1Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2“Let the children of Israel keep the Passover in its appointed season. 3On the fourteenth day of this month, at evening, you shall keep it in its appointed season. You shall keep it according to all its statutes and according to all its ordinances.”
4Moses told the children of Israel that they should keep the Passover. 5They kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did. 6There were certain men who were unclean because of the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day. 7Those men said to him, “We are unclean because of the dead body of a man. Why are we kept back, that we may not offer the offering of Yahweh in its appointed season among the children of Israel?”
8Moses answered them, “Wait, that I may hear what Yahweh will command concerning you.”
9Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 10“Say to the children of Israel, ‘If any man of you or of your generations is unclean by reason of a dead body, or is on a journey far away, he shall still keep the Passover to Yahweh. 11In the second month, on the fourteenth day at evening they shall keep it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break a bone of it. According to all the statute of the Passover they shall keep it. 13But the man who is clean, and is not on a journey, and fails to keep the Passover, that soul shall be cut off from his people. Because he didn’t offer the offering of Yahweh in its appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.
14“‘If a foreigner lives among you and desires to keep the Passover to Yahweh, then he shall do so according to the statute of the Passover, and according to its ordinance. You shall have one statute, both for the foreigner and for him who is born in the land.’”
15On the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, even the Tent of the Testimony. At evening it was over the tabernacle, as it were the appearance of fire, until morning. 16So it was continually. The cloud covered it, and the appearance of fire by night. 17Whenever the cloud was taken up from over the Tent, then after that the children of Israel traveled; and in the place where the cloud remained, there the children of Israel encamped. 18At the commandment of Yahweh, the children of Israel traveled, and at the commandment of Yahweh they encamped. As long as the cloud remained on the tabernacle they remained encamped. 19When the cloud stayed on the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept Yahweh’s command, and didn’t travel. 20Sometimes the cloud was a few days on the tabernacle; then according to the commandment of Yahweh they remained encamped, and according to the commandment of Yahweh they traveled. 21Sometimes the cloud was from evening until morning; and when the cloud was taken up in the morning, they traveled; or by day and by night, when the cloud was taken up, they traveled. 22Whether it was two days, or a month, or a year that the cloud stayed on the tabernacle, remaining on it, the children of Israel remained encamped, and didn’t travel; but when it was taken up, they traveled. 23At the commandment of Yahweh they encamped, and at the commandment of Yahweh they traveled. They kept Yahweh’s command, at the commandment of Yahweh by Moses.
Exodus 12:11 – "Passover"
The Passover was a meal that the Hebrew people ate on the evening before their departure from Egypt, where they had been in bondage for generations. The meal had both pragmatic and theological functions. It was a meal of preparation for the departure, eaten with "your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly" (Exod 12:11). Its theological function was to give thanks for what was about to take place, which was that the angel of death was about to pass over Egypt, slaying the firstborn of each household not marked with the blood of a spotless lamb (Exod 12:5-13), hence the name of the meal – the "Passover."
When Jesus ate the "Last Supper" with his disciples, it was actually a Passover meal. Jesus ascribed new meaning to its various elements as they ate it together. His new interpretation was not in contrast to the original meaning, however, but in fulfillment of it, for through the Messiah, the Lord was carrying out a New Exodus (Luke 9:31) - from the bondage of sin to eternal life. When Jesus broke the bread and gave it to his disciples, he said, "This is my body" (Matt 26:26). When they reached the point in the meal where the cup that symbolized the blood of the Covenant would be drunk, he held it up and said, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin” (Matt 26:28). Thus the elements of the meal did not change meaning, but object. Jesus Himself is now the lamb "who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29). He also associated it with the future messianic banquet when he said, “I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s Kingdom” (Matt 26:29). And finally, while the Passover was originally supposed to be celebrated annually as a reminder of what God had done in the exodus event (cf. Exod 12:2-3; Num 9:1-2; Deut 6:20-23; 16:1), Jesus told his disciples that they should now celebrate it in remembrance of him (Luke 22:19) and his work on the cross, which was interpreted through the lens of the Passover (cf. John 19:31-36; Exod 12:10, 46). The Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion, is actually the New Passover, recalling the New Exodus! RKH