Six Occasions

“And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand the LORD has brought you out of Egypt. You shall therefore keep this ordinance at its appointed time from year to year” (Exodus 13:9, 10, Scriptures from RSV, Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted).

— Jeff Earl

The Old Testament describes six specific accounts of the Passover and its future celebrations in detail, while others are only briefly referenced.
(1) Passing over of the first born of Israel while captive in Egypt. When eating the lamb before their journey out of Egypt, they received the order to keep the Passover “throughout your generations” (Exodus Chapter 12).
(2) In the wilderness of Sinai with Moses (Numbers Chapter 9).
(3) When reaching the Promised Land at Gilgal with Joshua (Joshua Chapter 5).
(4) During the reign of Judah’s King Hezekiah (2 Chronicles Chapter 30).
(5) During the reign of King Josiah (2 Chronicles 35).
(6) Ezra’s return to Israel from the Babylonian exile and the restoring of Solomon’s Temple (Ezra Chapter 6).

Egypt and the Wilderness

The first Passover is described in Exodus 12 and is discussed in detail in other articles within this issue. While in the Wilderness of Sin, we must assume that the Israelites kept Passover each year. Numbers 9:1-5 is the second mention of it, when the “Lord 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.” He told Moses to keep the Passover “at its appointed time,” “in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in (between) the evening(s).” However, there were those “who were unclean through touching the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day.” God instructed Moses in Numbers 9:10-11, “If any man is unclean through touching a dead body, or is afar off on a journey, he shall still keep the Passover to the Lord. In the second month on the fourteenth day in the evening they shall keep it” (Numbers 9:10-11). The penalty for missing the Passover was severe — “that person shall be cut off from his people, because he did not offer the Lord’s offering at its appointed time” (verse 13). Some suggest that “cut off from his people” meant exile.

Joshua and the Promised Land

After Israel was settled in the land, the Lord would choose the place of the Passover celebration, which eventually would be Jerusalem “You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns which the Lord your God gives you; but at the place which the Lord your God will choose” (Deuteronomy 16:5, 6). Here began the requirement to go up to Jerusalem to observe the feast, which continued even to Jesus’ day.

The third specific description of celebrating the Passover is recorded in Joshua 5. It appears that those who were born in the wilderness were not circumcised because Israel “did not hearken to the voice of the Lord” when they were afraid to go into the land of Canaan (verses 5-7), thereby rejecting God. At the end of their years of wandering, God commanded Joshua to circumcise the men born in the wilderness in order to “roll away the reproach of Egypt.” (verse 9). Then verse 10 states that “While the sons of Israel camped at Gilgal, they observed the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the desert plains of Jericho” and ate of the produce of the land, “unleavened cakes and parched grains” (verse 11). The day after they ate from the land of Canaan, the manna that had been provided from the Lord ceased to appear.

The Celebrations by Two Good Kings of Judah

The most detailed description of Passover is in 2 Chronicles 30:1-30, during the reign of twenty-five-year- old King Hezekiah. Despite being the son of the wicked King Ahaz, Hezekiah was a worshipper of Jehovah. Perhaps Ahaz’s wife, Abijah, was assisted in training Hezekiah by the Prophet Isaiah, who was related to the royal family. Hezekiah was well prepared to introduce the appropriate reforms in Judah after decades of idolatry. He reopened and prepared the Temple by assigning the tribe of Levi to cleanse it. He ordered all priests and Levites to sanctify themselves. First, he ordered a sin-offering not only for Judah but also “for all Israel.” Hezekiah ordered that the Passover should be re-inaugurated and properly observed.

However, Judah must first be free of leaven. Hezekiah sent letters to all of Israel including both the ten tribe kingdom and the two tribe kingdom, inviting them to come to the house of the Lord in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. However, the couriers sent to the land of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Zebulun were “scorned and mocked” (verse 10), with only a scant group ready to journey to Jerusalem. Hezekiah decided to celebrate the Passover in the second month instead of the first, following the instructions of Numbers 9:10-11. Yet many were still not properly cleansed, mostly from the ten tribe kingdom, yet they ate of the Passover. Hezekiah prayed for forgiveness to the people and Jehovah agreed: “the Lord heard Hezekiah, and healed the people” (verse 20). There was such great rejoicing during this celebration that “since the time of Solomon … there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem” (verse 26).

King Josiah’s Passover

2 Chronicles 35 occurs during the 18th year of the reign of King Josiah. This was preceded by intensive campaign against idolatry starting in his 12th year. He broke down the altars to Baal and burned the bones of the false priests on the altars. Idols were beaten into powder and spread over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. He thus purged Judah and Jerusalem of idolatry as well as the cities north and south of Judah (2 Chronicles 34:3-7). Money was collected to restore the “house of the LORD” which had been “let go to ruin.”

After Josiah cleansed the land, the High Priest Hilkiah “found the book of the law in the house of the LORD.” Josiah read it and was so distressed that he rent his clothes “because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord.” He then “made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandment and his testimonies and his statutes.” This Passover celebration by Josiah even exceeded the one by his great-grandfather, King Hezekiah as it is recorded, “No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet; none of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, and the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (verse 18).

Return from Babylonian Exile

The final recorded Passover is recorded in Ezra 6:19-21. The decree of King Cyrus approved return to the land of Israel to rebuild the Temple. “On the fourteenth day of the first month the returned exiles kept the Passover. For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were clean. So they killed the Passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves; it was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile.” Verse 17 says that the dedication of the rebuilt temple was for the entire nation (“as a sin offering for all Israel … according to the number of the tribes of Israel”). Thus Israel was united again. The people of Israel “separated himself from the pollutions of the peoples of the land to worship the LORD” (verse 21).

Importance of Passover for the Christian

Paul gives the reason for Christians to remember the Passover in 1 Corinthians 5:7: “For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival.” In the examples discussed here, purging the land of idolatry before the Passover celebrations can be likened to spiritual Israel cleansing itself from worldly influences. Thus, Paul writes, “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1). The inclusion of both houses of Israel (Judah and the former ten tribe kingdom) in Josiah’s Passover should encourage us to include all brethren “who trust in the precious blood of Christ as the sacrifice for sins and those who have consecrated to the Lord and his service” to participate in the yearly Memorial of our Lord’s death.