Read Exodus 10:1-13:16 at Bible Gateway.
The paragraph divisions for bo are posted here. This torah portion forms its own chiastic structure:
Exo 10:1-13:16 {s+p+p+sx3+p+s+p+p+s+px3}
1a) Exo 10:1-2, I perform these signs before Pharaoh that you may tell your son the mighty things I have done;
1b) Exo 10:3-29 {s+p+p} “Let My people go that they may serve Me,” to be accomplished by the Lord’s outstretched arm;
1c) Exo 11:1-3 {s} Pharaoh will drive you out/ favor in the sight of the Egyptians:
— 1) Exo 11:1, One more plague, afterward Pharaoh will let you go/ drive you out;
— 2) Exo 11:2-3 {s} Ask silver + gold/ the Lord gave them favor in the sight of Egyptians;
1d) Exo 11:4-10 {s+s} At midnight I will strike the land of Egypt and the all the firstborn shall die;
1e) Exo 12:1, Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying;
1f) Exo 12:2-14, Passover instruction:
— 1) Exo 12:2-11, Choose + kill unblemished lamb/ its blood on the doorposts + lintel;
— 2) Exo 12:12-13, For I will pass through Egypt + strike the firstborn/ when I see the blood, I will pass over you;
— 3) Exo 12:14, This Passover a memorial feast to the Lord throughout your generations by everlasting ordinance;
1g) Exo 12:15-16, Eat unleavened bread for seven days/ whoever eats leaven will be cut off;
1h) Exo 12:17a, You shall observe Unleavened Bread;
central axis) Exo 12:17b, On this day I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt;
1h) Exo 12:17c, Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance;
2g) Exo 12:18-20 {p} You shall eat unleavened bread for seven days/ whoever eats leaven shall be cut off;
2f) Exo 12:21-27, Passover commandment:
— 1) Exo 12:21-22, Choose + kill the Passover lamb/ its blood on the lintel + doorposts;
— 2) Exo 12:23, The Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians/ when He sees the blood, He will pass over the door;
— 3) Exo 12:24-27, You shall observe this Passover as an ordinance for you and your sons forever;
2e) Exo 12:28 {s} The children of Israel did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did;
2d) Exo 12:29-30, At midnight the Lord struck the firstborn of Egypt, and they died;
2c) Exo 12:31-36 {p} Pharaoh drove them out/ favor in the sight of the Egyptians:
— 1) Exo 12:31-34, Pharaoh let them go/ Egyptians drove them out in haste;
— 2) Exo 12:35-36 {p} Israel asked silver + gold/ the Lord gave them favor in the sight of Egyptians.
2b) Exo 12:37-51 {p+s+p} Israel ceased their sojourn in Egypt:
— 1a) Exo 12:37-42 {p} At the end of 430 years—on that very same day—all the armies of the Lord went out from Egypt;
— 1b) Exo 12:43, And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover;”
— central axis) Exo 12:43b-49, The regulations for the ordinance of the Passover;
— 2b) Exo 12:50 {s} Thus all the children of Israel did; as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did;
— 2a) Exo 12:51 {p} On that very same day, the Lord brought the children of Israel out of Egypt according to their armies;
2a) Exo 13:1-16 {p+p} Ordinance of the firstborn / Unleavened Bread a testimony to future generations.
I find it interesting that remembering the Lord’s mighty outstretched arm in accomplishing deliverance for Israel as a testimony to future generations is a key highlighted at the open and close of this parashah.
Now the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these signs of Mine before him, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son’s son the mighty things I have done in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.” Exo 10:1-2
So it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that you shall say to him, ‘By strength of hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And it came to pass, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all males that open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ Exo 13:14-15
The purpose for telling these things in the hearing of our sons and son’s son, is that we and they may know that God is the I AM, YHVH. YHVH means, the Greater One than all the false gods of man- made religion; YHVH means Savior to the uttermost by the blood of our Passover Lamb, Messiah Yeshua; YHVH means Bringer out of whatever darkness and bondage the enemy has us trapped in, and complete Deliverer.
(Please notice that the LORD did not deliver Israel from Egypt so that they could now be anarchists, living in whatever manner they chose for themselves, but so that Israel could serve YHVH rather than serving Pharaoh, He brought them out, Exo 10:3.)
Perhaps we lose 90% of our children to the world, precisely because as the body of Messiah, we have been taught to ignore these remembrances and scoff at these observances with all their attendant regulations, which are an ordinance forever? Perhaps our children do not learn the meaning of “I am YHVH” for themselves because we have ignored the wisdom prescribed by God to transfer the faith from one generation to the next? Perhaps when we do not observe this Passover and Unleavened Bread, we are declaring by our non- observance, that we are not grafted in to the olive tree of Israel (Rom 11:17)? And perhaps, when we realize these things, and repent and return, and submit ourselves to the Lord our God, He also has mercy on our sons and our sons’ sons, and returns them to us, just as we have returned ourselves to Him.
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