The Passover and the Lord's Supper, Ex.12th Chapter

by Lane Rogers

There are two major forms of prophecy in the Bible. Most people are familiar with what we know as verbal prophecy. Since we have an entire class on verbal prophecy in the future, I will not spend a great deal of time on it. “In Psalms 2, there is an example of verbal prophecy. God said in Psalm 2:6-7, '”I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill. I will proclaim the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your father.'”ⁱ This is a prophecy concerning the resurrection of Christ. We can know that is so because the Apostle Peter tells us this is the case in Acts 2. “In Isaiah 7:14 there is the declaration that Christ would be born of a virgin and His name would be called Immanuel.”ⁱⁱ This is another verbal prophecy fulfilled by the birth of Christ (Matt. 1:23).

“There is another type of prophecy called “system prophecy.” A system prophecy is composed of a whole series of complex events, persons, circumstances and activities that is rolled up in prophetic form. Such systems predict and prophesy out of the whole historical context and thus foretell some aspect of the mission of Christ.”ⁱⁱⁱ

One of these “system” prophecies is found in the Passover. The Passover story begins with God saving Israel from slavery and bondage in the land of Egypt (Exodus chapter 10-12). “The last time that the Passover was celebrated with any kind of historical significance was the night Jesus celebrated it with His apostles. He told them in that context: “ I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again (the Passover), until it (the Passover) finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God (The Lord's Supper, Luke 22:15-16). It is clear that Jesus considered the Passover to be prophecy and needed to be fulfilled in the kingdom if God.”^iv We find further that this was fulfilled in I Corinthians 11: 23-29.

The apostle Paul tells us in I Corinthians 5:7b-8a, “For Christ our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival.” Thus, Christians have a Passover .

Our lamb Jesus Christ has been sacrificed. One of the requirements of the Passover Lamb was that no bones be broken (Ex. 12:46). This was fulfilled in John 19:36 .” These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: Not one of His bones will be broken.”

Later on in this study, we will delve much deeper into prophecy, types and anti types but for now lets look at the system of the Passover.

Some of my Old Notes on the Passover

I. The Pride of Man

A further heavy blow had to be inflicted upon a monarch who was just too stubborn to be subdued. How futile it is for a man to try and fight against God, by allowing pride to hold us from God’s wishes. (Dan. 4:37). The King of Egypt was being used by God to carry out His will.

II. Humility a Must!

If we do not love God then we worship Satan in one or more of his various forms. God had to reduce Pharaoh to humility by inflicting upon him the crushing blow of the death of his first born and thereby the destruction of the line of succession to the throne of Egypt.

III. Death of the First Born

Then Moses issued the death wish of the first born, (of all animals and of the firstborn of every Egyptian family). Death would prevail in all the land (Gen. 11:4-6). “But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue against man of beast that you may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between Egyptians and Israel. It is the Lord alone who can “put a difference” between those who are His and those who are not. This difference is of vital importance. It meant life to the chosen and death to all others. This ‘difference’ became an important issue with the death of the firstborn of Egypt. While the blood of the paschal lamb was Israel’s salvation, the suffering of Egypt was immeasurable.

IV. The Significance of the Lamb. Need to be familiar with Ex. The 12th Chapter and the beginning of the Passover.

In order to protect the first born of Israel, each house hold was to identify itself as Israel by marking the sides and tops of the door frames with blood from the lamb which God had commanded them to kill at twilight on the fourteenth day of the month. The marks on the doors were to protect the household within from the angel of death.

Redemption was not an afterthought with God. God always planned redemption from the very beginning.

Just as the blood of the lamb marked and protected the households of Israel in Egypt, so the blood of the Passover lamb protects those of the household of faith (I Cor. 5-7). These are the new Israel. As each house hold partook of the flesh of the sacrificial lamb in Egypt, so each member of the Lord’s body now partakes of the Lord’s supper on the first day of every week, in remembrance of the Lamb who died in our place. In both instances the blood of the Lamb was the saving line between God and His people (I Peter I: 18-20). The blood of the Lamb was the foundation of Israel. It saved them from death and introduced them to life as free men.

