I was thinking how wonderful it would be to be quarantined with all of your best friends in the same house. What greater quarantine could there be? No fear with all your friends who care for you, thankful to be together.
Really, it is selfishness that quarantines us all to this planet, even though we were created to fill the universe. We are quarantined to the earth, until the deadly virus of selfishness is eradicated.
The First Passover Quarantine
A few thousand years ago in Egypt there were Israelites working very hard as slaves to the Pharaoh, as discipline for turning away from their God. When they came to the breaking point, once again they cried out to their God to deliver them from the bondage of slavery. When they humbled themselves, he began to deliver them. He sent plague after plague to soften Pharaoh’s heart to let the Israelites go. The final plague brought the death of all the firstborn in the land. But the Israelites were told that if they shed the blood of a perfect lamb, and put the blood on their doorposts, and stayed quarantined in their houses, they would be safe.
Passover Quarantine 2020
Now, during the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread (or Easter for the western mainstream), the call is going out in many countries to remain in our houses because of the coronavirus that is spreading and killing thousands of people. We believe that if we are obedient to God’s commands, and stay quarantined together, then we will be protected from death. We believe that this virus is a wake-up call for people to realize that death eventually awaits us, and none of us are exempt. Only the blood of Yahshua,1 our Redeemer, can deliver us, just as the blood of perfect lambs on the door posts of their houses saved the Israelites of old.
Yahshua was the first one to overcome the same temptations that come to us. The way he overcame was by crying out to his Father in heaven to deliver him.2 Because he overcame sin, even though his enemies had him crucified out of envy, he was raised from the dead and ascended to his Father’s right hand, being released from the quarantine. He actually took our place in death, receiving the wages of our sin, and now he intercedes for all those who surrender their lives to him, helping us to overcome as he overcame.3
Quarantined Together
So we believe that we also will be released from the quarantine when we, as his people, overcome selfishness, loving one another as he loved us, and confessing the ways that we don’t love. In this way we can be healed and made just like our teacher, Yahshua. This is what we live for.
Yahshua is our Passover lamb who was killed so that we could be found acceptable in the eyes of God. He brought us back into communion with our heavenly Father, and with one another, gathering us together just as he gathered his disciples together when he walked the earth. He taught them to love and take care of one another. They ate their last Passover meal together before he was crucified, and then seven weeks later, on Shavuot (the day of Pentecost), his Spirit came upon them, and they gathered thousands more and taught them how to live together in peace.4
Shavuot is actually a celebration of the restoration of how human beings were created to be. It is also a celebration of the first fruit of Yahshua’s resurrection, showing that death doesn’t have power over us anymore, as long as we maintain our fellowship, loving one another.
I’ve never been more satisfied than when I’m striving to love as he loved and receiving grace to be like him. That was the whole purpose of his death and resurrection, that the Holy Spirit could be sent to fill his disciples, so that there would be many people walking all over this earth in the same way he walked,5 so that his kingdom could come, and his will could be done on earth as it is in heaven.
- Yahshua is the original Hebrew name of the one called Jesus in most English Bibles. Read more about the name Yahshua...
- In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Hebrews 5:7
- He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. Revelation 3:21
- They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Acts 2:42-45; And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. 34 For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales 35 and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need. 4:32-35
- the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. 1 John 2:6
