Exodus Chapter 12, Exegesis

Exegesis of Chapter 12 (originally written as a chapter for a book on preaching)

Every year on the Thursday before Easter in Holy Week, this passage from Exodus (12:1-14) arrives in the lectionary recalling that the last supper that Jesus shared with his disciples was a Passover feast (at least in the synoptics).  At first glance this is simply a straightforward legal/cultic text that records the institution of the Passover feast.  However, a bit of exegetical work reveals that this text provides deep clues into the meaning of sacrifice and salvation.  And for the purposes of sermonizing during Holy Week, this text helps us prepare for the journey that we are set upon as we encounter the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Initially, this passage seems to be out of place, interrupting the narrative of signs and wonders.   As we have seen in a previous chapter, these signs have been performed with the goal of establishing the power and authority of God.  The purpose of the last sign, the death of the firstborn, according to the text, is to cause the Pharaoh to be so angered that “he will let you go from here; indeed, when he lets you go, he will drive you away” (Ex 11:1).  After this text, at verse 21, the narrative resumes, with Moses instructing the people to slaughter the lamb and put the blood on the doorposts.  Moses continues with the injunction to remember and continue this observance, especially when they have entered the land of promise. This passage, then, becomes the link between the salvation offered the Israelite people during the last of the signs and wonders, the one that is name a ‘plague’ (negah), and the institution of a yearly festival that includes sacrifice.

Since most of us are not terribly familiar with systems of sacrifice, not to mention those in the bible, we should spend a little time comparing the Passover sacrifice with the sacrifices that are found in the book of Leviticus.  Much like the texts in Leviticus, this passage is couched in “Priestly” language.  These are presented as the words of God, given as a list of commandments about what the people must, may and shall do.  The consequences of failing to follow these commandments are severe:  you will be counted as an Egyptian and struck down. The consequences of succeeding in following these commandments are dramatic as well: you will be saved from death, both the death dealt out by Pharaoh, and the death brought by the hand of God.  These life and death consequences become the pattern for the blessings and curses found in Deuteronomy (see Dt. 28-29).

Though the language is similar, some differences exist between the Levitical sacrificial offerings and this one special sacrifice.  One such difference between the Levitical sacrifices and this one is that the Passover sacrifice is performed by the gathered family unit, not by the priest, in the home, not a temple (though the people perform the sacrifices in unison, at sunset).  The people become the sacred people, both by household and in community, and the home becomes the sacred space.  Those within, protected by the blood, are distinguished from those who are outside such protection.  We have already seen this distinction in some of the previous signs and wonders.  Initially, the difference is more a matter of annoyance and discomfort;[1] now the distinction has escalated to a matter of life and death.

More importantly, however, are the subtle differences in the purpose of the Passover sacrifice when compared to those in Leviticus.  The Levitical system of sacrifice provides for atonement, release of guilt, restoration to the community, etc.  However, the Passover sacrifice is not so much about atonement in the sense of “atonement for sins” but about atonement in the sense of being set apart by and for God and being made one with all those set apart. The sacrifice becomes a way of creating identity, placing oneself under the authority of God instead of the authority of Pharaoh. The placing of the blood on the doorposts and lintels makes a public declaration of one’s allegiance.

A closer look at the literary structure and the theology implications of the text.

The text recording the institution of the Passover begins at 12:1 and continues through verse 20.  The passage is in two parts:

12:1-14 God to Moses: The commandment for institution of the feast of Passover

12:15-20 God to Moses: The institution of the Feast of Unleavened Bread

The lectionary uses only the first part—but we will use the whole chapter in understanding this portion.  One could write off this passage as a Priestly insertion into the basic narrative text that provides an etiology for linking the Passover feast, perhaps originally a springtime harvest festival, with the salvation story of the Exodus.[2]    However, in this case a source critical approach does not provide much fodder for theological reflection.

More useful is a literary approach.  Though in form legal/cultic material, the passage fulfills several narrative functions within the main storyline. From a literary point of view, interrupting the narrative as it does, the text provides a dramatic pause before the last plague.

