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SERIES C --- EXODUS FROM BONDAGE --- LESSON 09

PASSOVER

A LAMB FOR EACH FAMILY

From Exodus 11 - 12:1-28

[I will send one last plague on Pharaoh and his land,] Adonai told Moses. [After that, he will want you to go! Tell your people to ask the Egyptians for expensive gold and silver jewellery.] By this time the Egyptians had developed a great respect for the people of Israel, so they were willing to give expensive gifts to them. Moreover, Moses had become a great and famous man throughout Egypt. All the Egyptians respected him, Pharaoh’s officials as much as the common people. Moses gave Pharaoh this last message from Adonai: [About midnight I will pass through the land of Egypt. Every firstborn child or animal of Egypt shall die, from Pharaoh’s oldest son, who would someday become king, to the firstborn child of the slave girl who grinds with the hand mill, as well as the firstborn of all animals. Throughout the land of Egypt there will be a loud wailing, worse than any that Egypt has ever known or will know. But there will not be even the barking of a dog against any of the people of Israel or their animals. Then you will know that Adonai makes a difference between the Egyptians and the people of Israel.] Then Moses said to Pharaoh, [Your officials will run to me and bow low before me. They will beg me and my people to leave Egypt. When they do, we shall go.] Flushed with anger, Moses turned and walked out of Pharaoh’s palace. Now Adonai had already told Moses, [Pharaoh will not listen to what you say. But then it will be possible for Me to do My miracles in Egypt.] Even though Pharaoh had seen the miracles which Moses and Aaron had performed he hardened his heart and refused to let the people of Israel leave the land. About this time Adonai gave special orders to Moses and Aaron concerning the Passover. [Begin your calendar year with this month,] He ordered. [You will instruct your people to honour the tenth day of this month each year. On that day each man will take a lamb as a sacrifice for his father’s household. There shall be one lamb for each household. If the family of that household is too small for a whole lamb, two families in the community may share a lamb. The lamb must be a perfect animal, a year old. Or it may be a perfect kid which is a year old. Separate this animal until the fourteenth day of the month. That evening each family will kill it and place its blood on the panels beside the doorway of their home and on the lintel above the doorway. Each family shall roast its lamb that night and eat it, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Never eat this meat raw or boiled, but roasted as a whole animal, including head, legs and inner parts. None of the meat shall be saved until the following day. It must all be eaten that night. Any leftovers must be burned. When you eat the meat, you must be dressed for travel, with loins girded, sandals on your feet and your walking stick at hand. Eat in haste. It is Adonai’s Passover, for tonight I will pass through Egypt and take the lives of every firstborn in the land, of both men and animals. Thus, I will execute judgment on the gods of Egypt. You will show your obedience to Me by placing the blood on the door panels of your homes. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. Your firstborn children will not be struck down with the firstborn of Egypt. Each year, for many generations to come, you shall remember this day and make it a feast day to Adonai. For seven days of the feast you shall eat unleavened bread, putting away all leaven from your houses on the first day. If anyone eats leavened bread during these seven days of the feast, he shall no longer be a part of Israel. On the first day of the feast, as well as the seventh, you shall gather the people for a sacred meeting. No work shall be done on those days except to prepare food. For all time, and through all generations, you must continue to celebrate this special occasion, for it will remind you of the day when I brought you out of the land of Egypt. From the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month until the evening of the twenty-first day you shall eat only unleavened bread. There must be no leaven in your homes during these seven days. Whoever eats leavened food will no longer be a part of the congregation of Israel. The foreigner who lives among the people of Israel must also observe all these laws.] Moses assembled the elders of Israel and told them Adonai’s rules concerning the Passover. [Choose lambs for your families and kill the lamb as Adonai Commanded. Dip a sprig of hyssop into the basin of blood which you have drained from the lamb, then put the blood on the side panels and lintel above the doorway. You must stay inside all night, for Adonai will pass through the land of Egypt to take the lives of the firstborn. When He sees the blood, He will pass over the home and death will not visit the firstborn of that family. You must observe this ceremony each year, for it is a Law of YHVH forever for you and your descendants. And when you come into the land which Adonai has promised to you, continue to observe it. Your children will ask what this ceremony means. Then you must tell them that it is a Passover sacrifice, for Adonai passed over our homes that night in Egypt when He took the lives of the firstborn of Egypt.]

COMMENTARY

THE STAFF OF LIFE

The Old Testament abounds with references to this central act of YHVH’s judgment on Egypt. For all time YHVH’s people were to celebrate each anniversary of the night YHVH struck down the firstborn of Egypt and passed over His own. The Bible tells the story of this passing over and of blood, sprinkled with the hyssop plant on doorposts which meant safety for the children of Israel. The ancient Egyptians and the Israelites ate more bread than any other food. It was good for them, because whether it was made from wheat or barley, almost all the grain was used. They couldn’t refine it enough to make anything like the white bread eaten today. In fact, bread was so much a part of the average person’s diet, the Hebrew word for bread came to mean {food} in general. Some people still make their own bread. They do it mostly because they want to. But the people of ancient Egypt did it because they had to. It was hard and necessary work, all done by hand and with clumsy tools. First, the grain was crushed into coarse flour with a mortar and pestle. Sometimes finer flour was ground by using two millstones rolling against each other in crushing the grain between them. The flour was then sifted many times to remove any dirt or grit. Next, the flour was mixed with water or honey. Sometimes yeast or a souring agent was added. There were basically two kinds of bread. 1 -- Leavened bread, the kind usually thought of as bread today, which rises into light, airy loaves. 2 -- Unleavened bread, which is either flat and crisp like a cracker, or thick and heavy like banana or nut bread. After the dough was mixed, it was shaped into several different kinds of loaves. Some had holes poked in them and were made with oil; a braided form of this bread, called {Challah,} is still eaten today. So is {pita} or {flatbread,} which was shaped into a circle and had to be turned to bake on both sides; it’s available in many supermarkets. The cracker form of unleavened bread, called {matzah,} is eaten by Jews of the present as a symbol of the events of the Passover; it may well be the bread the Israelites took with them in their hurried flight from Egypt. Several different kinds of ovens were used. Sometimes the shaped dough was baked on pre-heated rocks. Certain kinds of flatbread were baked on an iron griddle, in frying or baking pans, or saucepans. Others were baked on hearths heated by coals or dung fires. The most commonly used oven; which very few people today would know was an oven; was called a {tannur.} It was a large, beehive-shaped pottery jar, heated inside with burning twigs and grass. The outside soon became very hot, and sometimes sooty as well. The bread dough was plastered against the outside, and baked very quickly. Thousands of years ago, an Israelite began his meal by raising the bread in his hands and speaking the ancient blessing: [Blessed art Thou, O Adonai our YHVH, Who gave us this bread… .] The loaf was broken and passed to the others at the table. Only then did the meal begin. Pious Jews do much the same thing today.

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