The Passover

The first Passover — Exodus 12

• One lamb per family — a complete local expression of redemption in each household
• Approximately 250,000-300,000 lambs roasted over open fire; all of Egypt could smell the Passover
• The lamb had to be perfect — watched for three days to confirm no defect
• Roasted over fire, not boiled
• Blood applied to the doorpost and lintel with hyssop
• Eaten with bitter herbs — remembering the bitterness of slavery
• Eaten hastily, dressed and ready to leave
• Anyone who believed the word of the Lord could be saved through the Passover lamb — many Egyptians also believed and joined the Exodus (Exodus 12:38, “a mixed multitude”)
• Not only did the Passover spare them from the destroyer — it brought healing; Psalm 105:37 says there was not one feeble among them as they left
• God released Israel through the sacrifice of Egypt’s firstborn, requiring the consecration of all firstborn — all belong to God

Passover by Jesus’ time

• Required an approved lamb — temple lambs vetted by the Levites (note: the birth of Jesus was announced to shepherds watching the temple flocks)
• The Passover meal included bitter herbs and a bag with three compartments, each containing a loaf of unleavened bread — the center loaf was broken, representing the Trinity
• An extra place was set at the head of the table for “He who is coming” — the Messiah’s chair; when He comes He will sit and administer the New Covenant
• Consider the reverberation across Israel when John the Baptist announced at the Jordan: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”
• On Passover morning, worshippers went to the temple to select a lamb
• At noon the altar fires were lit; at 3:00 PM the lambs were killed and placed on the altar

At the Last Supper, Jesus took the bag with three loaves and broke the center one: “This is my body.” After the meal He reached for the Messiah’s cup: “This is my blood — the blood of the new covenant.” He instituted the New Covenant meal: “Do this in remembrance of me” — not a vague recollection, but a living confrontation with His sacrifice in our present life.

Jesus as the Passover Lamb

• On Passover morning, Jesus stood before the High Priest — His final examination
• At noon He was on the cross; darkness covered the earth (echoing the ninth plague)
• The fire of God’s wrath burned in Him against sin
• He cried “I thirst” and was given wine vinegar on hyssop — bitter herbs, the same hyssop used to apply the first Passover blood to the doorpost
• At 3:00 PM He cried “It is finished” — all that Passover stood for was accomplished
• In the death of God’s firstborn, all of the human race was freed from bondage
• They came to break His legs — He was already dead; not one bone was broken (John 19:36)

Israel at Sinai (19:3-40:38)

Establishing the covenant (19:3-24:18)

The purpose of God was to enter into covenant — a binding promise between God and His people — with Israel (19:3-6) — this was the birth of Israel as a nation. Throughout the Old Testament this moment is referred to as the marriage ceremony between God and Israel, a covenant later broken by Israel’s spiritual adultery.

• The people accept the covenant (19:17-25)
• God gives laws applying the demands of the covenant (20:1-23:19)
• God gives a summary of His future dealings with Israel in covenant (23:20-33)
• The covenant is sealed with blood (24:1-8)

The Tabernacle and priesthood (25:1-31:18)

Every article of furniture in the Tabernacle, and every element of the High Priest’s garments, speaks of some aspect of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is too vast a subject to cover fully here — the book of Hebrews is the Holy Spirit’s extended commentary on this section.

The covenant broken and renewed (32:1-34:35)

Moses is on the mountain. He is being given the tabernacle, the priesthood, the ordering of a nation’s common life — how a covenant people is to live, down to the ordinary details, and how God intends to dwell among them.

Down below, they get tired of waiting.

Then the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain. So the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Arise, make us gods who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

Exodus 32:1 · Legacy Standard Bible

Notice who they think brought them out of Egypt. Moses. The man is late, and the whole thing is suddenly in doubt.

So they look backwards. Not to some new idea — to Egypt, where gods had shapes, and stood still, and could be seen. And they build one.

But read the next verse before deciding this is a story about other people.

And Aaron looked and built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh.”

Exodus 32:5 · Legacy Standard Bible

They did not change gods. They kept the name and changed the shape. A feast to Yahweh, held in front of a calf. Something they could see. Something that would hold still. Something that did not take forty days to come down a mountain.

That is what makes it our story rather than theirs. Very few of us are tempted to worship something under another name. All of us are tempted to make the real God more manageable — smaller, steadier, more like what we are used to.

Aaron explains himself

Moses comes down and asks his brother what happened.

Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, that they are prone to evil… And I said to them, “Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.” So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.

Exodus 32:22–24 · Legacy Standard Bible

The people are prone to evil. The gold was handed to him. The fire did the rest. Somehow a calf simply emerged.

Two verses earlier the text says plainly that Aaron fashioned it with a graving tool. You do not carve something by accident. He is the second most senior man in the nation, and his account of his own actions contains not one verb that he performs.

It is such a modern-sounding excuse that it would be funny, if you had never made it.

Three thousand

Moses stands in the gate and asks who is on the Lord’s side. The Levites come to him, and the day ends in blood.

So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day.

Exodus 32:28 · Legacy Standard Bible

And there is a second reckoning worth putting beside it.

By long Jewish reckoning, the law was given at Sinai on the feast of weeks — the feast the New Testament calls Pentecost. Scripture does not say so directly, so take that link as a reading rather than a statement of the text. But the arithmetic is difficult to ignore.

So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.

Acts 2:41 · Legacy Standard Bible

At the first, the law comes and about three thousand fall. At the second, the Spirit comes and about three thousand are added. The same number, the same feast, and the opposite direction — which is the difference between a covenant written on stone and one written on a heart of flesh.

Construction and erection of the Tabernacle (35:1-40:38)

Did you find yourself in Exodus?

God has taken you out of this world system, placing you in Christ and making you part of His people. The Holy Spirit comes to show you the wonders of Christ — your meeting place with God — pictured here in the Tabernacle. You have been taken into the Holy of Holies to live your life in Him. Affirm this as you read these chapters. Live as if it is so, because that is the way it is.

The “I AM” is my shepherd, I shall not want.

The New Covenant says that God is our God and we are His people. The One who is uniquely ours reveals Himself in this book as the “I AM.” Think of it — the “I AM” is my shepherd, I shall not want. Of course not. David could not want, and neither can you.