The Rhythm of Redemption: Our Passover Lamb Text: Deuteronomy 16:1-8
Introduction: God's Calendar vs. Man's
Every culture, every civilization, runs on a calendar. A calendar is not a neutral tool for tracking time; it is a theological statement. It tells you what is important. It orders your loves, your loyalties, and your memories. The pagan world had its calendars, ordered around the harvest, the solstices, and the fickle moods of their gods. Our modern secular world has its own liturgy, its own high holy days: Super Bowl Sunday, the Fourth of July, Black Friday, and New Year's Eve. These days are designed to shape us, to form our desires, to tell us a story about who we are, a story of consumption, entertainment, and patriotic self-congratulation.
Into this contest of calendars, God speaks. He does not simply give His people a set of abstract laws. He gives them a rhythm, a calendar, a liturgical year. He takes command of their time. And at the very heart of this God-given calendar, as its foundational event, is the Passover. The Passover is to Israel what the first day of creation is to the cosmos. It is the moment of their birth as a nation. It is the central, defining act of redemption that gives meaning to everything else. To forget the Passover would be for Israel to forget who they were. To celebrate it was to re-inscribe their identity as the redeemed people of God upon their hearts, year after year.
This passage in Deuteronomy is given to the new generation poised to enter the Promised Land. The generation that actually came out of Egypt had perished in the wilderness because of their unbelief. So Moses must retell the story. He must re-establish the memory. The memory of redemption is not automatic; it must be cultivated, guarded, and celebrated. And as we shall see, this is not just Israel's story. It is our story, fulfilled in a greater Exodus and a final Passover Lamb.
The Text
Keep the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to Yahweh your God, for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you out of Egypt by night. And you shall sacrifice the Passover to Yahweh your God from the flock and the herd, in the place where Yahweh chooses for His name to dwell. You shall not eat leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), so that you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. For seven days no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory, and none of the flesh which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall remain overnight until morning. You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of your gates of the towns which Yahweh your God is giving you; but at the place where Yahweh your God chooses for His name to dwell, there you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset, at the appointed time that you came out of Egypt. And you shall cook and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God chooses. In the morning you are to return to your tents. Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God; you shall do no work on it.
(Deuteronomy 16:1-8 LSB)
Guarding the Memory (v. 1)
The instruction begins with a command to keep time in a particular way.
"Keep the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to Yahweh your God, for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you out of Egypt by night." (Deuteronomy 16:1)
The word for "keep" here means to guard, to observe, to watch over. This is an active, diligent thing. Memory is not passive. If you do not actively remember, you will actively forget. They are to guard the "month of Abib," the month of new grain, of springtime. God's great act of redemption is woven into the fabric of His creation. He is the Lord of history and the Lord of the harvest. He brings new life out of the ground and He brings His people out of bondage in the same season.
And the reason for this observance is grounded in history. "For... Yahweh your God brought you out of Egypt by night." This is the gospel for Israel. Their identity is not rooted in their own strength or their own wisdom. Their identity is rooted in a divine rescue mission that happened in the dark. They were slaves, helpless, and God broke in and delivered them. Every Passover was a retelling of this story: we were slaves, but now we are free, not because of our merit, but because of His might.
The Centrality of Sacrifice (v. 2, 5-7)
The memory is not maintained through mere sentiment. It is maintained through blood and fire, at a specific location.
"And you shall sacrifice the Passover... in the place where Yahweh chooses for His name to dwell... You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of your gates... but at the place where Yahweh your God chooses..." (Deuteronomy 16:2, 5-6)
At the heart of the celebration is a sacrifice. A life is given for a life. This is not just a memorial dinner; it is a bloody, substitutionary rite. It reminds the people that their freedom was purchased at the cost of a life, the life of a spotless lamb. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness, and no deliverance from the angel of death.
And notice the stringent emphasis on location. Three times in this short passage it is repeated: worship is to be offered only "in the place where Yahweh chooses." In the wilderness, this was the Tabernacle. Later, it would be the Temple in Jerusalem. This is a direct assault on the do-it-yourself, consumer-driven religion of the Canaanites, with their high places and sacred groves scattered everywhere. And it is a direct assault on our modern religious sensibilities. God does not authorize us to worship Him however we please. He is not interested in our creative, authentic, self-expressive worship if it is contrary to His Word. He commands how and where He will be approached. This centralization of worship was a guard against idolatry and syncretism, and it was a giant, flashing arrow pointing forward to the one true place of sacrifice, Golgotha, and the one true Mediator through whom we must all approach the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Purge of Leaven (v. 3-4, 8)
The sacrifice is accompanied by a particular kind of meal, defined by what it lacks.
"You shall not eat leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction... For seven days no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory..." (Deuteronomy 16:3-4)
Leaven, or yeast, is a fermenting agent that puffs up dough. Throughout Scripture, it is a symbol of sin, corruption, pride, and false doctrine. It works silently, pervasively, and thoroughly. Jesus warned of the "leaven of the Pharisees," which was hypocrisy, and the "leaven of Herod," which was worldliness. The command to remove all leaven from their homes for an entire week was a powerful, physical object lesson. It was a call to radical repentance and a pursuit of purity. You don't just avoid eating it; you search your house and get rid of it entirely. This is a picture of sanctification. You must be ruthless with your sin.
They are to eat "unleavened bread, the bread of affliction." This had a double meaning. It looked back to the haste of their departure. They fled so quickly they had no time to let their bread rise. Their deliverance was urgent. But it also looked forward. This was a meal of humility. It was a reminder of their suffering in Egypt and a call to a humble walk with their God. They were not to get puffed up with pride because God had chosen them. They were to remember their affliction and eat the bread of humility.
The Passover Fulfilled
As Christians, we read this passage and our hearts should leap, because this is not a dead ritual from an ancient people. This is a luminous prophecy of our own redemption. The entire Passover feast is a shadow, and the substance is Christ.
"For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed." (1 Corinthians 5:7)
Jesus is the true Lamb of God, without spot or blemish, whose blood was shed to deliver us from the angel of eternal death. He was sacrificed "at the place God chose," outside the gates of Jerusalem, at the appointed time, during the Passover feast itself. He is the ultimate fulfillment of the centralized sacrifice.
And what is the Lord's Supper but our Passover meal? On the night He was betrayed, Jesus took the unleavened bread of the Passover and said, "This is my body, which is for you." He took the cup and said, "This is my blood of the covenant." When we come to the Table, we are doing what Israel was commanded to do here. We are remembering. We are remembering the night of our deliverance. We are remembering the bread of affliction He endured for us. We are remembering the blood that was shed to purchase our freedom.
And the command to purge the leaven is now applied directly to the church. Paul says, "Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened... Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor. 5:7-8).
"Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God; you shall do no work on it." (Deuteronomy 16:8)
The feast culminates in a day of solemn assembly and rest. This is the goal of redemption. God did not save Israel from slavery in Egypt just so they could be their own masters. He saved them from the ceaseless work of bondage so they could enter His covenantal rest. He saved them so they could assemble before Him and worship.
This is the gospel. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. He has delivered us from the bondage of sin and death. He now calls us to purge the leaven of malice and wickedness from our lives, our homes, and our churches. He calls us to feast on Him, the true bread of sincerity and truth. And He calls us to assemble together, week after week, to celebrate this great deliverance, enjoying a foretaste of that final, eternal Sabbath rest that He has purchased for all His people.