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Ready to Go Feet Shod,
Staff in Hand This is how you are to eat it—dressed to travel, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. … It is the LORD’s Passover.—Exodus 12:11, Net Bible{FOOTNOTE: See http://www.bible.org/netbible/} Michael Nekora This “dress code” was a requirement that applied only to the first Passover. Never again did the participants in Passover observances dress themselves as though they were about to start on a long journey. From one point of view, asking the people to dress this way impressed upon their minds that this night was different. At midnight the death angel would not just “pass over” the firstborns who were under the blood, the entire nation would be expected to get out of Egypt quickly, leaving their homes and their past life of bondage behind. They could take with them only what they could carry: a few personal possessions and the “spoil” given them by the Egyptians (Exodus 12:36).
Typically everyone wore long, loose, flowing robes which provided a degree of
comfort in that environment. But robes are an impediment to fast travel. Tucking
a robe into the girdle or belt left the legs and knees free for unimpeded
motion. The apostle Paul refered to this when he wrote, “Stand therefore, having
your loins girt about with truth” (Ephesians 6:14). When true Christians have
and use their “girdle of truth,” they are ready to perform “every good work”
(Hebrews 13:21; cf., 2 Timothy 3:16,17). Shoes Based on ancient Egyptian monuments, shoes or sandals were rarely worn; they were certainly never worn inside a house. That custom kept a home free from tracked-in dirt and made it easier to wash one’s feet. But it was different this night: they were embarking on a long journey, much longer than any of them imagined at the time. Asking people to put shoes on their feet suggests the need for preparedness. The lesson is similar for the spiritual “Israel of God.” In our antitypical “Egypt” of bondage, we are asked to put something on our feet: “[Have] your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15). If we do this, we can walk in the path God directs without becoming tired or weary, regardless of how rugged the way might be. The penury of the prodigal son’s condition in our Lord’s parable was such that he had to walk the long distance from the “far country” to his father’s house in bare feet. He couldn’t afford shoes. When he arrived, the father commanded not just that a robe and ring be brought, but that shoes be provided for his feet (Luke 15:22). The Gibeonites used old, worn shoes to convince Joshua they lived far away: “Our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey” (Joshua 9:13). So placing “sandals on your feet” automatically meant preparing for a journey. And although the Israelites did not know it at the time, neither their clothes nor their shoes would become old by reason of that forty-year journey (Deuteronomy 8:4). The Staff Although few people own a “staff” today, many hikers would never start a trip without one. In ancient times it was used not only to support and assist a traveler, it could also be used as a weapon to defend against unexpected threats. Jacob is the first one to mention a staff: “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands” (Genesis 32:10). That staff was all he had when he left home, fleeing the wrath of his brother after stealing the blessing his father Isaac had meant to give Esau. Just before Jacob died he gave a special blessing to each of his sons. Joseph, anticipating that he would do something special for his two sons, took Ephraim and Manasseh with him (Genesis 48:1). Jacob did bless the two and said they were to be considered as his sons, not his grandsons. They became tribal heads along with Jacob’s other sons. When the land of Canaan was divided among the twelve tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh were included as tribal heads; Joseph and Levi were not. Ephraim became so dominant that occasionally that tribe is used as a synonym for the ten-tribe northern kingdom. In Hosea’s prophecy, for example, Ephraim is mentioned as a surrogate for the entire nation thirty-two times. There is also a reference to the blessing of Joseph’s two sons in the New Testament: “By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff” (Hebrews 11:21). The apostle is quoting the Septuagint rendering of Genesis 47:31, a verse that precedes the blessing of Joseph’s sons: “And Israel bowed down on the head of his staff.” Many translations say he bowed down on the “bed’s head.” The original Hebrew supports either thought, but since beds in those days had no heads, the Septuagint and the Book of Hebrews are more likely to be correct. When all his sons gathered before him for his final patriarchal blessing, Jacob may have concluded that if God had so blessed his son Joseph, he should act in harmony with that blessing by making him the firstborn of his children. Eventually the idea of a “double portion” as a right of the firstborn was codified in the law (Deuteronomy 21:17). By treating Joseph’s sons as his own, Jacob essentially gave Joseph the “double portion.” Travelling with a staff is an apt symbol of a “strangers and pilgrims,” a phrase the apostle applied to the ancient faithful ones (Hebrews 11:13). Peter applied the phrase to faithful Christians: “I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11). Pastor Russell made the same connection: “The antitypical first-born and household of faith who would thus partake of the Lamb during the nighttime of this Gospel age would be pilgrims and strangers in the world, who would realize the bondage of sin and death, and be desirous of being led by the Lord into freedom from sin and corruption—into liberty of the sons of God” (Studies in the Scriptures, vol. 6, p. 461). When Jesus sent out the twelve, he specifically told them to take sandals and a staff—nothing else: “[Jesus] commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse; but be shod with sandals” (Mark 6:8,9). Later they had to admit that in spite of not having what most would consider essential, they really had everything needed (Luke 22:35). Travelling as they did, these early disciples would be seen as pilgrims and strangers by those among whom they travelled. “We, too, are to remember that here we have no continuing city, but as pilgrims, strangers, travelers, staff in hand, girded for the journey, we are en route to the Heavenly Canaan and all the glorious things which God hath in reservation for the church of the first-born, in association with their Redeemer as kings and priests unto God.”—Reprints, p. 5641. “The staff was something to lean upon for support as one travelled, like a cane or walking stick; and was much more common in their time than today. We like to think of this staff for the Spiritual Israelite in a special way, as representing, if you please, Scriptures memorized from time to time, and upon which we fall back, as it were, for support and inspiration, when for one reason or another we would be overtaken by a weariness in the way. The ‘staff’ thus also bespeaks a preparedness with regard to all the vicissitudes of the way!”— Anton Frey, Notes on the Passover and the Memorial, p. 15. The Antitypical Firstborns Although the firstborns under the blood did not die that Passover night, God identified them as his special possession. But instead of taking each one individually, God took the tribe of Levi as a substitute for all the firstborns (Exodus 13:2; Numbers 3:12). Those in the tribe of Levi had no inheritance in the land (Numbers 18:23) and are thus a fitting type or symbol of those who in Christ’s future kingdom receive a spiritual reward, not an earthly one. As antitypical “Levites” true Christians gird themselves for a long journey, take staff in hand, and press forward not knowing the details of their journey. This requires faith. All that is associated with one’s old life—family, home, lands—must be left behind. All must be consumed on God’s altar. But as ancient Israel left everything behind and marched forward with anticipation of a wonderful promised land, so God’s antitypical “firstborns” leave behind all they have as they march toward their promised inheritance. Exodus 12:11 ends with the words, “It is the LORD’s Passover.” If Jehovah thus identified himself with the typical Passover, how much more appropriate is this phrase to the antitypical Passover of the firstborns. Surely, the “firstborns” of this Gospel age are God’s “peculiar treasure unto me above all people” (Exodus 19:5)—his “royal priesthood,” a “holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9). Jesus emphasized this when he told his disciples, “The Father himself loveth you” (John 16:27). Jacob left home with little more than his staff, but after about twenty years, he had accumulated considerably more than that. As he was returning from Laban’s house with a large family, servants, and an immense amount of livestock, he learned Esau was coming to meet him with four hundred men. That news struck fear in his heart. But God showed he had not forsaken him by sending an angel who “wrestled” with him until morning and blessed him (Genesis 32). God had not forsaken Jacob, and he will not forsake us: “Be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man shall do unto me” (Hebrews 13:5,6). |