YEA Lesson Library
The First Passover
About This Lesson
This lessons teaches the events of the first Passover, emphasizing its importance to God’s people today.
Scriptures
Exodus 9:13-35
Exodus 10:1-29
Exodus 11:1-10
Exodus 12:1-28
Exodus 12:14
Leviticus 23:4-8
Numbers 9:6-13
Deuteronomy 16:3-7
Psalm 81:1-16
1 Corinthians 5:7
Words to Know
VIRTUALLY - almost entirely; nearly
INFAMOUS - having a reputation of the worst kind
The Lesson
The plagues that God had brought on Egypt virtually destroyed that nation. It all happened because stubborn Pharaoh would not allow the Israelites to go into the wilderness for three days and worship God.
Think about it.The hail storm God sent was like none other. You've heard of hail being the size of golf balls, and even baseballs. God sent thunder, hail, and lightning. The Bible says, "It was terrible beyond description. Never in all the history of Egypt had there been a storm like that. All Egypt lay in ruins. Everything left in the fields, men and animals alike, was killed, and the trees were shattered and the crops were destroyed. The only spot in all Egypt without hail that day was the land of Goshen where the people of Israel lived" (Exodus 9:22-25).
Then came the locust plague. These short-horned grasshoppers ate every twig left on any vegetation. It's difficult for us to imagine such devastation. And yet, God wasn't through.
The ninth plague was three days of darkness - darkness that could be felt! (Exodus 10:21) If you have ever been deep inside a cave, you know what that feels like. There is no light to see anything. The Bible says the Egyptians didn’t move from their place for three days, but there was light in the land of Goshen.
"God said to Moses: I'm going to hit Pharaoh and Egypt one final time, and then he'll let you go.” In fact Pharaoh would be so anxious to get rid of the Israelites that he would practically throw them out of Egypt.
God knew that when Pharaoh was really ready to free the Israelites, they had better be ready to go. God told Moses to “'Tell the people to ask, each man from his neighbor and each woman from her neighbor, for things made of silver and gold.' God saw to it that the Egyptians liked the people" (The Message). Have you ever doubted that God works in your life behind the scenes? The Holy Spirit is available to us today to do things like give us favor in someone's eyes, as God did here with the Israelites. But we must ask God for it and expect it.
"Now Moses announced to Pharaoh, 'Jehovah says, About midnight I will pass through Egypt. And all the oldest sons shall die in every family in Egypt, from the oldest child of Pharaoh, heir to his throne, to the oldest child of his lowliest slave; and even the firstborn of the animals’"(Exodus 11:4, 5 TLB). Do you think God still remembered the command that Pharaoh gave the midwives to kill all Hebrew boys as soon as they were born?
Moses and Aaron described to Pharaoh what that infamous night was going to be like. "But not a dog shall move his tongue against any of the people of Israel.” This was going to be a real turning point in the events. God would make a real distinction between the Egyptians and His people, the Israelites. They told Pharaoh that all of his officials would come running to them bowing and begging, "Please leave at once, and take all your people with you." Then Moses stomped out of the palace red-faced with anger.
God continued His instructions by saying, “This is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or goats.”
They were to take care of the year-old lamb until the 14th of the month when the Israelites were to slaughter it at evening. The blood was to be put on two-sided frames of the door of every home and on the panel above the door. It was proof that they obeyed God and the firstborn children would not be killed.
God's instructions continued. The people were to roast the lamb over a fire with its head, legs, heart and liver. None of the lamb was to be left until morning. Any leftovers were to be burned. Exodus 12:22 said the Israelites were not to go outside until morning.
This event was so important, so special that God made it a permanent law to remind all following generations of this fatal night. God continues His instruction to celebrate the Days of Unleavened Bread for seven days so we will always remember when He brought the Israelites out of Egypt.
Moses explained that they were to, "Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?' Then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians. Then the people bowed down and worshiped. The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron" (Exodus 12:24-28 NIV).
When you celebrate the Night to Be Much Observed with your church and family, do you talk about this first Passover? Do you ask the minister or the adults what this night really means? Why not suggest to your minister that he let the children and teens ask questions about the meaning of this night and let the adults answer them? This would be doing what the Bible says. Will you also do just what the LORD commands as the Israelites did?
Student Prayer
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the Passover. The blood of a lamb was shed on the first Passover and put on the doorframes of their houses. When the Destroyer passed over, the Israelites were saved from death. Jesus Christ is our Passover Lamb and He shed His blood so that we might have forgiveness of our sins and be saved from eternal death. Help me never to forget, I owe you so much.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
Daily Devotions
Sunday - Leviticus 23:4-8
Monday - Psalm 81:1-5
Tuesday - Psalm 81:6-12
Wednesday - Psalm 81:13-16
Thursday - Deuteronomy 16:3-7
Friday - Numbers 9:6-13
Saturday - I Corinthians 5:7
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
1. Tell the story of the First Passover.
2. Explain that when children ask their parents what the Passover means, the parents are to describe it to them.
Topics & Themes
Angel, Death
Blood
Egypt
Egypt, Coming Out
Firstborn
Israelites
Lamb
Passover
Pharaoh
Plagues
Materials Needed
Bible, YEA Students' and Teacher's Guide, attendance and memory verse charts, songbook, paper
How to Teach This Lesson
Open the class with prayer. Have five students draw one of the five slips of paper that you made before class. Explain that we are going to pretend that the elders of Israel are gathered and Moses and Aaron are giving them instructions about the First Passover. Have the students read the statements to the class in order.
