God instructed Moses as to what the people must do (v1-6) “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.’”
This would be the start of a new era, ‘the beginning of months”, A new year, a new beginning, starting with deliverance, and what a deliverance it would be! Remember how they got to Egypt – Joseph had been sold by his brothers to Ishmaelite/Midianite traders because they hated him. God’s amazing plan is unfolding. He brought good out of disaster. Abraham and Sarah, out of frustration, thought they would give God a helping hand in them having a son. Ishmael was the result and now his descendants take Joseph and sell him into slavery in Egypt.
Each man was to take a lamb (from sheep or goats) on the tenth day and look after it for four days until the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month. The lamb was to be without blemish, a clear picture and reminder to us of our Passover Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice. They were to kill it at twilight. Twilight means ‘between the two evenings’. Their day commenced at sunset; thus, twilight was either between sunset and the onset of darkness or from the going down of the sun until it set. The historian Josephus said that it was customary to kill the lamb for the Passover at about 3pm. I don’t think that there is any coincidence that Jesus died at 3pm (Luke 23:44-46)
They were to take some of its blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of their house where they eat it (v7-11). Then eat the flesh that night, roasted whole in the fire, not raw, nor boiled in water, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They were to roast the head, legs and entrails.
If a household was too small for a lamb one could share it with their neighbour next door but if they were to be spared, the blood had to be applied to both houses.
They would probably have become quite attached to the lamb in their household for four days, but they had to kill it and apply the blood to the doorposts and lintel. Then they had to eat it, and none was to remain until morning. If any was left over, they couldn’t eat it next day, it had to be burned in the fire.
They had to eat it fully dressed and ready to move out. It was to be eaten hastily. It was The LORD’s Passover; He was going to rescue them from the slavery of Egypt and bring them to The Promised Land. They had to have faith that He was going to take them out. They did not know how, but they had to trust Him that He would.
The message from God through Moses was clear (v12,13), “For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”
There wasn’t going to be another midnight like this, death was going to come, and The LORD was going to save them if they obeyed His commands. Can you imagine the eldest child, the firstborn, checking with their father if he had put the blood correctly on the door frame?
The Israelites had no excuse for failure or death. God’s instructions were plain to understand. Similarly, God has told us how to be saved, by faith, trusting in The Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and claiming His precious blood to cleanse us from all sin by repentance and receiving Him into our lives by The Holy Spirit (see Acts 2:38).
John the Baptist referred to Jesus as ‘The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29) and the Apostle Paul stated (1 Corinthians 5:7) that Christ is our Passover, sacrificed for each of us who by faith receive Him. The Passover is a clear picture of The Lord Jesus Christ who shed His blood for our redemption. The crucifixion of Jesus was at Passover time.
The LORD said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you”. It is exactly the same for us as we shelter under the blood of The Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for us. Our sins are forgiven and remembered no more because His blood was shed for us. We are covered and secure.
God instructed them that they should remember that day as a memorial, a feast to The LORD throughout their generations (v14-20). There were further instructions for that feast – seven days they must eat unleavened bread.
On the first day they were to remove leaven from their houses. They had to search the house and remove it all. Whoever eats leaven bread from day one to day seven would be cut off from Israel whether they were strangers or natives of the land.
Leaven was like yeast to make the dough to rise. On the first day when they left Egypt there was no time for it to rise, thus they were to keep the feast by having unleavened bread and this was to continue through the seventh day. Both the first and seventh days were holy and they were to do no work on them. The only thing they could do was eat that which was allowed to be prepared by them.
Leaven was a picture of sin. It works silently and pollutes, just as the leaven influences the dough, sin spreads in us. Jesus compared false teaching to yeast (Matthew 16:6). In 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 Paul writes, “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.”
There is no question that Jesus met all the requirements as our Passover Lamb.
The people were to observe this day throughout their generations as an everlasting testimony.
