The Celebration of the Passover

When we last saw Moses in Egypt, God had brought 9 devastating plagues on the Egyptians.

1. Nile to blood 2. frogs 3. lice or gnats

4. swarms of flies 5. cattle disease 6. boils

7. hail storm 8. locusts 9. darkness

But there was one more plague to come, and it was the most terrible of all. We read about it in Exodus 11…

Exodus 11:1 Now the Lord had said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely.

Exodus 11:4ff So Moses said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.

People read that and say “This is very cruel of God to do this. Why does he take the firstborn of every Egyptian? Why doesn’t he give the Egyptians another chance? Or why doesn’t he just take Pharaoh’s son?”

Two things in response to that:

1. The nine plagues that God had already sent had not done the job of persuading the Egyptians to let God’s people go. They had increased in severity, but still Pharaoh and many of his officials hardened their hearts. The people of Egypt already knew that these plagues were increasing in intensity - each one was worse than the last.

2. God had given Egypt ample warning that it would come to this if they didn’t repent. There was only one plague that God announced in advance to Egypt: this one. Way back in chapter 4:21-23

Exodus 4:21-23 The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’”

So Pharaoh knew before this whole thing started that this is where it could lead if he didn’t repent. He had had ample warning. He couldn’t plead ignorance of the will of God. God, in His mercy, had warned him. But he hardened his heart nevertheless.

Proverbs 29:1 A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.

The same thing is true of us today if we ignore the message of salvation. God, in his mercy, tells us very clearly where it will lead us if we do not accept Christ. Yet there will be many people in hell who will be crying out to themselves “Why didn’t I listen to His warning? Why was I so stiff-necked?”

As we looked at the previous nine plagues, we saw that each one of them had something to with the gods and goddesses of Egypt. In fact, each plague did two things: it revealed the mighty power of God; and it exposed the powerlessness of the gods and goddesses of Egypt. It revealed them to be frauds.

The final plague had a symbolic purpose too. In the ancient world, as is often true today, the firstborn child of a family was very special. The firstborn child represented the plans and hopes and dreams of the family for the future. He would be the one to carry on the family name. There were special laws in many cultures, including Israel’s culture, that the firstborn would inherit a double portion of the family estate. So the firstborn represented the future of the family and the nation. The tenth plague was a sign of God’s judgment on Egypt’s future. Never again would Egypt be a world power such as she was in the days of Moses. Never again, after the tenth plague, would she see such a golden age of achievement and splendor.

But the firstborn also represented the present. In ancient cultures, the firstborn served as a sort of spokesman or representative for all the people. When the Israelites were in the wilderness, God chose the tribe of Levi to serve as a sort of “designated firstborn” for the whole nation. Rather than have the firstborn son of every family serve God as a priest, the Lord chose the tribe of Levi to serve on behalf of all the people. When God struck down the firstborn of Egypt, he was pronouncing judgment on the nation, and on their sin, and on their idolatry.

Now in Pharaoh’s household, the tenth plague had a particular significance. The Pharaoh of Egypt was understood to be a representative of the gods. He was regarded to be a god himself. Obviously, his firstborn son, who was his heir would be considered a god, too. So the Lord was going to show that these ancient Egyptians, who dared to call themselves gods, were absolutely powerless before the true God.

Remember when we studied the first nine plagues, we saw that most of them did not affect the Israelites. Only the first three plagues, which were mainly matters of discomfort and unpleasantness affected the Hebrews. The portion of Egypt where the Hebrews lived - the land of Goshen - was spared from all the others.

You may be surprised when I tell you that God did not exempt the land of Goshen from the tenth plague.

Exodus 12:12-13 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men 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.

The land of Goshen was not exempt from the last plague. The Angel of Death was going to fly over all of Egypt, including the land of Goshen. So what was going to deliver the Israelites? What was going to save their firstborn from dying that night? It was the blood of the lamb that they put on the doorposts. God said “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

In the previous plagues, the Israelites were spared because they were Israelites. Because they lived in the land of Goshen, and Goshen was not touched. But in the tenth and most important plague, the Israelites were saved because of the blood. They were not spared because they were Israelites. If God had seen a Hebrew house that did not have the blood on the doorposts, he would not have spared them.

