The Lord’s Passover (Exodus 12:1-15)

The Lord’s Passover

 

Exodus 12:1-15

 

“It’s not essential? I think you misunderstand the meaning of the word. I teach history and literature. Since when it’s not essential? What do you mean ‘Not essential’?” This is a word quoted from Schindler’s List, the famous Holocaust movie directed by Steven Spielberg. In this movie, Schindler makes efforts to rescue the Jews from the massacre carried out by the Nazi Germany. In those days, Nazi confined the Jews in Ghetto, a Jewish quarter, and then transported them to concentration camps. Because death was unavoidable for most of those who had been sent to a concentration camp, Schindler picked out some of the Jews as “essential workers.” He established a factory making army supplies for the German Army, and got the permission to select the workers from the Jews to be sent to the concentration camp. In this way, Schindler tried to keep Jews from being sent to a concentration camp. Now Nazi had to take the process of selecting essential workers before sending Ghetto Jews to the concentration camp. And to those who were recognized as an essential worker was issued Blauschein (“blue card”), and they were allowed to work at Schindler’s factory. The word quoted above was said by a Jew named Chaim Nowak in the process of screening essential workers. His original job was a history/literature teacher. But with this job, he was not recognized as an essential worker required at Schindler’s factory. Nowak couldn’t accept their decision, but his protest and complaint were useless. For Nowak, Schindler’s Jewish co-workers made a fake certificate showing that he was a metal polisher, and made him try another interview with the certificate. At last, he was recognized as an essential worker, not as a history/literature teacher but as a metal polisher, and got Blauschein. (YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlMyQavd5ak)

 

I believe Nowak’s story above is helpful to understand the meaning of the Passover. The Passover was an unprecedented disaster in which God killed every firstborn son in Egypt, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well (Exodus 11:5). For the people of Israel, on the other hand, it was the Day of Liberation when they were set free from 430 years’ slavery in Egypt. It was a chaotic and fearful night when all the people in the land stood between life and death. God told Moses how the people of Israel could preserve their lives in the fatal disaster. It was slaughtering a year-old lamb and putting its blood on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they would eat the lamb (7). Then, when the Lord went through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he would see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and would pass over that doorway, and he would not permit the destroyer to enter their houses and strike them down (23). The Israelites obeyed this instruction, and they were saved from the destruction. However, the Egyptians were hit by God so severely that there was no house without someone dead. As set by God, the only way to avoid God’s judgment and save lives was putting the blood of a lamb on the top and sides of the doorframe. Accordingly, this word of God is truth and life. Some might have thought that he could endure God’s destruction by putting a strong “iron gate” instead of a door with a lamb’s blood on it. Or some might have thought that God would recognize his house and skip it without a lamb’s blood on it because of his outstanding services at the synagogue. Or some might have thought that he could use a red-color paint instead of a lamb’s blood. But none of the Israelites thought like that. They all followed God’s instruction, marking their houses as the houses of God’s people by slaughtering a year-old lamb and putting the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe. And they were all saved.

 

Above-mentioned Nowak was highly proud of his job as a history/literature teacher. To him, it was unquestionable that a history/literature teacher was an essential worker. With this belief, he said proudly that he was a history/literature teacher in such a breathtaking moment that would determine his fate. However, it was not a teacher but a metal polisher that Schindler needed in his factory. Therefore, Nowak could not be accepted as an essential worker. And he almost opened the door to death. At that moment, he should have trashed his pride as a teacher, and put the label of “metal polisher” on his head and hands. The label was a life card for him. Of course, Nowak’s pride in his job was “genuine.” But in a sense, it was “false.” It is because the pride was deceiving him and leading him to death. On the contrary, Schindler’s friends made a fake certificate for Nowak. But this certificate was “genuine.” It is because Nowak could save his life with the false document. In the tragic situation of Holocaust where people had to stand between life and death moment by moment, there is nothing more valuable than life. In such a situation, even the worst lie is “true” as long as it can save a life. If I can be found as “an essential worker,” a fake certificate is acceptable as an authentic. We can understand in the same way God’s instruction for the Israelites to put a lamb’s blood on the sides and top of the doorframe in order to avoid death during the night of the Passover. When God was going through the land on the night of the Passover, he would see only whether a lamb’s blood was on the doorframe of the house. He would not ask what kind of people is living in the house, whether a righteous man or a wicked, whether a good man or a bad. Some might doubt and some might complain while putting the blood. Yet it doesn’t matter. According to 12:38, along with the Israelites, “many other people (not-Israelites in NLT version)” came out of Egypt together. They were also saved by putting a lamb’s blood on their doors. Although they were not Israelites, they obeyed God’s instruction. And God only saw the blood on the sides and top of the doorframe, and saved them as God’s people. God sees only the blood of a lamb on the doorframe. And with that, he saves those in the house. Even if they are full of sins and falsehood and not worthy to be saved, the blood of a lamb testifies that they are “holy people of God.” And even if the testimony is a lie, it is true because it saves sinners. As long as it saves life, it is true.

