1 Peter 3:18--20.
For messiah also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
As the disciples of long ago, last night we experienced a Seder in the absence of Yeshua. Was he really absent? It was somber evening for them. Just the night before, the Master was teaching them a new way to celebrate the Seder. What they didn't know was that on the night of the Passover, they would be without him.
On the night of the fifteenth of Nissan, as they go together for a customary Seder after the Mt. Golgotha events, they really didn't know what to make of everything. On the Sabbath of the fifteenth of Nissan, they attended the synagogue service with a mourning heart. All their hopes of salvation, of Yeshua taking over Israel, of him kicking the Roman Empire out, of establishing Israel back to the glorious days of Solomon were shattered. They did not understand what was happening and indeed, what was happening on that fifteenth of Nissan Sabbath?
When he wrote his letter to the Jewish/Gentile congregation of Rome, Peter who at the time did not know gave us a clue. He says that Yeshua
… went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water" (1 Pet. 3:19-20).
Much is written in the Book of Enoch about the events surrounding Noah and the flood, and the early disciples were familiar with it. Jude also makes mention of these things (Jude).
May we take this Shabbat to reflect on these things.
What have we learned through the events of the two past days? How have we understood the analogical parallelism the Master made of himself in the Seder elements? How do these apply to those who "formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah" (1 Pet. 3:19-20)? How does it apply to us today? Or tomorrow? To our children?
These question would surely make good fifteenth of Nissan Sabbath discussions.
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