Egypt, Passover lamb, Red Sea; Christ foreshadowed

Famine fell upon the whole earth, and it came about that food remained only in Egypt. Then Jacob left his country and went with all his household to dwell in Egypt. The number of those who went down was seventy-five persons; and in four hundred years, as the oracle had foretold, they grew to six hundred and sixty thousand. (Gen 46:27; Acts 7:14; Ex 12:37)

And when they were crushed with afflictions and harsh slavery, and groaned and cried out to God — the God of their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — that same God brought them out of Egypt by Moses and Aaron, and struck the Egyptians with ten plagues. (Ex 3:7-10; Ex 7–12) The last plague was to send a destroying angel who slew all the firstborn, of people and of beasts. (Ex 12:29)

Thus he saved the children of Israel’s life, and he mysteriously revealed the passion of Christ by commanding that a spotless lamb be slain, whose blood the Hebrews were to put upon the doors of their houses and so be kept from the stroke. (Passover lamb; 1 Cor 5:7; Jn 1:29) And the name of that mystery is the Passion, the cause of deliverance.

God also divided the Red Sea and by every means led the children of Israel into the wilderness. (Ex 14:21-22) But the Egyptians who pursued them and entered the sea as well all perished. So God punished those who had unjustly mistreated Abraham’s seed.