The Book Of Exodus
Exodus 3:14 "And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and He said, Thus shalt thou say
unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."
As I noted previously, the first 28 verses of this chapter take place some time before the ninth plague, probably on the ninth day of the current month of Abib which would, from now on, be the first month of the Jewish calendar. (v.2) The tenth day would have been the first of the three days of darkness over all the rest of Egypt since God required the Israelites to select a perfect lamb of one year old and separate it from the flock for three days. (v.3, 5-6) Thus, on the evening of the third day, as Moses has his penultimate confrontation with Pharaoh (10:24-29, 11:4-8), the children of Israel would have been obeying God’s new ordinance to them by slaying the lamb and using the hyssop to mark the side posts and the lintel of the door of every house.
Verses 1-2: This month in which God delivers His chosen people from their bondage in Egypt is the month of Abib. (Exodus 13:4) From this time on, this is now the first month of the Hebrew calendar year. (v.2) Verses 3-6: According to Strong’s concordance, the Hebrew word for “congregation”, used for the first time here in verse 3, is “edah”, and it is used over 100 times in the Exodus/Joshua narrative. According to the Moody Bible Commentary, “It has the basic meaning of ‘community’ or ‘congregation.’ Up to now the people have been identified as ‘Hebrews’ or ‘sons of Israel,’ but from now on they are constituents of a unique assembly; they will be exclusively bound together by this Passover experience into the ‘edah’.” Each house is to select a lamb on the tenth day of Abib. (v.3) If a household is too small for a whole lamb, then those of that house may share with their neighbor. The lamb should also be large enough that there are plenty of portions for all the members of the house. (v.4) If a lamb is not available, then a goat may be used. (v.5) It’s to be an unblemished male of a year old, and it must be separated from the flock for three days. (v.6) During this time he must be observed and examined to make sure that he is perfect. On the fourteenth day of Abib, at twilight, the lamb is to be killed. The Exodus narrative, as well as the ordination of the Passover, is riddled with typologies and symbology of us today as sinners and Jesus Christ as our savior. Just as God delivered His chosen people from their slavery in Egypt and instituted the first Passover, so Jesus Christ was born into this world so that He could die on a cross so that we today might have deliverance from the bondage of sin and death. It was no coincidence that God required the Israelites to select a perfect lamb. Jesus Christ is intentionally referred to in the New Testament as the “Lamb of God”, the ultimate fulfillment of the lamb that was used in the blood sacrifices of the Old Testament as atonement for sins. (Genesis 22:7-8, Exodus 20:24, Isaiah 53:7, Ezekiel 45:15, John 1:29, 36, Hebrews 9:13-14, 1 Peter 1:18-19, Revelation 5:12-13) Just as the children of Israel were born in Egypt, so are we born in sin (Genesis 3:7, Psalm 51:5.) We are captives, slaves to the flesh and the god of this world, and we need a savior. Jesus Christ is that savior. (Romans 6:12-14, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11) It’s also worth noting here that Jesus spent three days in the tomb following his crucifixion, just as all of Egypt spent three days in darkness. At the end of those three days, following the slaying of the perfect lamb, the Israelites were delivered from bondage into freedom. When Christ arose from the dead on the third morning, we today are delivered from the darkness and slavery of sin into the glorious dawn of liberty and new life in Christ. But that’s only if we first accept the shed blood of Jesus and surrender to Him as Lord and Savior, just as the Israelites had to first follow God’s commands regarding the slaying of the lamb and then painting the blood on the side posts and lintel of the door of every house. Verses 7-13: The blood of the slain lamb is to be applied to the side posts and upper post of the door of every house wherein the lamb was eaten. (v.7) The lamb itself is to be roasted in fire, not boiled (v.9), seasoned with bitter herbs and eaten with unleavened bread. (v.8) The roasting in fire foreshadows Christ’s suffering on the cross, as does the fact that the lamb is to be roasted whole. (v.9) No bones are to be broken (v.46) (Numbers 9:12), also significant as Christ would have none of his bones broken while hanging on the cross. (Psalm 34:20, John 19:33, 36) The bitter herbs are to remind the Israelites of the bitterness of their slavery in Egypt. The unleavened bread eaten here is significant for two reasons. One, this whole meal is to be prepared in haste for the exodus from Egypt is happening this same night and so there’s no time to allow the bread to properly rise before baking, which usually takes a few hours. (Deuteronomy 16:3-4) Two, leaven is often used in scripture to represent sin. The apostle Paul made this direct connection in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 and Galatians 5:9. Jesus used the example of leaven in bread to represent the hypocrisy and false doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. (Matthew 16:11-12, Mark 8:15, Luke 12:1) Nothing of the lamb is to remain after the meal. Whatever is not eaten is to be burned in the fire. (v.10) The meal is to be eaten in haste, with all members of the household dressed and ready to leave as soon as it’s over. (v.11) This verse concludes with the phrase, “…it is the Lord’s passover.” Verses 12-13 explain the significance of the entire meal and its methods of preparation as well as the painting of blood on the doorposts. God is executing judgment against all of the false gods of Egypt. He has that right because He is the one true God. “I am the Lord.” (v.12) Each plague thus far has been a judgment against one or two of the specific false gods, and this tenth judgment is to be the final, definitive proof of just how impotent and unreal are all the mythical gods of the Egyptians. The reason that the children of Israel are to have their loins girded, their shoes on their feet and their staffs in hand while eating the passover meal is because as soon as the Egyptians discover their dead sons, they will drive out the Israelites immediately. They will not wait until morning. (Exodus 6:1) The blood on the doorposts will protect the children of Israel from God’s wrath and judgment. “…I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you…” (v.13) Just as our sins today are covered under the blood of Christ when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior, so God’s chosen people were saved from judgment by the blood of the Passover lamb. Verses 14-20: The feast of the Passover is not just to be eaten on one night. It is a memorial feast that will, henceforth, be celebrated for one week. (v.15) It would begin on the fourteenth day of Abib, lasting until the 21st day, and only unleavened bread would be eaten. (v.18, 20) No leaven was to be found anywhere in the houses where this feast would be observed. Whoever did not honor the requirements of this meal would be “…cut off from Israel.” (v.15, 19) That phrase, “cut off”, means that the person or persons would be “…removed from the blessing and protection of the community”, according to my Moody Bible commentary. (Genesis 17:14, Numbers 9:13) As noted earlier, God used leaven here to represent sin. This was the first major step in the process of marking off and separating His chosen people from all the other nations and cultures around them, especially those of the promised land to which He would be leading them. From the first day of this holy week to the seventh, all leaven is to be purged and cleansed from every Israelite house. All other activities of normal life for this one week are to be suspended, and everyone’s focus is to be on this memorial feast. (v.16) The Israelites were to remember for all generations to come what God had done here on this night for His chosen people. (v.14, 17) The efforts to remove all leaven from the house represented the cleansing of hearts from sin and helped to keep the focus of the Israelites on God and His holiness. That’s why it would be a grievous sin to ignore God’s command and eat bread that was made with yeast. (v.15, 19) God repeats this ordination for emphasis in verse 20: “Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.” It’s important to note here that God was not saving the Israelites just so that they could then go off to some other land and enjoy the blessings and freedom apart from Him. I briefly alluded to this in my commentary of chapter 3. Ever since revealing Himself to Abraham and initiating that covenant with him, God’s plan was always to develop and cultivate a relationship with Abraham’s seed. This Passover Feast, which was to be observed annually, was the first major step in the creation of that ongoing relationship with the Israelites. As we will see later in Exodus and Leviticus, God will be instituting many other feasts and traditions for the Israelites that will even further cement this special relationship between them and Him. Verses 21-28: Moses then relays all of the commands from God regarding the selection and preparation of the lamb, the painting of blood on the doorposts, and the details of the Passover Feast to the congregation of Israel. In verses 24-27, he reminds them of the reason why they would be celebrating this week-long feast every year: that their children and their children’s children may know of what God will do for His chosen people this night. (Exodus 10:2, Deuteronomy 32:7, Joshua 4:6, Psalm 78:6) Verses 29-33: As God promised to both Moses and Pharaoh, He passes through Egypt at midnight, and the firstborn of Pharaoh all the way down to the eldest of the captive slave in the dungeon, as well as the firstborn of all the cattle, is slain. (v.29) There is not a single house in all of Egypt where there is not one dead. (v.30) This includes the valley of Goshen. In the houses of the Israelites, the death was the Passover lamb instead of the firstborn son. That death, a substitutionary sacrifice of shed blood, averted the judgment of God. The obvious picture here is, once again, a foreshadowing of Christ’s death on the cross once and for all as the substitutionary atonement for our sins, thus providing us a way of eternal salvation and escape of God’s wrath. Pharaoh immediately summons Moses and Aaron