God's New World Order Text: Exodus 12:1-13
Introduction: A Declaration of War
We come now to one of the central, load-bearing chapters of the entire Bible. What happens here in Exodus 12 is not simply the dramatic climax to a series of plagues. It is the formal institution of a new nation. It is a constitutional convention, a declaration of independence, and the establishment of a national liturgy all rolled into one. God is not simply rescuing a band of slaves; He is creating a people for His own possession, and He is doing it by means of blood and faith.
The world was, and is, organized by various calendars, rituals, and loyalties. Egypt had its own schedule, its own gods, its own way of marking time and making sense of the world. Pharaoh was, to the Egyptians, a god in human flesh, the source of life and order. The Passover is a direct, frontal assault on this entire worldview. God is not asking for a three-day weekend for His people. He is declaring that He is the true King, the true God, and that all of life, down to the calendar on the wall, must be reordered around His great act of redemption. This is not a polite suggestion. This is regime change. God is establishing His kingdom in the midst of another, and He does it through a meal that is simultaneously an execution, a coronation, and a military mobilization.
The Passover is the gospel in miniature. It is a preview of the cross, a shadow of the substance that is Christ. If we fail to understand what is happening here with the blood on the doorposts, we will fail to understand what happened with the blood on the wood of the cross. This is not just history; it is liturgy. It is a pattern for worship, a pattern for life, and a pattern for salvation that echoes down to this very day. God is teaching His people then, and us now, that the only way to escape the righteous judgment of God is to take refuge under the blood of a substitute.
The Text
Now Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household. Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to apportion the lamb. Your lamb shall be a male, without blemish, a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. And they shall eat the flesh that night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste, it is the Passover of Yahweh. And I will go through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments, I am Yahweh. And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and I will see the blood, and I will pass over you, and there shall be no plague among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
(Exodus 12:1-13 LSB)
A New Calendar for a New People (v. 1-2)
The first thing God does is hit the reset button on their entire conception of time.
"Now Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 'This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.'" (Exodus 12:1-2)
This is a radical act of sovereignty. God is saying, "Your life no longer revolves around the harvest cycle of the Nile. Your year does not begin when Pharaoh says it does. Your time, your very existence, is now defined by My act of redemption." He is creating a new reality. Just as in Genesis 1, God created time itself, here He is re-creating time for His covenant people. Their new year begins not with planting or with the decrees of a pagan king, but with deliverance. All their feasts, their Sabbaths, their entire liturgical life will now be oriented around this central event. This is a new creation moment. Life starts here. This tells us that to be a Christian is to have your life re-calendared. Your life is no longer B.C. and A.D. in a merely historical sense, but in a personal one. Your life is now marked by the great redemptive act of God in Christ. Your birthdays, your anniversaries, your holidays, they are all downstream from the cross.
The Lamb for the Household (v. 3-6)
Next, God gives the specific instructions for the central element of this new life: the substitute.
"Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household... Your lamb shall be a male, without blemish, a year old... And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight.'" (Exodus 12:3, 5-6)
Notice the structure here. Salvation is corporate, but it is applied household by household. The command is to the whole congregation, but the responsibility rests with the head of each household. This is federal theology in action. The father, the head of the house, is responsible to secure the lamb for his family. This principle of headship runs through all of Scripture. God deals with us as individuals, yes, but also as members of covenant communities, be it a family or a church.
The lamb itself is a picture, a type, of the Lord Jesus Christ. It must be "without blemish." This points to the sinless perfection of Christ. Peter makes the connection explicit, saying we are redeemed "with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot" (1 Peter 1:19). It must be a male, a year old, in the prime of its life, signifying the value of the sacrifice. This was not a sickly, worthless animal. It was the best of the flock, just as Christ was the best heaven had to offer.
And there is a curious detail. They are to select the lamb on the tenth day and keep it until the fourteenth. For four days, this lamb lives with the family. The children would have played with it, fed it, perhaps even named it. This was not an abstract sacrifice. It was personal. This period of observation also prefigures Christ's final week in Jerusalem. He entered the city on the tenth of Nisan, Palm Sunday, and for four days He was publicly examined by the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herod. They questioned Him, tested Him, and tried to trap Him, and after all of it, Pilate had to declare, "I find no fault in this man" (Luke 23:4). He was the lamb without blemish, publicly inspected and found perfect before He was slain.
