The Passover was both event and proclamation
The Passover was Israel’s birthright. The feast and the event it commemorated was for all posterity. Israel was to observe this as a rite, or ritual, that was to be passed on to generation after generation after generation forever. Exodus 12:24: You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. 25 And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. 26 And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’ ”
The covenantal language here parallels that of a birthright. That future “sons” will be commemorating the Passover is testament to God’s faithfulness to his covenant promises that Abraham’s seed will be as numerous as the stars.
Yet Israel, the son, was liberated to serve another. The Passover was an exchange of slavery for voluntary service. Moses’ use of the word service in verses 25 and 26 is intentional. The Passover signified Israel’s liberation from slavery. Yet, in future generations, the Passover sacrifice and festival as a service rendered to the Lord. One form of bondage was replaced by volunteer service. (Do we hear echoes of Paul’s no longer being a slave to sin, yet being the “bondservant” of Jesus Christ?)
This birthright is not only grounded in a past event, for the Israelites it was participation in that past event. Here in Exodus 12, Moses tells the Israelites that future Passovers would forever be tied to the original Passover. And it went beyond mere theme or memorial. Fathers were given responsibility to pass the story along to their sons so that what God did on Israel’s behalf would never be forgotten.
And passing along the story takes on some very specific language, making this Passover more than an event. It is also Word, a proclamation. The language in Exodus 12 places the significance of the Passover in that God spared “*our* houses”. God goes into further detail about this with Moses in chapter 13. The fact that God says it twice speaks to the significance of this aspect of the Passover.
Here is what Moses says in chapter 13, not only in relation to the Passover, but the related consecration of firstborns: 8 You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’...14 And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. 15 For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals... (verse 16) for by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”
This language strikes us westerners as kind of odd. We do not think of history this way. In fact, we do all we can, as post-moderns, to remove ourselves from history by creating our own history as we go. Our history is self-made and because it is so, there is no need to find ourselves somewhere in the past. This is not the way God wanted Israel to think of their history. Israel’s posterity was united in word and deed to its forerunners. In the Passover, Israel participated in the original Passover event. The Passover not only interpreted the Great Departure from Egypt in picture form, but also word form. The fathers were to say to their sons, “As I partake in the Passover, I partake with those who ate in hushed voices with belts around their waists and their feet shod with sandals. When Israel was delivered, we were delivered. When God and his destroyer angel spared Israel judgment, they spared us judgment. The blood on the doorpost that turned away God’s wrath for Israel is the blood that satisfied God’s wrath for us. Whatever happened to them, happened to us. When they left Egypt, we left Egypt. Israel’s salvation is our salvation.” The parents exodus is the children’s exodus. Participation in the Passover is participation in the exodus. Participation in the Passover is union with the great I AM who exercised judgment on the Egyptians and provided salvation for His people.
As parents and children and their children keep Passover, the banquet in the wilderness will continue long after they are in the Promised Land. Generation after generation until forever are to actualize and participate in the great event in which God kept his promise to Jacob that he would bring a nation out of Egypt and back to the land. Those who are in the land will come to know the Exodus by experiencing the exodus through the slaughter of the lamb and the meal with unleavened bread.
And they will come to know the exodus through the proclamation of the event. As Israel participates in the sacrifice and meal, they are to proclaim its meaning to their children and to each other. The Passover is Israel’s deliverance from slavery and from Egypt’s judgment in picture form. What happened to the lamb is what happened to Egypt’s firstborn. To munch on the unleavened bread was to acknowledge the satisfaction and sustenance provided by God in their deliverance from Egypt.
As the Passover provides corporate solidarity in the redemptive history that transcends generations, the people of Israel are given their identity. The Passover is their heritage. The Passover is their destiny. It went to the core of *who* they were. Keeping Passover was their maintenance of their identity. Is it any wonder that during the zenith of Israel’s identity crisis in the days of the judges keeping Israel stopped keeping the Passover? One cannot help but wonder whether Israel’s failure to completely occupy the land as they had been commanded isn’t tied to their failure to observe Passover as they had been commanded.
Just as the children of Israel were given an identity in the Passover, so too we have been given an identity in the Passover Lamb. To participate in the Lord’s Table is to participate in the redemptive history of the Table. The table, as both proclamation and event, is God’s provision for his people. United to Christ, we participate in the great exodus accomplished for us on our behalf in the death and resurrection of Christ. That exodus was our exodus. His resurrection was our resurrection. Christ, the Passover, is the firstfruits of a New Creation, a new people of God who are identified by their union with Him. Christ is our heritage. Christ is our destiny. -- crb; "Banquet in the Wilderness: The Passover", mp3
The covenantal language here parallels that of a birthright. That future “sons” will be commemorating the Passover is testament to God’s faithfulness to his covenant promises that Abraham’s seed will be as numerous as the stars.
