Exodus-12

Exodus 12 goes into what can be termed ‘legal material’ a beginning of their instruction that they would receive in the wilderness about God’s instructions for his people in remembrance of Him and this day.   QUESTION: – Is the action of ‘remembering’ involved in our worship today?  How?  When? Where? Etc.

Exodus 12:1-13(ESV)  – Instructions
¹The 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. 
³Tell 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. 
⁴And 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. 
⁵Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 
⁶and 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. 
⁸They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 
⁹Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 
¹⁰And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 
¹¹In 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. 
¹²For 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. 
¹³The 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.

 V.1 – the identification of the first two Levite priests who would be placed in position of guarding God’s laws, instructing about them and in forcing an obedience to them.  Thus, the nation’s first two Levitical priests are mentioned prominently as a paradigm for all later proper clergy. 

V.2 – Why should God tell the Israelites when their year began?  Which month was to be the start of each year.  Apparently there were different yearly start times by different groups of people.  For the Canaanite groups they considered the ‘fall’ as a celebration of the New Year.

God institutes the Spring (March/April or Nisan) to be the new year for his nation.  It would differentiate them from their surrounding people that they would be instructed to remove from their mist.  Doing that would then create their area to be filled with a group of people having the SAME calendar (like manners). 

The Israelites informally  saying they would celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the first fruits of the wheat harvest and the feast of the ingathering at the turn of the year. Thus using the speech of the ‘agricultural calendar’.  That language would seemingly contradict the present law establishing a spring new year. 

This can be termed “phenomenological or informal language”   EXAMPLES:

1 – We speak of the day ending at dusk – yet we all know it ends at midnight..

2 – We speak of having a week-end off that includes Saturday and Sunday.  When we actually know that Sunday is a day that starts the next week. 

3 – For many of use we think of the Spring as the starting point for activities outside and for planting.  We might look at it as the new year, a new beginning – STILL we know it started January 1^st in the COLD, hibernating time.

4 – We say “the road sign says…”  when it doesn’t speak. 

Others…?

What is taught and stated in the Pentateuch is that the new year for them is firmly established as commencing in the spring, the month of Nisan (March-April) being the first month and that the 7^th month was the one to which the fall festival was dated  (Sept-Oct).

 

 V.3-4 – The Passover is a commemorative feast and different than what we’d consider our American holidays that are feasts and others are not.  Feast Holidays would be?  (Thanksgiving, Christmas) where careful preparation is done.  –  Others would be ‘activity’ types of one kind or another. (4^th July – Labor Day) 

This memorial has specific steps to be taken (a preparation):

1 – 4 days prior to select a 1yr. lamb or goat – set aside and protect it from harm…

2 – a gathering of people together to share the lamb as it was all to be eaten at that time.  (The household size depended on how many other joined them.)

3 – a common meal to share and reflect the purpose of the meal that was to be prepared to leave.

4 – to eat together of a single sacrificed lamb that was gutted & roasted.

5 – no one was to gorge themselves in order to finish the meat.  So carefully calculations on portion control.  It was no a ‘feast till you are full’ but a gathering of anxiously awaiting departure.   Everyone had to eat the meat, but for there to be a large portion for some was not to be involved at this time because that could leave leftovers. 

No leftovers and NO gorging!

This was a time of solidarity and they were to have a purpose – they were to be establishing an event that they would in turn repeat as a memorializing event in their history. 
They were to understand why the meat was to be eaten and that they ate it.  These actions were to be memorialized in remembrance of the deliverance by their God.

The greater value is in preparation for the Messiah.  The Messiah was to be one body, broken for all, symbolically eaten by all, in order to help believers in the New Covenant keep aware of their unity as members of the one body.  Partial consumption and fragments left over do not appropriately symbolize that body and the unity. 

The ultimate purpose of the OT Passover instruction is to point forward to Christ, to purpose of his death, memorialized in the ritual of the Lord’s Supper that now replaces the Passover, and also to the unity of those accepted by him as his people, his body. 

The kid or lamb was to be perfect and without any defects.  It was to be a symbolic reminder of the eventual deliverance that a perfect God perfectly provided for his people as part of the process of making them holy like himself.  Proper relating to God requires a perfection.  Taste would not be the issue as a lamb with a broken leg would taste just fine. 

