Exodus 12:22,23 - Sermon Bible Commentary

Bible Comments

Exodus 12:22-23

The night of the Passover was "a night much to be remembered." Wherever a Jew exists it is to this night he points, as the proudest epoch in his people's history. The feast of the Passover is full of typical meaning. Notice, first, that this was a little judgment day. The children of Israel were to be delivered by a direct visitation of God. There are three great truths brought out in this narrative.

I. The universality of condemnation. God was going to save the Israelites, but before He saved them He must condemn them. He sent Moses with a message couched in the language of symbol, which clearly showed that the Israelites were guilty no less than the Egyptians. The lamb was to be the representative of the firstborn son, who must die for the sins of his family. The Israelite and the Egyptian are brought under one common charge of guilt, and there they all stand, "condemned already."

II. The great truth of substitution. God sends Moses to His people and bids them choose "for every family a lamb." The lamb was instead of the firstborn. Christ is the "Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world."

III. The third truth taught is appropriation. The Israelite would not have been safe if he had merely killed the lamb; he had to sprinkle its blood on the lintel and on the two sideposts. When we repose our confidence in the Person of Christ, we have taken the bunch of hyssop and dipped it in the blood, and from that moment we are safe.

W. Hay Aitken, Mission Sermons,1st series, p. 100.

References: Exodus 12:23 H. Macmillan, The Olive Leaf,p. 330. Exodus 12:26. C.Wordsworth. Occasional Sermons,7th series, p. 25; H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons,vol. i., p. 17; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines of Sermons,p. 281.Exodus 12:26; Exodus 12:27. R.D.B. Rawnsley, Sermons in Country Churches,3rd series, p. 250. Exodus 12:29-31. W. Landels, Christian World Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 164.Exodus 12:31. Parker, vol. ii., p. 314.Exodus 12:38. Ibid.

Exodus 12:22-23

22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.

23 For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.