With a Mighty Hand

Intro: Why Celebrate Passover?

The celebration of Passover was to encourage and strengthen faith. As the LORD kept vigil over the sons of Israel to bring them out of Egypt, so Passover is a reminder of the LORD’s mighty hand in redeeming Israel in fulfilling His covenant promises to the patriarchs and through Moses and Aaron. They are to remember this mighty act from this time forth through succeeding generations.

1. The ordinance of Passover established with more instructions, 12:43-49.

The LORD again spoke to Moses and Aaron about the importance of the Passover. It is an ordinance, giving a clearly communicated prescription of what is to be done. Though we have read previously other instructions, the number of times Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are mentioned in Exodus 12 and 13 point to their importance in the redeemed life of the new nation. In this pericope, we see instructions given considering the “mixed multitude” that are journeying out of Egypt with the sons of Israel, and who will later live in the land with them.

The point here is that the Passover is a meal for the covenant people of the LORD, not for the foreigner, who has no kinship ties with the Israelites, not for the sojourner, who resides temporarily with a family or clan from another land. A hired servant is not allowed to partake of the Passover either, since he is not a part of the family; he is a contract worker. This is a “single house” celebration—hospitality to those outside the covenant people is not allowed for Passover, only for the “house” of Israel.

Who can eat the Passover? Besides those who are in the family, if the family has purchased a slave, then the slave may eat only after he has been circumcised, becoming a part of Israel by faith and by command. This probable did not come about while they were in the wilderness, having recently been slaves themselves, but these were instructions they were to follow after the conquest of the land promised to them.

We also see that only those who are in the house may eat the Passover. No flesh from the Passover may be eaten outside the house, which replicates the first Passover in Egypt where the sons of Israel were to stay under the covering of the blood-marked residence.

An additional and significant point of instruction is that not a bone of the Passover lamb is to be broken. Typology points to the Lord Jesus Christ, who as the Lamb of God was our substitute for our sins and the sins of the world, did not have a bone broken in His body while on the cross (John 19:33, 36).

This ordinance did not exclude the stranger living among them. He could celebrate the Passover to the LORD with the sons of Israel, but first all his males (including himself) must be circumcised. This was a deliberate choice that was made to join the covenant people; once completed, they could celebrate Passover as if they were a native of the land. There was no wiggle room here: no uncircumcised male may eat of the Passover.

To summarize: before any male could eat the Passover he had to undergo circumcision. Moses stressed this stipulation strongly in this section. The rationale behind this rule was that before anyone could observe the memorial of redemption he first had to exercise faith in the promises God had given to Abraham. Furthermore he had to demonstrate that faith by submitting to the rite of circumcision, the sign of the Abrahamic Covenant. This requirement should have reminded the Israelites and all other believers who partook of the Passover that the Passover rite did not make a person acceptable to God. Faith in the promises of God did that.

2. The obedience of the people, 50-51.

The response of the sons of Israel was obedience. All of them did what had been commanded them; this bears significance in that this is the second time their obedience is mentioned in Chapter 12. Also note that within the same sentence their obedience is mentioned twice: they “did so;” “they did just as the LORD had commanded.” They submitted their obedience to their leaders, thereby demonstrating their obedience to the LORD.

Their obedience in all that was commanded saved them from the destroyer and allowed them to see their release from bondage to Egypt on the same day. The LORD did this with a mighty hand. He even led them out (through Moses’ leadership) in an orderly manner (“by their hosts”).

3. Redemption of the firstborn commanded, 13:1-2.

We come to chapter 13. The LORD speaks to Moses, probably at their stop at Succoth, commanding the sons of Israel to consecrate, dedicate, to regard as holy every firstborn of man and of beast. The Hebrew word used here, as well as the context refers to the firstborn male. The Lord had previously called the sons of Israel His firstborn; He has judged the gods of Egypt by great judgments, ending with the death of the firstborn males of man and beast, but He spared all the firstborn males under the mark of the blood on the doorway of their homes. Now He declares His right to the redeemed firstborn males, having delivered them from death.

4. The ordinance of the Feast of Unleavened Bread established with more instructions, 13:3-10.

Here is another call to remember this day, the day that they were redeemed by the Lord to live before Him. They were slaves no more. It is because the LORD acted that He delivered them by a mighty hand out from Egypt, has made them His own and to celebrate this quick release, to eat nothing that was leavened.

This Feast of Unleavened Bread was to be observed at this time, on this day, in the month Abib (later, Nisan). The Lord looks forward to their entrance into the promised land as a completed event, when He commands them that they will observe this rite in this same month, even before the conquest of the land (“when the LORD brings you to the land…”).

The instructions are clear and concise: seven days they shall eat unleavened bread. The last day shall be a feast to the LORD. Not only was unleavened bread to be eaten during these seven days, but there was not to be any leaven to be found in the house or among the people “in all your borders.”

Verses 8-10 make it clear that this feast was to be used as a family instructional time. The head of the household was to teach his descendants the importance of this celebration. But it was not just information. It was to have impact on the daily acts and thoughts of each one, even to the words they would speak.

Keil and Delitzch, in their commentary: “The line of thought referred to merely expresses the idea, that the Israelites were not only to retain the commands of God in their hearts, and to confess them with the mouth, but to fulfil them with the hand, or in act and deed, and thus to show themselves in their whole bearing as the guardians and observers of the law. As the hand is the medium of action, and carrying in the hand represents handling, so the space between the eyes, or the forehead, is that part of the body which is generally visible, and what is worn there is worn to be seen. This figurative interpretation is confirmed and placed beyond doubt by such parallel passages as Prov. iii. 3, ‘Bind them (the commandments) about thy neck; write them upon the tables of thine heart’ (cf. vers. 21, 22, iv. 21, vi. 21, 22, vii. 3).”(2:37)

The law of the LORD was to be spoken by them as they rehearsed all the He did for them by bringing them out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

5. Redeeming the firstborn males, 13:11-16.

Now there are new instructions from the LORD on how the firstborn are to be set apart (“sanctify”) for Him. He ties together the importance of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread with the redemption of the firstborn male of man and beast in Israel. This is also instructions for when they enter the land that was promise to them and to the fathers before them. There may be a distinction in that He adds this phrase, “and gives it to you,” emphasizing that this “sanctifying” of the firstborn males will be required not just for this generation but all future generations. The firstborn male of man, the firstborn male of every beast owned by each family were to be devoted to the LORD. That usually meant sacrifice. There are two exceptions given; first, every firstborn male donkey shall be redeemed by the sacrifice of a lamb, or it was to have its neck broken, usually resulting in death. Second, every firstborn male of man shall be redeemed by the sacrifice of a lamb (from the context).

This again was a time of family instruction required by the LORD to those of the household. The head of the household would once again remind the entire household that “with a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery.” This redemption was through the judgment of God upon the stubbornness of Pharaoh, resulting in the deaths of the firstborn males of both man and beast in the land of Egypt. It was because of the blood mark on the doorways of Israelite houses with the people inside, the blood from a substitute, that the firstborn males of man and beast who were part of Israel were spared.

The sacrifice of the firstborn males of the household livestock was now a remembrance of what the LORD had done throughout Egypt, but the redemption of the firstborn male of each family was a reminder of what the LORD had done for the sons of Israel in sparing them through the sacrifice of a perfect, innocent yearling male lamb as a substitute for that which they deserved.

This was not just to be ritual, but to be ever present in their thinking and their actions. And each generation was to be continually reminded that it was not by their own might or power but that of Another that they had been freed: “for with a powerful hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt.” And the Lord is not finished yet!