God gave Moses and Aaron instructions for the Passover on two levels. There were specifications regarding what was to happen that very day, and also instructions for what was to happen in years to come. There are details about the lamb, about how it is to be slaughtered at twilight, about how the blood is to be marked on the doorposts and lintel of the house, about how the meat is to be cooked, and about how it is to be eaten hurriedly (Exodus 12:3-11). At the same time, “This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance” (12:14). So the instructions address what is to be done Right Now, and also what is to be done years from now.

The first Passover feast was simple, with the meat of a roasted lamb or goat, eaten hurriedly: in the middle of the night Pharaoh said they could go (12:30-32), so they left as close to immediately as they could manage. And so “the Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot” (Exodus 12:37) – plus their families.

(Matthew wanted us to see this text as the precursor to Jesus feeding the multitudes. He provided three clues (can I call them bread crumbs): in both narratives (1) the people follow the Lord into the wilderness, (2) for an event in which bread is central, and (3) the number of participants is counted by the thousands of heads-of-household (Matthew 14:13, 19, 21), There are clear differences between the two narratives, and all four gospels tell the feeding the multitude story in their own way, but Matthew is the one who makes sure we get the parallel by counting the men and then saying “along with their wives and children” – not, as some suppose, to dismiss the wives and children as unimportant, but so that when we read Matthew 14 we can say, “Oh, wow, look at that: it’s like the Passover story!)

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We give you thanks, O Lord, for our daily bread, which you give to us in ordinary and extraordinary ways. You did this in the time of Moses, and in the time of Jesus, and we so often take it for granted. Fill our hearts with remembrance and gratitude, we pray, for all the blessings we have received.

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