IT WAS the first month of the second year after the children of Israel came out of Egypt. Now they were about to leave Sinai and move on on their wilderness journey. But before they set out, the Lord commanded them to keep the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.
They had kept the passover in Egypt, but it would seem from the words of Stephen in Acts 7:42,4342Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? 43Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon. (Acts 7:42‑43), that this was the only time they kept it in the wilderness. The next time we hear of them keeping it was 38 years later, when the wilderness journey was over and they crossed the Jordan and entered the land of Canaan (Josh. 5:10,1110And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. 11And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day. (Joshua 5:10‑11)).
This chapter shows the importance of the passover in the eyes of God, for redemption underlines all God’s ways and His dealings with His people, whether in the wilderness or elsewhere. They are redeemed to God, and apart from redemption God could not have anything to say to them at all, nor could He guide or bless them.
We never get far from the cross in Scripture for we need the remembrance of the death of Christ wherever we are. Israel could not have gotten out of Egypt without the passover, and for us there is no way out of this world, shut up to judgment, apart from the death of Christ and the blood of the Lamb. Then we need His death here all along our wilderness journey. And when we leave this world and enter our heavenly land, that precious death will be the foundation of our eternal glory and blessing with Christ.
Among the feasts in Leviticus 23 the Passover stands alone. It was “a feast of the Lord,” and Israel were to keep it as such. It was instituted of God in Exodus 12 before the sacrifices in Leviticus 1-7. It is not a burnt offering; it is not a sin offering; nor is it a peace offering; but it partakes of the characteristics of all three. All that Christ is for God and for our acceptance in Him, all that He is for sin, all that He is as the common joy of God and His people are here set forth. In it we have a full Christ presented.
In Egypt the prominent feature of the passover was the blood; it was for God to see for He said, “When I see the blood I will pass over you.” Within, the people fed upon the lamb roast with fire and they ate the unleavened bread for seven days. And this is the prominent feature of the feast here.
And as we journey through this wilderness world, from beginning to end, we are to remember that “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us,” and to “Keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and of wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” 1 Cor. 5:88Therefore 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. (1 Corinthians 5:8).
They were to eat the passover “on the fourteenth day of the first month between the two evenings.” We know that on the first evening the Lord Jesus sat down with His disciples to eat the passover (Matt. 26:2020Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. (Matthew 26:20)) then on the second evening He was laid in the grave (Matt. 27: 57). So the Lord’s passover was slain between these two evenings. Perhaps the first evening would speak of Israel’s being set aside, and the second evening the setting aside of this present period of grace. Surely we must be nearing the end of the journey, but that which is to characterize us while we wait is the unleavened bread, that separation from all evil, as seen in the holy life which the Lord Jesus presented to God so perfectly.
ML-06/10/1973