Then the first day for the feast of Unleavened Bread came, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us to eat…” So they left, went into the city, and found things just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
Before the Passover feast, Jesus knew that his time had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now loved them to the very end. Now when the hour came and it was evening, Jesus came to the house and took his place at the table and the twelve apostles joined him.
Jesus said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you the truth that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after giving thanks he broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, “Take, eat, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And in the same way he took the cup after they had eaten, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, for this cup is my blood, the blood of the new covenant, that is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” And they all drank from it.
“Then the first day for the feast of Unleavened Bread came, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.” The biblical writers weren’t big on incidental details. If they include details, it’s meant to point the reader to something important. So, let’s talk about the first Passover.
After the descendants of Abraham went to Egypt in times of famine (instead of trusting in God), they hung around Egypt. Eventually, there were so many that Pharaoh said, “we must deal shrewdly with them,” so they didn’t join Egypt’s enemies. Instead of bribing them, Pharaoh enslaved them. They multiplied into the millions, and the Egyptians began to dread them.
Pharaoh eventually told the Hebrew midwives to kill the Hebrew baby boys (they didn’t). By the end of Exodus 1, Pharaoh has issued a command that all the Egyptians were to kill all the Hebrew boys. Moses was one of the boys who not only survived, but was adopted into Pharoah’s family.
Fast forward. When adult Moses stopped an Egyptian from beating a Hebrew by killing the Egyptian, Moses fled from Egypt. Eventually, God called him back to deliver God’s people. Moses asked Pharaoh for a three days journey into the wilderness to worship God; Pharoah kept saying “no” over and over, so Yahweh began to show Pharaoh – and all the Egyptians and Hebrews watching – who was God and who wasn’t. This brings us to the plagues.
Keep in mind that the Hebrews had been in Egypt over 400 years. Depending on how you measure, that’s 10 to 30 generations. We are told in Exodus 12:38 that when Israel left Egypt that, “a mixed multitude went up with them.” Most historians will tell you this included Egyptians leaving with them as well as families comprised of Egyptians and Hebrews. It’s a long time to be in a very pagan Egypt, mingling and intermarrying with the Egyptians.[1]
Moses himself married the daughter of a priest from the Midianites, who worshipped a multitude of gods, including Baal and the “Queen of Heaven,” Ashteroth.[2] Moses later married an Ethiopian woman, who certainly came from a polytheistic culture.[3]
This multitude was not only mixed ethnically, but also confused spiritually. By the time of Moses, the Egyptians and the Hebrews had the same problem – neither of them knew or served the one true God. Joshua will later tell God’s people (24:15), “Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River (#Egypt), or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve Yahweh.” But…
God reveals a new name for the people to use (Exodus3:13-15; 6:3) when referencing God: Yahweh (“I Am”) instead of El Shaddai (God Almighty; A God Who Knows When To Say Enough)[4] This can read as read I AM, I WAS, and I WILL BE. The Jewish people saw something in this name that pointed to self-sufficiency; self-existence; trustworthiness; and presence (which meant relationship).
·God said He would make Himself known to the Israelites by delivering them from slavery (Exodus 6:7).
Exodus 14:31: “And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of Yahweh displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared Yahweh and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.” Notice how the Israelites needed to see God in action to get their attention.
“Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says, “Israel is my son, my firstborn. So I said to you, ‘Let my son go so that he may serve me.’”(Exodus 4:23)
Meanwhile, Moses asking Pharaoh for a short journey to offer sacrifices to God was a bold move for at least two reasons.
First, it’s not clear that the Israelites understood who their God was by this time. Moses was using a new name for God; meanwhile El Shaddai, the Almighty, the One Who Knew When To Say Enough, was now saying “enough!” to their slavery. Why were they changing names? Did that mean they were changing gods? There had to be some confusion there.
Second, they were going to sacrifice a lamb/ram, and these were sacred to two Egyptian gods, Amun (chief god) and Khnum. They believed that rams were the earthly manifestation of a god and were worshipped in their physical form. The Egyptians sacrificed goats, not sheep. This was a problem. “Exod 8:22 The sacrifices that we offer to the LORD our God are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we offer in the sight of the Egyptians sacrifices that are an abomination to them, will they not stone us?”
We read how Pharoah’s heart hardened the longer the plagues go on. Even for the Egyptian reader, this would not have been a good sign. According to Egyptian mythology, when nobility died, the gods presented their heart to Sobek, the crocodile god of the Nile. He had a scales on which to weigh their life. On one side was the “weight of goodness”; on the other side, Sobek placed the heart. If the heart was “light,” paradise awaited. If the heart was “heavy,” off they went to the underworld with Sobek. The Hebrew word for “harden” is also the word for “heavy.” Both Egyptian and Israelite readers would have seen that Pharaoh's heart became increasingly opposed to goodness as he denied the Israelite’s freedom.[5]
Meanwhile, the plagues are methodically dismantling the status of the primary Egyptian gods.