When the Angel of Death, the Destroyer, went through Egypt that night, he wasn’t conducting a door-to-door survey. He was looking for one thing and one thing only: was there blood on the doorposts?

The Israelites were not saved because they were descendants of Abraham. They were not saved because they were good people. They were not saved because they were poor slaves who had suffered a great deal and now deserved some justice. They were not saved because they went to the right church or synagogue. They were not saved because they lived in the right neighborhood. They were not saved because they were Jews and not Egyptians.

In the tenth and most terrible plague, the plague that was a matter of life and death, all men were equal. The only difference was the blood.

Where did that blood come from? It came from a lamb.

Exodus 12:3 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.

Exodus 12:6-7 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 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.

Because the lamb gave up its life, the people who were under its blood would live. That is what we mean when we talk about a substitutionary sacrifice. Salvation was purchased by a substitute. In Egypt, no substitute, no salvation.

The Passover and the deliverance of Israel from Egypt was one of the greatest events of human history. But the Bible tells us that these things point to an even greater event than the deliverance of one nation from another. These things speak of a deliverance of the whole human race from slavery by the death of a special substitute who gave up his life that all might live.

About fourteen hundred years after the Exodus, a rough-hewn prophet named John came to tell people of Israel that the Kingdom of God was at hand, and that their Messiah had arrived. When he saw him, do you remember what he said? He said “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” How odd! The Jews weren’t looking for a Messiah who was a lamb. If anything, they wanted their Messiah to be a lion!

When Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross, what time of year was it? It was precisely at Passover. Do you think that that was a coincidence? Do you think it just accidentally happened that way? Jesus’ enemies had tried to kill him on several previous occasions. But they were not successful because, as Jesus put it “My time has not yet come.” His time was Passover.

What was the last meal that Jesus ate with his disciples before he died? It was the “pesach”, the Passover. At that meal, he told his disciples that he was going to write a new covenant with his blood - a covenant that would replace the old one that God had made with Moses during the Exodus.

In Exodus 12, God gave the Israelites special instructions on how to prepare the Passover lamb.

Exodus 12:46 Do not break any of the bones.

When Jesus was crucified, he was hung on a cross between two thieves. Normally, crucifixion took several days. These men were crucified on a Friday, the day before the Sabbath. Since the Jews didn’t want them to be still hanging on their crosses on the Sabbath, orders were given that their legs were to be broken to hasten death. Listen to what John, an eyewitness writes…

John 19:32 ff The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken”

It is no wonder then that Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 5:7

For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

Jesus died to take away our sin. The penalty of sin is death, but he shed his blood on the cross so that we might be saved.

1 Peter 1:18-19 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed…but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins

Romans 5:9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!

When the Israelites observed that first Passover, there were several things that they were to do. Each of them has a lesson for us.

After they had killed the lamb,

Exodus 12:22 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. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning.

Hyssop is a common plant that is found in dry lands such as Egypt and Israel. It is a tough plant that can grow in the unlikeliest places. For example, in 1 Kings 4, we read that Solomon described plant life from the magnificent cedars of Lebanon down to the common hyssop that grows out of walls. The hyssop wasn’t an exotic plant, it wasn’t a rare plant. There wasn’t really anything special about it at all. For that reason, it makes a good spiritual symbol in the story of the Passover.

The Israelites had to have something to get the blood of the lamb up onto their doorposts. It would have done them no good to just kill the lamb and leave the blood lying there. They needed to apply that blood to their houses. The hyssop is what they used to apply the blood. The hyssop represents faith. It is common and available to everyone. Everyone has faith to some degree. It isn’t rare or available just to certain people. The way to apply the blood of Jesus Christ to your life is by faith. The Bible says

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, you and your house.

But people today sometimes talk about faith as though having faith itself is what saves you and makes you right in God’s eyes. That is totally wrong. Faith by itself is nothing. It is what you have faith in that is everything. Back in Egypt, if the blood wasn’t on the doorposts, no amount of faith could save the occupants of that house. In the same way, it is not faith itself that saves us, but faith in Jesus Christ.

