CHRIST IN THE PASSOVER #1
by Ceil and Moishe Rosen (a book puiblished in 1978)
WHY PASSOVER?
When Abraham, the first Hebrew, left Ur of the Chaldees to
follow the call of the living God, he sacrificed a life of
comfort and ease. Ur was no village. It was one of the oldest,
most important cities of Mesopotamia, covering an area of about
four square miles by the Euphrates River, which empties into the
Persian Gulf. The citizens of Ur, numbering well over half a
million, lived in walled safety. They enjoyed the advantages of
the highest culture and civilization of their time. They took
particular pride in the outstanding architecture of their
temples, which they built in honor of their numerous deities, and
in the fact that their city was the center of worship for: the
popular moon-godreligion.
From the comfort, advantages, and sophistication of Ur,
Jehovah called Abraham and his family to a seminomadic way of
life. They were not nomads in spirit, for they had God's promise
of the land; but, in fact, they did not possess it. They wandered
with the seasons, seeking pasture for their flocks, but they also
tilled the ground. Tents were their only shelter from the
scorching sun and cruel desert wind, but they buried their dead
in permanent caves, an act of faith that showed they believed
that one day the land really would be theirs. They trusted God
for future stability and a permanent home, but they knew it was
not yet time.
Then a great drought and famine drove Jacob, a grandson of
Abraham, to leave Canaan for the promise of food in Egypt. Once
again the seed of Abraham dismantled their tents. Packing all
that they had acquired and their scant remaining food and water
supply, they headed south with their wives, their little ones,
and their flocks. For Joseph's sake, Pharaoh welcomed Jacob and
his sons as honored guests, laying Egypt's resources at their
feet and giving them the land of Goshen for their dwelling place
(Genesis 47:6). Goshen was a fertile area along the delta of the
Nile River, lying in the northeast portion of an area between
what is now Cairo to the southeast and Alexandria to the
northwest. Here the Hebrews felt respected and secure.
EGYPT IS OUR HOME-WHY BOTHER ABOUT CANAAN?
Because of the devastating drought that drove Jacob to seek
refuge in Egypt, most of the Egyptians were starving also. Many
sold their cattle, their land, and finally themselves to Pharaoh
in exchange for food. But Jacob's sons flourished and prospered.
Because the pharaohs of that time were of Semitic descent, they
favored the seed of Abraham, who also were Semites. For the first
time since Abraham left Ur, the Hebrews enjoyed a feeling of
permanence. They lived a quiet, secure, pastoral life in Goshen.
The Nile overflowed its banks once a year, bringing life-giving
water to the earth. There was lush, abundant pasture for the
flocks, and rich soil to grow their food.
Here the Hebrews watched their children grow tall and brown
in the sun. At night they slept in safety, with no desert wind
howling through the solid walls of their adobe homes. No longer
did they awake to the distressed bleating of hungry flocks, a
signal that once again they must move on. Their Egyptian
neighbors were people of high morals and advanced culture. Not
only did they produce literature and music, but they also knew
mathematics and a degree of the healing arts, and many were
skilled architects. They accepted the Hebrews as equals and even
bestowed high honors on some of them. Life was pleasant indeed.
In this situation the descendants of Abraham prospered for
hundreds of years. Exodus 1:9 indicates that they multiplied so
fast that a later pharaoh grew concerned that there were more
Hebrews than Egyptians in the land. The children of Israel were
so comfortable and secure that it was easy to forget that Egypt
was not the land God had promised to their fathers. Maybe some of
them even forgot God Himself.
O LORD, FORGIVE OUR COMPLACENCY-GET US OUT OF HERE!
For the seed of Abraham, Egypt had been a volcano
threatening to erupt. For more than four hundred years they lived
at the edge of that volcano without knowing it. Now the volcano
erupted and its flames threatened to consume them, for there
arose a new pharaoh who "knew not Joseph" (Exodus 1:9). Fearing
the strength and power of the vast multitude of Hebrew
foreigners, he turned against them and made them his serfs. The
children of Israel continued to live in Goshen, but the land no
longer belonged to them. Now they belonged to the land, to Egypt,
and to the pharaoh, who was Egypt. They had to serve him with
backbreaking labor, sweating in the fields, building his treasure
cities, without recompense or even dignity. There were no
problems with labor relations, no labor-management arbitrations.
