seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Exodus 12:1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb[a] for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.
a. Exodus 12:3 The Hebrew word can mean lamb or kid; also in verse 4.
A lot has been written in the commentaries about these verses, as you might well guess. There's a ton of preaching on these verses and some spent one sentence on these verses and another couple of dozen sentences on how this relates to the crucifixion. It's really significant!
Here's the easy English commentary.
They called that first month ‘Abib’. It is the month when the first grain becomes ripe. Later, when they were in the country called Babylon, they called that month ‘Nisan’ (Nehemiah 2:1). It is the same time in the year as the months that we call March and April in English. Before that time, the Israelites’ year had begun in the autumn. That was after the agricultural year had ended (Exodus 23:16). But God brought the Israelites away from their past in Egypt. It was a new beginning. So in the future, their year would begin with the month called Abib.
The animal must be a perfect male that was one year old. It could be either a sheep or a goat. Each leader of a family counted how many people lived in his home. He had to decide how much each person would eat. A whole animal might be too much for his home if only a few people lived there. Then they must share one animal with their nearest neighbour and his family. In later days, they calculated that ten adults would eat one young sheep.
Day 14 would be in the middle of the month. The moon would be complete then. The animal’s blood represents that it has given its life (Leviticus 17:11). So they painted the blood round the doors of their houses as a sign. The Israelites would eat in those houses for which the animals had ‘given’ their lives. They must cook the animal over a fire. God did not want them to eat raw meat. Perhaps people, who did not know God, ate raw meat sometimes.
Later, the plants with a bitter taste reminded the Israelites about their bitter past as slaves. At that meal they must eat flat bread that they made without yeast. The yeast grows slowly in the bread as they make it. Then the mixture rises. So without yeast the bread is thin and flat. But they would not have time to wait for the yeast. They had to burn anything that they did not eat completely at that one meal. In that way they were respecting something that they had given to God. Today, the Jews still eat the Passover meal. But they have just a part of a perfect animal’s leg. That leg represents the whole animal.
The Israelites must eat the meal quickly. They must be ready to leave in a hurry. They must fasten their belts round their coats so that they could move easily. They must wear their shoes because they could not walk a long way with bare feet. And they must carry their sticks to help them to walk well. Also they used the sticks to control their animals.
They would be eating the meal at the time when the LORD ‘passed through’ Egypt. God would bring his judgement on ‘all Egypt’s false gods’. Already the LORD had punished some of those false gods. Those false gods included the River Nile (Exodus 7:19), Heqt, the false god with the frog’s head (Exodus 8:2), and Ra, the Sun god (Exodus 10:21). Now God would punish the Egyptians themselves. He would kill their oldest sons. But the Israelites had painted the blood on their houses. The blood was a sign. So the LORD would ‘pass over’ the Israelites’ houses. They would be safe. Psalm 78:43-52 refers to God’s judgement on Egypt. It tells how he rescued his people, the Israelites.
The animal must be a perfect male that was one year old. It could be either a sheep or a goat. Each leader of a family counted how many people lived in his home. He had to decide how much each person would eat. A whole animal might be too much for his home if only a few people lived there. Then they must share one animal with their nearest neighbour and his family. In later days, they calculated that ten adults would eat one young sheep.
Day 14 would be in the middle of the month. The moon would be complete then. The animal’s blood represents that it has given its life (Leviticus 17:11). So they painted the blood round the doors of their houses as a sign. The Israelites would eat in those houses for which the animals had ‘given’ their lives. They must cook the animal over a fire. God did not want them to eat raw meat. Perhaps people, who did not know God, ate raw meat sometimes.
Later, the plants with a bitter taste reminded the Israelites about their bitter past as slaves. At that meal they must eat flat bread that they made without yeast. The yeast grows slowly in the bread as they make it. Then the mixture rises. So without yeast the bread is thin and flat. But they would not have time to wait for the yeast. They had to burn anything that they did not eat completely at that one meal. In that way they were respecting something that they had given to God. Today, the Jews still eat the Passover meal. But they have just a part of a perfect animal’s leg. That leg represents the whole animal.
The Israelites must eat the meal quickly. They must be ready to leave in a hurry. They must fasten their belts round their coats so that they could move easily. They must wear their shoes because they could not walk a long way with bare feet. And they must carry their sticks to help them to walk well. Also they used the sticks to control their animals.
They would be eating the meal at the time when the LORD ‘passed through’ Egypt. God would bring his judgement on ‘all Egypt’s false gods’. Already the LORD had punished some of those false gods. Those false gods included the River Nile (Exodus 7:19), Heqt, the false god with the frog’s head (Exodus 8:2), and Ra, the Sun god (Exodus 10:21). Now God would punish the Egyptians themselves. He would kill their oldest sons. But the Israelites had painted the blood on their houses. The blood was a sign. So the LORD would ‘pass over’ the Israelites’ houses. They would be safe. Psalm 78:43-52 refers to God’s judgement on Egypt. It tells how he rescued his people, the Israelites.
That pretty much sums it up, right?