QUESTION:  How can an animal being consumed save them?
Of course it couldn’t!  However, the process was done as God instructed them.  It was their faithfully carrying out the process that was pleasing and life-saving to God.   Likewise we understand the God designed plan of redemption that was established even before creation. 

V.6  –  Protecting the separated lamb for four days to keep it healthy.  WHY?  Again one sees the direction God give for advance planning needed. – (We see this revealed in the account of the 10 virgins needing to have oil in their lamps for the wedding feast  – be ready.)  TODAY application is….  We are to act in readiness for the coming of the Lord.

V.7 – ‘the houses were they eat the lambs” –  it can be any structure that a blood could be placed on the door posts (entry way).   God, of course, would NOT need a sign to identify His people so why this instruction?
AGAIN  – a sign that one believed and took action.  As at the Hail plague, those that believed enough headed (listened) to God and took shelter for man and animals.

Their eating the Passover meal was in a manner being ready and expecting to leave.  They would eat the lamb under the light of the full moon as it would be the time for maximum lightening during the month.  All things were done to minimize time and maximize preparedness for a sudden departure.  An Issue Of Faith!  A willingness to go at a moment’s notice to give them as much distance from Egypt as quickly as possible. 

V.8-9 – Theroasting over an open fire would require little to no setup or washing of pots and other utensils.  It wouldn’t require additional water or waiting for it to boil.  It was gutted and ready in minutes rather than an elaborate style butchering to save the other parts and use another time for something else.

Bitter herbs were easiest to fine and eaten raw or seared.  Bead without yeast could be quickly put together and heated.  (Hours would be needed to let dough rise and then bake.)  When it was just four and water it would quick to mix and a small amount of time in the oven. Any leftovers were to be buried once the meal was over.

V. 10-11 – SPEED was the issue here.  They were to eat, fellowship and be ready to leave.  They were to eat standing up, cloaks on and with staff in hand to be ready to go.  Dressed for travel was important as another indication of faith that the long-promised deliverance was at hand.

Point:  The Lord’s Passover was not a typical meal at all but God’s specially assigned symbolic meal of exodus deliverance.

Exodus 12:12-13 (ESV) –  Description of Passover Death, Judgment on the Gods of Egypt, and the Protection of the Blood.
¹²For 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. 
¹³The 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.

 The destruction of the firstborn of all Egyptian humans and livestock would come hours after the meal.  God would pass over the house with the blood on the door posts.   The blood on the doorposts showed acceptance of God’s plan for rescue and trust in His word.  (Action was required to demonstrate one’s faith.  How is that still today?)

Judgment on the “Gods of Egypt”  v.12… on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.”  ? – How did a plague that killed the firstborn of men and animals function as judgment against them?

By the use of the plagues God demonstrated his superiority to all the supposed other gods.  God demonstrated the superiority in connection with the supposed gods of the greatest economic-political-military power of the day.   This was an evangelistic enterprise to show the then world who he was.  So that they might know and have fulfill his desire that none should perish for lack of knowing He is God.  A large part of ‘truth’ is knowing that He is the only true God and provider of eternal life.   

After being in Egypt for some 430 years his people would have some disillusion of who the true God is among all the gods of Egypt.  God made sure that the belief system of the Egyptians and any other pagan group would know who the ‘true God’ is. 

Would this not be a convincing method to turn people away from the bad news toward the good news by the dramatically and decisively exposing them as truly bad and obviously false.  During the period of the 9 plagues the reality of the “good News” has had an opportunity to sink into the consciousness of those who witness the sort of events that occurred. 

Quote:

The Egyptians were pantheists, as most ancient and many modern people were/are as well. Pantheism is a belief system in which all nature is thought to partake of the divine: anything that exists is a manifestation of, or a part of, or an extension of, a god. To see, or touch, or hear, or taste is to come in contact with a god because all things are in some way essentially part of a god or goddess. Therefore, if something is judged anywhere in nature, that is a judgment on at least one god. And, by logical extension, ten or eleven supernatural acts of judgment showing control over ten or eleven different aspects of nature represent multiple judgment strikes against Egyptian religion (and ancient pagan religion as a whole). 

