UNLEAVENED BREAD, etc. part 3

by John Thomas Lowe
(Woodruff, S.C.)

part 3
24 "Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.
Moreover, shall always observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and thy sons. Not this last thing of sprinkling the blood, which was peculiar to the Passover in Egypt; but the whole before observed relating to the feast of the Passover, and the feast of unleavened bread, and all the rites appertaining to them, which were to be observed until the coming of Christ.

25 When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.
A bunch of hyssops - The designated species does not appear to be the plant now bearing the name. It would seem to have been an aromatic plant, common in Palestine and near Mount Sinai, with a long straight stalk and leaves admirably adapted for sprinkling.
Bason - The rendering rests on good authority and gives a good sense: but the word means "threshold" in some other passages and Egyptian and is taken here in that sense by some versions. If that rendering is correct, it will imply that the Lamb was slain on the threshold.
None ... shall go out ... - There would be no safety outside the precincts protected by the blood of the Lamb; a symbolism explained by the margin reference.

26 And when your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?'
Or part of Divine worship. God expects this even from the Jewish children, and much more from Christian men, that they should inquire and understand what is said or done in the public worship or service of God, and therefore not to rest in dumb signs, of which they neither inquire nor know the meaning, or in the service of God in a language which they understand not.

27 then tell them, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.'" Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
Then tell them, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD.
This Lamb is a sacrifice, both eucharistical, or by way of thanksgiving for their safety, when the firstborn of the Egyptians were slain, and for their deliverance out of Egypt; and also conciliatory, the blood of this Lamb being a propitiation or atonement for all within the house where it was sprinkled, as before observed from Aben Ezra; and typical of the atoning sacrifice of Christ our Passover, 1 Corinthians 5:7 and this was commanded by the Lord, and approved of and accepted by him, and therefore called his sacrifice as well as Passover, for the following reason:
Who passed over the houses of Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.'
When he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses, their families, not suffering the destroying angel, entered them, distinguishing mercy and worthy of remembrance. Now in this, they were to instruct their children in successive generations that the memory of it might be kept up, and a sense of the goodness of God continued, and his name glorified. Maimonides says, "it is a command to make this known to children, even though they do not ask it, as it is said, "and thou shall show thy son," Exodus 13:8. According to the son's knowledge, his father teaches him; how if he is a little one or foolish? He says to him, my son, all of us were servants, as this handmaid, or this servant, in Egypt; and on this night the holy blessed God redeemed us, and brought us into liberty: and if the son is grown up, and a wise man, he makes known to him what happened to us in Egypt, and the wonders which were done for us by the hand of Moses, our master, all according to the capacity of his son; and it is necessary to make a repetition on this night, that the children may see, and ask, and say, how different is this night from all other nights! until he replies and says to them, so and so it happened, and thus and thus it was:"
Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
They were signifying their deep sense of the mercy shown them, their thankfulness for it, and their readiness to observe the ordinance now instituted.

28 The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron.
It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover - or This is the sacrifice of the Passover to Yahweh. The most formal and exact designation of the festival is thus given: but "the Passover" may mean either the act of God's mercy in sparing the Israelites or the Lamb which is offered in sacrifice: more probably the latter, as in Exodus 12:21. This gives a clear sense to the expression "to Yahweh;" the Passover lamb was a sacrifice offered to Yahweh by His ordinance.