Readings for Maundy Thursday — Holy Thursday — can be found here.

Exegeses are also available for the Epistle, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, and the Gospel, John 13:1-17, 31b-35, both of which are about the Last Supper.

During the course of Holy Week, the prophetic readings from Isaiah have continually pointed to Jesus Christ as Messiah and Saviour.

Today’s reading from Exodus is about the first Passover (emphases mine):

Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14

12:1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:

12:2 This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you.

12:3 Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a Lamb for each family, a lamb for each household.

12:4 If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it.

12:5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

12:6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight.

12:7 They shall take some of the Blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.

12:8 They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

12:9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs.

12:10 You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.

12:11 This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the LORD.

12:12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD.

12:13 The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

12:14 This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.

Commentary comes from Matthew Henry. John MacArthur has few posts on Exodus.

It is also worth citing the next set of verses from Exodus 12, which refer to the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. Henry discusses this in his commentary:

¹⁵ For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day until the seventh must be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.

¹⁷ ‘Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. ¹⁸ In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. ¹⁹ For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. ²⁰ Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.’

Henry summarises today’s reading, pointing to the significance of Passover in the New Testament:

This chapter gives an account of one of the most memorable ordinances, and one of the most memorable providences, of all that are recorded in the Old Testament. I. Not one of all the ordinances of the Jewish church was more eminent than that of the passover, nor is any one more frequently mentioned in the New Testament; and we have here an account of the institution to it. The ordinance consisted of three parts:—1. The killing and eating of the paschal lamb, ver 1-6, 8-11. 2. The sprinkling of the blood upon the door-posts, spoken of as a distinct thing (Heb 11 28), and peculiar to this first passover (ver 7), with the reason for it, ver 13.

The Lord God spoke these words to Moses and Aaron to deliver to His people (verse 1).

God said that this particular month would mark for them the beginning of months and would be the first month of the year for them (verse 2).

Henry explains that this was a change from the previous arrangement:

They had hitherto begun their year from the middle of September, but henceforward they were to begin it from the middle of March, at least in all their ecclesiastical computations … This new calculation began the year with the spring, which reneweth the face of the earth, and was used as a figure of the coming of Christ, Cant 2 11, 12.

In the next few verses, we read how God carefully laid out the circumstances involving the sacrificial lamb and even allowed an alternative animal, the goat (verse 5).

He instructed Moses and Aaron to tell the whole congregation of Israel that, on the tenth day of that month, they were to take a lamb for each family, one for each household (verse 3).

Henry tells us:

We may suppose that, while Moses was bringing the ten plagues upon the Egyptians, he was directing the Israelites to prepare for their departure at an hour’s warning. Probably he had by degrees brought them near together from their dispersions, for they are here called the congregation of Israel (v. 3), and to them as a congregation orders are here sent.

God said that if one household was too small for one lamb, it shall join its nearest neighbour in obtaining one, with the lamb being divided in proportion to the people who eat it (verse 4):

two or three families, if they were small, should join for a lamb.

That was a custom that carried on during our Lord’s era. John MacArthur mentioned that in some of his sermons concerning Passover and the purchase of a lamb by more than one family at the temple.

The lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male, taken from either the sheep or from the goats (verse 5).

These animals were a type of Christ, in their prime and without blemish:

(1.) It was to be a lamb; and Christ is the Lamb of God (John 1 29), often in the Revelation called the Lamb, meek and innocent as a lamb, dumb before the shearers, before the butchers. (2.) It was to be a male of the first year (v. 5), in its prime; Christ offered up himself in the midst of his days, not in infancy with the babes of Bethlehem. It denotes the strength and sufficiency of the Lord Jesus, on whom our help was laid. (3.) It was to be without blemish (v. 5), denoting the purity of the Lord Jesus, a Lamb without spot, 1 Pet 1 19. The judge that condemned him (as if his trial were only like the scrutiny that was made concerning the sacrifices, whether they were without blemish or no) pronounced him innocent.

The lambs (or goats) were to be kept until the 14th day of the month, then the whole congregation of Israel was to gather and slaughter the animals at twilight (verse 6).

Henry draws more comparisons with Christ:

(4.) It was to be set apart four days before (v. 3, 6), denoting the designation of the Lord Jesus to be a Saviour, both in the purpose and in the promise. It is very observable that as Christ was crucified at the passover, so he solemnly entered into Jerusalem four days before, the very day that the paschal lamb was set apart …  (6.) It was to be killed by the whole congregation between the two evenings, that is, between three o’clock and six. Christ suffered in the end of the world (Heb 9 26), by the hand of the Jews, the whole multitude of them (Luke 23 18), and for the good of all his spiritual Israel. (7.) Not a bone of it must be broken (v. 46), which is expressly said to be fulfilled in Christ (John 19 33, 36), denoting the unbroken strength of the Lord Jesus.

Henry further explains:

The lamb was to be got ready four days before and that afternoon they were to kill it (v. 6) as a sacrifice; not strictly, for it was not offered upon the altar, but as a religious ceremony, acknowledging God’s goodness to them, not only in preserving them from, but in delivering them by, the plagues inflicted on the Egyptians. See the antiquity of family-religion; and see the convenience of the joining of small families together for religious worship, that it may be made the more solemn.

