Exodus 12:1- 13 “Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month is the beginning of months for you; it shall be the first month of your year.
Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, each man must select a lamb for his family, one per household. If the household is too small for a whole lamb, they are to share with the nearest neighbor based on the number of people, and apportion the lamb accordingly.
Your lamb must be an unblemished year-old male, and you may take it from the sheep or the goats. You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight. They are to take some of the blood and put it on the two side posts and tops of the doorframes of the houses in which they eat the lambs.
They are to eat the meat that night, roasted over the fire, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of the meat raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over the fire—its head and legs and inner parts. Do not leave any of it until morning; before the morning you must burn up any part that is left over.
This is how you are to eat it: You must be fully dressed for travel, with your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. You are to eat in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover.
On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn male, both man and beast, and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood on the houses where you are staying will distinguish them; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”
This passage illustrates the origins of the Passover celebration. Families were to select a perfect lamb,kill that lamb, and smear the blood on the doorposts of their houses. Why a lamb? The lamb was a symbol of innocence and sinlessness. Payment for sin demanded a blood sacrifice. Hebrews 9:22 says, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
From the time of Cain and Abel, blood sacrifices were standard. After the flood, Noah sacrificed clean animals in an offering to God. When God “cut covenant” with Abraham, several birds and animals were sacrificed, their bodies split, and the blood was shed. Now God was calling on the Israelites to act in faith, sacrificing lambs and painting their doorposts with the blood from the sacrifice.
There were more instructions regarding these lambs, all of them aimed at preparing the Israelites so that they could readily leave as soon as necessary. They were to eat the flesh of the lambs along with unleavened bread which would take only a short time to prepare and bitter herbs, as a reminder of the suffering they had undergone in Egypt. They were to be “fully dressed for travel,” even to the point of having a walking staff in one hand while they ate with the other. They were to eat this meal quickly and deal with the leftovers promptly as well.
The sacrifices of these lambs was a forerunner of the ultimate blood sacrifice Jesus Christ paid for the sins of the entire world on the cross at Calvary. God told the Israelites that on the night of the Passover, He would execute judgment against ALL the gods of Egypt. This was God’s final act against every demonic power that the Egyptians had served for centuries.
APPLICATION: “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.” Jesus Christ was born as a man and lived as a sinless man so that He could give His life on a cross at Calvary. As long as men had to depend on animal sacrifices, those sacrifices had to be repeated because they could not permanently deal with sin. Only the blood of a sinless man who would voluntarily give up his life would be sufficient.
Jesus died, rose again, and now lives forever. Forgiveness of sin is available for anyone who will pray to Jesus, confessing that he or she is a sinner, and asking for forgiveness of sin. Jesus will freely forgive all who come to Him.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, thank you for shedding your blood for me. I confess that I am a sinner and that nothing I can do will help me earn my way into heaven. Please forgive my sins and help me to follow you for the rest of my life. Amen.
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