Our Passover Script (as of 2020)
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…
Everyone: But Pharaoh told them ‘No!”
Reader 5: Ten plagues each worse than those before them
Ten plagues…would Pharaoh let them go?
Reader 6: The River Nile turned to blood…
Everyone: But Pharaoh told them ‘No!”
Reader 7: God sent a plague of frogs…
Everyone: But Pharaoh told them ‘No!”
Reader 8: God sent a plague of gnats…
Everyone: But Pharaoh told them ‘No!”
Reader 1: God sent a plague of flies…
Everyone: But Pharaoh told them ‘No!”
Reader 2: Then all the livestock died…
Everyone: But Pharaoh told them ‘No!”
Reader 3: God sent a plague of boils…
Everyone: But Pharaoh told them ‘No!”
Reader 4: God sent a plague of hail…
Everyone: But Pharaoh told them ‘No!”
Reader 5: God sent a plague of locusts…
Everyone: But Pharaoh told them ‘No!”
Reader 6: God sent three days of darkness…
Everyone: But Pharaoh told them ‘No!”
Reader 7: Ten plagues God sent to the Egyptians
Ten plagues each worse than those before them
Reader 8: Ten plagues…would Pharaoh let them go?
Would Pharaoh let them go?
Everyone: But Pharaoh told them ‘No!”
Reader 1: Finally, after those first nine plagues we just sang about, Moses warned Pharaoh, “Obey Yah or He will send the worst plague of all. If you do not let His people go, the firstborn son in each Egyptian family will die. Only those who obey me will live.”
Youngest Child: but Pharaoh told them “NO!”
Reader 3: Yah told His people through Moses and Aaron to take their best lamb, kill it, and put some of its blood on their doorposts.
Reader 2: Then when He sent His angel to kill the firstborn sons of those who were disobeying Him, the angel would see the blood on the doorpost and pass over that house, leaving the firstborn son alive.
Reader 4: That night, they were to wait in their homes, ready to go as soon as Pharaoh let them.
Reader 6: And while they waited, they were to eat the lamb they had sacrificed along with bitter herbs and unleavened bread.
Reader 7: It happened just as Yah said it would. While His people ate the first Passover meal, Yah’s angel went through Egypt and killed the firstborn sons in every house that had not obeyed Yah’s instructions. But those who had obeyed were saved.
Reader 8: When Pharaoh and the Egyptians realized what had happened, they not only let Yah’s people go; they urged them to leave as quickly as possible and even gave them gifts to hurry them on their way!
Reader 3: Some of the Egyptians and other non-Israelites even left with them, deciding to follow Yah since He had proven Himself to be the most powerful god of all!
Hostess: What an amazing story! Each food that we will eat tonight reminds us of this awesome story of salvation and freedom. Just like Yah’s people in the story, we will eat bitter herbs, unleavened bread, and lamb.
Pass out bitter herbs and salt water.)
Reader 4: Why do we eat bitter herbs and dip them in salt water?
Reader 8: Yah commanded us to eat bitter herbs to remind us of the bitterness of slavery. And we follow the tradition of dipping them in salt water to remind us of the tears shed by the slaves.
Reader 3: Why do we eat charoset?
Hostess: Even though it’s not commanded, we follow this tradition as well because it reminds us of the mortar and the bricks that the slaves were forced to make in Egypt.
Reader 7: Its sweetness when eaten with the bitter herbs reminds us that Yah can turn even the bitterest experience into something sweet.
(Everyone eats bitter herbs charoset. Ladies dish out portions of lamb.)
Reader 5: Why do we eat lamb?
Reader 1: We eat lamb because the Israelites sacrificed a perfect lamb on the night the angel of death passed over the land of Egypt.
Reader 6: They put its blood on their doorposts and the angel of death passed over their household. The firstborn of their households were not killed.
(Everyone eats lamb. Ladies pass out unleavened bread/matzah.)
Reader 4: Why do we eat unleavened bread?
Reader 2: We eat unleavened bread because Yah commanded us to and to remember that the Israelites prepared bread in a hurry when they were delivered from Egypt.
Reader 3: When we eat this bread, we remember that leaven represents sin, and we want our bodies to be pure before Yah.
Host: Yahshua helped us understand the true meaning of all of these parts of the Passover meal. When we eat bitter herbs, we think of the bitterness of slavery. We were also slaves before we began to follow Yahshua. What were we enslaved to?
All children: Sin
Reader 8: When we dip the bitter herbs in salt water, we remember the tears the Israelites shed in slavery. Why did we shed tears of bitterness before we began to follow Yahshua?
Reader 5: Because we were slaves to sin, but since He saved us, we have new life!
Hostess: When we eat charoset, we think about the mortar the slaves used to make bricks for the Egyptians. We also made our own bricks when we were in slavery to sin. What were those bricks?
Reader 2: Sins that we built around us like bricks making a wall. Sins like lying, anger, hatred, and pride.
Reader 1: And when we eat the Lamb, we remember the true and perfect Passover Lamb who was sacrificed for all of our sins, Yahshua our Messiah!
Reader 4: That’s right! When John the Baptist saw Yahshua coming toward him, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
Hostess: Tonight we celebrate Messiah Yahshua, our Passover Lamb, and the salvation He has brought us! Let’s eat!
Host: Yah our God, King of the universe, who sanctifies us with Your commandments, who brings forth bread from the earth, and who has commanded us to eat the Passover, we bless You and we gladly obey Your commandments! Amen.
(Enjoy the Passover meal together. Continue with the script at the end of the meal.)
**************************Conclusion of the Meal***************************
Hostess: (Hold up a piece of unleavened bread.) Who remembers what this bread without leaven represents to us?
All children: Yahshua’s body, because He never sinned
Host: The Bible tells us that Yahshua celebrated the Passover with His disciples before He died. While they were eating, He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”
Reader 7: Taking bread and giving thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you, do this in remembrance of Me.”
Hostess: As we eat this unleavened bread now, let’s think about the sacrifice that Yahshua made by offering himself on the cross to free us from the slavery of our sins.
(Everyone eats.)
Reader 8: Later, taking the cup, Yahshua gave thanks and said, “This cup is the renewed covenant in My blood which is shed for you.”
Host: As we drink this fruit of the vine, let’s think about Yahshua’s blood that He shed for us. When Yah our Father sees Yahshua’s blood on our hearts, He passes over and we are saved from death!
(Everyone drinks.)
Hostess: The Bible says: “When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall thank Yah your God…”
Host: Yah our God, Father of all, who sustains the world with goodness and gives us the food of the earth, You have blessed us abundantly and we give You thanks! Amen.
All: We thank You, Yah our God, for providing for our every need! You sustain our bodies with good food and you sustain our souls with Your Holy Spirit and Your Holy Word. Thank You for giving us the feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread to remind us of all You have done for us!
Host: May Yah bless you and keep you! May He make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you! May Yah look upon you kindly, and grant you His peace, His shalom.
All: Amen!
Hostess: The Gospel of Matthew tells us that when Yahshua and His disciples finished their last Passover meal together, they sang a hymn and went to the Mount of Olives. Since we’ve finished our meal, let’s move over to the living room and have a time of worship together.
There is a Redeemer
How Deep the Father’s Love for Us
When I Survey/Wonderful Cross
Lamb of God
You are my all in all