Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 12:12-13

12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite 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 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

Here, at last, God explains the curse He is about to bring upon Egypt and how the blood of the lamb will save the Israelites from it. In many of the prior curses, God also put a separation between the Israelites and the Egyptians, but in each of those cases there was not anything that the Israelites had to do to receive that protection, it just came for granted. This final curse is unique in that the Israelites will still be separated, but only so long as they meet the requirement that God has given to them.

We see this same sort of idea in the Christian theology, where we believe that some gifts come to all, and some don’t. All people are saved from death by the resurrection, and no effort is required of us to receive this free gift, but at the same time Christ calls us to become perfected in him, and do the work that he gives us, that we may enjoy a oneness with him and the Father in heaven. Of course, even in the cases where some effort from the faithful is required, God’s grace is always still a factor. Even though the Israelites did the work of following God’s commands to kill the lamb and put its blood on their posts, there isn’t anything inherently life-saving in those actions. They only worked because God made them work by His grace. It is the same with our efforts to become more like Christ. They only work because of a miracle of transformation that God brings to our hearts.

Also, note in verse 12 that God is not merely doling out His judgment upon the Egyptian people, but also upon their gods. He had made mockery of their pagan beliefs before when He sent the murrain that slew their sacred flocks, and now He had His people slaying those same lambs, eating their flesh, and painting their blood on the doors for all to see. The Egyptians would consider all of these acts a spiritual desecration, yet the Israelites would blessed and preserved for doing it. God would therefore justify what the people of Egypt denounced, and He would denounce what the Egyptian gods had justified.

In short, there were multiple layers of destruction and humiliation facing the Egyptians this night, and when they awoke they would become a profoundly broken people.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 12:8-11

8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

9 Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.

10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.

11 And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s passover.

God provided further instructions for how the Passover meal was to be prepared. First, the lamb was to be roasted, not boiled, and all in a single piece: head, legs, and edible organs included. Other commentators have pointed out that roasting would have been the quickest way to prepare the food, beginning a theme of haste that we will see continued in the other details. Also, roasting is simpler than boiling, especially when it is an entire lamb that has to be cooked, and therefore more accessible to the simplest and poorest of the Israelites.

Secondly, with the lamb the Israelites were to have unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Unleavened bread is also a sign of haste, as they were not allowing time for the bread to rise. Bitter herbs are also quick to assemble and prepare. These two items also represent hardship, as leavened bread and sweeter herbs would be more pleasant to the taste, but the rougher alternatives are a more fitting match to the bondage that Israel had suffered for generations.

Finally, all of the food was to be consumed in a single night, and any leftovers burned with fire. A camp that is on the move, that needs to flee in the morning, has no purpose for leftovers and so it is tossed in the fire. This idea of being ready to move is further reinforced by the instruction that they eat dressed, with their shoes on, and the staff in their hands.

All this suddenness and haste and living by simple means is also reflected by Jesus’ later instruction that “no one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Jesus taught his disciples that when one was called to the work there was not be any excuse or delay. One had to be ready to drop all and move as directed. Jesus further told his disciples that when they preached the gospel, they were not to pack food or extra clothing, but to travel with the absolute minimum, trusting God to provide the rest. All of this echoes back to the ritual of the Israelites on the Passover. The true disciples and the chosen people are to be in a state of constant readiness, quick to move at the command of their Lord, content to cast everything aside to follow.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 12:6-7

6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.

Not only would the Israelites eat the sacrificial lamb, but they were also to streak its blood across their doorposts. We will soon read how this unique practice would protect the Israelites from the death of their firstborn. The blood of the lamb was being used to mark a home as housing God’s people, and His favor and protection would be upon them. This is obviously representative of Christ, the Lamb of God, whose blood was shed to also make us God’s people, and to similarly mark us for His protection and favor.

This is not the only representation in the killing of the lamb, though. As we have already discussed, sheep were one of the creatures that the Egyptians worshipped. God had already mocked that pagan worship by sending the murrain that killed their sacred flocks, now He would mock them again by having His people sacrifice the animals right before the Egyptians. Perhaps the Israelites would normally have been harmed for doing this, if not for the humbling that God would put upon the Egyptians immediately after.

