The God Eaters

 

(If you do not want to read you can watch it here:onYouTube)

There is an aspect of the Jewish Passover that is often overlooked or even misunderstood by Christians who interpret it in relation to Jesus Christ. Also, I would be bold to say that even for some modern Jewish people who celebrate the Passover there are some things that I’m about to say that they have probably never been heard.

 In order to understand the Passover, we have to understand the full context in which it was given. As it says in Exodus 12:12 its part of a judgment on all the gods of Egypt. You will find that each  plague were  judgments on the different deities of the Egyptians. The judgment of Passover was on the lamb god Khnum. He was Egypt’s most dominant god before the rise of the sun god Ra, considered the god of fertility Sometimes Khnum was represented as a man with a ram’s head, and it was also believed to have created the first human beings from clay, like a potter, I will talk more about him later. For now, I wanted to set the context that the Passover was a judgment on a god.

This often brings up the question does the bible teach there were other gods? It does but not in the way we tend to think. We tend to use the word God as the ultimate power. You will find in the scriptures that there is a chief God, who is not created, and lesser beings called gods (Elohim) that he created, sometimes we call them angels, but the bible calls them sons. This is referred to by scholars as the Divine Council.  As it says in Psalm 82 god created other divine beings out of love to govern the world. These beings abused their power and in the psalm god judges these beings. He says he makes them die like men. This is exactly what takes place in the plagues. In every plague the creator God is slaying his children, he is doing so by destroying their domain that corresponds to their spiritual rule and in the final plague he not only destroys the domain he gives the seat of power over to someone else.

 Going back now to Khnum, he was responsible for the children of the land, his domain was fertility, and being the chief deity at the time the pharaoh was his representative. So, when Moses told the pharaoh if you don’t let my firstborn son go, the children of Israel, he was going to kill Khnum’s firstborn, the firstborn children of Egypt. God in effect was going to make a killing blow to the spiritual rule that Khnum had over the people of Egypt. He was going to end his domain, but he wouldn’t be doing this alone for he was going to be using his people.

It’s not by chance that the Israelites were told to use a lamb. Khnum was a lamb and being that his cult was prominent lambs were symbols of his presence. This is one of the reasons why you will read in the bible that shepherds were an offence to the Egyptians. As a symbol God would use it in his judgment against Khnum. The Israelites were to ritual consume this god and put its blood on their doorposts a sign of this gods destruction. When the angel, that was bringing judgment against Khnum’s domain, saw this blood. It wasn’t a sign to just merely protect the people inside, it was an invocation to finish the job. In essence, it was a priestly act by the people in the home that singled the destruction of Khnum’s domain

The Passover since this time, and every time it is celebrated, is an ordination ceremony.  It makes people priests of the most-high God. It does so not just by God letting the people eating it participate in the act of Judgment. It does so by making the people eating the god, gods themselves. They ritualistically killed a god, by consuming it, and by doing this took on its attributes. In this case its place in the world. God gave the people eating it the place that this god had in the Divine Council. As mentioned in psalm 82, these gods abused their role. They were supposed to lead people into the worship of the Most High and instead, they had people worship them. The newly ordained people would take up that role in leading the nations into the worship of the Most High. This is why God said to those who eat this Passover you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. As priests, as a holy nation, their priesthood is to lead, and still is, to lead the whole world to God.

This context is essential for understanding the new Passover that Jesus had started. He makes himself the new lamb god to be consumed. The difference is that this lamb God would freely give his life. He freely gave his attributes over in his Passover meal, the holy Eucharist. He was also innocent, unlike Khnum. He did not deserve to die, but chose to give his life so we can have what he is, so we can share  his divinity, but in terms of his divinity he was not just some created god like Khnum, he has no beginning or end.  Also, unlike the Khnum, whose place in the divine council was usurped by those who ate him, Jesus freely shared his place in the divine council which is being Lord over it, making us true sons of the most high.

The new Passover, the Eucharist, like the old is our ordination ceremony. We become as the Apostle Peter said a kingdom of priests and like with the first Passover we have a calling to bring the whole world to God. However, unlike the first Passover who invoked God's judgment against other gods by the blood of the lamb, we become that judgment. When we ritualistically consume the body and blood of Jesus  we become what he is,God, and as gods we become a sign of the end to whatever powers that rule this. We become a sign that the kingdom of God is here.