Steve Conover: Thank you for joining us for The Friends of Israel Today. I'm Steve Conover. With me is Chris Katulka. I want to encourage you to take note of our web address, foiradio.org. You can listen to over nine years worth of content on the site, featuring Chris Katulka's teaching, and insightful interviews with a host of great guests. Again, that's foiradio.org.

Chris Katulka: Steve, this week actually, Jewish people are in the middle of Passover. And today, we're going to be looking at Exodus 12 and the three original elements of the Passover Seder. Also, for our listeners, we have a free resource for you. We're going to share with you how you can get that free resource in a moment, so you want to be sure to stick around to hear how you can do that. But this will be a great, insightful time of looking at the three original elements of the Passover Seder, as our Jewish friends are preparing and entering into their Passover season.

Steve Conover: But first in the news, tech columnist Hillel Fuld reported on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it's not just those who believe in God who see his hand protecting Israel. Fuld highlighted Maximilian Abitbol, professor of physics, who said, "What happened in Israel was nothing less than the scale of the splitting of the Red Sea." Professor Avit Bol is speaking of the 99.9% success rate of Israel's anti-ballistics, where they shot down Iranian missiles. To him, there's no earthly explanation.

Chris Katulka: Well, Steve, here's my take. He's right. There is no earthly explanation. The manufacturers of Iron Dome and David's Sling promise, at most, a 90% success rate. God did say in Psalm 121:4, "Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep." Well, God's protective hand is always over the nation of Israel.

Chris Katulka: While the Passover season is upon the Jewish community all around the world. Now, normally Passover and Easter sync up with one another, but this year it's an entire month apart, and there's a reason for this. It's a leap year in the Hebrew calendar. And you might be thinking to yourself, "Well, how does a leap year create a month-long separation between Easter and Passover?" Well, the Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar that is constantly working to course-correct against the solar calendar. And the way it course-corrects is through its own version of the leap year.

In the solar version of the calendar, we implement the Leap Day at the end of February every four years. So, every four years we add February 29th to the calendar. Well, in the Hebrew calendar, they add an entire month. The Hebrew calendar has seven leap years every 19 years in years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19 of this 19 year cycle, there are seven leap years, that they technically extend the month of Adar, that comes just before the month of Nisan, which is the month of Passover. That's the month Passover is in, Nisan.

And they call that extra month Adar I and then comes Adar II. They're basically stretching out that last month of the year before Nisan, the turn of the year for the religious calendar of the Jewish people. Well, adding that extra month is what creates that divide between Easter and Passover.

But enough about calendars, let's talk about Passover. Passovers are family events that are led by the head of the household. This could be a father or even a grandfather. Now, the rabbis wanted to make sure that each family was well-equipped with instructions on how to perform the Passover for their families. It's an incredibly important day of the year. It's the day that God wanted His chosen people to remember the day that He redeemed them from the yoke of Egyptian and slavery.

Every Jewish family must hear and experience God's redemption. That's why the Haggadah was developed. Haggadah in Hebrew means the declaration. It's the declaration of the Passover Seder, and the Seder in Hebrew means order. So, literally the Haggadah is an instruction manual, it's a small book that declares the Passover order for the night so that no father, no grandfather can get it wrong.

Some argue that the Haggadah was compiled as early as the second century AD, while others say the third century AD. But we know that though the Haggadah may not have been written in a written form in the days of Jesus, the disciples and Jesus were living out each aspect of the Haggadah because we see them doing sections of it in the Gospels at the Last Supper or the Passover Seder.

Well, in the Haggadah, you get to a section where it's time to reflect on the original elements of the Passover. And whenever I lead the Passover, I read through Exodus 12, the original Passover. And when I get to Exodus 12:8, I pause and I tell the audience, "Let me read that verse again because there's going to be a quiz later, so let me read it for you and I want you to remember it. Okay? This is Exodus 12:8." It says, "They, the Israelites, shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs."

The flesh that God is talking about here is the lamb. So, let me read it again, "They, the Israelites, shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. They shall eat it." So, did you hear the three original elements of the Passover? The lamb, the unleavened bread, matzah, and the bitter herbs, or in Hebrew, the maror.

