Communion Part 2 - Passover

Continued from last week's Communion Part 1 - God's Covenant with Abraham.

So, nearly 450 years after Joseph had saved their nation from starvation successive Pharaohs had begun to increasingly oppress the Israelites by putting them under slavery and making their living and working conditions both miserable and intolerable.

But things were about to get even worse.

In an endeavour to halt the rise of God's people in Egypt, Egypt's Pharaoh commanded that every Israelite baby boy be drowned:
 

Exodus 2: 22; ''And Pharaoh charged [commanded] all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river and every daughter ye shall save a live.''

At this time  Moses was born.  He was the first born of an Israelite family from the tribe of Levi.  His mother, in an attempt to save the little baby's life, hid Moses safely in a basket in the bulrushes of the river Nile.  Moses was found and taken to safety by  Pharaoh's daughter and, once he had grown up, was chosen by God to lead His covenant people out of slavery and misery and back to the  land of Canaan God had promised to Abraham and his descendants all those generations before.

 

As we know from our Bible history Pharaoh refused Moses and would not comply with God's wishes ''to let His people go''.  The nation of God's people, the nation Israel, subjected to slavery provided Egypt with a ready made and biddable workforce to enable it to maximise its economic advantage - no leader was going to let this slave workforce go anywhere in a hurry!

So one by one, God sent ten plagues to ridicule the Egyptian gods and, at the same time, encourage Pharaoh to set at liberty His chosen people.  Even after nine terrible plagues had brought suffering and hardship for citizens of Egypt stubborn 'old' Pharaoh still would not free God's people; so God instituted the tenth and most dreadful plague.

 

Exodus 4: 22 & 23; ''And thou  [Moses] shall say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my first born: And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even the first-born.''

In antiquity all the plans and dreams of a family were bound up in the first born son. This tenth plague would spell the ultimate disaster for all those effected by it as it would wipe out in an instant all the first born sons in the land of Egypt. 

But before God enacted this terrible event he needed to put a difference - a distinction - between the people of Egypt and  Abraham's descendants  who had become the 'nation' (or People) of Israel - His covenant people.

Therefore, he gave Moses and his brother-in-law Aaron specific instructions they must adhere follow to avoid the first born of the Israelites suffering the same fate as the first born of the Egyptians 

Exodus 12: 1a, 3, 5a, 6, 7, 8,9,10 &11;  ''And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, Speak ye unto the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house:   Your lamb shall be without blemish [perfect], a male of the first year: And ye shall keep it unto the fourteenth day of  the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. 

And they shall take the blood , and strike it on two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat of the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.  Eat it not raw nor sodden [boiled] with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance [entrails] thereof. 

And ye shall let nothing of it remains until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins [a belt on your waist] girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff if your hand; and ye shall eat in haste for this is the LORD'S passover'' 

God went on to further explain the significance of the blood in sparing Israel's first born and protecting His people from the effects of this terrible event:

Exodus 12: 12 &13;  ''For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against the gods of Egypt I will execute judgement: I am the LORD.  And the blood shall be to you a token[sign] upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.''

 

God made further instruction:

 

Exodus 12: 24, 25, 26 & 27; ''And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.  And it shall come to pass, when ye become to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.  And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say into you, What ye mean by this service?  That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses.  And the people bowed the head and worshipped.''

 

... still further instruction as to how the feast of Passover was to be conducted and who could take part:

 

Exodus 12: 43, 44, 45, 46, 47 & 48; ''And the LORD said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof; But every man's servant that is bought with money, when thou has circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof.  A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat thereof: In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh abroad our of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof. 

All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.  And when a stranger shall sojourn [stay for a while] with thee, and will keep the passover of the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.''

 

So the annual feast of the Passover was to commemorate in perpetuity the birth of Israel as a nation as God delivered freedom for his covenant people; taking them away from Egypt, captivity, and misery and leading them towards the land he had promised them in the contract he established with Abraham.

To be continued next week in Communion Part 3 -  God's Covenant with Moses.