Even so, the Messiah was God’s final atonement for sin. He saved us not by His obedient life but by His death. We were healed by His stripes and His death and resurrection introduced us to life as free men (free from the burden of sin).

V. The Folly of Relying on Practical Holiness!

Though not the basis for our salvation, works of faith are nevertheless important. An Israelite was not saved by unleavened bread, but by the blood and yet, leaven would have cut him off from the communion with God. We are not saved by practical holiness but by the blood of Christ. The very fact that they were delivered by the blood of the paschal lamb rendered Israel responsible to put away leaven from all their quarters. We may perceive equal significance in that which was to accompany the unleavened bread, namely the bitter herbs. We cannot enjoy communion without remembering Christ died for us (i.e. the significance of the bitter herbs).

VI. The Nature of Atonement

The word “ Kopher” (Hebrew), stands for both atonement and redemption. Atonement is the ransom price of redemption. Atonement has in view divine righteousness. Redemption likewise requires purity and love. Atonement has respect to guilt redemption and the significance of degradation and misery.

VII. Atonement and types of redemption are recognized as the theme in the Book of Exodus. Atonement was by blood and so is redemption. Redemption implies a payment or an intervention or substitutionary action which effects a release from an undesirable condition.

VII. God’s way to deliver!

God’s way to deliver us is by Himself and not of our own efforts but first meeting us as sinners and justifying us as Godly by the death of Christ. Israel remained slaves in Egypt until they learned the common judgment of Israel and Egypt were the same. However, they were saved by the blood of the lamb. The first Passover was kept in Egypt. Their journey had not yet begun but they started with girded loins and shod feet and ready staves. They went out as the judgment passed over them. Israel stood “justified” instrumentally by faith. This faith allowed the angel of death to pass over their homes in Egypt. The blood declared the death inflicted on a substitute and set the one for whom it was endured outside of the sphere of responsibility for evermore. Therefore, Paul says, “Much more now justified by His blood we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”

IX. The Blood Defined!

Blood implies not the blood shed as in martyrdom as Abel’s but by direct command of God in exaction of penalty. The lamb could not be “sodden in water” but roasted with fire. Nothing could interfere with the fire and its object (judgment). No matter how perfect Christ lived or how excellent he conducted Himself, nothing could modify the wrath for the ones whose place He took except the death of the sacrificial lamb.

X. “The law of the spirit of life in Christ has set me free form the law of sin and death.” The grounds of the deliverance: Our old man is crucified with Christ that the body of sin might be destroyed serving sin no more.

For deliverance, we need to realize our powerlessness to save ourselves from sin. Moses' rod was uplifted and by the East wind of sorrow, the Israelites marched through untouched by death. This means our death to sin in Christ will bring us safely through. That crossing was Pharaoh's end and our beginning.

XI. The Superiority of the True God over the False gods in Egypt.

Miracles were performed to convince the people of God of the true God. They were the first Great Miracles recorded.

XII. The Account of the Passover, Historical and Literary

The Passover had a peculiar significance. In Egypt the ceremony was to be conducted in private homes in a manner that clearly reveals there was no central Priesthood at this point.

Of the Annual feast, the Passover alone was instituted in Egypt. One must also note that the book of Exodus centers on the Passover and the slain Lamb, while the Gospel parallels this, centering on the great Passover of Calvary and the slain Lamb.

The Exodus became forever afterwards commemorated in the Passover Feast. We are to commemorate the death of our Passover, Jesus Christ the Lamb of God, who was sacrificed to free us from sin and death in the keeping of the feast until He returns (Called the Lord’s Supper), I Cor. 5:7.

XIII. How the Lamb Was slain!

Verses 12:5 ff. gives the law for the first of the annual feast of the Passover and the Unleavened bread. The Passover Lamb was to be slain and eaten on the evening of the fourteenth day and thereafter for seven days they were all to eat unleavened bread (was to be no moral corruption, see 1st Corinthians 5:6-9). The first and seventh days of unleavened bread were to be kept as a “Holy Convocation” in both of which no servile work was to be done. (whatever your usual occupation was forbidden). Further than this the restrictions did not extend. The utter impossibility of making the feast of Passover also to have been at first a harvest festival is best shown by the failure of the many attempts to explain on this theory the name “Passover,” as applied to the sacrificial victim and the exclusion of leaven from the entire period! If those who hold the above view will just admit the simple statement of the Pentateuch, there is not problem .

