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Exodus 12:2-11

This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 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, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people 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, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.  Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts.  Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it.  This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover.

Passover. It's something we all hear about. A lot of people consider Passover as "that weird holiday the Jews celebrate around Easter." But, to the Jews, it is so much more than just "a weird holiday." In the above scripture, taken from Exodus 12:2-11, we see the first mention of "the LORD's Passover" in the Bible.

Most of you know the story of the first Passover. The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years, and it was time to get them out. So God went to Moses--who had been saved from death as a baby and raised in Pharaoh's household--and brought him out of the desert to deliver the Israelites. Pharaoh said "no," he would not let the Israelites go right away, and God continued to harden his heart through a series of plauges--all against Egypt's gods. The same night the final plague took place, the LORD's Passover happened for the first time. In Exodus 12:12-13, God explains what He is about to do--pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son. But He tells the Israelites if they put the blood of lambs over their doors, He will pass over them and spare the lives of their firstborn sons.

To this day, Jews continue to celebrate the LORD's Passover. The most important tradition in the Passover celebration is the Passover feast, known as the Seder. God commanded the Israelites to commemorate the day when the Lord passed over them and spared them from death. This was to be a lasting ordinance among the Jews.  But, what about the food that they eat? What is so significant about the food that the Jews eat during the Passover?

The most common of these foods is probably matzoh, or unleavened bread. The Israelites ate unleaved bread because, in their haste to leave Egypt, they did not have time to let dough rise for their bread. Matzoh was their only provision. It is a bread made of wheat, but is not allowed to ferment or rise. This bread is a picture of both slavery and freedom, for it reminds the Jews that God set them free from slavery--but in haste--so they did not have time to prepare much bread.

Another traditional Passover food is roasted lamb bone. This symbolized the lamb the Israelites killed to mark their lintels and doorposts with blood. Today, many Jewish families substitute a turkey or chicken for the lamb, and several Jewish vegetarians substitute in a whole roasted beet instead of a lamb.  

The other Passover food mentioned in Exodus is bitter herbs. These "bitter herbs" generally consist of fresh horseradish, without beets or vinegar. Jews eat this to symbolize the bitterness of slavery.

Some other Passover foods include roasted eggs, which symbolilze the cycle of life--from birth, to death, to re-birth--and charoset, comprised of a mixture of chopped fruits (usually apples), nuts, raisins, spices, and wine. This mixture represents the mortar the Israelites used to make bricks for Pharaoh Rameses II. A couple of other Passover food items are fresh greens, which represent re-birth or spring, and salt water, which represents the Israelites' tears.

As we approach Easter and Passover this year, I hope you all will take some time to think about Easter and the Passover. Remember that, just as the Israelites sacrificed a spotless lamb and marked the lintels and doorposts of their home in order to save them from death, God sacrificed His son, Jesus Christ, as a Passover lamb, and we too should mark the lintels and doorposts of our hearts with His blood in order to be saved from eternal death. It's just something to think about this Easter.   

 

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