Exodus 12, The Passover, part II

The Exodus

The beginning of a new life means a departure from the old. And that is what God was doing with the Israelites. The strange thing is, although they had begged and pleaded for it, Jewish tradition tells us a lot of them did not want to leave Egypt. On the other hand, there were Egyptians who wanted to be with the Jews and follow the Jewish God who had proven Himself so powerful. All in all, it does not matter what family or ethnic group you belong to. It does not matter what nation you call home or what social status you belong to. God’s relationship is with the individual. It is you He loves and calls, not your social status, not your nationality or language or age or sex or family heritage.

And so He called the people He had formed specially, the Israelites. But from the beginning, He asked for exact obedience.

He has not changed.

In the directions God gave for the Passover meal, He explicitly directs that only what can be eaten should be supplied in killed lambs and goats. Not too much. Not too little.
“Give us this day our daily bread.”

The young animals were to be without blemish.
A picture of the Messiah to come.

The blood of the lambs was to be put on the doorposts and crossbeams of the doorways.
We can only escape from our world of sin under the blood of the Lamb.

Meat, and bitter herbs, and bread without yeast.
His flesh broken for us.
In a bitter way.
Without sin, He is our bread of life.

The meat was to be roasted, not boiled. It would stay longer with them this way, and they would not get hungry so fast later.

Eat and be ready to go. Cloaks tucked up, sandals on. Eat quickly.

On this night God would bring the final judgment – death – on the ‘gods’ of Egypt as well as the Egyptians themselves and their animals. But no one who listened to God’s instructions and obeyed would be touched.

There simply is no ‘natural’ explanation for this that I know. The deaths may have been the final end of inhalation anthrax, if that is what was caused earlier. But the lack of deaths? The salvation? There is no explanation for that but God.

And God told them Don’t forget. Always remember this day, you and your children for generations to come. Remember what I have done for you. And remember, the bread must always be unleavened. No yeast. Never yeast on Passover. This is a picture you will need to understand in times to come.

”Then the people bowed down and worshiped. The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.”

Let us be like them.

And in Egypt not one house was spared. Each had someone dead. We read that even Pharaoh got up that night. Why? Why did the Egyptians get up in the middle of the night to find their dead family members? What was it that woke them?

To the Israelites the Lord said “Go.”
Take your flocks and herds and go. NOW.
And the Egyptians, who were awake, said “Go!”
If you don’t go now, we will all die!

First the Israelites asked for the gold and silver.

Here, Take it. Just GO!

And they went. 600,000 men.
And their wives.
And their children.
And their livestock.

It was a massive movement of people that started in the middle of that incredible night.

They had not been given time to prepare food for themselves. Only some bread without yeast. The Lord would provide.

”Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt.

Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come..

And then the Lord gave commands concerning the annual celebrations of the Passover in years to come.

1. No foreigner is to eat of it. Only a slave who is circumcised may join in, but no visitor or temporary worker. What is the picture here? Participation in God’s world is for those who belong to Him, whose hearts have been circumcised, meaning they have been born again.
2. Eat it in the house, not outside. What is the picture here? Stay within the protection and shelter of God. Don’t take what He has provided out to the world.
3. Do not break any of the lamb’s bones. Christ’s bones were not broken. He was a whole, unblemished sacrifice to the end.
4. The whole community must celebrate it. What God has given to us, He has given to us as a Body of believers.

And on that very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.