All the congregation of Israel was to keep the Passover together as a sacred memorial feast in which households brought and ate the lamb. It was given on the night the destroying angel passed over the blood-marked houses when Egypt's firstborn were slain, to preserve remembrance of deliverance from Egyptian bondage. The slaying of the lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month foreshadowed the death of Jesus the Lamb of God on that same day, by whose blood God passes over the transgressions of His people. It stands as the yearly memorial of the exodus, distinct from the weekly Sabbath given at creation, and cannot itself make the Sabbath a memorial of deliverance. Strangers could share it only after circumcision made them members of the congregation, while the deliverance it remembers serves as the pattern for the final deliverance of God's people through the last plagues.
Place in Exodus Account
All the congregation of Israel was to keep it as part of the account in Exodus 11 to 13 covering the last plague, the Passover, and the going out of Egypt. It stands in Exodus 6 to 12 recording the ten plagues upon Egypt and God's merciful deliverance to His children. It is part of the account of Israel's deliverance from Egypt and the laws given as Israel became a nation, requiring the whole congregation to keep the ordinance described in Exodus 12.
It belongs to the ordinance for the Passover given in close connection with the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, and the hurried departure of Israel from Egypt, when the firstborn are claimed as the Lord's. It belongs to the record in Exodus 7 to 12 where the Word of God spoken through Moses turned the rivers of Egypt into blood and struck the land with plague. The great power manifested was not in Moses himself but in the Word, in the message, which God simply spoke through him.
The first keeping was at Rameses in Egypt on the night Israel was led out of bondage to go to Canaan. The exodus recorded in Exodus 12 was one month before the march from Elim to the wilderness of Sin and the Sabbath rest connected with the fall of manna in Exodus 16. Israel's departure from Egypt, when a nation went out amid darkness, plague, and storm, is a historical example of nature accompanying a momentous divine event.
The passage establishes Abib as the first month of Israel's sacred year, though the seventh month of the civil year reckoned from creation. Its first day of unleavened bread in Egypt at the exodus marks the end of the span counted from Genesis 1 and from the Creator's rest-day in Eden. The conflict over worshiping God and keeping His commandments, particularly the Sabbath, came to a crisis before the people were freed through the plagues and God's intervention.
It stands within God's wonderful deliverance of Israel from Egypt, completed at the Red Sea, which demonstrated His wisdom, love, and power, His ability and right to rule, and Israel's obligation to obey. It marks God's deliverance of Israel from servile condition as serfs of the Egyptians. God allowed them to remain in that condition for a time without sanctioning even that modified form of slavery, then demanded their instant release, brought terrible judgments on their oppressors for refusing, led Israel forth as an army of fugitive slaves, and drowned their pursuers in the Red Sea.
In this deliverance God's judgment fell on Egypt's firstborn but Israel's firstborn were delivered, and this event gave the people a personal knowledge of God's power and mercy. Hundreds of years of slavery had unfitted them to comprehend God's great salvation and the character He required. They must have a great, multiple object-lesson which by various forms and rites would comprehend in its teaching the great plan of salvation. Therefore God instructed Moses to ask free-will offerings for building and to make Him a sanctuary that He might dwell among them.
Whole Congregation Keeping Passover
All the congregation of Israel was to keep the ordinance, with instruction given for when and how it was to be kept and for its purpose, as a sacred memorial feast and communal observance in which households brought and ate the lamb. After the first night it continued as a yearly feast at Jerusalem, which Jewish boys were not expected to attend until twelve years old, when they received special instruction in the law and religion of their fathers. The first keeping was at Rameses in Egypt on the night Israel was led out of bondage toward Canaan.
The feast began with slaying the paschal lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month and extended through seven days in which only unleavened bread was eaten. Eating the Passover meant eating the lamb with bitter herbs on the night after the fourteenth, and preparation of the Passover could refer to preparations for that meal. The requirement was absolute in one thing, that nothing leavened or fermented was permitted, under the heaviest penalty for using anything leavened. The wording left drink optional because eat implied both eating and drinking, but a seven-day festival made drink a necessity left to circumstances and common sense except that it could not be leavened, so the cup called fruit of the vine when Christ instituted His Supper at the Passover was unfermented.
