Behold the Lamb of God: The Meaning of Passover

Netivyah International

If you want Leviticus 23 explained simply, think of it as God's master calendar. This chapter outlines the entire biblical year, listing the specific days God asked His people to stop their ordinary work and meet with Him. Leviticus chapter 23 is divided into a spring cycle and a fall cycle of holidays.

The Hebrew word used here for these feasts is mo'edim. This word does not mean a party or a festival. It means an appointed time or a set meeting. Think of it like an appointment on a calendar. God set these specific dates to meet with His people. After establishing the weekly Shabbat, the very first annual appointment God lists is Passover.

Leviticus 23:5 says, "On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover."

Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) falls in the spring. It is the foundational event of the Jewish people. But for followers of Yeshua (Jesus), this day also holds the absolute key to our redemption.

When John the Baptist saw his cousin walking toward the Jordan River, he did not just announce the arrival of a great teacher. He shouted a phrase that would have sent a shockwave through the crowd:

"Behold the Lamb of God!" (John 1:36)

To a first-century Jewish ear, that phrase carried the weight of the Exodus, the blood on the doorposts, and the salvation of a nation. John was not speaking in a vacuum. He was pointing directly to a specific lamb, on a specific day, for a specific purpose.

The Lamb in Egypt

To understand what John meant, we have to look back at the original Passover described in Exodus 12.

The children of Israel were enslaved in Egypt. After a series of devastating plagues, God announced one final judgment: the death of the firstborn. You can read more about this historical context in our teaching on The 10 Plagues & Judgments on Egypt’s gods.

To escape this judgment, God gave Israel a very specific set of instructions. Every family was to take a lamb without blemish. They were to keep it in their house for four days. Then, at twilight on the fourteenth day of the month, they were to slaughter the lamb and apply its blood to the doorposts and lintel of their homes.

They were to eat the lamb roasted over a fire, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They had to eat it in haste, with their belts fastened and their sandals on, ready to leave Egypt immediately.

When the Lord passed through the land of Egypt to strike down the firstborn, He would see the blood on the doorposts and "pass over" that house. The blood of the lamb was the only thing standing between the family inside and the judgment outside.

The Grammar of the Lamb

There is a fascinating detail in the Hebrew text of Exodus 12 that most English translations smooth over. Joseph Shulam often points out that the instructions read as if the entire congregation of Israel slaughtered one single lamb.

Millions of people were leaving Egypt. There were hundreds of thousands of households, which means hundreds of thousands of lambs were slaughtered. Yet the Hebrew text uses singular phrasing for the slaughtering of the lamb.

Rashi, one of the most famous medieval Jewish commentators, noticed this anomaly. He asked how it was possible for the whole assembly to slaughter one lamb. Rashi answered this by pointing to a legal principle found in the Talmud (Kiddushin 41b): a man's agent is as himself.

In other words, Rashi understood that the text speaks in the singular because the action is unified. One agent acts on behalf of the many. The entire nation of Israel is saved collectively through the slaughter of this one conceptual lamb.

For a disciple of Yeshua, this is a striking realization. The strange grammar of Exodus 12 points forward. It tells us that one day, a single Lamb would be slain as the agent for the entire congregation.

The Suffering Servant

The idea of a singular man acting as the sacrificial lamb for the nation is not something invented by the writers of the New Testament. It is woven directly into the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible).

The prophet Isaiah wrote about a Suffering Servant who would bear the griefs and sorrows of the people. In Isaiah 53:7, he writes:

"And he, because of his affliction, opens not his mouth: he was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is dumb, so he opens not his mouth."

In the first century, this text was well known, but its fulfillment was a mystery. We see this clearly in the book of Acts. Philip the evangelist was walking on the desert road to Gaza when he met an Ethiopian official sitting in his chariot, reading the scroll of Isaiah.

Philip asked him if he understood what he was reading. The Ethiopian replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" He was reading the exact passage from Isaiah 53 about the lamb led to the slaughter. He asked Philip, "Of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?"

Acts 8:35 tells us, "Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him."

Philip did not need to invent a new theology. He simply showed this man that the Lamb Isaiah promised, and the Lamb the Exodus foreshadowed, had arrived in the person of Yeshua.

Paul and the Early Disciples

Because of Yeshua's sacrifice, the earliest believers did not stop keeping Passover. In fact, they kept it with a renewed understanding.

The apostle Paul was a Pharisee. He was highly educated and deeply immersed in the Torah. When he wrote to the believers in Corinth, a congregation made up of both Jews and Gentiles, he used the language of Passover to correct their behavior.

