother told me the same story. But I had forgotten it.”
That evening, Meilin asked her grandmother to celebrate Passover with her. Not like in Egypt, not with lamb and herbs. But with a silent prayer, a piece of bread – and a new light.
They lit a lantern. And this time, it burned for more than tradition.
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Chapter 5 – Living Memory
Passing on the Torch
Months passed. Her father returned. The house was small, but now full of life. Every year at the Lantern Festival, Meilin and her grandmother tied a red ribbon on the door.
It became a family sign – not against misfortune, but for faith. And every time someone asked, Meilin told her story: of a dark night, an old memory – and a God who saves.
She had understood: God’s grace is like the light in the lantern – visible, carryable, passable.
Final Thought
The red ribbon was no magic – it was a confession.
Like the blood on the doorposts: a sign of trust in the God who still sees, saves, and reminds.
