The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2 This month will stand at the head of your calendar; you will reckon it the first month of the year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every family must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household. 4 If a household is too small for a lamb, it along with its nearest neighbor will procure one, and apportion the lamb’s cost in proportion to the number of persons, according to what each household consumes. 5 Your lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats. 6 You will keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then, with the whole community of Israel assembled, it will be slaughtered during the evening twilight. 7 They will take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They will consume its meat that same night, eating it roasted with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or even boiled in water, but roasted, with its head and shanks and inner organs. 10 You must not keep any of it beyond the morning; whatever is left over in the morning must be burned up.
11 This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you will eat it in a hurry. It is the Lord’s Passover. 12 For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every firstborn in the land, human being and beast alike, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the Lord! 13 But for you the blood will mark the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thereby, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you.
14 This day will be a day of remembrance for you, which your future generations will celebrate with pilgrimage to the Lord; you will celebrate it as a statute forever. 15 For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. From the very first day you will have your houses clear of all leaven. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh will be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day you will hold a sacred assembly, and likewise on the seventh. On these days no sort of work shall be done, except to prepare the food that everyone needs. 17 Keep, then, the custom of the unleavened bread, since it was on this very day that I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. You must observe this day throughout your generations as a statute forever. 18 From the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month until the evening of the twenty-first day of this month you will eat unleavened bread. 19 For seven days no leaven may be found in your houses; for anyone, a resident alien or a native, who eats leavened food will be cut off from the community of Israel. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; wherever you dwell you may eat only unleavened bread.
Exodus 12:1–20 describes the institution of the Passover, a pivotal moment in salvation history that marks Israel’s liberation from slavery in Egypt. In this passage, God commands Moses and Aaron to instruct the Israelites to prepare a lamb for sacrifice, apply its blood to the doorposts and lintels of their homes, and eat the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. This ritual coincides with the tenth and final plague: the death of the firstborn in Egypt. The blood of the lamb serves as a sign for the Lord to "pass over" the marked houses, sparing the firstborn within.
The Passover ritual establishes the foundation for the covenantal relationship between God and Israel. By commemorating this event annually, Israel recalls God’s saving action and their identity as His chosen people. The Passover is designed to teach future generations about God’s deliverance (cf. Ex. 12:26–27). The Passover demonstrates God’s power to save His people and His faithfulness to His covenant with Abraham (cf. Gen. 15:13–14). The instructions emphasize the obedience required to participate in God’s deliverance, reinforcing the role of trust and submission to divine commands. The lamb’s blood symbolizes life and protection. The broader theological theme of blood as essential for life, purification, and covenant ratification is echoed in Leviticus 17:11 and later in Hebrews 9:22. The unleavened bread signifies the haste with which the Israelites left Egypt, but it also reflects purity and separation from sin (cf. 1 Cor. 5:7–8).
The Passover finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). His sacrifice on the Cross occurs during the Passover, directly linking His death to the themes of liberation and atonement. St. Paul identifies Christ as the Passover lamb in 1 Corinthians 5:7, stating, "For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed." In this way, Christ’s Passion is the definitive Passover, accomplishing eternal salvation for humanity.
The blood of the lamb smeared on doorposts brings physical deliverance from bondage and God’s protection to the Israelites, foreshadowing the redemptive blood of Christ. Just as the lamb’s blood delivered Israel from physical death and slavery, Christ’s blood delivers humanity from spiritual death and slavery to sin (cf. Rom. 6:17–18; 1 Pet. 1:18–19). The blood of the lamb in Exodus points forward to the greater deliverance brought by the blood of Christ in the New Covenant (Lk. 22:20). Thus, the Passover typifies Christ’s role as mediator and redeemer, inaugurating a new and everlasting covenant.
God’s saving plan for His people in Exodus foreshadows Christ’s redemptive work. The Passover memorializes Israel’s deliverance and points to the eternal liberation achieved by Jesus, the true Paschal Lamb.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the saving blood of the lamb that shielded Your people in Egypt and for the ultimate sacrifice of Your Son, Jesus Christ, the true Lamb of God. In Your mercy, help us to trust in Your protection and walk in the freedom won for us through Christ’s Passion and Resurrection. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
Sources
- McSorley, Joseph. An Outline History of the Church by Centuries (From St. Peter to Pius XII). 2nd ed., B. Herder Book Co., 1944.
- Orchard, Bernard, et al. A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. Feb. 1953.
- Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
- Faculty of the University of Navarre. The Navarre Bible: New Testament Expanded Edition. Four Courts / Scepter, 2008.
- Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Prentice Hall, 1990.
- Charpentier, Etienne. How to Read the Old Testament. Translated by John Bowden, 1981.
- Komonchak, Joseph, et al., editors. The New Dictionary of Theology.
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