THE PASSOVER IS INSTITUTED Exodus 12:1-20 (KJV)
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
2 This month shall be the beginning of months: the year's first month.
3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house:
4 And if the household be too little for the Lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the Lamb.
5 Your Lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or the goats:
6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.
8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs, they shall eat it.
9 Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the appurtenances thereof.
10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.
11 And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD'S Passover.
12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.
13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt.
14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.
15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
16 And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.
18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.
19 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.
20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.
INTRODUCTION TO
Chapter 12:1-20
Passover, also called Pesach is a major Jewish holiday that celebrates the Israelite's Exodus from slavery in Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, the first month of Aviv, or spring. The word Pesach or Passover can also refer to the Korban Pesach; the paschal Lamb offered when the Temple in Jerusalem stood; to the Passover Seder, the ritual meal on Passover night; or the Feast of Unleavened Bread. One of the biblically ordained Three Pilgrimage Festivals, Passover is traditionally celebrated in the Land of Israel for seven days and eight days among many Jews in the Diaspora , based on the concept of Yom Tov Sheni Shel galuyot4. In the Bible, the seven-day holiday is known as Chag HaMatzot, the feast of unleavened bread (matzoh).
According to the Book of Exodus, God commands Moses to tell the Israelites to mark a lamb's blood above their doors so that the Angel of Death will pass over them (i.e., that they will not be touched by the tenth plague, death of the firstborn). After the death of the firstborn Pharaoh, the Israelites were ordered to leave, taking whatever they wanted, and Moses was asked to bless them in the name of the Lord. The passage states that the Passover sacrifice recalls when God "passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt." This story is recounted at the Passover meal in the form of the Haggadah5, in fulfillment of the command, "And thou shalt tell (Higgadata) thy son in that day, saying: It is because of that which the LORD did for me when I came forth out of Egypt."
The wave offering of barley was offered at Jerusalem on the second day of the festival. The counting of the sheaves is still practiced for seven weeks until the Feast of Weeks on the 50th day, the holiday of Shavuot.
COMMENTARY
In the land of Egypt.—This section (Exodus 12:1-28) appears to have been written independently of the previous narrative—earlier, probably, and as a part of the Law rather than history. It throws together instructions on the subject of the Passover, which must have been given at different times (comp. Exodus 12:3; Exodus 12:12; Exodus 12:17), some before the tenth of Abib. Some on the day preceding the departure from Egypt, some on the day following. Exodus 12:20 is wholly legal and would suit Leviticus as well as Exodus. Exodus 12:20 has a more historical character since it relates to the action taken by Moses. This story from the Book of Exodus is about God bringing the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm.
5 The Haggadah (Hebrew: ????????, "telling"; plural: Haggadot) is a Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder. According to Jewish practice, reading the Haggadah at the Seder table fulfills the mitzvah.
THE PASSOVER: AN EXPIATION AND A FEAST, A MEMORIAL AND A PROPHECY
The Passover ritual, as appointed here, divides itself into two main parts-the sprinkling of the sacrificial blood on the door-posts and lintels and the feast on the Sacrifice. These can best be dealt with separately. They were separated in the later form of the ritual; for, when there was a central sanctuary, the lambs were slain there, and the blood sprinkled, as in other expiatory sacrifices, on the altar while the domestic feast remained unaltered. The former was more specially meant to preserve the Israelites from the destruction of their firstborn; the latter was a permanent memorial of their deliverance. However, both have perpetual fitness as prophetic of varying aspects of Christian redemption.
I. The ritual of protecting blood.
In the hurry and agitation of that eventful day, it must have seemed strange to the excited people that they should be called upon to observe such a service. However, its institution during that crisis follows the whole tone of the story of the Exodus, in which man is nothing and God all. Indeed, never was national deliverance effected so absolutely without effort or blow struck. Suppose we try to realize the state of mind of the Israelites on that night. In that case, we shall feel how significant the true nature of their deliverance; this summons to an act of worship must have been amid their hurry. The domestic character of the rite is its first marked feature. Of course, there were neither temples nor priests then; but that does not wholly account for the provision that every household, unless too few to consume a whole lamb, should have its Sacrifice slain by its head. The first purpose of the rite, to provide for the safety of each house by the sprinkled blood, partly explains it; but the most profound reason is, no doubt, the witness who was thereby borne to the universal priesthood of the nation. The patriarchal order made each man the priest of his house. This rite, which lay at the foundation of Israel's nationality, proclaimed that a restricted priestly class was a later measure. The primitive formation crops out here as a witness that, even where hidden beneath later deposits, it underlies them all.
