Exodus 12:21, commentary and pictures

On the night of the last and most terrible plague Moses called all the elders and commanded every household, alone or joined with others, to take a lamb or young goat without defect and kill it as the Passover, then roast it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs and eat it dressed for travel in haste and watchfulness. They were to gather their children and cattle apart from the Egyptians into their own houses, mark the side and upper posts of the doorway with its blood, and remain inside until morning, so that at midnight when the destroyer struck the firstborn the blood-marked houses would be passed over and spared. The slain lamb is the appointed sign of the death of the Son of God for sin, and its blood on the door is the sign of the cleansing and sheltering blood of Christ that protects the believing sinner from the wrath to come upon the impenitent world. The death of the lamb alone was not enough unless its blood was applied, so each person must by obedient action show faith by personally receiving the benefit of Christ's atoning sacrifice. The gathering of the children into the houses makes the Passover a lasting lesson that parents who love God must keep their children within the home and covenant, separate from sin and worldly companionship and trained in God's law, lest they perish with the unbelieving when judgment falls.

The Passover Night

The command institutes the solemn ordinance of the Passover on the night of the last plague upon Egypt, which was more severe than any before it. Moses made known the nature and effect of that coming judgment to Pharaoh and to the people of Egypt as well as to the Israelites. That night was terrible to the Egyptians and glorious to the people of God. The ordinance was instituted while the king and his idolatrous priests still opposed Moses to the last, even though the Egyptian people desired that the Hebrews be permitted to leave Egypt.

It came after the plagues of locusts and of oppressive darkness that made breathing difficult, while Israel had light and pure air in their dwellings. Before the judgment on the firstborn, God gave directions through Moses to preserve Israel from it and to prepare their departure from Egypt. That deliverance was accomplished despite Pharaoh's opposition and made it possible for the people to keep God's law, which had been given in Eden, before they were brought to Sinai to hear God proclaim it.

Moses called for all the elders and commanded every family, alone or joined with others, to draw out and take a lamb or young goat without defect according to families and kill the Passover. Preparation for departure was swift and secret, with families gathered together. The father as priest of the household roasts the flesh with fire and prepares unleavened bread and bitter herbs, sprinkles the blood upon the doorpost, and then joins his family inside the dwelling. They eat that night dressed for travel with belt fastened, shoes on, and staff in hand, eating in haste and silence while praying and watching in awe, the heart of every firstborn from strong man to little child throbbing with dread as fathers and mothers hold their loved firstborn thinking of the stroke to fall that night.

They were to separate themselves and their children and cattle from the Egyptians and gather them into their own houses, even bringing cattle in from the fields. They were to place the blood with hyssop on the two side posts and the upper post of the doorway, on lintel and sideposts. No one was to go out of the house until morning, but to abide within that protection. When the Lord went through Egypt at midnight to strike all the firstborn of man and beast and to judge all the gods of Egypt, He would see the blood-marked door and pass over it and not let the destroyer enter to smite them. So no dwelling of Israel with the token of blood was visited, and the children of obedient families gathered within the circle of the home were spared, while those without the sign, even Israelites found in the houses of the Egyptians, would fall by the hand of the destroying angel and suffer with the Egyptians.

Egyptians who were led by the signs and wonders to acknowledge that the God of the Hebrews was the only true God, and convinced that their gods had no power to save or destroy, entreated to come with their families into the houses of the Israelites that fearful night. They pledged to choose the God of Israel as their God and decided to leave Egypt and go with Israel to worship Him, and were welcomed by the Israelites into their houses. The lamb, unleavened bread, bitter herbs, sprinkled blood, death-dealing angel, and departure were to be remembered in an annual solemn, vivid ceremony and night assembly, kept with girded loins, shoes on feet, and staff in hand for a hasty meal, rehearsed in solemn silence. It called the Hebrews to remember their deliverance and God's works, mercy, and loving-kindness, with the experiences of the past recounted on the journey and in the feast through story, songs, commandments, nature, and kindly association, stirring the imagination, impressing the heart, and fixing the memory of deliverance forever in child and youth.

The Lamb's Meaning

The slaying of the Passover lamb was a symbol of the death of the Son of God, and the people were to associate the killing of the lamb with the future death of Christ. The sacrificial lamb represents Christ, the Lamb of God, who frees His people from sin. The lesson of the lamb being killed was about Christ's death for the sins of the world.