 

The Egyptians were also polytheists, as were all ancient peoples other than the Israelites (i.e., the Israelites at those relatively rare times when they were actually orthodox and keeping the divine covenant). The Egyptian saw the universe as the habitation and expression of many gods and goddesses. Although from the point of view of a monotheist it might have been possible for a single, decisive plague to demonstrate Yahweh’s superiority to all other gods, from the point of view of a polytheist this might not have been quite so clear. A polytheist might easily conclude that a single plague was in fact a judgment against one god, but ten plagues of different sorts could hardly be understood that way. Since polytheism envisions many gods performing a great variety of functions, ten different sorts of plagues showing God’s control over a variety of functions within the natural realm serve to display the fact that the many gods in general do not have power against the one God in whose name Moses and Aaron spoke. Repeated exposures of various Egyptian gods as powerless makes rather clear that all such gods should be suspect as the mere product of human belief.

 

Moreover, consider the purpose of gods. What were the gods expected to do for those who worshiped them? What did the worshipers expect as the overall, basic, essential outcome of their devotion to the various gods and goddesses? The answer is that the worship of many gods had as its foremost goal to provide life. The gods were seen, above all, as the grantors of life and protectors of the living. To ignore the gods was to be in danger of ignoring the forces that provided life, the sustainers of existence. The gods, each in their particular ways, sustained the lives of those who worshiped them. The plagues, appropriately, were largely focused on death. Nearly all of them actually resulted in death (in the first nine, that of the plants or animals afflicted by or used by God as agents of the plague). The tenth and final plague was the ultimate one—and fittingly, it was the plague of death, showing that the gods, both severally and totally, of any sort and any status, could not save anyone or anything from death. If God can take the life of the firstborn, he can take the life of anyone regardless of birth order. If every household in Egypt was affected by the death that constituted this plague, then every household in Egypt should have been able to understand who held the power of life and death and who, by implication, did not. The gods did not. Yahweh did.

But false gods are false, are they not? The Egyptian gods were really figments of the imagination of those who thought them up and fashioned idols to represent them, were they not? How then could God speak of judging these gods? Was that not to give them a status in reality, to assert their existence?

Indeed, false gods do not exist. They are not demons by another name, fallen angels with real power, doing real things. The consistent witness of Scripture is that they are nothings, nonbeings, imaginary deities from whom no response can ever be expected because they do not exist. Therefore, “judgment on the gods of Egypt” is practically speaking a judgment on belief in those gods, trusting in what cannot save as opposed to the only one who can. Exodus 12:12 is worded in a way designed to help capture the attention of those who actually thought, or might actually think, that what the Egyptians worshiped were real. In fact, judgment on the gods of Egypt, accompanied by their complete silence, is evidence that they never existed. From one point of view, it is dismissal of their existence as nonsense.

 

Note how 12:12 concludes with the words “I am the Lord.” This simple statement, found in many other places in the Old Testament, is part of the language of God’s covenant with Israel. As it is used in a context like Exod 12:12, it is a reminder formula, intended to recall the language of the preamble of the covenant and thus what would technically be called a reference by incipit to the covenant as a whole. God was in effect saying by these words: “I’m doing something here that is basic to my (soon to be fully revealed) covenant with you. I’m showing you whom you must pay sole attention to and who alone can save you and grant you blessing—if you keep my covenant. I’m making sure by dramatic and decisive means that you cannot miss the fact that I alone am life and truth for you. Pay attention to no other gods. I have powerfully demonstrated to you that they don’t exist. I have also demonstrated to you what happens to people who think they do. Trust me alone and you’ll have made the choice from which everything else important follows.”  –  Quote from: New American Commentary

 

Exodus 12:14-20 (ESV)– Instructions for Passover Memorial of Unleavened Bread
¹⁴“This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. 
¹⁵Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 
¹⁶On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. 
¹⁷And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. 
¹⁸In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 
¹⁹For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. 
²⁰You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”

V.14 – “this is the day… memorial”  –  meaning it was crucial not to miss the start day.  It was the 14^th of the first month of the full moon and done for generations to come as a lasting ordinance.  It was important to be passed on to generation and generation as it was a “festival to the LORD” – a solemn religious celebration to memorialize the miraculous release from Egypt slavery.

They did NOT celebrate this 7-day celebration on the initial day as they lived it.  However, thereafter they were to celebrate and remember God’s salvation (deliverance) of his people.      It was a deliverance from the bondage of sin itself and promise to the eternal land, the home of the Father.  This links the NT crucifixion with the ultimate exodus because it delivers not merely from bondage to human despotism but from bondage to sin itself and the means of the promise for eternal life with God.  It was not by accident that Moses, Elijah and Jesus, was shown on the “mount of Transfiguration” as God spoke about His Son’s departure that He was to bring.

