Exodus 12:1-14

1) The liberation affects time itself, as it now is the first month of the year. In a way, it reminds me of Anderson’s OT textbook, as it starts with the Exodus as it examines the Scriptures. This is a great example of the Priestly material backdating things to give an air of legitimacy to current practice. The agricultural calendar was an autumn calendar, not a spring starting one.
2)The ritual is interesting as it is done in households but care is taken to do things at the same time. One can find all sortd of traditional or contemporary interpretations of the meaning of the different prescribed foods at Passover. Please recall the Last Supper is done as a Passover meal in the synoptic gospels.
3) In blood was thought to be life, so it is an appropriate thing to ward off the Destroyer.
4) It prefigures travelling food in haste. This is a different sort of ritual feat.
5) Notice that Egypt’s curse now turns back on it.
6) Notice too that this is a day to remember, an ordinance into the future. Many note that slave time is the same thing day after day, but God is up to something new. The past is no longer prologue but an event to be celebrated, not regretted. The future is pried open here.
7) I wonder if this observance marked a change from circumcision. It is not for males only, but for families. this is a new people who share this feast in family units. Blood appears in both, linked to life and death itself.At Passover the family units compose a congregation says the text, a people gathered, a people called.