Commentary on Exodus 12:1-14

Anathea Portier-Young

It can be hard to let go of the things, places, relationships, and systems that enslave us.

In the desert, Gods people wanted so badly to get back to the thing they knew. It didnt

matter that it was an awful, deadly thing that stole their freedom and future. They wanted so

badly to get back to the Nile, to the meat and savory vegetables (Exodus 16:3; Numbers

11:5), to the predictable powerlessness, that God had to send them through a wilderness

maze to ensure they could never find their way back to slavery in Egypt (Exodus 13:18).

This weeks passage is about freedom from slavery, new beginning, and leaving behind. It

is about life and death. It teaches us how to get ready to move fast.

The repetitive, ritualistic language of verse 2 focuses on the month, the year, and the

marking of time. And it tells Gods people: this time is for you. The month is measured by

the visible cycles of the waxing and waning moon. The year progresses according to the

alternations of night and day, labor and rest, and seasons of rain and dryness, planting, and

harvest.

Later in Exodus, the reader finds commandments for festivals of first fruits and harvest.

These festivals anticipate a future in the land that God has promised. To arrive at that

future, the people must first leave the past. They must leave Egypt. The month of their

departure marks the beginning of their future and freedom. And so the whole calendar must

now find a new fixed point of origin and orientation. Henceforth, for Gods people all of

time originates in, is oriented to, and commemorates each year their release from slavery.

Time for Gods people is forevermore freedom-time.

To prepare to preach this radical reorienting of time, we might first take a look at our

wrists, in our pockets and bags, on our walls, on these screens that soak up so much of our

time. How much of our lives, individually and collectively, are populated and regulated by

clocks and calendars? What do you like to do in your free time? asks a well-intentioned

new acquaintance. We scoff, not without some smug pride: free time? Whats that? What

calendar are we using? What is its origin and orientation?

God knows the system of death for what it is. Brick-quotas (Exodus 5:7-18), beaten backs

(2:11), bitter lives (1:13), murdered babies (1:22): God sees the suffering and hears the

cries of Gods people (3:7).

The people must let go of this past together. The third verse emphasizes the unity of the

congregation of Israel at the same time that it commands action that every member will

undertake (12:3; cf. 12:6). The language at the verses conclusion is again repetitive and

ritualistic, now emphasizing the inclusion of every household (12:3). In the following

verse, we learn how the smallest households will join together and support one another in

the hard work of letting go (12:4).

The lambs slaughter takes place at twilight, literally between the evenings (12:7). It is

the hour of transition between day and night, a time of ending and beginning. The lambs

blood upon the doorposts of the Israelites houses similarly marks transition. These houses

are not their permanent dwellings. They provide short-term protection. But their most

important feature is the doorway, site of entry and exit. The life-blood of the lamb marks

that exit, protecting, hallowing, and preparing their departure from slavery in Egypt.

The meal itself is also symbolic. They will eat bitter herbs (12:8), a sensory reminder of

bereavement and suffering to be tasted, chewed, swallowed, and digested. The flat bread

(12:8), made without yeast, is a bread of haste and readiness. The instructions for cooking

the lamb are specific (12:9). Neither raw nor boiled: the waters of Egypt have been a source

of death. The Israelites will leave them behind. Instead they shall cook their meal in the

fire, reminder of the fire of Gods presence in the burning bush, and foreshadowing of the

fire that will lead them through the wilderness to new life.

When they eat of the lamb, they shall leave nothing over (12:10) -- there will be no waiting,

no holding back, no returning.

As for the people, they shall eat with their loins girded, sandals on feet, staff in hand, and

in haste (12:11). The expression loins girded rings empty for us -- we know it refers to

preparation, but the language is archaic, no longer our own. One scholar has defined the

dual form motnayim, which NRSV translates loins, as the strong musculature linking

the upper part of the body with the lower.1

As such it provides a symbol for the unity of the whole person, of intention and action. It is

also the bodys strong core (Nahum 2:1; Job 40:16). To gird is to bind or wrap, in this

case for support. Picture a weight-lifting belt, a runners compression shorts, or sports tape.

Runners know that a strong core translates into stability, speed, and endurance.

In 1 Kings 18:16, Elijah girds his loins and as a result outruns Ahab. Muscles supported,

shoes laced, equipment in hand: the Israelites eat this meal quickly, ready to run from death

to life. Moreover, with a staff in one hand, a hasty meal in the other, it becomes impossible

to hold on to anything else.

The economy of death is addicting. We pick up what we were supposed to let go. We keep

resetting our clocks to the quotas of Egypt. When day is done, we take off our shoes, put

down the staff, dawdle by the door. Celebrate the festival and preach the word that will help

Gods people let go of slavery, enter freedom-time, and journey together into new life.

Notes:

1 Moshe Held, "Studies in Comparative Semitic Lexicography," in Studies in Honor of

Benno Landsberger on His Seventy-fifth Birthday (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

1965), pp. 395-06, p. 405.