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God Who Redeems - Pastor Tom Loghry
In Exodus 11:1-13:16, God institutes the Passover in remembrance of how he redeemed the Israelites from the final plague that brought death to all of the Egyptian firstborn.
Pastor Tom offers a correction in the following blog article: https://rocklandcommunityri.org/blog/correction-one-firstborn-too-many
Pastor Tom also notes that Psalm 49 was incorrectly attributed to David. The Psalm was actually authored by the sons of Korah, credited with 11 Psalms. It is difficult to pin down the exact date of this Psalm, suggestions range from 1000BC-539BC.
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Transcript:
Our scripture is taken from Exodus chapter 12, verses 21 through 23. Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, go at once and select animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and the sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
Who can save us? Who can save us? It's a question the Israelites pondered 3,500 years ago. It's a question that haunts humanity even now, who can save us and how can we be saved. Enslaved in Egypt, the people of Israel came to learn the answer. It was the Lord their God, Yahweh, who could save them. Moses and Aaron had been sent by God as his messengers of deliverance to give hope and instruction to the people and to deliver a command to Pharaoh that he was to let God's people go.
And yet it was God's intent in all this that Pharaoh would go on in his waywardness and his stubbornness and arrogance and refuse to let the people go. In fact, that was exactly God's plan in order that his glory and power might be revealed both to Egypt and to Israel. And as we'll see today, it was so that this instance of salvation would foreshadow a greater one to come.
Nine plagues have struck Egypt. Pharaoh has dismissed Moses yet again. But Moses has not yet left Pharaoh's presence. God has one more plague in store, and Moses is to reveal it now. So we begin in Exodus 11 verse one. Says now the Lord had said to Moses, I'll bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he'll let you go from here, and when he does, he'll drive you out completely. Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold. The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in the Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.
So finally, we've come to the point in this narrative where the people are going to be set free. In fact, so much so it says Pharaoh's gonna drive you out. He's not gonna just gonna let you go, he is gonna say, get outta here. Don't want you here anymore, because of all the trouble that was coming upon Egypt. And as they go, Moses is told to instruct the people that they would ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold. Now, this is something that God had already revealed to Moses previously in Exodus three, verses 21 through 22, and it was something that he had revealed generations before to Abraham.
In Genesis 15:14, God had told Abraham that his descendants would be captive in a foreign land, but they would come out with great possessions. And so what we see here yet again is the fulfillment of God's promise and the provision for his people. So continuing on to verse four, we see the details of this 10th plague.
So Moses said, this is what the Lord says: about midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who's at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt, worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any person or animal. Then you'll know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, go, you and all the people who follow you! After that, I will leave. Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh. So the plague that God is going to bring upon the Egyptians is the death of their firstborn. The death of their firstborn, not only of human beings, but also of their animals, which again, what God is doing here is signaling to them the depth of his judgment against them, and it's really a strike against the power of the Egyptian gods. Now, when we think about the firstborn, when we see that word born, we might tend to think of infants. Now, this would've included infants, but when we're talking about firstborn, we're also talking about adults. That's at least what the se, the text would've seemed to allow to be included here.
Now, what's really interesting is that this plague is not going to touch Pharaoh himself. And the reason why that's interesting is because typically the, the one who is Pharaoh is the firstborn son. That's how it goes in a monarchy. Now, this leads us to consider, perhaps this is a clue for the identity of who this Pharaoh is. I've already suggested that Amenhotep II is possibly the Pharaoh that Moses is dealing with here. The dates seem to match up fairly well, and another interesting fact is that Amenhotep the second, was not the firstborn son of his father. He's actually the second born son. And so in this way, he himself would not die by this plague.
And then in considering the death of his son, the one who followed him, Thutmose the fourth, seems to be maybe some indication that he was not his firstborn son. So we don't know these things for certain, but it's just interesting clues to see how this lines up with some of the historical record here. Even if we don't have all the answers, we can have confidence in the historicity of the text.
Now, Pharaoh's resistance here, Moses is angry, but he knows that Pharaoh's resistance is not to be, unforeseen. God has told them that this was going to happen. Verses nine through 10. Lord, it says, the Lord had said to Moses, Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you-- so that my wonders may be multiplied in Egypt. Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go out of his country. And so turning now to chapter 12, we learn the instructions that Moses and Aaron received from God and imparted' to the people so that they might be spared the judgment that was gonna come on Egypt.
What we're doing here is we're moving now into the origins of Passover. So chapter 12, beginning verse one. It says, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, this month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the 10th day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you, you choose must be year old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the 14th day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.
So some of the first details here we learn about Passover is that it's to happen in the first month. Now actually what God is doing here is instituting the first month in the Hebrew calendar, which is, at this time it's called Aviv. Later on it's known as Nisan, and they're instructed that on the 10th day of the month they're to select a lamb and it could be a sheep or, or a goat, which is an interesting detail. Sometimes, details we miss. It could have been a goat, so a sheep or, or a goat, but a lamb of, of either, it's to be a male, firstborn male, and they're to take it and make sure that this lamb will be sufficient for their household, and if it's more than sufficient, they're to share with their nearest neighbor.
The point, as you will see, is that the entirety of the lamb is to be consumed. They're not supposed to have leftovers here. Now, something else that we notice here about the lamb, notice that it's to be without blemish. It's supposed to be the best and, and pure, and this is gonna be significant as we go on here and consider kind of the larger picture of how this is anticipating Christ. It's supposed to be a perfect lamb. Now this applied to all of the Israelite sacrifices. They could never offer substandard sacrifices to God. It always had to be the best that they were giving to God, but the extra detail here is that it is to be a firstborn lamb. That wasn't stipulated for all the other sacrifices that the Israelites offered to God. And so this is a peculiar detail to the celebration of Passover because it's supposed to recall the history, it's supposed to recall everything that's happened here. And I think it's also supposed to point to Christ as, as we'll see. So they're supposed to take these lambs, they slaughter them on twilight of the 14th day and then moving on to verse seven, we see what they're supposed to do next. It says, then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they're to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roasted over a fire with the head, legs and internal organs. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you have to eat it: with your cloak, a cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord's Passover.