and, just as God predicted (Exodus 3:20, 6:1), he tells them to go. “Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel…” (v.31) “Also, take your flocks and your herds…” (v.32) Pharaoh wanted every last Israelite, along with all their livestock, out of his land and away from his people as soon as possible. This, too, was just as Moses had predicted in his meeting with Pharaoh earlier that evening. (Exodus 10:9, 26) Also, incidentally, Pharaoh was wrong in his prediction earlier that evening. (Exodus 10:28) Not only is this his final meeting with Moses, but Moses is most certainly not going to die. Pharaoh’s last words to Moses and Aaron are, “Bless me also.” (v.32) But, as with all his previous false confessions of repentance, we can safely assume that his heart is not genuinely softened towards God, even after the loss of his firstborn son. He still does not truly believe. He is only sorrowful over the death of his son, still completely missing the point of God’s judgment and wrath against him and all his people. We know this because of the final confrontation between the Egyptians and the Israelites at the Red Sea. (Exodus 14) Not just Pharaoh, but all of Egypt is insistent that the children of Israel get out of the land as soon as possible. They are now even more terrified of the Hebrew nation and their God than ever before. “…We be all dead men.” (v.33) Verses 34-39: The Israelites depart Egypt in such haste that the bread for the next day’s meal doesn’t have time to rise, nor is there time to properly pack up their utensils and other things. (v.34, 39) And also, just as God had predicted, the Israelites find “…favor in the sight of the Egyptians…” (v.35-36) in that the Egyptians give the children of Israel silver, gold, clothing and other supplies for their exodus. (Exodus 3:21-22) Note from my study Bible: “The phrases ‘borrowed of the Egyptians’ and ‘they lent unto them’ does not imply any deception on the part of the Israelites. Both ‘borrowed’ and ‘lent’ come from the same Hebrew word, with the first commonly translated ‘asked’ and the second being rendered as ‘handed over’, as it is in a different stem. This was not merely conscience money for the Jews’ generations of slave labor. It had been promised to Abraham long before in Genesis 15:14.” In the early hours of the morning of the fifteenth day of Abib, the children of Israel, now numbering about six hundred thousand, (Exodus 38:26, Numbers 1:46, 2:32, 11:21), not including the women and children, journey from Rameses to Succoth. (Genesis 47:11, Exodus 1:11, Numbers 33:3, 5) That puts the current total population of this fledgling nation at approximately two to two-and-a-half million, according to the Moody Bible Commentary. It’s no wonder that the Pharaoh from Exodus 1 says in verse 9, “…Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we…”! Nor is it just the Israelites that leave Egypt this day. Verse 38 mentions that “…a mixed multitude went up also with them…”. This is most likely some of the Egyptians that had come to believe in the one true God (Exodus 9:20), as well as some of the other slaves of the Egyptians, and possibly some other criminals and malcontents that seized upon the opportunity to escape judgment from the law, according to my study Bible. Some of this “mixed multitude” will eventually cause trouble for the children of Israel. (Numbers 11:4) Verses 40-51: The total years of the Israelites’ bondage in Egypt was 430. (v.40-41) (Genesis 15:13, Acts 7:6) Once again, God stipulates to Moses and Aaron that the Passover meal, with all of its ordinances and rituals, is to be observed each year hence by the children of Israel for all generations. (v.42) He then adds provisions for the non-Israelite that wishes to partake of the Passover. As long as that gentile is part of the Israelite household, i.e. a “…servant that is bought for money…” (v.44), and provided he has been circumcised, he may partake of the Passover meal. But a foreigner or a hired servant are forbidden, meaning that any outsider who does not intend to become a permanent resident among the children of Israel cannot participate in any of the rituals nor eat any of the Passover meal. (v.45) (Leviticus 22:10-11) However, if a stranger who is visiting an Israelite household for a time wishes to participate, he and all his sons must first be circumcised and then he/they may eat of the meal and observe the rituals. (v.48) (Numbers 9:14) The same law – and its subsequent blessings and provisions – would apply to both the “…homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.” (v.49) Furthermore, none of the Passover lamb is to be taken outside of the house. The meat is to be eaten only within that home where it is prepared and cooked. (v.46) God also gives one last reminder to Moses and Aaron that none of the lamb’s bones are to be broken at any time during the meal’s preparation. The children of Israel do all that God commands Moses and Aaron, both in the initial preparation and eating of the Passover meal on their last night in Egypt, as well as in the early morning hours of the next day as they quickly depart the land of Egypt in a single mass exodus. (v.50) Thus, “…the Lord did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.” (v.51)
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