Exodus 12:1-25 Saved By The Blood

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in Egypt telling them that this month will be the beginning of months for them. It would be the first month of the year. Google sources indicate that this month is Nisan. They were to tell the congregation of Israel that every family was to take a lamb on the tenth of the month for their household. If the household was too small for the lamb, then they were to share it with a neighbor. Each family would take a portion suitable to the number of family members and their needs. A year old male lamb without blemish could come from the sheep or the goats. They were to keep the lamb until the fourteenth of the month. Then the entire assembly of Israel was to kill the lamb at twilight. After killing the lamb, they were to put some of the blood on the doorposts and lintel of the houses where they ate the lamb. The lamb was to be roasted in fire and they were supposed to eat it that night with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. They weren’t supposed to eat it raw nor boiled at all with water. The lamb’s head with its legs and entrails were to be roasted in fire. All of the lamb was supposed to be eaten with no leftovers remaining until morning. If any portion of the lamb did remain until the next morning, they were to burn it with fire. They were to eat it in haste with their belts on their waists, sandals on their feet and staffs in hand. This is the Lord’s Passover. God certainly gives clear, concise, and detailed instructions. He was preparing them to have enough strength to make this great escape in haste. Has God ever given you such detailed instructions for a task? Then God said, “For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all of the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all of the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. So, not only is God going to kill the firstborn in Egypt, but He is going up against the Egyptian gods. That one simple statement by God, “I am the Lord”, is enough said. God said that the blood would be a sign for them on their houses so that when He saw the blood, He would pass over them. Therefore the plague would not destroy them when the land of Egypt was struck.

The Israelites were to make this day a memorial in which they would keep this feast to the Lord throughout their generations. The feast would be an everlasting ordinance. For seven days they would eat unleavened bread. On the first day they should remove the leaven from their houses. This was supposed to prevent the temptation of eating anything leavened. Have you ever had to remove something or someone completely from your environment to prevent yourself from yielding to temptation? If anyone ate leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, they would be cut off from Israel. A Google source indicated that a person being cut off from Israel could mean that the person would not be recognized as an Israelite, or would not be allowed to participate in communion or ordinances of the church state. It could also mean cutting off by death. There is to be a holy convocation (large assembly of the people) on the first and the seventh day. No work is to be done on those two days except preparing the food to eat. The Feast of Unleavened Bread shall be observed on this day that the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt. This observance shall be done throughout the generations as an everlasting ordinance. So in the first month (Nisan), on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day of the month, they shall eat unleavened bread. No leaven for seven days shall be found in their houses, since whoever eats anything leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel. It didn’t matter if the person was a stranger or a native of the land. This indicates that some people other than the Israelites would leave Egypt as well. In all of their houses nothing leavened shall be eaten; only unleavened bread could be eaten.

Moses called all the elders of Israel and told them to pick out and take lambs for themselves according to their families and to kill the Passover lamb. Moses told them to take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood in the basin and strike the lintel and the two doorposts. No person is to go out of the door of their house until morning. Moses explained that the Lord was going to strike the Egyptians, but when He sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, He would pass over the door and would not allow the destroyer to come to their houses and strike them. Moses told them that this should be observed as an ordinance to them and their sons forever. When they would get to the land God promised, they shall keep this service.

We will continue this journey in Chapter 12 next week.

To God Be The Glory!