The Passover Feast

After the apocalypse of the Tenth plague there is a new beginning and new order. The first commandment to mankind was to “be fruitful and multiply”. The first law to Israel is circumcision, and the Passover is the second law before Moses receives the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. The pagan nations celebrated nature in their sacrifices and feasts, but this is unique in celebrating history.

God’s net of salvation will grow ever wider in the Bible. In Genesis 4, Abel offered a lamb for himself but now in Exodus 12, the Israelites offer one lamb for a family until in John 1, we have one Lamb who came to be offered for the whole world.

The Lord instructed every Hebrew household to buy a lamb for their family on the 10th day of the month. The lamb had to be a male, a year old, and without any blemishes. You can’t use an old or sick animal. They were to keep the lamb until the 14th day of the month when they were to kill it, roast it, and eat the meat accompanied by unleavened bread and herbs. The lamb’s blood was to put on the door posts and lintel of their house. The sacrifice of the “perfect” lamb was the sacrifice of the innocent. Under Jewish law they were not allowed to eat a land based carnivorous animal. Every kosher land animal is vegetarian.

The sacrifice of the innocent is necessary. The population of some Western countries is in decline because the birth rate is falling behind the death rate. There can be an unwillingness to bring children into this world because every child that is born will be killed or die.

Leavened bread is spoiled as the process involves purification and death. You need to add something to the process to make bread leavened. You add a fungus to make the bread grow which results in its death when baked. There needs to be a separation between life and death. The reason given in the Torah is simpler. They are rushing and there isn’t time for the leavened bread process. They need to escape the tyrant and his tyranny before he changes his mind! Egypt is attributed to the origin of baking bread so it may be that the unleavened bread is an example of a rejection of Egypt which will be a common theme to the Israelites.

The bitter herbs are still used at the Passover today. They represent the bitterness of slavery. It reminds us of what makes life bitter. The smaller households could share with larger households to make sure all was consumed. It was important that nothing was left over. There was to be no remainder as they start out into the beginning of this “new year”.  It must be consumed by fire or the people. Nothing should be left over.

The Hebrews were to eat the meal with their shoes on their staffs in hand because their deliverance from Egypt was nearby. They needed to tie together anything that was loose – “gird their loins”. The needed to focus and be prepared to go in a hurry. The meal was called the Lord’s Passover. God was going to enter Egypt that night and kill all the firstborn, but he would pass over houses with lamb’s blood on the door. The Israelites were to keep this special meal as an annual memorial.

Putting the blood on the doorposts was a bold act of faith. It was a sign to the Egyptians of God’s deliverance. If God didn’t follow through with His promise, then it would have made it easy for the Egyptians to identify the “traitors” and kill them all. Blood brings life and the people were not to drink or eat it. They could eat the carcass, but the blood goes back to God. Putting the blood of the male firstborn unblemished lamb on the outside of the lintel. You can’t miss it. The blood sacrifice is perhaps something that God brings in to draw people away from human sacrifice. The Jewish nation stopped animal sacrifice after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. There are scripture verses that suggest that God wants obedience above sacrifices. The sacrifice of Jesus is the ultimate fulfilment of the innocent lamb sacrificed not just for Israel but for the world.

Unleaved Bread Feast

In addition to the special meal, the Israelites were to observe a new feast day, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was to begin the 14th day of the month and end the 21st day of the month (7 days total).

During the Feast of Unleavened bread, the Israelites were to cleanse their houses of leaven and eat only unleavened food. Moses delivered God’s instructions to the people of Israel, and they obeyed. There is a need for a practical ritual that makes you remember important parts in your history. The memory that they are going to remember has yet to happen! The repetition (or habit) of following a ritual encodes it on our memories and brings a stability with its predictability. The thing that binds Christians is the Return of Christ, but it hasn’t happened yet. The Hebrew people are finally called together as a congregation and to look forward in hope to the Passover. If you don’t keep to rituals, then a country can lose its foundation and fall apart. In USA for example Independence Day and Thanksgiving Day have lost much of their original meaning.

The Israelites are going to sacrifice their firstborn to God, and he is going to give it back to them. The fundamental elements of the Jewish faith and prayer is creation and exodus. If you deny any of these two, then you put yourself outside of Judaism.

It is flipped around that the ritual and feast come BEFORE the event has even happened. The destroyer has not yet come. The contractual relationship happens before the finale rather than follow it. The Egyptians first born are already dead. The tyranny is about to set the Hebrew people free.

The Firstborn of Egypt (12:12-13)

The firstborn represents the seed or potential of Egypt. They are the first thing to break the womb, the first fruit of the union, the first of a family and the one who carries the identity into this new beginning. The blood mark on the doorway will protect the Israelites but the Egyptians and their gods will be judged by the decimation of their firstborn. It wasn’t enough that the blood was shed, it had to be applied to the doorposts of their own homes as a work of faith.

Memory and Marking Time (12:14-20)

God is telling them it is more than just doing this, but it is going to mark you in your identity and repeat it every year. It marks an origin for the nation and its identity. You maintain the reality by remembering, even though it may have happened a very long time ago.  This is similar in Christian Communion to remember the sacrifice of Christ in the bread and the wine as often as it repeated.

Yeast (12:20)

Yeast is a strange substance which is like a bug/parasite/living thing that you need to keep alive and then add it to the bread and then wait for the bread grow into its fullness. This is the beginning of a new identity and has to do with purity and with time. Their old world was ending and the new one beginning so they don’t have time to wait. They have to be attentive and be ready to leave Egypt as it is being consumed. They are not to eat what comes from outside (yeast) or they will be cut off from the community.

Enter into the Land (12:25)

When they enter the land of Israel, they are to obey these ordinances such as the Passover. Thiis is how you keep your identity by following this pattern. There needs to be a memory of it if it is to continue to be remembered. The Jewish feasts are all about the nation’s history.

The Obedience of the People (vs 27-18)

In many ways these were the most important words of the whole account. As great as God’s deliverance was, the people would have never received it if they had failed to do what God told them to do. We wonder how many Egyptians were spared judgment because they did believe and obey.

Categories: Exodus