Exodus 12:28 - Forerunner Commentary

Exodus 12:28

Commentaries:

No entry exists in Forerunner Commentary for Exodus 12:28.

Exodus 12:28-30
Excerpted from: Passover (Part 4)

In order to make a 15^th Passover plausible, this scripture has to be "redefined" by some academic sleight-of-hand. But, again, remember verse 28—" just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they."

Remember that this took place in the middle of night, when most people—the great overwhelming majority of people—would have been in their beds sleeping. Did God just have these people struck dead, silently, in their sleep? Did they just stop breathing? Consider this: If that had occurred, it is very likely that most of the people would not have found that somebody had died, until they got up in the morning and found "Oh! We've got a dead person here."

No, I do not think it happened that way. I think that the Death Angel went through, and these people died a very painful, anguish-filled death that made them rise up screaming in terror, and waking up everybody in the house. It says in Exodus 12 that, as the Death Angel went through, there was "a great cry" that went out of Egypt. That is because people knew immediately that somebody in their family was hurting. They were in pain. And who knows, if Satan was the Death Angel, he may have taken a great deal of pleasure in afflicting these people with a great deal of pain before they died. It was not just a gentle "passing away," as we might say. I think the dying would have been dramatic and demonstrative, rather than silent and peaceful.

Now, consider the Israelites. I see nothing where they were given any instructions where it says, "Well, this Death Angel passing through is only going to take fifteen minutes. So, after fifteen minutes, get on your mark, let's go. It will be safe to go out." No, I do not think God did that. I think that, again, He was giving His people a test to see whether they would obey Him. Would you stay in the house until morning? I think you would. He wanted to see if they would do it. I cannot see them even daring to go out before God said—not until morning. The children of Israel did as God commanded.

You know that just four chapters after this here in Exodus 12, God told us about people who went out and did something like trying to gather some manna, and He told us about it. Do you think that He would have overlooked telling us that some of the nuts—the Israelites—went out before morning and died because of it? No! He did not do that, and the reason He did not is because nobody did it. They were in terror, and they stayed in their house until morning. So, the answer for element 5 is that they stayed in their houses in Goshen the night of the 14^th. They did not leave shortly after the Death Angel passed.

Exodus 12:26-28
Excerpted from: No One Else Matters (Part One)

The story of the Israelites keeping the Passover and their subsequent departure from Egypt on the first day of Unleavened Bread is what we have just summarized here. What I wanted in those verses, in both the Passover instructions and also the instructions on the first day of Unleavened Bread as they were preparing to leave, is that it is twice mentioned that the children of Israel did as Moses had told them, by the instruction of God. So there was a hierarchy there, a headship. God gave the command and Moses, through Aaron, let the people know what was going to go on. And the people listened. The people listened to Moses because God was behind it. This was maybe the high point of their belief because (maybe it was at Sinai, who knows?) at least at this point, they were willing to leave on Moses' word.

Exodus 12:28
Excerpted from: Passover (Part 4)

They explicitly obeyed what was told to them. Verse 24 is the first mentioning of these things as being ordinances—that is, having the force of law! "And the people did so." Verse 28 is important because the proponents of a fifteenth Passover said that the people did differently than what is recorded in the scriptures. And we will see this as we summarize Exodus 12.

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