So interesting instructions here. They're supposed to slaughter this lamb and then they're supposed to take the blood and put it over their doorway. Now you might think, well, that's kind of gross that you would do that. It seems kind of gruesome, grisly, but we have to remember that blood represents something different in the ancient times than it does to us today.
Often we look at blood, we, again, we think of death 'cause that's what happens when blood is shed. But in the Hebrew world, blood represented life. And when we get into the book, book of Leviticus, we see the blood described in this sort of way. In Leviticus 17:11, talking about the atonement sacrifices, which is a different set of sacrifices than what's going on here, but it says this about the blood in Leviticus 17 verse 11, for the life of a creature is in the blood and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. So they're taking the blood, the life of, of this perfect lamb and they're putting it over their door, doorframe. Now, their purpose in doing this is, well, first it's a sign. It's a sign to God that this plague that's going to befall the Egyptian should not enter into their household. God's going to send his angel of death a destroyer through, not to enter into their household. And, but it's a meaningful, significant sign too, by the fact that it's under the blood of this lamb that is, is perfect, as though the people are covered by the perfection of, of that lamb, the firstborn lamb.
And so we're kind of, the significance all of this is going to build and build as we go along here. This is what they're to do with the blood of the lamb. And I'm not sure if I had a, I guess I didn't, I thought I had a picture of, of it. But they're to put the blood on the doorposts and then they're supposed to roast the lamb, not eat it raw or boil it. I don't know why you'd want to eat it raw, but the, this seems to maybe be an instruction to kind of take them away from some possibly pagan practices. They're to eat it with bitter herbs. I've heard that suggested that's to signify the bitterness of their slavery in in Egypt, and they're also supposed to eat bread without yeast, and we're gonna see that there's a whole festival of removing yeast from their homes and eating bread without leaven. The reason being is that it's supposed to be in keeping with what's about to transpire. They're supposed to be dressed and ready to go, to eat with haste because everything's gonna change so quickly. They're going to be going from being slaves whom Pharaoh refuses to let go to people that Pharaohs like, get outta here.
Circumstances are gonna just change like that. So continue on in verse 12. We read, on that same night I'll pass through Egypt and strike, strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, I'll bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I'm the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you in the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. So that's the picture I was, I was thinking of, of them putting the blood over the doorframe, and again, being covered by the blood of this perfect firstborn lamb. And, and what this is doing here altogether is God is once again making a distinction between Egypt and Israel. If this had just happened to everybody, then it would be tough to say, well, that this is the God of the Hebrews, but the fact that this is a message delivered by Moses, and then specific instructions are given to the people of Israel and in obedience to their God and in obedience to those commands, they're spared.
It all points to the fact that this is the one true God and he is all powerful. And so by putting this sign over the doorway, this destroyer, this angel of death is going to pass over, hence the name of this meal, Passover. And also notice here as, as I suggested before in terms of what God is doing here and bringing death upon the firstborn of Egypt in verse 12, God said, God is saying, I will bring judgment on, on all the gods of Egypt. Once again, it's not that God is merely afflicting the people of Egypt through all these plagues that have transpired, but he's, he's sending a religious message. He's indicting the Egyptian gods. He's showing your gods are no Gods, they're great failures. They can't protect you.
Moving on to verse 14, we segue from the day of Passover to the festival of unloved bread. It says, this is a day you're to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord, a lasting ordinance, with reference to Passover. And then for seven days you're to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day, remove the yeast from your house, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.
On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do. Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.
In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast from the evening of the 14th day until the evening of the 21st day. For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreign foreigner or native born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread. So notice here that this is a feast that's that's to apply to both Israel, Israelite and Non-Israelite. This is anticipating the times to come. Obviously this isn't applying to the Egyptians, but again, the point in instituting this feast is to institute a reminder to the people of Israel of God's redemption of them from Egyptian slavery. It's to remind them of the haste of their departure so that they didn't have time to to leaven bread and let it rise and all of that.
They just had to take the dough as it is, cook it up and eat it like that. There's also this connotation that. Yeast kind of takes on as, as we move forward in scripture of, of it representing sin. And so this idea of removing sin, of purifying your household completely of the presence of yeast, of purifying your life of sinfulness.
So then moving on to verses 21 through 27, Moses communicates his instruction to Israel. Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he'll see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he'll not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, what does this ceremony mean to you? Then tell them, it is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians. Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
So again, there's a recognition here that the, the people are in real danger if they don't obey God. I mean, that's a good rule to kind of follow just altogether, that we're to obey God's commands. Otherwise, we face the consequences for our disobedience, which is death. And again, what we see from these verses is that God is very intent in building in reminders for them of what he has done for them.
And that's a great reminder for us as we think about our children, our grandchildren. How often do we talk about the things that God has done? Now that could include in scripture, you know, making sure, you know, we're in the Christmas season, talking about the meaning of Christmas, talking about the meaning of Easter. But we can also talk about what God has done in our own personal lives and kind of setting up monuments in our, in our own lives, talking about how God delivered us in various ways and passing that on to the next generation. And that's what God is very intentionally doing here for Israel, that every generation will remember how he delivered them from, from Egypt.
So thereafter, we see God's judgment come upon Egypt. Picking up in verse 28, the Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. So we see once again, the full extent of this plague, that it goes from, it, it afflicts the livestock, it afflicts those who are in prison, their firstborn die, and it extends all the way to Pharaoh himself.
Now when we think about this, some, some of you might be kind of bothered about this idea, you know, just such, so much death that is happening here. One thing that's important for us to remember is that God's, our standing before God is different than our standing in, in relation to other people. God is our creator. He is our maker. Other human beings don't have that sort of standing over our lives. No one, no one has the right to take the life of someone else, but as we stand before God, he is the giver of our life. We don't have a right to our life. We don't have a right to our existence. It comes to us as a gift. And so what God gives he can just as rightly take away. We, we kind of pick up on this theme in the Book of Job. Job is a tough book, but it kind of delves into God's position in relation to us. And in chapter one of Job verses 21 through 22, Job says, naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord is taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. And it says, in all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. And I think that's an important sort of posture we should have as we consider the actions of God here, remembering that he is our creator. It's his prerogative whether a person lives or a person dies.
