Exodus 12:43-51

"And Jehovah said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover; there shall no foreigner eat thereof; but every man's servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat thereof. In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to Jehovah, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land; but no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof. One law shall be to him that is home-born, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you. Thus did all the children of Israel; as Jehovah commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. And it came to pass the selfsame day, that Jehovah did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts."

The deliverance of Israel was at that point achieved. This chapter is the pivot upon which the entire O.T. turns. This record reveals the deliverance of both the Old Israel and the New Israel, which is the church of Christ. And before the narrative is completed the typical nature of the deliverance of Israel will appear in such bold and impressive events that it must be held impossible to miss their significance.

"Neither shall ye break a bone thereof ..." See under Exodus 12:11, above, where this was discussed out of sequence.

The rules by which non-Israelites would be permitted to join in the Passover were important in showing that, "it was never God's intention that only Jews should receive salvation." The great promise to Abraham himself was given in order that "in him ... all the peoples of the earth" might be blessed, and a token of that fulfillment is here in this great mixed multitude that went out of Egypt. In time, the Jews forgot or ignored this purpose altogether.

Before leaving this marvelous chapter, we shall rehearse some of the things in it that are typical of the Lord Jesus Christ, and most of which things, are specifically declared in this chapter.

CHRIST; OUR PASSOVER

There was no salvation for Israel except through the blood of the Passover. There is no salvation for any person apart from the blood of Christ.

The lamb was typical of Christ as follows:

It was innocent.

The innocent suffered for the guilty.

It was submissive and uncomplaining in death.

Not a bone of it was broken.

The lamb was offered from the foundation of the world (Abel's offering).

God purposed to send Christ "before the world" was.

It was in "eating" the Passover that people were rescued from death.

It is in eating Christ (John 6:56) that all people are saved.

The lamb was kept up four days before it was killed. Christ was in Jerusalem four days before the crucifixion.

The lamb was a male in the prime of life without spot or blemish, in short, perfect. So exactly was Jesus Christ.

Both the lamb and the Lord Jesus Christ suffered death "between the two evens," (3:00 p.m.).

Both suffered death on the 14th of Abib (Nisan).

The great ordinances commemorating the two deliverances, namely, the Lord's Supper, and the Jewish Passover, were both instituted and set up before the great events they were designed to commemorate.

There were of course marked differences between the passover and the Lord's Supper, but these resemblances are impressive. As we continue Exodus, we shall observe many other things that are typical of Jesus Christ and the Deliverance which he has brought to all people.