DATE: June 15, 2026
PASTOR W F KUMUYI
TEXT: EXODUS 12:13-30; 1 CORINTHIANS 5:6-8
Exodus 12:13-20
– 13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
– 14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.
– 15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
– 16 And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
– 17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.
– 18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.
– 19 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.
– 20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.
1 Corinthians 5:6-8
– 6Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
– 7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
– 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
INTRODUCTION
We continue with our study in Exodus, and we are coming to chapter 12:13. We have been looking at the dealing of God with the Egyptians and the children of Israel as well. He made and created everyone – sinners and saints are made by Him and we are still under His sovereign authority.
Some are open, clear and visionary to the sovereignty of God, while some are blind to it, yet, He is sovereign, and Creator, and everyone is under His rulership and lordship. This is why He deals with everyone and no one can separate himself, and say I have nothing to do with God, and He has nothing to do with me.
That would be like an Egyptian saying I don’t have anything to do with God, and He has nothing to do with us. Yes, He has everything to do with every created man or woman, sinner or saint here on earth, and He is a God of holiness and righteousness.
He hates sin and says the soul that sins shall die. Yet, He makes a way of escape that as we come to Him through the gate that He has set, we can escape the death penalty. That is the important and essential thing we are looking at tonight in Exodus chapter 12, and the topic is ESCAPING DEATH THROUGH FAITH IN THE BLOOD OF THE PASSOVER.
The word passover is there because God said, “When I see the blood – the blood of the substitutionary lamb, the one which died in the place of every Israelite, everyone in the house under the security of the blood – I will pass over you”. And when He passes over that house and all the people inside it, they have escaped the judgment of death, they have escaped the death penalty because they believed that Moses declared unto them what God said and they believed, and acted on their faith in the passover lamb that saved, secured, protected and preserved them from the death penalty.
A. OBSERVING THE PASSOVER WITHOUT LEAVEN (Exodus 12:14–20)
The instruction was very clear, that in their houses, and now in their hearts, they would keep away leaven and everything that it represents. God wanted them to observe the passover without the leaven.
1. Put away Leaven from your Houses, Homes (Exodus 12:15,17,19; Number 28:17; Deuteronomy 16:3)
God made it clear in Exodus 12:15 that for seven days – you know that there are seven days in a week and we count months and years in weeks. Seven is the complete cycle and the number for perfection and completeness. God told them to eat unleavened bread for seven days while removing every form of leaven from their houses. Whosoever ate leaven in those seven days shall be cut off from Israel.
vs 17. God told them to observe the feast of unleavened bread as a commemoration of Him bringing them out of the land of Egypt.
vs 19. Leaven shall not be found in their houses for seven days and whosoever – high or low, the one acting familiar to the ordinance of God, the one who claimed to be so familiar with Moses, or the high priest and could dare anything – ate leaven shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether a stranger or an Israelite. The instruction was very clear – keep away leaven from the houses and the homes which make up the congregation. Anything that is contrary to the will of God, like occultism, use of evil powers, dependence on idolatry must be put away from every home.
Deuteronomy 16:3 “Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the
day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.” It is called bread of affliction because it does not have yeast and it won’t be enjoyable when it is eaten. It would be what to remember all the days of their lives because they were peculiar people separated unto God. For seven days which also signified the completeness of the cycle of their lives, leaven must be forbidden from their houses and homes.
2. Purge out the Old Leaven from your Heart (1 Corinthians 5:6–8; 2 Corinthians 7:1-2; 2 Timothy 2:21-22)
1 Corinthians 5:6–8. Apostle Paul told the Corinthian Christians that their glorying was not good. When they became born again, they became new creatures, old things became new, they lived exciting lives of righteousness while fornication, adultery, drunkeness, idolatry, stealing of any kind has passed away. Some years down the line, they were seen to be deviating from the way of righteousness because they have seen the perpetrating of evil acts over and over that they were used to it. There was a young man who went in to his father’s wife, and the father took action against it, and it became known. The people were more shocked at the father’s reaction to the evil deed more than the son who did the evil. They gloried in the act and praised him for being so audacious.
When he heard about it, Apostle Paul was shocked and said they were not like that before, he then condemn the act and told them that a little leaven leavens the whole lump and challenged them to take away the old leaven so that they would be a new lump. A little leaven will spoil the whole lump, a little sin will turn to rubbish all the testimony of their salvation, therefore, they must purge out the old leaven because Christ, our Passover has passed on ahead of us. All leaven of malice, wickedness, anger, hatred, animosity must all be removed. Wickedness which is cruelty, violence, oppression, maltreating, hurting and
harming other people must be purged out. It must not be in our lives and hearts. Sincerity and truthfulness and honesty must characterise our lives. We must be sincere publicly, and privately, when you are all alone by yourself and when you are with other people. What you learn, prospect, and claim to believe, live by it every time.
