Chapter 12 of Exodus is one of the most important chapters of this book, and perhaps one of the most important of the Old Testament. The reason is that it paints for us a picture of the human condition, and God’s plan to save mankind.
The family of Jacob came to Egypt because of a famine - God actually directed them down there even though He had told Abraham that they would be subjected to slavery and abused as a people. For a while they enjoyed favor because of Joseph’s position in the Egyptian government. But after Joseph’s death a new Pharaoh took over who did not know Joseph and who didn’t like the Hebrew people - so he made them slaves - as a way to stop the children of Israel from being a political force and to keep them as an economic force.
Onto the scene comes Moses - saved from a death sentence and raised in Pharaoh’s court - then driven out of the country after he killed an Egyptian overseer for beating some Hebrews. 40 years later God calls Moses to return and rescue the people. God used 9 plagues to try to wrest Israel from the grip of Pharaoh - natural disasters that took on an increasingly personal and deadly form: loss of water, frogs, gnats, flies, boils, livestock death, hail, locusts, darkness. The plagues also got more discriminatory - at first everyone suffered, then God spared the Israeli territory of Goshen, then the people of Israel itself. Nothing worked and now God has promised one last plague - knowing that this one will do the trick - but it is an unusual plague - unlike any of the others.
It is called the Passover - but could also be called Death of the Firstborn. How is it different?
1. The judgment covers everyone - Israel cannot escape just by living in a certain place
2. It is very discriminatory - no massive hail, but literally an angel will kill every first born male of human or animal
3. There was preparation for the plague
4. To escape death, death had to occur and be appropriated to each family
5. There was warning, but no chance to escape for Pharaoh
First, God takes great pains to give specific instructions to Moses and Aaron for the people:
Verses 1 - 2
Passover is a beautiful and powerful picture of God’s plan for salvation - and just as the people is Israel were starting over - this was now going to be the beginning of their year - so too with us when we come to salvation through the Lamb of God Jesus Christ we start over as well.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation . The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ESV
Now the children of Israel are going to have to follow a very specific recipe to be saved from this plague - very picturesque and full of shadows of things to come - but could have been somewhat confusing for this people.
Verses 3 - 6
Initially, Moses told Pharaoh that they were going to go out to the wilderness and there make a sacrifice from among their flocks. In reality, the sacrifice would happen within Egypt - just as for us, the sacrifice of Jesus took place in this world.
Notice that God said for every family to take a lamb - but if they couldn’t afford one, they should find their neighbors and go together. No one was to be excluded for lack of means - even as with our salvation - the cost was great, but the price is free.
Isaiah 55:1 "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money ,come, buy and eat! ESV
Also notice that the count was made according to what each person can eat. Salvation through Jesus is always enough - Hebrews 2 says that He was made the "perfect" sacrifice. God’s grace is enough to cover all of our sins, but there is never any extra - the entire lamb was to be eaten, and if one household was too small then it was shared by several - you can’t reassign your grace to someone else. Everyone has to get their own!
The lamb was to be without blemish or physical defect. This pictures the fact the Lamb of God was to be without sin.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. ESV
The lamb was to be slain at twilight "between the two evenings." Most likely this was between sunset and total darkness - sometime after 6pm. The sacrifice was to happen at the same time, but in each individual household - picturing the fact that Jesus died once - but for all individuals - there is no mass salvation - only individual salvation which occurred at the same time.
As far as the significance of taking the lamb on the 10th day and keeping till the 14th - there is no real agreement among scholars on this. Some say each day represents a generation that Israel was kept in Egypt, some say it was to spur conversation about the significance of what God was doing. It is interesting to note that this was one of four things in the first Passover that was not required afterwards - including the killing in each household, the placing of blood on the doorposts, and the eating of it in haste.
Verses 7 - 10
They were to put the blood around the door to their house - the blood of the Lamb of God is applied to our hearts - our inner person, our soul - that gives us new life and escape from death.
They were to eat it at night - roasted, the entire lamb - and leave none of it left over. Jesus gave His whole body to sacrifice for our sins, He held nothing back. It was to be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The unleavened bread signifies the absence of sin, and the bitter herbs the bitterness of slavery to sin. We should be reminded that God is holy, and that when we belonged to Satan it was bitter slavery.
Hebrews 2:14-15 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. ESV
Roasting was apparently a different cooking method than they were used to. They would normally boil the meat - and the Egyptians were known for eating raw meat to honor their gods.
Verses 11 - 12
They needed to be ready to go - and you know, there is sort of a parallel to our accepting Jesus as well. When we make the decision to give our life to Christ, there is a finality to it.
Luke 9:62 "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." ESV
You can’t accept Jesus with the idea that you might stick around in your old state - it is a clean break with the world and with sin.
Notice too that God is judging the gods of Egypt. This I’m sure partly refers to Pharaoh, who was considered a "god." But I wonder if there were spiritual judgments going on as well? Perhaps to the demons who inspired the Egyptian gods?
So now God tells them that this thing they are doing will be repeated as a way to remember what God has done - year after year.
Verses 13 - 20
Notice that God didn’t say "When I see you" it was "when I see the blood." It isn’t anything in us that God finds intrinsically good - it is the blood of Christ and His righteousness that God finds good and applies to us.