A lot has been added to the Passover Seder throughout the years, and by the time that we get to the Last Supper in the first century with Jesus, Jesus is blessing the Passover with wine. Wine was added to the story of Israel's redemption. Eventually, parsley would be added as a reminder of the hyssop used to spread the blood on the doorposts and lintel of the houses in Exodus 12. An egg is placed on the Seder plate as a symbol of reminding the people of the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. Also, an apple mixture was added called Charoset to remind the Jewish people of the sweetness of their freedom and liberation from bondage.

All of these elements are amazing, but the original three are the lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs, and that's what I want to focus on today. I want to focus on these original elements. So, let's start with the lamb.

Now, technically, Jewish people don't eat lamb during Passover today. I know, isn't that a head scratcher? Well, today there's no temple to bring your lamb in order to sacrifice the Passover lamb. So, the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. Now, while the temple was still standing, it was common for the people of Israel to come to the City of Jerusalem. They would bring their lamb or their goat for each family to be slaughtered. The priests would ritually sacrifice the animals and take a bowl of the blood and pour it on the altar, before giving the meat back to the family to be cooked on a pomegranate branch skewers and enjoyed in the evening.

Due to the large numbers arriving, the sacrifices were actually done in three sittings, so to speak, during the days of Jesus. But listen, now that the temple's gone, now that it's destroyed, there's no place to sacrifice a lamb. You might be thinking, "Well, then without a Passover lamb and without a temple, what can they eat?" Well, it's kind of interesting. Let's go first back to that original night in Deuteronomy, actually, in Deuteronomy 16:5-6, we'll find out the reason why the Jewish people are not allowed to eat a Passover lamb today.

It says this in verse five of Deuteronomy 16, "You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, but at the place that the Lord your God will choose to make His name dwell in it. There you shall offer the Passover sacrifice in the evening at sunset at the time you came out of Egypt." So, God in His law, if you heard that God in His law commands the Israelites to sacrifice the Passover in one place and that place is the temple. And for that reason, most, not all, but most Jewish people refrain from eating lamb during their Passover meal.

Today, Jewish people typically have a kosher dinner that includes chicken, and if you're in the south, even brisket, which is fantastic as well. Now, just because they don't eat lamb, it doesn't mean they neglect the importance of the lamb. On the Passover plate is a shank bone of the lamb. The shank bone is called the zeroa, which in Hebrew means an arm. The shank bone reminds the Jewish people of the lamb and the arm of God that redeemed them from bondage and slavery.

The zeroa does not play an active role in the Seder. It serves as a visual reminder of the sacrifice. And there is a moment in the Seder where the leader is instructed to point to the shank bone while recounting the practice of offering the Passover sacrifice. However, the leader does not touch the zeroa during the Seder, as it's done with the matzah or the bitter herbs.

For me, this is always the saddest part of the Passover Seder. When you recount the original elements of the Passover and you get to the shank bone, where the life-giving lamb whose blood became the sign for God to passover, is now remembered by a bone, which in my opinion is a symbol of death and not life.

Listen, we're going to spend more time on this, but the zeroa actually is amazing because the zeroa is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. We no longer worship a bone or death. We worship a living raised Passover lamb, Jesus, our Passover lamb, he is alive and well. But for now, we're going to take a quick break and when we return, we're going to look at the other two original elements of the Passover Seder. It's going to be enlightening to you to see these amazing things, so be sure to stick around.

Steve Conover: We've been talking about the Passover, but we also have a number of Passover-related resources on our website. Chris, could you talk about them a little bit?

Chris Katulka: Yeah, actually, we have a specific website that's free to anybody who would visit foi.org/passover. We really believe at Friends of Israel that you're not required to celebrate Passover as a Christian. But if you do go through it, it will only deepen your relationship with the Lord Jesus because Jesus celebrated Passover.

And so we provide you with all of the resources necessary to not only understand the Passover and to celebrate a Passover, but also the seven feasts of Israel as well. So, if you go to foi.org/passover, there you'll receive a free Haggadah to go through the Passover with your family, instructions on how to set up a Passover Seder, and so much more. Again, you can do that by going to foi.org/passover.

Steve Conover: Again, you can see a number of resources related to the Passover at foi.org/passover.

Chris Katulka: Welcome back, everyone. We've been going through the original elements of the Passover Seder from Exodus 12. In the previous segment, we highlighted the significance of the shank bone on the Passover Seder plate, a symbol of the lamb that was sacrificed and the blood that was smeared on the doorpost and on the lintel of Jewish homes, so that God would see the blood as a sign of their faith and God would pesach, he would pass over, them.

