What Does Exodus 12:10 Mean?

"And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn." The no-remainder instruction ensures the Passover meal is fully consumed the night it is prepared: nothing carried over into the next day. The burn-anything-remaining rule prevents the sacred meal from becoming ordinary food the next morning. The Passover Lamb exists only within the time it is designated for, the night of the fourteenth, and what remains at morning is burned because continuing past its designated time would make it something other than what it was ordained to be.

The no-remainder principle is the Passover's temporal integrity rule: the sacred moment has its own temporal boundary, and the sacred meal may not extend beyond it. The same principle governs the manna (Exodus 16:19-20, no manna left overnight except on the sixth day) and the Sabbath offerings: what belongs to the sacred time period must not be carried over into non-sacred time. The burning of leftover Passover lamb is the destruction of what would otherwise become ordinary food from sacred material.

The burn-the-remainder rule also ensures the Passover lamb cannot be treated as a private resource accumulated across the night: you eat it all tonight or burn what remains. The communal equality of the Passover meal, everyone eats, the calculation is by mouths rather than wealth, is extended by the no-accumulation rule. The Passover meal is given for tonight alone, and tonight alone is when it protects and nourishes. The next night's food will be the next night's provision; the Passover cannot be saved for it.