They were to remember this by commemorating it with a feast - not a funeral. Yes sin is bad and hell and judgment are horrible - and we should be sobered by what Jesus did for us by suffering on the cross - but we should also have joy as in a feast.
Hallmarks of the feast - no yeast, no work, celebrated forever. We are now sinless in Jesus (Romans 5:17), we can rest in the work that He has done for us (Hebrews 3) and we will celebrate this fact for all of eternity!
Jesus, in Luke 22, celebrated the Passover with His disciples. He made it clear that He WAS the Passover - represented by His body in the bread and His blood in the cup of wine - this was how the Passover celebration had evolved and was observed by the Jews - there is tremendous symbolism in it - and if you can ever attend the explanation of the Passover feast to Christ it is well worth it.
Earlier in: John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God , who takes away the sin of the world! NIV
Also in Revelation when John is wondering who is worthy to open the scroll to the title deed to the earth, and an elder says to him that the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David is worthy and then he looks up and sees this:
"Revelation 5:6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain" ESV
Verses 21 - 28
The blood was not an inoculation. They were to stay inside - under the protection of the blood all night. We must remember that we can never hope to find protection from God’s judgment if we simply think that because we went to church or our family is saved that we get it genetically or socially.
Verses 29 - 32
At last the final straw - Pharaoh tells them to leave - not sneaking out the servant’s entrance, but in full view of everyone - victorious as God’s people. No conditions - just go. Pharaoh also says "ask God to have mercy on me."
Verses 33 - 36
It’s amazing once the real effect of God’s judgment is felt - how quickly people respond. That’s one reason why a lot of pastors really like doing funerals - it is because the reality of death is closest there than almost anywhere else and people are forced to deal with "what happens after I die."
There is some debate about whether it was right for the Israelites to "plunder" the Egyptians. The word is used of plunder by a victorious army. And this is true - this surely was a war which God won. I wonder, though, if what was going on here was partly that the Egyptians felt really bad for the mistreatment by their government - but might also trying to be buying favor from God now that they knew who was really in charge!
Verses 37 - 39
600,000 - there are a lot of questions about this number. Some feel it was a rounded number from later statements in Numbers (1:46, Ex 38:26) - or that it was really the number of citizens in the united kingdom much later on (doubtful).
Mixed multitude - people who were not Israelites. This mixed multitude caused a lot of problems later on (Numbers 11:4). They were probably Egyptians, leftovers from the Simitic people that had come to Egypt, and slaves. They were the ones who complained about manna in the wilderness and the great food they had back in Egypt.
Verses 40 - 42
We really don’t know what to do with the 430 years. Some have suggested that the time was from when God told Abraham that his descendants were going to go down to Egypt. Others suggest that the generations were a bit telescoped for the time they were there (only four generations). Paul (Galatians 3:17) also gives the 400 year figure in Galatians and it makes it sound as if it was from Abraham’s promise - although his real point is just that it was a long time from Abraham to the giving of the law.
If we count the years from when the promise was made to Abraham in Genesis then the stay in Egypt would be 215 years. There are problems with both - but one answer is that between Joseph and Joshua there were actually 11 generations (according to Jameson, Faucett and Brown) - at 40 years each would come out to: 430 years (Numbers 26:59cf?)
Verse 42 means God was watching over Israel - guarding that night to bring them out.
Verses 43 - 51
Verse 46 - none of its bones were to be broken. That is also prophesied in Psalm 34:20 and fulfilled in John 19:36 when the soldiers went to Jesus to break his legs and thus bring on death on the cross they saw that He was already dead so they didn’t break any of His bones.
It was important to note that only the covenant family got to eat the Passover feast. This came about initially because of the foreign group that attached themselves to Israel - but is also emblematic of the fact that it is by God’s call, not human relationship, that you become a member of God’s kingdom.
In chapter 13, God is going to claim the same firstborn that He saved inside Egypt as His own.
What do we learn from this chapter?
Judgment is inevitable, but grace is available
Was God unjust in his punishment of Egypt? No. Remember, the Egyptians had sentenced the Israelite firstborn to death - and had killed many. "An eye for an eye" was just punishment. But this judgment went beyond that to extend over the entire land - even as God’s judgment for the sin of humanity stretches out over the whole world.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned- NIV
That man was Adam - who fell from fellowship with a holy God over the act of eating a piece of fruit - but doing so in rebellion against God’s command.
But in judgment, God provided grace to all those who would come under the blood of the lamb.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. NIV
We must respond to His call, but it’s God that watches out over us
You could not ignore this command or you would die. We cannot ignore the plea of God to let the blood of His Lamb wash over the doorposts of our hearts.
But even though we must respond, God also calls and watches over us to deliver us from sin.
Acts 2:38-39 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off - for all whom the Lord our God will call." NIV
Are you ready for the first day of your new life?
The Israeli calendar started over at Passover - their life as a nation of God had begun - they "died" and were "born again" through the Passover. The judgment that lay over Egypt’s firstborn actually rests over every single human being.
Exodus 18:20 "The soul who sins shall die."
Romans 3:23 "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God"
Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
20:15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. ESV
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." ESV
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