No. 20 of Returning Home (Reignited)
Moses, the first of many historians of the Old Testament (Numbers 33:2), recorded the Passover in Egypt that occurred during his lifetime. God established the Passover memorial at Mount Sinai in the second year after the children of Israel escaped Egypt (Numbers 9:1-3). His people were to keep the Passover feast every year.
On the fourteenth day of the first month, the returned exiles kept the Passover. – Ezra 6:19(ESV)
The Passover memorial was a time of thanksgiving and a reminder of the captivity Israel had endured in Egypt (Exodus 12:14). It was the night that their firstborn children should have died, but because they obeyed God, death passed over them and they were allowed to live. The Israelites left Egypt the day after the Passover, traveling quickly to escape Pharaoh’s bondage. They left Egypt an annihilated shell of a land after the first nine plagues. The tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, left the Egyptian king a shell of a king. He lost his crown-prince that night.
By Charles Foster: The Story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation Hartford, Conn., 1873., Public Domain
The only substance that came between Israel and the death of their firstborn sons was blood. It was the blood of an unblemished lamb that was hand-picked out of the flock on the 10th day of the month Abib (Exodus 12:3, Exodus 13:4). It was sacrificed on the night of the fourteenth of the month in front of the whole congregation, and the blood of each lamb was spattered around the door frame (Exodus 12:7). Beyond that door the family of God ate a roasted lamb, eating it only with bread that had no yeast to rise and bitter herbs. They were to consume all of the lamb from head to legs, burning anything that remained (Exodus 12:10). It was not a leisurely meal. The eater was to be fully dressed for a long trip and eat quickly (Exodus 12:11). This rush indicated with what speed they would escape the cruel Pharaoh’s clutches; the children of God would be snatched away from Pharaoh’s grasp.
The children of Judah who had known the captivity of Babylon celebrated this particular passover under a king who granted them the freedom to serve their God and labor in His work.
For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were clean. – Ezra 6:20a(ESV)
The blood of the lamb placed along the door frame symbolized the Israelites separateness from the Egyptians. They were made clean by God because they obeyed His commands and covered their doors with the blood of the lamb. That blood delivered them from death. God established the Levites to depict this ongoing pureness and separateness to His people. The priests and Levites symbolized the sanctification required for one who is God’s holy servant.
So they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves. It was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile, and also by every one who had joined them and separated himself from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to worship the Lord, the God of Israel.– Ezra 6:20b-21(ESV)
Even though physical Israel was commanded to separate themselves from the other nations to keep their bloodline pure, the time of the Passover allowed all who followed God’s commands to celebrate Israel’s escape from death. Jehovah God made it clear that everyone was to partake in this memorial, even proselytes (Numbers 9:14). This Passover was shared by all who worshiped only God, even those who were not native born.
And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for the Lord had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel. – Ezra 6:22(ESV)
The seven days after the Passover were called the Feast of Unleavened Bread during which no leavened bread was to be present (Exodus 13:7). God used the chemical properties of yeast to explain purification to His people. Repeatedly through scriptures, God calls out the “corrupt.” The Hebrew word for corrupt means to ruin, spoil, or decay. Yeast is a fungus that breaks down the composition of the dough, creating gases that cause the dough to expand. It is actually destroying the grain cell’s integrity by using up its sugar components. If left to ferment for too long, the yeast will ruin the bread. Yeast itself is not evil; God chose to use it to express what is evil, that is, when men break down what God establishes as good and pure.
Because we know the outcome of the Passover — that Christ would later become the Passover for all (1 Corinthians 5:7) — we can see how the Passover celebration under the Old Covenant foreshadowed the ultimate escape from the clutches of a cruel master: eternal death. We come together, the congregation of the Most High God, to eat the unleavened bread every first day of the week in celebration of the sacrifice of Christ our Passover (Acts 20:7). The unleavened bread still signifies the incorruptible and perfect life that we are given when we obey God by covering ourselves in Christ’s blood (Ephesians 2:13) through baptism (Gal. 3:27) that washes away sin (Acts 22:16). As we walk in Christ, we are to keep separate from the world’s godless living (James 1:27) while His blood continues to cleanse us pure from sin (1 John 1:7). In this way we are separate and pure for God’s service.