FIRST INSTITUTION OF THE PASSOVER.
EXPOSITION
THE INSTITUTION OF THE PASSOVER AND THE REASONS FOR IT.—In the interval allowed by God, according to the precedent of former announced plagues, between the warning concerning the first-born and the execution, Moses received instructions for the institution of a new religious rite, founded possibly upon some previous national usage, but so re-shaped, re-cast, and remodelled as to have an entirely new and fresh character. In all Eastern nations, the coming in of spring was observed as a jocund and festive time, with offerings, processions, and songs of rejoicings. When the date of the vernal equinox was known, it was naturally made the starting-point for these festivities. Early flowers and fruits, the fresh ears of the most forward kinds of grain, or the grain itself extracted from the ears, were presented as thank-offerings in the temples; hymns were sung, and acknowledgments made of God's goodness. Such a festival was celebrated each year in Egypt; and it is so consonant to man's natural feelings, that, if the family of Jacob did not bring the observance with them from Palestine, they are likely to have adopted it, when they became to some extent agriculturists (Deuteronomy 11:10) under the Pharaohs. It is, however, a pure conjecture (Ewald) that the name given to this festival was Pesach, from the sun's "passing over" at this time into the sign of Aries. The real name is unknown, and there is every, reason to believe that the term Pesach was now for the first time given a religious sense (upon the ground noticed in Exodus 12:11, Exodus 12:12) to what was in reality a new rite. God, being about to smite with death the first-born in each Egyptian house, required the Israelites to save themselves by means of a sacrifice. Each Israelite householder was to select a lamb (or a kid) on the tenth day of the current month (Exodus 12:3), and to keep it separate from the flock until the fourteenth day at even, when he was to kill it, to dip some hyssop in the blood (Exodus 12:22) and to strike with the hyssop on the two posts and lintel of his doorway (Exodus 12:7), so leaving the mark of the blood on it. He was then the same night to roast the lamb whole, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (Exodus 12:8-10). He was to have his dress close girt about him, his sandals on his feet, and his staff in his hand; to be prepared, that is, for a journey. If he did all this, God, when he went through the land to smite and destroy, would "pass over" the house upon which there was the blood, and spare all that dwelt in it. Otherwise the plague would be upon them to destroy them (Exodus 12:11, Exodus 12:13). Such were the directions given for immediate observance, and such was the Passover proper. The lamb itself was primarily the Pesach (Exodus 12:11), the "pass," which secured safety. From this the name spread to the entire festival. Having, by the directions recorded in Exodus 12:3-13 instituted the festival, God proceeded, in Exodus 12:14-20, to require its continued celebration year after year, and to give additional rules as to the mode of its annual observance.
1. The festival was to last seven days.
2. No leavened bread was to be eaten during that space, and leaven was even to be put away altogether out of all houses.
3. On the first day of the seven and on the last, there was to be "a holy convocation" or gathering for worship.
4. No work not strictly necessary was to Be done on these days.
Other directions were given at a later date.
1. Besides the Paschal lamb, with which the festival commenced, and which was to be a domestic rite, public sacrifices were appointed for each day of the seven—to consist of two young bullocks, one ram, seven lambs, and one goat, with appropriate "meat-offerings" (Numbers 28:19-24).
2. On the second day of the feast, "the morrow after the sabbath," the first fruits of the harvest were to be presented in the shape of a ripe sheaf (of barley) which was to be a wave-offering, and to be accompanied by the sacrifice of a lamb with meat and drink offerings (Leviticus 23:10-14). By this regulation the festival was made to embody the old spring feast, and to have thus a double aspect.