Another possible symbol in killing the lamb and streaking its blood on the posts might have been that the lamb was innocent and young, just like the Israelite baby boys that the prior Pharaoh had ordered to be killed and thrown into the river. At the start of Moses’s campaign against the Egyptians he had drawn the blood out of the river, presumably to show that Egypt’s sins had not been hidden and washed away. God still remembered that evil and He had come to recompense. Thus, slaying the lamb and painting their doorposts with its blood might have been a way for the Israelites to signify that “we have already had our young and innocent slaughtered, therefore pass us over in this next doling out of death.”

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 12:3-5

3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:

4 And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.

5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:

God had instructed the Israelites to follow a new calendar, now He instructed them on a special feast to be held on the tenth day of the first month. This, of course, would be the Passover. The significance of this event would soon be made apparent, and every year afterward the tradition would be used to remind the Israelites of the events that came on the first Passover.

God instructed the Israelites that they must each kill and eat a lamb in its first year during the Passover. Aside from this, the requirements for this offering were quite lenient. It could be one lamb for each household, or one lamb for two households, and it could be a lamb of the sheep or of the goats. Given that this lamb would be a key instrument in God’s redemption of the Israelites, it seems appropriate that His instructions were very gracious and accommodating, fitted to the convenience of His people.

A lamb in its first year would mean that it came from the previous calendar year and it would not live to see the next. It was therefore a lamb “of the year,” and every lamb in every year would be a potential candidate for the sacrifice. Thus, each lamb’s fate would hang in the balance until their first Passover, at which point their fate would be sealed one way or the other.

This lamb was being used as a food, as the main item of the Passover meal, and that seems to be representative of how God’s grace provides the earthly nourishment that people require to survive. He lends us our breath, our water, our sources of food. The fact that this Passover nourishment came by means of the creature’s death seems to represent that there is a real cost and a real sacrifice behind God’s grace. It is not just some magical reserve that comes from nothing. God genuinely gives up something to provide for us. What exactly that is will only become more evident as we continue the analysis with tomorrow’s verses.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 12:1-2

1 And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,

2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

Israel might not have been released from Egypt’s control quite yet, but God already began setting down the laws and traditions that they were to follow as a free nation. And so, even as Moses was coming to the end of his role as Israel’s deliverer he was beginning his new role as Israel’s lawgiver.

The first instruction that the Lord had for Israel was that the current month was now to be the beginning of their calendar year. Clearly this was because Israel was about to have a new beginning. This month would be the month of their rebirth, the month of their re-creation. Every year after this would begin with a celebration and a reminder of when God had redeemed and reformed them, giving back their life and freedom when they were perished and lost.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 11:8-10

8 And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger.

9 And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you; that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.

10 And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh: and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land.

These three sentences appear to be a brief summation of everything that transpired between the Lord, Moses, and Pharaoh, following their first discussion. Pharaoh rejected God’s word, but the Lord told Moses that this served a greater purpose: to let the world witness His power and wonder. There then followed a series of plagues upon Egypt, and through it all Pharaoh continued to harden his heart.

If Pharaoh had relented after the first curse or two, it hardly seems that the story would have had the same impact and travelled far and wide. It truly is a remarkable thing to consider, that these events transpired some 3,500 years ago and are still so commonly known in the world today. If anyone ever doubts that the Bible is the bedrock of Western civilization they have only to ask themselves how many stories of the Hittite or Assyrian empires they know. Though the Israelite people were quite small, with virtually no impact on the larger world at the time of its liberation, theirs is the story that we know best today. And surely their freedom sticks so well in our minds because of its ten dramatic plagues being wrought one after another by the hand of the Lord.

As the Lord said in verse 9, His wonders were indeed multiplied. Multiplied in the doing, the telling, and the retelling, thousands and thousands of times over.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 11:7-8

7 But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.

8 And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee: and after that I will go out.

God had sworn to slay all of the Egyptian firstborn, but as with the previous curses, He would set a division between the Egyptians and the Israelites. The phrase “shall not a dog move his tongue” must be an old expression, and most scholars agree that it meant that things would be so peaceful that not even a dog would bark in the streets. Thus it not only illustrated safety from physical harm, but even from anything alarming or distressing.