V.15 – Why called “the feast of Unleavened Bread”?  It was more unusual to eat unleavened bread as it would be like a cracker and the preferred eating of leavened bread.  The non yeast bread would be a sign of faith indicating they were keeping the Passover as a believer and its meaning as a true member of the covenant.

V.16 – The two days at the beginning and the end were special as no work was done other than what was essential as food preparation.  It would be a reminder to us that worship is intended to be a group enterprise and conducted apart from the routine of daily work. 

V.17 – Showing the importance of celebrating the Passover feast properly in two ways:

1. By giving it an alternative name:  “The Feast of Unleavened Bread”

2. By emphasizing the timing of the feast: it was on this very day God brought them out of Egypt. 

There is little doubt that the festival, not merely the substance (unleavened bread), was to be observed and on a permanent memorializing event.

 V.18 – Dates:  In the first month from the evening of the 14^th day until the evening of the 21^st day. 

V.19-20 – It applies to everyone with the law having no spatial or geographical limitation.  Thus for future generations of God’s people as a sign of their faith and trust in God’s provisions.

 

Exodus 12:21-28 (ESV)– Moses Teaches the Israelites to Follow the Passover Instructions…
²¹Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. 
²²Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. 
²³For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. 
²⁴You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. 
²⁵And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. 
²⁶And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 
²⁷you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.
²⁸Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

 

V.21 – called the ‘elders of Israel’ to instruct them as to the Passover procedure and they were to carry out getting the message to all the families. 

Prior we saw the Israelite foremen and many of the Israelites supporting the idea to denounce Moses and Aaron.  NOW, Israel was ready to obey.    By the end of 9 plagues one would really be foolish not to recognize God at work.  It would be clear to them that their God is the supreme God over all the false gods the Egyptians.  Their attitude definitely changed over the course of the plagues.

For 430 years they were around this practice of false religion.  Their own faith was not there when Moses and Aaron appeared to them.  However, they adjust quickly to acceptance when Moses and Aaron showed them the signs of their office/power.   Yet early on when they too were suffering, many were in support of the elders in wanting to denounce them.

FYI – 430 years in Egypt – however, not all of these were in a state of oppression.  The extreme oppression occurred with the change in leadership some 80 years prior to  the plagues.  The new regime feared that the Israelites would over-take their government so another line of non-Egyptians would rule.  (Today they speak a dialect of Arabic developed from Coptic and Afro-Asiatic language of ancient Egypt.)

V.22 – catch the blood in a container to they’d have enough and could smear on the doorframe with “hyssop” branch–  a fragrant plant similar to mint.  (marjoram – herb)

V.23 – God is spoken of going through the land to strike down the firstborn.  God is the judge of all the earth and He continually shows himself to be a ‘personal’ God.  Jehovah is not a distant god but a personal God who relates personally, directly, and continually to his creation.    God is one that sees and delivers personally his people the good and the bad.

V.24-28 – They are to understand the Passover regulations they now were instructed to do would be repeated as a permanent reminder of their great deliverance.  They are responsible to teach their children for all future generations.  It was to be a memorial to this day the God intervened to bring justice and deliverance to his people.

 

Exodus 12:29-30 – The Tenth Plague strikes death of the firstborn.
²⁹At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. 
³⁰And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. 

Here is a record of the horrible consequences of Egyptian resistance to God and abuse of his people over many years.  This end came about in a single night.  At midnight the firstborn were suddenly struck dead.  The wailing came from those left and it states that in every household there was death. 

The first oppressive pharaoh (Exodus 1:8) with the complicity of his fellow Egyptians at all levels caused the death of all Israelite baby boys in every family.  They did this brutal act to try and suppress the power of the nation into which the boys were born.   It was their religious beliefs that led them to practice the horrible treatment they had given the Israelites. 

The wailing was heard from house to house.  As their houses were close together the wailing sounds would travel and awakened their neighbor.  Some might have stayed up all night checking on their children safety as they knew the prediction that was stated by Moses. 

In pantheistic Egyptian society, even the death of so many livestock would be mourned as well as the economic loss.    Pantheistic – the doctrine that God is the transcendent reality of which the material universe and human beings are only manifestations: it involves a denial of God’s personality and expresses a tendency to identify God and nature.

