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Before examining the record of the Passover in Exod. 12:, let us acquaint ourselves
with the distinctive meaning of the two words redemption and atonement as used in the
O.T. The word padah which is translated `redeem' and `redemption' a number of times
primarily means `to sever, separate or divide'. In Exod. 8: 23 we read `I will put a
division between My people and thy people'. The Septuagint uses the word diastole
translated `difference' in Rom. 3: 22. Again, where Isa. 29: 22 uses the word padah
(`the Lord Who redeemed Abraham'), the Septuagint translates by the Greek aphorisen
`separated' as in Rom. 1: 1.
The tract of country called Padan-Aram is the country separated by the two rivers,
Euphrates and Tigris, and named by the Greeks Mesopotamia, the land lying in the
midst of the rivers. Gaal or Goel refers to the wonderful type of Christ as the
Kinsman-Redeemer. The office of the Kinsman-Redeemer is set forth in the book of
Ruth and this is the One Job spoke of when he said "I know that my Redeemer liveth"
(Job 19: 25).
The Passover
(Exod. 12:).
Let us first of all see this chapter in outline:
A | 1, 2. The beginning of months.
B | 3-11. The feast of Passover.
C | 12, 13. I will pass over.
B | 14-17-. The feast of Unleavened Bread.
C | -17. This day I brought you out.
A | 18-20. The first month.
"This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of
the year to you" (Exod. 12: 2).
Notice that the words `unto you' and `to you' indicate a change. The first month of
the year, till the institution of the Passover was Tisri, corresponding with our October.
Here, at the Passover, Israel started anew and their New Year began which corresponds
with our March-April. This is Gospel truth in type and shadow.
"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"
(II Cor. 5: 17, N.I.V.).
It is Christ on the cross where the sinner must commence. There is no other beginning
that God recognizes. "It (the Passover) shall be the beginning of the year to you." "A
lamb", "the lamb", "your lamb", such is the suggestive progression in verses 3, 4, 5, that
from a Saviour, we may pass to the Saviour and not have rested until we can say my
Saviour. "Your lamb shall be without blemish" (Exod. 12: 5). The law in Leviticus is
stringent right down to minutest details, that the holiness and perfection of the great
Antitype, the Lord Jesus Christ, might be constantly in the fore and ever be in the mind of
the believer: