Deuteronomy 16:1 – 8
The Feast of the Passover (Exodus 12:14-28; Leviticus 23:4-8; Numbers 28:16-25)
“Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
You are to offer to the LORD your God the Passover sacrifice from the herd or flock in the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for His Name. You must not eat leavened bread with it; for seven days you are to eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left the land of Egypt in haste—so that you may remember for the rest of your life the day you left the land of Egypt.
No leaven is to be found in all your land for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice in the evening of the first day shall remain until morning.
You are not to sacrifice the Passover animal in any of the towns that the LORD your God is giving you. You must only offer the Passover sacrifice at the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name. Do this in the evening as the sun sets, at the same time you departed from Egypt. And you shall roast and eat it in the place the LORD your God will choose, and in the morning you shall return to your tents.
For six days you must eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day you shall hold a solemn assembly to the LORD your God, and you must not do any work.”
In this chapter, Moses describes three major feasts ordained by God: Passover, the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), and the Feast of Tabernacles. Why would God institute these feasts and what is their purpose?
Celebrations are vitally important! Celebrations bring families and friends together and create a sense of community. When we celebrate and share love, we are also glorifying God. God is pro – family and wants His children to come together in joyful worship. When we celebrate, we also remind ourselves of the reason for our celebrations. If we forget why we are celebrating, our actions become meaningless.
God instituted Passover to be mark the beginning of the year. Passover celebrates the night on which God delivered the Israelites from slavery and brought them out of Egypt carrying all the precious things their Egyptian neighbors could give them. On the night of Passover, the Angel of Death visited Egypt, killing all the first born children and animals. The only protection for the Israelites was the blood of the sacrificial lamb that they smeared on their doorposts. The Passover lamb that shed its blood was a foreshadowing of the sacrifice Jesus Christ was to make on the cross at Calvary.
God wanted the Israelites to realize that they had been delivered from slavery to freedom and from death to life. The Passover was to mark the beginning of a new way of life for the Israelites as they turned away from the death – centered Egyptian gods to the One True Living God. To mark this holiday, God wanted the Israelites to refrain from work and to eat unleavened bread for seven days. Leaven was used in brewing, an industry that was invented by the Egyptians; hence, leaven was a symbol of everything the Israelites were leaving behind. The eating of unleavened bread was to remind the Israelites that their ancestors had to leave Egypt so urgently that they couldn’t wait for bread to rise, so they baked it without leaven.
APPLICATION: Ask anyone who has had to work away from his/her family for extended periods of time and they will tell you that one of the biggest hardships is being unable to share in family celebrations. Birthdays, holidays, weddings, even funerals – those of us working long distances from our families miss all of these special days. It’s not the food that we miss so much, but the fellowship and love that flows freely at these celebrations. When we look at the photos later, we are the ones who are NOT there, the ones whose faces never appear.
God wanted His people to pursue an entirely new way of life, turning away from everything they had experienced in Egypt. The national feasts were one means of taking a group of slaves and solidifying the Israelites into a nation.
As people move around for work these days and as the threat of COVID continues to loom, family celebrations are becoming more endangered. One good thing is the advent of Zoom meetings and other on-line forms of connection. But make no mistake; there is no substitute for being able to physically hug people and to just be with them!
May we all celebrate the goodness of God and the love we share with family and friends.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Help us to celebrate You as the Source of all goodness and love. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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