Old Testament - Exodus 12 - April 1, 2021

4/1/2022 – Exodus 12

Elder Bruce R McConkie: “At the time appointed for their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, the Lord commanded each family in Israel to sacrifice a lamb, to sprinkle its blood on their doorposts, and then to eat unleavened bread for seven more days—all to symbolize the fact that the destroying angel would pass over the Israelites as he went forth slaying the firstborn in the families of all the Egyptians; and also to show that, in haste, Israel should go forth from slavery to freedom. As a pattern for all the Mosaic instructions yet to come, the details of the performances here involved were so arranged as to bear testimony both of Israel’s deliverance and of her Deliverer.”  

When the Lord gives us instructions, our first questions should not be WHY, but should be HOW. 

The lamb without blemish was to describe Christ and the purpose of His life and teachings.

They were to eat of the lamb’s flesh…which reminds us to take His teachings into our hearts and minds.

“the Lord smote all the firstborn in the Land of Egypt” if their belief was so small that it did not lead them to the efforts of following His instructions completely.

The Passover was so significant that the Lord commanded Israel to use this event as the beginning of their yearly calendar.

They were not to use just a part of the lamb; they were to use the WHOLE lamb.

They were also to eat the lamb “with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand”…learning more about the Lord’s teachings will not be the thing that helps us the most—it is the DOING of the Lord’s teachings that will change our lives.

In our day, the Lord has given us the weekly taking of the sacrament. Just as the Israelites of old, we have our agency to take and honor and contemplate the sacrament…or not.

In v 16, the Lord tells them not to have leavened bread—bread that is made with yeast—for when yeast was used in their bread, that bread was easily spoiled with mold. And they were to nourish themselves with bread that was without corruption or impurity, which I see as our working to keep ourselves in a setting without corruption or sin. The unleavened bread lasts much longer.


V 51 shows us the result of the Israelites following this new set of commandments from the Lord:  “And it came to pass the self-same day, that the Lord did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt…”

 

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