Exodus Notes Wk 10
Notes:
Intro:
The Passover
The Lord’s Instruction ()
A New Creation
It is to be observed on what has become the first month, the new first month (Abib; cf. 13:4). The deliverance from Egypt is a new beginning for Israel; from now on, every glance at the calendar will remind them of this fact. It also provides a connection to Genesis and creation. At the Exodus, God’s people are being “re-created”; they are starting over with a fresh slate.6
The Lamb
This was to take place “at twilight” so that there would be enough light for the process of slaughter, which also involved skinning, removing entrails, tying up for spit roasting, laying the proper fire. The eating itself took place later, after nightfall (v. 8), when the moon was full (the fourteenth day being the middle of the twenty-eight day lunar cycle, thus the exact time of the full moon). So there was maximal nighttime light for gathering together and eating, and, as well, the timing would function in commemoration of the coming full moon nighttime flight from Egypt that characterized the exodus (vv. 11–13).
Thus the reason for demanding perfection rested not in the quality of the meal but in the symbolic purpose: the animal served as a reminder of the eventual deliverance that a perfect God perfectly provided for his people as part of the process of making them holy like himself. Proper relating to God requires perfection.
From the vantage point of the full overview of the plan of redemption designed by God before he even created human beings, Jesus of Nazareth was to be young at the time of his death, male of course, and perfect—free from defect before God. His sinlessness qualified him and him alone to be the lamb of God, a human lamb rather than an animal of the flock, and yet a lamb in the sense of one meeting the criteria for the Passover meal.
A couple things to note:
The Eating of the Lamb
The principle was thus: Everyone had to eat the meat, and all the meat had to be eaten.
Therefore many Israelites might have been tempted to save some for breakfast. But this would have violated the symbolic sense of the meal, indicating that those who saved the meat both distrusted that God would provide for them the next day as they were on the run out of the country and that God’s deliverance was an immediate, once-for-all rescue and sparing of his people.
But the greater value is in preparation for the Messiah. The Messiah was to be one body, broken for all, symbolically eaten by all, in order to help believers in the New Covenant keep aware of their unity as members of the one body. Partial consumption and fragments left over do not appropriately symbolize that body and that unity. The ultimate purpose of the Old Testament Passover instruction is to point forward to Christ, to the purpose of his death, memorialized in the ritual of the Lord’s Supper that now replaces the Passover, and also to the unity of those accepted by him as his people, his body.
Quick Preparation
Roasting over a fire required no setup or washup of pots and other utensils, no additional drawing of water, and no waiting time for the water to boil; thus it was the fastest, simplest way to cook meat. Bitter herbs were the easiest to find and harvest and were eaten as a side dish either raw or seared, as opposed to more elaborate ways of preparing, mixing, and cooking vegetables. Bread made without yeast could be rapidly mixed and heated: the usual multihour waiting time for the dough to rise and the loaf to bake was cut to just minutes. Eating raw meat would have been even faster but both distasteful and dangerous to health; boiling the meat would have been both slower and more cumbersome and therefore inconsistent with the emphasis on speed and readiness inherent in the Passover concept. The inclusion of “inner parts” in the roasting does not mean the goat kid or lamb was roasted whole—but merely that it was gutted very simply and then roasted rapidly, as opposed to the usual full butchering and separation of the various organ meats for consumption in various ways and at various times.
Eat it in haste
The Israelites were required to eat the Passover in a manner that demonstrated their readiness to leave Egypt immediately
This was an issue of faith: did the families of the Israelites really trust God’s promises for them? If so, were they willing to show that trust by arranging themselves so as to be fully prepared for departure, and by eating what was to be their last meal in Egypt in such a manner as not to impede their ability to gather together and start moving as soon as the command reached them?
If so, were they willing to show that trust by arranging themselves so as to be fully prepared for departure, and by eating what was to be their last meal in Egypt in such a manner as not to impede their ability to gather together and start moving as soon as the command reached them?
Leaving Egypt
After all, they had lived in Egypt for 430 years—a long time to acclimate culturally and geographically—and were now being asked to leave behind everything they had ever known: the place where they had lived all their lives, where their parents and grandparents had lived and died, and where they had prospered until the paranoia of the post-Hyksos pharaohs had taken over.
Moses’s Instruction to the Elders
A couple things to note:
Kill the passover lamb
Hyssop
Blood
ver. 36; Ex. 12:3; Isa. 53:7; Acts 8:32; 1 Pet. 1:19; [Gen. 22:8; Rev. 5:6
On the door
Jesus at the Passover meal
A Statue to Remember
(1) The Gospel writers closely associate the Last Supper with the Passover. As the Passover was to be a lasting ritualistic representation of God’s deliverance of Israel from bondage, the Last Supper is to be a lasting reminder of God’s final act of deliverance from a bondage more terrible than slavery to a human despot. This last meal with Jesus’ disciples must be seen in light of his death and resurrection, which follow immediately, just as the Exodus followed the Passover meal. There is no lamb at this meal, however, for Christ is the Lamb, something we are told already at the beginning of his earthly ministry (John 1:29). Rather than the typical diet of lamb and bitter herbs, this consummate Passover meal consists of bread and wine, which represent the body and blood of Christ, the new Lamb. Now that the final Passover Lamb has come, a new meal with new elements is in order.