Bible Readings
Reading 45: Yahweh’s instructions on the Passover
Read Exodus 12:1–51.
With the Passover, Yahweh issued a new calendar for Israel—their first month would be that very month. That month aligns with March-April in our modern calendar. God was giving them a new identity as His people with this new religious calendar.
Then God gave instructions that the whole community of Israel had to obey on the tenth day of this first month.
Earlier, God had told Moses to tell Pharaoh that one last plague judgment would come upon the Egyptians: He was going to take away the lives of all firstborns in Egyptian households.
And now, God gave instructions for all Israel. If they obeyed fully, the firstborns of their households would live, and not die along with those of the Egyptian households.
God’s instructions were very specific. They were to:
Choose a one-year old male lamb or goat without blemish (the size would be based on how much their household could eat).
Keep the animal until the 14th day when they would kill it at twilight (between 3–5pm).
Drain the blood from the animal.
Take a bunch of hyssop, a shrub-like herb, and use it like a brush to smear the animal blood on the top and sides of the doorframes of their houses.
Without breaking the bones, roast the entire animal over the fire.
Eat the entire animal quickly with bitter green vegetables and bread made without yeast.
Any meat left over must be burned. Nothing was to remain.
The family must be dressed for travel when they eat.
After eating, they must stay in the house all night without stepping outside.
This was the promise Yahweh made to the people of Israel: if they followed His instructions carefully, that night, when He took away the life of the firstborns of the Egyptian households, He would not take away the lives of the firstborns of the houses that had the blood of the animal on the doorposts.
Why did God command such an elaborate procedure? He was teaching some very important lessons about how He would offer mankind the opportunity to be saved from eternal separation from Him and eternal death. From this, the people would learn that:
There was no way they could save their firstborns from death unless they trusted God’s words.
Their firstborns could live if the blood of the animal was shed.
God was using this elaborate process to explain what would happen later on: those who put their trust in Him could live forever when the blood of Jesus was shed in their place. In other words, just as the animal died in place of the firstborn, Jesus would die in the place of mankind.
That night, there was death in every Egyptian household. But there was no death in any Israelite household. And as God had earlier predicted, Pharaoh did let the Israelites go. In fact, he ordered them out. And this was how God saved Israel from Egypt that day.
God told Moses that every year after that, Israel was to commemorate what He had done for them with two annual feasts.
The first feast was called the Passover. It would be celebrated on the 14th day of the first month. This was to remember the time God “passed over” their homes and did not take away the lives of their firstborns. This feast was to be a sacred holiday. Importantly, the Passover would be celebrated at each Israelite home. Parents were to teach their children about how Yahweh rescued their firstborns from death.
The second feast was called the Festival of Unleavened Bread. It would be on the 15th day of the first month and it lasted seven days. This commemorated the time God rescued all Israel from Egypt. God told them that during these seven days, they must not have any yeast in their homes and must not eat bread with yeast. Why? For this festival, God used yeast to represent sin and corruption. He wanted them to physically remove yeast from their houses to represent a spiritual and inward removal of impurity from within them, leaving them with pure and clean hearts. Anyone who disobeyed by eating bread with yeast during this time would be removed from being part of the promises God made to Abraham.
In this account, we see how God spared the firstborns of Israel and rescued all of Israel from Egypt and then asked them to remember what He did for them through annual festivals. God established the kind of relationship He wanted to have with them. He was their Saviour and their help. And they were to continually remind themselves of who He is and what He had done for them.
Thinking about our own lives, God had rescued us from eternal death through Jesus. Let us remember often what He did for us and thank Him for saving us. Let us thank Him each time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Let us thank Him each time we commemorate Jesus’ birth and death. Let us thank Him each time we celebrate our birthdays. When else can we thank Him for all He’s done for us? Let us not forget but constantly remember with gratefulness in our hearts. Remembering what God has done for us keeps us humble before Him, grateful to Him, and continually creates in us an obedient heart towards God.