Get out now -- be gone
Ex. 12 (selected verses)
12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2 This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. 4 If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbour in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it….8 They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs….11 This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord.”…
21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go, select lambs for your families, and slaughter the passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning. 23 For the Lord will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down. 24 You shall observe this rite as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children. 25 When you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this observance. 26 And when your children ask you, “What do you mean by this observance?” 27 you shall say, “It is the passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.”’ And the people bowed down and worshipped.
28 The Israelites went and did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.
29 At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. 30 Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his officials and all the Egyptians; and there was a loud cry in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. 31 Then he summoned Moses and Aaron in the night, and said, ‘Rise up, go away from my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord, as you said. 32 Take your flocks and your herds, as you said, and be gone. And bring a blessing on me too!’
33 The Egyptians urged the people to hasten their departure from the land, for they said, ‘We shall all be dead.’ 34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading-bowls wrapped up in their cloaks on their shoulders….42 That was for the Lord a night of vigil, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. That same night is a vigil to be kept for the Lord by all the Israelites throughout their generations.
This moment changes everything for the people of Israel; a defining moment in their identity as a people and as individuals. Everything about this moment feels different. Cooking the lamb in the fastest way possible. Eating unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Eating ready to dash out the door at any moment. Eating quickly. There is an urgency. Everything is about the change. This is high drama, because such moments of transformation are high drama.
The blood on the doorposts and the lintel, so the angel of death would pass over the houses of the Israelites – thereby saving the firstborns. Contrasting with the terrible agony of grief over the deaths that occurred in every house in Egypt – from the powerful to the lowly. From then on, every first born in Israel has the thought in their head, “that could have been me among the dead. I was saved.”
That salvation is a symbol of the greater salvation as Pharaoh calls Moses in the middle of the night, “Get out of here, Leave, take everyone and everything. Go.” The Israelites are free, they can take everything and they do, they are almost driven out by the neighbours. “Good riddance, get out of here.”
Chaotic, exhilarating, scary, and full of joy – it is an extraordinary moment as the people of Israel end years of slavery. “Free at last, thank God, we are free at last.” We may not have been rescued from physical slavery, but the Passover becomes a meal for Christians as well, for Jesus our Passover lamb has been killed for our freedom. The high drama of the first Passover finds an echo in the high drama as Jesus took bread and cup with his disciples – and by extension with us. For we are freed from the powers of sin and death and hell, the final enemy is defeated in the Passover of the cross, and we are free.
PRAYER:
O Lord, we rejoice that in your chaotic, joyful action you have saved us. In high drama and great power your hand has saved us, unexpectedly saved us. And we are thankful. In Jesus’ name. Amen.