Passover and the Lamb of God Exodus 12:1-4

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1 I. Introduction Passover and the Lamb of God Exodus 12:1-4 A. The Plagues of Egypt - In the course of delivering Israel out from Egyptian bondage, Yahweh has proved Himself to be the true God by triumphing over the false gods of Egypt through the various plagues. - Just before God sends the last plague He gives instructions to Moses on how to prepare Israel to escape the coming judgment. B. Types in the Testaments - A type is a person, place, thing or event in Scripture that foreshadows future persons, places, things, or events recorded later in Scripture. - 1 Corinthians 10:1 6. Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. II. Exposition A. The New Calendar (v. 1-2) Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. - Moses and Aaron are Levites and receive the first instructions in the Law. - Starting the new year at this time signifies the new birth of the nation. 1

2 B. The Families of Israel (v. 3-4) 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. 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. 1. The Lamb - 1 Corinthians 5:7. Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 2. The Family - Each family was responsible for providing a lamb or joining in with another family who had provided a lamb. - There is a progression of doctrine regarding the sacrificing of a lamb. (1) In Genesis the lamb was slain for the individual (Gen 4:4). (2) In Exodus the lamb was slain for the family (house), (Ex 12:3 4). (3) In Leviticus the lamb was slain for the nation (Lev 16). (4) In the New Testament the Lamb of God was slain for the sin of the world (Jn 1:29). 1 C. The Lamb (v. 5-6a) Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. 1. The spotless lamb - The purity of the sacrificial lamb foreshadows the sinlessness of Christ. - Hebrews 4:15. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 1 KJV Bible Commentary, ed. Edward E. Hindson and Woodrow Michael Kroll (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1994),

3 2. The Examination - The lamb was to be set aside on the tenth of the month but not eaten until the fourteenth. This provided four days to examine the lamb before it was sacrificed. - The King James Version Commentary says, Christ also had to be observed for four days in Jerusalem prior to his crucifixion. During those four days He was tested and asked questions, but none could find fault with Him (Mt 21:23 27; 22:15 22, 33 46). 2 - Matthew 21:23. Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority? - Jesus had even challenged His opponents to point out His sin. - John 8:46. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? - Neither they, nor the Gentiles were able to find fault with Him. - Luke 23: Then Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, said to them, You have brought this Man to me, as one who misleads the people. And indeed, having examined Him in your presence, I have found no fault in this Man concerning those things of which you accuse Him; no, neither did Herod, for I sent you back to him; and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by Him. I will therefore chastise Him and release Him. D. The Sacrifice (v. 6b-7) Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 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. 1. The congregation - The whole congregation participated in the killing of the lamb, in that each family was gathered together to perform the sacrifice. 2 Ibid. 3

4 - Matthew 27: When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it. And all the people answered and said, His blood be on us and on our children. - This is not to accuse the Jews of being Christ killers. We are in fact all guilty of His death because He died for all of our sins. 2. Twilight - The Bible Knowledge Commentary says, This meant either between sunset and dark or between 3 and 5 p.m. The latter time period is probably correct because it would allow more time for slaughtering and preparing the animal, which would be needed later when many sacrifices would be offered at the sanctuary. 3 - Indeed, Jesus was crucified in the afternoon before Passover. 3. The blood - The blood was applied to the doorposts as a picture of Christ being nailed to the cross. - John 10:7. Then Jesus said to them again, Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. E. The Meal (v. 8-11) Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire its head with its legs and its entrails. You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. 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. 1. Unleavened bread and bitter herbs - Leaven is symbolic of sin. 3 John F. Walvoord, Roy B. Zuck and Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), Ex 12:3 6. 4

5 - Jesus said, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. (Luke 12:1) - The bitter herbs were probably symbolic of Israel s suffering under bondage, although they could point to the distaste of the flesh for God s saving grace, ie. the offence of the Cross. 2. Completely consumed - Stuart says, The Messiah was to be one body, broken for all, symbolically eaten by all, in order to help believers in the New Covenant keep aware of their unity as members of the one body. Partial consumption and fragments left over do not appropriately symbolize that body and that unity Eaten in haste - Stuart again notes, All aspects of the cooking and eating were designed to minimize time and maximize preparedness for sudden departure. This was an issue of faith: did the families of the Israelites really trust God s promises for them? If so, were they willing to show that trust by arranging themselves so as to be fully prepared for departure, and by eating what was to be their last meal in Egypt in such a manner as not to impede their ability to gather together and start moving as soon as the command reached them? 5 F. The Final Plague (v ) - 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. 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. 1. The firstborn 4 Douglas K. Stuart, vol. 2, Exodus, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006), Ibid.,

6 - There is irony here. God would take the firstborn in this plague, but would send His Firstborn to die on the Cross to remove the curse of sin and Passover is the type of that death. 2. The Destroyer - In several passages in Scriptures see mention of the Destroyer, or death angel, of God. Israel is afflicted with judgment by this means several times. - 1 Chronicles 21:11 12, So Gad came to David and said to him, Thus says the Lord: Choose for yourself, either three years of famine, or three months to be defeated by your foes with the sword of your enemies overtaking you, or else for three days the sword of the Lord the plague in the land, with the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Now consider what answer I should take back to Him who sent me..... David chooses to fall into the hands of the Lord....So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell. And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was destroying, the Lord looked and relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who was destroying, It is enough; now restrain your hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. - 1 Corinthians 10: nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. - With the Passover, however, the families of Israel, and anyone else who heeded the warning, were delivered from the death angel. - Exodus 12:23. 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. - This is a total picture of the believer who is covered in the blood of Christ. G. The Ordinance (v. 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. H. Conclusion 6

7 - Exodus 12: And it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck 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 dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the Lord as you have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also. III. Application: Remember the Lord s Provision A. For salvation - Genesis 22:7 8. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, My father! And he said, Here I am, my son. Then he said, Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering. So the two of them went together. - John 1:29. The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! B. For godliness - 2 Peter 1:2 3. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. C. For Christ - Philippians 4:19. And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. 7