Water to Blood: Egyptian god of Nile, Hapi, Lord of the Fishes and Birds of the Marshes and Lord of the River
Frogs: Egyptian goddess of fertility, Heket, who had the head of a frog. Her amulets were engraved with the phrase I am the resurrection. She was thought to give babies the breath of life.
Lice or gnats from the dust: Geb, who ruled the dust of the earth.
Flies (“dog fly”): god of creation, Khepri, who had the head of a fly.
Death of livestock: Hathor, who had the head of a cow.
Boils and sores: Goddess of Medicine, Isis, called the Mother of Life and the Crone of Death.
Hail: goddess of sky, Nut, the protector of children, goddess of childbirth.
Locusts: Seth, god of the desert, storms, and foreigners.
Darkness: Ra, the sun god. All forms of life were believed to have been created by Ra. Humans were created from Ra’s tears and sweat, hence the Egyptians call themselves the “Cattle of Ra.”
Death of the Firstborn: Pharaoh, the King of Egypt was considered to be the greatest Egyptian god of all. His son would also have been considered a god. [6] All firstborns were considered sacred and protected by Ahmun-Ra.
The plagues were certainly not less than taking down Egyptian gods one by one so the Egyptians would see that Yahweh was God. But they were more. God is revealing himself to all the characters in this story, reminding all of them that their gods are small and fragile and the playthings of the Real God, so that all – Egyptian and Hebrew - would be convinced to give honor where honor is due.
The plagues apparently unfold over months and months as Pharoah keeps refusing to let God’s people go. God is slow to anger; not eager to bring judgment, but offering opportunity over and over to turn from evil and do good, to stop oppressing and enslaving God’s family, to see for themselves that Yahweh is the Lord of lords, the God above all gods.
Remember how Pharoah ordered all the people to make sure all of the Hebrew male children were killed? God does not order the same. In the final plague, He declares the death of the firstborn males if Pharoah does not relent in persecution against God’s firstborn son. When Moses tells Pharoah about this upcoming plague of death, Exodus says that “Moses, hot with anger, left Pharoah.” This is the first time he was “hot with anger” about a plague. Perhaps it’s because he told Pharaoh that the firstborn of even the slaves would die (Exodus 11:5).
But…there was a way out. This did not have to happen. We read of the plague of hail that "he who feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his livestock flee to the houses" (Exodus 9:20). All could avoid the penalties aimed at Pharaoh if they followed the lead of God’s people. This brings us to Exodus 12: The first Passover.
Exodus 12
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt… “Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor,[7] having taken into account the number of people there are…
The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.[8] Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire…
On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance… Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your hosts out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come…
Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe… When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down….’”
Why did God make his people do this? He already knew who his people were. He wasn’t confused. He could have just quietly spared them all. In fact, the prior six plagues had not touched the Hebrews at all, and they didn’t have to do anything. Why now? There is something about this means of getting God to “pass over” that needed to be specific, and very public.
First, I suspect it was so that everybody, including their Egyptian neighbors, would see and ask what they were doing. By this time, it was clear Yahweh had won the Battle of the Gods. All the Egyptians had months to see how plagues 4-9 were supernaturally not harming the Hebrews at all.
In this mixed multitude, I have no doubt the Israelites told their friends what was going on. After all, “The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh’s officials and by the people.” (Exodus 11:3) We read in Exodus 12 that when they left, “Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.”
Second, God’s people are tested. Are they – not just Moses - willing to publicly challenge one of Egypt’s cherished gods? They would lead a sacred animal down the streets, keep it their home for three days, kill it on the fourth day (likely outdoors), roast the meat over a fire so that everybody could smell it, eat that sheep, then cover their doors with the animals’ blood. This is spiritual warfare at its most confrontational. Hundreds of thousands of households would kill a god, eat it, and smear that god’s blood on their front door.
If God didn’t come through, it wouldn’t be hard to track the families down who committed these acts. If Yahweh did not deliver them, they will be killed. Did they trust that God is who He claimed?
Meanwhile, something really important is happening in terms of where the blood was supposed to be placed. [9] Egyptians believed in five parts of the human being. If any of these parts ceased to exist, the person would cease to exist forever.
·The physical body (why mummification was important.)
·The shadow (a very real part of a person’s being).
·The ka or “life force” (biblically, “the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7).
The ba, or “character traits.”
·The name.
To the ancient Egyptian, the name was a very real part of a person. If you didn’t like somebody, you erased their name, because it erased them from the afterlife. When Moses (trained in Egypt) wrote about the Exodus, he never mentions the name of Pharaoh, but deliberately gives the names of the two Hebrew midwives who were loyal to God (Exod. 1:15). They would live in the afterlife, and so their names mattered; Pharaoh, who had rejected God (Exod. 5:2), would not.