We as Christians celebrate this when we meet for The Lord’s Supper to remember the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Moses called for the elders for the people of Israel (v21-23) to give them detailed instructions and said, “Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families and kill the Passover lamb. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you.”
The use of hyssop is often mentioned in the Bible. In Leviticus 14:6, the ceremony for the cleansing of a leper used hyssop to apply blood. In Numbers 19:6 hyssop was used for to make the ashes of a red heifer for the water of purification. In Numbers 19:18 hyssop was used to apply the purification water.
After David had sinned with Bathsheba and Uriah he came before God in repentance and said (Psalm 51:7), “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean”. Hyssop was always connected with purification through sacrifice.
They were not leave the house until morning. The LORD was going to strike the Egyptians and pass over those who were under the blood.
This observance did not end when they left Egypt, the remembrance of it was to continue. They were to observe it forever (v24-27). They were to keep it when they came into the Promised Land. They were to keep it so that it was a lesson for their children when they ask, “What do you mean by this service?’ that you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’” I find it interesting that they were told, before it happened, to remember and commemorate it.
The Passover was a memorable event, and one writer says that it was the greatest work of redemption on the Old Testament side of the cross. It was to keep alive the story of how God brought them out of slavery in Egypt and how He brought them into the land of Promise. It was and is picture of the greatest event which has taken place in history – the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, without which, we would be lost and headed for a lost eternity.
The people bowed their heads and worshiped (v27,28). So must we.
Midnight arrived and The LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt (v29,30). No-one was exempt from Pharaoh to the prisoner and the livestock. There was a great cry in Egypt. There was not a house in Egypt where there was not one dead. Someone suggested that if any Egyptians had followed the instructions given by Moses, they would have avoided this catastrophe, but evidently no-one did.
The death of the firstborn, the final plague, was directed at the Egyptian gods, Osiris, thought to be the giver of life, and against Pharaoh himself who was looked upon as a god.
So much for the puny Egyptian gods who were absolutely powerless against The Lord God Almighty.
The people were in such grief that they called out for Pharaoh as they had done before during the earlier plagues. This was the last straw!
Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said (v31-36), “Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the LORD as you have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.” And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.”
The people of Egypt were in panic. They did not know the word of The Lord that it was only the firstborn to be killed, they thought it might be them all. Note that God’s Word came true that Pharaoh would drive them out (11:1) not just let them go. Pharaoh even asked Moses and Aaron to bless him too. Maybe he had reached breaking point, but it is doubtful that it was true repentance.
The Egyptians also urged the Israelites to leave, and they had with them the articles of silver, gold and clothing which the Egyptians had given to them when The LORD had given them favour in the sight of the Egyptians. The Israelites also took their dough before it was leavened having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothing on their shoulders. There was no time to let their bread rise and, in any case, they had had to make it without leaven.
There were final instructions for Passover (v43-49) And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover: No foreigner shall eat it. But every man’s servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat it. A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat it. In one house it shall be eaten, you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as a native of the land. For no uncircumcised person shall eat it. One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you.”
No foreigner could eat it only those who had been circumcised. They could not take any of the flesh outside, nor break any one of its bones. Interesting phrase about the bones – In John19:36 we read that none of Jesus’ bones were broken, (this was prophesied in Psalm 22:17) – Jesus our Passover Lamb.
So the Israelites left (v37-39) journeying from Rameses to Succoth. There were about 600,000 men on foot besides women and children, together with their flocks and herds – a great deal of livestock. They baked unleavened cakes of dough as provisions. It is estimated that there would around 2 million people. It states that there was a mixed multitude with them, therefore there may have been other races, even some Egyptians identifying themselves with them preferring to side with The God who had defeated their previous gods, even though they had lost their firstborns.
We are reminded (v40-42) that Israel had lived in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years and on that very same day, their journey began. A night of solemn observance to The LORD for bringing them out of Egypt and it would be throughout their generations. This was a day and a night to remember.
The Exodus begins (v50, 51) and the Israelites did as The LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.
