Today we talked a little about the parallels between the Passover celebration and the things that Christ accomplished during His time here on earth.  Using Exodus 12, I have gone through and extracted some of these parallels for you to take a peak at:

Passover Parallels – Exodus 12

12:5 Your lamb shall be without blemish – Jesus was called the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). Jesus lived a sinless life, He was without blemish and He made atonement for our sins.

12:7 Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. – Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, shed His blood on the cross for us, and it is this blood of the lamb that separates the Christian from the unbeliever just as the blood on the doorpost separated the Israelites from the Egyptians, the elect from the reprobate.  It is the blood of Christ that will separate us when Christ comes back and the world is judged.  We don’t have a righteousness of our own, but are clothed in the righteousness of Christ that will allow us to stand before the throne of God on that day.

12:12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. – The blood of the lamb that is a sign to the Lord’s angel not to kill the first born in that house is a foreshadowing of how the blood of Jesus saves us from the judgment of God (Heb. 10:19-22; Eph. 2:13; Rom. 3:25) and our just end (eternal death/separation from God).  2 Cor. 5:21 tells us that Christ became sin for us that we might not taste God’s wrath.  And Romans 3:25 might say it best, “whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”

12:14 This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. – The Passover was celebrated even during the time of Christ. Just as the Passover is a sign of God’s deliverance for the Israelites, the Lord’s Super is a sign and remembrance of the deliverance Christ provided. During the ministry of Christ here on Earth, Passover was celebrated three times (John 2:13, 6:4, and 11:55) indicating that His ministry lasted about three years.

12:22 Take a bunch of hyssop – while Christ was on the cross He was given wine and vinegar on a hyssop branch (John 19:29).

12:46 It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones. – None of the bones of Jesus were broken, though it was customary that the legs of a man would be broken on the cross, this did not occur with Jesus (Ps. 34:20; Num. 9:12; John 19:36)

Pastor John Sittma notes that, “Passover was both a family and communal feast.  The lamb chosen ‘for the nation’ was staked out in the temple courtyard on Passover at 9am, and slaughtered publicly at 3pm.  So was Jesus – nailed to the cross at 9am, He died at 3pm, just as the four-footed beast died in a liturgy that concluded, ‘it is finished.’[i]