This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
God set the month of Israel's release from Egypt as the beginning and first month of their year, fixing the time of the yearly paschal memorial. It was spoken through Moses to Israel in Egypt before the final judgment fell, telling them what to do to be sheltered from the plague about to strike Egypt and to be ready to leave bondage. The slain lamb without blemish pointed to the death of Christ, the sinless Lamb of God. Its blood struck on the doorposts as a sign of safety pictured His blood alone cleansing the believing sinner from sin and sheltering from wrath and judgment, while eating its flesh represented partaking of Him by faith. The provision was received by gathering in the house, following the directions, and standing ready to depart, showing faith in the salvation provided, and it was kept every year to hold the deliverance in memory and keep hearts trusting Him alone.
Passover Setting and Institution
The month in which Israel was released from Egypt was made the beginning and first month of their year, fixing the time of the yearly paschal memorial. The first Passover was kept at that time, just before the Israelites left bondage for the promised land. The month of deliverance thus became the first month and set the yearly time of remembrance.
The verse belongs to directions given through Moses to the children of Israel in Egypt before the final judgment fell, concerning their departure and especially their preservation from the plague about to strike Egypt. They were told what they must do to preserve themselves and their families and to prepare for leaving Egypt. God's people were to respond with faith expressed through obedience, each family gathering in the house, observing the directions, and standing ready to leave, with the blood on the doorposts as a sign of protection in the judgment.
The solemn ordinance was instituted on the night of the last and most severe plague upon Egypt, a night terrible to the Egyptians and glorious to God's people. Moses had told Pharaoh, the Egyptians, and the Israelites the nature and effect of that final judgment, which came after the plagues of locusts and darkness. The king with his idolatrous priests still opposed Moses to the last, while the Egyptian people wanted Israel to leave. It was the last night of bondage, when no token of deliverance yet appeared, and God commanded preparation for immediate release after warning Pharaoh of final judgment on the Egyptians, marking the birth of the Hebrew nation as an independent nation.
The directions centered on slaying a lamb without blemish, striking its blood upon the doorposts and doorway, gathering families inside their dwellings around the table, and eating the roasted lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs in haste with loins girded, shoes on feet and staff in hand as the Lord's passover. At midnight the angel passed through Egypt to slay the firstborn of man and beast, execute judgment against the gods of Egypt, and pass over Israelite houses, with the destroying angel passing across the sky above the buildings amid mourning among the Egyptians. Then came Pharaoh's command to rise up and go serve the Lord. That day was to be kept as a memorial feast to the Lord throughout generations forever, repeated yearly as the sacrifice of the Lord's passover who passed over the houses of Israel when He smote the Egyptians, to be explained when children ask what the service means.
The ordinance was kept each year at Jerusalem, reenacting the night assembly, the hasty meal, the sprinkled blood, the destroying angel, and the march out of bondage. The Passover supper was eaten gathered around a table with dishes and staff ready. On the journey the deliverance was recounted to children with songs and the chanting of God's commandments, and rehearsed in solemn silence at the service, to stir the imagination, impress the heart, and fix the deliverance forever in the memory of child and youth.
Christ Foreshadowed and Fulfilled
The slain innocent lamb without blemish appointed at the beginning of the year pictures Christ's death, for He is the sinless Lamb of God. The observance was given to teach the people to see in that slain lamb the symbol of His death. The blood on the doorposts as a sign of safety symbolizes Christ's blood, which alone cleanses the believing sinner from sin and shelters from God's wrath and coming judgment, whose merits alone avert judgment and condemnation. When the destroying angel passed over the homes marked by the blood of the innocent lamb, that deliverance prefigured salvation through Christ. Eating the flesh of the lamb remembers the protection given when the firstborn of the enemies in Egypt were slain, and represents the Lamb of God, so that all who by faith eat His flesh and drink His blood have power for resurrection to immortal life in the kingdom of God.
The Passover and all the religious services and ceremonies connected with it represent the Saviour revealed in the Old Testament and cannot be explained apart from Christ, for He is the key that unlocks the Old Testament and gives access to its rich treasures. His voice spoke through the prophets and patriarchs from the days of Adam onward. If the Saviour they represent is rejected, those services are valueless. The agreement of prophecy with His mission, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension proves His identity as the Messiah foretold by Moses and the prophets.
The ceremony was established by Christ Himself before His incarnation. At its fulfillment Christ Himself stood among the people as the antitype, the type meeting its fulfillment in Him while present. He identified Himself as its great fulfillment and antitype when He connected the Lord's Supper with the feast. As a twelve-year-old witnessing and observing the Passover rites and their meaning, Jesus began to understand that the ceremonies were bound up with His own life and the mission He would accomplish for the covenant heirs.
Faith Obedience and Remembrance
The provision of safety in judgment had to be received by doing exactly what God instructed, with faith expressed in obedience to His directions. Each family was to gather inside the house, observe the directions given before the judgment on the firstborn and the departure from Egypt, and stand ready to leave, with the blood on the doorposts as the sign of protection when judgment fell. Their actions in thus keeping the institution of the Passover showed their faith in the salvation and protection He provided, including shelter from wrath and cleansing from sin through the slain lamb. That call to gather, obey, and be ready stands without unfolding what it meant for this month to be the beginning of months.
God especially instituted the Passover as a yearly ordinance to keep His wonderful works in deliverance from Egypt in memory. It was designed to call minds away from world-loving interests and from cares and anxieties about temporal concerns, to review the works of God. Those who kept it were to call to mind His miracles, mercies, and loving-kindness in that deliverance. That remembrance was to increase love and reverence for Him, leading to ever looking to Him and trusting Him in all trials and not turning to other gods.
