Readers Guide: “The Word for Today” Sunday, October 7, 2012 Read – Exodus 11 & 12 The story of the plagues has been marching toward the tenth and final plague which is really the climax of the whole story and the most important part of the story. The tenth plague is the death of the firstborn. All of the previous plagues blend into the background in comparison to this plague which is transformed into the most important “Festival Event” in Judaism – the Passover – and subsequently into the Christian understanding of Holy Communion which finds its roots in the Passover Jesus celebrated with his disciples on the night before his crucifixion. If one were to comment just on the telling of the story one would need to conclude that it unfolds “raggedly.” Chapter 11 begins with similar language in the telling of each of the other plagues but it interrupted by chapter 12 which describes the religious, ritualized description of how the Passover is to be celebrated. At the end of chapter 12 the actual description of the plagued is picked up again. While that makes for an “uneven” reading of the story it also highlights the importance of Passover which is the reason why the story is told in this way. The Festival of Passover which is to be celebrated yearly is placed in the center of the plague of the death of the firstborn from which the Passover springs. Taken by itself, the story of the death of the firstborn as the tenth plague does not mention the sacrifice of the lambs and the putting of blood on the doorposts of the house. If chapter 12 were omitted one might view the tenth plague as simply one among the others. God had already been sparing the Israelites in the plagues just ahead of this one. The instruction regarding Passover is what makes all the difference! And it is the Passover that lends meaning to the whole event of the plagues, especially the tenth plague of the death of the firstborn. The Passover and the freeing of God’s people from bondage in Egypt is the central, crucial event of the Old Testament. Everything relates back to the Passover and passage through the sea as God’s inauguration of the nation – God’s mighty act of deliverance. We cannot overestimate the importance of the Passover in the story. The whole sacrificial system hinges on the message contained in the story of God commanding his people to sacrifice a lamb and put its blood on the doorposts of the house in remembrance of God deliverance of his people. Christians have seen much more in the Passover than Jewish people. Jesus is the “lamb of God” the “Passover lamb” whose blood is shed for the salvation of the world. Just as the people of the Old Testament were delivered from bondage in the Passover, Christians understand themselves as being delivered from bondage in the death and resurrection of Jesus.