He wrote in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8:

"Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

Notice exactly what Paul says. He calls the Messiah "our Passover." And his conclusion is not, "Therefore the feast is canceled." His conclusion is, "Therefore let us keep the feast."

Paul expected these believers to understand the Jewish context of their faith. He expected them to know that removing physical leaven (yeast) from their homes during the spring was a picture of removing sin and malice from their hearts.

Over the centuries, the broader Christian world pulled away from The Early Believers in Yeshua & the Second Temple. By the third and fourth centuries, some church leaders actively worked to separate Christian practice from the biblical calendar. They taught that disciples of Yeshua should not keep the appointed times of the Lord, distancing themselves from the Jewish roots of the faith.

But Leviticus 23 does not call them the feasts of the Jews. It calls them the feasts of the Lord. They are God's appointed times. They synchronize us with His holy calendar.

How Passover is Observed in Jewish Practice

Today, Passover is celebrated by Jewish people all over the world. The observance centers around the home and the family table. If you visit the home of a religious Jew in the weeks leading up to the holiday, you will see a massive cleaning effort underway. Families thoroughly scrub their kitchens and homes to remove every single crumb of hametz (leaven or yeast). This strict observance fulfills the biblical command to eat unleavened bread for seven days.

On the evening of the 14th of Nisan, families gather for the Passover Seder. "Seder" simply means order. It is a structured meal that walks through the story of the Exodus. The Seder is a sensory experience designed to teach children and remind adults.

They eat matzah (unleavened bread) to remember the haste with which they left Egypt. They eat maror (bitter herbs) to remember the bitterness of slavery. They drink four cups of wine, representing the four promises of redemption God made in Exodus 6.

Throughout the evening, they read from a book called the Haggadah, which tells the story of how God brought Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. The goal of the Seder is for every generation to view themselves as if they personally came out of Egypt.

If you want to understand the details of the Seder plate and the specific traditions of the meal, you can read The Ultimate Guide to Pesach (Passover).

A Simple Way to Mark Passover at Home

For a Christian family today, you do not need to become Jewish to appreciate the depth of Passover. You do not have to perform a full, traditional Jewish Seder unless you want to. But marking the day can be a practical way to connect your family to the Jewish roots of your faith and the reality of the Lamb of God.

Here is a simple way to observe it at home:

First, take an evening a few days before Passover to clean out your pantry. Have your children help you find crackers, bread, and anything with yeast. Put it in a box in the garage or throw it away. As you do this, talk to them about Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 5. Explain that just as a tiny bit of yeast puffs up a whole loaf of bread, a little bit of pride or secret sin puffs up our hearts. We clean the house physically to remind us to clean our hearts spiritually.

On the evening of Passover, sit down for a special family dinner. Serve lamb and flat, unleavened crackers (matzah).

Before you eat, open your Bible and read Exodus 12. Talk about the blood on the doorposts and how it protected the people inside.

Then, read John 1:29: "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, 'Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'"

Ask your family to sit quietly for a moment and look at the lamb on the table. Think about what it cost God to secure your freedom. The blood has been applied to the doorposts of your life. The judgment has passed over. You are free to walk out of Egypt.

Questions people ask

What are the seven feasts in Leviticus 23?

Leviticus 23 outlines God's appointed times for the year. The seven annual feasts are Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Shavuot (Pentecost), the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah), Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), and Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles).

What is the meaning of Leviticus 23?

Leviticus 23 provides the master calendar for God's holy days. These are not just cultural traditions; God calls them "My appointed times." They are specific days set apart for the people to rest, gather, and remember God's acts of salvation.

What happens in Exodus 12-14?

Exodus 12 through 14 tells the story of God delivering the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. It describes the tenth plague, the institution of the Passover lamb, the blood on the doorposts, the Exodus from Egypt, and the miraculous parting of the Red Sea.

How does a religious Jew celebrate Passover?

A religious Jew prepares for Passover by completely removing all leaven, or yeast, from their home. On the first night, they hold a Seder, a structured meal where they eat matzah, drink four cups of wine, and read the story of the Exodus to pass the history down to the next generation.

Are biblical holidays only for Jewish people?

While the biblical holidays are foundational to Jewish practice, Leviticus 23 calls them the "feasts of the Lord." Many followers of Yeshua (Jesus) from all backgrounds observe these days to better understand the Jewish context of the Bible and to remember how God's plan of redemption unfolds.