HE Is the Lord's Passover!

 In Exodus 12, the Passover Chapter, we find this command that God told Israel: “And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD's Passover” (Ex. 12:11).

“It is the Lord’s Passover.” What is the Lord’s Passover? Is it a ceremony? A meal? A lamb? A sacrifice?

This simple, two-letter word holds a fascinating depth of meaning! A prophecy, even.

What Is the Lord’s Passover?

The context shows that it’s a lamb, for God’s entire instructions in this chapter, right up to this verse, have been about selecting, killing, preparing, and eating a lamb. The passage begins with God telling Moses,

3 "Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: 'On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.

4 'And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man's need you shall make your count for the lamb.

5 'Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. (Ex. 12:3-5.)

As we continue reading, we’ll see that this lamb remains the subject. First, a quick note on the Hebrew text here.

Unlike English but like other languages such as French and Spanish, Hebrew is a gendered language. That means that most nouns are either masculine or feminine, with corresponding pronouns. For example, “earth” or “land” — eretz in Hebrew (Strong’s # H776) — is a feminine noun, while “grass” — deshe in Hebrew (Strong’s # H1877) — is a masculine noun.

So in Exodus 12, where the subject is a male lamb, the Hebrew refers to it with masculine pronouns: oto (“him”) and hu (“he”). Since the subject is an animal, it’s standard to translate these as “it” in English, as nearly all English Bibles do. However, since these Hebrew pronouns are masculine, they can also be translated literally as “him” or “he.”

Let’s continue reading in Ex. 12:6-11, with the gendered Hebrew pronouns in brackets with bold text:

6 'Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it [him] at twilight [literally, “between the two evenings”].

7 'And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it [him].

8 'Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it [him].

9 'Do not eat it [him] raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire – its [his] head with its [his] legs and its [his] entrails.

10 'You shall let none of it [him] remain until morning, and what remains of it [him] until morning you shall burn with fire.

11 'And thus you shall eat it [him]: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it [him] in haste. It [he] is the LORD's Passover.

What is the Lord’s Passover? He is the Lord’s Passover! The lamb is the Lord’s Passover.

One other point from this verse. In Hebrew, v. 11 reads פֶּסַח הוּא לַיהוָה, or pesakh hu la-yhwh. In English, this becomes “a Passover he is to YHWH.” Again, this lamb is the Passover.

And so, in Ex. 12:21, “Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb.’” The translators added the word “lamb” here for clarity, but it wasn’t necessary. The lamb IS the Passover. To kill the Passover means to kill the lamb.

We find the same thing four other times in Scripture: 2 Chron. 30:15, 17; 2 Chron. 35:1; and Ezra 6:20. Each passage describes slaughtering the Passover. In each verse, the translators once again added “lambs” after “Passover,” but again, it isn’t necessary. To slaughter the Passover means to slaughter the lamb chosen for it.

It’s All About the Lamb

To be sure, the word “Passover” can mean other things, too. But every other meaning of “Passover” points back to the first one: the lamb. The Passover sacrifice consisted of killing, skinning, and roasting the lamb. The Passover meal meant eating the lamb. The Feast of Passover (Ex. 34:25), or Unleavened Bread (Ezek. 45:21; Luke 22:1), began with eating the lamb. God passed over the Israelites because of the blood of the lamb.

God said that the lamb was a Passover to Him, as we’ve already read, and added, “Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt” (Ex. 12:13). Without the lamb and his blood, the Israelites’ firstborn would have died, and they themselves would have died in bondage. Without the lamb, there is no Passover. There’s no sacrifice, no meal, no feast, and no deliverance.

Christ Our Passover

The same applies to THE Lamb: Jesus Christ. In 1 Cor. 5:7, we read, “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.” Jesus Christ, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), is the Passover.

The death of Jesus Christ was a Passover sacrifice, happening on “the Preparation Day of the Passover” (John 19:14), the day the lambs were slain. He died at the 9th hour of the day (Mat. 27:46-50; Mark 15:34-37; Luke 23:44-46), which is halfway between noon and sunset, and is the same time of day the lambs were slain.

Just as the ancient Israelites ate the lamb’s flesh after his sacrifice, so we must eat the flesh of the Lamb after His sacrifice. We eat the bread that represents His flesh. “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day’” (John 6:53-54).

As before, the Feast of Passover (Ex. 34:25), or Unleavened Bread (Ezek. 45:21; Luke 22:1), begins with eating the Lamb. “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor. 5:7-8).

Because of Christ’s sacrifice and His shed blood, God has passed over us and we have been spared. We have been delivered from the bondage of sin and death (Rom. 6:6, 16).

But without the Lamb, none of this is possible. Without Jesus Christ, there is no Passover. There’s no sacrifice, no meal, no feast, and no deliverance. These things exist only because of the Lamb, and they all point back to Him. Jesus Christ IS the Passover. HE is the Lord’s Passover!

A Final Parallel

So we can see that God’s instructions for the Passover in Exodus 12 pointed to Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. But there’s another parallel that I’d like to mention before wrapping this up. Have you noticed that the passage we read in 1 Corinthians 5 is not only a reference to the Old Testament, but actually a paraphrase of it? Paul didn’t invent any of that; he got it directly from the Old Testament and illustrated the fulfillment!

Here’s 1 Cor. 5:7-8, which we read moments ago: “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Now here’s Lev. 23:5-6: “On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight [lit., “between the two evenings”] is the LORD's Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.”

And here’s Num. 28:16-17: “On the fourteenth day of the first month is the Passover of the LORD. And on the fifteenth day of this month is the feast; unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days.”

Who is the Lord’s Passover? Jesus Christ! When was He sacrificed? On the 14th day of the first month, between the two evenings (mid-afternoon)! When do we keep the Feast? On the 15th day of the same month.

On the 14th day of the first month is Christ our Passover. Therefore let us keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (on the 15th day, for seven days). That’s what Paul referenced! He was essentially paraphrasing two key passages from the Old Testament, showing both their fulfillment and how we keep them today.

Understanding who and what the Lord’s Passover is adds context and meaning to Paul’s statement that we wouldn’t otherwise see. And I hope it also helps clarify when is the Lord’s Passover, even if that isn’t the main point of this post.