The verse belongs to the original Passover instructions given in Egypt and kept in the wilderness toward Palestine, the first form distinct from the materially changed form after the temple was built. Compared with Deuteronomy 16:1-6 and Numbers 28:16-25, the Exodus instructions lack later additions, while later observances added wine, which the Pentateuch does not enjoin, and the Hallel of Psalms 113-118, which the original does not require. The Passover law was intended for regular observance after entering the promised land, observed once in the wilderness, then omitted until entry into Canaan. The directions for preparing the meal at Jesus' last supper followed the Passover instructions in Exodus 12, so Jesus and His disciples as consistent Israelites obeying the Mosaic law for its preparation and keeping ate the Passover, including the slain lamb.
Memorial of Egyptian Deliverance
The Passover is the memorial God gave Israel for deliverance from Egyptian bondage and slavery, plainly declared to be a memorial with its office described and well suited to call that deliverance to mind. That memorial office is sufficient for that event, leaving no fitness or need to wrest the Sabbath from its proper office of commemorating creation and make it also commemorate the deliverance. The feast takes its name from the angel of the Lord passing over the houses of the Hebrews on the night the firstborn in every Egyptian family was slain. Passover means the angel saw the blood on the doorposts, passed over that house, and did not slay the oldest child.
The chapter presents the Passover observances as memorials of deliverance from Egypt, including the night kept in remembrance of the Lord bringing them out. It was observed at night as an annual memorial with the Passover lamb and the week of unleavened bread. The detailed account of the Passover belongs to that annual memorial of deliverance, and it served as a shadow of something good to be done for the human race. Its role as a memorial of the exodus distinguishes it from the Sabbath, which was given at creation.
Its observance preserved remembrance of when God brought judgment near, doomed Egypt's firstborn sons to die, and caused the destroying angel to pass over Israelite dwellings on his path. It stands beside the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which declared how the fearful Egyptians hurried Israel away. Both were explained to inquiring sons as meaning that with a mighty hand Jehovah brought them up from Egypt's land. A weekly rest cannot fitly memorialize a deliverance that came round but once a year, so the Passover cannot be crowded together with the Sabbath to make the Sabbath a memorial of the rush out of bondage.
Type of Christ's Sacrifice
The slaying of the paschal lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month foreshadowed the death of Christ, the Lamb of God, on that same day. Kept by the whole congregation of Israel in commemoration of deliverance from Egyptian bondage, the feast took its name from the passing over of Hebrew houses on the night the firstborn in every Egyptian family was slain, began with that slaying, and extended through seven days in which nothing but unleavened bread was eaten. Its great antitype was reached when Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.
The deliverance and the blood marked on the doors typify pardon and the blotting out of sin through Christ's blood. By that blood God passes over the transgressions of His people so that they are not cut off. The houses marked with the lamb's blood and spared when the destroying angel passed to slay Egypt's firstborn illustrate the seal of God. That seal is a distinguishing religious mark by which His servants are exempted from judgments falling on the wicked around them.
The Passover commemorating deliverance from Egypt served as a shadow of something good to be done for the human race. It was required of the whole congregation of Israel and was observed at night. Its role as a memorial of the exodus distinguishes it from the Sabbath, which was given at creation.
Passover Distinct From Sabbath
The holy days connected with the Passover fall on particular days of the month and are distinct from the weekly Sabbath, so they do not determine the Sabbath's day. Those holy days were not necessarily weekly Sabbaths. The chapter provides at most evidence about the calendar in that particular year, not proof that the Sabbath began on a certain day each month or that the week began with the year.
The keeping required of all the congregation of Israel is the Passover, ordained as a memorial of God passing over Israel when He struck the Egyptians, not as the origin or weekly memorial of the Sabbath. It was observed at night to commemorate deliverance from Egypt and served as a shadow of something good to be done for the human race. Its role as a memorial of the exodus distinguishes it from the Sabbath, which was given at creation, and the Sabbath is not a memorial of deliverance from Egypt.
