Sermon Tone Analysis

– GOD INSTITUTES PASSOVER

A. Passover instructions.

1. (1-6) Each household should take a lamb.

Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.

Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.

And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb.

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year.

You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month.

Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.’”

a.

This month shall be your beginning of months:

The coming deliverance from Egypt was such a significant act that God told the children of Israel to remake their calendar.

The new year would now start with the month of their redemption from Egypt.

It was a dramatic way of saying that everything was to change.

i. “God is ever the God of new beginnings in the history of failure.

The ultimate statement is found in the Apocalypse in the words: ‘Behold, I make all things new.’”

(Morgan)

ii.

“Commence a nation’s annals from its evangelization.

Begin the chronicle of a people from the day when they bow at the feet of Jesus.”

(Spurgeon)

iii.

Speak to all the congregation of Israel:

“This is the first occurrence in the Pentateuch of what was to become a technical term, describing Israel in its religious sense… and which underlies the New Testament use of ekklesia, ‘church’.”

(Cole)

b.

Every man shall take for himself a lamb:

On the tenth of this first month, each family – or household – was to take a lamb, and the lamb was to live with the family for the four days until Passover (on the tenth day of this month… until the fourteenth day of the same month).

i.

In this way, the lamb became part of the family.

By the time it was sacrificed on the fourteenth it was both cherished and mourned.

God wanted the sacrifice of something precious.

ii.

If the household is too small for the lamb:

The rabbis later determined that there should be at least ten people for each Passover lamb, and not more than twenty.

iii.

“Passover was a domestic and family festival, and thus shows its early origin.

It has here no temple, no meeting-tent, no altar and no priest: but representation, if not substitution, is clearly implied.”

(Cole)

c.

Your lamb shall be without blemish:

The lamb was also to be without blemish.

This sacrifice unto the LORD had to be as perfect as a lamb could be.

d.

You may take it from the sheep or from the goats:

The Hebrew word for lamb can refer to either a young sheep or a young goat.

i. “The Hebrew seh is quite a neutral word and should be translated ‘head of (small) stock’, applying equally to sheep and goats of any age.

The Hebrews, like the Chinese, seem to have regarded any distinction between sheep and goats as a minor subdivision.

Probably because of this, to ‘separate the sheep from the goats’ is proverbial of God’s discernment in New Testament times ().” (Cole)

ii.

Israel shall kill it at twilight:

“Christ came in the evening of the world; in the ‘last hour’ (); when all lay buried in darkness; in the eventide of our sin and death.”

(Trapp)

2. (7-11) Instructions for eating the Passover.

‘And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.

Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails.

You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire.

And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand.

So you shall eat it in haste.

It is the LORD’s Passover.’

a.

Take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses:

Before the Passover lamb could be eaten, its blood had to be applied to the doorway of the home, to the top and upon each side the blood was applied.

The only part of this sacrifice given to God was the blood; the rest was eaten by each family or discarded (what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire).

i.

As the blood was applied to the top and each side of the doorway, this blood dripped down, forming a figure of a cross in the doorway.

ii.

The blood on the doorposts showed that the sacrifice of the Passover lamb was to be remembered in daily life.

You would see it every time you went in or out of the house.

b.

And thus you shall eat it:

Then, the lamb could be eaten – but only if it had been roasted in fire, with the lamb itself coming into contact with the fire, and with bitter herbs accompanying the meal.

i. “The paschal lamb was not killed in order to be looked at only, but to be eaten; and our Lord Jesus Christ has not been slain merely that we may hear about him and talk about him, and think about him, but that we may feed upon him.”

(Spurgeon)

c.

Let none of it remain until morning:

The Passover lamb had to be eaten completely; a family had to totally consume the sacrifice.

i.

The idea behind eating it all was that you had to take it all then, and not store up some of the rescue for later.

It was for right then, right now, and you had to receive all of it without thinking you could take a bit then and come back to it later if you pleased.

We take all of Jesus, not just the parts that please us.

d.

With a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand:

The Passover lamb had to be eaten in faith, trusting that the deliverance promised to Israel was present, and that they would walk in that deliverance immediately.

i. Faith was essential to the keeping of Passover:

By faith he [Moses] kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

()

e.

It is the LORD’s Passover:

The Passover was the LORD’s in the sense that He provided it:

he Passover was the LORD’s in the sense that He provided it:

· As a rescue, to deliver Israel from the plague of the firstborn.

· As an institution, to remember God’s rescue and deliverance for Israel through every generation.

· As a powerful drama, acting out the perfect sacrifice and rescue Jesus would later provide.

i.

By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul made it perfectly clear: For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us ().

John the Baptist drew on a similar image when he said of Jesus, Behold!

The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

() It seems that Jesus was actually crucified on Passover ().