God set the month of Israel's release from Egypt as the beginning and first month of their year, fixing the time of the yearly paschal memorial. It was spoken through Moses to Israel in Egypt before the final judgment fell, telling them what to do to be sheltered from the plague about to strike Egypt and to be ready to leave bondage. The slain lamb without blemish pointed to the death of Christ, the sinless Lamb of God. Its blood struck on the doorposts as a sign of safety pictured His blood alone cleansing the believing sinner from sin and sheltering from wrath and judgment, while eating its flesh represented partaking of Him by faith. The provision was received by gathering in the house, following the directions, and standing ready to depart, showing faith in the salvation provided, and it was kept every year to hold the deliverance in memory and keep hearts trusting Him alone.
Passover Setting and Institution
The month in which Israel was released from Egypt was made the beginning and first month of their year, fixing the time of the yearly paschal memorial. The first Passover was kept at that time, just before the Israelites left bondage for the promised land. The month of deliverance thus became the first month and set the yearly time of remembrance.
The verse belongs to directions given through Moses to the children of Israel in Egypt before the final judgment fell, concerning their departure and especially their preservation from the plague about to strike Egypt. They were told what they must do to preserve themselves and their families and to prepare for leaving Egypt. God's people were to respond with faith expressed through obedience, each family gathering in the house, observing the directions, and standing ready to leave, with the blood on the doorposts as a sign of protection in the judgment.
The solemn ordinance was instituted on the night of the last and most severe plague upon Egypt, a night terrible to the Egyptians and glorious to God's people. Moses had told Pharaoh, the Egyptians, and the Israelites the nature and effect of that final judgment, which came after the plagues of locusts and darkness. The king with his idolatrous priests still opposed Moses to the last, while the Egyptian people wanted Israel to leave. It was the last night of bondage, when no token of deliverance yet appeared, and God commanded preparation for immediate release after warning Pharaoh of final judgment on the Egyptians, marking the birth of the Hebrew nation as an independent nation.
The directions centered on slaying a lamb without blemish, striking its blood upon the doorposts and doorway, gathering families inside their dwellings around the table, and eating the roasted lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs in haste with loins girded, shoes on feet and staff in hand as the Lord's passover. At midnight the angel passed through Egypt to slay the firstborn of man and beast, execute judgment against the gods of Egypt, and pass over Israelite houses, with the destroying angel passing across the sky above the buildings amid mourning among the Egyptians. Then came Pharaoh's command to rise up and go serve the Lord. That day was to be kept as a memorial feast to the Lord throughout generations forever, repeated yearly as the sacrifice of the Lord's passover who passed over the houses of Israel when He smote the Egyptians, to be explained when children ask what the service means.
The ordinance was kept each year at Jerusalem, reenacting the night assembly, the hasty meal, the sprinkled blood, the destroying angel, and the march out of bondage. The Passover supper was eaten gathered around a table with dishes and staff ready. On the journey the deliverance was recounted to children with songs and the chanting of God's commandments, and rehearsed in solemn silence at the service, to stir the imagination, impress the heart, and fix the deliverance forever in the memory of child and youth.
Christ Foreshadowed and Fulfilled
The slain innocent lamb without blemish appointed at the beginning of the year pictures Christ's death, for He is the sinless Lamb of God. The observance was given to teach the people to see in that slain lamb the symbol of His death. The blood on the doorposts as a sign of safety symbolizes Christ's blood, which alone cleanses the believing sinner from sin and shelters from God's wrath and coming judgment, whose merits alone avert judgment and condemnation. When the destroying angel passed over the homes marked by the blood of the innocent lamb, that deliverance prefigured salvation through Christ. Eating the flesh of the lamb remembers the protection given when the firstborn of the enemies in Egypt were slain, and represents the Lamb of God, so that all who by faith eat His flesh and drink His blood have power for resurrection to immortal life in the kingdom of God.
The Passover and all the religious services and ceremonies connected with it represent the Saviour revealed in the Old Testament and cannot be explained apart from Christ, for He is the key that unlocks the Old Testament and gives access to its rich treasures. His voice spoke through the prophets and patriarchs from the days of Adam onward. If the Saviour they represent is rejected, those services are valueless. The agreement of prophecy with His mission, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension proves His identity as the Messiah foretold by Moses and the prophets.
The ceremony was established by Christ Himself before His incarnation. At its fulfillment Christ Himself stood among the people as the antitype, the type meeting its fulfillment in Him while present. He identified Himself as its great fulfillment and antitype when He connected the Lord's Supper with the feast. As a twelve-year-old witnessing and observing the Passover rites and their meaning, Jesus began to understand that the ceremonies were bound up with His own life and the mission He would accomplish for the covenant heirs.
Faith Obedience and Remembrance
The provision of safety in judgment had to be received by doing exactly what God instructed, with faith expressed in obedience to His directions. Each family was to gather inside the house, observe the directions given before the judgment on the firstborn and the departure from Egypt, and stand ready to leave, with the blood on the doorposts as the sign of protection when judgment fell. Their actions in thus keeping the institution of the Passover showed their faith in the salvation and protection He provided, including shelter from wrath and cleansing from sin through the slain lamb. That call to gather, obey, and be ready stands without unfolding what it meant for this month to be the beginning of months.
God especially instituted the Passover as a yearly ordinance to keep His wonderful works in deliverance from Egypt in memory. It was designed to call minds away from world-loving interests and from cares and anxieties about temporal concerns, to review the works of God. Those who kept it were to call to mind His miracles, mercies, and loving-kindness in that deliverance. That remembrance was to increase love and reverence for Him, leading to ever looking to Him and trusting Him in all trials and not turning to other gods.