How the significance of the Hebrew passover rite stands out in the light
of this primitive custom! It is not that this rite had its origin in the
days of the Hebrew exodus from Egypt, but that Jehovah then and there
emphasized the meaning and sacredness of a rite already familiar to
Orientals. In dealing with his chosen people, God did not invent a new
rite or ceremonial at every stage of his progressive revelation to them;
but he took a rite with which they were already familiar, and gave to it
a new and deeper significance in its new use and relations.
Long before that day, a covenant welcome was given to a guest who was to
become as one of the family, or to a bride or bridegroom in marriage, by
the outpouring of blood on the threshold of the door, and by staining
the doorway itself with the blood of the covenant. And now Jehovah
announced that he was to visit Egypt on a designated night, and that
those who would welcome him should prepare a threshold covenant, or a
pass-over sacrifice, as a proof of that welcome; for where no such
welcome was made ready for him by a family, he must count the household
as his enemy.[541]
In announcing this desire for a welcoming sacrifice by the Hebrews, God
spoke of it as “Jehovah’s passover,” as if the pass-over rite was a
familiar one, which was now to be observed as a welcome to Jehovah.[542]
Moses, in reporting the Lord’s message to the Hebrews, did not speak of
the proposed sacrifice as something of which they knew nothing until
now, but he first said to them, “Draw out, and take you lambs according
to your families, and kill the passover”–or the threshold
cross-over;[543] and then he added details of special instruction for
this new use of the old rite.