What does the Passover mean to you?

Where do we learn about the Passover? If you go back to Exodus 12 you remember that Moses institutes the Passover and gives instructions to Israel to remember one of the most frightening and terrible and amazing nights in history. Israel is enslaved in Egypt and Moses tells Pharaoh “the Lord says let my people go.” And Pharaoh’s heart is hardened and the plagues come upon Egypt. And Pharaoh will not relent. So finally the 10th plague comes to pass. It will be the execution of judgment on the firstborn of those in the land of Egypt. And the biblical pattern of redemption is displayed for us – teaching that the wages of sin is death, but for God’s chosen people there is covering, there is protection, and there is deliverance from death.

How will he do this? What is necessary to preserve his people through the terrible judgment that is about to fall? The answer is found in this powerful observance the Jews are commanded to remember every year that demonstrates the mighty redeeming love God has for his people.

Exodus 12:21-23 records for us: “Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. 23 For the Lord will pass through (AVAR) to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over (PESACH)the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.”

See if you can picture this: Moses tells the elders that they are to take a lamb. Without defect. So the father of the Hebrew house takes his lamb and he examines it from head to foot to see that it has no blemish. Then he calls to his son and says “This shall be our sacrifice to God this night. My son, bring the basin and hold it here, under the Lamb. And as he slays the Lamb the blood flows into the basin. He skins it and gives it to his wife and says “take it to the fire and prepare it, and quickly, roast it for us to eat.” Then the father calls out “Bring a bunch of hyssop” (which is a large leafy fern). And he dips it in the blood. Then he says “Come here, my children and my wife and my neighbors and see what I am about to do. And he takes the hyssop in his hands, dips it in the blood, and sprinkles it across the doorpost. You can imagine that the children say, “What does this mean? What are you doing? And he answers them, “This night the Lord our God will pass through the land and will strike the Egyptians, but when he sees the blood upon our doorpost the Lord himself will come and protect us and the destroying angel will not come into our house to strike us. And we will be spared. This is the night that God will deliver us!”

In the dead of night, suddenly they hear a cry. The father warns them, “The Lord has said “Not one of you shall go out of the door of this house until morning. Stay within the door my children. Stay calm. The blood will cover you.”

And if you look at Exodus 12:23, there is something startling. Verse 23 says “For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the doorpost the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you.”

What we find here is that there are actually two Hebrew verbs which speak of totally different actions. Sometimes people tend to blend them together. But please distinguish these two actions from each other and see how they relate to each other.

One word is the verb “AVAR” which is the word used when the Lord says he’s going to “go through” or “pass through” the land on a mission of judgment. (Sometimes it’s labeled as the Lord who does this and other times is labeled, like here at the end of verse three as “the destroyer” who will enter into the Egyptian houses and slay the firstborn.)

But there is also another action of God that stands in contrast to the destructive passing over the land. And this action is found in the second verb that is often translated “Passover” namely the Hebrew word “PASACH.” And what is this action?

Too many people simply translate this as “Passover” where God as the destroyer is just pictured as moving harmlessly over and passing them by. It’s as though he hops over the spared houses.

But Meredith Kline explains* that in this text you cannot equate “the destroyer” who passes through the land (AVAR) with the one who (PASACHs) the Israelite houses. Why is that? Because the verse says precisely that the “Lord will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.” And whatever the word PASACH means, the destroyer is not doing it. Instead the Lord is establishing a deterrent that is now over the house. The Lord is stationing himself squarely and immovably at the door. It is the image of a shielding action. And so it doesn’t mean here that the Lord will “skip over” or “hop over.” As the destroying angel is coming, the Lord now brings a sheltering action and is a shield – like a bird that hovers over and protects her young.

In fact, that is how the word is used in Isaiah 31:5 “Like flying birds (birds with wings) so the Lord of armies will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and save it; He will pass over (PESACH) and rescue it.”

Actually, Professor Kline says the festival would be better called “The Cover Over” rather than “The Passover.”

Where will he cover over the Israelites? Where will he shield them? Wherever he sees the blood his people are protected. He takes the blow for his people. And the earthly lamb represents Jesus, The Lamb of God who takes the blow for his people, shielding them from the destroying angel rendering the judgment of God against sinners. How does he do it? The Lord who protects is also the Lord who became the Lamb.

You who are “in Christ” are “hidden” in the slain Lamb, under the protection of God. Those people on that original night are hidden within their chambers – their houses are like tombs. But they come out of their tombs into resurrection life, because Israel is set free that night. And so we see here the picture of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and we rejoice as we see ourselves there.

*”The feast of the cover over” by Meredith G Kline JETS 37/4 (December 1994) 497-510

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