Exodus 12:1 - Meaning and Application

Moses and Aaron received from the Lord what they were later to pass on to the people about the Passover. Before that command came a new way of counting their months: “This shall be to you the beginning of months” (Exodus 12:1, 2). They had been starting the year around the middle of September, but from then on they were to begin it around the middle of March, at least in their worship calendar. It is good to begin the day, the year, and especially our lives with God.

This new calendar began with spring, when the earth is renewed, and it pointed forward to Christ, as the Song of Solomon says, “The winter is past” (Song of Solomon 2:11, 12). While Moses was bringing the ten plagues on Egypt, he was also preparing Israel to leave on short notice. He may have already gathered them from their scattered places, since they are here called the congregation of Israel (Exodus 12:3), and God gave these orders to them as one people. Their minds were likely full of fear and urgency, yet they still had to stop and honor God with a holy act.

This shows that when our heads are full of care and our hands are full of work, we must still remember religion and be ready for worship. God appointed that, on the very night they were to leave Egypt, each family should kill a lamb. If a family was too small, two or three families could join together for one lamb. The lamb was to be prepared four days ahead and killed that afternoon (Exodus 12:6) as a sacred act, though not as a regular altar sacrifice. It was a way of thanking God for protecting them from the plagues on Egypt and for bringing them out through those same plagues. This also shows the old practice of family religion, and the wisdom of small families joining together so worship could be more solemn.

The lamb they killed was to be eaten roasted, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, because they had to eat in haste (Exodus 12:11). They were not to leave any of it until morning, because God wanted them to trust him for their daily bread and not worry about tomorrow. The One who led them out would also feed them. Before they ate the lamb, they were to put its blood on the doorposts (Exodus 12:7). That would mark their houses off from the Egyptians and keep their firstborn safe from the destroying angel (Exodus 12:12, 13).

A terrible judgment was coming on Egypt that night. All the firstborn of both people and animals were to die, and God’s judgment was also to fall on the gods of Egypt. Moses does not describe the later result here, but he mentions it elsewhere (Numbers 33:4). It is very likely that the idols the Egyptians worshiped were broken down, metal idols melted, wooden ones burned, and stone ones shattered. That is likely what led Jethro to say, “The Lord is greater than all gods” (Exodus 18:11). The same angel who struck the firstborn also destroyed their idols, which were just as precious to them.

For Israel’s protection from this plague, they were told to put the lamb’s blood on their doorposts. Their obedience to that command showed faith in God’s warning and trust in his word. When God sends common troubles, he can still keep his own people and place a mark on them. They may be hidden in heaven or under heaven, kept either from the blow itself or at least from its sting. The blood of sprinkling is the believer’s safety in times of shared danger. It marks them as God’s, quiets the conscience, and gives bold access to the throne of grace, becoming both a shield around them and a line that sets them apart from the world.

This Passover was to be kept every year as a feast to the Lord, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread was added to it for seven days (Exodus 12:14-20). During those days they were to eat only unleavened bread, remembering how they had to leave Egypt in such haste that they had no time for leavened dough. The command is repeated carefully so they would understand it rightly and so that people who had grown careless about religion in Egypt would be stirred up to obey it faithfully. There was also much of the gospel in this ordinance. The New Testament often points back to it, and in it the gospel was preached to us as truly as to them, though they could not yet see the full meaning of these things (Hebrews 4:2; 2 Corinthians 3:13).

The Passover lamb pointed to Christ, “our Passover” (1 Corinthians 5:7). It was to be a lamb, and Christ is the Lamb of God (John 1:29), often called the Lamb in Revelation, gentle and innocent, silent before those who led him to death. It was to be a male of the first year, in its strength and best season (Exodus 12:5), showing the sufficiency and power of the Lord Jesus, on whom our help depends. It was to be without blemish (Exodus 12:5), showing the purity of Christ, “a lamb without spot” (1 Peter 1:19). Even the judge who condemned him, as if examining him like a sacrifice, declared him innocent.

The lamb was also to be set apart four days before it was killed (Exodus 12:3, 6), pointing to Christ being chosen in God’s purpose and promise to be our Savior. It is striking that Christ was crucified at Passover, and four days before that he entered Jerusalem publicly, on the very day the Passover lamb was set apart. The lamb was to be slain and roasted with fire (Exodus 12:6-9), pointing to the painful suffering of Christ, even to death on the cross. God’s wrath is like fire, and Christ was made a curse for us. It was to be killed by the whole congregation between the two evenings, that is, between three and six in the afternoon. Christ suffered at the end of the age (Hebrews 9:26), by the hands of the Jews, the whole crowd of them (Luke 23:18), and for the good of all his spiritual Israel. Not a bone of it was to be broken (Exodus 12:46), which is said to be fulfilled in Christ (John 19:33, 36), showing the unbroken strength of the Lord Jesus.

The sprinkling of the blood was also a picture of Christ. It was not enough that the lamb’s blood was shed, it had to be applied, showing that the benefits of Christ’s death must be brought home to our souls. We must receive the atonement, that is, receive the reconciliation God has provided through Christ’s death (Romans 5:11). The blood was to be sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop (Exodus 12:22) dipped in the basin.

The covenant of grace, like the basin that held the blood, keeps the benefits of Christ’s blood stored up for us. Faith is the bunch of hyssop by which we apply those promises to ourselves, and take hold of the blessings purchased by Christ’s blood.

It was to be sprinkled on the doorposts, which points to the open confession we must make of faith in Christ and obedience to him. We should not be ashamed to own that we depend on him. The mark of the beast may be received on the forehead or in the right hand, but the seal of the Lamb is always on the forehead (Revelation 7:3). There is a back way to hell, but no back way to heaven. No, the only way there is a highway, a plain and holy way (Isaiah 35:8).

It was to be sprinkled on the lintel and the side posts, but not on the threshold (Exodus 12:7). This warns us not to trample on the blood of the covenant (Hebrews 10:29). It is precious blood, and it must be precious to us. The blood, once sprinkled, protected the Israelites from the destroying angel, who could do nothing where the blood was. If Christ’s blood is applied to our consciences, it will protect us from God’s wrath, the curse of the law, and the condemnation of hell (Romans 8:1).

The solemn eating of the lamb pointed to our gospel duty toward Christ. The Passover lamb was killed, not just to be looked at, but to be eaten. In the same way, by faith we must make Christ our own, as we make our food our own by eating it. We must also receive spiritual strength and nourishment from him, and find delight and satisfaction in him, just as we do when we are hungry or thirsty and eat and drink (John 6:53-55).

It was to be eaten completely. Those who feed on Christ by faith must take a whole Christ, Christ with his yoke and Christ with his cross, as well as Christ with his crown. Is Christ divided? Those who try to gather much of Christ without giving him the whole heart will end up with nothing.

It was to be eaten at once, not left until morning (Exodus 12:10). Christ is offered to us today, and he must be accepted while it is called today, before we fall asleep in death. It was also to be eaten with bitter herbs (Exodus 12:8), to remember the bitterness of their slavery in Egypt. We should feed on Christ with sorrow and a broken heart, remembering our sin. That will give a wonderful taste to the Passover lamb. Christ will be sweet to us if sin is bitter to us.

It was to be eaten in a ready-to-leave posture (Exodus 12:11). When we feed on Christ by faith, we must fully leave the rule and power of sin and shake off Pharaoh’s yoke. We must also hold the world and everything in it loosely, leave all for Christ, and count it no bad bargain (Hebrews 13:13, Hebrews 13:14).

The feast of unleavened bread pointed to the Christian life (1 Corinthians 5:7, 1 Corinthians 5:8). Having received Christ Jesus the Lord, we must keep a feast in holy joy, always delighting ourselves in him. No kind of work was to be done on that day (Exodus 12:16), and no care was to be allowed that would spoil or weaken that holy joy. If true believers do not live as people at a continual feast, the fault is theirs.

It must also be a feast of unleavened bread, kept in love, without the leaven of malice, and in sincerity, without the leaven of hypocrisy. The law was very strict about the Passover, and the Jews were just as strict in practice, so that no leaven should be found in their houses (Exodus 12:19). In the same way, all the old leaven of sin must be put far away from us, with great care and deep disgust, if we want to keep the feast of a holy life for Christ’s honor.

It was to be kept as a lasting ordinance (Exodus 12:17). As long as we live, we must keep feeding on Christ and rejoicing in him, always giving thankful notice of the great things he has done for us.