Now, let's move on to the other two elements. The unleavened bread is the next one. In the Passover Seder, the prayer Ha Lachma Anya, which in Aramaic means, "The poor bread," is recited. The prayer is beautiful. I want you to hear it. It goes like this. Behold, the matzah, bread of poverty, which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt, let all who are hungry, come and eat. All who are needy, come and celebrate the Passover with us. Now, we are here. Next year, may we observe the Passover in the land of Israel. Now, many are still enslaved. Next year, may all men be free.

The matzah is a reminder to the Jewish people of the haste to which the Israelites left Egypt. God said in Exodus 12, "You're going to eat this meal with your cloak tucked in your belt, with your staff in your hand and with your sandals on your feet." See, you thought McDonald's invented fast food. Now, the first fast food, it comes from the Passover Seder. God said to the Israelites, "You will eat this meal in haste." And because of that, the Israelites had no time to put yeast in the bread and let it rise. And so they ate unleavened bread, they called matzah.

And I want to go back to that prayer for a moment, that's in every single Passover Haggadah, those booklets that I was talking about, that the fathers and grandfathers used to lead their family through the Passover Seder. In that prayer, it says, "Behold the matzah, the bread of poverty, which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry, come and eat. All who are needy, come and celebrate the Passover with us. Now we are here. Next year, may we observe the Passover in the land of Israel. Now many are enslaved. Next year, may all men be free."

I love this prayer during Passover because it sets the tone for the Seder. The Passover is all about remembering what God has done, remembering that God delivered the Jewish people from the bondage of Egypt. And in that prayer, it does do that, "Behold, the poor bread our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt." The Jewish people remember that, but notice what happens next.

It goes from remembering to taking inventory, "Now that we're free from Egypt's oppression, we should be serving others today because of what God has done for us." And that's why it says in the prayer, "Let all who are hungry, come and eat." It's the present tense. "How has God's deliverance changed us?" The prayer is asking. Well, it should compel us to reach out to others today and serve.

The prayer then says, "Next year, may we observe the Passover in the land of Israel." This is thinking about the future, next year in Jerusalem. This is a messianic prayer of hope that the Messiah will come. And listen, isn't this what we do during the Lord's Supper, during communion, when we're at church? We look back at Christ's broken body and shed blood, the Lamb of God, and how he delivers us from sin. And then the Apostle Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians, he demands that we examine our lives today, in the present tense, in light of what Christ has done for us, when we take the Lord's Supper. Which the elements of the Lord's Supper, remember, derived from a Passover Seder that the Lord did, that Lord Jesus did.

And then the Apostle Paul says, "Take the Lord's Supper until Christ's return, looking forward." Look at the Passover in that prayer, looks back at the past, examines the present and looks forward to the future. The Lord's Supper or the communion that we take today looks at the past, remembering what Christ has done, demands us to take inventory in the present today, and looks forward to His coming. I love this prayer because I think it really sets the tone for the themes of both what Jesus was doing that Last Supper night and how we take the Lord's Supper today.

Now finally, the last element, of course, is the bitter herbs, the bitter herbs or the horseradish. This is eaten on some matzah as a reminder of the bitterness of bondage. Maror is the name. In fact, when you read through the Book of Ruth, Naomi is so depressed and so upset at the loss of her husband and the loss of her sons, that when Naomi is hearing her name and they're saying, "Is that Naomi?" She says, "Don't you call me Naomi anymore. Call me Mara." Which is the feminine version of maror or bitterness, "Call me bitter. I am bitter because I've lost so much."

Listen, eating that bitterness gives the participant the taste of bondage. But what's awesome is that in the first century, a rabbi named Rabbi Hillel, he added another element to the Passover Seder called Charoset, which is that sweet apple mixture I was talking about earlier. And during the Seder, you mix the bitter herbs with the sweet Charoset and you put it between two pieces of matzah as a symbol that yes, there was bitterness, but the bitterness has been overtaken by the sweetness of freedom that God has provided.

It's such a beautiful picture. And the thing that's also important to see as well is that the Jewish people, if you notice, they're eating their way through the Passover Seder. Every time they taste something from that Passover plate, it is designed to remind you of what God has done, what he's doing in your life today, as you look forward in the future for the coming of the Messiah. You eat your way through the Passover Seder.

