Your
lamb shall be without defect, a male a year old. You shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats: and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at evening. They shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it. They shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs.
Exodus 12:5-8
Exodus 11 [9.] Yahweh said to Moses, “Pharaoh won’t listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he didn’t let the children of Israel go out of his land.
Exodus 12 [1.] Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household; and if the household is too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one according to the number of the souls; according to what everyone can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without defect, a male a year old. You shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats: and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at evening. They shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it. They shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs. Don’t eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; with its head, its legs and its inner parts. You shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire. This is how you shall eat it: with your belt on your waist, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is Yahweh’s Passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am Yahweh. The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be on you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be to you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to Yahweh: throughout your generations you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.
Exodus 12 [15.] “‘Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away yeast out of your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. In the first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the seventh day a holy convocation; no kind of work shall be done in them, except that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you. You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this same day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations by an ordinance forever. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty first day of the month at evening. There shall be no yeast found in your houses for seven days, for whoever eats that which is leavened, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a foreigner, or one who is born in the land. You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your habitations you shall eat unleavened bread.’”
Meaning:
Egypt had suffered nine plagues, and Pharaoh still refused to let Israel go. Before the tenth and final plague, the death of the firstborn, God gave Moses instructions for the first Passover. Each household was to choose a lamb on the tenth day of the month. These verses describe what kind of lamb it must be, how it was to be killed, what was to be done with its blood, and how it was to be eaten. Every detail became part of a feast that Israel would keep for ever, and that Jesus kept with his disciples on the night before he died.
- “Your lamb shall be without defect, a male a year old”
The lamb had to be perfect, with no blemish or disease, and in the prime of its life. God did not accept a sickly or worthless animal as a substitute. The lamb was kept in the household for four days, from the tenth to the fourteenth, long enough to be sure it was without defect, and long enough for the family to know the animal that would die in their place.
The New Testament sees Jesus as this perfect Lamb. Peter writes that believers were redeemed “with precious blood, as of a faultless and pure lamb, the blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:19). Jesus too was “in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
- “The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at evening”
Every household killed its lamb at the same time, in the late afternoon of the fourteenth day. No family was exempt and no family was left out. A life was given for each home. Isaiah later described the suffering Servant in the same terms: “As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).
- “They shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel”
The blood was the sign that a death had already taken place in that house. Later in the same passage God promised that when he saw the blood he would pass over the house and the plague would not destroy those inside. Safety did not depend on the goodness of the family, but on the blood of the lamb and their trust in God’s word. John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
- “They shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread”
The lamb was not only killed; it was eaten together by the family. The meal was eaten in haste, ready for the journey out of Egypt, so there was no time to let bread rise. Unleavened bread became a reminder of that night, and later a picture of a life cleansed from the “yeast” of sin. The bitter herbs recalled the bitterness of slavery in Egypt.
On the night before his death Jesus ate this meal with his disciples (Mark 14:12). He took the bread and the cup and gave them a new meaning: “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many” (Mark 14:24).
The Significance of Exodus 12:5-8
- Christ our Passover
Paul writes, “For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place. Therefore let us keep the feast... with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8). Those sheltered by his blood are called to live a new and honest life.
- Saved by a substitute
Israel’s firstborn lived because a lamb died. The Passover teaches that salvation comes through a substitute provided by God, and that it must be personally received.
Cross-References:
1 Corinthians 5:7: "For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place." The fulfilment of the Passover.
John 1:29: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" Jesus, the Lamb.
1 Peter 1:19: "but with precious blood, as of a faultless and pure lamb, the blood of Christ;" The faultless Lamb.
Mark 14:24: "This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many." Jesus at the Passover meal.
Conclusion: God commanded each household in Israel to take a perfect year-old lamb, kill it at evening on the fourteenth day, put its blood on the door posts and lintel, and eat it that night with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Through the blood of the lamb Israel’s firstborn were spared and the nation was set free. The Passover pointed forward to Jesus, the Lamb of God, whose blood shelters and frees all who trust in him.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible