Day 34: The Passover Instituted

 Today's readings: Exodus 12, Leviticus 9, and Psalm 114.

I. God establishes perhaps one of the most sacred days for Israel to remember every year: Passover and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. These are also heavily significant for Christians too, as they foreshadow the sacrifice of Christ and the Eucharist. As the Ignatius Bible notes:

The feast of Passover is charged with typological significance: the lamb offered in sacrifice prefigures Christ as the unblemished lamb slain for our redemption (Jn 1:29; 1 Cor 5:7; 1 Pet 1:19), and the lamb eaten in the meal looks ahead to our communion with Christ in the Eucharist (Jn 6:52-58; 1 Cor 10:16). both ideas are present at the Last Supper, where Jesus transforms the Jewish Passover into the memorial meal of a new exodus from sin (Mt 26:17-29) (CCC 608, 1340). (p. 140)

He outlines how the Israelites are to all gather together with their families in their houses, with no one left outside, and sprinkle a lamb's blood on the "doorposts and lintel" of their houses, how they are to eat (lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs), and that they must eat all of it; how they are to be fully clothed with their sandals on, ready to travel; that they must keep this service every years in remembrance of their exodus from Egypt (12:1-28).

The final and most terrible of the Plagues then struck: the death of all Egypt's first-born. God said that "on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments..." (12:12), and for this last plague, Osiris, their false god of life and patron of Pharaoh, was the main target. As for the death of the first-borns, that's of all Egyptians, high and low, as well as their cattle (12:29). There was a great cry, Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron, and finally told them that they should all leave, with their flocks (12:30-32). Fearing all of them would be killed, the Egyptian people rushed the Israelites along, and the latter were "thrust out of Egypt and could not tarry" (12:33-42). Lastly, God gave a command to Moses and Aaron that no foreigner or uncircumcized male was to eat of the Passover meal (12:43-50).

II. In Leviticus chapter 9, the inauguration of Aaron's priesthood and "the beginning of public worship at the Tabernacle" commence. Interestingly, the Ignatius Bible notes:

[T]he initial sin offerings prescribed for Aaron and the people are connected with specific sins of idolatry. (1) Aaron sacrifices a calf for himself because of his leadership role in the golden calf apostasy. (2) Aaron sacrifices a goat for the people because the tribes worshiped goat idols in the wilderness during the encampment at Sinai. The lesson implied: worship of the true God (the Lord) entails a cultic renunciation of false gods (idols). (p. 192)

III.  Psalm 114 is a short one of historical remembrance. The wonders of God during the Exodus from Egypt are expounded, with poetic language employed that personifies nature "fleeing in fear from the Lord's presence" and the divine establishment of their homeland in Canaan (p. 931).

That's it for today!