Don’t Pass on the Passover
Exodus 12:1-13
1. One traditional question Jewish children ask their father as part of the Passover dinner is "Ma Nishtana ha lei la haze," "Why is this NIGHT different than any other NIGHT." Dad then recounts the story of the Exodus.
2. Comedian George Burns, who was Jewish, tells this joke:
During one of my many trips to London, I became friends with a very wealthy, yet very modest, Jewish chap named Hyman Goldfarb. On one visit, Hy told me that because of his large donations to charities through the years, the queen wanted to knight him, but
he was going to turn it down.
"That’s a great honor," I said. "Why would you turn it down?"
"Because during the ceremony you have to say something in Latin," he said. "And I don’t wish to bother studying Latin just for that."
"So say something in Hebrew. The queen wouldn’t know the difference."
"Brilliant," Hy complimented me, "but what should I say?"
"Remember that question the son asks the father on the first night of Passover? ... Can you say that in Hebrew?"
"Of course," he said. "Ma nishtana ha leila hazeh. Thank you, old sport, I shall become a knight."
At the ceremony Hy waited his turn while several of the otherhonorees went before the queen. Finally they called his name. He knelt before Her Majesty, she placed her sword on one shoulder and then on the other, and motioned for Hy to speak.
Out came "Ma nishtana ha leila hazeh."
The queen turned to her husband and said, "Why is this knight different from all other knights?"
[source: humormatters.com/holidays/passover.htm]
3. Okay -- if you have to explain it, it’s not funny.
4. Nonetheless, my introduction did serve its purpose as we can now transition to the subject of the Passover!
Main Idea: Studying the details and the meaning of Passover is quite an undertaking, but three facts seem obvious. Let’s note these facts.
I. The Passover Was A Small GROUP Experience (1-4)
A. It was the basis for the religious YEAR (1-2)
1. The month Abib was later changed to the Babylonain name, Nisan
2. The Jewish calendar had 354 day years, so every so often they would add an extra month to correct things…and adjust it further near the feast of firstfruits…
3. The imagery here is that the Blood of the Passover Lamb signified the beginning of a new life for the Hebrew people, much like being cleansed from our sins by faith in Jesus Christ begins a new life for individuals…
B. Men were to take spiritual INITIATIVE (3)
• Notice the absence of priests in the Passover; as originally intended, this showed that Israel was a "nation of priests" and that the faith was best propigated through the family with dad as spiritual leader…
• Later on, in Jewish history, the priests and Levites often slaughterd the sheep…but that was not the original intent…
C. Small families were to include OTHERS (4)
Josephus says were never fewer than ten, and were often twenty, but no man might feast alone [De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 9. sect. 3]
• One key social skill for all Christians should be making the effort to include others
• We become set in our ways: greet the same people during greeting time, hang around the same friends, never invite some new to come along…
• Fortunately, many of you are not that way; but if you see yourself in that description, get out of your comfort zone…start incorporating others…
D. Many aspects of worship are COMMUNAL
• smaller families would combine, invite singles or travellers
• the social aspects of our faith are also best communicated at home
• children learn to open their homes for ministry from the examples of their parents…
• they also learn to participate in the Body by being raised that way…
II. The Passover Was A Ritual RICH with Lessons (5-11)
A. Healthy MALE sheep or goat (5)
(photo of sheep)
1. The lamb was offered in place of the firstborn, a substitute…
2. I Cor. 5:7, "Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed."
3. Chosen on the 10th of the month--before the actual Passover on the 15th…Christ is the Lamb of God, "… the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world." (Revelation 13:8c)
B. Slaughterd in AFTERNOON (6)
1. While Jesus was dying on the cross, they were slaughtering sheep in the Temple
2. Two Passover dates: Pharisees (Thursday) and Sadducees (Friday)
3. Jesus death was preceded by darkness [corresponding to the plague of darkness]…then, when the sheep were slaughterd, He died (3PM)
C. Blood APPLIED to doorframes (7)
(photo of applied blood)
Noticed the responsibility the Hebrews or believing Egyptians must take; they must each put blood on their doorposts….
1. The Hebrews were not delivered just because they were Hebrews
2. The Eyptian firstborn sons were not killed just because they were Egyptians
3. The applied blood was the line of dileneation
4. Pictures salvation in NT: blood available to all, but only those who apply it by faith are saved (delivered); nationality not an issue…
5. Pastor Shawn Drake points out, "This was what the people had to do. Notice they were not asked their opinion. God told them how it had to be." (sermoncentral)
D. Lamb roasted and eaten with BITTER herbs and matzoh (8)
(show bitter herbs photo) --probably endive, chicory, horehound & bitter lettuce
(show flat bread photo)
• Bitter herbs reminded them of the years they were enslaved in Egypt
• At Golgotha, Christ was repulsed at drinking the bitter cup of God’s wrath…
• According to 12:46, "Do not break any of the bones." Symbolic of Christ’s death…
E. All of it eaten or BURNED (9-10)
F. Eat it in HASTE (11)
G. Later Judaism had to answer many questions: what was the difference between the original Passover in Egypt and the Passover they were to celebrate every Spring?
The Aramaic Targum of Jonathan, a first century paraphrase, expansion, and interpretaion of the Torah, adds many details that help us see the ancient Jewish understanding of these matters at the time of Jesus; here are a few of the additions:
In the tenth of this month, whose time is appointed for this time (occasion), and not for (coming) generations, they shall take to them a lamb for the house of a family, and, if many in number, they shall take a lamb for a house: but if the men of the house are fewer than ten in number, in proportion to a sufficient number to eat the lamb, he and his neighbour who is nearest to his house shall take according to the number of souls: each man according to the sufficiency of his eating shall be counted for the lamb…
…And you shall eat the flesh on that night, the fifteenth of Nisan, until the dividing of the night roasted with fire, without leaven, with horehound and lettuce shall you eat it. Eat not of it while living, neither boiled in wine, or oil, or other fluids, neither boiled in water, but roasted with fire, with its head, and its feet, and its inwards. Nor shall any be left of it till the morning; but what may remain of it in the morning you shall cover over, and in the daylight of the sixteenth day burn with fire; for you may not burn the residue of a holy oblation on the feast day. And according to this manner you shall eat it, this time, but not in (other) generations: your loins shall be girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staves in your hands; and you shall eat in the fear of the majesty of the Lord of the world; because mercy hath been shown to you from before the Lord. And I will be revealed in the land of Mizraim in the majesty of My glory this night, and with Me ninety thousand myriads of destroying angels; and I will slay all the firstborn in the land of Mizraim, of man and of beast, and against all the idols of the Mizraee I will execute four judgments: the molten idols shall be melted, the idols of stone be broken, the idols of clay shall he shattered, and the idols of wood be made dust, that the Mizraee may know that I am the Lord.
III. The Passover Meant Physical SALVATION (12-13)
A. JUDGMENT for Unbelievers (12)
"On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD."
This final plague brings judgment against all the gods of Egypt…even as a group, they could not outpower the Lord for they were nothing but idols and images…
Whose wrath were the Egyptians under? The wrath of GOD!!!
B. Blood DELIVERANCE for Believers (13)
13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
WHOSE wrath did the blood of the Lamb avert? God’s wrath.
C. So in Christ we have deliverance from the wrath of God; Paul, in Romans 5:9 sums it up:
"Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
CONCLUSION
1. Even though we have not replaced the Nation of Israel, we can see a continuity in God’s working…
2. As Christians, we too can only mature and worship God properly through group experience. The Lessons of the Passover are similar in concept to the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Like the children of Israel, we are delivered from God’s wrath through the blood of the Lamb.
