An Easter Hallelujah

By Helen Jesze, 5^th April 2024

Dear devotionalsjust4u!! Friends, I hope you are all keeping well and safe, that you had a blessed Easter and Passover, and are enjoying Spring bursting forth on every side! The flowerbuds on the ornamental cherry tree in my front garden are just coming out, the blue grape-hyacinths and purple heather are taking over my back garden! What a beautiful time of the year!

We are now in the weeks between Easter/Passover and Pentecost — how exciting it would have been to have been alive at the time of Jesus! Not only was He the firstborn from the dead after His Resurrection, but after taking the keys of Death and Hell from Satan, He ‘took captivity captive’ and brought a whole host of others out of their spiritual prison with Him, those who had believed and looked forward to His coming! They showed themselves alive in Jerusalem!! For forty days Jesus showed by ‘many infallible, convincing proofs’ that He was indeed alive! How incredulous and life-changing was this truth as it took hold of the disciples and so many others who saw Him, as He showed them His pierced hands, feet and side, yet shining in light, bringing them peace, joy and a new mandate to go and tell the world of His death and rising in glory!

Next week, on 8th April, will be a historic total solar eclipse casting a shadow over parts of Mexico, the United States and Canada, sometimes called the Great American Eclipse. This will be a historic occasion when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth. Four million people are estimated to be travelling to various places to experience this.

Astronomical calculations have been used to reconstruct the Jewish calendar in the first century AD. They showed a lunar eclipse, and biblical and other references suggest that an eclipse followed the Crucifixion. The evidence points to Friday 3 April AD 33 as the date of the Crucifixion. The Bible tells us that the sky went dark, the earth quaked and the rocks were rent, when Jesus was crucified. This could well have been an eclipse, when the Creator of all things was put to death to save our souls, but how wonderful that He rose again!

Someone sent me a video-clip of two young ladies singing “Easter Hallelujah!” I found it very beautiful and I would like to share it with you again. (I found when I downloaded it first, then it was easy to open.) I pray it will also bless you in a mighty way, as you watch and worship our wonderful Jesus!

Your friend on the journey,

Helen Jesze