Two weeks ago, we learnt that the Passover was,
1) Costly: it required lots of effort, time, and resources. There would be an extended waiting period, the slaughter would have been bloody and painstaking. They would have to offer up their best.
2) Communal: households partook of it together, the lamb was representative for a people (never just individuals), and everyone in the nation of Israel would have to partake it in as well.
3) Conciliatory: the Passover revealed that Israel’s biggest problem wasn’t their slavery to Egypt - it was their standing before God. God, in His holiness, is resolutely opposed to sin, and they were a sinful people. without a substitute to bear the judgment for their sin, they could not be accepted as God’s people.
The Passover was instituted by God for His people. This is some sort of a routine, and we realise here that routines are revelatory. Routines reveal things about the people doing the routine, as well as the entity that enforces the routine. In a similar way, the Passover reveals something about the people doing it, as well as the God who gave them these instructions.
(A) Prohibitions that preserve purity - only a Holy God (Exo 12:43, 45-47)
The first additional statute of the Passover prohibits foreigners from joining in (Exo 12:43). What’s going on? Is God xenophobic and exclusionary? Xenophobic, no. But exclusionary, yes - and for good reason. It’s helpful if we start by asking, “what did all of this exclusion ensure?”. It becomes clear that this exclusionary statute ensured that only Israelites got to participate - it preserved the purity of participation.
It’s essential that the purity of participation is preserved, because the Passover had a specific function. It was meant for God’s covenantal people to remember their salvation. Neither the mixed multitude (Ex 12:38) nor any other foreigner was privy to the party. We also learned earlier in Ex 8:1 that the Israelites were saved for a specific purpose. They were saved to worship, and the conciliatory function of the Passover facilitated this intended activity of worship. In order to worship, God’s people would have to be in communion with God. And in order to be in communion with God, they had to be reconciled to Him. It follow that the Passover was also God’s way of teaching and reminding His people that He had provided a means for them a means to be in communion with Him, and in doing so, bring glory to His name. It was God’s way of reminding them that they were under a covenant.
Put simply, the Passover reflected God's specificity in action and intention. God saved a specific people - His covenantal people. God saved them for a specific purpose - to worship Him. Friends, God does not save or love recklessly. He saves with specificity, for He knows His people. He loves with great care and intention, for He knows His plans. This is why these prohibitions that preserved the purity of God’s people were mandated. For God’s people to fulfil the purpose for which they had been saved, they had to kept separate from those who were not under God’s covenant. Hence, foreigners could not join in the Passover because they were not part of His covenant.
The LORD relates 4 more statutes for keeping the Passover:
Eaten in one house.
No flesh shall be taken outside of the house.
You shall not break any of its bones.
Observed by all of Israel
Bible scholars have scratched their heads over the meaning of the first 3 statutes, but they generally agree that these are additional statues that ensure no foreigner consumes the Passover meal. The meal was to be consumed within one’s household, and neither flesh nor bone were to be brought outside of the house that it might be distributed.
The fourth statute that calls for it to be observed by all of Israel reinforces the communal identity that the Passover created. This was something that all of God’s people had to partake of communally. God did not save an individual - He saved a people.
Considered together, these prohibitions that preserve the purity of God’s covenantal people tell us that God is a holy God. In His holiness, He stands separate from sinful mankind. This is a God that you cannot approach on your own terms, the way you would attempt to approach any other human being. You approach on His terms, and both the Israelites and all who came into contact with them would have had this knowledge of God etched deeply in their minds when the Passover was observed.
Today, God’s holiness has not dwindled in the slightest. He is an unchanging God. This is urgent and pressing because our generation has lost its reverence of God. A simple definition for reverence is “esteeming something the way it deserves to be esteemed”. The sad truth is that we struggle to think of God rightly, and therefore esteem him less than He deserves to be esteemed. Perhaps we have perverted the idea of “come as you are” turning it into “come as you wish”, according to our whim and fancy. This is a sad thing before a holy God, who is "perfect in power, love and purity" as we sing in hymns. It shows that we have lost our reverence for a holy God. At the same time, this is not a call to the other extreme, a joyless Christianity. To reverence something is to respect and ascribe glory to it as it deserves. Perhaps we are lacking in reverence? How different would your life be if you really believe God is holy? How would your life change if you lived it remembering that you are in communion with a holy God? How would you treat your Bible-reading differently? Would Sunday morning look different? Would your posture in church change? Would your hatred of personal sin increase? Would your desire for the good and the holy multiply?
