The First Passover

When God brought Israel out of slavery from Egypt, He first sent ten plagues to cause Pharaoh to let His people go and to deliver judgment upon the gods of Egypt (Ex. 12:12, Num. 33:4). Before the tenth and final plague, God spoke to Moses and Aaron about the feast of Passover for the first time. 

Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. 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. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 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 at twilight.’  Exodus 12:1-3, 5-6

The people were to take a lamb on the 10th day of the first month and keep it until the 14th day of the month. Then, at twilight, the lamb was to be killed. The timing of twilight is important as the next date on the biblical calendar begins in the evening after twilight. So the lamb was to be killed at the end of the 14th day just before the 15th day began. 

And it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the Lord as you have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.” Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years—on that very same day—it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.  Exodus 12:29-32, 40-41

At midnight of the 15th day, God delivered the tenth and final plague. Pharaoh immediately released the people of Israel. They left that same day, the 15th of the month, the day after they had killed the Passover lamb (Num. 33:3).

Fulfillment of the Passover Lamb

Fast-forward almost 1500 years when it became very evident that the sacrifice of the Passover lamb was a picture or type for the sacrifice of Jesus. Throughout the generations since Moses, God had been preparing His people for the ultimate sacrifice of the perfect Passover Lamb. 

The first piece of evidence comes from John the Baptist upon seeing Jesus.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  John 1:29

Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”  John 1:35-36

The next piece of evidence was the triumphal entry of Jesus in Jerusalem. All four of the gospels record this event (Matt. 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-40, John 12:12-19) but a few important details about timing are found in chapter 12 of John.

Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany…  John 12:1a

The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ The King of Israel!”  John 12:12-13

Six days before the Passover would have been the 9th of the month since Passover was celebrated at the end of the 14th day as the 15th day began (15 - 6 = 9). “The next day” tells us that the triumphal entry of Jesus in Jerusalem occurred on the 10th of the month. In the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the verses immediately following the accounts of the triumphal entry describe how Jesus then entered the temple, the house of God. The 10th of the month was when “every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household” (Ex. 12:3). God the Father took for Himself a Lamb into His house.

The culminating evidence that Jesus fulfilled the picture or type of the Passover lamb is His sacrifice on the cross at the time of Passover. Again, all four of the gospels record this event (Matt. 27:32-66, Mark 15:21-47, Luke 23:26-56, John 19:17-42). Matthew, Mark, and Luke reference darkness when Jesus was on the cross from the sixth hour to the ninth hour. This would be from noon until 3 in the afternoon, shortly before twilight. All of the gospels state that the crucifixion occurred on the Preparation Day. 

On the next day, which followed the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, saying, “Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise.’”   Matthew 27:62-63

Now when evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent council member, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, coming and taking courage, went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.  Mark 15:42-43

Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man. He had not consented to their decision and deed. He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before. That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near.  Luke 23:50-54

So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.  John 19:30-33

Once again, the gospel of John provides the key detail to better know the timing. The day of the crucifixion was the Preparation Day and the next day was a High Sabbath day, not the regular weekly Sabbath. The Preparation Day was the 14th day of the month when the lamb was sacrificed. When evening began, it was now the next day, the High Sabbath on the 15th day of the month, the 1st day of the feast of Unleavened Bread when no work was to be done (Lev. 23:5-8). 

It was after the Passover lamb had been killed that God freed His people from their slavery in Egypt. It was after Jesus the Passover Lamb had been killed that God freed His people from our slavery to sin.

Before the First Passover 

The first time that the people of Israel sacrificed a Passover lamb was when they were in Egypt. But was it the first time God had revealed His plan of providing Jesus as the Passover Lamb? 

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”  

So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”  Genesis 22:1-5

One day, God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son. Abraham left the next morning and traveled for three days. It was on the third day that the sacrifice was to take place. That’s four days total.

So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!”

And he said, “Here I am, my son.”

Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.  Genesis 22:6-8

Just as God told Moses in Exodus that “every man shall take for himself a lamb” (Ex. 12:3), we see that God would provide for Himself a lamb.

Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.”

And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”  Genesis 22:9-14

God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son as a lamb because this was a picture or type pointing to when God Himself sacrificed His Son by providing Him as the Lamb for us. The Bible does not tell us the timing of this event in Genesis 22, but knowing the timing of the first Passover and Jesus’ crucifixion, we could probably make a very accurate guess. Four days passed from when God gave Abraham the command to sacrifice his son to when God provided an alternative sacrifice. Could this have occurred from the 10th day to the 14th day of the first month, perhaps?

Our Passover Lamb

Thanks be to God the Father who provided His Son Jesus as our Passover Lamb, sacrificed for us. 

Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.  1 Corinthians 5:7

But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.  1 Peter 1:19

Related resources

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Podcast episode 56 - Part 5 Walking Through the Bible: Exodus

Podcast episode 116 - Life is in the Blood

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