But then we can also add this too, as a matter of, of, of justice, it is completely due to us because of our rebellion against God that we would die. Think about Romans 3: 23. Paul says, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In Romans 6 23, the wages of sin is death. And we know that when Christ returns on the final day, on the day of judgment, that those outside of Christ are going to be cast into the lake of fire and, and be destroyed. And so ultimately, all those who remain in the rebellion, who refuse to repent, are going to face judgment for their sins. That's that's true of, of all of us. And so if that's, if that's justified in the end, it's certainly justified also in the immediate.
Now when all this happens, this, this really does get Pharaoh's attention. Verse 31, he summons Moses and Aaron back to himself, says, during the night, Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go worship the Lord as you've requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you've said and go. And also bless me. The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. For otherwise, they said, we will all die. So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. So as we think about Pharaoh summoning Moses and Aaron back to himself, you might recall that Pharaoh had told Moses he was never gonna see his face again. And then Moses confirmed that. He said, indeed, you won't. So we might think, oh, is this a contradiction here? No. I think we can imagine that Pharaoh's in a pretty big palace, he could have summoned them to the palace and had one of his representatives direct this message. And so they didn't literally have to see him face to face in order for this communication to transpire. And the message that he gives them is, is this is fine. Go and worship, do this, please. And he, he asks for their blessing, meaning he wants them to bless him so that this affliction comes to an end.
And here we see the reason why the yeast is not added to the dough, 'cause once again, they didn't have time. They didn't have time to, to have it rise and do all that. So they just have their, their dough, and they're going to eat unleavened bread. And then we move on to verse 35, where we see the plundering of the Egyptians transpire. It says the Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians. The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children. Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.
With the dough that Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves. Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord's divisions left Egypt.
So just kind of some highlights here from the, the details that we have. This is a lot of people, 600,000 men, not counting women and children. So you're talking somewhere between 1 million to 2 million people leaving. Verse 38 says that there was other people who went with them too, kind of a detail we might miss. So it wasn't just the Israelites leaving Egypt. There might have been other peoples that were living in Egypt who left with them, there might have been some of the Egyptians that decided, you know what, we're gonna throw in our lot with these people and we're gonna, we're gonna leave Egypt also. Now, they had been in Egypt for a long time. You think about it, we're, we're, we're celebrating this year, America's 250th anniversary. They're in Egypt for 430 years. So imagine how acclimated they'd become to just living in Egypt. For all they, for all intents and purposes, it was kind of, it felt like home, except they were enslaved there, and now they're, they're leaving. It's, it's just a huge, a huge change. Imagine us leaving en mass from America. Just a huge transformation, a huge transition here. Something that only God could bring about.
Continuing on in, in verse 42, we have more details about the regulations surrounding the commemoration of Passover. Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, these are the regulations for the Passover meal: no foreigner may eat it. Any slave you have bought may eat it after you've circumcised him, but a temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat it.
It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. The whole community of Israel must celebrate it. A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord's Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat it.
The same law applies both to the native born and to the foreigners residing among you. All the Israelites did just what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. And on that very day, the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.
So these regulations make it possible so that those who are going with the Israelites and then the foreigners who might come to reside in Israel later on, they too can share in this meal. But the males have to be circumcised. They basically have to become Jewish by entering into the covenant of circumcision.
Now, at this point, I want us to transition to thinking a little bit about Christ and how Christ relates to the celebration of Passover. You notice in verse 46 that it says that the bones of these Passover lambs, they were not to be broken. Now this connects in a very interesting way to Jesus. So as you might recall, when Jesus was crucified, it was in the wake of Passover. He, he celebrated the last supper, the Passover, with his disciples, and then he was crucified the following day. So already there's a natural connection there for us, interpreting the meaning of Christ's death on the cross in light of Passover.
But then it's boosted all the more when we see the little clues that the Apostle John puts in his gospel, that would lead us to make that sort of connection. In John 19, the Apostle John points out that the bones of Jesus were not broken. Now this fulfills other scriptures as well, but it certainly fulfills this one that the Passover lamb's bones were not to be broken. And so we see with Christ that his bones were not broken. And that's not, that's actually an exceptional thing because when they were crucified to the cross, in order to hasten death, they would break their legs so that they would expire more quickly. But when they came to do that with Christ, they found that he was already dead.
It also, there's also been observed that the fact that Jesus is given a drink of vinegar using hyssop, that that might also be a sign of connection. Because remember the blood on the doorpost is applied with hyssop, and hyssop is, is something that was used very often in, in rituals in the temple for purification.
Paul, the apostle Paul, picks up on this connection in 1 Corinthians five, verses seven through eight. Now he's addressing the Corinthians here because they've, they've been allowing some sin in, in their midst to go unaddressed, and so he uses yeast as a stand in for the word sin. So he says in 1 Corinthians five verses seven through eight, get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch-- as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And so what Paul is doing here is he's, he's drawing out the full meaning of, of, of Christ's death when it's set against this backdrop of, of Passover.
And, and we, we're able to see the significance of Passover all the more as we look to Christ, that what Christ is representing here is the redeeming and deliverance of, of God's people, of God forming a new people in Christ. And that's the, that's the key emphasis here as we look at Passover, because Passover was not, it was not a sacrifice of atonement. It was a sacrifice that prompted the people to remember their deliverance from Egypt. But there was other sacrifices that were sacrifices of atonement and Jesus fulfills them all. So we're just looking at one, one aspect of this through the Passover, and what we find is, is that the celebration of Passover is really actually harmonious with the sin offerings, because the people are covered by this blood applied to the doorframe, and they are people who are sinful. They need to be covered by the life of a lamb that is without blemish. And as we see in the case of Christ, as we understand the death of Christ on the cross, we understand that it's by his death, the death of one who is perfect and without sin, that we are spared and delivered from God's judgment and we are delivered from our slavery to sin.
This leads us to the other angle that points us to Christ in these verses. The first half of chapter 13 focuses on the consecration of the firstborn clean animals to be sacrificed and the human males to be redeemed. We read, we read there. It says, the Lord said to Moses, consecrate to me, every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal. Then Moses said to the people, commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast.
Today, in the month of Aviv, you are leaving. When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites, the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you are to observe this ceremony in this month: for seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the Lord.