Pharoah owned everything and everyone. He appointed taskmasters,
foremen to make sure that the proper amount of work was done.
When Pharaoh decided to oppress the Hebrews, he simply ordered
the taskmasters to give them more work than they could do. Life
was cheap in Egypt. If a man dropped from exhaustion, the
taskmasters left him to die and quickly whipped another into line
to take his place.
Under the cruel pharaoh, the children of Israel toiled and
suffered, but still they grew in numbers. Enraged, Pharaoh
ordered the Hebrews' male babies murdered so that the entire
nation would eventually die. Then the Israelites remembered the
God of their fathers. At last they recognized their need to be
rescued. They needed to be delivered, not only from Pharaoh, but
from Egypt itself. They cried out to God in their bondage and
distress, and He heard their anguished pleas. Now that they were
ready for His help, He remembered His covenant with Abraham, with
Isaac, and with Jacob. Deliverance was near.
Egypt to the Hebrews had become comfort and complacency
outside God's providence. The covenant Jehovah made with Abraham
was two-sided. On God's part, He promised the land (Genesis
15:18): on Abraham's part, he and his seed were to bear the
physical marks of the covenant-circumcision (Genesis 17: 10). The
Hebrews did remember to circumcise while they were in Egypt
(Joshua 5:5), but they prevented God from fulfilling the covenant
by not seeking the land He had promised. They broke the spirit of
the covenant. They needed to be redeemed, to be "deemed again"
the people of the covenant, the people of God.
Jehovah could have slain the wicked pharaoh in an instant to
alleviate the sufferings of His people. He could have brought
about a new, more favorable order in Egypt. But that would not
have been enough. The sons of Jacob had to forsake Egypt in order
to serve the living God. Old things, old attitudes, old
affections had to pass away - all things had to become new. The
Bible teaches that a person cannot see the Kingdom of God until
he is spiritually born again (John 3:3). So the nation of Israel
also needed a new beginning, a new birth. Thus the redemption at
Passover prepared the sons of Jacob for another covenant to be
made at Sinai, which would reestablish and reaffirm them as the
nation of God.
The Passover redemption from Egypt changed Israel's
reckoning of time. 1 God commanded the Hebrews to count the
month of the deliverance from Egypt as the first month of the
year. He was saying, in effect, "This event is so historic that
you are to rearrange your calendar because of it." They were to
count their existence as a people from the month of Nisan. (Even
so, we of modern time mark our history B.C. and A.D., basing our
calendar on Calvary, the pivot point of God's dealings with
humanity through the Messiah.) And thus, with this new beginning
to occur shortly, Israel, the great nation that God had promised
to its father, Abraham, was about to become reality.
......
1 By tradition, the Jewish people celebrate the fiscal New Year
in the fall, in the seventh month of the Jewish calendar; but the
religious calendar begins in Nisan, the first month.
......
In order to carry out His plan to redeem His people from
Egypt, Jehovah chose a man who was, in many ways, as much an
Egyptian as he was a Hebrew. Moses was born an Israelite. The
blood of Abraham flowed in his veins, but he grew to manhood in
the palace of Pharaoh's daughter. As an infant he was raised by
his Hebrew mother, but he learned worldly wisdom from Egyptian
schoolmasters. God chose him to deliver Israel, to show to all
that "the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and
Israel" (Exodus 11:7b).