The blood marking the doorposts was the symbol of the blood of Christ, which cleanses the believing sinner from sin. That blood shelters him from the wrath of God to come upon the impenitent and unbelieving world, as the wrath of God fell upon the Egyptians. It gave a token of assured protection, and all were to abide within that protection. The protection was made possible through Christ's redeeming blood, and the blood on the doors was the sign of a Saviour's protection, so that no dwelling of Israel was visited by the death-dealing angel and the destroyer did not enter.

The lamb's death alone was not enough, for its blood had to be applied to the doorposts. Just so Christ's merits must be applied to each person. This requires believing that Christ died for oneself and personally receiving the benefit of His atoning sacrifice.

The provision God made for salvation benefits no one without obedient action. Israel had a work to perform on their part to prove them and to show their faith by their works in the great deliverance God was bringing about for them. Each must do the work God leaves him to do and by his acts manifest faith in the provision, carrying out what God requires.

When Christ, the Lamb of God, died for the sins of the world, the lamb no longer needed to be slain as a representation of His death. By rejecting Christ and putting Him to death, the Jews rejected the meaning that gave the Passover feast its value. So its continued observance by them became an empty form.

Gathering The Children

Before the last terrible judgment of the death of the firstborn, the children of Israel were to be gathered into their own houses apart from the Egyptians, and that gathering made the Passover an object-lesson at the birth of the nation to impress all hearts. The direction came through Moses and the elders to fathers and mothers to take a lamb for each family and kill the Passover, to put its blood with hyssop on the lintel and two side posts, and to let no one go out until morning so that the Lord would pass over the blood-marked door and not let the destroyer enter to smite them when He passed through to smite Egypt. Homes where parents were faithful to gather their little ones within the circle of the home were passed over and no judgment fell on their children. The command teaches that parents who love and fear God today are responsible to keep their children within the circle of the home and under the bond of the covenant and within sacred influences.

That keeping within the houses means that in this time of peril parents are to keep their children separate and distinct from the world, from sin and sinners, from the society of worldlings and from the practices of transgressors of God's law. They are to keep them with those connected with God, to respect and obey God's Word themselves, and to teach them that the commandments of God mean much more than is realized and not let them imitate the practices of transgressors. All civil, religious, and social arrangements are to be ordered to preserve children from harmful companionship. If any Israelites had been found in the houses of the Egyptians that night they would have fallen by the hand of the destroying angel, for the blood on the door was the sign that they were God's people and anyone who failed to obey would suffer with the Egyptians.

Parents are to understand and seek the Lord's will for themselves and their children and to give them an education based on a scriptural foundation line upon line and grounded in Scripture. They are to make them familiar from their earliest years with the precepts and principles of God's law and to keep them under scriptural influence, not sending them to public schools. Safety from judgment depends on obeying God's instruction to separate, applied to God's people moving out of the cities to live in small companies by themselves so they will not share the disaster of the last-day plagues poured out on those who show contempt for God's law.

Those who are thus separated from sin and sinners receive a mark on the forehead, while those found in the homes of the Egyptians would perish with unconsecrated idolaters when the destroying angel brings death to both young and old. Letting children drift into worldly companionship chosen by natural inclination lets the enemy take them out of parental hands, erects barriers to hold them away from Christ, and binds them with the world because it pleases their carnal minds. Children indulged in their own way in selfishness, idolatry, and unrighteousness will be unfit for heaven and fit for the last plagues, and unless parents arouse and do their appointed work they will perish with their children.

The feast of the Passover was to be kept for an ordinance so that when children inquired what the service meant parents would relate their wonderful preservation when the destroying angel went forth by night to slay the firstborn of man and beast but passed over their houses and not one with the token of blood upon the doorposts was slain. It was given as a grateful memorial to preserve to children the remembrance of God's care for His people, and the people bowed their heads and worshiped. The lamb, unleavened bread, bitter herbs, the account of the sprinkled blood and the death-dealing angel, and the departure were to be remembered in a solemn, vivid ceremony and night assembly, rehearsed in solemn silence to stir the imagination and impress the heart. The experiences of the past were to be recounted to the children on the journey and in the feast through story, songs, commandments, nature, and kindly association, to fix the memory of deliverance forever in child and youth.