It was so significant that GOD even instructed Moses on establishing a new religious year, beginning in the month of Nisan (the time of the Passover).
This is the final and ultimate judgment from GOD upon Egypt and its rebellious Pharaoh: the death of the first born. But this wasn’t a judgment on Egypt alone, but also upon any Hebrew that was disobedient to the command of the LORD.
EXODUS 12:3
"Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: 'On the tenth day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.
It wasn’t a camel, a donkey, a bull, or any other sort of creature, but a lamb that was to be sacrificed (not even a full-grown sheep). An innocent animal that was undeserving of death. One of the titles of the sinless, innocent Jesus Christ is “the Lamb of GOD that takes away the sin of the world” (JOHN 1:29). These lambs that GOD commanded to be slain were harmless, innocent and pretty much defenseless (HEB 7:26; ISA 53:7).
Christ presented Himself as a Lamb at His first advent, not as a Lion which He will manifest as upon His second advent. He came gently with Gospel truth for those brokenhearted ones, yet with the sting of conviction to break the proud and unruly. He came not to condemn, but to save (JOHN 3:17). When He returns as the Lion of Judah, He will come to judge, to reign and rule over all the world from Jerusalem, restoring the kingdom of Israel as the Messiah King.
Here in EXODUS, GOD having delivered one judgment on top of another upon the hardheaded pride and stubbornness of Pharaoh and his court, had brought this final judgment that struck at the heart and soul of Egypt – the slaying of the first born!
It’s worth noting that after multiple judgments upon Egypt and its ten primary pagan deities, the people of Egypt had every justification in believing that this God of the Hebrews is the true and living GOD. Just as Moses declared these various judgments, GOD made sure that they came to pass, showing the integrity of GOD’s truth. So when this final judgment was about to be unleashed, there was no reason why anyone should have doubted it would come to pass. The LORD made a way of escape and thus, preserve the lives of the firstborn.
Denotatively speaking, GOD is addressing Himself to His people, these Hebrew descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but His commands are not explicitly to the Hebrew nation.
“…every man shall take for himself a lamb…” This leaves room for “[any] man” of the Hebrews as well as the Egyptians who witnessed the power of GOD, by faith to obey the command of GOD in providing a sacrifice and save their children from the angel of death.
This demonstrates that the Gospel is for Jew and Gentile alike and that in Christ there are no superior positions of some saints over others (ROM 10:12; GAL 3:28; 5:6; EPH 2:14-16).
On a side note, GAL 3:28 is often taken out of context and used to attempt a justification for women pastors. In context, this verse is by no means endorsing ministerial authority (such as a pastor/elder/bishop/overseer) but simply stating that in Christ we all are equally approved by His grace, equally accessible to the throne of GOD, all children of the Most High (GOD doesn’t have stepchildren!).There is to be a lamb provided for each household. This is where the Gospel must first be proclaimed – among our household: our spouses and children.
Spiritually speaking, for the redeemed child of GOD, their household is their “Jerusalem”. Family beyond the household could be considered their “Judea”. Relationships with souls beyond family – such as friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. might be considered their “Samaria” and the world at large as “the uttermost part of the Earth” (ACTS 1:8). We are unwise to overlook or neglect the spiritual need for salvation among family, while proclaiming the Gospel to souls beyond.
EXODUS 12:5
5 'Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats
These sacrificial offerings were to be perfect, flawless (“without blemish”), and a male. This also speaks of Christ in His flawless moral perfection, His incomparable virtues, His purity unequalled and the fact that Christ is the Son of the Father (not His daughter), for the Messiah would be a descendant of King David Who as a Son would sit upon the Davidic throne (LUKE 1:31-33).
This is why Christ alone could provide an atonement for our sins! He alone is holy and righteous and true, thus the singular propitiation for our sins (the only acceptable sacrifice that satisfies the righteous, holy and perfect demands of the Eternal GOD).
1 PETER 1:18-19Those terms “without blemish and spot” are Levitical terms that are not synonyms but point to specific qualities of any sacrificial animal. A “blemish” is some sort of damage that occurs sometime in the life of the animal (a blinded eye, a broken leg, some disease, etc.), whereas a “spot” is a marring of the animal with a congenital defect (some deformity present at birth).
18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
How does this speak of Christ? Not only did He not incur a blemish (the ruining result of a sin committed) but that He was born without the deformity of a sin nature!
There are those who contest that Christ had a sin nature but was considered innocent nonetheless because He never once acted on that sin nature. But can an innocent human being feel the pull of temptation? Adam did, so did Eve. We understand temptation itself isn’t a sin.
Yet that sin nature would comprise a “spot” and would according to the Law disqualify Jesus as a proper sacrifice (GAL 4:4b).
The verse often cited in defense of this position is found in ROMANS 8
ROMANS 8:3The focus is on the one word “flesh” (Greek word is sarx, meaning: “flesh, stripped to the skin, the meat of an animal, the body as opposed to the soul, that which is external, as a means of kindred, by implication: human nature (with its frailties both physical and moral), the passions (of the flesh), a human being”.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
Scripture often refers to our sin nature with its abhorrently flawed morality, i.e., sin nature as “the flesh” (GAL 5:17), but I contend this specific aspect of sarx doesn’t apply to Christ.
And so Christ as our faithful high priest was tested (HEB 4:15). When we are tempted, it provokes our sin nature with its impulses and we fail the test of resisting sin. Christ being tested (“tempted”) was without the compulsion of a sin nature. Having been tested (such as the three temptations in the wilderness, provoked by Satan himself, the Master Tempter), unlike ourselves, He passed the testing (MATT 4:1-11)!
