Leaving Egypt Behind

Finally, because of this tremendous and costly event, Pharoah will set the Israelites free to worship and follow God.

To commemorate this loss of life that freed life, God gives to Moses and the Israelites the Passover. It is a service of worship and a festival. It is a time of remembering and a time of celebrating.

Moses instructed the Hebrew people in what to do in preparation for what God was about to do in the lives of both the Hebrew people and the Egyptians.

From this day forward, this month will be the beginning of their year, as this day is the beginning of their new life as children of the living God, free to worship and follow him.

Walter Brueggemann speaks of three elements of this new tradition God has given the Israelites.

First, the Israelites must prepare. Here before the first Passover the Israelites are to prepare for what is to come and from this day forward that preparation is to be commemorated, a celeberation, a festival in honor of what God has done.

It revolves around the importance of the lamb, its distribution and use. It is about the lamb in terms of sustenance. Each house is to prepare a lamb to eat with none of it left until morning and none of the lamb discarded, indicating a complete and total separation from the life of the past. No part of them shall be left behind. Nothing of what God offers is discarded and not needed.

Every member of the community is to have access to the lamb. No one is to be left out. If a lamb is too much for one household, then families are instructed to share with their neighbors so that no one within the fold is left out and cut away.

It is about the lamb in terms of sacrifice.

Its the mark between life and death. Each household is to take the blood shed by the lamb and put it around the door frames of their homes. In this manner, each household is covered by the blood of the lamb. The angel of death shall not enter here, and the followers of God receive life and freedom.

It is about the significance of the unleavened bread. Bread without yeast will be eaten for 7 days during this time of commemoration from this day forward to mark the manner in which the Hebrews left in haste their enslavement.

There is an urgency and anxiousness about fleeing slavery from the Egyptians to freedom in the Lord. Brueggemann writes, “Such a casualness - speaking of their departure from captivity - may have suggested being at ease in Egypt, where the faithful people of God must never be at ease.”

It is about the manner in which one participates in the festival. Each one is to eat it dressed in traveling clothes, ready to depart with staff in hand, and eat in a hurry.

Leaving Egypt is a dangerous, anxiety-ridden business not to be taken lightly. One cannot be caught unprepared. The consequences would be being left behind and ultimately death.

One must prepare and be ready.

The second element involves the promptness of action without hesitancy. In the 29th verse of the 12th chapter of the Exodus we are told that at midnight the Lord struck down all the first born of Egypt. Pharoah did not wait. During the night, Pharoah summoned Moses and his brother Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites. Go, worship the Lord as you have requested.” And we are told the Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!”