Eat unleaven bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall yeast, any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders. On that day tell your son, I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt. This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the Lord is to be on your lips. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand. You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year.
After the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as he promised on oath to you and your ancestors, you're to give over to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the Lord. Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among your sons.
In days to come, when your son asks you, what does this mean, say to him, with a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed the firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt. This is why I sacrifice to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons. And it'll be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.
Something that's important for you to recall in hearing these instructions that God is giving to them about how they're to offer their firstborn of the clean animals and to redeem the firstborn of, of an unclean animal, the donkey, and to redeem the firstborn of their sons. The thing that we have to remember here is that God has called Israel his firstborn, and we remember that everything that is going on here is in remembrance of who God is, what God has done, and who he has consecrated them to be in delivering them as his people.
Verses 11 through 13, it explains how all firstborn males of the livestock are to be sacrificed to God. And what this is signifying is that they belong to God by right. They belong to God. Donkeys can't be offered as a sacrifice because they're unclean animals and so they need to be redeemed with a lamb, a clean animal, and then it says the sons are to be redeemed also.
Now these particular regulations are supposed to go into place once they're actually settled in the promised land. Now, it doesn't tell us how the sons are to be redeemed. Seems reasonable to suppose that they're redeemed in the same way that the donkeys are, by a lamb. The point here, though, is that all of these are to be completely consecrated to God.
In fact, what we see later on as God reveals his law more fully, once the people are enter, beginning to enter into the land, as they're on their way there in Numbers eight verses 14 through 18, we see that in fact the, the Levites, those who serve in the temple, that they stand in as the firstborn of Israel. On behalf of all the others who are born of the other tribes. Says in this way, you're to set the Levites apart from the other Israelites, and the Levites will be mine. After you've purified the Levites and presented them as a wave offering, they're to come to do their work at the tent of meeting. They are the Israelites who are to given, to be given wholly to me. I have taken them as my own in place of the firstborns, the first male offspring from every Israelite woman. Every firstborn male in Israel, whether human or animal, is mine. When I struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, I set them apart for myself. And I have taken the Levites in place of all the firstborn sons in Israel.
And what we learned from Numbers three verses 46 through 47 is that when the number of firstborn sons among the other tribes of the Levites was in excess of the number of Levites, they were to pay a redemption price of five shekels. Now what do we see here from the fact that the Levites are picked out as God's firstborn is they are given over completely to the service of God. So God's not interested in, in sacrificing them on an altar, but we see with the animals, they're completely given to God in sacrifice. And with these Levites, their lives are given completely to God in service.
So why raise this? Why, why are these details important? Well, because I think we can see Jesus here. Now, Jesus is not of the tribe of Levi. He's born of the tribe of, of Judah, to fulfill the promises of, of the Messiah, 'cause the Messiah comes from the line of David, of the tribe of Judah. But as we see, Jesus is going to introduce a new priesthood in himself. And what we learn, see in Luke's gospel is that he highlights the fact that Jesus is the first born. Now part of the reason why is to help explain, make clear that his origins are not from man, that his conception in the womb of Mary was something brought about by the Holy Spirit. But I think it also is to draw a line back to this and to make us think about the significance of the fact that he is the firstborn.
This is, the fact that he's a firstborn fulfills the stipulation of the Passover sacrifices. The male had to be a firstborn male. And as we have just read, we have this theme of the firstborn belonging to God. And so, in Luke two, verses six through seven, Luke records, he says, while they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
Then we look later in the chapter in verses 22 through 24, and it says, when the time came for the purification rights required by the law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of of the Lord, every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord, a pair of doves or two young pigeons. Now, you'll notice there that there's a sacrifice offered, but the sacrifice is not offered for Jesus, it's for Mary's purification. They had sacrifices that they had to offer after a woman gave birth.
And yet, we see Jesus as being presented here to be consecrated for the Lord. You see that quote, every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord. Where's that quoting from? It's quoting from Exodus 13 verse two. So we see Jesus being brought to the temple. He's being consecrated to the Lord, and yet we don't see any record of a payment being given. Well that's interesting. They didn't pay five shekels, and he is not of the tribe of Levi. Now what I think that suggests is that he is the payment. He's being consecrated, given completely over to God. He's stepping forward to serve as, as priest, and that's who Christ is. He is our great high priest.
He is serving at the right hand of the father, interceding on our behalf, presenting himself as this perfect lamb, the lamb who is slain for our sins. In Hebrews 10, verses 11 through 14, we see this contrast between. The priestly duty of Jesus and the priestly duties that were fulfilled by the Levites. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest, talking about Jesus, had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
You see, what Jesus is doing as this firstborn, this one who is this priest, is he's establishing in himself a church of the firstborn. That's what the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12:23. He calls us the Church of the firstborn. Well, how do we come to have that status as God's firstborn? It's through Jesus, the one who's the true firstborn. God redeems us in Jesus Christ, and so we belong to him. We are his firstborn now in, in a pattern following the pattern of the people of Israel, how they were redeemed from Egypt and called God's firstborn.
What we have in Christ is the ultimate deliverance. Yes, at the time of Exodus God delivered the Israelites from death on that occasion under the blood of the Passover lambs, but eventually they all did succumb to death. And so do we all.
In Psalm 49, King David says this, no one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them-- the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough-- so that they should live on forever and not see decay. Seems pretty hopeless, right?
Who can save us from death? How can we be saved? No mere man is enough. But there is one who is able to redeem us.
He then says in verse 15, but God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself. Now you have to understand in the Old Testament, we don't have too much talk about the afterlife, of what comes after death, and yet we see David express such confidence in here of God's ability to redeem him from death.
Now, how is God going to do this? He does this through his son, Jesus Christ, our Passover Lamb, the one who is fully human but also in fact fully God, God in the flesh. He dies on the cross, a death that would otherwise justly and hopelessly consume us all, so that under his blood, under his perfect life, we can be raised and spared the coming judgment. He died so that we might belong to God.
Let yourself be amazed by these details. Wonder at how nearly 1500 years before Jesus lived, we see the foreshadowing of his appearance in the events of Exodus. See how the groundwork is laid, so that King David can say a thousand years before Christ lived that he was confident that God would redeem him from death. It all comes together in the one who died under the shadow of Passover and three days later conquered the grave. It's a long history, but it's God's sure plan and we are part of it. So rest under his guiding hand, the hand of the one who redeems us. Let's pray.
