Exodus 12
McGeeCHAPTER 12THEME: The beginning of Israel’s religious year; institution of the Feast of the Passover; the tenth plaguedeath of the firstborn; the Israelites are driven out of EgyptThe Feast of the Passover was instituted as a memorial to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and their adoption as Jehovah’s nation. The Passover is a festival that laid the foundation of the nation Israel’s birth into a new relationship with God.
Exodus 12:1
THE BEGINNING OF ISRAEL’S RELIGIOUS YEARChapter 12 is a high point in the Book of Exodus. Here we find the institution of the Feast of the Passover. It is a picture of that which Paul speakes of in 1Co_5:7, “…For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” Christ is in this chapter. This chapter brings us to a new division in the Book of Exodus. The first division (chapters 1-11) deals with Moses, the deliverer. Chapters 12-14 deal with the deliverance of Israel. The first was a deliverer, now it’s the deliverance. The deliverance is actually not by Moses. The deliverance is first by blood.
That’s the Passover Feast, the death of the firstborn. Then in chapters 13 and 14, crossing the Red Sea and the destruction of the army of Egypt are by power. God delivered them by blood and by power. The blood that the Lord Jesus Christ shed on the cross paid the penalty for our sins. The power of the Holy Spirit makes it real and effectual in our sinful hearts. Zec_4:6 says, “…Not by might, not be power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” Redemption is the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross for us and the work of the Holy Spirit in us.[EPVerses Exo_12:1 and Exo_12:2 of this chapter tell of the birthday of a nation.
When Israel entered Egypt, it was as a family. When they made their exit from Egypt, it was a nation. The interesting point is that God puts the empasis on the family here because the family comprises the building blocks out of which the nation was made. You remember how Pharaoh forced the Israelites to make bricks without straw. All the time that Israel was in bondage, God made them the bricks of the family for the building of a nation out of the straws if individuals. An old clichésays, “No nation is stronger than the families of that nation.” The zero hour has come for Israel. The countdown begins in this chapter for the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt.
Exodus 12:3
INSTITUTION OF THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVERThere are two points of emphasis in this verse: (Exo_12:1) the blood and (Exo_12:2) the family. The Israelites have become a nation and God is going to deliver them, but He will do it by families and by the individuals in the family. There was to be a lamb in every house. The lamb, of course, speaks of the blood that will be put on the doorpost.
Exodus 12:4
This verse does not say anything about the lamb being too little for the household. This would not happen; the lamb is sufficient. It is possible, however, that the household might be too little for the lamb. God is interested in each individual member of the family. Each family was to have a lamb, but what if a man and his wife were childless or had married children who lived apart from them? This couple is then supposed to join with a neighbor who is in the same position and divide the lamb.
Each individual in each family is to receive a part of the lamb. The celebration of the Feast of the Passover is to be a personal, private matter. It is redemption for the nation, yes, but it centers in the family. It must be received and accepted by each individual member in the family. The Passover is a family affair. God is presenting the modus operandi by which He is going to save individuals. No one is saved because he is the member of a nation or a family. Take, for example, the account of the Philippian jailer and the salvation of his household as told in the Book of Acts, chapter 16. His family was not saved because the jailer believed, but because each member of his family made a transaction with the Lamb; each had to partake of the Lamb. That was true here. Every member had to exhibit his faith in this way. “…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Act_16:31) does not mean that if you believe, your family will be saved.
No! Your family will have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and then they will be saved. Each one will have to participate and partake of it in order to come in under the protection and the redemption of the blood that is out on the doorpost of the house. We have come to a fateful night in the land of Egypt. The final plague is about to descend upon the people. The Israelites in the land of Goshen were spared during the last three plagues, and God’s people were delivered from judgment, but they were not redeemed. Now they have to be redeemed and exhibit faith in the blood.
Exodus 12:5
This portion of Scripture is quite interesting. Note that each family had a lamb. Thousands of lambs must have been slain that evening, but the sixth verse reads, “Israel shall kill it in the evening.” These many lambs were speaking of another Lamb. God looked at all of these lambs as that one Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the Passover offered for us. This feast was pointing to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world.
