Study Questions for Exodus 12:1-28

Study Questions for Exodus 12:1-28

Context, Context, Context: What’s been going on?

Gen. 6:13-18; Luke 9:31; 1 Cor. 5:7

Vs. 1—Who is talking here?
Who is he talking to?
Where are they?
Why does the author go into these kinds of details here? We already know who the participants are. We also already know where they are.

Vs. 2—What did God say to Aaron and Moses?
What does the “beginning of months” mean?
Why does God start the new year with the month they are in? God is their king and from now on dates will be used in accord with the king.
What significance does this have for the Israelites?
How had they previously counted the year and months? According to Egypt.
The first month was called Abib (Nisan; Babylon) and was in the spring March and/or April.
Israel’s calendar worked with the moon, and every few years they added a short 13th month to the calendar to keep the months on their solar cycle. Think of all the other ways people judge the year (hunters, fiscal, school, calendar, etc.).

Vss. 3-10

Vs. 3—What were the people supposed to do on the 10th of the month?
What does “a lamb for the fathers” mean?
What does “a lamb for the house” mean?
Are these two separate lambs?
What does it mean to “take” a lamb?
Congregation/community has its first use here. Also the heads of households representing their families becomes prominent here.

Vs. 4—What happens if the household is too small for a lamb?
What does it mean to be “too small for a lamb”?
How are they to decide how many families they need to get together to take a lamb?

Vs. 5—What kind of lamb are they to use?
Why does it need these characteristics? John 1:29; Rev. 5:6, 6:1—Mal 1:8
Does it have to be a sheep or can it also be a goat? Sheep and goats were indistinguishable except for their tails when they were little.
1 Pet. 1:19; Heb 9:14

Vs. 6—How long are they to “keep it up”?
What does “keep it up” mean?
What are they to do on the 14th day?
Who shall kill it?
Why the whole nation? Everyone was doing it at the same time, together, corporately.
What is this pointing to?

Vs. 7—What were they to do with the blood?
Which doors?
What blood?
Why should they put the blood on their door posts?

Vs. 8—What were they to do with the meat?
How were they to cook it?
What, besides meat were they to eat? Exo 1:14

Notice that God does not tell them why they are to do these things.

Vs. 9—How are they not to eat it?
How are they to cook it?

Vs. 10—how much are they to eat that night?
What are they to do with anything left over?

Vss. 11-17

Vs. 11—And what should be the demeanor of the eating of the lamb?
Why should they do things this way?
What does it mean to have your cloak tucked into your belt? 1 Kgs. 18:46; Isa 5:27
Why eat it in a hurry? Ready to travel
What is a Passover?

Vs. 12—What is God about to do in Egypt?
Besides people and animals, what will God be killing?
How will God be killing the gods of Egypt? Could be the spirits that ruled Egypt, or the spiritual outlook of the people. It certainly was the culminating battle in the war that was being waged between God and Pharaoh. Exo 6:1
Who is God?
What does this pronouncement have to do with killing all the firstborn of Egypt?

Vs. 13—What will the blood on the doors do in this judgment?
What is a sign/token?
How will the blood be a sign? Lev 17:11 the blood represented the victim The blood is a sign that the people are safe, have been saved, are being saved, are being delivered. The lamb is clearly substitutionary, it died in their place so they wouldn’t have to die. 1 Pet. 3:18
What will God do when he sees the blood on the door?
The slaughter of the Passover animal atoned for the sin of the people, and the blood sprinkled on their doorposts purified those within the house. Mackay, p. 211

Vs. 14—What will this day be?
Which day?
What is a memorial?
How are the Israelites to observe the memorial? Commemorate does not simply mean remember but relive.
What does it mean to keep a feast to the Lord?
How long are they to keep celebrating his feast?
What’s all this generations talk?
What does he mean “by an ordinance”?
For how long is this feast to be observed?

Vs. 15—What is he describing in this verse?
What are they to do for 7 days?
When are these 7 days to take place?
What is unleavened bread?
Besides eating unleavened bread, what are the folks supposed to do?
What was to happen if an Israelite were to eat bread with leaven in it?
What does cut off from Israel mean?
Unleavened bread was a symbol of discontinuity. Leaven was saved out of one batch of dough from one day to the next and it caused the next batch to rise. Like sourdough bread today. If they got rid of it they were saying that there was a disconnect between Egypt and Israel. When they left the leaven they left all of Egypt behind them.

Leaven: Luke 12:1; 1 cor 5:8; Lev. 23:17; Matt 13:33—not evil but a pervasive spread of something.

Vs. 16—What are they to do on the first day?
What is a convocation?
What is a holy convocation?
What are they to do on the seventh day?
What are they do with regard to work?
What kind of work were they allowed to do?

Vs. 17—What is this feast called?
Why did they call it that?
When is the feast of unleavened bread in relation to Passover?
Why are they to celebrate it every year?
For how long shall they observe that feast?
How can it be a feast if they are supposed to only eat certain things?

Vss. 18-20

Vs. 18—When in the year were they to eat unleavened bread?
Why in the evening?

Vs. 19-20—What are they supposed to do with all their yeast?
Why are they supposed to not eat food with leaven in it?
What happens if they have leaven in their houses? Exo. 31:14-15; Lev. 18:14
Who all does this apply to?

Vss. 21-28

Vs. 21—Who did Moses call after God told him these things?
What did he tell them to do?
Did the elders know what a Passover was? Simply Passover.

Vs. 22—What is hyssop?
Why did they use that to sprinkle the blood on the doors?
After the blood was put on the doors, what were the people supposed to do?
Why shouldn’t they go outside during the night? Matt 26:30 Not to be kept forever after.

Vs. 23—What is going to happen?
Who is this “destroyer”? 1 Cor. 10:10
Why will the destroyer pass over the Israelites houses?

Vs. 24—For how long will the Israelites observe this thing?
Why does he mention sons?

Vs. 25—Where are the people going?
What does this have to do with what is going on?
What will happen when they get to the new land?
Why does he mention that God promised the land?

Vs. 26-27—What does “it shall come to pass” mean?
What will come to pass?
What will the children ask?
Why should they ask this of their parents? Notice the parents’ responsibility throughout all of this.
What are the parents to say in response?
Notice the first use of sacrifice in connection to Passover. It shows that the whole affair was directed at them as well as the Egyptians. They deserved to die no less than the first born of Egypt. The lamb saved them from the death that killed the Egyptians.

They could eat the meal because God accepted their offering in place of their first born sons. The blood was a sign of God’s mercy to them. They were his people and he was their God.
What was the people’s response to Moses commands?
Why did they bow their heads?

Vs. 28—What did the elders do?
Why does he call them the children of Israel?
Why did it say they did it twice?