NOTES for Исх 12:1-41
The blood on the doorposts, stopping death at the entrance to a house, bears witness that the inhabitants of that house have shared a meal with God and become participants in His life, and therefore are under His protection. The Exodus is not merely the legendary flight of one people from enslavement by another. In the biblical author's eyes, it is the beginning of the formation of a community of believers in the one God. Here for the first time he uses this word: “assembly,” “community.” Whereas the accounts of the faith of individual people previously formed the backbone of sacred history, an entire people now takes the role of interlocutor and participant in God's works. This may be a good definition of “Church”: not merely a worshiping community, a charitable organization, or a “religious department,” but a fellowship united by shared participation in the history of the relationship between God and humanity.