The Passover Is For All of Us

Exodus 12:1-30

¹The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ²“This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. ³Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. ⁴And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. ⁵Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, ⁶and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. ⁷“Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. ⁸They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. ⁹Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. ¹⁰And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. ¹¹In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. ¹²For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. ¹³The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. ¹⁴“This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. ¹⁵Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. ¹⁷And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. ¹⁸In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. ¹⁹For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. ²⁰You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.” ²¹Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. ²²Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. ²³For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. ²⁴You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. ²⁵And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. ²⁶And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ ²⁷you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’ ” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped. ²⁸Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

To Moses and Aaron, God now gives explicit instructions for His people can survive the final plague – the death of the firstborn. It is significant that Moses and Aaron receive these instructions for they are the first real “priests” of God’s people as descendants of Levi. Levi was assigned this position by God when the 12 Tribes were born of Jacob. God “starts” the marking of time for His people with this event. What they are experiencing shall from this point forward be known as “the first month.” Even the casual observer will notice that this is a turning point for the Hebrews and for us a few thousand years later.

I have highlighted in the text just a few of the significant details of the Passover for us to examine today.

take a lamb – Jesus has been called “The Lamb of God” since John the Baptist first shouted it out at the baptism of Jesus. All  who were within hearing distance of those words would have made a connection to the Passover Lamb and we most certainly do with the gift that is hindsight. We know the story and we know that God did indeed see His Son as the Lamb that would be sacrificed for the sins of the world.

be without blemish – Even in the Passover, the lamb was chosen four days in advance so that it could be meticulously inspected for flaws or blemish and it had to come up completely pure in order for it to be used for the sacrifice. We know that Jesus was the sinless Son of Man and proved to be without sin for 33 years. As such, He was able to be offered as our pure and perfect sacrifice.

at twilight – From this point forward, when the Passover was (is) celebrated the day was filled with preparation by the Jewish people. It cannot be lost on us that while Jesus was being nailed to the cross at noon, all over Israel lambs were being prepared for slaughter by the priests – probably numbering in the thousands. In Jesus we find that there is need of only one final sacrifice. His blood will cover the sins of us all.

blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses – God is very clear in His instructions. The people are to remain under the blood of the lamb, inside their houses, until they are told to come out by Moses. Their protection from death lies in their obedience to that instruction. We too are safe under the blood of Jesus; safe from the second death which is eternal damnation. (See Revelation 21:8)

blood shall be a sign for you – The blood on the doorpost was a sign for the Hebrews that they were safe from the work of the Angel of Death, just as the blood of Jesus is a sign for us of our safety as well.

when I see the blood, I will pass over you – This phrase is particularly striking because it reminds us that not only is the blood a sign for us, but the blood is a sign for God Himself. When He sees the blood of Jesus that covers over our sins, He is reminded that we are now holy in His sight. You have to admit, this is just remarkable.

The Passover is not a mandatory celebration for those of us who walk inside of Christianity today. I’m not sure that’s such a great thing. There are so many reminders of what Jesus has done for us in this festival that our faith can only be uplifted by remembering the Passover. In this seminal event we find a strong foreshadowing of the work of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Just reading the passage brings us into His presence and builds up our faith as we acknowledge the beauty and perfection of God’s plan.