The Passover is the memorial God gave Israel for deliverance from Egypt, plainly declared to be a memorial with its office described, and that memorial is sufficient for that event, leaving no fitness or need to wrest the Sabbath from its proper office of commemorating creation and make it also commemorate the deliverance. A weekly rest cannot fitly memorialize a deliverance that came round but once a year, so the Passover cannot be crowded together with the Sabbath to make the Sabbath a memorial of the rush out of bondage. Its observance preserved remembrance of when God brought judgment near, doomed Egypt's firstborn sons to die, and caused the destroying angel to pass over Israelite dwellings on his path, and it stands beside the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which declared how the fearful Egyptians hurried Israel away, both being explained to inquiring sons as meaning that with a mighty hand Jehovah brought them up from Egypt's land. After baring His arm to lift suffering and release Israel from the oppressor's rod where they could freely serve and worship God, God charged the Sabbath to direct their homage to Himself. The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread served as memorials of deliverance from Egypt, not as the purpose or memorial meaning of the weekly Sabbath. Moses does not command Sabbath observance in Deuteronomy 5 as a memorial of deliverance from Egypt, because Israel already had the Passover for that purpose. Abib is established as the first month of Israel's sacred year, though it is the seventh month of the civil year reckoned from creation, and the distinction between the Passover commemorating deliverance from Egypt and the seventh-day Sabbath rejects the claim that the Exodus changed the Sabbath day.
The Passover law was intended for regular observance after entering the promised land, having been observed once in the wilderness and then omitted until entry into Canaan. Its preparation required each family to roast the Passover lamb, so if the Sabbath fire prohibition had continued in the land it would sometimes have conflicted with the Passover. This supports the conclusion that the fire prohibition was a temporary wilderness rule, not a permanent Sabbath requirement.
Standing at the beginning of the Exodus 12 to 20 record, the passage shows the Sabbath spoken of and kept as an old institution well understood before the commandments were spoken from Sinai, so the claim that the Sabbath is not mentioned until after Sinai is false.
Inclusion and Final Deliverance
All the congregation of Israel was to keep it, while foreigners were distinguished from the congregation and could partake only after circumcision made them members of the Hebrew church. Foreign servants bought with money had to be circumcised to share in it, and that circumcision made them part of the household during the period of service, naturalized citizens of the state, members of the congregation, and partakers of all the rites and privileges common to the mass of the people. The law served two objects, to permit the Hebrews to obtain help in tilling the land and to increase the numbers of the commonwealth. That all kept it as circumcised persons proves they still observed God's ordinances in Egypt and were ready to eat it, so they had not forgotten His past dealings.
The law given to Israel was for every person of whatever race or nationality, not for Israel alone. Israel was the chosen people through whom knowledge of God was to extend through the earth, to be as a light to the surrounding nations, and the course they pursued was to reveal to all other people what it meant to be a member of God's government and God's people. The Ten Commandments were the Constitution of the government of Israel and the basis of national and individual life, and the added rites, services, ceremonies, and instructions were by-laws to explain the real meaning of the Sinai law, how to be kept from transgressing it and what to do when it was violated.
Though the Passover and its feast are called perpetual and everlasting, that period has expired. Such words as perpetual and everlasting there are no stronger than commanded to a thousand generations, so such language does not prove endless obligation. The appointed time given for the Passover does not establish a required quarterly schedule for the Lord's Supper, whose frequency is left to the faith, judgment, and devotion of God's people.
The account of Egypt's plagues and Israel's deliverance in which this keeping stands serves as a pattern for the seven last plagues and the final deliverance of the saints. As the Egyptian plagues came just before Israel was delivered, so the last plagues will come just before the final deliverance. Israel living through the plagues upon Egypt provides the comparison for God's people remaining on earth through six plagues and being protected by the seal of the living God. The deliverance from Egypt that followed the ten plagues makes those plagues the precedent for the seven plagues that will sweep over the world.
