Passover
A Deep Dive
Exodus 12:1-50
Four hundred years before the Passover, God saved the Jewish people from a deadly famine by bringing them to Egypt, the only nation prepared with storehouses of food.
By God’s sovereignty, Joseph, one of Jacob’s 12 sons who was sold as a slave by his brothers, had risen to second in command over Egypt. When the Israelites faced starvation, Pharaoh welcomed them into the land because of Joseph. But after Pharaoh died, his successor put the Jewish people to work as slaves. They lived in bondage until God called Moses as His instrument to deliver them 400 years later.
The 50 verses of Exodus Chapter 12 demonstrates God’s endless love not only to the Israelites in Egypt but to all of us in the world today. This week we will focus on the Passover with a deep dive into Exodus Chapter 12 as God delivers the Israelites from bondage.
Join us for Bible study on Thursday, October 17, 2024, 7:00 PM ET only on Zoom. www.zoom.us Meeting ID: 903 988 1805 Passcode: 982846 Call 301 715 8592 ID :903 988 1805 Passcode: 982846 Exodus 12:1-50
The First Passover Instituted - Exodus 12:1-13 12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the
first month of the year for you. 3 Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. 4 If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. 7 They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. 10 You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn with fire. 11 This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the Lord. 12 I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from human to animal, and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
Questions
1. Why do you think God being so specific with his instructions to the Israelites regarding the observance of the Passover?
2. Why does God instructs the Israelites in Exodus 12:7 to take blood from the slaughtered lamb and place across the top of a door of the houses in which they live? (Look at Exodus 12:12-13 for context.)
3. Please list the four ways that God instructs the Israelites in Exodus 12:11 to eat the Passover meal. What is the significance of these instructions?
The Passover Instituted As A Permanent Day Of ReembraceExodus 12:14-28
14 “This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day you shall hold a solemn assembly and on the seventh day a solemn assembly; no work shall be done on those days; only what everyone must eat, that alone may be prepared by you. 17 You shall observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your companies out of the land of Egypt: you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a perpetual ordinance. 18 In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day, you shall eat unleavened bread. 19 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, for whoever eats what is leavened shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether an alien or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your settlements you shall eat unleavened bread.”
21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select lambs for your families, and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning. 23 For the Lord will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down. 24 You shall
observe this as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children. 25 When you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this observance. 26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this observance mean to you?’ 27 you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.’ ” And the people bowed down and worshiped.
28 The Israelites went and did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron; so they did.
Questions
1. Why does God is seeking to make the Passover as a perpetual ordinance or remembrance?
2. Read Exodus 12:14-28 and describe the ways in which God wants the Passover to be remembered?
3. In 2024 how or should Christians celebrate and remember the Passover?
The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn
29 At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon and all the firstborn of the livestock. 30 Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his officials and all the Egyptians, and there was a loud cry in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. 31 Then he summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Rise up, go away from my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve the Lord, as you said. 32 Take your flocks and your herds, as you said, and be gone. And ask a blessing for me, too!”
Questions
1. How was the tenth plague like the other nine plagues?
2. What made this plague different?
3. Was this the plague the thing that finally changed Pharaoh’s heart? (For a clue look at 14:5-9)
The Exodus: From Rameses to Succoth – Exodus 12:33-42
33 The Egyptians urged the people to hasten their departure from the land, for they said, “We shall all be dead.” 34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped up in their cloaks on their shoulders. 35 The Israelites had acted according to the word of Moses; they had asked the Egyptians for jewelry of silver and gold and for clothing, 36 and the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. And so they plundered the Egyptians.
37 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides little ones. 38 A mixed crowd also went up with them and livestock in great numbers, both flocks and herds. 39 They baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt; it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.
40 The time that the Israelites had lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years. 41 At the end of four hundred thirty years, on that very day, all the companies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. 42 That was for the Lord a night of vigil, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. That same night is a vigil to be kept for the Lord by all the Israelites throughout their generations.
Questions
1. In reading the passage (Exodus 12:33-42) what evidence is there of a hasty exit by the Israelites from Egypt? Why do you think God wanted them to have a hasty exit?
2. What Moses request of the Israelites in Exodus 12:35. How did Moses’ request support the promise of the Lord in Genesis 15:1214
Genesis 15:12-14
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. 13 Then the Lord[a] said to Abram, “Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years, 14 but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
3. Why did the Israelites in Exodus 15:39 leave Egypt with baked unleavened cakes? For clues consider Exodus 15:11 This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the Lord.
Directions for the Passover – Exodus 15:43-51
43 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance for the Passover: no foreigner shall eat of it, 44 but any slave who has been purchased may eat of it after he has been circumcised; 45 no bound or hired servant may eat of it. 46 It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the animal outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones. 47 The whole congregation of Israel shall do this. 48 If an alien who resides with you wants to celebrate the Passover to the Lord, all his males shall be circumcised; then he may draw near to celebrate it; he shall be regarded as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it; 49 there shall be one law for the native-born and for the alien who resides among you.”
50 All the Israelites did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 That very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, company by company.
Thoughts About This Massage
Consider these passage from Genesis 17 as we seek to understand Exodus 15:43-51:
Genesis 17:1-4
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Sign of the Covenant
17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty;[a] walk before me, and be blameless. 2 And I will make my covenant between me and you and will make you exceedingly numerous.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face, and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations.
Genesis 17:9-14
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Keeping God’s Covenant
9 God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring. 13 Both the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money must be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
Genesis 17:23-27
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Abraham is circumcised at age 99 to keep God’s covenant 23 Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all the slaves born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26 That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised, 27 and all the men of his house, slaves born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
Questions
1. What is the importance of circumcision?
2. Why are people who have not been circumcised not allowed to eat of the Passover?
3. In Exodus 15:50 we are told that “All the Israelites did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.” Then in 15:51 we are told: “That very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, company by company.” What does Exodus 50 and 51 tells us about what should we do and what would God do when we obeyed Him?