Exodus 12:1-51
Passover
1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month,when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.
12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
14 “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance. 15 For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast.On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.
17 “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 18 In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. 20 Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”
21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. 23 When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
24 “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27 then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. 28 The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.
29 At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. 30 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.
31 During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. 32 Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.”
33 The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!” 34 So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. 35 The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. 36 The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.
37 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38 Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. 39 With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.
40 Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. 41 At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt. 42 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.
43 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover meal:
“No foreigner may eat it. 44 Any slave you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised him,45 but a temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat it.
46 “It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. 47 The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.
48 “A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat it. 49 The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you.”
50 All the Israelites did just what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 And on that very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.
John 1:29
The Lamb of God
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!
1 Corinthians 5:6-7
The Passover Lamb Has Been Sacrificed
6 Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch--as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
Revelation 5:12-13
The Only Worthy Lamb of God
12 In a loud voice they were saying:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”
13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”
Moses was leading God's people out of Egypt where they were slaves...He would lead them to the Promised Land, that God had promised long ago to Abraham in a covenant...Moses was told how to protect God's people...Moses told the people to find and sacrifice a Passover lamb...This lamb that God spoke of would be worthy, and without a blemish or defect...Then they were to take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood (from the lamb) in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe...None of them were to go out of the door of your house until morning... When the Lord went through the land He struck down the Egyptians, and when He seen the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe, He would pass over that doorway, and He would not permit the destroyer to enter their houses and strike them down...
This blood on the doorframe from the Passover lamb would protect them from the angel of death...The blood which marked the doorframe was a promise from God to keep His people safe...When God saw the mark on the door He would Passover that house and allow death to Passover them...They would not die...And it happened just as He said...
After the Passover, the people would make their Exodus from Egypt and start on a very long journey to the Promised Land...When they started their journey they would have nothing they were familiar with on the path that took to find their new country and home...The people of God would spend forty years of wandering in the desert, without a bed, without a home, and in search of their new country that God had promised Abraham many years ago...Many times in their wandering they wondered, if they should have remained in Egypt and stayed their slaves...Sometimes it feels that the familiar and what we do know is comfortable than with the surroundings and things that we do not know... Or at least, it seems we are more comfortable with the known than the unknown...This wondering the desert would become a way and the life of one generation of His people...
The safety, beauty, and comfort of the long ago Garden of Eden was replaced with the tough, tiring, hot desert...God's people would learn that life was a journey, and a journey in this very uncomfortable desert...Their would be death, grief, and wars along the way to the Promised Land...It was not an easy trip...God made the journey to the Promised Land a very, very difficult task...He often makes things in life difficult for us...He wants us to make our best effort as we journey through life...His people would always value their Promised Land...
The people would be blessed in the desert...They would be the only large group of people ever assembled that would see many of God's miracles in Egypt and in the desert...They would see His miracles and Almighty Power first hand...God was also present with them...God's Presence, I think, was their greatest blessing...His Presence was with them by fire at night, and by cloud in the day...
And when we think of the Holy One, I think we must ask, why God would take His own people through a journey in the rough, tough, hot desert on such a wandering life-long journey, which included death and war...The answer maybe that out of Eden, life is a tough wandering journey...Outside of Eden, life can be tough and we must recognize their are sacrifice and sacrifices (in life) -even in His Presence...Outside the Kingdom of God is a tough and wandering journey in time with different twists and turns that we cannot predict...Maybe we must learn sacrifice to appreciate life more...And the only blessing we need and have is His Presence and having faith that He sent His Passover Lamb to us to protect and save us...
And like His people wandering their lives in the desert, the blessing our His Son, our Passover Lamb -is our blessing, our Truth, our Protector, and our promise as we journey and wander through our lives...