Passover
A festival of Old Testament Israel commemorating the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of the Egyptians, when God instructed them to spread the blood of a lamb over the doorposts of their homes, and he would spare their firstborn sons, while every other firstborn son in Egypt died. This event and it’s commemoration prefigured Christ’s sacrificial death, so Christ can be called “our passover” in the New Testament.
- From scripture:
Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. [22] Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. [23] For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. [24] You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. [25] And when you come to the land that the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. [26] And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ [27] you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.
[28] Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. (Exodus 12:21-28 ESV)
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? [7] Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. (1 Corinthians 5:6-7 ESV)
- From The Atonement: It’s Meaning and Significance by Leon Morris:
Passover may not be the leading New Testament category by which to interpret the atonement, but it is certainly one of the subordinate strands in New Testament thinking. What the Passover sacrifice signified for the Jews, that and more Christ’s sacrifice has done for the Christians. It emphasizes the thought of deliverance, deliverance from a powerful enemy. Because Jesus died as a Passover sacrifice those who trust in Him are no longer subject to the forces of evil. They have been delivered. They are free.
And Passover reminds us that we are members one of another. Passover was a corporate observance, a feast to be celebrated in the company of others. Both in the Old Testament and in contemporary Judaism the Passover was to be observed in companies. The observance stressed the truth that God’s salvation is not a purely individual experience. The deliverance from Egypt marked the birth of a nation, the emergence of the people of God. The deliverance on the cross marked the emergence of the true Israel, the people of God in more than a merely national sense. Now the people of God are plainly seen as all those who have been delivered by Christ, from whatever nation they may come. They belong to God and to one another in the fellowhip of the redeemed people of God, for “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” (1 Cor. 5:7, AV).
Learn more:
- The Bible: Exodus 12
- Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry: What is Passover?
- GotQuestions.org: What are the different Jewish festivals?
- Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology: Feasts and Festivals of Israel
- John Stott: The Meaning of Passover (audio)
- R. C. Sproul: The Passover (audio)
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