60_Understanding the Passover Exodus 12:3-11 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. 7 “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. A 19th-century Jewish Rabbi, Morris Joseph, declared, “Passover affirms the great truth that liberty is the inalienable right of every human being.” He encapsulated the essence of the Passover—a pivotal event that echoes throughout history, transcending its immediate context in Egypt to resonate with our lives today. The Passover is not merely an ancient story of deliverance; it is a declaration of freedom and redemption that points us to a deeper, eternal truth. From the beginning of the plagues, God made it clear that Israel was His chosen people by his sovereign choice, and that he would shield them from all harm. In Exodus 4:22, God declares, "Israel is my son, my firstborn." This divine claim was not rooted in any worth of the Israelites but in God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Up to the ninth plague, therefore, the Israelites played a largely passive role in their deliverance. Circumcision, the sign of this covenant, symbolized their unique relationship with God. It was an outward mark of an inward trust, a declaration of faith in the God who had called them to be His people. Moses brought out the true symbolism of circumcision when he exhorted them (Deuteronomy 10:16), saying, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.” This was a call to get rid of their self-will and yield fully to God. But even circumcision, the mark of the covenant, could not shield them from the judgment of the final plague. Yet, by the time of Moses, many Israelites had strayed. As Joshua 24:14 reveals, they had turned to the gods