Whereas, Israel had been saved by the blood, they could feed on the flesh of the victim by which we have seen (or will see) represents the Peace offering, namely friendship, and fellowship with the victim that has been sacrificed. The New Testament counter part is found in John the 6th chapter where those who “eat my flesh” participate in the Peace Offering. The unleavened bread also had more than a historic meaning since one is to put away all leaven from the household (moral corruption). One must not live by means of what is evil (Leaven) but as Holy People. The Passover and unleavened bread not only look backward but also looked forward. The Apostle Paul writes addressing all believers (Ist Cor. 5:7-8) to purge the old leaven, that you may be as a new lump even as you are unleavened. Christ has been sacrificed for our Passover. “ Wherefore, let us keep the feast not with old leaven, neither with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

XV. The Passover and its Peculiarities

Commenced on the 14th of Nisan and the feast of Unleavened bread on the 15th lasting for 7 days until the 21st day of the month. It was the first of 3 feast on which all of Israel was bound to appear before the Lord. While great historic meaning is assigned to the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread was the one great event which underpinned the entire history of Israel. It marked their miraculous deliverance from destruction and from bondage and the commencement of their existence as a nation. For in the night of the Passover, the children of Israel were preserved and set free. In this, they became a people who were set apart. This lifted the entire design of the Old Testament which fitted the correspondence between types and anti-types. God made sure that history became prophetic and that “every rite became as it were a bud destined to open in blossom and ripen into fruit on the tree under the shadow of which all nations were to be gathered. (If you didn’t catch that, the systems of the Old Testament are prophecy).

XVI. It was the feast of the spring when after the death of winter the scattered seeds were born in a new harvest and the first ripe sheaf could be presented to the Lord in perfect sacrifice. The Passover sacrifice of the “Lamb of God,” the month, the birth of the sacred, and the time of our savior's death are those of the Passover.

The name Passover in Hebrew is ‘Pesach’ and in Aramaen and Greek, ‘Pasca,’ derived from the root word which means to step or to leap over and thus points

back to the historical origin of the festival. In the original institution the blood of the sacrifice was to be sprinkled with hyssop¹ on the lintel and the two door post of the house probably as being the most prominent place of entrance. Then the whole animal, without breaking a bone in its body was to be roasted and eaten by each member of the family, or if the number of a single family was to small by a neighboring family along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs to symbolize the bitterness of their bondage and the hast of their deliverance but it also
pointed forward to the manner in which the true Israel was to have fellowship with the Paschal Lamb.

All who were circumcised were allowed to partake of this meal. If a man was unclean at the time of Passover or on a journey afar off, he should celebrate it one month later.

The Mishna contains the following regulations as the distinctions between the Egyptian Passover and the permanent Passover. The Egyptian Passover was selected on the 10th and the blood sprinkled with a sprig of hyssop on the lintel and the two door posts and it was to be eaten in haste in the first night. The

permanent Passover is observed all seven days while the use of unleavened cakes was on its first observance enjoined for that one night, though from Israel’s haste to escape it was probably for several days that this was the only bread available. Similarly, the journey of the children of Israel commenced on the 15th of Nisan while in after times that day was observed as a festival like a Sabbath. In Egypt the Passover lamb was selected on the 10th and killed on the 14th and they did not on account of the Passover incur the penalty of cutting of later generations. In Egypt, they were commanded to partake of the flesh of the lamb as individuals and neighbors if the families were not large enough but later, the Passover company could be indiscriminately chosen. In Egypt, it was not ordered to sprinkle the blood and burn the fat on the altar as afterwards. At the first Passover, none was to go out of the door of the house until morning which was not the case in later times. In Egypt the sacrifice was slain by everyone in his own home while afterwards it was slain by all Israel in one place. In Egypt, they ate the Passover where they were lodged but they might eat it in one place then lodge in another.

XVII. Preparation for the Passover

This began about one month beforehand with the time of testing draught for women suspected of adultery, by burning the Red Heifer etc. All sepulchers were whitened before the Passover. This practice was referred to when Jesus was alive on Earth.

