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The First Passover
The Jews had fallen out of favor with the Egyptians sometime after the death of Joseph. Their fall was to the dregs of slavery. Despite slavery, their population grew to the point of being worrisome to Pharaoh. Pharaoh decided to kill the boy babies of the Jews. Moses narrowly escaped this plight when his mother sent him down river. He was then found by a princess of Egypt and raised as an adopted son of Pharaoh and nursed by his own mother.
God, in his eternal foreknowledge, meting out perfect justice, decided that when judgment came to Egypt and deliverance to captive Israel, he would use ten plagues to show his power and sovereignty over all the gods of Egypt, culminating in a plague known as the death of the firstborn.
This plague struck man and beast, Jew and Gentile alike. Only by applying the blood of a spotless lamb on the lintel and doorposts of your home could you escape the results. If an Egyptian sought refuge in a Jewish home, covered by the blood, he could escape the death angel.
The Jews took an innocent little lamb, without blemish, and killed it, one for each household. Some of the blood was then applied to the doorframe, the top and sides, in some ways hinting at the shape of a cross (the head and arms). They were instructed not to break a bone of the lambs body and roast it over a fire. Some expositors have pointed out that to do this, one would split the lamb down the middle and spread it out at the shoulders to roast it over an open spit fire. The prepared lamb, in this way, would very much resemble a crucified body. In addition to the lamb, the Passover dinner would be eaten with unleavened bread, for it was to be made in haste. There was no time to let the bread rise. The Jews were to keep their shoes and belts on. The expectancy of deliverance evident.
The leavening is a symbol of sin. Leavening is actually a member of the decomposer family. When leavening is introduced into bread dough, it begins to reproduce by fission (splitting in two). In this process part of the cell wall of the microscopic yeast cell (leavening) swells and forms new cells. The yeast breaks down the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide gas. The bubbles of this gas are trapped by a substance in the dough called gluten. As the gas expands, the gluten stretches, causing the dough to rise. As a symbol of sin it is perfectly suited. As a decomposer it is a part of the death cycle not life cycle, and it puffs up the bread as sin is apt to multiply, and as the sin of pride puffs up the sinner and leads to death.
The following morning the Exodus from Egypt began. The Jews 'borrowed' lots of stuff from the Egyptians and left, heading off into the desert. Lead by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, the Jews, young and old, with herds and flocks and booty from the Egyptians headed off towards Midian where Moses had spent forty years on the backside of the desert tending herds for his father-in-law, Jethro. Before three days had passed, God took them off the main road and into the confusion of the Sinai.
Pharaoh by this time had changed his mind, and his scouts told him and his pursuing army that the Jews were hemmed in at the 'Mouth of the Gorges'(Pihahiroth). Little did Pharaoh know how awesome the exodus deliverance would be, for God heaped up the Red Sea like walls and the Jews passed through on dry ground! Pharaoh, as a type of the Devil in all his blind pride and ambition, headed right into this miraculous corridor, and God closed it in on him and all his armies, destroying all of them. This foreshadows and prefigures the plans God ultimately has to finish off the Father of Lies.
The fact that Jesus is called the Lamb of God, and was crucified on Passover is no coincidence. Neither is it coincidence that three days later, on the feast of firstfruits, the 17th of Nissan, Jesus rose from the dead, delivering us from the consequence of sin, namely death. The very day the Jews passed through the Red Sea, the 17th of Nissan, is the very day Jesus rose from the dead. As Israel celebrates deliverance from Egypt, the Church celebrates deliverance from sin and death. As Israel passed through the Red Sea, so the Christian is immersed in baptism. As Israel was delivered from Egypt, the Christian is delivered from this world, and becomes a pilgrim passing through. And as a spotless lamb was sacrificed and its blood made the covering and protection from the death angel, so Jesus, the Lamb of God, is our blood sacrifice."But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." (Eph 2;13) Jesus fulfilled the necessary requirement to pay the penalty of sin. As God's only begotten son, only he could do this. In his own words he said. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." (Mat 5:17) Paul tells us, "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." (Rom 15;4)
In this respect it is interesting that God told the Jews to keep the feasts of the Lord as holy convocations. The word convocation can also be translated 'rehearsal'. And so the Exodus and Passover were actually rehearsals for the coming of Christ.
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