 

To the Israelites who were leaving Egypt, God gave another instruction, which was to eat unleavened bread and remove the yeast. Verse 12:15 says, “For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day, remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.” With regard to why God said to eat unleavened bread, Verse 12:39 says, “With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.” That is, the Israelites had to eat unleavened bread because they had to leave Egypt suddenly and hastily, and therefore, they didn’t have time to prepare food. It is generally said that yeast symbolizes “sin” in the Bible. I would like to say more specifically that yeast symbolizes “bad influence” and this is why God prohibited any food with yeast in it. 1Corinthians 5:6-7 says, “Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” In this word, St. Paul says, “Your boasting is not good,” and also says, “Get rid of the old yeast so that you may be a new unleavened batch.” According to this word, “boasting” may be the yeast that leavens the whole batch of dough. When we read the book of 1Corinthians, we can find that the members of the Corinthian church did “worthless boasting” competitively. 1Corinthians 3:21 says, “So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours,” and 4:7 also says, “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” Even some of them committed sexual immorality and boasted of it (5:1-2). St. Paul warned against boasting strictly, and reminded the believers that Christ had been sacrificed as the Passover lamb.

 

If the blood of a lamb covers sins, unleavened bread covers boasting. To Nowak in the Schindler’s List, his job as a history/literature teacher was his “boasting.” In the critical moment of life and death, he could not give up the boasting. In order to survive, however, he had to be recognized as an essential worker. And in his eye, essential workers didn’t look noble or respectable at all. They were merely factory workers who didn’t have anything to boast of. Nowak had to give up his noble job of history/literature teacher and take the humble job of metal polisher as his new career. He should be humble like other factory workers. For the Israelites, as soon as they left Egypt, they all became “the Lord’s armies” who eat the same food, wear the same uniform, and walk the same way (41, 51). Now there is not any discrimination among them. There is no rich or poor, no noble or humble. They are all “people of God” with no difference. They all ate unleavened bread that was prepared hastily, so was hard and tasteless. They were all equal in eating unleavened bread. What would happen if they were allowed to eat bread containing yeast? They might have wasted a lot of time to make delicious bread that they could enjoy during the journey. Rich people might add expensive ingredients to make soft and tasty bread, which would be envied by poor people. Not only for bread but also for other things, they would delay the departure in order to pack things that they were boasting of. And God’s army would be divided between the rich and the poor, and between the high and the low. Instead of moving well-ordered as “God’s army,” they would be partitioned into different groups, and compete with one another about “Who is greater?” In this sense, unleavened bread is a very important device that covers all the boastings, unifies the Israelites into one, and makes them move in one body and mind.

 

Jesus Christ is the Passover lamb whose blood covers our sins. Moreover, Jesus Christ is holy unleavened bread that covers our boastings and makes us into one body. God ordered the Israelites to commemorate and celebrate the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. God commanded this repeatedly (14, 17, 25, 42,47). Like our bodies get dirty and our houses get dusty day by day, we unknowingly get self-righteous and get proud of ourselves day by day. Our self-righteousness makes us arrogant before God so that we don’t rely on the lamb’s blood anymore. And our boasting makes us divide and compete. The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are for cleaning all the old dirt and dust, and refreshing our reliance on Jesus so that we have peace with God and with one another. We become one in body and mind as God’s army. In Exodus 13:9, Moses says to the Israelites, “This observance (of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread) will be for you like a sign on your hands and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the Lord is to be on your lips. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand.” The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are not annual events. The observance is like a sign on my head and hands that tells who I am. Instead of my self-righteousness and my pride raising me out, we should rely on the holy flesh and blood of Jesus as a sign that represents who I am. May the Lord keep us free from old dirt and dust, and renew us every day as God’s army in Jesus, the Passover Lamb and Holy Bread from heaven!