Exodus 12
The Institution of the Passover
1The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
Jehovah contacted Moses and Aaron. Jehovah is about to fulfill his Abrahamic Covenant program.
2“This month is to be your beginning of months; it will be your first month of the year.
Jehovah is going to make Israel into a new nation. Therefore, the month of Aviv will become the birthday of Israel as a new nation. After the Babylon Captivity, the month will be changed to Nisan, which is about six months later.
3Tell the whole community of Israel, ‘In the tenth day of this month they each must take a lamb for themselves according to their families – a lamb for each household.
This was the only sacrifice which took place in Egypt.
4If any household is too small for a lamb, the man and his next-door neighbor are to take a lamb according to the number of people – you will make your count for the lamb according to how much each one can eat.
Each household was to sacrifice one lamb, unless it was a small household. If the household was small, then they could share the lamb with another small household.
5Your lamb must be perfect, a male, one year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
The lamb was a picture of Christ, so it must have no blemishes.
6You must care for it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then the whole community of Israel will kill it around sundown.
Just as the whole community of Israel killed their Messiah on the Day of Passover, so will the entire community kill the passover lamb. The passover lamb was to be killed during the two evenings. One possibility is 3 PM to sunset. The other possibility is sunset to midnight.
7They will take some of the blood and put it on the two side posts and top of the doorframe of the houses where they will eat it.
The blood on the doorpost was in the figure of a cross.
8They will eat the meat the same night; they will eat it roasted over the fire with bread made without yeast and with bitter herbs.
The Passover meal must be finished in one night. This symbolizes that Israel would not be in Egypt the next day to enjoy leftovers. They would have to rely on God to deliver them food during the wilderness journey.
9Do not eat it raw or boiled in water, but roast it over the fire with its head, its legs, and its entrails.
The whole lamb (including the head) was to be roasted. Israel was to enjoy a barbecue dinner,
10You must leave nothing until morning, but you must burn with fire whatever remains of it until morning.
SInce Israel would not be in Egypt the next morning, all leftovers were to be burnt.
11This is how you are to eat it – dressed to travel, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.
Later when Israel was inside the land, the Passover will be eaten while reclining. This first Passover will be eaten as a going away dinner. It would be a fast-food feast,
12I will pass through the land of Egypt in the same night, and I will attack all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both of humans and of animals, and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord.
Pharaoh persecuted the nation of Israel, which was Jehovah’s firstborn. This was a violation of the Abrahamic Covenant. Egypt would be cursed by a kind-for-kind judgment. Jehovah would fly over all of the land of Egypt. All of the firstborn people and animals of Egypt would be slain.
13The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, so that when I see the blood I will pass over you, and this plague will not fall on you to destroy you when I attack the land of Egypt.
The Jews in Goshen were affected by the first three plagues. They were not affected by the fourth through ninth plagues, simply because they were Jews living in Goshen. The tenth and final plague will affect Jews who do not place the blood upon their door frames.
14This day will become a memorial for you, and you will celebrate it as a festival to the Lord – you will celebrate it perpetually as a lasting ordinance.
The Jews still practice this ordinance today. They will also celebrate this festival during the Millennial Kingdom.
15For seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. Surely on the first day you must put away yeast from your houses because anyone who eats bread made with yeast from the first day to the seventh day will be cut off from Israel.
Leaven is a symbol of evil. There is to be no leaven inside the Israelite house for eight days.
16On the first day there will be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there will be a holy convocation for you. You must do no work of any kind on them, only what every person will eat – that alone may be prepared for you.
This festival will become a national holiday where the Jews spend time with God and their families.
17So you will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because on this very day I brought your regiments out from the land of Egypt, and so you must keep this day perpetually as a lasting ordinance.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread will be an eight-day celebration every year for the Jews. This feast will be celebrated into the Millennial Kingdom.
18In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you will eat bread made without yeast until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening.
This date of this celebration is now in month of Nisan, which is modern Spring. It has been replaced in many Christian cultures with Easter. Easter is a pagan holiday which originated from the Tower of Babel.
19For seven days yeast must not be found in your houses, for whoever eats what is made with yeast – that person will be cut off from the community of Israel, whether a foreigner or one born in the land.
The term “spring cleaning” comes from the Jewish families eliminating all of the leaven out of their house before the eight-day Passover Festival.
20You will not eat anything made with yeast; in all the places where you live you must eat bread made without yeast.’”
During these eight days, the Jews were not to eat any leaven. Leaven is a symbol of sin. The unleavened bread is a picture of Christ.
21Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel, and told them, “Go and select for yourselves a lamb or young goat for your families, and kill the Passover animals.
The elders during the time of Moses selected a lamb or young goat without blemish. This unblemished sacrifice was a picture of Christ.
22Take a branch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply to the top of the doorframe and the two side posts some of the blood that is in the basin. Not one of you is to go out the door of his house until morning.
The hyssop was used in the Mosaic Law for the purpose of purification. The blood on the door was a temporary covering of sin.
23For the Lord will pass through to strike Egypt, and when he sees the blood on the top of the doorframe and the two side posts, then the Lord will pass over the door, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.
Jehovah will fly over all of the houses of Egypt. The angel of death will fly behind him. All who do not have the blood on their doorpost will be slain by the angel of death.
24You must observe this event as an ordinance for you and for your children forever.
This festival was not to be a one-time event. When in the land, it was to be celebrated annually. The purpose of this celebration was to teach the Jewish children about the historical event of the Exodus. All of the Old and New Testament worship events were family events. Churches who separate their children during worship are not following the Biblical model.