2 Corinthians 7:1-2. All filthiness of the flesh must be purged out while we perfect holiness in the fear of God.
2 Timothy 2:21 “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” It is our duty to purge ourselves. We might have to do it on our knees as well as be very firm with ourselves, and not allow the leaven to stick to, or remain with us because we have a new life in Christ. We must purge ourselves from the filthiness of the flesh, and perfect holiness in the fear of God. We must be progressive and going higher and higher, deeper and deeper in holiness, and in the fear of God. After we have done this, we will be useful in His hands.
vs 22 “Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” Obviously, he was talking to adults who were no longer youths, therefore, he warned them to desist from youthful exuberance they indulged in when they were young and not born again. Now that they are born again and must flee from them whenever there is any feeling of tending towards them. They should take away from themselves everything that could connect them to the old lifestyle.
3. Prevent Objectionable Leaven from His House (Matthew 16:6,12; Luke 12:1-2; Mark 8:15)
We are to do away with everything Jesus does not like, everything He disapproves of in the midst of the children of God, in the house of God.
Matthew 16:6. Jesus warned His disciples to beware of the leaven of Pharisees and Saducees, the religious people who took the old testament serous word for word, putting a traditional interpretation to all that they read. The Saducees were religious, but tend to believe only what they can be proved empirically. They did not believe in angels and miracles, only in the old testament stories, for example, they believed in the story of Joseph from the beginning of his life to when he became the prime minister of Egypt. They also believed in the story of Moses who they saw as a prince. Anything dealing with angels and miracles they don’t believe. Jesus said his disciples must beware so they don’t slide into the doctrines of the jewish rulers.
As religious as the Pharisees were, they still plotted the death of Christ. As liberal as the Saducees were, they still joined with the Pharisees to kill Jesus. As religious as they were, they still committed murder, killing their Messiah. There are people who have doctrines but they don’t care and can hurt, beat their wives, husbands, put stumbling blocks in the ways of other believers, they can hurt, harm, slay and kill. They can kill with their pens, text, and knowledge of social media, they hurt, harm, kill and destroy. They can scatter families and oppress others, and Jesus referred to that as the leaven of the Pharisees and Saducees.
Luke 12:1-2 “In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he
began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.” They knew a little about holiness and even the little, they added so much hypocrisy, pretence, covering and dissimulation to it that it was the little holiness people around them saw while all these vices were hidden underneath. Jesus referred to all as leaven which must not be found in His house.
Mark 8:15 “And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.” We have heard of the leaven of the Pharisees, now, Jesus spoke about the leaven of Herod. This one referred to the leaven of politicians of that time. People who brought politicking, place-seeking and campaigns for leadership into the house of the Lord. Jesus warned His disciples on the activities of Herod, the one who would hear John the Baptist spoke as long as he was comfortable with what he was saying, but when John began to come nearer home, condemning him taking his brother’s wife, he would not take it lightly. He arrested, and locked him up. All the time John told the people to pay their taxes, to not take more than the salary they were paid, that all who had two coats should give one out, he saw him as being nationalistic and caring towards the poor, He was so pleased and approved of John. But immediately he told him that he erred by taking his brother’s wife, it didn’t go down well with him. Jesus warned us not to hear the word of God as the politicians do, and not to bring any form of politics into the church of the living God.
B. OBEDIENCE TO THE PRECEPTS OF THE LORD (Exodus 12:21–28)
vs 21 “Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover.” Moses was prompt in carrying out what the Lord told him to do, he promptly
carried out the instructions by relaying it to the Israelites. He himself was obedient to the Lord, he didn’t take away or add to any part of the word, he didn’t add personal opinion to it, he didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear, or omit what they didn’t like, he told them what God said. Because of his obedience, the children of Israel also obeyed.
1. Prompt Obedience to the Precepts of the Lord (Exodus 12:21–23,28; Psalm 119:60; Galatians 1:15-16)
The children of Israel were to mark their lintels and two posts of the doors of their houses and no one was to go out of the house, so that when the destroyer passes, none of them would fall victim of his onslaught.
vs 28. They did exactly as God said, and didn’t transfer it to the next day because it was to happen that night. Any house that had not the mark of the Blood, the destroyer would go in and kill the firstborn son. We too must be prompt in repentance and exercising our faith in Christ because we do not know when He will come.
Psalm 119:60 “I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.” There are many commands we see in Scripture – repent ye and believe the gospel, go to your friends and tell them what the Lord has done for you, do exactly as the Samaritan did to the injured man on the way to Jericho, neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more, do all things without murmuring and disputings, etc. Immediately the Lord commands us, we render prompt obedience to Him.
2. Perpetual Obedience to the Proclamation of the Lord (Exodus 12:24–28; 12:14; Matthew 28:18–20)
The commandments of the Lord are perpetual, we keep on obeying. They don’t go out of fashion – honour thy father and mother, modernity does not change this. Thou shalt not kill, or covet anything that belongs to your neighbour – his wife, her husband, anything. Time has not changed any of this. The word and commandments of God remain forever. When He said we should not allow leaven in our homes, it is a perpetual command.