We have called the Passover a sacrifice. That has been disputed, but unreasonably. No doubt, it was a peculiar kind of Sacrifice, unlike those of the last ritual in many respects, and scarcely capable of being classified among them. However, keeping its strictly sacrificial character in view is vital, for it is essential to its meaning and specific aspect. The proofs of its sacrificial nature are abundant. The instructions as to the selection of the Lamb; the method of disposing of the blood, which was sprinkled with hyssop-a peculiarly sacrificial usage; the treatment of the remainder after the feast; the very feast itself-all testify that it was a sacrifice in the most accurate use of the word. The designation of it as a Passover to the Lord,' and in set terms as a 'sacrifice,' in Exodus 12:27 and elsewhere, to say nothing of its later form when it became a regular Temple sacrifice or of Paul's distinct language in 1 Corinthians 5:7, or Peter's quotation of the very words of Exodus 12:5, applied to Christ, a lamb without blemish,' all point in the same direction. But if a sacrifice, what kind of Sacrifice was it? The first purpose was that the blood might be sprinkled on the door-posts and lintels, so the house was safe when the destroying angel passed through the land. Such is the explanation given in Exodus 12:13, which is the divine declaration of its meaning. This is the center of the rite; from it, the name was derived. Whether readers accept the doctrines of substitution and penitence or not, it ought to be impossible for an honest reader of these verses to deny that these doctrines or thoughts are there. They may be only the barbarous notions of a half-savage age and people. However, whatever they are, there they are. The Lamb without blemish, carefully chosen and kept for four days, till it had become as it were part of the household, and then solemnly slain by the head of the family, was their representative. When they sprinkled its blood on the posts, they confessed that they were in peril of the destroying angel because of their impurity and presented the blood as compensation. So far, their act was an act of confession, deprecation, and faith. It accepted the divinely appointed means of safety. The consequence was exemption from the fatal stroke, which fell on all homes from the palace to the enslaved people's hovel, where that red streak was not found. If any son of Abraham had despised the provision for safety, he would have been a partaker of the plague.
All this refers only to an exemption from outward punishment, and we are not obliged to attribute to these terrified bondmen any higher thoughts. But clearly, their obedience to the command implied a belief in the divine voice; the command embodied, though in application to a quick judgment, the broad principles of sacrificial substitution, penitence by blood, and safety by the individual application of that shed blood.
In other words, the Passover is a Gospel before the Gospel. We are sometimes told that in its sacrificial ideas, Christianity still dresses in 'Hebrew old clothes.' We believe, on the contrary, that the whole sacrificial system of Judaism had for its highest purpose to shadow forth the coming redemption. Christ is not spoken of as 'our Passover' because the Mosaic ritual had happened to have that ceremonial. However, the Mosaic ritual was ceremonial mainly because Christ is our Passover. His blood shed on the Cross and sprinkled on our consciences does in a spiritual reality that the Jewish Passover only did in outward form. However exciting and hotly contested, all other questions about the Old Testament are of secondary importance compared with this. Is its chief purpose prophesying Christ, His atoning death, His kingdom, and Church, or is it not? The New Testament does not doubt the answer. The Evangelist John finds in the singular swiftness of our Lord's death, which secured the exemption of His sacred body from the violence inflicted on His fellow sufferers, a fulfillment of the paschal injunction that not a bone should be broken; and so, by one passing allusion, shows that he recognized Christ as the true Passover. John the Baptist's rapturous exclamation, 'Behold the Lamb of God!' blends allusions to the Passover, the daily Sacrifice, and Isaiah's great prophecy. The day of the Crucifixion, regarded as fixed by divine Providence, may be taken as God's finger pointing to the Lamb He has provided. Paul's language already referred to attests to the same truth. Moreover, even the last lofty visions of the Apocalypse, where the old man in Patmos so touchingly recurs to the earliest words which brought him to Jesus, echo the same conviction and disclose, amidst the glories of the throne, a Lamb as it had been slain.'
II. The festal meal on the Sacrifice.
After the sprinkling of the blood came the feast. Only when the house was secure from the destruction which walked in the darkness of that fateful night could a delivered household gather around the board. That which had become their safety now became their food. Later, other sacrifices were modeled on the same type; in all cases, the symbolism is the same: joyful participation in the Sacrifice and communion with God based upon expiation. Nevertheless, on that first night, it was only such by anticipation, seeing that it preceded the deliverance it was afterward to commemorate. In the Passover, this second stage received the other meaning of a memorial for future ages.