All the congregation of Israel was to keep the Passover together as a sacred memorial feast in which households brought and ate the lamb. It was given on the night the destroying angel passed over the blood-marked houses when Egypt's firstborn were slain, to preserve remembrance of deliverance from Egyptian bondage. The slaying of the lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month foreshadowed the death of Jesus the Lamb of God on that same day, by whose blood God passes over the transgressions of His people. It stands as the yearly memorial of the exodus, distinct from the weekly Sabbath given at creation, and cannot itself make the Sabbath a memorial of deliverance. Strangers could share it only after circumcision made them members of the congregation, while the deliverance it remembers serves as the pattern for the final deliverance of God's people through the last plagues.
Place in Exodus Account
All the congregation of Israel was to keep it as part of the account in Exodus 11 to 13 covering the last plague, the Passover, and the going out of Egypt. It stands in Exodus 6 to 12 recording the ten plagues upon Egypt and God's merciful deliverance to His children. It is part of the account of Israel's deliverance from Egypt and the laws given as Israel became a nation, requiring the whole congregation to keep the ordinance described in Exodus 12.
It belongs to the ordinance for the Passover given in close connection with the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, and the hurried departure of Israel from Egypt, when the firstborn are claimed as the Lord's. It belongs to the record in Exodus 7 to 12 where the Word of God spoken through Moses turned the rivers of Egypt into blood and struck the land with plague. The great power manifested was not in Moses himself but in the Word, in the message, which God simply spoke through him.
The first keeping was at Rameses in Egypt on the night Israel was led out of bondage to go to Canaan. The exodus recorded in Exodus 12 was one month before the march from Elim to the wilderness of Sin and the Sabbath rest connected with the fall of manna in Exodus 16. Israel's departure from Egypt, when a nation went out amid darkness, plague, and storm, is a historical example of nature accompanying a momentous divine event.
The passage establishes Abib as the first month of Israel's sacred year, though the seventh month of the civil year reckoned from creation. Its first day of unleavened bread in Egypt at the exodus marks the end of the span counted from Genesis 1 and from the Creator's rest-day in Eden. The conflict over worshiping God and keeping His commandments, particularly the Sabbath, came to a crisis before the people were freed through the plagues and God's intervention.
It stands within God's wonderful deliverance of Israel from Egypt, completed at the Red Sea, which demonstrated His wisdom, love, and power, His ability and right to rule, and Israel's obligation to obey. It marks God's deliverance of Israel from servile condition as serfs of the Egyptians. God allowed them to remain in that condition for a time without sanctioning even that modified form of slavery, then demanded their instant release, brought terrible judgments on their oppressors for refusing, led Israel forth as an army of fugitive slaves, and drowned their pursuers in the Red Sea.
In this deliverance God's judgment fell on Egypt's firstborn but Israel's firstborn were delivered, and this event gave the people a personal knowledge of God's power and mercy. Hundreds of years of slavery had unfitted them to comprehend God's great salvation and the character He required. They must have a great, multiple object-lesson which by various forms and rites would comprehend in its teaching the great plan of salvation. Therefore God instructed Moses to ask free-will offerings for building and to make Him a sanctuary that He might dwell among them.
Whole Congregation Keeping Passover
All the congregation of Israel was to keep the ordinance, with instruction given for when and how it was to be kept and for its purpose, as a sacred memorial feast and communal observance in which households brought and ate the lamb. After the first night it continued as a yearly feast at Jerusalem, which Jewish boys were not expected to attend until twelve years old, when they received special instruction in the law and religion of their fathers. The first keeping was at Rameses in Egypt on the night Israel was led out of bondage toward Canaan.
The feast began with slaying the paschal lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month and extended through seven days in which only unleavened bread was eaten. Eating the Passover meant eating the lamb with bitter herbs on the night after the fourteenth, and preparation of the Passover could refer to preparations for that meal. The requirement was absolute in one thing, that nothing leavened or fermented was permitted, under the heaviest penalty for using anything leavened. The wording left drink optional because eat implied both eating and drinking, but a seven-day festival made drink a necessity left to circumstances and common sense except that it could not be leavened, so the cup called fruit of the vine when Christ instituted His Supper at the Passover was unfermented.