Wealthy Egyptians made sure their names lived on by chiseling their names into stone monuments. The lower class homes and slave huts were made of mud and straw, but… except for the stone lintels and doorposts. That’s where they would chisel their name. When God required the Israelites to paint the blood they collected from the Passover lamb on the doorposts and lintels, He was asking them to cover their names with the blood of the lamb. They could do nothing to ensure that they found life in the afterlife; only the blood of the Lamb could do that.[10]
* * * * *
The Old Testament Passover lamb, although a reality in that time, was a foreshadowing of the better and final Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ.[11] Every Passover lamb ever was pointing toward Jesus dying on the cross so that His blood will cover the flawed and sinful names we’ve made for ourselves.
John the Baptist recognized Jesus as “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29)
·The required lamb without defect (Exodus 12:5) is Jesus; a “lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:19) who offers sure hope of eternal life (1 Peter 1:20-21).
In Revelation, John sees Jesus as “a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6) because it had been slain on a cross during the time that the Passover was observed (Mark 14:12).
The first Passover marked release from Egyptian slavery; the death of Christ marks our release from the slavery of sin (Romans 8:2).
·The Bible says that destruction “passes over” those who have symbolically applied the sacrificial blood of Christ to their hearts (Hebrews 9:12, 14).
The Passover meal is constructed around four cups. The cups remind the participant of the four promises that God made in Exodus 6:6–7.
"I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians."
The four cups of the ancient Passover are as follows (other traditions developed over time):
Cup of Sanctification — “I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians…” The first cup marks Israel – and now us - as God’s chosen ones, sanctified, set apart to worship God as God intends. This requires freedom from that which enslaves us – in our case, sin.
Cup of Deliverance/Praise — “I will deliver you from their bondage…” People who need rescue need help outside of themselves. Their deliverance -and ours – is all God’s doing. The “burdens” of the first phrase describe something uncomfortable and wearisome. The “bondage” of the second phrase (‘avôdāh) can mean both “work” and “worship.” Perhaps this Second Cup reminds us of our need for deliverance from our own false forms of worship.
Cup of Redemption — “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and mighty acts of judgment…” Being redeemed reminds us that this deliverance was brought about by the payment of a price. God’s salvation requires both divine power and payment. It is not a cheap redemption. The Hebrew word here, gā’al, is used other places in Scripture for redeeming a family member, often from slavery. This wasn’t a legal transaction to free a slave; this was a Father redeeming His children. The price of the Passover Lamb’s death pointed the price of Jesus shedding His own blood for the redemption of his sinful, lost children. (Romans 5:8)
Cup of Protection /Hope— “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God…” the Fourth Cup envisions the time when all the spiritual children of Abraham will fully know God and be known as His people. Though God has begun a glorious work in us, the future holds our full and final redemption.[12]
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[1] Even Joseph, married an Egyptian woman (the daughter of a priest, no less).
[2] Exodus 18:9-11 “And Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh… Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them.”
[3] Jewish tradition says that when Moses led an Egyptian army against Ethiopia the daughter of the king of Ethiopia fell in love with Moses. Moses agreed to marry her on the condition that she delivered the Ethiopians into his hand, which she did “A silent unheard voice in the Old Testament: The Cushite woman whom Moses married in Numbers 12:1-10.” In Skriflig (Online). David T. Adamo Department of Old Testament and New Testament, University of South Africa.
[4] “The rabbis teach that one of the names for God, “El Shaddai,” is actually something quite interesting. Often translated “God Almighty,” the sages and rabbis noted that…Hebrew lacks vowels, so the arrangements of how someone breaks up the consonants (especially in proper nouns) can change the translation. In this teaching, the combination of consonants create a Hebrew phrase which says, “The God Who Knows When to Say Enough.” This is the God character we meet in these stories about origins, is it not? A God who knows when to stop creating (“sabbath” literally means cease). A God who knows how to stop a hand of vengeance. A God who knows when to stop destroying.” (Marty Solomon, “Knowing When to Say Enough (Week 2).” bemaliturgy.com
[5] This is from the teaching of Ray VanderLaan.
[6] “Plagues Against The Gods Of Egypt.” Berean-to-berean.com
[7] I think there is good reason to believe the ‘mixed multitude” of Israelites had plenty of Egyptians as their nearest neighbor.
[8] Jewish tradition would focus on sheep. Perhaps goats were an option so the Egyptians were more inclined to participate? I don’t know. It would be in line with the heart of a God not eager to punish.
[9] HT to a post on this subject by Ken Arrington, on Quora. Many other sources confirm his point.
[10] “Covered with blood: A better understanding of Exodus 12:7.” Ministrymagazine.org.
[11] 1 Corinthians 5:7
[12] I got these explanations from “Four Cups and their Meaning in the Passover Seder,” by Tim Hegg, at torahresource.com.