It was terrible times when the showdown between God and the gods happened.  The land was utterly devastated and the people desert as plague after plague was unleashed on the people–flies, boils, frogs, blood and more.  Then for the  ultimate blow that would break the heart of the Egyptian nation–the death of every firstborn creature, both man and animal.

That night though the Lord spoke to the Israelites and told them to mark their doorframe with the blood of the lamb.  When the angel of death would come, they would be spared.  And they were.

It wasn’t even the next day but that very night that Pharoah called Moses and Aaron.  He gave them what he had refused to give them–their freedom to worship.

And the Israelites left in one of the greatest Exodus’s of all times.  (Perhaps the modern day Syrian exodus would be close).

With that salvation came though an injunction to remember.

1.  Passover.  Every year from here to eternity the Israelites were to remember Passover–that night when the Lord spared them and delivered them.  No one is to eat the Passover without being circumcised.  So each year even to this day the Israelites commemorate the day the Lord passed over them and spared them death.
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2. Redemption of the first-born.  They were to give to the Lord the first-born of all that lives–both man and animal.  Because the Lord saved the first-born, they belonged to him.  It was no small thing that the Lord had done.  The animals were to be given in sacrifice.  And history tells us that for the first-born sons a gift was to be given to the Lord.

The Lord’s deliverance was “with his mighty hand” (v. 16).   In Jesus we are delivered “by his mighty hand.”

He has passed over us.

And our lives are our gift to Him.