Our God is a holy God and the Passover reminds us of this truth, and so does the Lord’s Supper! Paul’s warnings in 1 Cor 11:27-30 remind us that Holy Communion (the Lord’s Supper) isn’t just another arbitrary sacrament. It’s in the very name - we are in communion with a Holy God. Isn’t that why the Lord’s Supper is reserved only for professing Christians who have examined themselves before God? Understanding these truths help us to see that these prohibitions aren’t because God is downright mean, but because He is gloriously holy. If you’re a mature Christian who is sincere and excited about all things Christians, here’s another litmus test. In Christian settings like Bible studies and church, are you more focused on how you are meeting your God, or more focused on how people are meeting you? Put another way, has your zeal and desire to do “Christian things” - all of them wonderful and edifying - superseded the rightful awe and reverence that should accompany communion with God? For what are “Christian things”, but communion with God?
But the fact that sinful people have a way to enter into communion with a holy God tells us that God is also a God of grace.
(B) Provisions that procure place - only a Gracious God: (Exo 12:44, 48-49)
Exo 12:44 and Exo 12:48 tell us that God provided a way for non-Israelites to join in the Passover - circumcision. Circumcision probably isn’t the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of “grace”, and for good reason! Circumcision is the surgical removal of a male’s foreskin. It’s painful, it’s incapacitating, and it’s downright unpleasant. Why circumcision?
Genesis 17 helps us to see the meaning in this stipulation. God enters into a covenant with Abraham, where He promises to bless Abraham, bless the nations through Abraham, and make Himself known personally to Abraham’s descendants. It is this covenant that God remembers in Ex 2:24, and it is because of this covenant that the Israelites received deliverance. The covenant also included stipulations that the Israelites had to obey - and circumcision was one of them. Through the act of circumcision, the Israelites would show the world that they were set apart as God’s people, and also remind themselves of the need for purity.
Here’s the amazing part: as much as circumcision was outward act, it was meant to reflect an inward need. Moses calls the Israelites to “circumcise the foreskin of (their) hearts” (Deut 10:16), and God Himself promises to circumcise their hearts and the hearts of their offspring in Deut 30:6. Careful attention to the logical flow of the declaratives in Deut 30:6 reveal an amazing truth. First, we see that God acts to circumcise our hearts. Then, we learn that this circumcision is so that we will love God rightly. And finally, Moses says that the fruit of our love for God is life. Put simply, life is a fruit of circumcision! Think about how any Israelite or foreigner would have felt after undergoing the excruciating demands of outward circumcision. In the midst of the pain and discomfort, Moses’ words in Deuteronomy would have rang loud and clear - you must be circumcised on the inside, and God Himself will bring it to pass. Understanding this text rightly corrects the aversion that modern sensitivities would have towards exclusion and circumcision. When we see how circumcision is a means by which broken sinners can enter into communion with God, and how it is ultimately for their good, we stop seeing these things are prohibitions that preclude, but provisions that make a way for inclusion!
These provisions also reflect a God who is missional. Exo 12:49 reminds us that Israelites and the foreigners who would join them would be united under one law. Salvation, through acceptance into God’s covenantal community, has always been offered to peoples of every tribe and tongue, for God is a missional God. After decades of globalisation, many nations in our world today know the struggles of inter-racial mixing. Even in multi-racial-cultural-religious Singapore, the tension between the ethnic Chinese majority and minority races date back to our days of independence. But God reminds us here that His heart for salvation is bigger than our differences. Whether you are an ethnic majority or a minority, ask yourself this, “is my gospel big enough to embrace another's differences?”
While the Israelites had the Passover and circumcision to remind them of God’s holiness and grace, we have our stories and our own sacraments too! Paul tells us in 1 Cor 11:23-26 that Jesus was not merely instituting an arbitrary sacrament during the Last Supper, where He broke bread and shared wine with His disciples. He was instituting a new covenant. It is under this covenant that Christians have had their hearts circumcised by the Holy Spirit, and it is under this new covenant that we live.