Blood, Fire, and Haste (v. 7-11)
The application of the sacrifice is what makes all the difference.
"Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. And they shall eat the flesh that night, roasted with fire... with unleavened bread and bitter herbs... Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste, it is the Passover of Yahweh." (Exodus 12:7-8, 11)
It is not enough that the lamb is killed. The blood must be applied. This is an act of faith. By painting the blood on their doors, they were publicly identifying with Yahweh in a land hostile to Him. The Egyptians worshipped the ram; this act was a direct repudiation of their idolatry. It was a visible, costly, and courageous act of faith. The blood was the sign that judgment had already fallen on a substitute inside that house. When the angel of death came, he would see the evidence of a death that had already occurred and "pass over."
The meal itself is packed with meaning. It is to be roasted with fire, a symbol of judgment. The lamb endures the fire of God's wrath so that those in the house do not. It is eaten with unleavened bread. Leaven in Scripture is consistently a symbol of sin and corruption. To eat unleavened bread is to symbolize a clean break from the old life, the corruption of Egypt. Paul picks this up in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8: "Cleanse out the old leaven... For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival... with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." They also eat it with bitter herbs, to remember the bitterness of their slavery. Salvation is sweet, but we must never forget the bitterness of the bondage from which we were rescued.
Finally, the posture of the meal is one of urgent readiness. Loins girded, sandals on, staff in hand. They are to eat in haste. This is not a leisurely dinner party. This is the meal of a people on the move, a pilgrim people being liberated. They are leaving. They are not going back. This is the attitude of the Christian life. We are to live as sojourners, ready for the Lord's return, with our bags packed and our affairs in order, not as those who have settled down comfortably in Egypt.
God's War on the Gods (v. 12-13)
God now states the purpose of this night in the starkest possible terms.
"And I will go through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments, I am Yahweh. And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and I will see the blood, and I will pass over you..." (Exodus 12:12-13)
This is not just about freeing slaves. This is about cosmic warfare. Each of the plagues was a targeted assault on a specific Egyptian deity, the god of the Nile, the frog goddess, the sun god Ra. This final plague is the knockout blow. The firstborn son, particularly the firstborn of Pharaoh, was considered the heir to divinity. By striking the firstborn, God is striking at the very heart of Egypt's political and religious system. He is demonstrating that all the false gods of Egypt are impotent non-entities. He is executing judgment upon them.
And in the middle of this declaration of war, God makes the most important statement: "I am Yahweh." This is the foundation of everything. It is His signature on the work. He is the self-existent, covenant-keeping God, and He is asserting His absolute authority over all creation and all false claimants to power.
The dividing line in this war is not ethnicity or moral superiority. The Israelites were not saved because they were better than the Egyptians. They were sinners just the same. The dividing line was the blood. "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." Salvation is not based on our performance, but on God's provision. It is not our goodness that saves us, but the blood of the lamb applied in faith. God provides the lamb, God provides the instructions, and God provides the salvation. Our only part is to believe Him and take shelter under the blood He has provided.
Conclusion: Christ Our Passover
This entire chapter is a magnificent portrait of the work of Jesus Christ. He is the true Passover Lamb, without blemish, selected before the foundation of the world. He was slain at twilight on the fourteenth of Nisan, at the very hour the Passover lambs were being slaughtered in the temple.
His blood, applied to the doorposts of our hearts by faith, is the only thing that can cause the wrath of God to pass over us. There is no other refuge. There is no other hope. It is not enough to admire the lamb, or to study the lamb. You must be covered by His blood.
When we come to the Lord's Table, we are participating in this Passover meal. We are eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We do it with the unleavened bread of sincerity, having confessed our sins. We do it remembering the bitter bondage of our sin from which He rescued us. And we do it in haste, as pilgrims, as a people who have been set free and are now on our way to the Promised Land. The Passover was the beginning of months for Israel. And trusting in Christ, our Passover, is the beginning of everything for us.