The lamb, the blood, the night He was delivered
Status: Working notes Faith & Logic Published September 3, 2026 Updated September 23, 2026
“During the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, is Adonai’s Passover.” — Leviticus 23:5 (TLV)
:ab-bible-ribbon-big: Exodus 12:1–28 · Leviticus 23:5 · Luke 22:7–20 · 1 Corinthians 5:7
Pesach (pesach) — פֶּסַח — is Adonai’s Passover: the fourteenth day of the first month, at evening. The name is tied to the verb pasach — to pass over, to spare. Leviticus 23 names the day in one line. Exodus 12 tells first hearers what the line costs: an unblemished lamb, blood on the door, a meal eaten in haste, and a death that does not enter the house marked by that blood.
The next night begins Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6). First hearers could tell the night of the lamb from the week of the bread. They belong together on the calendar. They are not the same appointment.
Exodus 12 institutes the night before Sinai’s calendar speech. A lamb for a house. No bone broken. Bitter herbs. Blood as the sign. The firstborn of Egypt die. Israel walks out.
Exodus 12:14: the day is a memorial, kept as a feast to Adonai throughout their generations.
Exodus 12:26–27: when a son asks what the service means, the answer is not a theory. It is a story: He passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He struck Egypt and delivered our houses.
Leviticus 23:5 places that night on the yearly list of mo’adim. Deuteronomy 16:1–8 ties the sacrifice to the place the Lord chooses — later, the Temple.
First hearers were not given an illustration. They were given a rescue they had to eat.
Yeshua (Jesus) is a son of this calendar before He is a teacher of it. His parents go up to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of Passover (Luke 2:41–42). John marks more than one Passover in His public work (John 2:13; 6:4; 11:55).
The last week is a Passover week. He sends the disciples to prepare the meal. He reclines and says, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15, TLV). He takes the matzah and the cup and ties them to His body and His blood. He also says He will not eat this feast again “until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God” (Luke 22:16).