In spite of all that God had sent to punish Egypt, the king was hard-hearted, and would not let the Israelites go.In spite of all that God had sent to punish Egypt, the king was hard-hearted, and would not let the Israelites go.
Therefore God said to Moses. "I will send one more plague upon the Egyptians. Then the king will let you go."
"Let each family kill a young lamb and sprinkle the doorposts of the house with its blood. Let the lamb be roasted and eaten at night with unleavened bread and bitter herbs," Moses directed the children of Israel. "For the Angel of Death will pass through the land to destroy all the first-born of the Egyptians. When he sees the blood on your doorposts, he will pass on. He will not punish you or your children." This was the first Pasch.
The Israelites did as Moses bade them. At midnight the Angel of Death passed through Egypt, destroying all the first-born - from the first-born of the king to the first-born of the poorest Egyptian, and taking also the first-born of all animals. In every Egyptian house there was sorrow and weeping because of the death of all the first-born.
Among the Israelites no one died. The Angel of Death spared them when he saw the blood of the lamb on their doorposts.
In despair and fear, the king sent for Moses and Aaron during the night. "Go," said he. "Take your flocks and your people. Leave Egypt. Go and serve your God, for if you do not, we shall all die."
The Egyptian people also urged the Israelites to go, saying. "If you do not hasten, we shall all be dead men." They even gave the Israelites jewels and precious ornaments, crying to them, "Take everything and go. that we may live."
The lamb that the Israelites killed for the first Pasch is a figure of our Lord Jesus Christ. As the blood of the Paschal iamb saved the Isralites from the Angel of Death, so the Blood of our Lord saves our souls from death through sin. The Israelites celebrated the Feast of the Pasch (Easter) in memory of their liberation from their slavery in Egypt. Today Christians celebrate the Feast of Easter (Pasch) in memory of the Resurrection of Our Lord, Who freed us from the slavery of sin.
- from My Bible History in Pictures, by Bishop Louis LaRavoire Morrow, D.D., 1934; it has the Imprimatur of Archbishop Michael J O'Doherty of Manila, Philippines