The preparation of the feast and the manner of partaking of it are both significant. The former provided that the Lamb should be roasted, not boiled, apparently to secure its being kept whole; the exact purpose suggested the other prescriptions that it was to be served up entire and with bones unbroken. The reason for this seems to be that thus the unity of the partakers was more plainly shown. All ate of one undivided whole and were thus, in a real sense, one. So the Apostle deduces the unity of the Church from the oneness of the bread they partake in the Christian Passover.
It was to be eaten with the accompaniments of bitter herbs, usually explained as memorials of the bondage, which had made the lives bitter, and the remembrance of which would sweeten their deliverance, even as the pungent condiments brought out the savor of the food. The other accompaniment of unleavened bread seems to have the same signification as the appointment that they were to eat with their garments gathered round their loins, their feet shod, and staves in hand. All these were partly necessities in their urgent hurry and partly a dramatic representation for later days of the same scene of the first Passover. A strange feast indeed, held while the beat of the opinions of the destroying angel could almost be heard, devoured in hot haste by anxious men standing ready for a perilous journey, the end of which none knew! The gladness would be strangely dashed with terror and foreboding. Honestly, though they feasted on a sacrifice, they had bitter herbs with it and, standing, swallowed their portions, expecting every moment to be summoned to the march.
The Passover as a feast is a prophecy of the great Sacrifice, by whose sprinkled blood we all may be sheltered from the sweep of the divine judgment, and on which we all have to feed if there is to be any life in us. Our appeasement is our food. 'Christ for us' must become 'Christ in us,' received and appropriated by our faith as the strength of our lives. The Christian life is meant to be a joyful feast based upon Sacrifice and communion with God. We feast on Christ when the mind feeds on Him as truth when the heart is filled and satisfied with His love when the conscience clings to Him as its peace, when the will esteems the 'words of His mouth more than its 'necessary food,' when all desires, hopes, and inward powers draw their supplies from Him and find their object in His sweet sufficiency.
Nor will the accompaniments of the first Passover be wanting. Here we feast in the night; the dawn will bring freedom and escape. Here we eat the glad Bread of God, not unseasoned with bitter herbs of sorrow and memories of the bondage, whose chains are dropping from our uplifted hands. Here we should partake of that hidden nourishment in such a manner that it hinders not our readiness for external service. It is not yet time to sit at His table but to stand with loins, girt, feet shod, and hands grasping the pilgrim staff. Here we are to eat for strength and to blend with our secret hours of meditation the religious activities of the pilgrim life.
That feast was, further, appointed with a view to its future use as a memorial. It was held before the deliverance which it commemorated had been accomplished. A new era was to be reckoned from it. The month of the Exodus was the first of the year. The memorial purpose of the rite has been accomplished. It is still observed worldwide, so many hundred years after its institution, being thus, probably, the oldest religious ceremonial in existence. Once more aliens in many lands, the Jewish race still, year by year, celebrate that deliverance, so tragically unlike their homeless present, and with indomitable hope, at each successive celebration, repeat the expectation, so long cherished in vain, 'This year, here; next year, in the land of Israel. This year, enslaved people; next year, freemen.' There can be few stronger attestations of historical events than keeping days commemorating them if traced back to the event they commemorate. So this Passover, like Guy Fawkes' Day in England, or Thanksgiving Day in America, remains for a witness even now.
What an incomprehensible stretch of authority Christ put forth if He were no more than a teacher when He brushed aside the Passover and put the Lord's Supper in its place, commemorating His death! He said, 'Forget that past deliverance; remember Me.' Indeed this was either audacity approaching insanity or divine consciousness that He was the true Paschal Lamb, whose blood shields the world from judgment and on whom the world may feast and be satisfied. Christ's deliberate intention to represent His death as compensation, and to fix the reverential, grateful gaze of all future ages on His Cross, cannot be eliminated from His founding of that memorial rite in substitution for the God-appointed ceremonial, so overused with age and sacred in its significance. Like the Passover, the Lord's Supper was established before the deliverance was accomplished. It remains a witness at once of the historical fact of the death of Jesus and of the meaning and power which Jesus Himself bade us see in that death. For us, redeemed by His blood, the past should be filled with His Sacrifice. For us, fed on Himself, all the present should be communion with Him, based upon His death for us. For us, freed bondmen, the memorial of deliverance begun by His Cross should be the prophecy of deliverance to be completed at the side of His throne, and the hasty meal, eaten with bitter herbs, the adumbration of the feast when all the pilgrims shall sit with Him at His table in His kingdom. Past, present, and future should all be saturated with Jesus Christ. Memory should furnish hope with colors, canvas, and subjects for her fair pictures, and both be fixed on 'Christ our Passover, sacrificed for us.'
Ex 12:3-10.