Dear Father, we, we are so thankful for your faithfulness. We see how you are faithful to your promises in the pages of Exodus, how your promises to Abraham are fulfilled and the promises you gave to Moses are fulfilled, that you would indeed deliver Israel from their slavery in Egypt.
And Father, we are just amazed by how you so intentionally delivered them in a manner that would foreshadow the coming of Christ that you delivered in them in a way so that we could understand the significance of Christ. That just as they were delivered from death under the blood of a firstborn perfect lamb we are truly delivered once and for all under the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you for redeeming us in him. Father, we pray that you would help us to remember this. Remember his sacrifice. And to trust in you. To trust in you through difficult circumstances as the Israelites lived, that our salvation that has appeared, Jesus Christ in the flesh, that he will appear to us once again on the day of his return.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we worship God and hear the preaching of his word. It's our joy to welcome you into our community
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By Rockland Community ChurchIn Exodus 11:1-13:16, God institutes the Passover in remembrance of how he redeemed the Israelites from the final plague that brought death to all of the Egyptian firstborn.
Pastor Tom offers a correction in the following blog article: https://rocklandcommunityri.org/blog/correction-one-firstborn-too-many
Pastor Tom also notes that Psalm 49 was incorrectly attributed to David. The Psalm was actually authored by the sons of Korah, credited with 11 Psalms. It is difficult to pin down the exact date of this Psalm, suggestions range from 1000BC-539BC.
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Transcript:
Our scripture is taken from Exodus chapter 12, verses 21 through 23. Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, go at once and select animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and the sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
Who can save us? Who can save us? It's a question the Israelites pondered 3,500 years ago. It's a question that haunts humanity even now, who can save us and how can we be saved. Enslaved in Egypt, the people of Israel came to learn the answer. It was the Lord their God, Yahweh, who could save them. Moses and Aaron had been sent by God as his messengers of deliverance to give hope and instruction to the people and to deliver a command to Pharaoh that he was to let God's people go.
And yet it was God's intent in all this that Pharaoh would go on in his waywardness and his stubbornness and arrogance and refuse to let the people go. In fact, that was exactly God's plan in order that his glory and power might be revealed both to Egypt and to Israel. And as we'll see today, it was so that this instance of salvation would foreshadow a greater one to come.
Nine plagues have struck Egypt. Pharaoh has dismissed Moses yet again. But Moses has not yet left Pharaoh's presence. God has one more plague in store, and Moses is to reveal it now. So we begin in Exodus 11 verse one. Says now the Lord had said to Moses, I'll bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he'll let you go from here, and when he does, he'll drive you out completely. Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold. The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in the Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.
So finally, we've come to the point in this narrative where the people are going to be set free. In fact, so much so it says Pharaoh's gonna drive you out. He's not gonna just gonna let you go, he is gonna say, get outta here. Don't want you here anymore, because of all the trouble that was coming upon Egypt. And as they go, Moses is told to instruct the people that they would ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold. Now, this is something that God had already revealed to Moses previously in Exodus three, verses 21 through 22, and it was something that he had revealed generations before to Abraham.
In Genesis 15:14, God had told Abraham that his descendants would be captive in a foreign land, but they would come out with great possessions. And so what we see here yet again is the fulfillment of God's promise and the provision for his people. So continuing on to verse four, we see the details of this 10th plague.
So Moses said, this is what the Lord says: about midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who's at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt, worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any person or animal. Then you'll know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, go, you and all the people who follow you! After that, I will leave. Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh. So the plague that God is going to bring upon the Egyptians is the death of their firstborn. The death of their firstborn, not only of human beings, but also of their animals, which again, what God is doing here is signaling to them the depth of his judgment against them, and it's really a strike against the power of the Egyptian gods. Now, when we think about the firstborn, when we see that word born, we might tend to think of infants. Now, this would've included infants, but when we're talking about firstborn, we're also talking about adults. That's at least what the se, the text would've seemed to allow to be included here.
Now, what's really interesting is that this plague is not going to touch Pharaoh himself. And the reason why that's interesting is because typically the, the one who is Pharaoh is the firstborn son. That's how it goes in a monarchy. Now, this leads us to consider, perhaps this is a clue for the identity of who this Pharaoh is. I've already suggested that Amenhotep II is possibly the Pharaoh that Moses is dealing with here. The dates seem to match up fairly well, and another interesting fact is that Amenhotep the second, was not the firstborn son of his father. He's actually the second born son. And so in this way, he himself would not die by this plague.
And then in considering the death of his son, the one who followed him, Thutmose the fourth, seems to be maybe some indication that he was not his firstborn son. So we don't know these things for certain, but it's just interesting clues to see how this lines up with some of the historical record here. Even if we don't have all the answers, we can have confidence in the historicity of the text.
Now, Pharaoh's resistance here, Moses is angry, but he knows that Pharaoh's resistance is not to be, unforeseen. God has told them that this was going to happen. Verses nine through 10. Lord, it says, the Lord had said to Moses, Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you-- so that my wonders may be multiplied in Egypt. Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go out of his country. And so turning now to chapter 12, we learn the instructions that Moses and Aaron received from God and imparted' to the people so that they might be spared the judgment that was gonna come on Egypt.
What we're doing here is we're moving now into the origins of Passover. So chapter 12, beginning verse one. It says, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, this month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the 10th day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you, you choose must be year old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the 14th day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.
So some of the first details here we learn about Passover is that it's to happen in the first month. Now actually what God is doing here is instituting the first month in the Hebrew calendar, which is, at this time it's called Aviv. Later on it's known as Nisan, and they're instructed that on the 10th day of the month they're to select a lamb and it could be a sheep or, or a goat, which is an interesting detail. Sometimes, details we miss. It could have been a goat, so a sheep or, or a goat, but a lamb of, of either, it's to be a male, firstborn male, and they're to take it and make sure that this lamb will be sufficient for their household, and if it's more than sufficient, they're to share with their nearest neighbor.
