The Passover Exodus 12

 

Exodus 12- The Passover

 

The Passover is a festival that laid the foundation of the nation Israel’s birth into a new relationship with God. The Israelites have become a nation and God is going to deliver them, but He will do it by families and by individuals in the family.  The lamb, of course, speaks of the blood that will be put on the doorpost. This is because the final plague is about to descend upon the people.  Jesus is the perfect lamb who had to die to save us.  We are saved by applying His blood to our own hearts by faith. Inside the home the family is eating the lamb, and by faith they are partaking of Christ.  The blood covers everyone in the family.  No one will be left behind. They were to eat the flesh of the lamb roasted with fire.  Fire speaks of judgment.  They were to eat the lamb with unleavened bread.  Leaven speaks of sin, and unleavened bread speaks of Christ as the One we are to feed upon. Yeast begins small but spreads quickly; it puffs up, and it works secretly. The Jews got rid of the leaven because God saved them.

All the gods demanded the offering of the first born. Now God is turning against all the Egyptian idols.  Keep in mind that the Israelites were not saved because they were the seed of Abraham, or because they were doing the best they could, nor because they might be honest or a good person.  They were not saved because they were circumcised, or because they belonged to a church.  It did not matter how good they were or how much charity work they did.  God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” God tells me that the shed blood of Christ will save me and nothing else will. Up until Christ came, it was a lamb.  Then Jesus was the lamb of God, He is the one who takes away the sins of the world.

They ate the unleavened bread on the wilderness march because on the night of the Passover they were expelled from Egypt.

God has prepared His people for this last plague.  The land of Goshen had escaped the last three plagues but could not escape this one unless there was blood on the doorposts.  The final judgment claimed the life of the firstborn in each house where there was no blood on the doorpost.

The Egyptians did not know where the judgment of God would end.  God had taken their firstborn; Perhaps He would bring death to all the Egyptians, and so Pharaoh and the people told the Israelites to get out of the land because they feared for their own lives.

If a Gentile wanted to identify himself in belief with the Israelites, he was welcome. All of us are called to go with Jesus and be saved from ours sins.