XVIII. Choice of a Lamb

The Paschal lamb was to serve for a company which was to consist of no fewer or no greater than twenty people.

XIX. Slaying of the Lamb

It was slain at exactly 2:20 pm. and offered at 3:30 pm. After the lamb was slain a hymn of praise was sung. This was one of the Psalms.

XX. The Passover as Typology of the Lord’s Supper!

The death of Christ on the Cross was the original meaning and purpose of the original Passover found in Exodus the 12th Chapter.

Newer notes on the Passover

Exodus 12:1-13

It should not be underestimated as to the significance of the Passover to the people of Israel. The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were the only regulations given to Israel while in Egypt. This event was so significant that the religious or ecclesiastical year was to began in the month of Abib (13:4) when “barley had headed.” The Passover was for the “whole” community of Israel and the preparations were to begin on the tenth day of the month (v.3). The head of each household was to select a lamb (seh) according to the number of people present (v.4). The animal was to be one year old without any defects (v.5). Each animal was to be slaughtered at twilight on the fourteenth day (v.6). The blood from the animal was to be applied on the door frame of each house (v.7). That night each family was to eat the roasted lamb along with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. (8-9) The meat was to be eaten whole and not boiled in water. (9) All leftovers were to be burnt (12-13) On the night of the fifteenth of Abib, the Lord would pass thorough Egypt and strike down the first born of all men and animals.

It might be noted first that the Passover feast was a commemoration or memorial (v.14), echoing the commandments of the New Testament to “Do this in remembrance of Me” (I Corinthians 11:24). While the Passover for Israel pointed to the past, at the same time it pointed to the future. “The lamb had to be prepared for food on behalf of those who had accepted the blood of the lamb. That the sacrifice by which they were ransomed from destruction might become the sustenance of a new, a ransomed life.”^v The lamb was to be taken at one and the same time by the entire household and at the same time by the entire community. “Before proceeding further we note that according to Jewish ordinance, the Paschal lamb was to be roasted on a spit passing right through the mouth to vent. Special care was taken that in roasting the lamb did not touch the oven, other wise the part touched must be cut off.”^vi While the blood of the lamb was shed for the entire community, it should also be noted that the blood had to be participated in by each individual household. Simply acknowledging that the blood was shed by the lamb was insufficient. The Israelite had to participate in the blood by putting it on the door post and lintel. Even with the slaying of the lamb those not under the blood of the door post, find that the blood of the lamb does them no good. “The lamb must not only be slain for all Israel, but the blood must be poured into a basin and sprinkled on the door post and the lintel, for the firstborn of each family.”^vii The bitter herbs (v.8) were to remind Israel of the suffering they were under in Egypt but for us, we should remember the bitter suffering and anguish that Christ endured while on the cross. In Deut. 16:3, unleavened bread is called the “bread of affliction.” But there can be no doubt from other readings in the sacrificial system that 'leaven' was the universal symbol for moral corruption. Hence, the bitter herbs were only to be eaten with the lamb, while the putting away of leaven was to be used the whole of the next seven days during the feast of unleavened bread. For the Christian, it

means there can be no moral corruption in those participating in the Lord's Passover. That is, moral corruption must be put away (Gal. 5:9).

The early 2nd century church had much the same interpretation of the Passover feast as stated above. Justin Martyr writes in his Dialogue with Trypho that “The mystery, then of the lamb of God enjoined to be sacrificed as the Passover, was a type of Christ; with whose blood, in proportion to their faith in Him, they anoint their houses, i.e. , themselves, who believe in Him.”^viii

Exodus Chapter 12

1. Neither Moses or Aaron introduced any legislation. It all came from God.

2. The Israelite year started in what we call October (Tisri) Exodus 23:16. There were two times honored. One for sacred and the other for civil. So, the first month of each year was the 7th month of the other. Meaning (in our language) October and April were offset years.

3. Speak to all the Congregation (see verse 21 where Moses summoned the Elders and the Elders sent for the rest of the people).

   a. A lamb might mean lamb or goat based solely on the Hebrew word.