The verse belongs to the original Passover instructions given in Egypt and kept in the wilderness toward Palestine, the first form distinct from the materially changed form after the temple was built. Compared with Deuteronomy 16:1-6 and Numbers 28:16-25, the Exodus instructions lack later additions, while later observances added wine, which the Pentateuch does not enjoin, and the Hallel of Psalms 113-118, which the original does not require. The Passover law was intended for regular observance after entering the promised land, observed once in the wilderness, then omitted until entry into Canaan. The directions for preparing the meal at Jesus' last supper followed the Passover instructions in Exodus 12, so Jesus and His disciples as consistent Israelites obeying the Mosaic law for its preparation and keeping ate the Passover, including the slain lamb.
Memorial of Egyptian Deliverance
The Passover is the memorial God gave Israel for deliverance from Egyptian bondage and slavery, plainly declared to be a memorial with its office described and well suited to call that deliverance to mind. That memorial office is sufficient for that event, leaving no fitness or need to wrest the Sabbath from its proper office of commemorating creation and make it also commemorate the deliverance. The feast takes its name from the angel of the Lord passing over the houses of the Hebrews on the night the firstborn in every Egyptian family was slain. Passover means the angel saw the blood on the doorposts, passed over that house, and did not slay the oldest child.
The chapter presents the Passover observances as memorials of deliverance from Egypt, including the night kept in remembrance of the Lord bringing them out. It was observed at night as an annual memorial with the Passover lamb and the week of unleavened bread. The detailed account of the Passover belongs to that annual memorial of deliverance, and it served as a shadow of something good to be done for the human race. Its role as a memorial of the exodus distinguishes it from the Sabbath, which was given at creation.
Its observance preserved remembrance of when God brought judgment near, doomed Egypt's firstborn sons to die, and caused the destroying angel to pass over Israelite dwellings on his path. It stands beside the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which declared how the fearful Egyptians hurried Israel away. Both were explained to inquiring sons as meaning that with a mighty hand Jehovah brought them up from Egypt's land. A weekly rest cannot fitly memorialize a deliverance that came round but once a year, so the Passover cannot be crowded together with the Sabbath to make the Sabbath a memorial of the rush out of bondage.
Type of Christ's Sacrifice
The slaying of the paschal lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month foreshadowed the death of Christ, the Lamb of God, on that same day. Kept by the whole congregation of Israel in commemoration of deliverance from Egyptian bondage, the feast took its name from the passing over of Hebrew houses on the night the firstborn in every Egyptian family was slain, began with that slaying, and extended through seven days in which nothing but unleavened bread was eaten. Its great antitype was reached when Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.
The deliverance and the blood marked on the doors typify pardon and the blotting out of sin through Christ's blood. By that blood God passes over the transgressions of His people so that they are not cut off. The houses marked with the lamb's blood and spared when the destroying angel passed to slay Egypt's firstborn illustrate the seal of God. That seal is a distinguishing religious mark by which His servants are exempted from judgments falling on the wicked around them.
The Passover commemorating deliverance from Egypt served as a shadow of something good to be done for the human race. It was required of the whole congregation of Israel and was observed at night. Its role as a memorial of the exodus distinguishes it from the Sabbath, which was given at creation.
Passover Distinct From Sabbath
The holy days connected with the Passover fall on particular days of the month and are distinct from the weekly Sabbath, so they do not determine the Sabbath's day. Those holy days were not necessarily weekly Sabbaths. The chapter provides at most evidence about the calendar in that particular year, not proof that the Sabbath began on a certain day each month or that the week began with the year.
The keeping required of all the congregation of Israel is the Passover, ordained as a memorial of God passing over Israel when He struck the Egyptians, not as the origin or weekly memorial of the Sabbath. It was observed at night to commemorate deliverance from Egypt and served as a shadow of something good to be done for the human race. Its role as a memorial of the exodus distinguishes it from the Sabbath, which was given at creation, and the Sabbath is not a memorial of deliverance from Egypt.