As a young man, Moses fled Egypt in disgrace under penalty
of death. When God called him to lead Israel out of bondage, he
had been away from Egypt's culture and sophistication for forty
years. Long ago he had given up his princely robes for the rough
garb of a shepherd. Now he stood before the successor to the
pharaoh who had sought his life. His eyes blazed from his
weather-beaten face with the fire of the living God, whom he had
encountered in the wilderness. His hand, calloused by the
shepherd's crook, wielded a miraculous staff. His lips formed the
syllables of the holy NAME as he confronted Pharaoh with the
words of the Lord: "Let my people go'"
When Pharaoh refused, the Lord demonstrated His might by
bringing down judgment on Egypt's false gods. Through Moses, He
turned the waters into blood, showing His power over the Nile,
which the Egyptians worshiped as the sustainer of life. He
darkened the sky, proclaiming His superiority over the sun-god,
Ra. He made pests of the frogs, which the Egyptians respected as
controllers of the undesirable insects that followed the annual
overflow of the great river.
The Lord poured out plague after plague; still Pharaoh
hardened his heart. God ruined the Egyptians' crops with hail and
locusts, killed their cattle with disease, and afflicted the
people with painful boils, loathsome vermin, and thick darkness.
Calamities threatened Egypt's prosperity on every side, but the
Israelites were spared. Pharaoh hardened his heart even further,
however, and now the cup of iniquity was full. God had said to
Pharaoh through Moses: "Israel is my son.... Let my son go, that
he may serve me; and if thou refuse.... I will slay thy son, even
thy firstborn" (Exodus 4:22-23). Now He determined to break the
iron will of Egypt with one last plague. The specter of death was
to fly by night over the land, breaking the cycle of life,
interrupting the line of inheritance, bringing tragedy to every
home where Jehovah was not feared and obeyed.
Although their redemption was at the door, the Israelites
were not automatically exempt from this last plague. God tempered
His final judgment on Egypt with mercy and perfect provision -
the substitution of a life for a life.
"In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them
every man a lamb.... a lamb for an house.... and ye shall keep it
up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and.... kill
it.... And ... take of the blood, and strike it on the two side
posts and on the upper door post of the houses. For I will pass
through the land of Egypt and will smite all the firstborn....
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses.... and
when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall
not be upon you (Exodus 12:3-7,12-13).
THE WORD "PASSOVER"
The verb "pass over" has a deeper meaning here than the idea
of stepping or leaping over something to avoid contact. It is not
the common Hebrew verb, "a-bhar," or "gabhar," which is
frequently used in that sense. The word used here is "pesah,"
from which comes the noun "pesah," which is translated Passover.
These words have no connection with any other Hebrew word, but
they do resemble the Egyptian word "pesh," which means "to spread
wings over" in order to protect. Arthur W. Pink, in his book
"Gleanings in Exodus," sheds further light on this. Quoting from
Urquhart, he states:
The word is used ... in this sense in Isa.31:5: 'As birds
flying, so will the Lord of Hosts defend Jerusalem;
defending also He will deliver it; and passing over
('pasoach,' participle of 'pesach') He will preserve it. The
word has, consequently, the very meaning of the Egyptian
term for 'spreading the wings over', and 'protecting'; and
pesach, the Lord's Passover, means such sheltering and
protection as is found under the outstretched wings of the
Almighty. Does this not give a new fulness to those words
... 'O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have gathered
thy children together, as a hen does gather her brood under
her wings' (Luke 13:34) ? ... this term 'pesach' is applied
(1) to the ceremony ... and (2) to the lamb.... The slain
lamb, the sheltering behind its blood and the eating of its
flesh, constituted the 'pesach,' the protection of God's
chosen people beneath the sheltering wings of the Almighty
... It was not merely that the Lord passed by the houses of
the Israelites, but that He stood on guard, 'protecting'
each blood-sprinkled door! [The LORD ... will not suffer the
destroyer to come in (Exodus 12:23b).] 1
God includes everyone in the death sentence in Exodus 11:5:
"All the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die." God must do
the right thing because He is God, but He balances His
righteousness with His loving mercy. He decrees judgment for all
sin and all sinners; then He provides a way of escape, a
'kiporah' or covering. When the rain falls from above, it falls
on everyone. But those who have an umbrella do not become wet.
For those who seek His way to satisfy the demands of His Law, God
provides an umbrella of safety. In His judgment of Egypt, He
provided the umbrella of the blood of the Passover lamb.
