Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Exodus 12, Part One

The Passover instituted (vs. 1-20)—This is a very important chapter because it details the inauguration of perhaps the most important Jewish feast, Passover, or also called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The whole point of it was to remind the children of Israel, in perpetuity, of their divine deliverance from Egypt. The feast would be held in the first month of the year, Abib (v. 2; the name of that month was changed to Nisan during the captivity period). On the tenth day of that month, every house was to take a lamb (v. 3), “without blemish, a male of the first year,” either a sheep or a goat (v. 5). If a household was not large enough to consume the lamb, then more than one house could be joined together (v. 4). The lamb was to be set aside until the 14th day of the month, when it was then to be killed (v. 6). Some of the blood was to be put on the doorposts and lintel of the house where the lamb was to be eaten (v. 7). Then the roasted lamb—roasted (v. 8), not raw and not boiled (v. 9)—was to be eaten that night, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (v. 8). The whole animal was to be cooked—“its head with its legs and its entrails” (v. 9). Any of it that was left over was to be completely burned before the next morning (v. 10). To symbolize their rapid exodus from Egypt, the people were to eat the meal “with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD'S Passover” (v. 11). That was the night the Lord would pass through the land of Egypt and slay the firstborn of each house; those with blood on their doorposts would be spared (vs. 12-13). As noted, “this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance” (v. 14).

More instructions are given in verses 15-20, because the feast was to last for a week, not just one night. For seven days, the children of Israel were to eat unleavened bread; all leaven was to be removed from the house on the first day of the feast. Anyone who did not do this “shall be cut off from Israel” (v. 15). The “cutting off” from Israel is mentioned many times in the Law of Moses. It’s not exactly sure what is meant by it. Some believe it meant death. Others that is simply referred to the separation from certain privileges of the Jewish commonwealth. There is no way to know for sure. On the first day and the seventh day of the feast, there was to be a “holy convocation,” or assembly, no doubt for worship. No work was to be done on those days, except that which was necessary for food preparation (v. 16). So this Feast of Unleavened Bread was to be kept every year, in the first month, beginning on the 14th day of the month, eating unleavened bread “until the twenty-first day of the month at evening” (v. 18). Verses 19 and 20 basically repeat verse 15: only unleavened bread was to be eaten and anyone disobeying this command was to be “cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land” (v. 19).

Moses passes the command on to the children of Israel (vs. 21-28)—This is pretty much a summary of Moses to the people to do what Jehovah had just commanded. Take the Passover lamb “according to your families” and kill it (v. 21). Take a “bunch of hyssop,” dip it in blood, and spread it on the doorpost (v. 22; see the note at the end on what “hyssop” was). The people were not to leave their houses all night (v. 22), for the Lord was going to move against the Egyptians that evening (v. 23). The Passover was to be kept “forever” (v. 25), or for as long as the Lord intended, which would be till the end of the Jewish system at the cross. They were to teach their children what the Passover meant (vs. 26-27). And “the children of Israel went away and did so; just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did” (v. 28).

I have never heard a skeptic, who believes this whole chapter to be mythological, explain the Passover. When did it begin? There had to have been a first occasion; one year it happened, the previous year it hadn’t. How did the priests convince the people that the exodus story was true? All of a sudden, they start holding this feast, convinced it commemorated an event they had never previously heard of, a feast that was supposed to have been kept every year since the exodus! It would be like the Congress of the United States announcing that America is going to start celebrating August 17th every year because on that date, long ago, our forefathers held a feast as a memorial to their victory over the Spanish in the Battle of Long Noses—a memorial which, at the time, was intended to be held every year. Congress has made all of this up, of course; there was no victory of the Spanish, no Battle of Long Noses, no memorial feast. It’s all a myth. And yet the American people are to be convinced that it all happened, though there is not a shred of historical evidence for any of it? We simply accept Congress’s word on the matter, and a celebration that had never been held before begins out of the blue? That’s what the skeptic would have us believe about the Passover.

That’s how desperate these people are to disprove the Bible.

A note on hyssop: “The common hyssop is ‘a shrub with low, bushy stalks 1 1/2 feet high, small pear shaped, close-setting opposite leaves all the stalks and branches terminated by erect whorled spikes of flowers of different colors in the varieties. It is a hardy plant, with an aromatic smell and a warm, pungent taste; a native of the south of Europe and the East.’——Smith's Bible Dictionary

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