Exodus 12:27
That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped. That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.
The sacrifice is the Lord's passover because on the night of the last plague He passed through Egypt to strike all the firstborn and judge its gods, yet when He saw the blood of the slain unblemished lamb sprinkled on the doorposts He passed over the houses of Israel and delivered them from destruction. The blood was the appointed token of belonging to God, so every household had to separate from the Egyptians, gather inside behind the marked door, and show faith by obedience in eating the roasted flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs in haste, ready for departure. From that night the feast was to be kept yearly as a lasting memorial, with parents answering their children's questions in the prescribed words and retelling the sprinkled blood, the passing over of the destroyer, and the hasty departure so the deliverance would stay fresh and assure them God would finish what He began. When Moses made these provisions known the people bowed the head and worshiped their gracious Deliverer, their gratitude for a time swallowing up both dread of the coming judgment and care over their speedy flight. The slain lamb pointed forward to Christ, the Lamb of God whose blood cleanses the believing sinner and shelters from wrath, so that after His death animal sacrifices ceased to avail and the same memorial purpose continues in the Lord's Supper to keep His deliverance fresh until He comes again.
Passover Night in Egypt
The sacrifice is the Lord's passover because He passed over the houses of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered their houses. Each household, alone or joined with others, was to slay an unblemished lamb or kid and sprinkle its blood with hyssop on the two side-posts and the upper door-post, so the destroying angel coming at midnight would not enter that house. They were to eat the flesh roasted with unleavened bread and bitter herbs at night, with loins girded, shoes on feet, and staff in hand, eating in haste. That night God passed through Egypt to smite all the firstborn of man and beast and to execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, and the blood was a token on the houses where Israel was, so that when He saw the blood He would pass over them and the plague would not destroy them when He smote Egypt.
The Passover was instituted as a solemn ordinance on the night of the last plague upon Egypt, which was more severe than any before it. That night was terrible to the Egyptians and glorious to the people of God. Beforehand Moses made known to Pharaoh, to the people of Egypt, and to the Israelites the nature and effect of that last plague.
The final plague came after the dreadful plague of locusts, which the king chose to receive rather than submit to God. It came after the plague of darkness that was oppressive and hard to breathe in for the Egyptians, while the Hebrews had pure air and light in their dwellings. Pharaoh and his idolatrous priests opposed Moses' request to the last, while the people of Egypt desired that the Hebrews be permitted to leave.
The blood on the door marked the occupants as God's people and kept the destroyer from entering their houses, and no Hebrew with the token of blood on the door-posts was slain. The token had to be seen on their houses to escape God's judgment, so families had to separate from the Egyptians and gather inside their own houses. Any Israelite found in an Egyptian house would fall by the destroying angel, and anyone who failed to obey the instruction would suffer with the Egyptians. Doing this work proved faith by works in the deliverance God was bringing about.
Remembrance Through Generations
From the birth of the Hebrew nation the Passover was commanded to be kept yearly as a lasting ordinance and memorial of the deliverance on the last night of bondage. In future years when Israel kept the feast in all generations they were to explain its service to their children in the prescribed words, that the sacrifice honors the Lord because He spared and rescued the houses of Israel when He struck the Egyptians. That telling was of their wonderful preservation in Egypt, when the destroying angel went forth by night to slay the firstborn of man and beast but passed over Hebrew houses, and not one Hebrew with the token of blood on the doorposts was slain.
When children asked what the service meant, the history of that wonderful deliverance and preservation was to be repeated from generation to generation. God directed that year by year the story should be told so it would be kept fresh in the minds of all. The telling was given to preserve to children the remembrance of God's care for His people.
The solemn service retold the sprinkled blood, the passing over of the death-dealing angel, and the departure and grand march from the land of bondage. It rehearsed the hasty meal of lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs eaten with girded loins, shoes on feet, and staff in hand, rehearsed in solemn silence in the night assembly at Jerusalem. Past experiences were recounted to Hebrew children and God's commandments were chanted on the journey. Recalling these events stirred the imagination, impressed the heart, and fixed the memory of children and youth in knowledge of and fellowship with God.
When Moses rehearsed God's provisions for their deliverance the people bowed the head and worshiped. Their worship was gratitude to their gracious Deliverer for this memorial and sign of care. Their thankfulness was so complete that the glad hope of freedom, the awful knowledge of the impending judgment upon their oppressors, and the cares and labors of speedy departure were all for the time swallowed up.
Israel's deliverance from Egypt was to be recounted continually as a wonderful act of God. Remembering what He had done was to assure them that He would accomplish what He had undertaken, and human resistance would only make His victory more striking and triumphant.
Christ and Christian Life
The slain lamb pointed forward to the death of Christ, the Lamb of God for the sins of the world, and the blood placed on the doorposts symbolized Christ's blood, which cleanses the believing sinner from sin and shelters that person from God's wrath. The provision required a response of love, reverence, and trust, acted out in faith upon what God had provided. When Christ died, animal sacrifices no longer served to represent His death, and rejecting Christ meant rejecting the value of the feast and leaving its observance an empty form.
The same memorial purpose continues in the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, which was given to commemorate the great deliverance wrought by Christ's death and to keep His work fresh in mind until He comes the second time in power and great glory. As the Passover was ordained as a commemoration of the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage, to be repeated year by year when children asked its meaning so that wonderful deliverance would be kept fresh in the minds of all, so the Supper celebrates the greater deliverance until His coming. At its institution Israel ate in haste with loins girded and staves in hand, ready for the journey because they had been thrust out of Egypt toward a painful and difficult wilderness journey, while in Christ's time the position had changed and in harmony with the rest given them the people partook reclining, with pure unfermented juice of the grape.
Before the death of the firstborn God commanded His people to gather their children into their own homes behind blood-marked doorposts and to abide within the protection assured by that token, as an object-lesson on guarding children's associations. That arrangement reveals His purpose in all His civil, religious, and social dealings with Israel to preserve children from harmful companionship and to make them familiar from their earliest years with the precepts and principles of the law. The same protection holds today when parents who love and fear God keep their children under the bond of the covenant within the sacred influences made possible through Christ's redeeming blood.
By His mighty power God delivered His people from Egypt despite Pharaoh's opposition so that they might keep the law given in Eden, bringing them to Sinai to hear its proclamation. By proclaiming the Ten Commandments with His own voice in awful grandeur He made known His majesty and authority as Ruler of the world, to impress them with the sacredness of the law and the importance of obeying it, revealing its importance by the power and glory with which it was given as the faith once delivered to the saints by Christ the Redeemer speaking from Sinai. Parents were to tell the next generation how He brought Israel out of bondage so they could serve Him and keep His Sabbaths.