Exodus 12:7
The children of Israel were to put the blood of the lamb outside on the door. Upon seeing the blood, the death angel would pass over the house. I believe there is a picture given here that will answer a question that is asked many times: What will happen to the little children of believers at the time of the Rapture? If small children are in the house when the Lord comes for His own, will He take the Mom and Dad and leave the little ones behind? This chapter shows us that God will not leave the young ones behind. Inside the home the family is eating the lamb, and by faith they are partaking of Christ. The young children do not know what is taking place. Will they be left behind in Egypt when Israel goes out from the land? If a little one has not yet reached the age of accountability, will he be slain? Oh no, friend, the blood covers everyone in the family. God will not leave small children behind at the time of the Rapture any more than He left them behind when the Israelites were redeemed and left the land of Egypt.
Exodus 12:8
Each instruction connected with this feast had a specific meaning and message. This verse speaks of the fellowship of the family. The family entered into the celebration of the Passover together. I want to make a statement now that will cause some heated reactions. Today, in our very highly organized church programs, we put the juniors in one place, the junior high group in another place, and the senior high group in still another place. Can’t you just hear Moses telling the Israelites to take their babies over to the nursery in Pharaoh’s palace because that is where he was raised!
Then he might tell them to take the juniors over to the volleyball court, and so forth. May I say to you that a lot of the children would have missed out on the Exodus that night. The observance of the Passover was a family affair, and I am afraid that our churches today are guilty of dividing families. Families should be together in church. When I was a young preacher in Tennessee, I held meetings in many country churches and had the best time of my life. I would start preaching in the evening to families who might have a baby with them. The mother would cradle a restless child in her arms, and I learned to out-talk them. If I can’t out-talk a six-month-old child, there is something radically wrong! So I learned to preach above them. Then the baby would go to sleep, and the mother would take it to the back of the church and put the child on a pallet. She would come back and sit with her husband and maybe two or three other children. Mothers would pop up like popcorn all over the assembly and put their children on the pallets and return to sit with their families. This went on night after night. One member told me about a preacher who had held meetings in the church about a year ago. He told the congregation that he was a greater preacher than the apostle Paul. He paused for a moment after making that statement because he knew the people would question it. “I am a greater preacher than Paul because he preached until midnight and put only one person to sleep. I have not preached for thirty minutes, and I have put a dozen to sleep.” On that basis, friends, I too, am a great preacher! These small country churches were not very well organized, but they produced some wonderful saints of God. I do not have any confidence in the revolutionary crowd storming our campuses today. We have done it wrong, friends. God’s pattern was family centered and we have departed from this pattern. We are also told in this verse that they were to eat the flesh of the lamb roast with fire. Fire speaks of judgment. There must be judgment of sin. 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. They were also to partake of this meal with bitter herbs. Although there are different meanings attached to these herbs, in this context I believe it means that our experience will not always be sweet after we have received Jesus Christ as Savior. The bitter herbs go with redemption.
Exodus 12:9
This sacrifice could not be eaten raw because it spoke of the judgment of sin in human lives, and this requires sacrifice and the fire of judgment. When a person comes to Christ, he comes as a sinner. The sacrifice was not to be soaked with water. This simply means that we must trust Christ and Him alone. Unfortunately there are many today who are trusting in water for their salvation. Everything was to be roasted. It was the judgment of fire.
Exodus 12:11
Friend, when you come to Christ, you should have your loins girded and be ready to get out of the world and no longer be involved in it. I do not believe that you can be converted and continue living a sinful life. This does not mean that you will not sin occasionally, but it does mean that you will not make a habit of living in a pattern of sin. We had a remarkable instance of a woman in Los Angeles who ran a liquor store and was converted to Christ. She called me by phone and said she was getting out of the liquor business. She said, “If you tell me to take a hammer and break every bottle in the store, I will do it.” But it was all she had. I told her to sell the business. She sold it and is a wonderful Christian today. You will get out of “Egypt” if the blood has been put on the doorposts. You are to eat the sacrificial lamb with your loins girt about, ready to go. God had directed His plagues, one at a time, against the principal gods of Egypt. All of the gods demanded the offering of the firstborn. Now God is turning His guns against all the Egyptian idols.
