Encouragement and Warning

¹⁹ My friends, the blood of Jesus gives us courage to enter the most holy place ²⁰ by a new way that leads to life! And this way takes us through the curtain that is Christ himself.

²¹ We have a great high priest who is in charge of God's house. ^22 (A) So let's come near God with pure hearts and a confidence that comes from having faith. Let's keep our hearts pure, our consciences free from evil, and our bodies washed with clean water. ²³ We must hold tightly to the hope we say is ours. After all, we can trust the one who made the agreement with us. ²⁴ We should keep on encouraging each other to be thoughtful and to do helpful things. ²⁵ Some people have given up the habit of meeting for worship, but we must not do that. We should keep on encouraging each other, especially since you know that the day of the Lord's coming is getting closer.

²⁶ No sacrifices can be made for people who decide to sin after they find out about the truth. ^27 (B) They are God's enemies, and all they can look forward to is a terrible judgment and a furious fire. ^28 (C) If two or more witnesses accused someone of breaking the Law of Moses, that person could be put to death. ^29 (D) But it is much worse to dishonor God's Son and to disgrace the blood of the promise that made us holy. And it is just as bad to insult the Holy Spirit, who shows us mercy. ^30 (E) We know that God has said he will punish and take revenge. We also know that the Scriptures say the Lord will judge his people. ³¹ It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God!

³² Don't forget all the hard times you went through when you first received the light. ³³ Sometimes you were abused and mistreated in public, and at other times you shared in the sufferings of others. ³⁴ You were kind to people in jail. And you gladly let your possessions be taken away, because you knew you had something better, something that would last forever.

³⁵ Keep on being brave! It will bring you great rewards. ³⁶ Learn to be patient, so you will please God and be given what he has promised. ^37 (F) As the Scriptures say,

Moses Warns the Egyptians That the Lord Will Kill Their First-Born Sons

11 The Lord said to Moses:

I am going to punish the king^[a] of Egypt and his people one more time. Then the king will gladly let you leave his land. In fact, he will even chase you out. ² Now go and tell my people to ask their Egyptian neighbors for gold and silver jewelry.

³ So the Lord made the Egyptians greatly respect the Israelites, and everyone, including the king's officials, considered Moses an important leader.

⁴ Moses went to the king and said:

I have come to let you know what the Lord is going to do. About midnight he will go through the land of Egypt, ⁵ and wherever he goes, the first-born son in every family will die. Your own son will die, and so will the son of the lowest slave woman. Even the first-born males of your cattle will die. ⁶ Everywhere in Egypt there will be loud crying. Nothing like this has ever happened before or will ever happen again.

⁷ But there won't be any need for the Israelites to cry. Things will be so quiet that not even a dog will be heard barking. Then you Egyptians will know that the Lord is good to the Israelites, even while he punishes you. ⁸ Your leaders will come and bow down, begging me to take my people and leave your country. Then we will leave.

Moses was very angry; he turned and left the king.

⁹ What the Lord had earlier said to Moses came true. He had said, “The king of Egypt won't listen. Then I will perform even more miracles.” ¹⁰ So the king of Egypt saw Moses and Aaron work miracles, but the Lord made him stubbornly refuse to let the Israelites leave his country.

The Passover

12 ^(A) Some time later the Lord said to Moses and Aaron:

² This month^[b] is to be the first month of the year for you. ³ Tell the people of Israel that on the tenth day of this month the head of each family must choose a lamb or a young goat for his family to eat. ^4-5 If any family is too small to eat the whole animal, they must share it with their next-door neighbors. Choose either a sheep or a goat, but it must be a one-year-old male that has nothing wrong with it. And it must be large enough for everyone to have some of the meat.

⁶ Each family must take care of its animal until the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, when the animals are to be killed. ⁷ Some of the blood must be put on the two doorposts and above the door of each house where the animals are to be eaten. ⁸ That night the animals are to be roasted and eaten, together with bitter herbs and thin bread made without yeast. ⁹ Don't eat the meat raw or boiled. The entire animal, including its head, legs, and insides, must be roasted. ¹⁰ Eat what you want that night, and the next morning burn whatever is left. ¹¹ When you eat the meal, be dressed and ready to travel. Have your sandals on, carry your walking stick in your hand, and eat quickly. This is the Passover Festival in honor of me, your Lord.

¹² That same night I will pass through Egypt and kill the first-born son in every family and the first-born male of all animals. I am the Lord, and I will punish the gods of Egypt. ¹³ The blood on the houses will show me where you live, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Then you won't be bothered by the terrible disasters I will bring on Egypt.

