YEA Lesson Library

The Lesson

God spoke to Moses and Aaron and told them that this month was to be the first month of the year. They were to address the entire community of Israel. "Tell them that each man is to take a lamb for his family, one lamb to a house. If the family is too small for a lamb, then share it with a neighbor. Give some thought to how much each person will eat. The animal is to be a one year old male sheep or goat, without any defects. Keep it penned up until the evening of the 14th day of this month and then slaughter it. Take a cluster of hyssop branches, dip them in the blood from the animal you kill, strike them against the two doorposts and the lintel of the house in which you will eat. Don't eat the meat raw, or boiled: make sure you roast the whole animal, head, legs, and innards. Eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Burn any leftovers, and don't leave any of it until morning. No one is to leave the house until morning."

Further instructions included being fully dressed with your sandals on, and your stick in your hand when you eat the Lord's Passover. Eat it in a hurry. God will go through Egypt on this night and strike down every firstborn in the land, whether human or animal, and bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. "I am God. When I see the blood on your house, I will pass over you, no disaster will touch you. The Passover is to be celebrated as a memorial festival forever! Get rid of all the leavening in your house and celebrate the Days of Unleavened bread for seven days and don't let a trace of leavening be found in your house during that time. The first and seventh days are holy: do no work on those days, only what you have to do for preparation of meals.”

When your children ask you, "Why are we doing this?" Explain, "It's the Passover sacrifice to God who passed over the homes of the Israelites in Egypt when he hit Egypt with death but rescued us." The people bowed and worshiped. Then the Israelites did what God had commanded Moses and Aaron. They did it all.

The drama began at midnight. God struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from Pharaoh's firstborn, who sits on his throne, right down to the firstborn of the prisoner locked up in jail. Even firstborn animals were killed.

God had at last gotten through to hard-hearted Pharaoh. He, his servants, and everyone else in Egypt got up that night. What wild wailing! There wasn't a house where someone wasn't dead. Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron during the night. "Leave us, please go away, all of you; go and serve Jehovah as you said. Take your flocks and herds and be gone, and oh, give me a blessing as you go." The Egyptians were urgent to get the Israelites out of the land as quickly as possible. Pharaoh was in no mood to renege this time.

The Israelites had asked the Egyptians for gold and silver jewelry and clothing, and the Egyptians gave them what they wanted. They took their bread dough without yeast, bound their kneading troughs into their spare clothes, and carried them on their shoulders. They baked unleavened cakes. Their dough was without yeast because they left Egypt in such a hurry.

The Israelites left Rameses, Egypt by night and started for Succoth. There were 600,000 men besides women and children, and many other people walked with large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. The number of people walking out was most likely considerably more than one million people.

What a happy sight this must have been for the Israelites! Free at last! What a night this was to remember! The Israelites were rescued from slavery exactly 430 years to the day from the time they lived in Egypt.

Think about it. Pharaoh tenaciously held on and wouldn't allow the Israelites to go for three days into the wilderness to worship God. He was warned repeatedly, and he and his nation were severely punished. But in his arrogance and hard-heartedness, he refused to let God's people go after nine plagues and ten warnings. Payday came. Now he was a broken, grieving man. His slave workforce was gone. The nation had been ravaged with plagues. He lost his firstborn son, the heir apparent to the throne. Did he win? No! Did his tenacious defiance of God pay off? Absolutely not!

There was another thing that God wanted the Israelites to do. He told Moses they should "Consecrate every firstborn male to him whether person or animal, it's God's." God had spared all firstborn Israelites and took the lives of the Egyptians. The Israelites were special to Him and He wanted them to be consecrated to Him. He said to tell their sons, "I do this because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt. This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the law of the LORD is to be on your lips. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand. You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year" (Exodus 13:9-10, NIV).

At last the plagues were over. The Israelites were free. They were on their way to the Promised Land in military formation. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the Israelites solemnly swear to do it, saying "God will surely hold you accountable, so make sure you bring my bones from here with you." They buried his bones in Shechem (Joshua 24:32). God went ahead of them in a Pillar of Cloud during the day to guide them, and a Pillar of Fire gave them light at night. They traveled both day and night.