The point, as you will see, is that the entirety of the lamb is to be consumed. They're not supposed to have leftovers here. Now, something else that we notice here about the lamb, notice that it's to be without blemish. It's supposed to be the best and, and pure, and this is gonna be significant as we go on here and consider kind of the larger picture of how this is anticipating Christ. It's supposed to be a perfect lamb. Now this applied to all of the Israelite sacrifices. They could never offer substandard sacrifices to God. It always had to be the best that they were giving to God, but the extra detail here is that it is to be a firstborn lamb. That wasn't stipulated for all the other sacrifices that the Israelites offered to God. And so this is a peculiar detail to the celebration of Passover because it's supposed to recall the history, it's supposed to recall everything that's happened here. And I think it's also supposed to point to Christ as, as we'll see. So they're supposed to take these lambs, they slaughter them on twilight of the 14th day and then moving on to verse seven, we see what they're supposed to do next. It says, then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they're to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roasted over a fire with the head, legs and internal organs. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you have to eat it: with your cloak, a cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord's Passover.
So interesting instructions here. They're supposed to slaughter this lamb and then they're supposed to take the blood and put it over their doorway. Now you might think, well, that's kind of gross that you would do that. It seems kind of gruesome, grisly, but we have to remember that blood represents something different in the ancient times than it does to us today.
Often we look at blood, we, again, we think of death 'cause that's what happens when blood is shed. But in the Hebrew world, blood represented life. And when we get into the book, book of Leviticus, we see the blood described in this sort of way. In Leviticus 17:11, talking about the atonement sacrifices, which is a different set of sacrifices than what's going on here, but it says this about the blood in Leviticus 17 verse 11, for the life of a creature is in the blood and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. So they're taking the blood, the life of, of this perfect lamb and they're putting it over their door, doorframe. Now, their purpose in doing this is, well, first it's a sign. It's a sign to God that this plague that's going to befall the Egyptian should not enter into their household. God's going to send his angel of death a destroyer through, not to enter into their household. And, but it's a meaningful, significant sign too, by the fact that it's under the blood of this lamb that is, is perfect, as though the people are covered by the perfection of, of that lamb, the firstborn lamb.
And so we're kind of, the significance all of this is going to build and build as we go along here. This is what they're to do with the blood of the lamb. And I'm not sure if I had a, I guess I didn't, I thought I had a picture of, of it. But they're to put the blood on the doorposts and then they're supposed to roast the lamb, not eat it raw or boil it. I don't know why you'd want to eat it raw, but the, this seems to maybe be an instruction to kind of take them away from some possibly pagan practices. They're to eat it with bitter herbs. I've heard that suggested that's to signify the bitterness of their slavery in in Egypt, and they're also supposed to eat bread without yeast, and we're gonna see that there's a whole festival of removing yeast from their homes and eating bread without leaven. The reason being is that it's supposed to be in keeping with what's about to transpire. They're supposed to be dressed and ready to go, to eat with haste because everything's gonna change so quickly. They're going to be going from being slaves whom Pharaoh refuses to let go to people that Pharaohs like, get outta here.
Circumstances are gonna just change like that. So continue on in verse 12. We read, on that same night I'll pass through Egypt and strike, strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, I'll bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I'm the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you in the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. So that's the picture I was, I was thinking of, of them putting the blood over the doorframe, and again, being covered by the blood of this perfect firstborn lamb. And, and what this is doing here altogether is God is once again making a distinction between Egypt and Israel. If this had just happened to everybody, then it would be tough to say, well, that this is the God of the Hebrews, but the fact that this is a message delivered by Moses, and then specific instructions are given to the people of Israel and in obedience to their God and in obedience to those commands, they're spared.
It all points to the fact that this is the one true God and he is all powerful. And so by putting this sign over the doorway, this destroyer, this angel of death is going to pass over, hence the name of this meal, Passover. And also notice here as, as I suggested before in terms of what God is doing here and bringing death upon the firstborn of Egypt in verse 12, God said, God is saying, I will bring judgment on, on all the gods of Egypt. Once again, it's not that God is merely afflicting the people of Egypt through all these plagues that have transpired, but he's, he's sending a religious message. He's indicting the Egyptian gods. He's showing your gods are no Gods, they're great failures. They can't protect you.
Moving on to verse 14, we segue from the day of Passover to the festival of unloved bread. It says, this is a day you're to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord, a lasting ordinance, with reference to Passover. And then for seven days you're to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day, remove the yeast from your house, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.
On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do. Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.
In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast from the evening of the 14th day until the evening of the 21st day. For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreign foreigner or native born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread. So notice here that this is a feast that's that's to apply to both Israel, Israelite and Non-Israelite. This is anticipating the times to come. Obviously this isn't applying to the Egyptians, but again, the point in instituting this feast is to institute a reminder to the people of Israel of God's redemption of them from Egyptian slavery. It's to remind them of the haste of their departure so that they didn't have time to to leaven bread and let it rise and all of that.
They just had to take the dough as it is, cook it up and eat it like that. There's also this connotation that. Yeast kind of takes on as, as we move forward in scripture of, of it representing sin. And so this idea of removing sin, of purifying your household completely of the presence of yeast, of purifying your life of sinfulness.
So then moving on to verses 21 through 27, Moses communicates his instruction to Israel. Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he'll see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he'll not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, what does this ceremony mean to you? Then tell them, it is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians. Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
So again, there's a recognition here that the, the people are in real danger if they don't obey God. I mean, that's a good rule to kind of follow just altogether, that we're to obey God's commands. Otherwise, we face the consequences for our disobedience, which is death. And again, what we see from these verses is that God is very intent in building in reminders for them of what he has done for them.
And that's a great reminder for us as we think about our children, our grandchildren. How often do we talk about the things that God has done? Now that could include in scripture, you know, making sure, you know, we're in the Christmas season, talking about the meaning of Christmas, talking about the meaning of Easter. But we can also talk about what God has done in our own personal lives and kind of setting up monuments in our, in our own lives, talking about how God delivered us in various ways and passing that on to the next generation. And that's what God is very intentionally doing here for Israel, that every generation will remember how he delivered them from, from Egypt.
So thereafter, we see God's judgment come upon Egypt. Picking up in verse 28, the Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. So we see once again, the full extent of this plague, that it goes from, it, it afflicts the livestock, it afflicts those who are in prison, their firstborn die, and it extends all the way to Pharaoh himself.
