Exodus 12:1-10
1. the Lord spake unto Moses—rather, "had spoken unto Moses and Aaron"; for it is evident that the communication here described must have been made to them on or before the tenth of the month.
2. this month shall be unto you the beginning of months—the first not only in order but in estimation. It had formerly been the seventh according to the reckoning of the civil year, which began in September, and continued unchanged, but it was thenceforth to stand first in the national religious year which began in March, April.
3. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel—The recent events had prepared the Israelitish people for a crisis in their affairs, and they seem to have yielded implicit obedience at this time to Moses. It is observable that, amid all the hurry and bustle of such a departure, their serious attention was to be given to a solemn act of religion.
a lamb for an house—a kid might be taken (Ex 12:5). The service was to be a domestic one, for the deliverance was to be from an evil threatened to every house in Egypt.4. if the household be too little for the lamb, &c.—It appears from JOSEPHUS that ten persons were required to make up the proper paschal communion.
every man according to his eating—It is said that the quantity eaten of the paschal lamb, by each individual, was about the size of an olive.5. lamb . . . without blemish—The smallest deformity or defect made a lamb unfit for sacrifice—a type of Christ (Heb 7:26; 1Pe 1:19).
a male of the first year—Christ in the prime of life.6. keep it up until the fourteenth day, &c.—Being selected from the rest of the flock, it was to be separated four days before sacrifice; and for the same length of time was Christ under examination and His spotless innocence declared before the world.
kill it in the evening—that is, the interval between the sun's beginning to decline, and sunset, corresponding to our three o'clock in the afternoon.7. take of the blood, and strike it on the two side-posts, &c.—as a sign of safety to those within. The posts must be considered of tents, in which the Israelites generally lived, though some might be in houses. Though the Israelites were sinners as well as the Egyptians, God was pleased to accept the substitution of a lamb—the blood of which, being seen sprinkled on the doorposts, procured them mercy. It was to be on the sideposts and upper doorposts, where it might be looked to, not on the threshold, where it might be trodden under foot. This was an emblem of the blood of sprinkling (Heb 12:24; 10:29).
8. roast with fire—for the sake of expedition; and this difference was always observed between the cooking of the paschal lamb and the other offerings (2Ch 35:13).
unleavened bread—also for the sake of despatch (De 16:3), but as a kind of corruption (Lu 12:1) there seems to have been a typical meaning under it (1Co 5:8). bitter herbs—literally, "bitters"—to remind the Israelites of their affliction in Egypt, and morally of the trials to which God's people are subject on account of sin.9. Eat not of it raw—that is, with any blood remaining; a caveat against conformity to idolatrous practices. It was to be roasted whole, not a bone to be broken, and this pointed to Christ (Joh 19:36).
10. let nothing of it remain until the morning—which might be applied in a superstitious manner, or allowed to putrefy, which in a hot climate would speedily have ensued; and which was not becoming in what had been offered to God.
Ex 12:11-14. THE RITE OF THE PASSOVER.