Exodus 12:2

The Passover chapter opens in a way that says much. "And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you" (Ex. 12:1-2). The month in question was Abib, otherwise Nisan (Ex. 13:4), and corresponded to our March-April. Until then it had been the seventh month in their reckoning. From the time God delivered Israel out of Egypt, they were to count it the first. Redemption gave the people a new start with God.

The everyday calendar year was rolling on in its usual course when the Lord interrupted it for His people. In this way He taught them, in principle, that they were to begin a new era in His company. From then on they were to regard their earlier history as a blank. Redemption was to be the first step in real life. A man's life is of no account until he begins to walk with God, knowing full salvation and settled peace through the precious blood of the Lamb. Before this, in the judgement of God and in the language of Scripture, he is "dead in trespasses and sins," "alienated from the life of God." His whole history is a complete blank, even though in man's account it may have been one unbroken scene of busy activity. Think of all that holds the attention of the man of this world: the honours, the riches, the pleasures, the attractions of so-called life. In the light of God's judgement it must all be counted a dismal blank, a worthless void.

God blots out the earlier months of the year, as it were, and begins afresh for them with the Passover month. Grace gives them this new beginning; and it can do nothing kinder than to blot out the past... When God says, "I will remember no more," it has a very different meaning. He cannot really forget, any more than He can change His mind. Yet both words are used of Him in a relative sense. He does not remember our sins and wrongdoings when He treats us as if these had never happened. In the way He acts toward us we can find no sign at all that He remembers them.

God changed the beginning of the year to let Israel know this: their life was now not the life of creatures but of ransomed sinners. They will spend eternity with God in that character. The Passover was the moment in their history when they entered on that character. Blood sprinkled on their doorposts sheltered them from destruction. So God made that moment the beginning of the year for them.

The truth recorded in Exodus 12 declares that Israel had no real standing with the Lord until then. Indeed, only from this memorable Passover did they date their history... Since Israel started with God in this way, the message to every person is unmistakable. Nothing can give any soul a recognised beginning with God except what that unforgettable time set forth. Whatever their earlier life had been, this clear statement shut the door on it. It all went for nothing until God raised the question of sin and Himself provided for its settlement.

Notice in Exodus 12 - 13 that the feast of unleavened bread stands in close connection with the Passover... The apostle Paul explains what this means for us. "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Cor. 5:7-8.) In one word, God claims holy lives from His redeemed; holiness is to mark them during the whole of their stay in the wilderness.