Passover: A Journey of Judgment and Mercy

One of the problems that people struggle with with the Scripture is that it seems that so much of the content of the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, has to do with the manifestation and revelation of God’s wrath and of His judgment. When we hear the record of His mercy and of His redeeming love we embrace that joyfully, but sometimes we shrink in skepticism and disbelief at the record of divine judgment. [00:00:06]

Well one of the great crisis moments of Old Testament history was the crisis of the Passover because in the Passover we see this mirror and this drama not only of redemption, but also of judgment, and that’s what makes it a crisis. They’re two sides to divine judgment. There is the side of mercy, and there is the side of wrath. [00:01:06]

Now the Passover is announced in the eleventh chapter of the book of Exodus where we read these words: “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt.’” Now remember this contest had been going on between the two great sovereigns of that period – the one who was the man who was most sovereign in all the world, the pharaoh of Egypt and the ultimately sovereign one, the God of heaven and earth. [00:02:19]

Now again, the celebration today is the celebration of this marvelous work of liberation, this marvelous work of redemption and sometimes we overlook that the redemption that was accomplished for Israel in the Passover was a redemption from the judgment of God. Now that’s important to understand because the whole biblical history of redemption, the whole drama of salvation is a salvation by God and a salvation from God. [00:06:02]

Now let me just pause here for a moment as we look at the institution of the first Passover. What is going on here is that God is giving detailed instructions to His people to go through a process by which they will escape the visitation of His wrath upon the Egyptian nation. And this is so significant in their own history that in a sense He changes their whole calendar so that from now on this month where the exodus takes place will be marked as the first month of the year. [00:07:51]

Now this already calls attention to what takes place in the New Testament. I’ve said already, several times, that we can’t really understand the New Testament and the drama of redemption that unfolds there unless we understand the backdrop and background of all of these things in the Old Testament. Once we understand what takes place in the Passover, for example, and later on in the celebration of Yom Kipper, the Day of Atonement for the Jewish people, then we will understand what’s going on when John the Baptist comes by the Jordan River. [00:08:55]

Now part of the reason why we struggle with this concept of judgment is that we don’t really believe that God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world. And yet if there’s any motif that is woven through both Testaments, it is that the God who began this creation is going to bring human history to a terminal point, to a point of supreme krisis, or crisis where He’s going to call all human beings before Him and render His judgment. [00:12:54]

It’s important to note that when this event takes place, though the exodus itself is a once-for-all event, it’s never repeated again in Old Testament history; only once does God deliver His people from this particular kind of bondage and forms them into a nation. Yes indeed there are other redemptive actions that take place, the return from captivity and so on, but as far as this paramount work of redemption in the Old Testament, surely the most important work of redemption in the Old Testament, it occurs once for all. [00:15:02]

However, though the event cannot be repeated, there is to be a ritual that does repeat the rites that are followed on the night of the Passover. And so God says to the Jewish people, “From now on every year at this same time, for all generations, forever and ever, I want you to sit down with your children and celebrate this event. We’re not going to repeat it every year in the sense of sending the angel of death to homes throughout the world, but I want you to remember and never forget what I have done for you.” [00:15:49]

Now in that regard, the Passover is not simply a remote event that took place four thousand years ago in Egypt, but itself foreshadows and prepares the world for the coming of the ultimate exodus, which is accomplished by Christ. Now there’re some details here that I want to look at before we finish. Notice that God requires that the bread that is eaten in the Passover be unleavened bread. [00:20:10]

The reason for this is that in the Old Testament leaven, or yeast, which causes the bread to rise and so on, is a symbol for corruption, and so the bread that is to be used in this moment of celebration is to be a bread that is holy, a bread that is consecrated and set apart, again symbolizing that God has set apart His own people and has consecrated them as He spares them from His wrath in the Passover event. [00:20:46]

And then finally, those who celebrate the Passover are commanded to wear a belt. And what’s the significance of that? So often we hear in the Scripture this admonition, as God gave to Job, “Gird up your loins like a man and then I will answer you.” And then in the New Testament we’re told to gird up our minds for the truth and so on. [00:23:07]