The Israelites were to take some of the blood and put it on the doorposts as well as the lintel of the houses in which they ate the meat (verse 7):

Dreadful work was to be made this night in Egypt; all the first-born both of man and beast were to be slain, and judgment executed upon the gods of Egypt. Moses does not mention the fulfillment, in this chapter, yet he speaks of it Num 33 4. It is very probable that the idols which the Egyptians worshipped were destroyed, those of metal melted, those of wood consumed, and those of stone broken to pieces, whence Jethro infers (ch. 18 11), The Lord is greater than all gods. The same angel that destroyed their first-born demolished their idols, which were no less dear to them. For the protection of Israel from this plague they were ordered to sprinkle the blood of the lamb upon the door-posts, their doing which would be accepted as an instance of their faith in the divine warnings and their obedience to the divine precepts. Note, 1. If in times of common calamity God will secure his own people, and set a mark upon them; they shall be hidden either in heaven or under heaven, preserved either from the stroke of judgments or at least from the sting of them. 2. The blood of sprinkling is the saint’s security in times of common calamity; it is this that marks them for God, pacifies conscience, and gives them boldness of access to the throne of grace, and so becomes a wall of protection round them and a wall of partition between them and the children of this world …

The sprinkling of the blood was typical. (1.) It was not enough that the blood of the lamb was shed, but it must be sprinkled, denoting the application of the merits of Christ’s death to our souls; we must receive the atonement, Rom 5 11. (2.) It was to be sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop (v. 22) dipped in the basin. The everlasting covenant, like the basin, in the conservatory of this blood, the benefits and privileges purchased by it are laid up for us there; faith is the bunch of hyssop by which we apply the promises to ourselves and the benefits of the blood of Christ laid up in them. (3.) It was to be sprinkled upon the door-posts, denoting the open profession we are to make of faith in Christ, and obedience to him, as those that are not ashamed to own our dependence upon him. The mark of the beast may be received on the forehead or in the right hand, but the seal of the Lamb is always in the forehead, Rev 7 3. There is a back-way to hell, but no back-way to heaven; no, the only way to this is a high-way, Isa 35 8. (4.) It was to be sprinkled upon the lintel and the sideposts, but not upon the threshold (v. 7), which cautions us to take heed of trampling under foot the blood of the covenant, Heb 10 29. It is precious blood, and must be precious to us. (5.) The blood, thus sprinkled, was a means of the preservation of the Israelites from the destroying angel, who had nothing to do where the blood was. If the blood of Christ be sprinkled upon our consciences, it will be our protection from the wrath of God, the curse of the law, and the damnation of hell, Rom 8 1.

God had specific commands as to how the meat was cooked and eaten.

The Israelites were to eat the lamb the night it was slaughtered; they were to roast it over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (verse 8):

… in remembrance of the bitterness of their bondage in Egypt. We must feed upon Christ with sorrow and brokenness of heart, in remembrance of sin; this will give an admirable relish to the paschal lamb. Christ will be sweet to us if sin be bitter.

They were not to eat the lamb raw or boiled in water but roasted over the fire with its head, legs and inner organs (verse 9):

(5.) It was to be slain, and roasted with fire (v. 6-9), denoting the exquisite sufferings of the Lord Jesus, even unto death, the death of the cross. The wrath of God is as fire, and Christ was made a curse for us.

None of the meat was to remain until the next morning; any leftovers had to be burnt (verse 10).

Henry draws another parallel with Christ:

To-day Christ is offered, and is to be accepted while it is called to-day, before we sleep the sleep of death.

The Israelites were to eat the meat with their loins girded, i.e. with their robes gathered in readiness to depart, as well as sandals on their feet and staff in hand; they were to eat it hurriedly. It was the passover of the Lord (verse 11).

Henry gives us this analysis:

Their amazement and hurry, it is easy to suppose, were great; yet now they must apply themselves to the observance of a sacred rite, to the honour of God. Note, When our heads are fullest of care, and our hands of business, yet we must not forget our religion, nor suffer ourselves to be indisposed for acts of devotion …

God would have them to depend upon him for their daily bread, and not to take thought for the morrow. He that led them would feed them …

It was to be eaten in a departing posture (v. 11); when we feed upon Christ by faith we must absolutely forsake the rule and dominion of sin, shake off Pharaoh’s yoke; and we must sit loose to the world, and every thing in it, forsake all for Christ, and reckon it no bad bargain, Heb 13 13, 14.

God said that He would pass through Egypt that night, striking down every firstborn in that land, both humans and animals; on all the gods of Egypt He would execute judgement, for He is the Lord (verse 12).

God explained that the blood on the houses would be a sign that He would pass over them and that no plague would destroy them when He struck the land of Egypt (verse 13).

God commanded that the day be one of remembrance for the Israelites to be celebrated as a festival to Him throughout the generations as a perpetual ordinance (verse 14). And so it continues today.

Although the Feast of the Unleavened Bread is not included in the Lectionary, Henry has an excellent analysis of its meaning with a Christian insight by citing 1 Corinthians 5 in which Paul tells us to do away with the old yeast — sin — so that we may be an ‘unleavened batch’:

The feast of unleavened bread was typical of the Christian life, 1 Cor 5 7, 8. Having received Christ Jesus the Lord, (1.) We must keep a feast in holy joy, continually delighting ourselves in Christ Jesus; no manner of work must be done (v. 16), no care admitted or indulged, inconsistent with, or prejudicial to, this holy joy: if true believers have not a continual feast, it is their own fault. (2.) It must be a feast of unleavened bread, kept in charity, without the leaven of malice, and insincerity, without the leaven of hypocrisy. The law was very strict as to the passover, and the Jews were so in their usages, that no leaven should be found in their houses, v. 19. All the old leaven of sin must be put far from us, with the utmost caution and abhorrence, if we would keep the feast of a holy life to the honour of Christ. (3.) It was by an ordinance for ever (v. 17); as long as we live, we must continue feeding upon Christ and rejoicing in him, always making thankful mention of the great things he has done for us.

We return to Isaiah for Good Friday and verses, some of which will be familiar, that provide us with a prophetic overview of Jesus Christ who died for our sins.