#15 - The Passover: Exodus 12:1-27; Reflection by Pastor Steve Buechler

The Passover is the tenth and final plague which God brought upon Egypt because the Pharaoh (the Egyptian title for King), would not let the people of Israel be set free from their slavery to the Egyptians. This final plague, from which the Israelites would be exempt as long as the blood of the lamb was on the doorposts and lintels of their houses, was what finally broke Pharaoh’s resolve to keep the people in slavery. After this, they were permitted to go free, and although Pharaoh later changed his mind and tried to pursue them, this was the act by which God got Israel out of slavery.

For the people of the Old Testament, the Passover became one of the primary foundations in their relationship with God. That is to say, the answer to the question, “Who is God?” was in large part answered by, “God is the One who got us out of slavery in Egypt.” Yes, God was the One who gave them the Torah. And God was the One who gave them the Land. And God was the One who sent them prophets to proclaim a new vision of the future. But if it weren’t for the Passover, none of them would have been free to live into those promises of God.

So who is God for us? In the New Testament, Paul writes that Jesus Christ is our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7). That is, by Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have been freed from the bondage to sin and death, and because of that, we are free to live in a new relationship with God. If it weren’t for new life in Jesus, our lives would end with our own death, and there wouldn’t be much to hope for if things weren’t going well for us while we lived. And that’s why for Christians, the primary answer to the question, “Who is God” always has to be, “God is the One who raised Jesus from the dead.”

Exodus 12

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: ²This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. ³Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. ⁴If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. ⁵Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. ⁷They 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 lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ⁹Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. ¹⁰You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. ¹¹This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the LORD. ¹²For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; 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 live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
¹⁴This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance. ¹⁵Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day shall be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶On the first day you shall hold a solemn assembly, and on the seventh day a solemn assembly; no work shall be done on those days; only what everyone must eat, that alone may be prepared by you. ¹⁷You shall observe the festival of unleavened bread, for on this very day I brought your companies out of the land of Egypt: you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a perpetual ordinance. ¹⁸In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day, you shall eat unleavened bread. ¹⁹For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether an alien or a native of the land. ²⁰You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your settlements you shall eat unleavened bread.
²¹Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go, select lambs for your families, and slaughter the passover lamb. ²²Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning. ²³For the LORD will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down. ²⁴You shall observe this rite as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children. ²⁵When you come to the land that the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this observance. ²⁶And when your children ask you, 'What do you mean by this observance?' ²⁷you shall say, 'It is the passover sacrifice to the LORD, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.'" And the people bowed down and worshiped.