The Feast of Passover - 2A

Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

All we have been doing, PART-1A through PART-1C, is building a solid foundation for what comes ahead, which is, a purposeful exposition on each of the Seven Yearly Feasts of the Lord, one after the other; examining not only what they each meant to Old Testament Israel, but also what God wanted them to mean to the Israel of the New Covenant.

So with today's newsletter, which is essentially PART-2A of the Series: "Seven Yearly Feasts of the Lord", we shall begin with the Feast of Passover. Let us begin... ...



One Bible scholar once said, “If you desire a good understanding about a particular subject, you must go to its beginning. In keeping to such a principle, it is thus fitting to start at that point in time past, when the God of Israel introduced the Feast of Passover to Moses (Exo.12:2).

He started with the following statement, “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: the first month of the year unto you.” With this statement God inaugurated the Jewish Religious Calendar, and the specific day He made this statement became the FIRST day of the FIRST month, the most important month in the Religious Year.

We have already mentioned the names of the seven months of this particular calendar, and we have also related them to the twelve months of the Jewish Civil Calendar in PART-1A of this Series. It is when we get to Exo.13:4 that we read of Moses naming the first month as the month of Abib (also see Deut.16:1).

We are going to make progress forward from the first day, and as such we must go back to Exodus Chapter 12 Verse 3 says, “In the tenth day of this month Israel shall take to them every man a lamb… … for a house.”

THE MEANING OF THE PASSOVER

At the point Scriptures say, “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months…;” a little above 400 years before, “Jehovah told Abram, ‘Your descendants will be oppressed as slaves in a foreign land for four hundred years. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and at the end they will come away with great wealth’” (Gen.15:13-14 TLB).

I used the phrase, “a little above 400 years” because the children of Israel didn’t enter into slavery the day their patriarch, Jacob, entered into Egypt with his household at the behest of his eleventh and favourite son, Joseph.

The day a certain Pharaoh who knew not  Joseph signed into law, the decree as to a national policy for the oppression and repression of the foreigners at Goshen, that day Heaven began the count of 400 years.

In the light of the preceding information, we shall now examine the deliverance God wrought for His chosen people—Old Testament Israel.

DELIVERANCE FOR OLD TESTAMENT ISRAEL FROM EGYPT

The four dark centuries had now passed. It was time to come out of slavery into wealth, out of bondage into liberty, out of oppression into freedom, out of darkness into light. Egypt would be behind them, the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey before them.

What a picture this is of our own salvation through Christ. Passover perfectly portrays, “…our great salvation” (Heb.2:3). Our deliverance from slavery to sin and eternal death was prophetically portrayed in these events some 3,400 years ago in Egypt.

Egypt’s Pharaoh King wore a crown with a cobra serpent at its front. Scriptures use the serpent as a symbol of Satan (see Gen.3:1-14; Rev.12:9). This crown of Pharaoh symbolized the ruling principality in the spiritual realm, over Egypt. God’s time had come to take them out from under the despotic satanic rule of Pharaoh into God’s benevolent Kingdom under Moses.

Just as Satan ruled through the Pharaoh of Egypt, God would extend His rule through Moses and his shepherd’s staff. “But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it” (Exo.4:17 NIV). But Pharaoh like his sponsor, the devil, would not give up his slaves without a fight.

Ten terrible plagues would fall upon Egypt before the Pharaoh and the people of Egypt would plead, “…Leave us; please go away, all of you; go and serve Jehovah as you said. Take your flocks and herds and be gone..."  (Exo.12:31-32 TLB).

God told Moses that the last of the ten plagues would be the destruction and death of ALL the firstborn of animals and men. To save His people, God made a provision to PASS OVER them—and thus the Feast of Passover came to be. “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months…” God was going to give all the Israelites a new beginning. Take note of this fact; later on, we shall see how this intention of God towards the Old Testament Israel parallels His intention to the New Testament Israel.

WITHOUT BLEMISH

How did Israel go about the first celebration of the Feast of Passover in Egypt? Exodus chapter Twelve verse Three reads, “…In the tenth day of this month [Abib] they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house.”