The Passover is the memorial God gave Israel for deliverance from Egypt, plainly declared to be a memorial with its office described, and that memorial is sufficient for that event, leaving no fitness or need to wrest the Sabbath from its proper office of commemorating creation and make it also commemorate the deliverance. A weekly rest cannot fitly memorialize a deliverance that came round but once a year, so the Passover cannot be crowded together with the Sabbath to make the Sabbath a memorial of the rush out of bondage. Its observance preserved remembrance of when God brought judgment near, doomed Egypt's firstborn sons to die, and caused the destroying angel to pass over Israelite dwellings on his path, and it stands beside the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which declared how the fearful Egyptians hurried Israel away, both being explained to inquiring sons as meaning that with a mighty hand Jehovah brought them up from Egypt's land. After baring His arm to lift suffering and release Israel from the oppressor's rod where they could freely serve and worship God, God charged the Sabbath to direct their homage to Himself. The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread served as memorials of deliverance from Egypt, not as the purpose or memorial meaning of the weekly Sabbath. Moses does not command Sabbath observance in Deuteronomy 5 as a memorial of deliverance from Egypt, because Israel already had the Passover for that purpose. Abib is established as the first month of Israel's sacred year, though it is the seventh month of the civil year reckoned from creation, and the distinction between the Passover commemorating deliverance from Egypt and the seventh-day Sabbath rejects the claim that the Exodus changed the Sabbath day.
The Passover law was intended for regular observance after entering the promised land, having been observed once in the wilderness and then omitted until entry into Canaan. Its preparation required each family to roast the Passover lamb, so if the Sabbath fire prohibition had continued in the land it would sometimes have conflicted with the Passover. This supports the conclusion that the fire prohibition was a temporary wilderness rule, not a permanent Sabbath requirement.
Standing at the beginning of the Exodus 12 to 20 record, the passage shows the Sabbath spoken of and kept as an old institution well understood before the commandments were spoken from Sinai, so the claim that the Sabbath is not mentioned until after Sinai is false.
Inclusion and Final Deliverance
All the congregation of Israel was to keep it, while foreigners were distinguished from the congregation and could partake only after circumcision made them members of the Hebrew church. Foreign servants bought with money had to be circumcised to share in it, and that circumcision made them part of the household during the period of service, naturalized citizens of the state, members of the congregation, and partakers of all the rites and privileges common to the mass of the people. The law served two objects, to permit the Hebrews to obtain help in tilling the land and to increase the numbers of the commonwealth. That all kept it as circumcised persons proves they still observed God's ordinances in Egypt and were ready to eat it, so they had not forgotten His past dealings.
The law given to Israel was for every person of whatever race or nationality, not for Israel alone. Israel was the chosen people through whom knowledge of God was to extend through the earth, to be as a light to the surrounding nations, and the course they pursued was to reveal to all other people what it meant to be a member of God's government and God's people. The Ten Commandments were the Constitution of the government of Israel and the basis of national and individual life, and the added rites, services, ceremonies, and instructions were by-laws to explain the real meaning of the Sinai law, how to be kept from transgressing it and what to do when it was violated.
Though the Passover and its feast are called perpetual and everlasting, that period has expired. Such words as perpetual and everlasting there are no stronger than commanded to a thousand generations, so such language does not prove endless obligation. The appointed time given for the Passover does not establish a required quarterly schedule for the Lord's Supper, whose frequency is left to the faith, judgment, and devotion of God's people.
The account of Egypt's plagues and Israel's deliverance in which this keeping stands serves as a pattern for the seven last plagues and the final deliverance of the saints. As the Egyptian plagues came just before Israel was delivered, so the last plagues will come just before the final deliverance. Israel living through the plagues upon Egypt provides the comparison for God's people remaining on earth through six plagues and being protected by the seal of the living God. The deliverance from Egypt that followed the ten plagues makes those plagues the precedent for the seven plagues that will sweep over the world.