^14 (B) Remember this day and celebrate it each year as a festival in my honor. ¹⁵ For seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. And on the first of these seven days, you must remove all yeast from your homes. If you eat anything made with yeast during this festival, you will no longer be part of Israel. ¹⁶ Meet together for worship on the first and seventh days of the festival. The only work you are allowed to do on either of these two days is that of preparing the bread.

¹⁷ Celebrate this Festival of Thin Bread as a way of remembering the day that I brought your families and tribes out of Egypt. And do this each year. ¹⁸ Begin on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month by eating bread made without yeast. Then continue this celebration until the evening of the twenty-first day. ¹⁹ During these seven days no yeast is allowed in anyone's home, whether they are native Israelites or not. If you are caught eating anything made with yeast, you will no longer be part of Israel. ²⁰ Stay away from yeast, no matter where you live. No one is allowed to eat anything made with yeast!

²¹ Moses called the leaders of Israel together and said:

Each family is to pick out a sheep and kill it for Passover. ²² Make a brush from a few small branches of a hyssop plant and dip the brush in the bowl that has the blood of the animal in it. Then brush some of the blood above the door and on the posts at each side of the door of your house. After this, everyone is to stay inside until morning.

^23 (C) During that night the Lord will go through the country of Egypt and kill the first-born son in every Egyptian family. He will see where you have put the blood, and he will not come into your house. His angel that brings death will pass over and not kill your first-born sons.

^24-25 After you have entered the country promised to you by the Lord, you and your children must continue to celebrate Passover each year. ²⁶ Your children will ask you, “What are we celebrating?” ²⁷ And you will answer, “The Passover animal is killed to honor the Lord. We do these things because on that night long ago the Lord passed over the homes of our people in Egypt. He killed the first-born sons of the Egyptians, but he spared our children from death.”

After Moses finished speaking, the people of Israel knelt down and worshiped the Lord. ²⁸ Then they left and did what Moses and Aaron had told them to do.

Death for the First-Born Sons

^29 (D) At midnight the Lord killed the first-born son of every Egyptian family, from the son of the king^[c] to the son of every prisoner in jail. He also killed the first-born male of every animal that belonged to the Egyptians.

³⁰ That night the king, his officials, and everyone else in Egypt got up and started crying bitterly. In every Egyptian home, someone was dead.

The People of Israel Escape from Egypt

³¹ During the night the king^[d] sent for Moses and Aaron and told them, “Get your people out of my country and leave us alone! Go and worship the Lord, as you have asked. ³² Take your sheep, goats, and cattle, and get out. But ask your God to be kind to me.”

³³ The Egyptians did everything they could to get the Israelites to leave their country as quickly as possible. They said, “Please hurry and leave. If you don't, we will all be dead.” ³⁴ So the Israelites quickly made some bread dough and put it in pans. But they did not mix any yeast in the dough to make it rise. They wrapped cloth around the pans and carried them on their shoulders.

^35 (E) The Israelites had already done what Moses had told them to do. They had gone to their Egyptian neighbors and asked for gold and silver and for clothes. ³⁶ The Lord had made the Egyptians friendly toward the people of Israel, and they gave them whatever they asked for. In this way they carried away the wealth of the Egyptians when they left Egypt.

³⁷ The Israelites walked from the city of Rameses to the city of Succoth. There were about 600,000 of them, not counting women and children. ³⁸ Many other people went with them as well, and there were also a lot of sheep, goats, and cattle. ³⁹ They left Egypt in such a hurry that they did not have time to prepare any food except the bread dough made without yeast. So they baked it and made thin bread.

^40-41 (F) The Lord's people left Egypt exactly 430 years after they had arrived. ⁴² On that night the Lord kept watch for them, and on this same night each year Israel will always keep watch in honor of the Lord.

Instructions for Passover

⁴³ The Lord gave Moses and Aaron the following instructions for celebrating Passover:

Only Israelites may eat the Passover meal.

⁴⁴ Your slaves may eat the meal if they have been circumcised, ⁴⁵ but no foreigners who work for you are allowed to have any.

^46 (G) The entire meal must be eaten inside, and no one may leave the house during the celebration.

No bones of the Passover lamb may be broken. ⁴⁷ And all Israelites must take part in the meal.

⁴⁸ If anyone who isn't an Israelite wants to celebrate Passover with you, every man and boy in that family must first be circumcised. Then they may join in the meal, just like native Israelites. No uncircumcised man or boy may eat the Passover meal! ⁴⁹ This law applies both to native Israelites and to those foreigners who live among you.

⁵⁰ The Israelites obeyed everything the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron to tell them. ⁵¹ And on that same day the Lord brought Israel's families and tribes out of Egypt.

Advice to Young People

The Right Way and the Wrong Way