Preparing for the Passover (Exodus 12:21-28)

Oct 25, 2017
2 min read

[Only Moses and Aaron knew these instructions, which they now repeat to the Israelites:] 21 Then Moses called all the elders [leaders] of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop [marjoram] and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. [You do not accidentally want to be in the house of an Egyptian that night!] 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 will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. [God is the Judge of all the earth who always does right (Genesis 18:25). He is a personal God who creates and saves each individual who places their faith in him, and he personally oversees the ending of the existence of everyone whose life has not conformed to his will. Consistent with the rest of the plagues, God will personally oversee the destruction of the Egyptian firstborns. The destroyer is the Angel of the Lord, who causes death in such contexts as 2 Samuel 24:16 and Isaiah 37:36. This angel directly represents God and is thus “the Angel of Yahweh—God manifesting himself in angelic form. Is this Angel the pre-incarnate Jesus?] 24 You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. 25 And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. 26 And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped. [The practice of teaching each new generation the meaning of the Passover helped guarantee the transmission of the proto evangelium throughout the history of the Old Testament to the times of the New Testament. “In other words, every Israelite properly instructed about the Passover should have been also partly prepared to expect a dying Messiah whose shed blood would provide a means of escape from death.” (Stuart)]