God also prophesied that this curse would be the one that finally broke Egypt. “These thy servants” appears to be referencing the Egyptian leadership, who would demand that the Israelites go. God further foretold that Pharaoh wouldn’t go back on his word this time, as given by “and after that I will go out.”

There is one other sentence at the end of verse 8 that I have omitted. “And he went out from Pharaoh in great anger.” This doesn’t make a lot of sense in the current setting of Moses describing the coming curse to the Israelites, and I believe that this last sentence actually belongs with the next two verses. I will therefore include it in tomorrow’s study.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 11:4-6

4 And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt: 

5 And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts. 

6 And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.

God revealed His plan to Moses. He would pass through the land of Egypt, consigning every firstborn to death. The word used for firstborn is a masculine noun, which suggests it was specifically the eldest male of each household that would die. This, of course, would have disrupted the Egyptian legacy, as their culture passed the estate and right to rule to each firstborn son, just as in the Israelite culture.

Furthermore, the application of this curse was absolute. God declared that the rich and mighty would die, even the firstborn of Pharaoh, but also the poor and lowly, such as the firstborn of the maidservant. And not just the firstborn of the people either, but every firstborn animal as well.

And what was the reason for taking all of the firstborn? God Himself declared it when He called Moses to this cause. God explained that His message for Pharaoh was, “Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: I say unto thee, let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.” Thus, Pharaoh had already been warned that this was how the Lord would even things out if the Israelites were not let go. God had been merciful in making Pharaoh perfectly aware of the stakes at hand, and also in demonstrating through the prior curses that He was absolutely capable of making good on His threat. Pharaoh had every reason to surrender, but he continued to defy God anyway.

Pharaoh’s decisions might seem incredulous if we didn’t have so many examples around us today of people jeopardizing their happiness, their families, and their very lives for false destructive lifestyles. People are often willing to lose it all rather than surrender to the God that they’ve rejected.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 11:2-3

2 Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold.

3 And the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants, and in the sight of the people.

Thus far God’s demands to the Pharaoh had been that every man, woman, and child of the Israelites would depart into the wilderness, and that they would bring all of their cattle as well. But today we see this was not all the Israelites would carry with them. The Lord instructed the Israelites to borrow jewels and precious metals from their Egyptian neighbors. “Borrow,” of course being a very loose term. These things were being “borrowed” with no intention ever returning them!

The point of this seems to be to finish the signs of war against the Egyptians. Though the Israelite people did not raise a single sword against their slavers, by the end of this sequence the Egyptians would have had all their firstborn slain, their fields razed to the ground, lost their commercial industries, and all of their valuables would be taken. It would appear exactly as if the Egyptians had been conquered by a great army, but the battles were fought entirely by God, not man.

I can only assume that the devastation of the prior plagues was what caused the Egyptians to so freely part with their treasures. We are told that “Moses was very great in the land,” which seems to suggest that all the people understood where all these curses were coming from. We also know that Pharaoh’s counselors had been advising him to just let the Israelites go, and it seems likely that the sentiment was held by the local populace as well. So whether they trusted the Israelites or not, the Egyptians were likely anxious to appease them and be rid of them.

Posted on by Abe Austin · 1 Comment

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 11:1

1 And the Lord said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether.

There was one more plague for Egypt, and this one followed a different pattern than any that came before. First, as discussed before, Pharaoh and his people would be given no warning of it, and no ultimatum to avoid it. It would fall on them without Moses and Aaron prophesying of it, yet they would know that it had come from the Lord, just the same.

And, because of this curse, Pharaoh would “thrust [Israel] out.” Every time before, Moses had gone to see if Pharaoh would let them leave, but this time Pharaoh would go to Moses. Pharaoh wouldn’t need any convincing, this time he would outright demand that the Lord’s demands be fulfilled, down to the smallest detail.

Another difference that we will see with this plague is that Moses does not raise his staff or his hand or do anything else to signal its arrival. This one comes entirely from the unseen world, a curse that is prepared, triggered, and executed by God alone.

In short, yet another plague, seemingly just a continuation of all that came before, but already this one was being set apart from all the rest. Something familiar, yet totally new.