Now when we think about this, some, some of you might be kind of bothered about this idea, you know, just such, so much death that is happening here. One thing that's important for us to remember is that God's, our standing before God is different than our standing in, in relation to other people. God is our creator. He is our maker. Other human beings don't have that sort of standing over our lives. No one, no one has the right to take the life of someone else, but as we stand before God, he is the giver of our life. We don't have a right to our life. We don't have a right to our existence. It comes to us as a gift. And so what God gives he can just as rightly take away. We, we kind of pick up on this theme in the Book of Job. Job is a tough book, but it kind of delves into God's position in relation to us. And in chapter one of Job verses 21 through 22, Job says, naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord is taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. And it says, in all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. And I think that's an important sort of posture we should have as we consider the actions of God here, remembering that he is our creator. It's his prerogative whether a person lives or a person dies.
But then we can also add this too, as a matter of, of, of justice, it is completely due to us because of our rebellion against God that we would die. Think about Romans 3: 23. Paul says, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In Romans 6 23, the wages of sin is death. And we know that when Christ returns on the final day, on the day of judgment, that those outside of Christ are going to be cast into the lake of fire and, and be destroyed. And so ultimately, all those who remain in the rebellion, who refuse to repent, are going to face judgment for their sins. That's that's true of, of all of us. And so if that's, if that's justified in the end, it's certainly justified also in the immediate.
Now when all this happens, this, this really does get Pharaoh's attention. Verse 31, he summons Moses and Aaron back to himself, says, during the night, Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go worship the Lord as you've requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you've said and go. And also bless me. The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. For otherwise, they said, we will all die. So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. So as we think about Pharaoh summoning Moses and Aaron back to himself, you might recall that Pharaoh had told Moses he was never gonna see his face again. And then Moses confirmed that. He said, indeed, you won't. So we might think, oh, is this a contradiction here? No. I think we can imagine that Pharaoh's in a pretty big palace, he could have summoned them to the palace and had one of his representatives direct this message. And so they didn't literally have to see him face to face in order for this communication to transpire. And the message that he gives them is, is this is fine. Go and worship, do this, please. And he, he asks for their blessing, meaning he wants them to bless him so that this affliction comes to an end.
And here we see the reason why the yeast is not added to the dough, 'cause once again, they didn't have time. They didn't have time to, to have it rise and do all that. So they just have their, their dough, and they're going to eat unleavened bread. And then we move on to verse 35, where we see the plundering of the Egyptians transpire. It says the Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians. The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children. Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.
With the dough that Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves. Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord's divisions left Egypt.
So just kind of some highlights here from the, the details that we have. This is a lot of people, 600,000 men, not counting women and children. So you're talking somewhere between 1 million to 2 million people leaving. Verse 38 says that there was other people who went with them too, kind of a detail we might miss. So it wasn't just the Israelites leaving Egypt. There might have been other peoples that were living in Egypt who left with them, there might have been some of the Egyptians that decided, you know what, we're gonna throw in our lot with these people and we're gonna, we're gonna leave Egypt also. Now, they had been in Egypt for a long time. You think about it, we're, we're, we're celebrating this year, America's 250th anniversary. They're in Egypt for 430 years. So imagine how acclimated they'd become to just living in Egypt. For all they, for all intents and purposes, it was kind of, it felt like home, except they were enslaved there, and now they're, they're leaving. It's, it's just a huge, a huge change. Imagine us leaving en mass from America. Just a huge transformation, a huge transition here. Something that only God could bring about.
Continuing on in, in verse 42, we have more details about the regulations surrounding the commemoration of Passover. Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, these are the regulations for the Passover meal: no foreigner may eat it. Any slave you have bought may eat it after you've circumcised him, but a temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat it.
It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. The whole community of Israel must celebrate it. A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord's Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat it.
The same law applies both to the native born and to the foreigners residing among you. All the Israelites did just what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. And on that very day, the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.
So these regulations make it possible so that those who are going with the Israelites and then the foreigners who might come to reside in Israel later on, they too can share in this meal. But the males have to be circumcised. They basically have to become Jewish by entering into the covenant of circumcision.
Now, at this point, I want us to transition to thinking a little bit about Christ and how Christ relates to the celebration of Passover. You notice in verse 46 that it says that the bones of these Passover lambs, they were not to be broken. Now this connects in a very interesting way to Jesus. So as you might recall, when Jesus was crucified, it was in the wake of Passover. He, he celebrated the last supper, the Passover, with his disciples, and then he was crucified the following day. So already there's a natural connection there for us, interpreting the meaning of Christ's death on the cross in light of Passover.
But then it's boosted all the more when we see the little clues that the Apostle John puts in his gospel, that would lead us to make that sort of connection. In John 19, the Apostle John points out that the bones of Jesus were not broken. Now this fulfills other scriptures as well, but it certainly fulfills this one that the Passover lamb's bones were not to be broken. And so we see with Christ that his bones were not broken. And that's not, that's actually an exceptional thing because when they were crucified to the cross, in order to hasten death, they would break their legs so that they would expire more quickly. But when they came to do that with Christ, they found that he was already dead.
It also, there's also been observed that the fact that Jesus is given a drink of vinegar using hyssop, that that might also be a sign of connection. Because remember the blood on the doorpost is applied with hyssop, and hyssop is, is something that was used very often in, in rituals in the temple for purification.
Paul, the apostle Paul, picks up on this connection in 1 Corinthians five, verses seven through eight. Now he's addressing the Corinthians here because they've, they've been allowing some sin in, in their midst to go unaddressed, and so he uses yeast as a stand in for the word sin. So he says in 1 Corinthians five verses seven through eight, get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch-- as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And so what Paul is doing here is he's, he's drawing out the full meaning of, of, of Christ's death when it's set against this backdrop of, of Passover.
