The avenging Justice of God. The slaying of the first-born in Egypt was a punishment sent by God on account of the obstinate unbelief of Pharao and his people. This shows the justice of God. If Pharao had been converted by the lesser plagues, he would have been spared this last terrible one. Many sinners, who care nothing about God, can only be converted by means of some severe visitation. No one can resist God, because He is almighty. They who defy Him, must and will feel the weight of His avenging justice either in this world or in the next. “Thou art Lord of all, and there is none that can resist Thy majesty” (Esth. 13, 11).
The Faithfulness of God. All those promises which God made about increasing the people of Israel, and delivering them from Egypt, were faithfully fulfilled.
God is Lord over life and death. By the first plagues God proved that He was Lord of all nature. By the last and worst plague, He showed that He was Lord over life and death, because in one night He slew the first-born in every Egyptian house, while not one of the Israelites was touched.
The Paschal Lamb, a type of Jesus Christ. The paschal lamb was a sacrifice, for it is expressly said (Ex. 12, 27) that it was “the victim of the passage of the Lord”. As such, it was pre-eminently a type of our Lord, and principally in the following ways. The paschal lamb was to be without blemish: Jesus Christ is the Most Pure, the Most Holy, “a lamb unspotted and undefiled” (1 Petr. 1, 19). The paschal lamb was killed, and its blood spilt: Jesus Christ was slain for us on the altar of the Cross, and shed all His Blood for us. Of the paschal lamb “no bone was to be broken”: contrary to the usual custom with those crucified, not one of our Lord’s bones was broken. Through the blood of the paschal lamb the Israelites were saved from temporal death: through the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ we are saved from the spiritual death of sin, and the eternal death of hell. The paschal lamb, therefore, foretold that the future Saviour would be unspotted; that He would sacrifice Himself for us; that He would give His Life and Blood for us; that not one of His bones would be broken; and that we, through His sacrifice, would be saved from death.
There is no salvation, except through Jesus Christ. The blood of the paschal lamb obtained mercy for the Israelites, and saved them from death, only because it was a type of the Redeemer of the world. Its atoning and saving power did not lie in itself, but came from the Blood of Jesus Christ whose sacrifice and death were pre-figured by the death of the lamb. The Israelites, because they sacrificed the paschal lamb and sprinkled their houses with its blood, having faith in the future Redeemer, were spared by reason of that faith. Even in the Old Testament, it was only through faith in the future Redeemer that men could obtain pardon.
