“You may not sacrifice the Pesach offering in just any of the towns that Adonai your God is giving you; but at the place where Adonai your God will choose to have his name live — there is where you are to sacrifice the Pesach offering, in the evening, when the sun sets, at the time of year that you came out of Egypt.”-Deuteronomy 16:5-6
We are currently discussing the main differences between the very first Passover that was held in Egypt and all those subsequent to it.
Let’s jump right into it!
The next big difference concerns the type of animal that was to be slaughtered for the Passover Sacrifice.
According to the original instructions given in the book of Exodus concerning the required animal, God commanded that the animal must be from the flock.
This would have meant either a sheep (lamb) or a goat.
A sheep in its first year is called a lamb, and its meat is also called a lamb.
I need to tell you that the ancient Jewish sages had difficulty with these instructions and ended up just going with the original instruction which was to sacrifice a lamb.
However, what we traditionally call the Passover Lamb, technically speaking according to Scripture could just as well have been a Passover Goat!
Anyways, I digress.
So the sacrifice on the first Passover had to come from the flock (meaning either a “sheep” or a “goat” as I just said).
However, for the Passovers to be observed afterwards, it was okay for the animal to come from either the flock…
…OR the herd.
This means that in addition to being a lamb or a goat, the Passover sacrifice could also have been a cow?!
I ain’t even kidding’ man!
I’m talking about a Passover Cow here folks!!!
From a practical perspective, the reasons given for these varying instructions is that a sheep (or a goat) would have been able to provide the necessary amount of meat necessary to feed a family of 10 or more people.
In addition, in terms of dietary custom, the historical record shows that the Egyptians much preferred eating cattle to sheep.
However, during the time of the Exodus, the Hebrews were raising sheep and goats at the time.
Therefore, if a Hebrew was going to sacrifice a cow during the time of the Exodus, he would have had to purchase it from an Egyptian.
However,
But, given what was about to happen on that first dreadful Passover night in Egypt, obviously that would have been quite an inappropriate thing to do.
My point is…
…I just see the Lord exercising common sense here based on what type of animal the Hebrews would have had easy access to at the time…
…which would have been sheep or goats.
If the Israelites had also been raising cows at the time, the Passover sacrifice could just have well been a cow.
Can you imagine calling Yeshua our Passover cow?!
Admittedly, I’m just theorizing here folks, so don’t start losing your minds.
Nevertheless, it became the norm to use a lamb for the Passover sacrifice and the cattle ended up being used for the other kinds of required sacrifices that took place at the Tabernacle and then later the Temple during the time of the Biblical Feasts.
Finally, note how verses 5-7 stresses the importance of bringing the lamb to the “central sanctuary” for slaughter and establishes the date and time as being the evening at sundown on the 14th of AVIV (or the 14 of NISAN if said in the Babylonian tongue).
We’ll continue this discussion the next time we meet.
Stay frosty.
Yeshua is the lamb that was slain from the foundation of the earth common sense can tell you that there were cows but God choose lamb now we don’t use animal blood again Yeshua told us that the bread is his body and the wine is his blood so the massainc Jews don’t use animal for the pascal (passover ) but moseic Jews use animals blood for the passover because they didn’t believe that JesHua was their brother
Your theology sounds very Christian. But thanks for sharing anyway. Be blessed and Shalom!