The Freedom Feast:

            Kylie asked everyone, including Peninnah and Michal, to join Joshua at his home, “Joshua invited us to meet for a traditional Passover meal.”

            Joshua welcomed everyone with a hug, and everyone sat down for a proper Passover meal. Joshua started a perfect Passover. Joshua had prepared the Passover remembrance with the long white, linen tablecloth underneath the prepared food. Everyone relaxed around the tablecloth on cushions. Kylie immediately recognized the tablecloth Dinah had grabbed and covered them as they were betrothed in their first days in Sanctuary. This fabric had covered them both as the followers made a chuppah. What a nice touch to add to this Passover meal! Kylie mused. Joshua led the Passover celebration with the story of Passover with a prayer called the Dayenu, which expresses gratitude for everything God had done to protect and defend His people, repeating, “It would have been enough.” It was grace, mercy, and compassion.

            Next, Joshua passed around the green leaves, which were part of the Passover celebration, called the karpas, which everyone dipped into the saltwater, remembering that new life comes through tears. 

            He then took three pieces of unleavened bread covered by a large napkin. He broke the middle piece of matzo. “This matzo has no yeast, representing the speed required for this meal. But yeast also puffs up and brings impurities. So, this matzo illustrates no sin or impurity because it isn’t mixed with other compounds. It is pure flour and water.”

            Joshua took the middle piece of matzo, broke it in half, and enfolded a portion in the larger napkin. He then asked Kylie to take the bundle, called an Afikomen and hide it. He explained that the Afikomen symbolizes the sacrifice of a pure life offered to free people from slavery. 

            Joshua then took the other piece of matzo, lifted the bread of Passover, and said, “This is the bread of life; come down from Heaven, given for you.”^[1]

            Next, he said the traditional blessing. Joshua passed around the maror, the bitter herbs, which showed a life freed from the bitterness of darkness, pain, and suffering. The anguish of this life brings us closer to the only One who can release us from life’s darkness and torment.

            Caleb remembered the story of Passover because he had lived through it. “For over three hundred years, our people lived in Egypt. We were a family of about seventy at the start, The Pharaoh was very pleased with our relative, Joseph\^[2], because he had saved the Egyptian people from drought and made the Pharaoh fantastically wealthy. People from other lands brought wealth to Egypt to trade for food, which made the Pharaoh respected, rich, and powerful. Joseph asked Pharaoh for permission to allow his family to come to Egypt. This seemed like a small price to the Pharaoh, who had received so much from Joseph’s gifts.

            “We had many children.^[3] Later, the Pharaohs became threatened and saw us as potential threats because we didn’t worship the same gods as the Egyptians.

             These Pharaohs began to see us as enemies even though we did nothing to be traitorous.^[4] And because we had so many children, they enslaved us and worked us mercilessly and cruelly.^[5] Pharaoh wanted our women for his own because he thought he could easily manipulate them without men. But he was threatened by the number of our men who lived in Egypt, though he wanted enough workers to complete the projects and became fearful that we would be traitorous.^[6] So, the Pharaoh started committing programs of planned genocide. First, he made a law that every woman who had a son must kill the infant instantly.^[7] If the Pharaoh had achieved his goal, our people would have been wiped out.”

            The anguish was evident on Caleb’s face. “Our women couldn’t kill their babies, and God granted us women who helped with the birth like Puah.^[8] She was an honorable woman who broke the law and saved our babies by making excuses^[9]. It was an evil time to live, with our boys being killed before they even took one breath. We were always under scrutiny by the guards.

            “The men were constantly whipped for the smallest infraction.^[10] Many of our men’s backs looked like the dry, cracked desert. Our harsh treatment was beyond words. We were beaten for a look, word, or even a simple request for water in the hot daytime.” With sorrow on Caleb’s face, he said, “We carved the images deeply into the stones, temples, obelisks—gods we got used to seeing and knowing, but not like our God. Eventually, after hundreds of years, our God seemed like a far-off and distant memory—something like a children’s bedtime story. After being worked nearly to death every day, our roar of “Save us!” became little more than a sad whisper, ‘If you are there, please help us.’”^[11]