The Israelites were trusting in God’s specific promise to pass over them if he saw the blood. That’s all they had to hang onto. Just God’s Word, and they were believing it. How they personally felt about the whole thing was totally irrelevant to whether or not they got saved. I’m sure that some of the Israelites were sitting in their homes biting their fingernails all night long. Others may have eaten their supper and gone to bed and slept like babies. But how they felt wasn’t going to determine whether they were saved - it was whether the blood was on the doorframe. And if they had put it there with the hyssop, they had exercised faith.

There is another important lesson in verse 22 about faith. Notice that it says at the end of that verse that they were not to go outside of the house until morning.

Have you ever done something, and then wondered if you’d done it? Sometimes I will get home from the office and wonder whether I’ve remembered to turn the copier off. One time I had to go back to the church just to assure myself that I had. I wonder if the Israelites were feeling this way. Did we apply the blood? Sure we did. But is it still there? Will the Destroyer be able to see it? Maybe it’s fading? It’s nighttime you know, and not too easy to see. Maybe it needs a touch up? Let’s go outside and check just to make sure. Oops! Verse 22. God told us that we couldn’t do that. So we’re just going to have to trust that it is still there, and that He will see it.

I know people who are always wondering whether they’ve really received Christ. They say, “Well, I put my faith in Christ several years ago. But I’m not sure if I’m still saved. Maybe it wore off? Maybe I should do it again?” They’re looking for some new experience that will confirm what they did. That’s living by sight and not by faith. The Christian life is to be lived by faith and not by sight. Listen, when you put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, He says that He comes to live in your life and that He’ll never leave you or forsake you. Once He moves in, He doesn’t move out. You don’t have to keep checking to see it the blood’s still there.

Many other lessons for us in this passage, but so little time to talk about them.

They were to roast the lamb by fire (vv.8-9). Fire speaks of the judgment of God on our sin. The Lamb of God bore that judgment in his body on the cross so that we wouldn’t have to experience it.

They weren’t to boil the lamb in water (v.9). There are some people who are trusting in water for their salvation. They rely on the baptism they received as an infant to save them. But the Bible says it isn’t the water, it is the blood that saves you.

They had to eat all of it (v.10). Some people come to the Bible and to the person of Jesus Christ and they want to pick and choose what parts they are going to believe. They take a cafeteria approach to Christianity. Jesus himself had people like this come up to him. They wanted to follow him, but with certain reservations. He told them that following Him was a radical commitment that would affect every part of your life. It is all or nothing.

They were to eat it with their cloaks tucked into their belts (v.11), their shoes on, and with their staff in their hand. That’s because they were going on a journey the very next day. They were leaving Egypt that morning.

When you come to Jesus Christ, you have to be ready to move out. You need to be ready to go. You cannot put your trust in Christ and then go back to business as usual. Egypt is a symbol of the world for the Christian. The world is controlled by Satan. It is under his influence. It is hostile to God. When you become a Christian, you are stepping out of this world. The world doesn’t own you anymore. The world is passing away, but now you’re on your way to heaven.

Hebrews 13:12-14 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

The Israelites were to get rid of all the leaven in their houses (v.15), and they were to eat unleavened bread. In the Bible, leaven is a symbol for evil and wickedness. This tells us that as people of God, we are to pursue holiness in our lifestyle. We are to put away the former evil things we used to do. Now that we are saved, a holy walk should follow our salvation.

The book of Exodus tells us that Israel came out of Egypt with treasure. They were to ask the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold, and the Egyptians gave them to them. This was not wrong. After all, they had been slaves for hundreds of years in Egypt. Now they were collecting some of their back wages. Later on, they would use this silver and gold to make the articles of worship for the Tabernacle. But they would also use some to make the golden calf.

This teaches us that God allows us many good things as Christians. But He intends that we use them for His glory, and not make of them an idol.

The Israelites were to eat the Lamb. It would give them strength for the journey ahead. Jesus Christ said,

John 6:48 I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.

This doesn’t have anything to do with the elements of communion. Jesus is speaking figuratively. He is saying unless you abide in me, unless you make me your food and drink, you cannot live.