 

Exodus 12:31-36(ESV)
³¹Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. 
³²Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”
³³The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” 
³⁴So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders. 
³⁵The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. 
³⁶And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

The Israelites are given full and even eager permission for the exodus.  The strategy of the then government was to prevent them leaving and separating from the Egyptians.  Why the change?

 

V.31-32 – Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron    ³¹Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said.   ³²Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”

 

Controversy situation between: 

Exodus 10:29
²⁹Moses said, “As you say! I will not see your face again.”

Exodus 12:31 – ESV
³¹Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. 

This is seemingly a conflict and it is because of a translation choice.  The Hebrew words summon is “qarale” which does indeed sometime mean ‘summon” (call to appear in one’s presence) but it often means “proclaim, send word to or inform by messenger”.

 

Exodus 12:31 – NKJV  –  ³¹ Then he called (yiqra) (H7121) for Moses and Aaron by night, and said,

Exod 12:31 – NASB –       31        Then he called (H7121) for Moses and Aaron at night and said, “Rise up, get out

Exodus 12 –KJV

³⁰And Pharaoh [rose up^,]in the night, he, and all^,, his servants,^,, and all^,, the Egyptians; and there was^, a great cry in Egypt;^, for there was not a house where^/ there was not one dead.

³¹And he called^, for Moses^, and Aaron^,, by night, and said,^, [Rise up,]and [get you forth][from among^/,]my people,^, both ye and the children^,, of Israel; and go,^, serve  ❐❒the Lord, as ye have said.^,,

 

(yiqra)H7121 – has a meaning of:  “to summon (official)

 

V.33–³³The Egyptians were urgent (te–hezaq)  (H2388 – to press) with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.”     ESV:
V.33- –  A Literal translation of v.33 would read:  “The Egyptians pressured the people in order to get them to leave the land quickly because they said, ‘We are all dead!’.

 

V.34 – They wrapped their freshly made dough in fabric and carried it on their shoulders as they headed out.

V.35-36 – ³⁶ And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered (H5337) the Egyptians.

They got whatever they asked, not merely because the Egyptians were now terrified of the Israelites but because God had supernaturally caused the Egyptians to think collectively along these line.

Strong’s H5337 .  נָצַלnâtsal, naw-tsal´; a prim. root; to snatch away, whether in a good or a bad sense…

Exodus 12:37-42(ESV) The Exodus Begins
³⁷And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 
³⁸A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. 
³⁹And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.
⁴⁰The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. 
⁴¹At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. 
⁴²It was a night of watching by the Lord, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations.

A full exodus occurred and it tells the many people leaving Egypt and some were Israelites by faith choice rather than by birth. 

Rameses to Succoth – was apparently first built by Israelite slaves as a ‘store city’ – intended to house war materials for fighting potential invaders.  Sukkoth may well have been the name of the city in ancient records.  The name was used to describe their point of departure from Egypt. 

Questioned by some over the 2 million leaving number.   There is  a range of meaning assigned to the Hebrew word: “ragli” when viewed in terms of English translation equivalents.  The original root word would be “Ox”  or herd, connotes a large group.  Some calculate the group to leave would be around 29,000 – 36,000 and that would be a formidable number.  Whereas 2 million would be a really large group to contend with.  How could they all encamp around the tabernacle and hear the words of Moses.

V38 – It was a huge ethnically diverse group that left with their cattle and herds.

V.39 – bread was virtually everyone’s main food in the ancient world.  Taking the bread dough would be like ‘hard tack’ of today.

V41 – Left at the end of 430 years – a statement that could mean they left right after the Passover, not the anniversary of their 430 year stay.

V.42 – it was a night of vigil by the Lord and He brought them out of the land on that day.

 

Exodus 12:37-42(ESV) The Exodus Begins
³⁷And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 
³⁸A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. 
³⁹And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.
⁴⁰The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. 
⁴¹At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. 
⁴²It was a night of watching by the Lord, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations.

A full exodus occurred and it tells the many people leaving Egypt and some were Israelites by faith choice rather than by birth. 

Rameses to Succoth – was apparently first built by Israelite slaves as a ‘store city’ – intended to house war materials for fighting potential invaders.  Sukkoth may well have been the name of the city in ancient records.  The name was used to describe their point of departure from Egypt. 

Questioned by some over the 2 million leaving number.   There is  a range of meaning assigned to the Hebrew word: “ragli” when viewed in terms of English translation equivalents.  The original root word would be “Ox”  or herd, connotes a large group.  Some calculate the group to leave would be around 29,000 – 36,000 and that would be a formidable number.  Whereas 2 million seem to be the general number used.  

