The Indispensability of Festivals

As we continue our journey through the Book of Exodus, the biblical composer stops at mid-course in the narrative to "highlight" three significant "festivals" commemorating God's mighty acts involved in the exodus from Egypt. Read this account in Exodus 12:1-13:16. These three "festivals" are inseparably connected with the events prepared in the story of the ten plagues and described in the crossing of the Red Sea in the following narrative in Exodus 13:17-15:21. Here is a synposis of these three "festivals."

1. Passover. 12:1-14, 43-51. According to the narrator, Yahweh gives Moses and the Israelites four instructions concerning the Passover. (a) Each Israelite is to commemorate this festival household on the first month, the fouteenth day of the Jewish year [our calendar in April]. (b) The Israelites are to slaughter a one year old male lamb, take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood of the lamb, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood. When the Lord passes through the land of Egypt and brings the fatal plague on the firstborn children, he will "pass over" the houses that have the blood on the lintel and the doorposts and thus spare those children. 12:1-10, 21-23. (c) The Israelites are to eat the lamb roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and "bitter herbs" (12:8), symbolizing the "bitter" or "misery" life the Israelites experienced for more than 400 centuries in Egypt. (d) This "celebration" or "festival" is encouraged for all Israelites and foreigners as long as the male Israelites are circumcised. 12:43-49.

2. Unleavened Bread. 12:15-20; 13:3-10. This festival contains two instructions. (a) The worshippers are to commemorate this festival on the first month from the fourteenth to the twenty-first days. 12:18. (b) The worshippers are to eat "unleavened bread" to symbolize that the Israelites had to be ready to flee from Egypt at any moment when God sent the plague through the land. 12:11.

3. Consecration of the Firstborn. 13:11-16. This is a specific instruction connected with the Passover and Unleavened Bread. Instead of killing the firstborn children, Yahweh provides firstborn animals as sacrificial substitutes for children to "redeem" these children.

There are two important purposes for these [and other biblical] festivals.

1. A festival is a recurring "remembrance" or "commemoration" of God's mighty acts in the past. 12:14. Such a "remembrance" is not just a "calling into mind," but a "dramatic re-living" of the mighty acts of God before the entire assembly or congregation of believers. Thus, the Israelites were to "dramatically re-live" every year that God "passed over" the firstborn children of the Israelites when God plagued the children of the Egyptians, that the Israelites had to flee from Egyptian slavery in haste, and that God gave sacrificial animals instead of children.

2. The intention of every festival is to "arouse the curiosity of the children" as a means of teaching them how God worked in history and continues to history as they grow and develop spiritually. 12:26-27; 13:8-9, 14. Children are supposed to play an important place and function in Christian worship services.

Exodus 12:29-42 relate a continuation of the narrative.
At midnight, Yahweh strikes down all the firstborn of the Egyptians, and commands Moses and Aaron to begin the exodus out of slavery. 12:29-32.
The Egyptians instruct the Israelites to leave the land of Egypt, and the Israelites go from Rameses to Succoth. 12:33-39.
The narrator tells the hearer and reader that the Israelites had lived in Egypt 430 years. 12:40-42.

Festivals are very important. We have treasured festivals: the Lord's Supper, Easter, Christmas. Also national and family festivals: July 4, Memorial Day, family reunions, and many others. I hope to talk about many of these festivals in forthcoming blogs.

Right now, think about the importance of festivals, celebrations, commemorations. What are some of yours that are precious to you? What is significant about yours? Share these with your family and friends and churches and communities and cities. Tell me your stories. I would love to hear about them.

John Willis