It is clear here that family heads were to get a year old lamb for their respective houses or families; “Every man a lamb… a lamb for an house.” However, there was the issue of acceptability! Out of their own free-will, each house-head must select a lamb without blemish.

When we go further, we come to understand from Lev.22:19-20 and Mal.1:8, 14; that anyone that brings an offering that is with blemish in defiance to divine instruction has, consciously or unwittingly, chosen to be a deceiver. In other words, an offering with blemish brings dishonor to the receiver (God) and a curse on the giver (Man). So for FOUR straight days, the lamb for sacrifice is thoroughly inspected for defects.

KILLING THE PASSOVER LAMB

Verse 6 (c.p. Lev.23:5; Num.9:3, 28:16; Deut.16:6) informs us that the Passover lamb is killed in the evening of the 14th of Abib, just before sunset. It is important to note here that the day of the Passover Feast is actually between two evenings; we shall expatiate on this notion when we investigate the observance of ‘Good Friday.’

After killing the sacrifice, they were to use some of the blood of the animal to smear the upper-post, and the two side-posts of their doors. This was done by dipping a bunch of hyssop in the blood, and then using it to strike the necessary three spots. No blood was to be sprinkled on the threshold so that the feet would not trample on it.

The households were then to roast the entire animal (head, legs, and innards) with fire; none of it was to be boiled in water (or milk) at all. Now, what is the significance of this fire? Why must the passover lamb undergo wholesome or complete roasting?

In Egypt at that time, raw flesh was eaten by the Egyptians in honour of Osiris. So in breaking His people from the land of bondage, He wanted to also break them away from whatever Egyptian practices they may have been entangled with. Hence the Lord instructed the Israelites to honour Him by subjecting the sacrifice-without-blemish to fire first before they could eat it.

EATING THE PASSOVER

They were to eat the flesh that night of the 15th with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The latter was to remind Israel of their bitter slavery in Egypt from which God delivered them. As such, Heaven expected of them that they value the freedom they shall have when they come into the Land of Promise.

They were also instructed, “In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof” (Exo.12:46). The members of a given household could only eat of the particular lamb offered for that household. From another perspective, it appears that whatever lamb you one partakes in eating determines the house one must sleep in that very night. Verses 3 and 7 introduce to us the concept of household salvation; more on this later.

Whatever were leftovers the following morning, still on the15th day, wasn’t to be eaten or thrown away but to be completely burnt with fire. Some of us may be puzzled with the phrase used above, “still on the fifteenth day” but let us leave the matter for now; our discussion on ‘Good Friday’ shall settle it clearly.

We see in Verse 11 that the children of Israel were to eat the Passover in haste; this was because they were still in the Egypt. Then in Verse 14, they were commanded to celebrate the Feast of Passover as a memorial (also see Num.9:3; Deut.16:1)—an ordinance forever as long as they continue as a people in obedience to God. Before now, we had discussed memorials and their significance in PART-1C as part of the Introduction to the Seven Yearly Feasts of the Lord; if you are yet to read it up, please click HERE .

SLIGHT CHANGES

At this point and thus far, we have gone through the set of instructions the children of Israel obeyed at the inauguration of the Feast of Passover in Egypt, as recorded in Exodus chapter 12.

The next observance of the feast was when Israel in the wilderness under the leadership of Moses, as recorded in Leviticus chapter 23. We get to see minor differences when we compare the observance in Egypt and the observance post-Egypt. Of course, these slight changes were as a result of Israel no longer in Egypt.

For instance, there was no need to eat the Passover meal in haste with their clothes and shoes on in bid of embarking on a journey. Another example: though a layman can kill the paschal lamb, it became the duty of the priests (and not house-heads) to inspect and collect the blood of the Passover sacrifice as it is killed; this blood was poured at the base of the altar. Also, the sacrifice was to be performed at a specific place prescribed by God; the temple was such a specific place when it existed.




To be Continued and Completed in… … PART-2B