Reading the Old Testament Law can be confusing at times, and wearisome at others. We read about the Passover, and see the gruesome effort required for the sacrifice of the Passover lamb. We read about circumcision, and shudder at the excruciating demands needed to be reminded of one’s place and purity. In isolation, these routines and statutes seem way too heavy a burden for any man to bear. Thankfully, we read the Old Testament in light of what the New Testament has clarified. There is one other place in the Bible where Exodus 12:46, the statute prohibiting the breaking of bones, is referenced. As John recalled the happenings of One Man’s crucifixion, he remarked, “…these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” (John 19:36).
The Old Testament law concerning the Passover revealed that the substitute for sin had to be perfect, unblemished, and unbroken. Jesus was that substitute - the perfect Passover lamb. The Old Testament law concerning circumcision pointed inward and demanded purity. Jesus died that we might be washed clean in His blood. The Old Testament law demanded perfect obedience, where all who failed to meet its requirements had to be cut off from the land. Jesus was perfectly obedience to the law, and cut off from the land of the living, that we might know what true life is.
Take a few moments to reflect on this truth. If you are a Christian, you are living under the new covenant. Your salvation must not be measured by the Law - it must not be measured by the good works that you do. Are you still holding on to the legalistic remnants of your past life? Do you wear outward signs of holiness as a symbol of pride, thinking it makes you a super-Christian? Do you find it easy to boast in how much Bible you know, how much church you do, and how frequently you pray? If so, you might be holding on to legalistic remnants of your past life.
Remember that you are under a new covenant - bought and sealed by the atoning and redemptive blood of Christ! Turn away from sin, and turn to the grace He has for you. For Christ, the perfect and unblemished Passover lamb fulfilled the Law, that you might know what deliverance from sin truly looks like.
Hear the words of the hymn, “Soul, Adorn Thyself with Gladness”,
"Bless the one whose grace unbounded
this amazing banquet founded;
Christ, though heavenly, high, and holy,
deigns to dwell with you most lowly
Now in faith I humbly ponder
over this surpassing wonder
that the bread of life is boundless
though the souls it feeds are countless;
with the choicest wine of heaven
Christ's own blood to us is given.
Oh, most glorious consolation,
pledge and seal of my salvation.”
God is a gracious God, and He has provided the means through which we might be in communion with Him.
(C) The Peoples’ God: United to Him as one body (Exo 12:50-51)
Exo 13:50-51 serve to emphasise two realities. First, it emphasises the reality of their obedience, as they did “just as” they were commanded. Second, it emphasises the reality of their deliverance, as seen in the words, “And on that very day…” There was a very real point in history where God really delivered His people, and His people responded in complete obedience.
By recording these events in this manner, Moses wanted the Israelites to remember the reality of God’s grace in their lives. Every subsequent Israelite who read the Torah and considered their circumstances would have been reminded that the holy God who demands our obedience is also the gracious God who delivers His people.
It really isn’t too different for us today. Whenever you partake of the Lord’s Supper, witness a baptism, or even go to church, you are being called to remembered the very same truths. As real as the people you meet at church are - all of them with their stories of obedience and redemption - so real is the death and resurrection of Christ and your deliverance from sin. And so real is your freedom from slavery to sin, that you might be servants of God.
Do you realise the immensity of this truth? If you are struggling in your workplace and school, where dreams of success and ambition for acclaim smother your soul, there is real grace for you. If you find it impossible to respond with humility and kindness in the face of unfairness and mean-spiritedness, there is real grace for you. If you are struggling with perceptions of self-image and mental wellness, there is real grace for you. If you find yourself falling time and time again into cycles of lustful habits, there is real grace for you. If you feel yourself too unclean - too sinful to even approach God in His holiness - there is fountain filled with blood, and there is real grace for you.
Flee to Christ and find both treasure and refuge in Him! Plug yourself into healthy church communities, for they are the reminders we so desperately need that God’s grace is real in our lives. Pursue purity, for God has circumcised your heart, that you might obey Him and live.