(1) Overview:
1/10 prepare a lamb
1/14 the fest of Passovers and the 1st day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread
1/21 the 7th day of the Unleavened bread
They were told to hold a feast while the rest of Egypt was under attack by God. Among all the other distinctions made during the 10 plagues, this would be the biggest distinction. No one died in the households of Israel, except the lamb. The lamb was a clear object lesson for substitutional death.
v.6b [on] the 14th day of this month...the whole community of Israel will kill it [the sheep] around sundown
(2) Observation
There were requirements of the feast:
v.1-3 family is a unit (for the Israelites, the lamb were eaten together was a family, but for the Egyptian, each family would have 1 person died),
v.5-6 the lamb must be perfect, a male, one year old, Israelitese had to care for it from the 10th to the 14th, (Jesus, the ultimate substitutional lamb, was perfect)
v.8-10 has to eat the same night, eat with bread without yeast and bitter herbs, roast and not raw or boiled, leave nothing until morning,
(NET) Bread made without yeast could be baked quickly, not requiring time for the use of a leavening ingredient to make the dough rise. In Deut 16:3 the unleavened cakes are called “the bread of affliction,” which alludes to the alarm and haste of the Israelites
v.11 dressed to travel, eat in haste (to remember that they left Egypt in haste)
v.13 Blood will be a sign for you on the houses (the killing of the firstborn son)
v.14-15 Israel should celebrate the feast of Unleavened bread perpetually. Anyone who violates will be cut off from Israel. (same rules repeat for the Passover v.24-25). (God wants them to remember that all the firstborns in the family were spared that night and therefore, they belonged to God. All the people were able to leave their slavery lives behind and free. They should all serve God).
(3) Reflection: So many rules...
Do you have a hard time following God's commands? Are you frustrated when it does not make any sense to you?
God never required the Israelites to do anything when He spared them from the previous plagues (light in darkness, spared from disease and etc). To follow these rules saves their lives or help them to remember that God has saved their lives. However, some of the rules do not make any sense to them until much later, e.g. they would not know why the lamb has to be perfect. Now, we know because it was a type for Jesus Christ.
Audrey
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