            Caleb told the followers, “One child escaped the harsh treatment for many years, and then he came to visit us. His name was Moses.^[12]    He became enraged because two of our people were fighting, and he killed an Egyptian guard who had whipped us. He ran, and we suffered^[13] even more. After forty years, he returned, but this time, he brought a power we couldn’t understand or comprehend. Moses had met with the One True God—and this God was no bedtime story.^[14] This God was more powerful than any Egyptian god, and He proved it.”.^[15]

            Caleb’s story continued, “The Pharaohs had gained riches from our slavery and refused to recognize the power of God because Pharaoh thought he was the only God on Earth. So, Pharaoh would suffer now. ^[16]Moses, our leader, went to Pharaoh and insisted that all our people be released. Pharaoh refused.”^[17]

            As Caleb recited the plagues, each follower took their finger, put it in the wine, and dropped a drop of wine onto the white linen. “He refused, through blood in the Nile^[18], swarms of frogs,^[19] gnats^[20], flies^[21], on livestock^[22], and boils^[23] all over their portion of Egypt. Still, Pharaoh refused; perhaps his servants kept the frogs, lice, and flies from Pharaoh, but his people were suffering. Then a new series of plagues hit with boils which were very painful for Egyptians but didn’t affect our people.” Caleb continued, “After that, hail destroyed the agricultural economy ^[24] and the locusts ^[25] ate everything that the hail hadn’t destroyed. Still, the Pharaoh refused to relent^[26]. Then, three days of darkness filled Egypt  ^[27]t, but our land was brightly lit. Still, Pharaoh thought he could incapacitate the power of our people’s God, but he was wrong. The last plague finally broke Pharaoh and his people.” ^[28]

            Caleb revealed the rest of the story. “One night, our leader, Moses, told us to take a pet lamb from our homes, kill it and smear its blood on the top and sides of the door,^[29] and not leave our homes until morning. That night, the death that had visited our homes regularly when our babies were murdered passed our homes because of the blood on the doors. A shriek came from every Egyptian household, including Pharaoh’s huge household.” ^[30]Caleb said carefully, “Every Egyptian firstborn son died that night ^[31]  (as Caleb and the followers dropped one more bead of red wine), and the next day, the Egyptians poured silver, gold, and precious stones into our hands and kicked us out. ^[32] We left in a hurry ^[33] and were at the edge of the sea when the Egyptian army came to slaughter us. We were trapped between the sea and the Egyptian military. God opened the sea and blocked the Egyptian army. Then millions of people walked through the sea to the other side. Then, h allowed the Egyptians to choose between leaving us alone or following us to try to kill and enslave us. ^[34] They followed us and drowned ^[35], and we were finally officially free.

            Joshua broke the Afikomen, “This is my body, which is given for you; do this in memory of me.” ^[36] He then took the glass of wine called the Barech and said, “This is the blood of the new covenant in My Blood, which is poured out for you.”246 Joshua then recited the traditional blessing over the fruit of the vine. Then Joshua took another glass of wine and invited everyone to lift the goblet. He asked everyone to drink and said, “Drink this, all of you. This is my blood, God’s new covenant poured out for many people for the forgiveness of sins. ‘I’ll not be drinking wine from this cup again until that new day when I’ll drink with you in the kingdom of my Father.” ^[37] Everyone drank the wine Joshua had provided. Joshua had served each person a matchless meal, and with Caleb’s description, everyone knew the truth of the meal. The food tasted unparalleled, and everyone was full in spirit and body.

            At the end of the meal, Joshua asked Kylie to return the Afikomen matzo wrapped in a linen sheet, which they divided and ate at the end of the meal. 

            Then Joshua told his followers, “It is written: “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. ^[38] I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.  ^[39]  I will prepare a place for you; I will come back and take you to be with me so that you also may be where I am.”^[40] None of the followers understood what Joshua was saying.

            Joshua asked Kylie to clean the tablecloth and napkin and use the oil to remove every wine stain. He said sadly, “The linen must be perfectly white. I need this done before tomorrow afternoon.” He then began the traditional praise songs called the Hillel (Wikipedia, 2020) as the Israelites praised their God, who freed them from slavery and set them free to live in the Promised Land. After the Hillel, the men left to prepare for the next day. The women cleaned up the meal. After the meal was cleaned, everyone left for their own homes. As Joshua, for the last time, ascended the mountain, walked through the aperture and down the steps into the Worship Area. A light shone on him as he spoke with His Father. An angel strengthened him for the work he was soon to do. ^[41]