PASSOVER IN THE BIBLE

Passover is a feast that God established (Lev. 23:5). He set this date apart as a special day, not just for the year that Israel went out of Egypt… or until the Messiah came, but he did it “forever”.

(Exodus 12:14) This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.

Unfortunately, throughout time, the Passover celebration has become something that is different to its original purpose. Human beings tend to rely on traditions and customs. This has nothing wrong in and of itself. But we have to realize that traditions are not more important than the purpose. If we want to celebrate the feasts like God commands, we have to know its origin and purpose for which the Lord marks these dates in His Agenda. Don’t just focus on the “how”, but above all else on the “why”.

We can talk a lot about the Passover, but in this occasion we will let the Bible speak for itself…

(Exodus 12:1-14) The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, (2) “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. (3) Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. (4) And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. (5) Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, (6) and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. (7) “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. (8) They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. (9) Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. (10) And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. (11) In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover. (12) For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. (13) The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. (14) “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast

(Leviticus 23:4-8) “These are the appointed feasts of the LORD, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. (5) In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the LORD’s Passover. (6) And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. (7) On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. (8) But you shall present a food offering to the LORD for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.”

(Numbers 9:1-5) And the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, (2) “Let the people of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time. (3)On the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time; according to all its statutes and all its rules you shall keep it.” (4) So Moses told the people of Israel that they should keep the Passover. (5) And they kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so the people of Israel did.

(Deuteronomy 16:1-8) “Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night. (2) And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the LORD your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place that the LORD will choose, to make his name dwell there. (3) You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. (4) No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the flesh that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain all night until morning. (5) You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, (6) but at the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell in it, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, at the time you came out of Egypt. (7) And you shall cook it and eat it at the place that the LORD your God will choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. (8) For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work on it.

(Deuteronomy 16:16-17) “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed. (17) Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you.

(1 Corinthians 5:7-8) Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. (8) Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Jesus did not celebrate the Passover only on his last dinner (Luke 22), but he did it every year (John 2:13-23).

(Luke 2:40-42) And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him. (41) Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. (42) And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. 

The message for Passover is eternal. This is the main message of our salvation. We have to remember it year after year. Passover is a divine appointment that God has made with His People.