Israe's redemption began that night behind the sanctuary of
those blood-sprinkled doors. It was a night of horror and grief
for anyone who had foolishly disregarded God's command; it was a
long, dark night of awesome vigil mixed with hope for the
obedient. Perhaps they heard wails of anguish from outside as the
grim reaper went from house to house; perhaps there was only
thick, ominous silence. They knew that terror and death lay
outside that door, which they dared not open until morning. But
within was safety.
It was a night of judgment, but the substitutionary death of
the Passover lamb brought forgiveness to God's people, Israel. It
washed away 430 years of Egypt's contamination. The blood of the
lamb protected them from the wrath of the Almighty. Its roasted
flesh nourished their bodies with strength for the long, perilous
journey ahead. They ate in haste, loins girded, staff in hand,
shoes on their
......
1 Arthur W. Pink, "Gleanings in Exodus," p.93.
......
feet, prepared to leave at any moment at God's command. In that
awe-filled night of waiting, they experienced Jehovah's loving
protection, even in the midst of the unleashing of His fierce
judgment. They learned new trust, a trust that was deep enough to
see them through another black night soon to come. They would
stand at the edge of the churning waves of the Red Sea with the
entire host of angry Egyptians at their backs, and they would
trust the words of Moses: "Stand still, and see the salvation of
the LORD" (Exodus 14:13).
The Lord often works on behalf of His people when things
look darkest. In the words of the psalmist, "Weeping may endure
for a night, but joy cometh in the morning" (Psalm 30:5). And so
the morning came, and with it abounding joy and freedom.
Thus, out of His mercy, and because He would keep His
covenant with the fathers, the Lord rescued Israel. It was a new
birth, a new beginning. This time the seed of Abraham must not
forget their commitment to the Holy One of Israel; they must not
forget His promises. They must remember that He brought them out
of Egypt with a strong hand and with His outstretched arm.
.....................
To be continued
Christ in the Passover #2God's Passover Lessons CHRIST IN THE PASSOVER #2
PASSOVER, GOD'S OBJECT LESSON
The Lord's redemption of Israel needed to be stamped
indelibly on the minds and hearts of future generations. He
intended that the ancient experience should have a lasting effect
on His people; its importance must be reinforced with regularity
for all time.
Yet how can a people best remember its history? Books and
scrolls capture only the interest of the scholarly; in time,
words lose their meaning. God, the master Teacher, devised the
perfect method. He commanded the annual reenactment of that first
Passover night, a ceremony that would appeal through the senses
to each person of every generation. Even as we teach little
children today through object lessons, Jehovah took everyday acts
of seeing, bearing, smelling, tasting, and touching and made them
His allies in teaching holy truths to His people.
LAMB
God began His object lesson to Israel with the Passover
lamb. First, the people had to single out from their flocks the
handsomest, healthiest looking yearling. An animal of this age,
just approaching the prime of its life, was frisky and winsome.
Then the family had to watch it carefully for four days before
the Passover to make sure it was healthy and perfect in every
way. During this period of close observation, they fed and cared
for the lamb and grew accustomed to having it around the house.
By the end of the fourth day, it must have won the affection of
the entire household, especially the children. Now they all must
avoid its big, innocent eyes as the head of the house prepared to
plunge in the knife to draw its life's blood. They did not have
meat very often in ancient times, but how could they enjoy eating
the lamb's flesh? The lesson was painfully sad: God's holiness
demands that He judge sin, and the price is costly indeed. But He
is also merciful and provides a way of escape (redemption).
The innocent Passover lamb foreshadowed the One who would come
centuries later to be God's final means of atonement and
redemption. The parallels are striking.
THE PASSOVER LAMB WAS MARKED
OUT FOR DEATH
In Isaiah 53:7 is the prophecy that the Messiah will be led
as a lamb to the slaughter; 1 Peter 1:19-20 says Jesus was
foreordained to die before the foundation of the world.
THEY WATCHED THE PASSOVER LAMB
TO SEE THAT IT WAS PERFECT
According to Deuteronomy 15:21, only that which is perfect can
make atonement. Jesus the Messiah presented Himself to Israel in
public ministry for three years and showed Himself perfect in
heart and deed toward the Father. Even Pilate found no fault in
Him. Hebrews 4:15 says that He was tempted (tested) in all
points, yet was without sin; 1 Peter 1:19 describes Him as a Lamb
without blemish or spot.