Yet Israel, the son, was liberated to serve another. The Passover was an exchange of slavery for voluntary service. Moses’ use of the word service in verses 25 and 26 is intentional. The Passover signified Israel’s liberation from slavery. Yet, in future generations, the Passover sacrifice and festival as a service rendered to the Lord. One form of bondage was replaced by volunteer service. (Do we hear echoes of Paul’s no longer being a slave to sin, yet being the “bondservant” of Jesus Christ?)
This birthright is not only grounded in a past event, for the Israelites it was participation in that past event. Here in Exodus 12, Moses tells the Israelites that future Passovers would forever be tied to the original Passover. And it went beyond mere theme or memorial. Fathers were given responsibility to pass the story along to their sons so that what God did on Israel’s behalf would never be forgotten.
And passing along the story takes on some very specific language, making this Passover more than an event. It is also Word, a proclamation. The language in Exodus 12 places the significance of the Passover in that God spared “*our* houses”. God goes into further detail about this with Moses in chapter 13. The fact that God says it twice speaks to the significance of this aspect of the Passover.
Here is what Moses says in chapter 13, not only in relation to the Passover, but the related consecration of firstborns: 8 You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’...14 And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. 15 For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals... (verse 16) for by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”
This language strikes us westerners as kind of odd. We do not think of history this way. In fact, we do all we can, as post-moderns, to remove ourselves from history by creating our own history as we go. Our history is self-made and because it is so, there is no need to find ourselves somewhere in the past. This is not the way God wanted Israel to think of their history. Israel’s posterity was united in word and deed to its forerunners. In the Passover, Israel participated in the original Passover event. The Passover not only interpreted the Great Departure from Egypt in picture form, but also word form. The fathers were to say to their sons, “As I partake in the Passover, I partake with those who ate in hushed voices with belts around their waists and their feet shod with sandals. When Israel was delivered, we were delivered. When God and his destroyer angel spared Israel judgment, they spared us judgment. The blood on the doorpost that turned away God’s wrath for Israel is the blood that satisfied God’s wrath for us. Whatever happened to them, happened to us. When they left Egypt, we left Egypt. Israel’s salvation is our salvation.” The parents exodus is the children’s exodus. Participation in the Passover is participation in the exodus. Participation in the Passover is union with the great I AM who exercised judgment on the Egyptians and provided salvation for His people.
As parents and children and their children keep Passover, the banquet in the wilderness will continue long after they are in the Promised Land. Generation after generation until forever are to actualize and participate in the great event in which God kept his promise to Jacob that he would bring a nation out of Egypt and back to the land. Those who are in the land will come to know the Exodus by experiencing the exodus through the slaughter of the lamb and the meal with unleavened bread.
And they will come to know the exodus through the proclamation of the event. As Israel participates in the sacrifice and meal, they are to proclaim its meaning to their children and to each other. The Passover is Israel’s deliverance from slavery and from Egypt’s judgment in picture form. What happened to the lamb is what happened to Egypt’s firstborn. To munch on the unleavened bread was to acknowledge the satisfaction and sustenance provided by God in their deliverance from Egypt.
As the Passover provides corporate solidarity in the redemptive history that transcends generations, the people of Israel are given their identity. The Passover is their heritage. The Passover is their destiny. It went to the core of *who* they were. Keeping Passover was their maintenance of their identity. Is it any wonder that during the zenith of Israel’s identity crisis in the days of the judges keeping Israel stopped keeping the Passover? One cannot help but wonder whether Israel’s failure to completely occupy the land as they had been commanded isn’t tied to their failure to observe Passover as they had been commanded.
Just as the children of Israel were given an identity in the Passover, so too we have been given an identity in the Passover Lamb. To participate in the Lord’s Table is to participate in the redemptive history of the Table. The table, as both proclamation and event, is God’s provision for his people. United to Christ, we participate in the great exodus accomplished for us on our behalf in the death and resurrection of Christ. That exodus was our exodus. His resurrection was our resurrection. Christ, the Passover, is the firstfruits of a New Creation, a new people of God who are identified by their union with Him. Christ is our heritage. Christ is our destiny. -- crb; "Banquet in the Wilderness: The Passover", mp3
posted by Chad Richard Bresson at 3/13/2007 02:55:00 PM
1 Participation