Exodus 12:13
The Israelites were not saved because they were the seed of Abraham. If the Egyptians had obeyed God’s command, they, too, would have been saved. God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” No one was saved because he was doing the best he could, or because he was honest, or because he was a good person. God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” They were not to run out of the house during the night and look at the blood; they were to have confidence and faith in it. They were not saved because they went through the ceremony of circumcision, or because they belonged to some church. God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” The death angel was not making a survey of the neighborhood.
They were not to open a window and tell the death angel how good they were and how much charity work they had done. Any man who put his neck out of a window that night would have died. God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” Nothing needed to be added. Who was saved that night? Those who believed God. Those who had sprinkled the blood upon their doorposts and trusted in it.
Although I do not understand it completely, I believe what God says. He tells me that the shed blood of Christ will save me and nothing else will. God said that when He saw the blood, He would pass over that home. The blood was not some mystic or superstitious sign. A great principle runs all the way through the Word of God that without shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. In other words, God cannot arbitrarily or big-heartedly shut His eyes to sin and do nothing about it, any more than can a judge today when the guilty are brought before him. The judge should apply the law to the guilty, and the penalty should be paid. Part of our problem in America today is the laxity in law enforcement.
But God’s law is inexorable in the universe"The soul that sinneth, it shall die." The death sentence is upon all of us. But God is gracious, and an innocent life may be substituted for the guilty. Up until Christ came, it was a lamb. Then Jesus was “…the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (Joh_1:29). If we receive Christ, we are saved from the judgment that we deserve as sinners. Now on that night in Egypt, there was the death of the firstborn in every home that was not protected by the blood. The application of the blood on the doorposts and the lintels of the home was an indication of faith, you see. That answers to the appropriation of a personal faith in Christ. There followed the Passover Feast. In the Book of Leviticus there are instructions given for the Passover and then the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which actually was part of it, but took place after the Passover Feast.
Exodus 12:14
Actually, this has nothing to do with the death angel passing over. It has nothing to do with their salvation. This is a feast of fellowship for those within the home. It is a duty, of courseGod commanded itand it is also a privilege. They are to have fellowship with God.
Exodus 12:17
They ate the unleavened bread on the wilderness march because on the night of the Passover they were expelled from Egypt. And they ate the bread for seven days. Notice that it is unleavened bread. If they ate leavened bread they were cut offthat is, cut off from fellowship. Leaven is mentioned eight times between verses Exo_12:14 and Exo_12:20.
Exodus 12:19
Leaven is a principle of evil. It represents that which is evil and offensive. In the thirteenth chapter of Matthew there is a parable about a woman hiding leaven in three measures of meal. That leaven is not the gospel because leaven is a principle of evil. The three measures of meal represents the Word of God, and leaven (evil) had been put into it. It is amazing to seel the amount of error being taught today, and how many gullible folk believe it. “Leaven” is being mixed into the teaching of the Word. All of the cults and “isms” use the Bible, but mix false doctrine with it. This is what the children of Israel were told to avoid. Our Lord made this matter of “leaven” clear in the Gospel of Matthew. Mat_16:6 says, “Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.” Then Mat_16:11 continues, “How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not ot you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Saducees?” The Lord’s disciples, at this time, thought He was speaking about physical bread. Later they understood that the Lord was speaking about the doctrine of the Pharisees, which was evil. Unleavened bread is not palatable. There are a great many people who do not like the study of the Bible, the pure, unleavened Word of God. Many people love to come to church for the social time, of the music, or the beauty of the place, but not for the Word of God. They do not want the Word of God because it is not palatable to them. I have been to Israel during the Feast of Unleavened Bread and never got so tired of unleavend bread in my life because I was brought up in the South where we had hot biscuits that puff right up. What a wonderful night it was when the feast came to an end and they brought out the real bread. It tasted so good to the natural man. Unleavened bread is not as tasty as the leavened bread is, but the Word of God is the food that is good for the child of God.
