Passover – WHY and HOW

WHY

1. Ex 12:14 – “And this day shall become to you a remembrance. And you shall observe it as a festival to YHWH throughout your generations – observe it as a festival, an everlasting law.”
2. Ex 12:17 – “And you shall guard the Festival of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I brought your divisions out of the land of Mitsrayim. And you shall guard this day throughout your generations, an everlasting law.”
3. Ex 12:24 – “And you shall guard this word as a law for you and your sons, forever.”
4. Ex 12:42 – “It is a night to be observed unto YHWH for bringing them out of the land of Mitsrayim. This night is unto YHWH, to be observed by all the children of Yisra’ĕl throughout their generations.”

HOW

1. Ex 12:8-11 – “And they shall eat the flesh [of the lamb] on that night, roasted in fire –
   • with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
   • Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire, its head with its legs and its inward parts.
   • And do not leave of it until morning, and what remains of it until morning you are to burn with fire.
   • And this is how you eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Passover of YHWH.”
2. Ex 12:15-20 – “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
   • Indeed on the first day you cause leaven to cease from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that being shall be cut off from Yisra’ĕl.
   • And on the first day is a set-apart gathering, and on the seventh day you have a set-apart gathering. No work at all is done on them, only that which is eaten by every being, that alone is prepared by you.
   • And you shall guard the Festival of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I brought your divisions out of the land of Mitsrayim. And you shall guard this day throughout your generations, an everlasting law.
   • In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening. For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, that same being shall be cut off from the congregation of Yisra’ĕl, whether sojourner or native of the land. Do not eat that which is leavened – in all your dwellings you are to eat unleavened bread.
3. Ex 12:26-27 – “And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’ then you shall say, ‘It is the Passover slaughtering of YHWH, who passed over the houses of the children of Yisra’ĕl in Mitsrayim when He smote the Mitsrites and delivered our households.’ ”
4. Ex 12:43-49 – “And YHWH said to Mosheh and Aharon, “This is the law of the Passover: No son of a stranger is to eat of it, but any servant a man has bought for silver, when you have circumcised him, then let him eat of it. A sojourner and a hired servant does not eat of it. It is eaten in one house, you are not to take any of the flesh outside the house, nor are you to break any bone of it. All the congregation of Yisra’ĕl are to perform it. And when a stranger sojourns with you and shall perform the Passover to יהוה, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and perform it, and he shall be as a native of the land. But let no uncircumcised eat of it. There is one Torah for the native-born and for the stranger who sojourns among you.”
5. Ex 13:3 – “And Mosheh said to the people, “Remember this day in which you went out of Mitsrayim, out of the house of slavery. For by strength of hand YHWH brought you out of this place, and whatever is leavened shall not be eaten.”
6. Ex 13:7-8 – “Unleavened bread is to be eaten the seven days, and whatever is leavened is not to be seen with you, and leaven is not to be seen with you within all your border. And you shall inform your son in that day, saying, ‘It is because of what YHWH did for me when I came up from Mitsrayim.’”
7. Ex 13:14 – “And it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ then you shall say to him, ‘By strength of hand YHWH brought us out of Mitsrayim, out of the house of bondage.”

Passover Seder (“Order” / “Service”)

There is a spectrum of practical observance from the very traditional / formal Haggadah based Seder to various Messianic adaptations in use among believers in Yahushua celebrating Passover to much more informal Passover meals shared by followers of Yahushua that might resemble something like the “last supper” recorded for us in the Scripture of the Good News authors.

My family and those with whom we’ve gathered for the Khag (Feast) of Passover over the years generally lean towards the more informal side of that spectrum – seeking YHWH every year as to what He wants to teach us this year related to our deliverance from Egypt (the world) and redemption from sin through Yahushua Messiah our Passover Lamb.

One point that I am deeply aware of and remind my family is that we are not attempting to perform THE Passover in the sense of fulfilling all the perfect commands regarding its ritual observance. We are still in exile. We have come out of spiritual “Egypt” through Messiah, but we still look forward to the day of the physical restoration of Yahushua’s Kingdom wherein these practice “rehearsal” celebrations that we do now – the shadow pictures of better things yet to come (Col 2:17) – will finally be observed in their fullness of perfect meaning and understanding and protocol. We realize that right now we are not able to keep these celebrations with perfect protocol, and so we do not try lest we make the physical expression the most important thing and risk religious emptiness. Rather, we endeavor to celebrate the remembrance according to the everlasting instruction with perfect hearts, because Yahushua’s blood has been applied to those eternal door posts.

Passover Meal Story Framework

For some idea of what our Passover meals look like, here is a Scriptural “scaffolding” structure that I find really helpful in walking through an instructive story-based service to precede the meal. You might find other things work really well for your family. Two of the most important aspects are remembering how YHWH delivered his people from Egypt and what Yahushua has done to redeem all mankind, and teaching our children these incredible truths. So including, involving, and engaging with our children is a huge priority for us during this celebration.

One of the ways we do that is to have the children listening closely to the readings so that they can respond (loudy) every time we read specific words. For example, every time the Name of Yah “YaHuWaH” is read, the kids shout “Our Deliverer!” And every time the word “lamb” or “Passover” is read, the kids shout “Yeshua!”

Every year looks a little different, but in general I’ve found this to be a really solid sequence of passages to read and discuss at the table before the meal begins.

Passover Readings and Discussion

1. Deut 12:1-14 and 16:1-8 – We talk about the rehearsal aspect of our celebration and how YHWH has chosen a specific place to place His name on the earth (Jerusalem) and how one day we will finally truly observe all YHWH’s Feasts in fullness with Yahushua in his Kingdom. In chapter 16 we review the excellent summary of Passover instructions found there, building on the reminder of our exile, and our hope in Yahushua to restore us to his Land.
2. Ex 12 and 13 – We read through these chapters to remember the story and place ourselves as much as possible into what that experience must have been like for our forefathers.
3. Eze 45:21-25 – We read Ezekiel’s confirmation that Passover will be observed in the context of Yahushua’s future restored Kingdom on earth.
4. Jer 31:31-34 – We meditate on the incredible promise of the New Covenant given through the prophet Jeremiah and discuss how Passover is a covenantal meal.
5. 1 Cor 11:23-28 – We talk about what it means to examine ourselves before YHWH in preparation to partake of the covenant meal of Passover and how it is serious business and not something to take lightly. We understand it was YHWH’s grace which delivered Israel from Egypt and sent His Son to die for our sins while we were yet in bondage. And we realize that grace is not something to trample on – we cannot bring known unrepentant sin into the covenant meal and we cannot give lip service to the covenant in Yahushua’s blood but reject his Ways and Character in our daily lives.
6. 1 Cor 5:6-8 – We look at what leaven represents – SIN – and how having been redeemed from sin and death through Yahushua we need to continue to ask our Good Shepherd to lead us in life, to expose all sin in us, and to help us live in a manner that allows Him to purge the leaven/sin from every aspect of our being through our repentance, receiving forgiveness, and choosing to turn away from evil/death and choose goodness/life.
7. Luke 22:1-30 – Finally, we look at the last Passover meal Yahushua ate with his disciples and how our King specifically taught us to do this (Passover) in remembrance of HIM.  At the beginning of Luke 22, we all stand up and the wine/grape juice is poured and distributed as well as the unleavened bread (“matzah”). Then, after reading verse 18, we pause and take a drink from our cups. After verse 19 we pause and break and eat the bread. And after verse 20 we drink a final time from the cup again.