THEY ROASTED THE PASSOVER
LAMB WITH FIRE
Fire in Scripture speaks of God's judgment. Isaiah the
prophet foretold that the Messiah would bear the sins of many, be
wounded for sins not His own, be stricken with God's judgment,
and be numbered with transgressors. As Jesus the Messiah suffered
the fire of God's wrath and judgment, He cried out from the
cross: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew
27:46). Second Corinthians 5:21 says: "He [God] hath made him
[Christ] to be sin for us ... that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him."
NOT A BONE OF THE PASSOVER
LAMB WAS BROKEN
The Roman soldiers did not break the legs of Jesus the
Messiah as they did the legs of the other two men crucified
beside Him.
Redemption through the death of the Passover lamb was
personal as well as national. Even so, salvation must be a
personal event. In Exodus 12:3, the commandment is to take a
lamb, a nebulous, unknown entity, nothing special; in Exodus
12:4, God says "the" lamb. Now he is known, unique, set apart.
Finally, in Exodus 12:5, God specifies, "your" lamb; each
redeemed soul must appropriate the lamb for himself. Arthur Pink
quotes Galatians 2:20 to apply this truth to faith in the
Messiah: "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God [the Messiah], who loved me, and gave
himself for me." 1
The New Testament refers to Jesus the Messiah more than
thirty times as the Lamb of God. Faith and trust in the sacrifice
of God's Lamb make a person or a nation belong to God. Exodus
12:41 calls the people of Israel the "hosts of the LORD," not the
hosts of Israel. Redeemed by the blood of the Passover lamb, they
truly belonged then to God.
......
1 Arthur W. Pink, Gleanings in Exodus, pp. 89-90.
......
THE BITTER HERBS
With bitter herbs they shall eat it (Exodus 12:8).
Jehovah commanded the Israelites to eat the Passover Lamb with
bitter herbs. The first symbolism that comes to mind is the
obvious one - the hardships which the Israelites endured under
the whips of Pharaoh's taskmasters. But there is a deeper lesson
as well. Bitterness in Scripture often speaks of death. The
bitter herbs are a reminder that the firstborn children of the
people of Israel lived because the Passover lambs died. God
created man to gain life through death, to receive physical
sustenance from the death of something that once was alive, be it
plant or animal. Even so, the believer in the Messiah Jesus
receives new life through His death as the Lamb of God.
Bitterness in Scripture also speaks of mourning. Zechariah 12:10
prophesies that one day Israel as a nation will weep and be in
bitterness of deepest mourning for her Messiah, as when one
mourns for an only child who has died. God says in Zechariah 13:9
that He w ill bring Israel through the judgment of fire and
refine her even as silver and gold are refined. Then Israel will
proclaim, "The Lord is my God," and in that day "the Lord shall
be king over all the earth" (Zechariah 14:9).
THE UNLEAVENDED BREAD
"And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and
unleavened bread "in Exodus 12:8
The next symbol in God's object is the unleavened bread. The
children of Israel ate the Passover lamb with bitter herbs and
unleavened bread: then they were to eat no leaven for a full
seven days afterward. The lesson went deeper than the obvious
haste of the departure from Egypt.
Leaven in the Bible is almost always a symbol of sin. 1 The
putting away of all leaven is a picture of the sanctification of
the child of God. Cleansed, redeemed by God's lamb, the true
believer must put away the sinful leaven of the old life before
redemption.
In teaching His people this truth, God did not leave them to
grapple with abstractions. The Bible speaks in terms of human
experience. Leaven was something that every housewife, every
cook, used in everyday life. The feel, the smell, the effects of
leaven had obvious meaning.
The Hebrew word for leaven is "chometz," meaning "bitter" or
"sour." It is the nature of sin to make people bitter or sour.