Exodus 12:22
Have you wondered how they put the blood on the doorposts? Hyssop is a fluffy little plant that grows around rocks. It was used to apply the blood to the house. Hyssop, to me, represents faith. That is the way the blood of Christ is applied to your heart and life. You trust what Christ has done when He died for you.
Exodus 12:29
THE TENTH PLAGUEDEATH OF THE FIRSTBORNThis is the last judgment and the last plague to come upon the land of Egypt. God had prepared His people for it. The land of Goshen had escaped the last three plagues but could not escape this one unless there was blood on the doorposts. Any Egyptian could follow the example of the Israelitesput blood on his doorpost and believe Godand the death angel would have spared the firstborn in his house. It is going to surprise many people someday when they discover that the Lord Jesus is not going to ask which church they belonged to. If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, the Holy Spirit of God has baptized you into the body of believers, and you are a member of the true church. This final judgment claimed the life of the firstborn in each house. Up to this point God had not touched human life. Now he does, but do not say that God is a murderer. “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” He who creates life has the authority to take it away.
Exodus 12:31
THE ISRAELITES ARE DRIVEN OUT OF EGYPTThat night Pharaoh got up: Pharaoh finally has had to give up. Until now he has been reluctant to give in to Moses’ demands but this plague reached in and touched his own son. God did not begin by touching the lives of the firstborn; He began the contest with Pharaoh by changing Aaron’s rod into a crocodile. If Pharaoh had believed God, the children of Israel could have left the land and he would have spared his people the judgments. The blame, therefore, should not belong to God.
Exodus 12:33
The Egyptians did not know where the judgment of God would end. God had taken their firstborn; what would He do next? 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.
Exodus 12:34
The word “borrow” is the Hebrew shaal, meaning “to ask.” God gave them favor in the sight of the Egyptians so that when they asked, the Egyptians gave (not lent) them whatever they wanted. It was God’s way of simply collecting back wages for their years of slave labor in Egypt. The Egyptians owed the Israelites so much in back wages that the children of Israel spoiled them; that is, Israel left with much of Egypt’s wealth.
Exodus 12:37
It would seem that there came out of the land of Egypt well over one million, and perhaps as many as two million people. There were six hundred thousand men on foot besides all the women and children. Then our attention is called to another interesting fact:
Exodus 12:38
In addition to the Israelites that left Egypt, a mixed multitude left with them. They will be the cause of much trouble in the camp of Israel. We learn more about them in the Book of Numbers; the mixed multitude are troublemakers. Factually, they are a mixed race. An Egyptian married a Jewish maiden or a Hebrew married an Egyptian maiden. The offspring of a union like this had to make a decisionshall he go out of the land of Egypt with the Israelites or stay with the Egyptians? Many of the mixed multitude left the land and many stayed. Those who left often wondered if they had made a mistake, and when trouble and hardship came they were the first to complain. They were not Israelites in the true sense of the word. One of the big problems in Israel today is the mixed multitude, those who have a gentile parent. Are they Israelites? Also we have a problem in the church with those who join the church but are not saved. I have been a pastor for a long time, and I have never believed that a troublemaker in a church is really a child of God. (But let’s understand what we mean by troublemakers. We deal with that in Num. 11.)
Exodus 12:39
The celebration of the Passover goes back to the exodus of Israel out of the land of Egypt. They were never to forget what the Lord God did for them until the King comes again and the Millennium is established. And then they will forget it. We will see that later.
Exodus 12:47
Only those who identified themselves by faith with the people of God could take part in this observance. If a Gentile wanted to identify himself in belief with Israel, he was welcome.
Exodus 12:49
As we follow the children of Israel out of Egypt, to the Red Sea and into the wilderness, we will learn lessons that correspond to experiences in the Christian life today.