Night When A Nation Was Born

Stories From The Hebrew Bible
THE NIGHT WHEN A NATION WAS BORN

While all the terrible plagues in our last story fell on the people of Egypt, the Israelites in the land of Goshen suffered only a few. For instance, while all was dark in Egypt, the sun was shining in the land of Goshen.

Do you think this made the Egyptians feel that the Lord God of the Israelites was watching over His own people? One thing is for sure, the Egyptians gave them gold and silver. So, the Israelites went from being very poor to being very rich.

God then told Moses and Aaron to tell the people: “In a few days you are to go out of Egypt, so gather together, get yourselves in order and be ready to march out of Egypt.”

And the people of Israel did as Moses told them. Then Moses said:

God will bring one plague more upon the Egyptians, and then they will let you go. And you must take care and obey God’s command exactly, or the terrible plague will come upon your houses along with the Egyptians houses. At midnight, the angel of the Lord will go through the land and the oldest child in every house shall die. Pharaoh’s son shall die and every rich man’s son and every poor man’s son, even the son of the beggar that has no home. But your families shall be safe if you do exactly as I command you.

Then Moses told them what to do. Every family was told to find a lamb and to kill it. They were to take some of the blood of the lamb and sprinkle it at the entrance of the house, on the door frame overhead and on each side. Then they were to roast the lamb, and with it they were to cook some vegetables. They were to eat while standing around the table, with all their garments on, ready to march away as soon as the meal ended. And no one was to go out of his house that night, because God’s angel would be going around, and he might be killed if the angel should meet him.

The children of Israel obeyed Moses by killing the lamb and using the blood as commanded and eating the supper in the night, according to God’s instruction. And this supper was called “the Passover Supper,” because when the angel of God saw the doors and the blood, he passed over those houses and did not enter them. The Israelites were commanded to eat just such a supper on that same night every year in memory of this great night, when God kept His people from death. This became a great feast of the Israelites and was called “The Passover.”

What does that slain lamb and the shedding of its blood to save people from death make you think of? Does it make you think of Jesus Christ, Who was the Lamb of God, slain to save us all?

That night in Egypt a great cry went up from all the land. In every Egyptian house the oldest son died. And Pharaoh the king of Egypt saw his own son die, and he knew that it was the hand of God. All the people of Egypt were filled with terror, as they saw their children dying.

The king now summoned Moses and Aaron, and said: “Make haste; get out of the land; take everything that you have and go.”

After four hundred thirty years in Egypt, the Israelites were free at last. They went out in order, like a great army, family by family and tribe by tribe (Ex. 6:26). They went out in such haste that they had no time to bake bread to eat on the journey. They left the dough in the pans, already mixed for baking, but not yet risen as bread is before it is baked and carried it on their shoulders. And as a memory of that day, the rule was made that for one week in every year (the same time in the year when they went out of Egypt), all the people of Israel were to eat bread that is “unleavened,” that is, bread made without yeast, and unrisen.

And the Lord God went before the host of Israel, as they marched out of Egypt. In the daytime there was a great cloud, like a pillar, in front; and at night it became a pillar of fire. So both by day and night, as they saw the cloudy and fiery pillar, they could say, “Our Lord, the God of heaven and earth, goes before us.”

When the pillar of cloud stopped, they knew that was a sign that they were to pause in their journey and rest. So they set up their tents and waited until the cloud rose up and went forward. When they looked and saw that the pillar of cloud was higher up in the air, and as though moving forward, they took down their tents and formed in order for the march. In this way the pillar was like a guide by day and a guard by night.

Remember when Joseph died at the end of story nineteen? He commanded the Israelites not to bury his body in Egypt, but to keep it in a coffin as long as they stayed in the land. When they were going out of Egypt, Moses took Joseph’s bones. And in this way the Israelites went out of Egypt, four hundred thirty years after they had gone down to Egypt to live.