122_The Feast of the Passover Ex 23:4-5 “These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. 5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the Lord's Passover. Ex 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. There was a young man who had grown up in poverty. His mother worked hard to ensure that he could go to school. He excelled academically, won a fine scholarship, and finally secured a high-paying job. To celebrate, he took his mother out to a good restaurant. As they sat at the candlelit table, attentive waiters hovering around to make sure they had everything they wanted, he saw the tears running down his mother’s face. She smiled at him, and said, “I’m crying with joy, because I remember the nights you and I had just a bowl of rice and salt to eat in our tiny one-room house. I’m thankful because that memory tells me how far we’ve come.” Celebration at its deepest is not just about abundance—it’s about remembering and about thankfulness. That’s exactly what the Feast of the Passover was for Israel: a celebration rooted in memory, drenched in meaning, and foreshadowing something far greater than lambs and herbs and fire. Leviticus 23:4-8 lays out the appointed feasts of the Lord. These were holy gatherings where God’s people were to stop and remember - and worship. Part of the weight and wonder of these feasts comes from knowing how Israel was introduced to celebration. When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, they had no time, no rest, no seasons. There were no