Exodus chapter 12 tells about the institution of the Passover. The Lord struck down the firstborn of all the Egyptians. But He spared all the Israelites who had obeyed Him and put the blood of lambs on their doorposts. The text of Exodus 12 does not mention that any Jewish families failed to follow the Passover regulations. In fact, Exod 12:28 says, “Then the children of Israel went away and did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.”
I found this fascinating comment by an OT scholar in his commentary on Exodus. Stuart commented, concerning vv 24-27:
From the point of view of the greater sweep of biblical revelation, the practice of teaching each new generation the meaning of the Passover helped guarantee the transmission of the proto evangelium throughout the historical continuum of the people of Israel until New Testament times, when the human-divine Lamb was slain once for all as part of the divine plan of redemption set in place before the earth as we know it existed. In other words, every Israelite properly instructed about the Passover should have been also partly prepared to expect a dying Messiah whose shed blood would provide a means of escape from death. It also contains something of a model of the biblical emphasis on the importance of parents’ teaching children—a responsibility well understood before the advent of universal education but often neglected in present times in favor of professionalized education (Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus, Vol. 2, p. 290, emphases added).
I think Stuart is right on all counts. First, Exodus 12 parallels Gen 3:15, the first gospel (proto evangelium in Latin). Second, every Jew in every generation should have been prepared for the Messiah to come and die in their place. The Lord Jesus often said that the OT Scriptures spoke of Him (e.g., John 5:39-40; Luke 24:25-32, 45). Third, every generation of believers should teach their own children about the Messiah, His kingdom, the promise of everlasting life, and so forth. We should not relegate their “secular” education to the public schools or their “sacred” education to Sunday school teachers and pastors. We are called to train up our own children (cf. Eph 6:4).
Many Christians like to use Isa 52:13-53:12, the Suffering Servant passage, to evangelize Jews today. But few go to Exodus 12. It should probably be considered as well.
In 1 Cor 5:7, Paul referred to the Lord Jesus Christ as “our Passover [Lamb].”i While Gentile believers may not choose to celebrate the Passover, we should remember it every time we take the Lord’s Supper, which was based on the Last Supper, a Passover meal.
Keep grace in focus, and you will not forget that everlasting life was given to you when you believed in Jesus, because He removed the barrier of sin at Calvary, making us all savable (John 1:29).
i Some translations read, “our Passover Lamb” (ESV, NET, NIV, RSV, CEV). The Greek has to Pascha, which BDAG says in 1 Cor 5:7 is “figurative of Christ and his bloody death 1 Cor 5:7” (p. 784). The word occurs twenty-nine times in the NT. All other uses refer literally to the Passover feast.