Matthew 28:18–20. There are some crops of new generation preachers who say that what Paul said has overridden what the Lord Jesus said. Friend, Jesus is the Saviour of Apostle Paul and whatever revelation he had came from Jesus. Some even went to the extent of saying that they don’t believe what Paul said. The commandments of God are perpetual and they are to be obeyed.
3. Preventable Disobedience to the Precepts of the Lord (Exodus 12:22-23; Joshua 2:19; Hebrews 10:38-39)
We don’t have to disobey the word of God, we must prevent anything that will make us do that. God knows we can, just as He knew that the children of Israel could easily remove leaven from their homes. Disobedience is preventable because it is coming from your heart and will. When you yield your heart and will to the Lord, it will be easy for you to obey Him.
Exodus 12:22-23. With a leaf of hyssop they would apply the blood to the lintels of their houses after which they must stay indoors. This is very possible to obey. They could not say they would go out, none of them needed not to. All these disobedience that people render everywhere, they can be prevented. It is in your will to obey. As we normally do when we come for Bible Study, we sit, listen and open our Bibles along, if someone says he will not sit, but walk around, and show the pastor, he can prevent that. We can work together as teacher and
student, leader and disciple, father and son/daughter. We can, disobedience is preventable. Brothers and sisters, when we disobey very simple instructions that we can easily obey, and you have already formed the habit of disobeying when we are together, when you are by yourself, you will continue in that way. The children of Israel were to stay indoors throughout the night and the angel of destruction would pass them by.
C. OUTPOURING OF PUNISHMENT AT THE LAST (Exodus 12:29-30)
Finally, the pronounced judgement came. The Lord smote all firstborns in Egypt frkm the Pharaoh to the one locked up in the dungeon to that of their beasts, no house was spared. There was a great cry in the land.
1. The Predicted Midnight Cry of the Unrepentant (Exodus 12:29-30; Psalm 78:50-51; Isaiah 13:9–13)
There had been a prediction before that time that there would be a midnight cry because of what God was going to do. It happened to them exactly as it was said, and it will happen the same way at the end of time, only those who repent will escape the judgment, all who do not, and are deliberate in their disobedience, rebellion, and stubbornness will not escape. No repentance, no safety from the lake of fire.
Isaiah 13:9–13. The day of God’s judgment is coming in which He will destroy habitual, unrepentant and stubborn sinners. God will punish the world of sinners, occultic and wicked people for their evil. God will shake the earth in His wrath. Judgment is coming and there will be a separation between the righteous and unrighteous, between saints and sinners, and all sinners who die in their sin will suffer forever and ever.
2. The Punishable Mindless Crimes of the Unrighteous (Exodus 1:22; Jeremiah 9:8-9; 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3)
These are people who don’t apply their minds to the truth, to the Scriptures, to the greatness of God. They are thoughtless, mindless, and inconsiderate of the fact that the God of heaven has given His word which He wants us to obey.
Jeremiah 9:8-9 “Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait. Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?”
1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” But today, there is still a proclamation of the mercy of God, the offer of the grace of God is still available.
3. The Promised Merciful Covering for the Undefiled (Exodus 11:7; 12:13,23; Isaiah 26:20-21)
When you keep yourself, and remain under the cover of the blood, and the propitiation of the blood of the Lamb, there is protection and salvation.
Exodus 11:7 “But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.” How the Lord puts a difference
between saints and sinners, a deliberate sinner a consecrated saint, forgiveness for all who come for His grace, and punishment for those who take delight in doing evil.
ch 12:13 “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.”
We appropriate when we take the blood and strike in on our lintels as God commands. It is not enough for the lamb to die, or for its blood to be collected in a basin, it has to be appropriated by being applied to the lintel and door posts. Christ has died and shed His blood, but we must have faith in the shed blood, turn away from sin and believe in Him.
vs 23. The Lord will pass through the land, and when he sees the blood, He will pass over. At the end of this world, it is not Angels or humans who will check your name in the Book of Life, God Himself will do that, He will not delegate this to anyone. There won’t be any mistake at all. I pray that today, when the mercy of God and His salvation is still available, all of us without exception will take the privilege and grace and be saved in Jesus name.
Isaiah 26:20-21. We need to leave everything else, and come to Him. The punishment is going to reach everywhere, every nation, every person, community, tribe, tongue and kindred. God is coming to punish the earth for her sin. Heed the call to salvation – “Matthew 11:28-30 “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Come today, and be saved and sanctified. There is blessing in obedience and fiery indignation and judgment in every disobedience of man. Come, the blood has been shed for you. “When I see the blood, I will pass over you”.
Rise and talk to the Lord in prayer.