This page gives you ready-to-use study questions for Exodus 12, the chapter where God institutes the Passover and delivers Israel from Egypt. The questions are arranged in three sets (observation, interpretation and application), with a leader’s note under each one, so they work for a small group, a Sunday class or personal reflection.
Exodus 12 at a Glance
The chapter opens with God giving Moses and Aaron new instructions: the month of the Exodus becomes the first month of the year for Israel. Each household is to select a lamb, keep it until the fourteenth day, and then slaughter it at evening, marking the doorposts with its blood. The people are to eat the roasted meal in haste, dressed for travel, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
The narrative then moves to the night of the final plague, when the LORD passes through Egypt and strikes the firstborn, while Israel’s homes are spared by the blood. The chapter closes with Israel leaving Egypt, the instructions for keeping the feast throughout future generations, and the rules for who may and may not eat the Passover.
Observation Questions
Use these questions first, before any discussion of meaning. Ask the group to point to the verses that answer each one, and resist explaining until the text has been read and described plainly.
Exodus 12:3-5
3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household; 4 and if the household is too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one according to the number of the souls; according to what everyone can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without defect, a male a year old. You shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats…
(WEB)
Reading the instructions for the lamb aloud helps the group hear the care and specificity God gives, and sets up the discussion of provision and sacrifice that follows.
Exodus 12:13
The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be on you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
(WEB)
This verse states the heart of the Passover promise, that the blood is the sign and that God passes over those who are marked. It works well as a focal point for the whole session.
Exodus 12:23
For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two door posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to strike you.
(WEB)
Hearing the LORD’s own promise to pass over the marked doors helps the group see that protection rests on God’s faithfulness, not on the household’s strength.
Exodus 12:27
That you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians, and spared our houses.’” The people bowed their heads and worshiped.
(WEB)
This verse shows the explanation Israel is to give to their children, and reading it aloud encourages the group to think about how they pass faith to the next generation.
Exodus 12:48-49
48 When a stranger shall live as a foreigner with you, and will keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one who is born in the land: but no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. 49 One law shall be to him who is born at home, and to the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you.”
(WEB)
Reading these verses aloud brings out the chapter’s teaching on who belongs to God’s people, and gives the group a chance to reflect on welcome and covenant faithfulness together.
Memory Verse for Exodus 12
A Closing Prayer for the Group
Father, we thank you that you make a way of rescue for your people, and that you mark them with a sign of your mercy. Teach us to trust your word as Israel did, to remember your saving acts, and to live ready to follow wherever you lead. Help us to pass our faith to those who come after us, and to welcome those you bring to our community. Keep us under the covering of your faithfulness, and let our lives point to the Lamb who was slain for us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
