The Paschal lamb was offered for a household so that its blood could be used to mark the doorposts and lintel of the houses of the people of Israel. The blood on the house exempted each firstborn inside the house from death( Exodus 12:12-13). The death of the firstborn was the tenth and final plague that Moses, under the power and direction of Adonai, declared against Pharaoh and the people of Egypt. It was the final plague in a series of judgments that occurred over a period which scholars say may have lasted up to two years.
This was a season of Israel’ s liberation from the oppression of Egypt – Our God had heard our cry and seen the injustice against us!( Exodus 3:7-10)
It took time and it took intentionality for the people to prepare for liberation. Moses had to be born and grow up for 40 years in the house of Pharaoh so that he might be trained in the ways of the royal household. Moses had to be exiled so that he could develop the heart of a shepherd in service to the God of his forefathers under the tutelage of his father-in-law Jethro for 40 years.
Even so, the people had to experience suffering so that they would cry out to the God of their ancestors so that He might grant His promises and bring His covenant to life in their generation; from the time of the Covenant of the Parts( Genesis 15), this was over lasting 400 years. The freedom of Passover and the Exodus from Egypt took time and preparation among the people and her leaders.
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