Exodus 12:1-28
The Passover Instituted (Num. 9:1–14; Deuteronomy 16:1–8; Ezekiel 45:21–25)
1 Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor 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. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 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. 7 And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. 8 Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. 10 You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. 11 And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover.
12 ‘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. 13 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.
14 ‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you. 17 So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. 18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’”
21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 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. 23 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. 24 And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. 25 It will come to pass when you come to the land which the LORD will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service. 26 And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 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.’” So the people bowed their heads and worshiped. 28 Then the children of Israel went away and did so; just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
As Israel was about to be delivered from bondage in Egypt and imminent death of the firstborn of that disbelieving and disobedient nation, the LORD instructed the people of God to prepare to be passed over from the final judgment under His protection. They were to remember this vitally important moment in their personal history and solemnly celebrate it with a meal to mark the start of every year to follow. On the tenth day of that month they were to sacrifice a perfect lamb without any blemish to signify a sinless lamb as a picture of the sinless Lamb of God to come and deliver His people from the final judgment at the end of all months under His protection of grace as it will be in the lifeblood to be shed through the sacrifice of God’s own Son, the Messiah who is the sinless Lamb of God and firstborn of the Father. The people of God then were to apply that lifesaving blood of the sacrifice to the entrance of their dwelling places just as Jesus would apply His lifeblood (Hebrews 9:14, 1 Peter 1:19) to the entrance of our hearts and souls to keep the destroyer of judgment from taking us away. He would be the sacrifice of God’s firstborn taking our place in the judgment to come just as the blood of perfect lambs would keep Israel safe on that night when they were passed over in judgment on that land of their earthly bondage. They consumed their final meal under bondage with unleavened bread and bitter herbs; the lack of leaven symbolized the sin removed and the bitter herbs symbolized the bittersweet deliverance with memories of their suffering over the years of maltreatment and the knowledge that the people of Egypt who enslaved them would suffer such a great loss of their firstborn children. They were also instructed by the LORD to dress as if ready to leave at a moment’s notice and eat hastily to be ready to go, reminiscent of the parable the Lord later told (Matthew 23:44, Luke 12:40) to be ready for His return. We now understand that Jesus Christ is both the Lamb of God and our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7) who took the sin of the world and its punishment of judgment, the destroyer of sin, by passing over the condemnation we deserve for our own disobedience inherited from Adam and which we daily continue to commit. He did this by pouring our His blood on the tree of our curse (Galatians 3:13) that we might be led out of bondage to sin and the certain judgment we all deserve just like Pharaoh and his citizens of the world. They were to remind themselves of these truths (hidden in the shadows still then) by eating unleavened bread (1 Corinthians 5:7-8) as a way to put aside sin in repentance and be ever ready to follow in deliverance out of that enslavement to sin symbolized in their bondage to their works in making bricks for Egypt. This was to be an ongoing remembrance for them to later recall their armies grown in Goshen and being led out to conquer and inhabit their promised land in Canaan to follow their faith, just as all later in the Passover Lamb of God would lead us to the heavenly kingdom (Hebrews 11:16) to come for us all called out of bondage to sin in Him! They were reminded to put the leaven outside of their houses as a reminder for us to put away our own sin as well in response of thanksgiving to please Him because of our deliverance through God’s work for us in response. The people of Israel stayed safely in their houses protected by the blood of the lamb without blemish, without sin, until the destroyer of God’s judgment passed them over and they were set free from bondage (Romans 6:18, Galatians 5:1) at last to pursue righteousness to thank and please the Lord who sets us free. Just as the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron to speak and do, they obediently did. This is our example to follow in salvation and our following of sanctification until we inhabit the promised heavenly realm to come.
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