Leaven causes dough to become puffed up so that the end product
is more in volume, but not more in weight. The sin of pride
causes people to be puffed up, to think of themselves as far more
than they really are.
The ancient Hebrews used the sourdough method of leavening
their bread. Before the housewife formed the dough into loaves
ready for baking, she pulled off a chunk of the raw dough and set
it aside in a cool, moist place. When it was time to bake another
batch of bread, she brought out the reserved lump of dough. She
then mixed the old lump into the fresh batch of flour and water
to leaven the next loaves, again setting aside a small lump of
the newly mixed dough. Each "new generation" of bread was
organically linked by the common yeast spores to the previous
loaves of bread. The human race bears this same kind of link to
the sin nature of our first father, Adam.
Often people excuse themselves for bad behavior or wrong
attitudes by saying, "I'm only human." But being
......
1 Once, in Matthew 13:33, it is used as a symbol of growth and
expansion.
......
"only human" is the sin nature within all mankind. Jesus spoke of
leaven as false doctine and hypocrisy (Matthew 16:11-12; Mark
8:15; Luke 12:1, 13:21).
The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 spoke of leaven as
pride, malice, and wickedness. He said, "Purge out therefore the
old leaven, that you may be a new lump [a new person] as ye are
unleavened [cleansed]. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed
for us."
On the other hand, Paul described the unleavened bread as
sincerity and truth. The Hebrew word 'matzo" (unleavened) means
"sweet, without sourness." The unleavened bread typified the
sweetness and wholesomeness of life without sin. It foreshadowed
the sinless, perfect life of the Messiah, who would come to
fulfill all righteousness and to lay down His life as God's
ultimate Passover Lamb. In Passover observances after the
cessation of the Temple sacrifices, the matzo (unleavened bread)
took on added significance when the rabbis decreed it to be a
memorial of the Passover lamb.
Thus, for the Hebrews, the putting away of all leaven
symbolized breaking the old cycle of sin and starting out afresh
from Egypt to walk as a new nation before the Lord. They did not
put away leaven in order to be redeemed; rather, they put away
leaven because they were redeemed. This same principle applies to
the redeemed of the Lord of all the ages. Salvation is of grace,
"not of works, lest any man should boast" (see Ephesians 2:8-9).
THE BLOOD ON THE DOOR
"And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood
that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side
posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall
go out at the door of his house until the morning" (Exodus
12:22).
Several times Scripture mentions a special mark that will
secure immunity from destruction for those who fear the Lord. One
such text is Ezekiel 9:4-6; two others are found in Revelation
7:2-3 and 9:4.
When Egypt's judgment was imminent, God commanded the sons
of Israel to mark the doors of their dwellings with the blood of
the Passover lamb. Those marks painted on the doors set apart the
houses of those who believed and obeyed God from the houses of
those who did not.
The "bason" mentioned in Exodus 12:22 was not a container in
the sense in which we use the word basin today. The word is the
Egyptian 'sap,' meaning the threshold or ditch which was dug just
in front of the doorways of the houses to avoid flooding. The
people placed a container in the ditch to prevent seepage. The
Israelites killed their Passover lambs right by the doors, where
they were about to sprinkle the blood, and the blood from the
slaughter automatically ran into the depression (the bason) at
the threshold. When they painted the blood on with the hyssop
"brush," they first touched the lintel (the top horizontal part
of the doorframe), then each side post (the vertical sides.)...
Thus, the door was "sealed" on all four sides with the blood of
the lamb, because the blood was already on the bottom. Author
Pink sees this as a picture of the suffering Messiah Himself:
"Blood above where the thorns pierced His brow, blood at the
sides, from His nail pierced hands; blood below, from His nail
pierced feet." 1
We see further symbolism in the words of Jesus, when he
said: "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be
saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture" (John 10:9).
The Israelites went in through the blood-sealed door on that
first Passover night and found safety....
We who are redeemed by the true Passover Lamb find safety in
Him from God's judgment, and, because of Him, we look forward to
a future, eternal haven in the very presence of the Almighty, in
the city whose "builder and maker is God" (Hebrews 11:10).
......
1 Pink, p.93.
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