The Passover Lamb (Exodus 10-13)

"It is the LORD’s Passover.  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 no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt."  (Ex. 12:11b, 13)


Can you see foreshadowings of Jesus Christ all over your readings this week?

1. What does the LORD continue to do to Pharaoh throughout all of these plagues?
2. Why? 
3. What additional reason does God give to Moses in Ex. 10:1-2?

Let's face it, when something happens once, we call it a coincidence.  Twice?  Maybe still an odd coincidence.  But over and over, up to ten times--now that gets our attention.  God was leaving His people no doubt about His might and power and His desire to deliver them and provide for them.  He was giving them a story worth passing down to generation after generation.  

Just imagine the wide eyes of future children as their fathers and grandfathers told them about the frogs coming up into all the Egyptians houses, the gnats that became like sand covering the earth, the flies that swarmed and ruined everything, the hail and fire that rained down and destroyed the land and animals, and the locusts that consumed what remained.  What fun that would be to tell a room full of kids!  I can see and hear the reactions, can you?  God is the best story-teller of all!  Don't you know all the Israelite children were thankful that this God was their God!

I hope you're glad He is your God, too!  Unfortunately for Pharaoh, God was not his god.  Pharaoh was considered to be "the sun and the moon" to his people.  He put himself up in the place of God and had no fear of the LORD whatsoever.

1. What question does God ask Pharaoh in Ex. 10:3?
2. What do Isaiah 26:5  and Daniel 4:37b have to say about this?
3. What was the ninth plague, and how long did it last?
4. NOW, turn to Matthew 27:45.  What happened as Jesus was hanging on the cross, and how long did it last?

Let me just say that when you are in a country with very few Christians, as we were in Nepal, and you are among those who worship various gods and perform all kinds of rituals for them, it is a darkness to be felt (Ex. 10:21).  It wasn't a literal darkness we could see, as this one was in Egypt or in Jerusalem at Jesus' death, but it was very much a spiritual darkness we could feel when we went to the temple in Kathmandu.  It made us nauseous in a way I have never experienced.  I'm guessing it was very similar in Egypt during this plague.

But notice what the end of Ex. 10:23 says.  "...but all the people of Israel had light where they lived."  

We experienced this phenomenon, too.  For in the places throughout Nepal where we gathered with fellow believers, whether in their homes or rustic church structures, we experienced a light and a joy unlike anything I can explain.  When you have felt the darkness, the light feels so much brighter!

1. What did God tell Moses in Ex. 11:1?
2. According to Ex. 11:2-3, what was Moses supposed to have the people do?
3. Did it work?  See Ex. 12:35-36.
4. How did this fulfill the promise God gave Abraham in Gen. 15:14?

Can you picture these slaves, wearing such humble clothes, probably skin-and-bones from their harsh treatment and constant labor, carrying all the riches of Egypt out with them?  Wow!  This plunder would be very important to them once they were free, because they will use a portion of it to build the tabernacle of God.

Now we get into one of the most important portions of Scripture in the Old Testament--the Passover.  It was so important, in fact, that God told Moses multiple times, "This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast."  (Ex. 12:14)  This Passover meal, or Seder, would be the last thing Jesus would do with His disciples before being crucified.  He would use this meal to explain the significance of what He was about to do on the cross.  Now that's a meal worth remembering for generations!

Let's look at Ex. 12.

1. What does God do in Ex. 12:2?  What is the Hebrew name for it? (Ex. 13:4)
2. What will the man of each household do on the 10th day?
3. What are the requirements for this lamb?
4. What happens on the 14th day?  (14th day should have significance to all women, because it is the day of conception in your monthly cycle)

I want to point out here that the Passover is to take place on the 14th day of the month of Abib, which happened to fall on a Thursday when Jesus celebrated it with His disciples for the last time.  It does not always fall on a Thursday for the Jewish people, kind of like Christmas always falling on a different day of the week each year.  But as Christians, we remember Passover as Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday just three days before Easter, because it was on a Thursday that our Lord celebrated it and instituted the Lord's Supper from the Passover meal.

1. What were the Israelites to do with the blood of the lamb?  Why?  This has HUGE significance with the coming Messiah!
2. What were God's people supposed to eat for seven days, and what was this celebration to be called?
3. What were they supposed to remove from their homes?

