Torah Commentary Archives


Bo (Go)

Exodus 10:1-13:16

Jeremiah 46:13-28

Luke 2:22-24

John 19:31-37

Revelation 8:6-9:12; 16:1-21


Back To the Garden


This is the Torah portion many of us have been waiting for. In it we see the first Passover. Or do we? I do not see it as the first, but rather the first time Passover was given a name. 


It is speculation on my part and I am not asking everyone to agree with me, but please allow me to state my case. I believe the first Passover was in the Garden. The setting is Adam and Eve sinned and covered themselves with fig leaves. Now a fig leaf may be quite large, but when you are using them as clothes, well, you get the picture. The Scripture records the Creator Himself slew an animal and made coverings for Adam and Eve. This is an amazing thought to me. The One who created all living beings was the first to kill one of those beings so that true life could be restored. Ponder this one for a while!


I also believe when Abraham took Isaac to Mount Moriah that it was on the date we now look at as Passover. We see it was not the first time Abraham had done a sacrifice of this kind, as Isaac, probably being familiar with the sacrifice, was asking where the lamb was. I have a feeling that Abraham saw the much bigger picture and was uniting his faith to a lamb who was, who is and who will be. It is the promise Yah made in The Garden, which we are to never lose sight of.


With this thought in mind, could it be that Passover was not being instituted in Egypt, but being restored in Egypt? Selah. We have asked ourselves why were the Hebrews slaves while in Egypt and suggested it was possibly because they had lost sight of the promise of the Garden. In this portion it was about to be restored and given the name of Passover.


As we read, anyone who slaughtered their lamb, placed its blood upon their door and ate of its flesh would be protected from and delivered from Egypt. Question: “Was the work being done on that infamous night a work to restore what they had forgotten, or faith in the promise given many years before?” Perhaps it was a little of both.


As it was for the Hebrews then, it is for the Hebrews now. When we lose sight of the Lamb Who was, Who is and Who will be, we also find ourselves in bondage and slavery. No, we may not be out cutting straw and making bricks, but bondage comes in many forms. 


What is the Hebrew Roots/ Messianic movement about today? Is it truly about us “Getting it all right?” How is that working out? Maybe, just maybe it is about us coming back to focus on the promise of redemption which is tied to a Lamb. Maybe if we focused on Him, we too would find our bricks of bondage crumbling behind us and our thoughts of “Home” becoming more of a reality than merely a dream.