Whatever number V.38 states that it was a huge ethnically diverse group that left with their cattle and herds.

V.39 – bread was virtually everyone’s main food in the ancient world.  Taking the bread dough would be like ‘hard tack’ of today.

V41 – Left at the end of 430 years – a statement that could mean they left right after the Passover, not the anniversary of their 430 year stay.

V.42 – it was a night of vigil by the Lord and He brought them out of the land on that day.

Exodus 12:43-51 – The Passover Statute and Its Connection to the Exodus
⁴³And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner shall eat of it, 
⁴⁴but every slave that is bought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him. 
⁴⁵No foreigner or hired servant may eat of it. 
⁴⁶It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones. 
⁴⁷All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. 
⁴⁸If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. 
⁴⁹There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.”
⁵⁰All the people of Israel did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. 
⁵¹And on that very day the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.

 

No foreigners may eat of the lamb and converts must be circumcised.  This was to be an event shared in unity by the Israelite nation and process oriented, meaning who, where, when and how it was focused on. 

Restrictions on eating of the lamb as the lamb represented Jesus Christ, the redeemer.   

V.43 – no foreigner shall eat of it…

No foreigner (ben nekar) ( H1121 & H5236)  shall eat of it…    H1121 – son foreigner (Israel)  H5236 – Foreigner (Israel) foreign land. 

“nekar” a term for person who are simply not part of the covenant community ‘ “outsiders” would be a suitable translation.  This is NOT racial discrimination but proper religious discrimination.  The improper kind hates and hurts simply because they are of a different religion. 

 

V.44 – every slave may eat of it after he was circumcised

V.45  – repeated:  No foreigner or hired servant may eat

V.46 – To be eaten in one house and not to break any of its bones

V.47 – All the Congregation should partake

V.48 – If a stranger shall partake let all his males be circumcised – “no uncircumcised person shall eat of it”

V.49 – There to be ONE law for all groups of people there

V.50 – All obeyed the command of Moses and Aaron

V.51 – That very day the Lord brought the people out of Egypt. 

 

A different Hebrew word was used in the following for foreigner (tosab) : 

Exodus 12:45 – ESV:  –  ⁴⁵No foreigner  (tosab)  (H8453) or hired servant may eat of it. 
Exodus 12:45 – NASB –          45      “A sojourner or a hired servant shall not eat of it.
YLT – ⁴⁵a settler or hired servant doth not eat of it;
NIV – ⁴⁵ but a temporary resident and a hired worker may not eat of it.

Same Hebrew word  (tosab) – Strongs: H8453

H8453.  תּוֹשָׁבtôwshâb, to-shawb´; or  תֹּשָׁבtôshâb(1 Kings 17:1), to-shawb´; from 3427; a dweller (but not outlandish [5237]); espec. (as distinguished from a native citizen [act. part. of 3427] and a temporary inmate [1616] or mere lodger [3885]) resident alien:—foreigner, inhabitant, sojourner, stranger.

 

 

EXOD 47-49 –  ⁴⁷ All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. ⁴⁸ If a stranger (ger) (H1616) shall sojourn (H1481) with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. ⁴⁹ There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.”

“Sojourn” (hagar) H1481 used   –  Translated “foreigner”, but different Hebrew word. 

Strong’s H1481.  גּוּרgûwr, goor; a prim. root; prop. to turn aside from the road (for a lodging or any other purpose), i.e. sojourn (as a guest); also to shrink, fear (as in a strange place); also to gather for hostility (as afraid):—abide, assemble, be afraid, dwell, fear, gather (together), inhabitant, remain, sojourn, stand in awe, (be) stranger, × surely.

1616.  גֵּרgêr, gare; or (fully) גֵּירgêyr, gare; from 1481; prop. a guest; by impl. a foreigner:—alien, sojourner, stranger.

 

⁴⁹ There shall be one law for the native (H249) and for the stranger (H1616) who sojourns (H1481) among you.”

 

Strong’s H249.  אֶזְרָחʾezrâch, ez-rawkh´; from 2224 (in the sense of springing up); a spontaneous growth, i.e. native (tree or persons):—bay tree, (home-) born (in the land), of the (one’s own) country (nation).

 

To be united as a community of faith within God’s protection and guidance as they did exactly as Moses & Aaron instructed them to do.