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The korban Pesach (Passover sacrifice) must be roasted and eaten with unleavened bread (i.e., matzah) and maror (bitter herbs). The maror is a reminder of the bitter slavery in Egypt. Anything left over from the meat is to be burnt in the morning. On the night of Nisan 14 the sacrifice was eaten (see John 6:53). The Passover meal was to be consumed "in haste" since the Israelites must be ready to begin their exodus the following day. The LORD also instituted the feast of Unleavened Bread at this time, wherein only unleavened bread was to be eaten for seven days (the first and seventh days of which were to be days of holy assembly on which all work is forbidden). Since the Passover Lamb was the first sacrifice that Israel (as a nation) was commanded to make, the LORD further ordained that it should be commemorated annually as a reminder of the great deliverance the LORD effected for Israel ("you shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever (ad olam)" (Ex. 12:24)).
At (exactly) midnight the LORD killed all the firstborn males of those who did not put the blood of the lamb upon their doorposts. Interestingly, unlike the earlier plagues directed against Pharaoh and Egyptians, the Israelites likewise were subject to this final judgment, the only difference between them being the presence (or absence) of the sacrificial lamb's blood upon the doorposts of their respective houses). Since most of the Egyptians did not heed the words of Moses (except for the eirev rav, see Ex 12:38), Pharaoh and most of Egypt arose in the middle of the night, lamented the loss of their children, and begged the Israelites to leave Egypt.
The great Exodus from Egypt finally began! The Israelites left in such haste that their leavened bread didn't have time to rise (as a result, we eat matzah on Passover). 600,000 adult males, along with their wives and children, left Egypt along with a wealth of gold and silver which the Egyptians had given them.
The LORD then commanded the Israelites to bring an offering every year on the 14th of Nisan to redeem their firstborn males (Pidyon Haben), and to wear Tefillin "for a sign on your hand and a memorial between your eyes" as a reminder of their salvation from Egypt.
Drash: The first place the word love (ahavah) appears in the Scriptures is in the story of the Akedah - the binding of Isaac (Gen 22:2). In a Jewish midrash, the blood of the Passover lamb was said to symbolize the sacrifice of Isaac, making atonement for Israel. The LORD is said to have remembered Isaac's sacrifice when he saw the lamb's blood, and in the merit of Isaac's self-sacrifice, He decided to spare a blood-marked house from wrath. Of course, this is merely a midrash, whereas we believe that the blood of the LORD's only begotten Son, Yeshua, is the means of teshuat olamim - everlasting atonement (Hebrews 9:12). The LORD's sacrifice of Yeshua was clearly prefigured in both the Akedah and in the Exodus from Egypt. When by faith we apply the blood of the Lamb upon the "doorposts of our hearts," we experience deliverance from the wrath of the LORD, and salvation from cruel bondage to the devil. Blessed be the LORD God of Israel for Yeshua and His shed blood for us! (Recite the blessing here.)
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