So there is also a solemn aspect to all of this, because of what had been wrought in Egypt—what had been necessary to redeem them, to free them, and to bring them out. But it is God's actions on this particular night that I want to highlight. Early in our conversion, we are very aware (in our first love) of God watching. That is what it basically says here. We observe this night because God observed His people going out of Egypt. You see—God was there. He was involved. He was so involved that it says (back in Exodus 11:7), when He was telling Moses what was going to happen, He said, "Not even a dog will wag his tongue against you." (Meaning, not even a dog will bark as you leave Egypt.) That is how closely God supervised their leaving.
But God was watching so closely that, on the night of the Passover (and I'm sure it carried over into The Night To Be Much Observed) not even a dog barked as Israel left Egypt. Can you imagine the din of a couple million people going along the road in their wagons (or whatever it was that they had) or walking, pans jingling, their animals going by—and the dogs don't even bark! I mean, the Egyptians' dogs. Did you notice what the rest of the verse said?
Was God watching, or what? Is anyone going to deny that God was watching them as they walked out that night of the 15th—in the very sight of the Egyptians, who were burying their dead?
Pharaoh's servants came and delivered the message from Pharaoh, "Get out!" Moses did not go to Pharaoh on that night. When the servants of Pharaoh came, we do not know exactly what time that was. We do know this: it was after midnight. But, it was still night when Pharaoh's servants arrived at Moses' house—and that is from the Bible's own record.
It is the Lord doing these things. Those three sections of verses I read specifically because I want you to see not only did the Lord do these things, but He also emphasizes the fact that He put a distinct difference between what happened to one group of people and what happened to another group of people.
