The Passover

Here we have an event where God was about to execute his last plague on the Egyptians to free the Israelites from the hand of the Pharaoh. God had warned Pharaoh several times to let his people go, yet Pharaoh hardened his heart. Therefore, God declared he was going to do something radical. We pick it up in verse twelve.

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. 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.

Exodus 12:12-13

Pause

What has driven our LORD God to such radical measures? Verse 12 says it is his judgment against all the “gods” of Egypt. Let’s read God’s perspective on the entire event.

On that day, I swore to them that I would bring them out of Egypt into a land I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands. And I said to them, “Each of you, get rid of the vile images you have set your eyes on, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

“‘But they rebelled against me and would not listen to me; they did not get rid of the vile images they had set their eyes on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend my anger against them in Egypt. But for the sake of my name, I brought them out of Egypt. I did it to keep my name from being profaned in the eyes of the nations among whom they lived and in whose sight I had revealed myself to the Israelites.

Ezekial 20:6-9

So we see now that though the Israelites started off well off because of Joseph, there was more to the story than what Moses had revealed. God showed us through the prophet Ezekial that Israel had forsaken The LORD God and went along with worshiping Egypt’s gods.

No wonder in Exodus 32, the Israelites constructed a golden calf while waiting for Moses to come back down off Mount Sinai. As a whole, they worshiped Egyptian gods for so long that they couldn’t even wait forty days for The LORDs’ meeting with Moses to finish. They convinced themselves they were better off creating a false deity to solve their problems. Even after The LORD saved them from the oppressive hand of Pharoah.

Back to Pre-Tenth Plague

So God said everyone was going to get a piece of his judgment. To show that he is the one and only true living God. God’s wrath wanted to go after them all, as we just read. But for the sake of his NAME (Jesus), he saved anyone who willingly chose to believe The LORD. How? By the blood of a lamb!

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.
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.

Exodus 12:6-7; 12:13

The Passover

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.

Exodus 12:29-30

There are a couple of principles to pull from these scriptures.

God had it out for anyone who chose these so-called “gods” over The LORD God. Like Pharoah, anyone who chose to disregard the LORD GOD got caught up in judgment.

With all this being said, what turns out to be the most interesting in relation to the overall series, is Exodus 12:43-51.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover meal:
“No foreigner may eat it. Any slave you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised him, but a temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat it.
“It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.
“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. The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you.”
All the Israelites did just what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. And on that very day, the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.

Now a new set of questions should emerge in our minds. What is the difference between a foreigner, who can not partake of the Lord’s Passover meal, and a foreigner who can?

In our next two sub-topics, we will go deep into the difference between a foreigner and a sojourner.