Israel’s Passover Message: ‘Let My People Go’

Israel and its people begin this Passover facing an enemy just as genocidal as the Egyptians were against the ancient Israelites. And modern Israel is using God’s ancient message to Pharaoh this Passover as its plea for the Israeli hostages still in the hands of terrorist Hamas: “Let my people go!"

Passover 2024 begins on Monday. This significant Jewish feast commemorates how God worked signs and wonders to bring His people out of slavery in Egypt, most particularly how the Jews were able to escape the Angel of Death. 

Under God’s instructions in Exodus 12, each Israelite family ate a lamb and put its blood on the doorposts so that the death of every firstborn child would impact only the Egyptians. God had told Pharaoh through Moses, “Let my people go” (Exodus 9:1), but until that first Passover, Pharaoh would not do so. Now, thousands of years later, a ruthless enemy is holding over 130 Israelis hostage, and Israel’s Passover prayer is for their release.

The Seder meal is based on the original Passover meal, and participants eat it the first night of the feast. This year, the State of Israel is asking Jewish families around the world to leave an empty chair at the Seder this Passover for the hostages whose fate is still unknown in Hamas's hands. 

Tonight as we gather around the Seder table we will leave a chair empty, to raise awareness of the 133 Israeli hostages who will not spend Passover with their loved ones 🪑.

We cannot fully celebrate the Festival of Freedom while our loved ones are in captivity.#LetThemGoNow pic.twitter.com/wXeTclGI96

— Israel ישראל 🇮🇱 (@Israel) April 22, 2024

The post included a video of multiple individuals speaking out on behalf of the hostages, ending with that biblical plea, “Let our people go.” It is particularly moving because the current fate of the hostages, or whether they are even alive, is unknown. Hamas recently indicated that it could not release 40 living hostages, raising heartbreaking concerns that many of the hostages, who range in age from a baby to older adults, are dead.

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As PJ Media’s Stephen Green reported on April 11, Hamas “wouldn’t commit to releasing 40 living hostages but could commit to 40 hostages total, dead or alive.” Yet the Israeli hostages, who were likely tortured and/or raped before being murdered, have not garnered nearly as much sympathy as Hamas-loving Gazans both in America and around the world. Why do we hear endlessly the totally unreliable, Hamas-issued casualty numbers from Gaza, where nearly three-fourths of the people support the Oct. 7 atrocities but so little about international efforts to help free the hostages?

God once brought His people out of Egypt “with a strong hand” (Exodus 13:9), striking down the firstborn of the Egyptians, parting the Red Sea, and leading them Himself in the form of the Shekinah cloud. This Passover, let us pray that God will once again be with Israel, especially the hostages and their families, and all those who are bereaved or fighting Hamas. Let us pray that God will help Israel defeat its terrorist enemies and that the next Passover will be one of thanksgiving and joy for the people of Israel.