A new start

Lots of symbolism in this chapter.

One of the most striking to me is the creation of a new calendar. For the Israelites, their deliverance from Egypt was to be the start of their yearly calendar.

It was as if God was saying, “This is when your new life begins, and I want you to remember it.”

On the fourteenth day of that month, a lamb was to be sacrificed.

They were all to eat the lamb, along with bitter herbs and bread without yeast.

The lamb had to be perfect, and when it was killed there could be no broken bones.

The bread was made without yeast because it was quicker to bake, and they had to be ready to leave swiftly.

That was also the reason they ate with their cloaks tucked, their sandals on, and their staffs in hand.

On top of that, they were to spread the lamb’s blood on the top and the sides of their doorposts so that the angel of death might pass over their houses and spare their firstborn sons.

As I said, there was a lot of symbolism in all this, not only for them but for us.

The bitter herbs were a symbol of their bitter sufferings in the land of Egypt.

Many of us also have suffered bitterness as we were out in the world, separated from God. We’ve suffered the pain caused by the sin of others, and even by our own sin. And all of this left us crying out to God for help.

Yeast has commonly been used as a symbol for sin in the Bible.

The Israelites were told to get rid of all yeast in their house, perhaps as a reminder that sin was to be done away with in their lives.

Among other things, they were to leave behind the sinful practices of idolatry that they had picked up in Egypt.

Just as yeast would slow them down in their escape from Egypt, so sin would slow them down in their pursuit of God. And they had to be ready to leave both behind and do so immediately.

Not in a day. Or a week. Or a year.

Immediately.

In the same way, we need to be ready to wave good-bye to our life of sin as we start following after Christ and leave it all behind.

The Bible calls this repentance.

And then of course the lamb—the symbol of Christ.

Perfect. No broken bones in the body as it died. And by its death, people were spared from the angel of death.

In the same way Christ, the perfect Lamb of God, died, none of his bones broken. And by his death on the cross, we are saved from eternal death.

Is it a coincidence that blood was placed on the top and sides of the doorframe?

Could it be a picture of the blood that was shed on the cross?

And all of this to give us a new beginning. A new start in life.

So with all haste, let us leave the life of sin that was destroying us and run to him whose death has delivered us all.

As the writer of Hebrews says,

…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:1–3)