The first pause comes when the people are told to set aside the lamb and then wait.  Why the wait? Sarna has no explanation for this waiting time other than perhaps as an “act of defiance of the Egyptians” or “a time of testing for Israel” (Sarna, 1991:55).  He adds a note in his book Exploring Exodus, that another scholar suggests this is the amount of time needed to circumcise all the males who had missed this ritual and have them heal (Sarna, 1986: 230, n.16).  It also might be simply a time for the Israelites to pack! However, the waiting might have another more literary purpose—to lengthen the dramatic pause, heighten suspense and tension.  This also might be to suggest that the journey out of Egypt is not a time to run, but a time for ordered journey; not a retreat of the oppressed, but the victory march of the conquerors.

Next we have a list of instructions.

With whom to eat. (Household, join with others if household is small) Exodus 12:3-4

The meal is to be eaten with the whole household.  A small household is to join with others.  Several implications arise from this:  1) the Passover should not be eaten alone.  This is a feast of “communion” with the whole people of God, not a solitary rite.  2) Everyone has equal portions.  No one gets a larger share; no one gets the whole lamb. Those who might have larger portions because of smaller households must join with others.  The latter part of chapter twelve continues instructions as to who may eat:  slaves and aliens are included if and only if they or their households have been circumcised (see Ex 12:43-48).  No one is to be excluded from the mark of salvation if they are willing to take upon themselves the mark of circumcision.  Perhaps this willingness to allow people to self-select accounts for the “mixed multitude” that goes out of Egypt (Ex 12:38).

What to eat (unblemished lamb) Exodus 12:5

Instead of killing the lamb that is the weakest, one who might not even survive a journey into the wilderness, the people are told to slaughter the best.  The Hebrew word used for this: tamin, carries the connotation in other passages of righteous and blameless in a moral sense (see Gn 6:9, 17:1; Dt 18:13).  This perfect lamb represents what the people are to become:  the perfect and righteous people of a perfect and righteous God.  This also fits with other passages about sacrifices: one must always give of the best; the first fruits (see Lv 1:3, 10 and numerous other passages).

When to eat. (Slaughter at twilight on the third day and eat that night)

The people must set aside the lamb and wait; and then eat at the appointed time.  All the people slaughter the lambs at the same time – twilight, making this a community as well as a household action.

How to eat (eat with unleavened bread and bitter herbs; eat hurriedly, dressed for the journey)

This meal is intended as a reminder, both of the oppression that the people have suffered and of the redemption that they have been offered.

Where to eat (in the house that is protected by the blood– must stay there all night)

The house becomes holy space; the holiness extends both inside and out.  This is once again emphasized later in the chapter:  “It shall be eaten in one house: you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house” (Ex 12:46, Tanakh).

Why eat?  (As a new beginning and a perpetual remembrance of God’s saving action, there is a sense in which the journey never really ends; the yearly festival emphasizes that the journey continues)

A further motivation is found later in the passage:

“That was for the LORD a night of vigil, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. That same night is a vigil to be kept for the LORD by all the Israelites throughout their generations.” (Ex 12:42)

This is a celebration of God’s faithfulness, God’s remembering of the covenant promises that God has made.  It becomes in turn a celebration of the faithfulness of the people in remembering what God has done.

These instructions tell us something about the journey itself.  Dressing for the journey is a sign of faith that the journey will indeed take place.  There is a sense that the journey never really ends; the yearly festival emphasizes that the journey continues.  In addition, the waiting mentioned above combined with the urgency of eating hurriedly emphasizes that the timing in all these actions is God’s timing.  Finally, the feast for the journey is minimal – this meal does not prepare them physically for a march into the wilderness. They will become hungry again quite quickly (see chapter 16) and they are not preparing any provisions to take with them (see also Ex 12:39).  In fact they are told to burn all that is left.  This minimalist meal foreshadows the need to depend upon God for their provisioning.

