Exodus 12:13
The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Exodus 12:1-13, Luke 22:14-20 and 1 Corinthians 5:6-8
Passover is the tenth and final plague. This event would bring the Israelites out of slavery and free them from the Egyptians. It was a new beginning. God told Moses and Aaron that this month would from now on be the first month on the calendar. The Israelites forevermore would start their year remembering this event.
God will eventually give the Israelites seven feasts or festivals to celebrate every year. Passover would be the first. Each feast would represent a significant event or prophecy in the life of Jesus. We will get to each one and thoroughly dissect them all. Today is the first and original Passover. It represents Jesus’ death on the cross. Let’s explore. Here are some of the requirements God demanded:
- The Israelites were to select a lamb on the 10th day of the month
- The lamb must be one year old
- The lamb is to be slaughtered on the 14th day of the month
- The blood is to be put on the sides and top of the door frame of the house where they eat the lamb
- They are to eat the meat along with bitter herbs and unleavened bread
- The lamb must be eaten or burned before morning
- It must be eaten in haste
This Passover lamb was going to spare the Israelites from the wrath of God’s judgement. It would save their firstborn from death. We will explore more of the symbology in coming days but let’s tackle the obvious one today. Jesus is the Passover Lamb (1 Cor 5:7). This whole event was to be done exactly as God prescribed because it all pointed to Jesus death on a cross.
When John the Baptist saw Jesus he proclaimed, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Jesus’ disciple Peter says that we are redeemed by the “blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:19) The apostle John sees Jesus as a “Lamb, looking as if it had been slain” (Rev 5:6). And then finally Jesus was crucified on the day that it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb (Mark 14:12) right after he eats the Passover meal with his disciples.
The symbology is everywhere in this passage so today I’d just like to focus in on Jesus. Jesus would have celebrated the Passover meal every year of his life. I often wonder when he first came to know that he was the Passover Lamb. I have come to the conclusion that he knew it from the beginning. Kind of like you and I know we belong to our parents. You don’t ever realize that you are your parents’ kid. You just know. The first sentence of the gospel of John tells us that Jesus was there in the beginning. He was with God and he was God. Being God wasn’t something that he learned or came to realize. He just is God.
The boldest and most obvious claim that Jesus was God was made on the night of the Passover right before he was crucified. Luke records the most detail in chapter 22. Jesus told his disciples that the Passover would no longer be done in remembrance of God freeing their ancestors from slavery in Egypt. The Passover meal would be celebrated in remembrance of him. For centuries, the Jewish people celebrated Passover every year exactly how God instructed them to do it. And that night, Jesus said no more. He is the perfect lamb. Passover pointed to him and his death on the cross. He would fulfill the prophecy.
I’m simply amazed at God’s glory on display in the Passover. Everything we have covered for the last 30 days of our study has led to this moment. And this moment pointed to Jesus all so that we wouldn’t miss it! God sent us a savior to rectify Adam’s sin and He arranged the events of history to point to Jesus so that it was so obvious we couldn’t miss it. Simply amazing. All glory to God!
Christ in the Old Testament 
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