Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Exodus 12:21 - 12:28

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Exodus 12:21 - 12:28


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The People Accept the Ordinances

v. 21. Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said unto them,
as the representatives of the children of Israel who transmitted the will of God to them, Draw out, select, take out from the flock, and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the Passover; for the name of the festival was applied to the lamb or kid as the chief sacrifice.

v. 22. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop,
a plant to which cleansing properties were ascribed, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, which was caught when the animal was slaughtered, and strike the lintel and the two side-posts with the blood that is in the basin, thus applying the blood as a paint. And none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning, as a measure of safety, for they were protected only inside the house, behind the blood of sacrifice.

v. 23. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He seeth the blood upon the lintel and on the two side-posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.
With the blood on their door, destruction would not strike them, not because the blood in itself had such extraordinary powers, but because it was the type of the perfect, holy blood of propitiation, that of Christ.

v. 24. And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons forever.
This precept concerning the Passover in its essential features was to be a fixed rule in their midst in their new home, an observance to be transmitted from generation to generation.

v. 25. And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the Lord will give you, according as He hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.

v. 26. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?


v. 27. that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses.
Note that religious observances should not be performed in a mechanical manner, but with a proper understanding of their origin and their meaning. And the people bowed the head and worshiped. They accepted the words of the Lord in grateful adoration.

v. 28. And the children of Israel went away, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.
This section is of more than usual interest to us Christians, because the Passover Iamb is a type of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Christ was a true man, born of the Virgin Mary. But He was, at the same time, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. He is the Lamb which was sacrificed for the deliverance of all mankind. The blood of Jesus Christ protects us against wrath, against death and destruction; it reconciles us with God, it makes us members of His Church. This Lamb we should eat, we should receive Christ into our hearts as our Redeemer, therefore also purge out the old leaven, and be His own in sincerity and truth. Thus we obtain strength for our pathway through the wilderness of this world to the true Canaan above.