Lamb had to be one year old (vs.5) according to the father's house.

4. If the house be to small meaning not enough people to consume at one settings, (tradition says that number was fixed at 10). The entire family participated, men, women and children. The lamb was generally slain between the 9th hour and the eleventh hour (3.p.m. to 5 p.m.). If there isn't enough people in your house to consume an entire lamb, you must participate with your neighbor.

5. The lamb must be unblemished and one year old. (see Mal.1:8). Also, these animals could be used as a Peace offering (Lev. 22: 20-25).

No blemish meant holy, and it must be a male (the first born on the males of each family. Of one year, not older since innocence needs to be sought.

Could be from the sheep or the goats.

6. The 14th left a four day interval (see vs.3). Time to inspect the animal for blemishes and defects. The whole assembly of Israel is to kill it. Meaning all Israel is guilty of the death.

7. Take the blood - all life is in the blood (Lev. 17:11) and strike, this is hyssop dipped in blood (vs. 22), life and death is symbolized by the idea of the door.

8. Roast with fire - Since animal was to be cooked whole, needs to be roasted as opposed to boiling. And unleavened bread, with bitter herbs. According to the Mishna, herbs were endive, chicory, wild

lettuce and nettles. The meal ought to be bitter.

9. Must not eat raw - a practical matter. Eating raw flesh is not good. Its heads and legs. Whole means Israel is one. In John 19:36 must not have any broken bones. Intestines were taken out, washed and cleaned up and put back in the the body.

10.Nothing was to remain - must be consumed at one sitting. Anything that remains must be burned by fire

11. Must be prepared. Eat in haste, we do not know what moment one must start their journey. It is the Lord's Passover.

12. The Lord will execute judgment on all who do not have the blood.

13. The "blood" is what saves you!

Feast of Unleavened Bread

14. See notes on Leviticus 23 ff.

Warren Rogers 06/24/08 10:50:45 AM

(Septuagint hyssopos).

A plant which is referred to in a few passages of Holy Writ, and which cannot be identified with certainty at the present day. Its existence in Egypt is proved by Ex., xii, 22, wherein Moses is represented as bidding the elders of Israel to take a bunch of hyssop and to sprinkle with it the blood of the paschal lamb upon the lintel and the side posts of the doors of their dwellings. In the wilderness hyssop was also ready at hand, as can be inferred from Ex., xxiv, 8, completed by Heb., ix, 19, according to which Israel's great lawgiver sprinkled the Hebrews with hyssop dipped in the blood of victims, at the sealing of the old covenant between Yahweh and His people. The references to hyssop contained in the Mosaic ritual show clearly that it was a common plant in the peninsula of Sinai and in the land of Chanaan, and disclose its principal uses among the Hebrews. Thus, it is with hyssop that the blood of a bird offered in sacrifice is to be sprinkled for the cleansing of a man or a house affected with leprosy (Leviticus 14:4-7, 49-51); it is with it, too, that the sprinkling of the water of purification must be made at the cleansing of a tent, a person, or a vessel polluted by the touch of a dead body (Numbers 19:8). Besides being thus used as an instrument in the act of sprinkling, hyssop was employed as one of the elements to be burned in the preparation of the water of purification itself (Numbers 19:6). It is not therefore surprising to find that this manifold and intimate connexion of hyssop with the various purifications of the Old Law led the Psalmist (Ps. 1 [Hebrew li] 9) to regard the sprinkling with hyssop as symbolical of a thorough purification of the heart, a view which the Catholic Church has made her own in the ceremony of the Asperges which usually begins the solemn offering of Holy Mass. Nor is it surprising to find that this same connexion of hyssop with the various cleansings of the Mosaic Law suggested to many writers the identification of that plant with the Hyssopus officinalis, or common hyssop, with which they were particularly acquainted, and the detergent properties of which they not unnaturally thought had induced the Hebrew legislator to select it as especially fit for the purificatory services in Israel. However widely received in the past, such identification is now commonly rejected for this reason, among others, that the Hyssopus officinalis appears to have been unknown in ancient Syria and Egypt. The plant, which at the present day, is considered as more probably the hyssop of the Mosaic ritual, is the Origanum maru.