A short-ish word:

On easter

WHAT I DIDN’T KNOW THAT I DIDN’T KNOW, ABOUT passover

(based on conversations I have had with professing christians)

 

-one-

 

My thoughts & feelings concerning easter are much the same as they are about christmas; highly westernised; under scrutinised; overtly secularised; commercially popularised. All of that is bad enough, but I am unpleasantly surprised each year by just how many believers jump aboard this happy bandwagon in order to aid & abet annual sacrilege. What’s the big deal?  I expect it from the world. I don’t expect it from The Church. Yet here we are. Rather than trawl through the material attachments to the Feast, I thought it best to stick to what Scripture says about Passover, afterall, we ought to be getting our theology from there & it is rich with actual & typological truth. If we taught our children & our churches these things, instead of christianising worldly tropes, we’d be better off. Surely? I know. I know. I’m no fun. But amidst the chocolate eggs, the bells, the kites, the flags & the bunnies, there is no room for The Lamb. John the Baptiser described Him as The Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). The Apostle Peter describes Him as a Lamb without blemish or spot (1^st Peter 1:19-20). The Apostle John described Him as The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). He does not share the spotlight. When The Church denies The Lord the glory, honour, majesty & power due Him & His Name, how can we expect those in the world to take notice when there is nothing to convict them. In order to set the record straight, we have to go back to Exodus & listen in on a chat that YHWH had with Moshe Rabbeinu. You know the story, don’t you? Don’t you? Alright, let’s recap.

Moses is spoken to out of the bush that was aflame, but did not burn. He is sent back to Egypt, with Aaron his brother, to tell the Hebrews that God had spoken to him. He invokes the Divine Name. He also goes to Pharoah, telling him to allow the Hebrews to leave. Of course, the king denies them permission, but The Lord has several miracles up His sleeve. Moses & Aaron defeat Pharoah’s magicians. The Lord blasts Egypt with blood; frogs; gnats; flies; livestock pestilence; boils; hail; locusts; darkness & death. There wasn’t so much as a barking dog in the streets when Israel left town (Exodus 11:7). Quite a thing.

Any sensible person would have tapped out sooner, rather than later. But God hardened Pharoah’s heart, in order to flex His muscles & glorify Himself by executing judgement on all the gods of Egypt.

² Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land. ³ And I will harden Pharaoh' heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. ⁴ But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. ⁵ And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them (Exodus 7:2-5). 

Any Sunday School teacher worth their salt has laid this narrative out in full colour & digital surround sound for eager, listening children. I was once one of them. However, the next part of the story bears a significance that few have brought out & taught to our children, or to The Church. God gives Moses specific instructions concerning what will become Nissan, the very first month of the Hebrew calendar; the feast of Passover & Unleavened Bread. This is such a hum dinger!!

¹ And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, ² This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. ³ Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: ⁴ And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. ⁵ Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: ⁶ And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. ⁷ And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. ⁸ And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. ⁹ Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof. ¹⁰ And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. ¹¹ And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD'S passover (Exodus 12:1-11).

So, what’s so special about The Lord’s instructions to Moses? We’ve read this narrative hundreds of times. The lamb was selected, examined, bled, roasted with fire & eaten quickly. Nothing was to be left. Why? So that it could be said that it is finished! The Israelites were actually demonstrating Messiah’s death, until He came. Just as we The Church do, when we receive communion. Paul says, ‘For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.’. (1^st Corinthians 11:26). In this, The Lord played an absolute blinder!

Perhaps we should show more reverence to the meaning of the communion table. Not only in the way that it is taught, but also in the way that it is approached. Anyway, I digress.

The Lord instituted Passover as a holy memorial (Exodus 12:14) & one that they were to teach their children. It is sad to note that The Church at large will abandon the theological in order to embrace the theoretical & enjoy the theatrical. Then, our doctrine is reverse engineered through the whole mess. What are the most often heard excuses for doing this? That it’s harmless. That it’s fun. That it’s for the children!

²⁶ And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? ²⁷ That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD'S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped (Exodus 12:26-27).

Not only had The Lord beaten Egypt down, now He was to deliver a brutal parting shot. The king of the Egyptian gods was a bloke called Amun, who after being combined with the Egyptian Sun god Ra later became known as Amun-Ra. Ok, he wasn’t really a bloke, but I hope I have your attention.

‘Ra travelled through the firmament on two solar boats. By day he travelled through the sky on the Mandjet (the Boat of Millions of Years). At night he took on his form as a great ram and travelled through the underworld on the Mesektet (the evening boat).. Amun Ra had several forms which reflected his diverse origin, but he was most often portrayed as a mighty ram or as a pharaoh with a distinctive towering head-dress..he was also known as the ram of the underworld.’.

Ben Eastaugh and Chris Sternal-Johnson, ferrebeekeeper, Wordpress.com (emphasis added).

In choosing a lamb to sacrifice for the first Passover, God was throwing down the gauntlet & delivering a massive insult to Egypt & its supreme being. While old Amun-Ra was sailing through the underworld at night, with his massive, ugly ram’s head, the Israelites were roasting lambs & preparing to ritually consume them in the real world. The offense this would have caused is almost unimaginable, but YHWH wasn’t done.

The self-created Egyptian icon of protection, prosperity & power had its throat cut & was being systematically barbequed. The aroma of roast lamb would have been everywhere. Apparently, the constellation of Aries would have been in ascendancy at the time, looking down on Amun-Ra’s systematic defeat. On this night, as the destroyer moved through the land, the demon god could not safeguard Egypt. The divine father & protector of Pharoah, would himself be cut down.

YHWH demonstrated quite clearly that He & He alone, is The Lord!

Furthermore, the Egyptians inscribed incantations & names on their doorposts, including the false doors within burial chambers. These were believed to be portals to the afterlife, through which the ka, or spirit, travelled. What is YHWH’s retort? By instructing Israel to cover the doorposts & lintels of their homes with the blood, The Lord prefigures a vital New Testament truth. It is only through the Blood of The Lamb, The Lord Jesus Christ, that we enter eternity. Only through the blood of The Lamb. Again, The Lord smacks Amun-Ra across the face. While each Israeli household was obeying that which they were commanded by Moses, The Lord was at work.

²³ For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. ²⁴ And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever (Exodus 12:23-24).

Egypt was not so blessed. I can only imagine the horror that emerged that night as every Egyptian household discovered their firstborn stone dead. From the pit to the palace, YHWH decimates the array of the Egyptian pantheon & at the last, He delivers a hammer blow to Amun-Ra, their god of all gods. Moses says, ‘Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him (Deuteronomy 4:33-35). 

God’s awesome power & it’s purpose would later become a new beginning for those who believe in The Lord Jesus Christ, the true Lamb of God. Jesus Christ is our Passover (1^st Corinthians 5:7) & in His death, burial & resurrection, The Lord gloriously recapitulates His Divine superiority to any & all pretenders. YHWH took Israel by the hand & led them out of Egypt (Jeremiah 31:32). Take His hand brethren & do not let it go. If you like chocolate eggs, have as many as you want to. If you like bunnies, fill your boots.

But do not christianise these things as if they are part & parcel of what is called Easter, because they are not.

¹ When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1).

copyright © by david Samuel Parkins mmxxvi all rights reserved.

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