from WL Worcester (H Blackmer, ed.), 
The Sower.  Helps to the Study of the Bible in Home and Sunday School
 
(Boston: Massachusetts New-Church Union, n.d.)

Table of Contents
 

 

Lesson 38

Exodus 12: The Passover Kept

The Story

Primary

The Passover was a feast which the children of Israel kept as they were leaving Egypt, and we find them in the Gospel days still keeping it each spring in memory of their deliverance. The father of each household had four days before chosen out a lamb or a kid for the feast; or if the families were small, two families took a lamb together. When the day came, they killed the lamb at evening – "between evenings," that is, between the sunset and the coming of the stars - and roasted it for the feast with great care that not a bone should be broken. The people were gathered in their homes, and no one must go out. They had taken a bunch of the little hyssop plant and, dipping it in the blood of the lamb, had struck it upon the side posts and above the door, and this was the sign that when death came to the Egyptian homes, where this mark was the people should be safe. They ate the feast by night, with the lamb, unleavened bread (flat bread made without yeast), and sprigs of bitter herbs. They ate it in haste and ready for their journey, girded up for walking, with shoes on their feet and staves in their hands.

While the children of Israel were keeping this first Passover, the Egyptians were also awake, for the oldest child in every house had died, even the son of Pharaoh who ruled with him. Without waiting for the day Pharaoh told the people to go, and they went, taking with them presents from the Egyptians. As they began their journey, a pillar of fire by night and of cloud by day was given them by the Lord to protect and lead them.

Junior

Read about the Passover as I have described it to the primary children, and then let me ask you some questions as you read the chapter, Exod. 12:1-42. The first month of the year: they were to count their religious year from this deliverance. It was in the spring, at the time that we keep Easter. The unleavened bread was considered to be more clean, for in making raised bread a bit of old dough was used to leaven the new. What things are named which were to be on the table for the feast? Why were they to eat it in haste? Where was blood of the lamb sprinkled as a protection to the children of Israel? Why was the feast called the Passover? Note the charge to keep the feast each year in memory of the deliverance. There were years in the history of Israel when it was neglected, but it was again revived (2 Kings 23:21-23), and in the Gospel days it was being kept with care. Remember the Passover for which the Child Jesus went with Mary and Joseph to Jerusalem when He was twelve years old. And do you remember other Passovers which He attended in later years? In obedience to the charge in verse 27, it was the custom at a certain place in the Passover for one of those present to ask the meaning of the feast and for one of the old men to tell how on this night long ago the Lord had brought the people out of Egypt.

One thing more, and we shall be ready to go with the children of Israel on their journey. What did the Lord give the people to lead them by day and by night? (Exod. 13:20-22)

1. What feast was kept by the children of Israel on the night of their deliverance from Egypt? Why was it so named?

2. At what season and at what place was the Passover kept by the Jews after they were settled in the promised land? Was it still kept in Gospel days?

3. What Christian feast is connected with the Passover, and continues its meaning? What Christian festival helps you to remember the season of the Passover and of the going out from Egypt?

4. What was eaten at the Passover? How were the people commanded to eat it?

5. What lines of the twenty-third Psalm does this story of the Passover remind you of?

Spiritual Study

Intermediate

Have you been thinking about the rod of Moses, and what it represents? Perhaps you have been reminded of the words in the Psalm, "Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." Remembering that Moses is a type of the Lord's Word, you will see that Moses' rod represents the power of that Word to expose and to deliver from evil and to give comfort and blessing. (A. 8182; E. 726)

The plagues in Egypt, like the plagues upon the Philistines described in 1 Sam. 5 and 6 and those described in Rev. 15, are not punishments inflicted by the Lord, but revelations of the evil states in which the people were. Evil states must be revealed before we can be delivered from them, and the evil can be condemned. (A. 7273)

As the plagues represent the revealing of evil things, so the Passover represents the beginning of reception of heavenly blessings, of goodness and truth, which are a feast of good things to the soul. A feast at the very going out from Egypt means that the Lord does not withhold all satisfaction until we have taken the heavenly journey. Even in our first efforts to obey Him, He gives a blessing, a taste of heavenly good things. What especially is represented by the lamb? (A. 7840, 7849, 7850)

The blood of the lamb upon the door posts kept harm away from the houses of Israel. The lamb is the symbol of innocent heavenly affection, and its blood of innocent thought which belongs to such affection. There is protection in having the mind busy with good thoughts. Evil influences cannot enter to do us harm; they see the blood upon the door and turn away. (A. 7846, 7847)

The bread must be unleavened, because the bit of old dough beginning to ferment and sour would represent some suggestion of evil creeping in, as the suggestion that we are safe and good of ourselves. The bitter herbs remind us that we must be prepared for trials in connection with the new blessing. (A. 2342, 7853, 7854)

The command was, not to eat of the lamb raw, nor sodden (boiled) at all with water, but roast with fire. Do you see the difference in meaning between food prepared with water and with fire? One suggests more of intellect, the other of warm affection. To eat of the lamb raw would be to have no living interest in the good things of heaven; to eat of it boiled would be to care for them intellectually; but to eat of it roast with fire is to love them with all the heart, and this is the right way. (A. 7852, 7856, 7857)

The Passover was to be eaten in haste and girded for the journey. The new blessings are not to be enjoyed idly, but with the desire to be up and doing. (A. 7862, 7866)

The beginning of months. Every deliverance from evil is the beginning of some new development of good life. The Passover was kept each year, both because we need always to remember with humble thankfulness what the Lord has done for us, and because so long as we live we must be making constantly new beginnings. (A. 7827, 7828)

The pillar of cloud and fire beautifully represents the Lord's guidance and protection. The cloud suggests His truth and the fire His love. We are told about this pillar of cloud and fire that it was caused by the presence of a society of angels, with whom was the protecting power of the Lord. (A. 8110, 8192; E. 59416)

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