Exodus - an Authentic Record of Events

The Bible is the inspired word of God. This page is a continuation in a series of articles about the Bible as God’s word.

Part 18  Exodus - an Authentic Record of Events

Nearly fifteen centuries before Jesus was crucified, Israel received instructions from God through Moses to observe the Feast of Passover. Each household was to kill a lamb and mark their doorway with the blood of the lamb. By their obedience the life of the firstborn of every house was preserved, while the angel of death destroyed the firstborn in all the unmarked houses – those in Egypt.

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul” - Leviticus 17:11. The very way in which Israel were to eat the Lamb has meaning.

“And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover” - Exodus 12:11. Explained in Ephesians 6:14. “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth....and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace....”

• The blood of the lamb to be placed on the doorpost

“Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs” - Exodus 12:7 Later Scripture reveals the significance connected with the doorposts. God exhorted Israel concerning His law as follows:

“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children...Write them on the doorframes [Heb. mezuzah] of your houses and on your gates” - Deuteronomy 6:6.

We learn from the next passage of the connection of the doorframes with how a temporary Hebrew servant could declare his desire to be a permanent slave of his master - because of his loving respect for him -

“His master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost [Heb., mezuzah] and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life” - Exodus 21:6. It is out of this that we have the following messianic prophecy in Psalms 40:6.

“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; my ears you have opened [Heb. karah = to dig; fig. to bore or open, but rendered in Septuagint version - a body You have prepared for Me]; Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require”. This passage in Psalms is quoted in the letter to the Hebrews.

“Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body [slave] You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come - in the volume of the book it is written of Me - to do Your will, O God’....But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God...” - Hebrews 10:5

In Revelation 18:13 we find slaves called bodies - see also Genesis 47:18-19 and Nehemiah 9:37 where enslavement is spoken of as ownership of “our bodies.” In another way of referring to a slave as a “boy” or “girl” we have “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant* Jesus.” - Acts 3:13.

*Greek.= pais (1) a child (2) servant, slave.