And yet if in fact Christ’s nature had a sinful flaw in it, then He would represent a “weakness through the flesh” that the Law could not justify in any way. Yet Christ fulfilled the Law (flawlessly; MATT 5:17).
On top of this, the word “likeness” here in vs. 3 is often overlooked. The Greek word means, “a form, abstractly, resemblance, made like to, likeness, shape, similitude. We don’t often hear this word “similitude” but it means: “the state of being similar [not identical], a visible resemblance [not an exact reproduction] or a counterpart, often implying a close, outward [not inward] likeness”.
So Christ has a body, a human body that was comparable to ours and recognizable as such (even in His glorified state), but that doesn’t equate to a sin nature, any more than Adam before the Fall had a body similar to ours but was without any sin nature initially. Christ being the Last Adam (1 COR 15:45) was likewise created in His humanity as an innocent Man.
Then we have 2 CORINTHIANS 5:
2 CORINTHIANS 5:21The word for “knew” is ginosko: “to know (absolutely) in a great variety of applications and many implications: to allow, be aware of, to feel, to have knowledge of…”
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Christ knew NO sin in this manner – He had no sensation of sin, never allowed sin, didn’t have knowledge of sin. We can as fallen sinners have knowledge of sin in our “motions” (ROM 7:5) as well as our acts of sin. Christ knew no sin in either regard.
EXODUS 12:6-7
6 'Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 7 'And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.
The 14th Day of Nisan was a significant date in the Bible. On this day the Passover was inaugurated and practiced at the Last Supper. This was also the Day of the Crucifixion of Christ.
Application of the blood on the doorposts (vertical) and on the lintel (the top of the doorway, horizontally) can easily be seen as a foreshadowing of the Cross. And this was done at the door, not on the rooftop, not at a window, but a door (JOHN 10:7,9) which is a title of Jesus Christ in one of His seven “I AM” statements in the Gospel of JOHN.
A biblical lesson that the Hebrews had ingrained into their mentality as well as their souls: without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (HEB 9:22; LEV 17:11).
EXODUS 12:8-11
8 'Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 'Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire-its head with its legs and its entrails. 10 'You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. 11 'And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD'S Passover.
The sacrifice was to be roasted in fire – not boiled or baked but roasted over the flames directly. Fire is a symbol in Scripture for judgment, and for purification. And as the lambs in Egypt were roasted, so too was the LAMB of GOD in the flames of spiritual judgment (ROM 8:3), for the purification of His people (TITUS 2:14).
As with Christ Who was crucified and taken down from the Cross before the next day, these sacrifices in Egypt were not to be left until morning. Any remnants were to be completely consumed by fire.
Christ’s offering was complete as a sort of spiritual burnt offering (entirely consumed). His atonement and propitiation are entirely sufficient, complete and able to save “to the uttermost [those who] come to GOD by Him [Jesus Christ]” (HEB 7:25).
This meal was to be consumed with unleavened bread. In Scripture leaven represents pride (1 COR 8:1), false teaching (MATT 16:11-12) and in general, sin (1 COR 5:8), and so unleavened bread is a symbol of holiness and righteousness. Both the lamb and the bread are consumed by the Hebrews who were prepared to make their exodus from Egypt.
The LORD Jesus spoke on this in regard to His own body and blood:
JOHN 6:51, 53-56, 61-63And the LORD clarified what He meant by this declaration: as an observant Jew He was forbidden to partake of cannibalistic behavior, so He couldn’t have meant these statements literally – and He said so in vs. 62-63.
51 "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."
53 Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 "For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. 56 "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
61 When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you? 62 "What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? 63 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
We partake of Christ in a spiritual sense when we receive Him as LORD and Savior (JOHN 1:12-13), when we fellowship with our Redeemer (1 JOHN 1:3) and we partake of His Word (JOHN 8:37; 14:24).
Also note how the Hebrews were to be fully dressed, belts around their waists, with shoes on their feet and staffs in their hands. They were to be ready at any moment to leave Egypt and begin their journey to what would become their home.
Likewise, we are pilgrims who are traveling “through this world of sin” (1 PET 2:11) – “in the world but not of the world” (JOHN 17:11-14) are to be ready at any time for our LORD’s arrival to bring us Home – “at the sound of the trump” (MARK 13:33; 1 THESS 4:16-18). Likewise wayward Israel that has apostatized from faith in YHWH will one day find themselves before their Messiah, Who will usher them into the promised kingdom of Israel.
This final judgment upon Pharaoh and Egypt was due to their obstinate rebellion and disobedience to YHWH in not letting His people go – and it resulted in death.
Likewise, this world is in utter rebellion against GOD and His Son, the LORD Jesus Christ. Judgment is coming, and only those who have confessed Jesus as LORD will be saved (ROM 10:9-10) or will be saved during the time of tribulation (REV 7:14).
EXODUS 12:12-13
12 'For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. 13 'Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
As disciples of Christ may we keep our lamps trimmed and burning (MATT 25:7) and our garments without spot or wrinkle (EPH 5:27):
1 CORINTHIANS 5:7See also: ISA 53:7; JOHN 1:29; 19:14; 1 PET 1:19; REV 5:6,12.
Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
Here we have the explicit plan of GOD’s GOSPEL in the aspects of redemption, deliverance and propitiation. We’ll continue next time and wrap up the book of EXODUS and how it fits into the overall plan of GOD’s GOSPEL!
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