Look, the gospel is right there in the three original elements of the Passover: the Passover lamb, Jesus Christ, our Passover lamb, who lived a sinless life. He had no leaven, because remember in the Bible, leaven is equal to sin. Well, during Passover, it's all unleavened bread that we eat. So, Jesus, our Passover lamb, He had no leaven in His life. He was sinless and through His shed blood, those who have repented and turned to Him and placed their faith in Him, they have been released from the bitterness and bondage of sin once and for all, and welcomed into the sweetness of freedom and liberation.

Steve Conover: Now, Apples of Gold, a dramatic reading from the life and ministry of Holocaust survivor, Zvi Kalisher.

Mike Kellogg: Recently, I worked at Mount Scopus, where a part of the University of Jerusalem is located. They are building new housing there for students. At about 11:00 in the morning, an Orthodox student with a considerable beard approached me. He looked around, as if trying to find someone. I asked, "Can I help you?"

He looked up and said, "Praise the Lord! I have been looking for Jews, but all of the workers here seem to be Arabs. I am so glad to have found at least one Jew. I would like you to do me a favor and help me."

"What can I do for you?"

"The Passover holidays are approaching," he explained, "and the students do not even know what they are. Shabbath Hagadol, the Sabbath before the Passover, is already upon us."

"I have with me a package of Agadoth to preach the Passover story."

"I would like you to distribute these booklets among the students."

I replied, "If you had Bibles for distribution, I would gladly hand them out for you."

"These booklets are a mixture of truth and legend."

"The Bible, however, is the Word of God. This wisdom is for everyone."

He said, "You may be right, but Bibles are very expensive, and we cannot afford them."

Then I made him an offer, "If you will pay for five complete Bibles, I will pay for five complete Bibles, and we will give them to the students."

"What do you mean by a complete Bible?" he asked. I told him, "A complete Bible is the Old and New Testaments bound together." He grabbed his head and exclaimed, "For more than an hour, I have been looking for a Jew, and when I finally find one, he turns out to be a goy."

I then showed him my order to report for military duty. When he read my full name, he said, "Yes, this is a fine Jewish name. What do you have to do with the New Testament? I'm very curious."

I told him, "Years ago, I knew nothing about the New Testament or Jesus. Then God, in His mercy, sent a New Testament my way, and now I love Jesus and seek to serve Him. Just because our forefathers went astray, that does not mean that I should follow in their footsteps and make the same mistakes they did. For the sake of my own soul, the souls of my children, and those of everyone else I meet, I must try to help people. Many may be looking for the truth without even knowing it, but they have no one to guide them. Isaiah 53:6 says, 'All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.' The prophet spoke about our Messiah."

"You talk like a missionary," he said. "Now I see why there are so many of you."

"No," I replied, "it is not our doing, but the Lord Himself who works in the minds and hearts of people. His good seed germinates in the hearts of those who are sincere. All we have to do is water the seed and keep the weeds from choking the wheat. You too may become a new person through the Messiah Jesus."

"I must confess," he said, "that I cannot answer you now. What you say staggers me, but I am glad I met you."

Steve Conover: Thank you for joining us for today's episode of The Friends of Israel Today. A reminder to visit foi.org/passover. That's foi.org/passover to view and download resources related to the Passover meal.

Chris Katulka: Hey, Steve. Next week we're going to be looking at some of the amazing ministries that The Friends of Israel does all around the world, specifically at what's going on here in the United States. And so next week is our FOI Friends of Israel in Action segment, and it's going to be great for our representatives serving on the field to share with our listeners about their ministry.

Steve Conover: We hope you'll join us then. Our host and teacher is Chris Katulka. Today's program was produced by Tom Gallione, edited by Jeremy Strong, who also composed and performs our theme music. Mike Kellogg read Apples of Gold. And I'm Steve Conover, executive producer.

Our mailing address is FOI Radio, PO Box 914 Bellmawr, New Jersey, 08099. Again, that's FOI Radio, PO Box 914, Bellmawr, New Jersey, 08099. Our web address is foiradio.org. Again, that's foiradio.org. Or you can call our listener line. That's 888 343 6940. Once again, that's 888 343 6940.

The Friends of Israel Today is a production of The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. We are a worldwide evangelical ministry, proclaiming biblical truth about Israel and the Messiah, while bringing physical and spiritual comfort to the Jewish people.