Though it is liturgical text and not simple narrative, this passage functions within the overall narrative by continuing the theme of challenge.  In this text and the one right before it, both the plague and the sign of protection become a direct challenge to Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s gods – the Egyptian king had tried to kill the male children through the agency of first midwives and then the Egyptian people.  But now God will, by his own hand, strike down all the firstborn of the Egyptians. In addition, the loud cry of the Egyptians (predicted in 11:6, fulfilled in 12:30) echoes the loud cry of the Israelite people (3:7, 9), but for the Egyptians there is no god to hear their cry and save them from death.  The unheard cry of the Egyptians becomes the sign of judgment not only upon the hard-hearted Pharaoh, but also upon the unhearing gods of the Egyptians (12:12).

Finally, this text does give the whole of the narrative a larger importance and historical significance.  Just as the six days of creation has its climax in the institution of the Sabbath – a time for remembering and celebrating our connection with God, our relationship as created to Creator – so the Exodus narrative has a climax with the institution of the Passover feast – a time for remembering and celebrating our connection with God and our relationship as saved to Savior.

Summing it up Theologically

In my introduction, I suggested that incarnational theology is at the heart of the book of Exodus.  The thesis of my comments there was that: The book of Exodus can be seen as a three-part plan using the concrete and the visible to form and shape the descendants of Jacob/Israel into the people that will fulfill the covenant that God has made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.   This passage provides a concrete and visible sign of God’s saving actions in the plagues and the Exodus proper.  It both continues the themes of the first part of the book – oppression of the people, conflict with Pharaoh, and foreshadows the themes of the second part of the book – commandments that set the people apart as a holy people of YHWH.

This is the point towards which the signs and wonders are heading, the final showdown between Pharaoh and YHWH.  From this point onward, all who keep the Passover feast participate in the freedom from oppression, the saving moment that the Exodus represents[3]. The only real requirement to participate in this feast and in this salvation is the mark of circumcision and the mark of the blood on your doorposts.  God does not bar the Egyptians from participating, as long as they too fulfill the requirements.  The Passover then, marks one both physically and spiritually as belonging to God.  Thus, in a very real sense the choice involves deciding whether your fear of death at the hand of Pharaoh or your fear of the divine destroyer is more potent.  The mark forces one to choose between service to Pharaoh, and all that Pharaoh represents, and service to the God of Israel.

This is a text that both gives us a new beginning by setting us on a journey toward the promised land and reveals that the journey is one that continues through many generations.  God’s order, God’s timing, God’s commands are emphasized.  Just as the Creation of the world emphasized God’s order and God’s timing, here we find a similar focus. Just as God’s commands place requirements upon and boundaries around the holy people in the covenant at Sinai, so God’s commands in this text speak of requirements and boundaries.  Before this time, the people of Israel were merely slaves in Egypt, now they are a redeemed people, ready to be formed into a holy people[4].

Theological Issues for the Pastor

The issues that face the pastor in preaching from this text are manifold, ranging from its relevance for a Christian audience (after all it institutes a Jewish festival) to its somewhat disturbing portrayal of God (is God the “Destroyer” or the Savior or both at once?).  We will deal with the latter first.

Throughout the plagues, God is portrayed as willing to cause significant harm to a people whose major fault is being ruled by a “hard-hearted” Pharaoh.  Some in our congregations, perhaps identifying with the Israelites, will consider the Egyptians as complicit with the oppression of the Pharaoh and deserving of punishment. Others will relate more to the Egyptians and wonder at God’s treatment of them. It might be well for a preacher to focus on the fact that the provision for salvation is available for all those who are willing to both place themselves in submission to YHWH and to identify with the slaves who are YHWH’s people.   This might be difficult for those in comfortable churches in middle-class neighborhoods.  As we have seen, the people of Egypt are just as much the slaves of Pharaoh as the Israelite people,[5] even if not oppressed in the same way.   Though it is not in the lectionary portion of the text, verse 23 makes clear the problem:

For the LORD will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down.[6]

YHWH is Destroyer and Savior both.  Difficult as this may seem, the fact is that the whole story up to this point has been a contest between Pharaoh and YHWH to determine who has the right to give and take life.  Pharaoh is seen as a taker of life only, whereas YHWH is both.  Perhaps the major difference between the powers of the world and the powers of the divine is that the powers of the world only have the ability to destroy and take life away, whereas the power of God is the power to give and provide for life.  This can, of course, lead to reflections about this passage through the lens of the cross.  The crucifixion and resurrection assure us that the powers of destruction cannot prevail and that the fundamental nature of God is that of Creator, Savior and Preserver.

