Not My Own: Passover

A few weeks ago I was looking through my favorite magazine -Everyday Food – and they had some yummy recipes for Passover. I’ve always loved the story of Passover in the Bible and, to be honest, because I loved the recipes so much, I decided that this year I was going to do a Passover dinner the night before Easter. The Old Testament story is such a powerful lead in to Jesus dying on the cross and His resurrection and I thought Easter would become much more meaningful to our family if we truly understood the significance of the sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. So a new tradition will start this year with a Passover dinner on Saturday night.

From Exodus 12

¹ The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in

Egypt

, ² “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. ³ Tell the whole community of

Israel

that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb^[a] for his family, one for each household.

⁵ The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. ⁶ Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. ⁷ Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.

¹² “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of

Egypt

. I am the LORD. ¹³ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

¹⁴ “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD—a lasting ordinance.

²¹ Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. ²² Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. ²³ When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

²⁴ “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. ²⁵ When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. ²⁶ And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ ²⁷ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. ²⁸ The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron.