MEMORY VERSE: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? —Hebrews 9:14 God's Instruction for Preparation Exodus 12:1-7 The Lord instructed how to prepare for this plague and for their departure. This month shall be unto you the beginning of months. The day the blood of Jesus is applied to the door of our hearts is the beginning of a new life for us; we start life anew. Each family or two, according to their number, were to select a lamb on the tenth day of the month and separate it for its special purpose. It must be without blemish, a male of the first year. Why so perfect? Because it was to be a type of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19). After four days watching for blemishes or illness, the lambs were to be killed on the evening of the fourteenth. The blood was to be caught in a basin, dipped into with a bunch of hyssop and sprinkled on the lintel and two side posts of the door. The lamb was to be eaten in that house. None . . . shall go out at the door . . . until the morning (verse 20). God's Plan for Eating Exodus 12:8-11 The lamb must be roasted whole, not eaten raw or boiled, to be eaten with unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs. No bone was to be broken (verse 46). Read Psalm 34:20 and John 19:33-36. It was to be eaten before the death angel came at the midnight hour. After that it would be too late. It was to be eaten in haste, with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, ready to go—no hesitation when God commands a move on our part. Compare with Ephesians 6:14-15, 17. Any leftover food was to be burned. A Matter of Life or Death Exodus 12:12 At midnight the Lord would pass through Egypt and smite with death every firstborn of both man and beast. The time had come for God to deliver as He had promised. God had given very precise and strict orders for His people to escape the plague of death. Now their works were going to be tested. Those who had been careful in obedience would escape the plague of death. The plague would fall on all others. All the gods of Egypt were to be judged. Their inability to act would be shown up against God's power. The Blood Exodus 8:13 The lamb's blood had no power in itself. What was the purpose of the sprinkling of the blood? It was a token, or a sign, that those people were God's people. When I see the blood, I will pass over—not bring the plague of death upon them. The blood of the lamb was also a token, or symbol, of something greater. As it saved the firstborn from physical death, so the blood of Christ would save the born-again person from spiritual death. For this reason He is called the Lamb of God. The Passover was to be kept as a yearly ordinance. God's Word, just as clearly, shows a definite plan for spiritual life or death to each of us. Dear one, how are you responding? Has the blood of Jesus been applied to your heart? Have you eaten of the Lamb of God and received the strength He alone can give for the journey through life, free from the bondage of sin? Read Revelation 12:11. Go, Serve the Lord Exodus 8:29-30 The Israelites prepared as told. The Bible puts great emphasis upon the firstborn. The firstborn was precious to the Egyptians as well as to the Israelites. At midnight of the fourteenth (their day began at sundown) every firstborn died. From the firstborn of Pharaoh . . . all the firstborn of cattle—just the way God said it would be. We can depend upon His promises. This broke Pharaoh's stubbornness—temporarily. All Egypt sent up a great cry. TOO LATE! Every house had one dead. But He passed over the houses of the Israelites so that no person or creature was harmed (verse 27). We read in 1 Corinthians 5:7 that Christ is our Passover. He is our Passover, first of all, because He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world; He is our Passover, also, because through Him we are passed from death unto life. As we see the misery of the Egyptians on that night, it brings to mind that the innocent often suffer with the guilty, and that the children suffer for the sins of their parents. Exodus 8:31 Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron by night . . . Get you forth . . . go . . . Do not wait for morning. Israel left in haste, six hundred thousand men besides women and children, taking unleavened dough, cattle and goods, and raiment borrowed from the Egyptians as God commanded (Exodus 11:2; 2:35-38). They took the bones of Joseph (Exodus 13:19; Genesis 50:25). God laid on the Israelites the duty of teaching their children the history and meaning of this time. He has laid upon us a similar duty. What do we have to teach our children? Can we do it unless we have experienced deliverance through the saving power of Christ? JUST A THOUGHT Some people grow under responsibility, while
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