Debrief - Ask: How did you feel about this way of learning more about the Passover? What things did you learn that you didn't know before? How was this activity like or unlike other things in your life? How did you feel about the instructions to take a year-old lamb and keep and feed it for four days and then kill it? Do you think that you would become attached to that lamb during that time? Would you have been wiling to kill it and put the blood on your doorframe if you knew that it would take doing that to save all of your family from death?
Important event - Why do you think God considered this to be such an important event? How long did He say we are to celebrate the Passover? How many days do you eat Unleavened Bread? Why did God instruct us to eat it?
Instructions to parents - What did God tell the parents to tell their children when they ask, "What does this ceremony mean to you?” Have you ever asked your parents this question? What did they say? Has your church ever had the children ask parents, the minister, or adults why we celebrate the Night to Be Much Observed? How did you feel about doing this?
Students’ Activity - Go over the Activity in the Students' book with the class.
Teacher-Directed Activity
Exodus 12:25-26 very specifically indicates that parents are supposed to teach their children why the Passover continues to be celebrated every year. Have the students create a quiz for their parents based on Exodus 12. The quiz can be T/F, multiple choice, matching, sequencing, essay, or a combination. The students may choose to work in pairs or alone in creating their quiz. Once they are finished, have the students exchange their quizzes with someone else to proof for clarity, grammar, and punctuation. Assign them to take the quizzes home and give them to their parents.
REACH Activity
Memory Verse Spotlight: Exodus 12:14
Look up the phrase “permanent law.” You might also wish to look it up in other translations. Write down the Hebrew word and its meaning. Then find three other Scriptures where this word is used.
What do you think? Did God mean it when he said the observance of the Passover was a statute forever? Is it a law just for Israelites? Is it a law just as long as there’s a Temple? Is it a law until Jesus became the Passover lamb? What do you think this means? How long do we keep the Passover? Talk about this with your family.
Where in the World? Lintels
What in the world are lintels? Why would God tell His people to put blood on the lintels? Is it the same thing as lentils? Why did following this command mean life or death? Read all of Exodus 12. Then write a paragraph in your Bible notebook about the importance of lintels and obeying God to the letter.
They Did What Back Then? Plundered
Has it ever bothered you to think that the Israelites plundered the Egyptians? Plundering is what you do to your enemies. You take their possessions. In this particular case, there was no steal involved; the Egyptians freely gave the Hebrews whatever they asked for. God made the Egyptians favorably disposed to the Hebrews. What does that mean? That means that whatever the Hebrews wanted, the Egyptians were more than willing to give.
Do you know the rest of the story? What in the world were the Hebrews going to do with all of the gold and silver and bronze and clothing that they got from the Egyptians?
Making It Mine: Favorably Disposed
Do you have an example in your life of a time when a teacher, neighbor, friend, employer (etc) was favorably disposed towards you? One time my parents took me out of school for a month to go to the Feast of Tabernacles. We took two weeks driving to Florida, a week at the Feast, and a week getting home. My teacher was not happy that I was gone so long; it meant a lot of extra work to get me caught up again. But she really didn’t give me a hard time. I still made straight A’s on my report card that quarter. She was favorably disposed towards me. Years later, when I interviewed for a teaching position, God made the superintendent and principal favorably disposed towards me - they agreed to let me go to the Feast of Tabernacles. That’s a big deal when the Feast is sometimes right after school starts! And it’s not usually a good idea for the teacher to miss a week (or more)! What about you? Think about how God has caused someone to show favor towards you. Write about it in your Bible notebook. Then remember to thank Him for His provision!
Worldview Collisions: Sovereignty
A secular worldview says that you have sovereignty over your life. You get to decide what you want to do, where you are going to go, who you are going to spend time with, what you want to make of your life, and you get to decide what is right and what is wrong for you. You are in charge.
A Biblical worldview says that God alone is sovereign. He gets to make the rules. He decides the fate of nations and the course of history. And, most importantly, God is sovereign over you. Now, if you have a relationship with Him, then you are important to Him. Why? Because in order to have a relationship with God, you have to accept that Jesus died for your sins. If God is willing to allow His Son to die to pay for your sins, then you become very important to Him - the price of the life of Jesus Christ is worth a whole lot. Furthermore, accepting Jesus as your Savior means that He has bought and paid for you with His precious blood. You now no longer live for yourself. You belong to God. God is directing your life - and blessing it - and providing for you - and protecting you - and satisfying you with good things. Your job is to acknowledge that God is sovereign and to submit to His control. To experience the goodness of God’s love is a very good place to be.
Write about this in your Bible notebook.
Questions
As you’re working through the YEA lesson, Daily Devotionals, doing the activity, or reading the Bible, be sure to write down any questions you have. That way you’ll remember to ask someone. Also remember to share the really interesting things you’re learning with family and friends.
Song
"We Will Glorify" is on page one of The Group Songbook.
Closing Prayer
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
Thank you for giving us the Passover. The Israelites killed a lamb and ate it, but you loved us so much that you gave your Son, Jesus Christ. He shed His blood so I might have forgiveness of my sins. Thank you for this awesome gift.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
Printable Pages
