Nine plagues had fallen upon Egypt, but Pharaoh continued refusing to let the people of Israel go. Now would come the last plague - the most terrible of all. But before it, God gave special instructions to His people.

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: "This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you."

God was instituting something new - a celebration that the people of Israel would keep forever, remembering this night of liberation.

God continued with detailed instructions: "Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old. On the fourteenth day of this month, the whole assembly of Israel shall kill it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses."

Why blood on the doors? God explained: "The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt."

The lamb would die in place of the firstborn. Its blood would protect them from the coming judgment. It was a substitute sacrifice.

God also gave instructions on how to eat the lamb: "In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover."

"Passover" means "to pass over." God would pass over the houses marked with blood.

God said: "That night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn, both of men and of animals, and I will execute judgments on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord."

Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them: "Go, select lambs for your families and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning."

On the night of the fourteenth, throughout all the land of Egypt, Israelite families obeyed God's instructions. They sacrificed their lambs, put blood on the doors, roasted the meat, and ate in haste, dressed and ready to depart.

It was a night of expectation and fear. They knew something terrible was about to happen in Egypt. But inside their houses, protected by the lamb's blood, they were safe.

At midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock.

Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. There was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead.

But in the houses of the Israelites, marked with blood, all the firstborn were alive and safe. The angel of death had passed over them. God's promise was fulfilled!

Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said:

Finally! After so many refusals, after ten plagues, Pharaoh let the people go. More than that - he drove them out! The Egyptians were urgent with the people, hurrying them to send them out of the land, for they said: "We shall all be dead!"

The people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks on their shoulders. The people of Israel did as Moses had told them: they asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing.

The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, who granted them what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

The people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds.

Six hundred thousand men meant that, with women, children, and elderly, there were probably more than two million people! It was a huge multitude leaving Egypt, led by Moses.

With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked unleavened cakes, for it had not leavened. They had been driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions.

The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.

God was fulfilling the promise He had made to Abraham centuries before! He had told Abraham that his descendants would be strangers in a foreign land and would be enslaved, but that afterward they would come out with great possessions. And now it was happening!

The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.

The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. It was the visible presence of God guiding His people!

Imagine the scene: millions of people, with their flocks, their carts, their children, marching through the desert. And ahead of them, a majestic pillar - cloud during the day, fire during the night - showing the way.

They didn't know exactly where they were going. They had no maps. But they had something better - they had God personally guiding them!

God said to Moses: "This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord. Throughout your generations, you shall observe it. It is a statute forever."

Passover would not be celebrated just once. Israel should celebrate it every year, forever, remembering the night when God freed them from Egypt.

"When your children say to you, 'What do you mean by this service?' you shall say: 'It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.'"

Each generation should tell this story to their children. The story of liberation. The story of the lamb whose blood saved. The story of how God fulfilled His promise and brought His people out of slavery.

That night, everything changed for the people of Israel. They ceased to be slaves and became a free nation. They ceased to be Pharaoh's property and became God's people.

It was not by their strength or power that they were freed. It was God's power. It was not because they were special or deserving. It was because God loved them and had made a covenant with their ancestors.

The lamb's blood saved them from death. God's faithfulness freed them from slavery. And now a new journey began - a journey to the Promised Land, a journey to become the people God called them to be.

The Exodus - the departure from Egypt - would be remembered forever as the most important event in Israel's history. It was when they were born as a nation. It was when they experienced God's saving power.

And Passover would be celebrated year after year, generation after generation, remembering that God frees His people, that He fulfills His promises, and that the lamb's blood brings salvation.