I wanted to share with you a reader’s version of the script I wrote that we use at our Passover meal. Readers include the Host, Hostess, and Readers 1-8. In our house, Readers 1-5 are my children in order, and this year, Reader 6 is a child friend and Readers 7 and 8 are her parents. There are also a couple of lines that need to be read by the youngest child present who can be one of the above readers or not. I usually type the names into the script for who will be with us each year (and I change the script a little every year as well), but you can also just print it as is and assign people to be each reader. Here is a PDF foldable version you can print to use as is or you can copy and paste from the text below so that you can make your own adaptations as you wish.

You will notice in the script that we use the name Yah for God and Yahshua for Jesus. We have arrived at these names after much prayer and research and they are currently our preferences. However, depending on who we have with us for the meal, we will sometimes use the more traditional God and Jesus so as not to add confusion or if we know they have a different preference than us, we try to honor that as best we can.

One final note: The chant we include to tell the story of the Exodus is adapted from a song on The Singing Bible CDs. Here’s our affiliate link if you are interested in hearing it as a song: https://amzn.to/2UVPSMo. You can replace that part with a reading of the Biblical text for the story of the Ten Plagues, but in this season of our lives, we have found it to be a little long for our children when they are hungry for dinner so we have opted to do it this way. As they get older, I imagine we will begin reading the Biblical text, but I also imagine we’ll still sing this song and/or do the chant because it has become much beloved around here.

Greeting and Welcome

Host: Tonight is an important night, a night in which we celebrate a Biblical festival celebrated each year by Yah’s people to remember and celebrate how Yah protected the Israelites from the plagues that were sent upon Egypt and how He redeemed them from slavery to lead them to the Land He had promised to their ancestor Abraham.

Hostess: As we gather for this sacred celebration in the presence of friends and loved ones, let us remember that we are rejoicing with the whole house of Israel, both young and old, natural-born and grafted in.

Reader 1: This feast links us with the past because it is an ancient tradition, given by Yah Himself, that has been handed down from generation to generation. Our Messiah Yahshua celebrated this feast with His family and friends, and by doing the same, we are following His example.

Reader 2: We are able to celebrate this feast because we have been adopted into the family of Yah because of what our Messiah Yahshua did for us. We who once were far off have now been brought near through the blood of our Messiah, our Passover Lamb!

Reader 3: We celebrate today with the hope that the experience of Yah protecting, redeeming, and freeing will become part of our own personal experience.

Reader 4: We’re so glad you’re here to celebrate with us tonight!

Reader 5: Let’s pray as we begin!

Host: Yah our God, Ruler of the universe, who has chosen us among all peoples and sanctified us with Your love, we praise You! With an everlasting love, You have given us feasts, holidays, and seasons for rejoicing. On this day of the Feast of Passover, we celebrate the salvation and the freedom that You have given us.

All: Yah is the same yesterday, today, and forever. HalleluYah!

Hostess: (lights the candles) Yah our God, King of the universe, who gave us Yahshua our Messiah, the Light of the World, and commanded us to be a light to the Nations, we bless You!

All: Yah our God, Ruler of the universe, we bless You! Amen!

Youngest Child: Why is this night different from all other nights?

Host: Yah commanded us to celebrate the Passover to remember the Israelites’ slavery to the Egyptians and how He delivered them.

Reader 7: As we celebrate, we also remember our own slavery to sin and how Yah delivered us through Yahshua our Messiah.

Reader 6: When Yah gave the Israelites instructions for how to celebrate the Passover in Exodus 12, He said, “You must remove every trace of leaven from your homes.”

Reader 8: After Yahshua died, was raised again, and ascended into heaven, His servant Paul explained why it is important and what it teaches us to get rid of all the leaven before celebrating Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. [Reader 2] and [Reader 3], would you read 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 where Paul explains this?

Reader 2: 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 says, “Don’t you know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old leaven that you may be a new batch without leaven—as you really are. For Messiah, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

Reader 3: “Therefore let us keep the Feast, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with bread without leaven, the bread of sincerity and truth.”

Reader 4: We worked really hard to make sure we got rid of all the leavened bread in our house this week.

Reader 5: All that is left is on that plate.

Reader 1: Would you younger kids like to take it out back and throw it into the fire pit so it will be completely gone from our house before we start the feast?

(Children get rid of the leavened bread)

Reader 6: What does the leaven in that bread represent?

Reader 1: It represents sin, anger, and wickedness.

Host: Yah commanded that we are to tell each other the story of the first Passover so that we will always remember how Yah reached out to His people in their misery and lifted them up into freedom. Children, would you help me tell the story?

Reader 3: After Joseph had brought all of his family to Egypt, he and his brothers eventually grew old and died, but their children’s children stayed in Egypt and became a very large family!

Reader 2: Later on, a new king began to rule, but this pharaoh didn’t remember Joseph and He didn’t like Yah’s people.

Reader 4: He made them into his slaves and beat them and made them work harder and harder until finally Yah’s people cried out to Yah to rescue them.

Reader 5: And, of course, Yah heard them!

Reader 6: Yah chose Moses and his brother Aaron to lead His people out of their slavery in Egypt. He told them to go to Pharaoh and tell him that Yah said “Let My people go!”

Reader 4: They went and gave Pharaoh Yah’s message,

Reader 5: but Pharaoh told them “NO!”

Reader 1: So Moses told Aaron to throw down his walking stick and it became a snake, but that wasn’t enough to convince Pharaoh!

Reader 2: Mom and Dad, can we do the chant?

Hostess: Sure! This is a really fun chant that teaches us about the ten plagues Yah sent to convince Pharaoh to let His people go! You’ll notice that every time Yah sent a plague, Pharaoh still told Moses “No!”

Reader 1: Pharaoh Told Them No!

Reader 2: God’s people lived as slaves in Egypt for the Pharaoh

They worked with straw and clay and cried out to their God

Reader 3: Now Moses was the man God sent to speak to Pharaoh

To tell him God has said to “Let My people go!”

Reader 4: Ten plagues God sent to the Egyptians…