PASSOVER: A THRESHOLD COVENANT WITH YHWH AND HIS PEOPLE

BY JAIME NORIEGA | 2015

INTRODUCTION
Zechariah 12:2 "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a [threshold] of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem."

The practices of many cultures in ancient times involve the threshold as an important part of the house, when the guest passes through it and he or she becomes part of the family covenant. It also includes religious practices in many places like Syria & Egypt and Arabia, that have persisted to this day.

The concept of covenant involves the killing of animals making a pathway in between. Both parties would say the covenant with each other while walking through the pathway between two rows of dead animals. The animals represent the doorposts and the pathway the threshold. This is significant to understand because in Gen 15:17-18, we see YHWH, the Creator of the Universe, making an everlasting covenant with Abraham in this same way.

Passover is a covenant meal that follows the Ancient Eastern "Threshold Covenant" pattern. This kind of covenants were the most common model used by gentiles and Hebrews in Egypt to make covenants with gods and individuals. YHWH used the Threshold Covenant model to bring the Hebrews into covenant with Him by a singular event that would become an annual memorial.

Historically, the Egyptians had the names of their gods written in the doors of their houses, that were considered as temples to their gods and those who passed through their doors enter into the covenant with them and their gods. We can see today that people decorates their houses for certain seasons and pagan festivals, like Christmas or Halloween, putting themselves under the authority of the deity or deities they are worshipping.

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