Exodus 12:5

_YOUR LAMB SHALL BE WITHOUT BLEMISH, A MALE OF THE FIRST YEAR: YE SHALL TAKE IT OUT FROM THE SHEEP, OR FROM THE GOATS:_ Your lamb shall be without blemish. The smallest deformity or defect made a lamb unfit for sacrifice. Physical perfection was required in all sacrifices, but especially in the paschal lamb, which was a type of Christ....

5._Your lamb shall be without blemish. _We shall see elsewhere, that in all their sacrifices prescribed by the Law they were diligently to beware, lest there should be any spot or fault in them; and by this the people were reminded, that the expiation was not legitimate, unless it possessed the utmost perfection, such as is never to be found in men. It is not to be wondered, therefore, that God should now require the Passover to be of one year old, and without blemish, that the Israelites might know that in order to propitiate God, a more excellent price was required than could be discovered in the whole human race; and since such excellency could much less exist in a beast, the celestial perfection and purity of Christ was shewn forth by this visible perfection of the lamb, or kid. It was with reference to this also that; they were commanded to keep it up separate from the rest; of the...

1-20 The Lord makes all things new to those whom he delivers from the bondage of Satan, and takes to himself to be his people. The time when he does this is to them the beginning of a new life. God appointed that, on the night wherein they were to go out of Egypt, each family should kill a lamb, or that two or three families, if small, should kill one lamb. This lamb was to be eaten in the manner here directed, and the blood to be sprinkled on the door-posts, to mark the houses of the Israelites from those of the Egyptians. The angel of the Lord, when destroying the first-born of the Egyptians, would pass over the houses marked by the blood of the lamb: hence the name of this holy feast or ordinance. The passover was to be kept every year, both as a remembrance of Israel's preservation and deliverance out of Egypt, and as a remarkable type of Christ. Their safety and deliverance were no...

Verse Exodus 12:5. _WITHOUT BLEMISH_] Having no natural imperfection, no disease, no _deficiency_ or _redundancy_ of parts. On this point the rabbins have trifled most egregiously, reckoning _fifty_ blemishes that render a lamb or kid, or any animal, improper to be sacrificed: _five_ in the _ear, three_ in the _eyelid, eight_ in the _eye, three_ in the _nose, six_ in the _mouth_, c., c. _A MALE OF THE FIRST YEAR_] That is, any age in the _first_ year between _eight days_ and _twelve months_. _FROM THE SHEEP, OR FROM THE GOATS_] The שה _seh_ means either and either was equally proper if without blemish. The Hebrews however in general preferred the _lamb_ to the _kid_....

WITHOUT BLEMISH - This is in accordance with the general rule (margin reference): although in this case there is a special reason, since the lamb was in place of the firstborn male in each household. The restriction to the first year is unique, and refers apparently to the condition of perfect innocence in the antitype, the Lamb of God....

FIRST INSTITUTION OF THE PASSOVER. EXPOSITION THE INSTITUTION OF THE PASSOVER AND THE REASONS FOR IT.—In the interval allowed by God, according to the precedent of former announced plagues, between the warning concerning the first-born and the execution, Moses received instructions for the institution of a new religious rite,_ _founded possibly upon some previous national usage, but so re-shaped, re-cast, and remodelled as to have an entirely new and fresh character. In all Eastern nations, the coming in of spring was observed as a jocund and festive time, with offerings, processions, and songs of rejoicings. When the date of the vernal equinox was known, it was naturally made the starting-point f

YOUR LAMB SHALL BE WITHOUT BLEMISH,.... Without any spot or defect in it. Maimonides h reckons no less than fifty blemishes in a creature, anyone of which makes it unfit for sacrifice, see Leviticus 21:21. This lamb was a type of Christ, who is therefore said to be our passover sacrificed for us, 1 Corinthians 5:7 comparable to a lamb for his innocence and harmlessness, for his meekness, humility, and patience, for usefulness both for food and raiment, as well as for being fit for sacrifice; and who is a lamb without spot and blemish, either of original sin, or actual transgression, holy in his nature, harmless in his life: A MALE OF THE FIRST YEAR; anyone within that time, but not beyond it; denoting the strength and vigour of Christ, in the flower of his age,

Exodus 12:1. _And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you._ And for this reason that, now, as a nation, they were to begin their separate history, separate in existence from all the rest of mankind. Exodus 12:3. _Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house: and if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb._ The separation of the lamb was to take p

5. REDEMPTION BY BLOOD, THE PASSOVER AND THE LAW OF THE FIRSTBORN CHAPTER 12 The Passover Instituted and Kept, the Death of the Firstborn and the Exodus _ 1. The Passover instituted and the feast of unleavened bread (Exodus 12:1)_ 2. The command given to the people and obeyed (Exodus 12:21) 3. The death of the firstborn in Egypt (Exodus 12:29) 4. The departure of the children of Israel (Exodus 12:31) 5. From Rameses to Succoth (Exodus 12:37) 6. The fulfillment of the 430 years ...

EXODUS 12:1 P. RULES FOR THE PASSOVER (first set). On the history of the Passover, see pp. 102f. Most ceremonial rules are dated from Sinai or the land of Moab: so these that follow are noted in Exodus 12:1 as given in Egypt. The first month (Exodus 12:2) is in J, E, and D Abib, and later (Nehemiah 2:1) Nisan. As the Quakers dropped the names of the days of the week on account of their pagan origin, so P avoids the Canaanitish or Phœ nician names, using numbers only, as in the later Biblical books. The critical months in autumn and spring, which closed or began the harvest, were natural starting points for the year among an agricultural people. Befo