In the Old Testament, we read of God setting about to free the Hebrews from 430 years (Ex. 12:40) in Egyptian captivity (Ex. 6:6, 7). God unleashed ten plagues on Pharoah’s Egypt (Ex. 7:1-7) before Pharaoh finally relented and freed the Hebrews.
God didn’t fail nine times. This was God’s will because God told Moses that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart a series of times (Ex. 7:3-5) so that the Egyptians would know the answer to Pharaoh’s question to Moses and Aaron “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go?” (Ex. 5:2). God hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he wouldn’t relent and free the Hebrews. But God did not prevent Pharaoh from acting according to his own will. The “hardening” removes God’s grace from Pharaoh so that Pharaoh is left to his own devices. So the nine rejections of Moses’ demands was the will of a godless Pharaoh. Eventually, though, according to God’s will, Pharaoh gave in and agreed to free the Hebrews.
The tenth plague consisted of God ordering the death of all the firstborn male children and livestock in Egypt (Ex. 1:8-10, 22). God didn’t just pull this plague out of the air though. When this Pharoah came to power, he remarked “to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land”” (Ex. 1:8-10). “Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live”” (Ex. 1:22). So, Pharaoh named his own poison it seems.
In order to protect the Hebrew firstborn males from the plague, God commanded all the Hebrew elders to ensure that each Hebrew household kill an unblemished lamb (the Passover lamb) and take the blood of this lamb and “touch the lintel and the two doorposts [of each Hebrew home] with the blood” (Ex. 12:21, 22). The Hebrews were to stay in their houses until morning and during the night the Lord would pass through to strike the Egyptians. When God saw the lamb’s blood on the door lintel and doorposts, He passed over the Hebrew homes thus sparing their firstborn male children from this terrible plague (Ex. 12:23).
God commanded Moses and Aaron that from then on the Hebrews must celebrate the day that God “passed over” the Hebrews as a memorial day feast on the tenth day of the first month of the calendar year. They were to select a one-year-old unblemished male lamb and then they were to kill the Passover lamb, and eat it during that night (Ex. 12:1-14). Beginning on Passover and continuing for seven days, the Hebrews were ordered to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Ex. 12:15-20). The Passover meal and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were still celebrated by the Jews of Jesus’ time, including Jesus.
THE PASSOVER POINTS TO THE CROSS
There is a direct and inseparable connection between the Passover and Christ’s death on the cross. The Passover is the “type” to the “antitype”[1] that is Christ’s death on the cross. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was the thing in the future that the Passover symbolized. Just as the blood of the Passover (paschal) lamb saved the Hebrews from the wrath of God, the blood of Christ on the cross pays the price that avoids the wrath of God for the sins of those who believe in Him by faith. The Passover was immediately followed by the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt to the promised land. And this points to its ultimate fulfillment in Christ who delivers believers from punishment for their sins followed by the second exodus of Christians unto salvation and glorification and eternal life.
THE PASSOVER MEAL
At the time of Jesus, the Jews celebrated the Passover feast in their homes with all the family and servants present. This ceremonial dinner (seder) consisted of several parts and began with the first of four cups of wine and included the breaking of bread. The fifth part of the Passover meal began with the youngest child at the table who could speak asking four questions which would be answered by the seder leader (usually the patriarch of the family) in retelling the story of the Hebrew’s exodus from Egyptian bondage. Note that the Passover allowed small children to be present and included the elements of wine and bread, among others (e.g., the paschal lamb).
[1] A type in Old Testament Scripture is a foreshadowing of something or someone in the New Testament which is referred to there as the antitype. For example, the Passover lamb sacrificed to deliver the Hebrews from God’s wrath (the type), foreshadowed Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross to save believers from their sin (the “antitype”). Similarly, the Hebrews’ bondage in Egypt corresponded to believers’ bondage to sin.