The issue of the punishment of the innocent Egyptians highlights the problem, certainly relevant in today’s world, that the innocent often suffer because of poor or even evil leadership.  The Israelites are not immune from this problem either: in the books of 1 and 2 Kings we are made aware that Israelite and Judean kings are responsible for either keeping the people in the way of the LORD (which happens only rarely) or leading them towards false gods (which results in their eventual exile).

Perhaps a more pressing problem for the preacher, however, is that of “relevance.”  Many people in the pews (at least the older ones) hear this passage in the voice of Charlton Heston.  They have stopped really listening to what it says.  If they think about it at all they realize that Passover is a Jewish festival; the Exodus is the saving event for the Jewish people.  For those who discount the Hebrew Scriptures altogether, these Jewish narratives are discarded and replaced with the Christian celebration of Communion and the saving event of the cross and resurrection.  Scholars and seminary-trained pastors may see the connection, but those in the pews may need to be led in that direction.

David Buttrick in Homiletic:  Moves and Structures provides this caution:

Obviously we cannot preach passages from the Hebrew scriptures as if Christ were not. Out of a respect for the integrity of the Hebrew scriptures, we cannot preach them by blanking out Christian consciousness and pretending we are a b.c. Hebrew congregation.  Such a let’s-pretend posture, though it may pose as hermeneutical integrity, is ludicrous.  No, instead, the Hebrew scriptures brought to us by Christ must be set within a Christian hermeneutical consciousness, that is, a consciousness in between symbols of revelation and awareness of being-saved-in-the-world.  The Hebrew scriptures were written from such a consciousness—symbols of revelation drawn from stories such as exodus, Sinai, exile, and the like addressed Israel’s sense of being-saved—and, therefore, must be interpreted within such a structural consciousness.  (356-57)

There are many connections between the symbols in Exodus and those in the New Testament institution narratives.  Just as in Exodus, signs and wonders have preceded the eating of the sacred meal, this time not in destructive plagues, but in the life-affirming healings and exorcisms that Jesus and his disciples have performed.  The meal comes before the time of death and salvation.  All three of the synoptic Gospels relate the story of Jesus’ last meal with his disciples as occurring on the eve of the Festival of the Unleavened Bread and the night on which the Passover meal was eaten.  The bread which Jesus breaks is the unleavened bread of the Passover and the wine which he presents as his blood is reminiscent of the blood of the Passover Lamb.  The meal becomes a sign of what is to come and just as in Exodus, the commemorative meal is instituted before the act of salvation.  John, on the other hand indicates that the crucifixion takes place on the first day of the Festival, “a day of great solemnity” (John 19:31).  Not having a record of the institution of the Communion meal, John reveals that the crucifixion itself becomes the Passover sacrifice.  In all of the gospels, Jesus is set aside or marked as the Passover lamb beforehand.  He is marked both by the woman who washes and anoints his feet and by the kiss of the betrayer Judas.  In all of the gospels, the community is bound together by the shared fellowship in the room with Jesus; in the synoptics by the meal, in John by the foot washing of Jesus and by his prayers for his followers.  Thus the original Passover provides the symbolic grounding for Jesus’ message to his disciples.  The Last Supper, as much as the Passover feast, becomes a time to begin forging an identity as the chosen and redeemed people.  In both Exodus and the Gospels, the Passover feast/Last Supper is not enough; it must be followed by the leading and presence of God: in the column of fire and smoke in Exodus; in the fire of the Holy Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles.  The Last Supper is only a beginning to the journey of the Christian community.  Eventually the mark of baptism becomes a requirement for the celebration of communion, just as circumcision becomes the requirement for the celebration of the Passover.  And the continued commemoration becomes an ongoing part of the journey of the faithful community.  As Christians come to see the connection of the Passover feast with our own Eucharistic celebration, and the symbolism that Jesus made use of, we can hear more fully the Word of God speaking through both Testaments.

