Fast Food for a Favored People

Introduction

This is the moment of new beginnings. What happens with this last deep breath before the plunge?

Exodus 12:1-13 precedes the work of Christ at Calvary; it paints the way for the salvation poured out on the cross. There’s good reason to see shadows of the cross in the Passover of the Exodus. Jesus made His departure (exodus) for Jerusalem to give his life for the sins of mankind in Luke 9:31. Exodus 12:1-13 gives the original prescription for the Passover Lamb. Its blood would act as a substitute for the Hebrews while Yahweh judged each Egyptian firstborn male, human and animal alike. And therein is a connection to the cross! The firstborn of Pharaoh and all of Egypt for Israel’s deliverance from bondage; the Firstborn of creation for humanity’s deliverance from the bondage of sin.

Now, we have to ask and answer the question, “Do we have any time to waste before we recognize the King of kings?” As Yahweh was to come at midnight and the blood on the door was hurriedly spread for salvation, so we have only this moment to be washed in the blood of Christ and receive salvation from sin. John the Baptist recognized Christ as the ‘Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world’ (Jn. 1:29). Have we recognized Christ as our Passover Lamb whose sacrifice was able to cover all sin and give us a new beginning?

Exodus 12:1–13 ESV

1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. 7 “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.