Updated:- Sunday, November 5th, 2023
Do You Have Questions About the Passover?
It’s early April and this year Passover is just around the corner. But is the Passover only for Jews? Could Christians celebrate it too?
These and a few other questions I shall answer in this Bible study.
So, what is the Passover?
Immediately before the Children of Israel departed from Egypt the Lord God instituted the Passover.
According to Moses in the Book of Exodus, the Lord’s Passover occurs on a specific day.
The Lord’s Passover
“And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying” (Exodus 12:1).
Therefore, the Passover occurs in the “first month of the year” for the Jewish people.
It marks the new year.
“This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you” (Exodus 12:2).
Preparation For The Passover
“Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house” (Exodus 12:3).
Therefore, on the tenth day of the first month of the year Nisan, each household should separate a lamb from the flock.
Keep it separated for four days.
However, each lamb must satisfy certain criteria.
- Your lamb shall be without blemish,
- A male
- One year old
- Ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats (Exodus 12:5).
When Does Passover Start?
On the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month Nisan.
As a people, each household should kill the separated male lamb in that evening.
“And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening” (Exodus 12:6).
Kill The Passover
“Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the Passover” (Exodus 12:21).
Then, each household should collect the blood of the spotless lamb.
Having done so, during that very evening, each household should apply the blood to the two side posts and the lintel of the doorpost of their house where they shall eat the lamb.
“... 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 basin; ... none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning” (Exodus 12:22).
“… They shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it” (Exodus 12:7).
What Is The Significance of The Blood?
“And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:13).
When the Angel of the Lord passes over Egypt and he sees the blood he will not kill the residents of that home.
On the other hand, in any house without blood, the death angel will kill all the firstborns of both human beings and animals.
Eat The Passover
Concerning the Passover, the Lord has guidelines concerning where and how it’s killed, prepared, and eaten.
It’s killed in the evening.
Cooked by roasting.
Then eaten with “unleavened bread” and “bitter herbs”.
For those who don’t know what unleavened bread is, let me explain.
It’s flour mixed with water and kneaded into a dough. It has no raising agent like baking powder or yeast.
Neither does it contain any salt. Thus, it is flat and thin.
It’s either baked over an open flame on a hot surface or in an oven.
Bitter Herbs & Roasted Lamb
“And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it” (Exodus 12:8).
The Lord emphasized that the Lamb should not be boiled in water but roasted.
“Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof” (Exodus 12:9).
He also instructed them to eat the entire lamb in one night.
However, if fewer people were in a house than the number needed to consume the entire lamb in one night, then they had an option.
Two neighbors could join together and eat the lamb.
“… If the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb” Exodus 12:4).
Nevertheless, if both households combined couldn’t consume the entire lamb in that night, they had another recourse.
“… Ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire” (Exodus 12:10).
Finally, the Lord instructed the Hebrews, through Moses the Prophet, on how to eat the Passover?
He informs them,
“… Thus[,] shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s passover” (Exodus 12:11).
Why Is It Called The Lord’s Passover?
“For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord” (Exodus 12:12).
The Hebrew people should celebrate the fourteenth day of Nisan as the Passover.
“For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you” (Exodus 12:23).
“And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons [forever]” (Exodus 12:24).
“…It shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the Lord will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service” (Exodus 12:25).
“…It shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?” (Exodus 12:26).
“That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped” (Exodus 12:27).
The Ordinance of The Passover
It’s a feast and a perpetual “memorial” to the Jewish people.
“And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance [forever]” (Exodus 12:14).
How Long is The Feast of Unleavened Bread?
This feast lasts for seven days.
“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even” (Exodus 12:18).
So, not only must the Jews not eat any leaven but it must not be in their houses either.
“Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel” (Exodus 12:15).
Additionally, there is a severe penalty for anyone found with leaven in his or her home at this time.
“Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land” (Exodus 12:19).
“Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread” (Exodus 12:20).
However, the first and seventh days are holy convocations. They are holy days or sabbaths. No work should be done in them!
“And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you” (Exodus 12:16).
Conclusion
Another name for The Lord’s Passover is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
It commences on the evening of the fourteen-day of the month Nisan and lasts until the twenty-first day of the said month.
The month of Nisan is the first month of the year for the Jews. The Lord declared it as such on the first Passover of the Lord.
On the evening of the fourteen, each household should kill a male lamb of one-year-old of the goats or the sheep.
Then, they should collect its blood, and use it to paint both side posts and the upper post of the door.
Then, they should eat the roasted lamb in that house.
Finally, they should eat the entire lamb in one night.
But if not, they should burn the remainder.
This is the Lord’s Passover.
The Lord’s Passover was exclusively for the Jewish people. It’s a reminder and a celebration of liberty from over 400 years of slavery in Egypt!