Moving Towards the Sermon-Practical problems for the Preacher

In Homiletical Moves and Structures, David Buttrick describes “Preaching in the Mode of Immediacy” with regard to preaching biblical narrative.  While this passage is not strictly narrative, it does play a critical role within the larger narrative.  One of the difficulties for the congregation (or “congregational blocks” in Buttrick’s language) is the talk of sacrifices and blood on doorposts.  This is not worship as we know it!  Buttrick suggests that in analyzing a text we form “structures of understanding in consciousness from which a sermon design may emerge.” (Buttrick, 339)

Since the lectionary gives us this text every Holy Thursday, that is the context to which our “structure of understanding” must relate.  This text also falls early in September during year A of the lectionary cycle.  If this is a sermon in a service which includes communion then the preacher might show the links between the two meals within the sermon.  Paul Ricouer notes in his essay on “The Hermeneutic Question,” that “there is hermeneutics in the Christian order because the kerygma is the rereading of an ancient Scripture.”  He suggests that,

“a contrast is set up between the two Testaments, a contrast which at the same time is a harmony by means of a transfer.  This signifying relation attests that the kerygma, by this detour through the reinterpretation of an ancient Scripture, enters into a network of intelligibility.  The event becomes advent.” (Lischer: 213).

By preaching in the “mode of immediacy” the preacher can help the congregation understand how the “event” of the Passover has become the “advent” of the Eucharist.  Hopefully, as the congregation begins to see that the Christian salvation story is a kind of reinterpretation of the salvation narrative of ancient Israel, they will become more aware that God’s saving actions have a long history stretching both before and after the event of the crucifixion/resurrection.

We have already looked at the theology behind this passage.  Using Buttrick’s pattern, we must also try to predict the blocks that would keep the congregation from understanding.  Probably the major block is the talk of sacrifices and blood on doors.  We are not used to this image of worship!  Already noted is the difficulty in seeing God as the avenging angel of death.  In the analysis we have seen that the structure of understanding that we have built relies on this passage as a turning point in the narrative:  both an ending of one phase of Israelite life and the beginning of a journey.  Thus the sermon will focus on the journey.  If preaching in the mode of immediacy “imitate(s) a consciousness hearing and reacting to a story” (Buttrick, 362), then the sermon will call on the congregation to react to the call to the journey and to enter into the journey.  As the sermon that follows was preached at a Course of Study School worship service held at Perkins School of Theology in the summer of 2007, most of those in attendance were local pastors, along with a sprinkling of faculty, staff, and visitors.  I told the congregation that the sermon was intended to be a model for the preaching of a Holy Thursday service or any service where communion followed.  The notion of preparation for a journey reminds the congregation that Easter is not the endpoint towards which we are moving, but a new beginning in faith every year.  Easter, as well as Passover represents not just a minor relocation, but a radical break with our past.

The visuals used in preaching the sermon, as well as the examples used are helpful in concretizing the aspect of this ritual as the beginning of a journey and relating the ancient story to the context of the congregation.  This was particularly true for the congregation of local pastors at COSS, for they had come on a journey to the school and were about to pack up to go back home.  However, this would also be true for a congregation hearing this sermon in Holy Week, with summer vacations only a month or so away.  The hope is that when they are packing for travel, they will remember the visual of the suitcase and thus remember the message of the sermon.

 

Bibliography

Brueggeman, Walter

1994                            “The Book of Exodus: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” in The New Interpreter’s Bible: A Commentary in Twelve Volumes, Volume I.

Nashville: Abingdon Press.

Buttrick, David

1987                            Homiletic: Moves and Structures. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

Childs, Brevard S.

1974                            The Book of Exodus: A Critical, Theological Commentary.

                                                The Old Testament Library. Louisville: Westminster Press.

Lischer, Richard, Ed

2002                            The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present.  Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Propp, William H. C.

1998                            Exodus 1-18: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary.   The Anchor Bible Series, Volume 2. New York: Doubleday.

Sarna, Nahum M.

1991                            The JPS Torah Commentary: Exodus.  Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society.

1986                            Exploring Exodus: The Heritage of Biblical Israel.  New York: Schocken Books.