Exodus 12:8

Concerning the first Passover, the Bible says in Exodus 12:8-13, “And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD's passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. And the blood shall be to you for a token 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.” Many things in life have a clear spiritual symbolism to them. The Passover lamb has at least a two-fold meaning to it. Of course, the first was the fact that the lamb was killed, and God said in Exodus 12:13, “when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you.” Jesus, the Lamb of God, was killed and shed His blood for the sins of the world.

God commanded that the children of Israel eat the Passover lamb. We must eat in order to live. Food gives us physical life. The same is true concerning spiritual life. In a spiritual sense we must take Jesus into our heart and soul in order to have spiritual life. Jesus said in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Jesus said in John 6:51, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” And Jesus said in John 6:53-58, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.” And then Jesus clarified this teaching in John 6:63 where He emphasized the fact that He was talking about taking Him in from a spiritual standpoint. Jesus said, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” This teaching also clarifies for us the real meaning of what we call Christian communion. Jesus instituted what is called Christian communion at a Passover feast. The Passover feast is symbolic and Christian communion is symbolic, just as the first Passover feast was symbolic in the days of Moses.

Concerning the Passover feast that Jesus ate with His disciples in what we call the Last Supper, the Bible says in Mark 14:13-24, “And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him. And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us. And his disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover. And in the evening he cometh with the twelve. And as they sat and did eat, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, One of you which eateth with me shall betray me. And they began to be sorrowful, and to say unto him one by one, Is it I? and another said, Is it I? And he answered and said unto them, It is one of the twelve, that dippeth with me in the dish. The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born. And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body. And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all drank of it. And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.”

The Bible says in Exodus 12:14-20, “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.[ Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you. And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land. Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.” It is interesting that the Feast of Unleavened Bread coincides with the Passover. There is nothing wrong with leaven, and normally it is added to bread, but in the Bible leaven sometimes is symbolic of sin. Bread is typically made of flour with a little bit of leaven added to it. Once a small amount of leaven is added to the dough, the leaven permeates the whole. That is how sin works: a small amount of sin enters into a life and then it spreads and affects all of that life. Jesus said in Mark 8:15, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.” And the New Testament says in First Corinthians 5:6, “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?”

The Feast of Unleavened Bread reminds believers that we should be careful to take sin out of our lives. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is linked to the Passover. In the Passover we are reminded of what Jesus did for us: He is the Lamb of God, slain for the sins of the world. But there is something for us to do at the same time that we trust in the blood. We must truly repent of our sins. To repent means to have a change of mind, and therefore, to repent is more than just being sorry for our sins. It means to have a change of life. Purge out the sins, and stop committing them. Get them out of your life. God has given you a Passover Lamb. Make sure that you also take the leaven out of your bread. The Bible says in First Corinthians 5:7-8, “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

The Bible says in Exodus 12:21-27, “Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. 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 be come 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 unto you, What mean ye 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.” God has promised to give something to His children: a land flowing with milk and honey. This land of Canaan and the promise of the land to which they were traveling is symbolic of the Kingdom of God in heaven: a land to which every believer in Jesus is traveling. Moses said in Exodus 12:25, “And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.”

God also wants believers to give something to their children. God wants us to give them the true teachings about God and Jesus. Moses said in Exodus 12:26-27, “And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye 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.” One of the reasons that the Passover was given to the children of Israel was so that they would use it as a means of teaching their children. In the Bible the parents are given the responsibility of teaching their children. That is what is meant in Ephesians 6:4 that says, “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Both the word “nurture” and “admonition” are an emphasis on what a child is taught. There should be an organized and consistent teaching program that is “of the Lord.” It must be Christian teaching. And so we see two very important principles given to Christian parents, just as they were given to Hebrew parents: 1. The parents are responsible to teach their own children, and they should not give this responsibility to anyone else, especially not to a secular or unspiritual school system: prayfully consider Christian home schooling. 2. The content of the teaching must be “of the Lord.” In other words the final goal is that the children know the truth about the Lord. The world is full of false teachings of every kind, but only true believers know the truth about Jesus.

Of course, the children also have a responsibility in all of this. The parents are responsible for the teaching of their children and that the teaching be Christ-based. But the children are responsible for listening and having the proper response to this teaching. No one can be forced to learn, or to take what they have learned and apply it to their own heart. There is one commandment in the Ten Commandments that has to do with the child’s responsibility in the parent-child relationship. The commandment places responsibility on the children, and not on the parents. It says in Exodus 20:12, “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.” The Bible also says in Ephesians 3:20, “Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.”

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