25When you enter the land that the Lord will give to you, just as he said, you must observe this ceremony.
The Passover must be celebrated as long as Israel is in the land.
26When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ –
The Passover was to be used as a teaching moment for Jewish children.
27then you will say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, when he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck Egypt and delivered our households.’” The people bowed down low to the ground,
Jewish parents who do not observe the Passover are in violation of God’s will. Jewish parents who do not teach their Jewish children the literal meaning of the Passover are in violation of God’s will.
28and the Israelites went away and did exactly as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.
The Jewish people who lived in Goshen were obedient to the Lord’s command.
The Deliverance from Egypt
29It happened at midnight – the Lord attacked all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the prison, and all the firstborn of the cattle.
At exactly midnight, all of the firstborn were slain by the Angel of Death. This was a tremendous testimony to those Egyptians left alive that Jehovah was the one true God. They did not need to trust Pharaoh as a deity any longer.
30Pharaoh got up in the night, along with all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house in which there was not someone dead.
There was at least one death in every house. One can take a look at their own family today and imagine what it would be like if all of their first born family members died exactly at midnight.
31Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Get up, get out from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve the Lord as you have requested!
Pharaoh was ready to drive Israel out of the land, just as Jehovah predicted.
32Also, take your flocks and your herds, just as you have requested, and leave. But bless me also.”
Israel would be able to take their flocks and herds as well. Egypt lost their flocks, their agricultural, their natural resources, their economy, their military, their religion, and their slaves all in a six-month period.
33The Egyptians were urging the people on, in order to send them out of the land quickly, for they were saying, “We are all dead!”
Egyptians did not want the Israelites around them anymore. Their Hebrew God was too powerful. If Israel did not leave immediately, then the Hebrew God would bring more death to Egypt.
34So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, with their kneading troughs bound up in their clothing on their shoulders.
The unleavened bread would be their traveling meals.
35Now the Israelites had done as Moses told them – they had requested from the Egyptians silver and gold items and clothing.
Jehovah told Abraham that his future descendants would be enslaved, but afterwards, they would be delivered with great plunder. This plunder would help the Jewish nation begin with a strong national economy. They would be living on a gold and silver standard. Nations who do not live on a gold and silver standard are falling. They are living on a paper standard.
36The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and they gave them whatever they wanted, and so they plundered Egypt.
Israel received her back pay for the 400 years of slavery.
37The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about 600,000 men on foot, plus their dependants.
This number only counts the men who were twenty years old and over. If the average family consisted of four people, then the number would be over two million.
38A mixed multitude also went up with them, and flocks and herds – a very large number of cattle.
The mixed multitude was other Semites who were enslaved by the Egyptians. They were very paganistic and idolatrous. They would cause problems for Israel later.
39They baked cakes of bread without yeast using the dough they had brought from Egypt, for it was made without yeast – because they were thrust out of Egypt and were not able to delay, they could not prepare food for themselves either.
Jewish tortillas were baked as traveling meals.
40Now the length of time the Israelites lived in Egypt was 430 years.
God told Abraham that He would give the Amorites 400 years to fill their cup of iniquity. Now, the cup was full. God would exterminate them and move Israel into their land.
41At the end of the 430 years, on the very day, all the regiments of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt.
The Jews came out in divinely ordained regiments, meaning that they left Egypt in an orderly military fashion.
42It was a night of vigil for the Lord to bring them out from the land of Egypt, and so on this night all Israel is to keep the vigil to the Lord for generations to come.
The Exodus was the high point of Jewish history. Many times in the Scriptures, the Jews are called “the people who God brought out of Egypt.” Jeremiah 16 and 23 teach that one day, God will bring Israel out of all of the nations. This second exodus will happen at the end of the Great Tribulation. After this time, God will be known as the God who brought Israel out of the nations.
Participation in the Passover
43The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner may share in eating it.
Foreigners from other nations were not allowed to participate in the Passover. This divine command would keep pagan practices out of the Passover.
44But everyone’s servant who is bought for money, after you have circumcised him, may eat it.
Circumcised servants chose to be circumcised, because they believed in the prophecies of the Abrahamic Covenant. They understood God’s program for Jews and Gentiles.
45A foreigner and a hired worker must not eat it.
The foreigner who lives in the land for a temporary time was not to eat of the Passover. Hired workers were not to eat the Passover as well.
46It must be eaten in one house; you must not bring any of the meat outside the house, and you must not break a bone of it.
There was no take-out pizza service. Since the bones of Jesus would not be broken during the crucifixion, the bones of the Passover lamb were also not to be broken.
47The whole community of Israel must observe it.
Just as the whole community of Israel observed the atonement of the Messiah, the whole community was to observe the Passover festival.
48“When a foreigner lives with you and wants to observe the Passover to the Lord, all his males must be circumcised, and then he may approach and observe it, and he will be like one who is born in the land – but no uncircumcised person may eat of it.
Those who lived in permanent residence of a Jewish family could observe the Passover, but only if he was circumcised.
49The same law will apply to the person who is native-born and to the foreigner who lives among you.”
If a native born person or foreigner lives with a Jewish family, and if they were circumcised, then they could participate in the Passover. They were part of God’s family.
50So all the Israelites did exactly as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.
The Israelites were obedient to Jehovah.
51And on this very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their regiments.
Jehovah brought Israel out of the land in military regiments. It was a very organized departure.