This instruction will come up over and over again throughout the Old Testament, so I want to be sure you understand the symbolism behind it.  Yeast, or leaven, represents sin.  Now this does not mean that yeast is a sinful thing.  It is being used as an object lesson for God's people.  We read about this again in the first three Gospels when Jesus says to His disciples:  “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”  "Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees."  (Matt. 16:6; 12)

Now that you know the yeast represents sin, you can understand the significance of God telling them to remove all of it from their homes.  Can you also see the significance in the Hebrews using unleavened bread for the Passover meal?

Read when Jesus celebrates the Passover meal--what we call the Lord's Supper--with His disciples.

"Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body."

That bread Jesus took and broke was unleavened bread.  If leaven = sin, then unleavened = sinless.  What does 1 Peter 2:22 say about Jesus?  "He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth."

So the unleavened bread which Jesus broke and gave to His disciples pointed ahead to His sinless body which would be broken for the forgiveness of sin the next day on the cross.  

Do you get the beauty in that?  This Passover meal that the Jewish people would celebrate for generations and generations to come would point ahead all along to the perfect, sinless body of Jesus Christ that would be broken for their redemption from sin.  By the way, that Matzah bread they use for the Passover in not only unleavened, but it is made like a cracker--pierced all over.  Can you imagine the "aha" moment the disciples must have had after Jesus' resurrection when they realized the significance of that Passover meal with Jesus and what it had meant all those years!

Now, put this together with what we learned about the four "I Will" cups--specifically the Cup of Redemption--in our last lesson, and you have beautiful significance that can make you fall down in humble adoration of your glorious God.

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.  I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom."  (Matt. 26:26-29; emphasis mine)

Glory to God--our Savior, Redeemer and risen King!

Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb."  (Ex. 12:21)

1. How is Jesus described in Rev. 13:8?  (this reminds us that God knew what He would do about sin before He ever even created the world!)
2. What does the disciple John see in Rev. 5:6?
3. Find the references to the Lamb who was slain in the songs of praise in Rev. 5:9-14.

Now for John the Baptist's testimony:  "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, 'Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'"  (John 1:29)  

1. What were they to do with the blood of the lamb?  (Ex. 12:22)
2. Read about another time hyssop was used in John 19:28-30.
3. Why were they to paint the doorframes of their houses with the blood of the Passover lamb?

Dear sister, when the blood of the Lamb covers you, the Destroyer must pass over you as well.  You are marked with the precious blood of Christ, and death cannot harm you.  "Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?"  (1 Cor. 15:54b-55)

I love how the LORD emphasized to them several times that when their children ask why they celebrate this feast, they are to tell the story of what He did for them in Egypt.  This is actually part of the Passover meal (which is also called the Seder).  During the meal, at a designated point (it is all very scripted), one of the children is supposed to ask, "Why do we do this?"  The Jewish people still do this today!  What a beautiful way to remember.  Now we need to help them see the truth of this meal's significance and that their Messiah has come!

• What were the parameters given by God concerning who should eat the Passover in Ex. 12:43-51?

See if you see the foreshadow of heaven in these statutes of the Passover.  Read Revelation 21:22-27.

²²And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. ²³And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. ²⁴By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, ²⁵and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. ²⁶They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. ²⁷But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Only the circumcised of body could celebrate the feast of the Passover, and only the circumcised of heart will celebrate the feast in the kingdom of God (Luke 14:15).

1. What does God tell Moses to do in Ex. 13:2?
2. What does Colossians 1:15 call Jesus?
3. How many days were they to eat unleavened bread?  I wonder if this is because of the number of days they would mourn the death of a person.
4. What does God tell them to do with every firstborn man among their sons in Ex. 13:13?

And when in time to come your son asks you, 'What does this mean?' you shall say to him, 'By a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery.  For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals.  Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.'  It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt."  (Ex. 13:14-16)

May we continue to tell this story to many generations to come, and especially to our own children and grandchildren.

Now I just have to point this out, because I told you it was coming and I don't want you to miss it:

But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle.  Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here."   (Ex. 13:18-19; emphasis mine)

And the LORD's presence led them out of Egypt.

The next time you take the Lord's Supper, may you remember what God did for you when He redeemed you from slavery to sin with His strong arm through the blood of the Lamb.  Our God is mighty to save!