And, and we, we're able to see the significance of Passover all the more as we look to Christ, that what Christ is representing here is the redeeming and deliverance of, of God's people, of God forming a new people in Christ. And that's the, that's the key emphasis here as we look at Passover, because Passover was not, it was not a sacrifice of atonement. It was a sacrifice that prompted the people to remember their deliverance from Egypt. But there was other sacrifices that were sacrifices of atonement and Jesus fulfills them all. So we're just looking at one, one aspect of this through the Passover, and what we find is, is that the celebration of Passover is really actually harmonious with the sin offerings, because the people are covered by this blood applied to the doorframe, and they are people who are sinful. They need to be covered by the life of a lamb that is without blemish. And as we see in the case of Christ, as we understand the death of Christ on the cross, we understand that it's by his death, the death of one who is perfect and without sin, that we are spared and delivered from God's judgment and we are delivered from our slavery to sin.
This leads us to the other angle that points us to Christ in these verses. The first half of chapter 13 focuses on the consecration of the firstborn clean animals to be sacrificed and the human males to be redeemed. We read, we read there. It says, the Lord said to Moses, consecrate to me, every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal. Then Moses said to the people, commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast.
Today, in the month of Aviv, you are leaving. When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites, the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you are to observe this ceremony in this month: for seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the Lord.
Eat unleaven bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall yeast, any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders. On that day tell your son, I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt. This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the Lord is to be on your lips. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand. You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year.
After the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as he promised on oath to you and your ancestors, you're to give over to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the Lord. Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among your sons.
In days to come, when your son asks you, what does this mean, say to him, with a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed the firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt. This is why I sacrifice to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons. And it'll be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.
Something that's important for you to recall in hearing these instructions that God is giving to them about how they're to offer their firstborn of the clean animals and to redeem the firstborn of, of an unclean animal, the donkey, and to redeem the firstborn of their sons. The thing that we have to remember here is that God has called Israel his firstborn, and we remember that everything that is going on here is in remembrance of who God is, what God has done, and who he has consecrated them to be in delivering them as his people.
Verses 11 through 13, it explains how all firstborn males of the livestock are to be sacrificed to God. And what this is signifying is that they belong to God by right. They belong to God. Donkeys can't be offered as a sacrifice because they're unclean animals and so they need to be redeemed with a lamb, a clean animal, and then it says the sons are to be redeemed also.
Now these particular regulations are supposed to go into place once they're actually settled in the promised land. Now, it doesn't tell us how the sons are to be redeemed. Seems reasonable to suppose that they're redeemed in the same way that the donkeys are, by a lamb. The point here, though, is that all of these are to be completely consecrated to God.
In fact, what we see later on as God reveals his law more fully, once the people are enter, beginning to enter into the land, as they're on their way there in Numbers eight verses 14 through 18, we see that in fact the, the Levites, those who serve in the temple, that they stand in as the firstborn of Israel. On behalf of all the others who are born of the other tribes. Says in this way, you're to set the Levites apart from the other Israelites, and the Levites will be mine. After you've purified the Levites and presented them as a wave offering, they're to come to do their work at the tent of meeting. They are the Israelites who are to given, to be given wholly to me. I have taken them as my own in place of the firstborns, the first male offspring from every Israelite woman. Every firstborn male in Israel, whether human or animal, is mine. When I struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, I set them apart for myself. And I have taken the Levites in place of all the firstborn sons in Israel.
And what we learned from Numbers three verses 46 through 47 is that when the number of firstborn sons among the other tribes of the Levites was in excess of the number of Levites, they were to pay a redemption price of five shekels. Now what do we see here from the fact that the Levites are picked out as God's firstborn is they are given over completely to the service of God. So God's not interested in, in sacrificing them on an altar, but we see with the animals, they're completely given to God in sacrifice. And with these Levites, their lives are given completely to God in service.
So why raise this? Why, why are these details important? Well, because I think we can see Jesus here. Now, Jesus is not of the tribe of Levi. He's born of the tribe of, of Judah, to fulfill the promises of, of the Messiah, 'cause the Messiah comes from the line of David, of the tribe of Judah. But as we see, Jesus is going to introduce a new priesthood in himself. And what we learn, see in Luke's gospel is that he highlights the fact that Jesus is the first born. Now part of the reason why is to help explain, make clear that his origins are not from man, that his conception in the womb of Mary was something brought about by the Holy Spirit. But I think it also is to draw a line back to this and to make us think about the significance of the fact that he is the firstborn.
This is, the fact that he's a firstborn fulfills the stipulation of the Passover sacrifices. The male had to be a firstborn male. And as we have just read, we have this theme of the firstborn belonging to God. And so, in Luke two, verses six through seven, Luke records, he says, while they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
Then we look later in the chapter in verses 22 through 24, and it says, when the time came for the purification rights required by the law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of of the Lord, every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord, a pair of doves or two young pigeons. Now, you'll notice there that there's a sacrifice offered, but the sacrifice is not offered for Jesus, it's for Mary's purification. They had sacrifices that they had to offer after a woman gave birth.
And yet, we see Jesus as being presented here to be consecrated for the Lord. You see that quote, every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord. Where's that quoting from? It's quoting from Exodus 13 verse two. So we see Jesus being brought to the temple. He's being consecrated to the Lord, and yet we don't see any record of a payment being given. Well that's interesting. They didn't pay five shekels, and he is not of the tribe of Levi. Now what I think that suggests is that he is the payment. He's being consecrated, given completely over to God. He's stepping forward to serve as, as priest, and that's who Christ is. He is our great high priest.
He is serving at the right hand of the father, interceding on our behalf, presenting himself as this perfect lamb, the lamb who is slain for our sins. In Hebrews 10, verses 11 through 14, we see this contrast between. The priestly duty of Jesus and the priestly duties that were fulfilled by the Levites. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest, talking about Jesus, had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
You see, what Jesus is doing as this firstborn, this one who is this priest, is he's establishing in himself a church of the firstborn. That's what the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12:23. He calls us the Church of the firstborn. Well, how do we come to have that status as God's firstborn? It's through Jesus, the one who's the true firstborn. God redeems us in Jesus Christ, and so we belong to him. We are his firstborn now in, in a pattern following the pattern of the people of Israel, how they were redeemed from Egypt and called God's firstborn.
What we have in Christ is the ultimate deliverance. Yes, at the time of Exodus God delivered the Israelites from death on that occasion under the blood of the Passover lambs, but eventually they all did succumb to death. And so do we all.
In Psalm 49, King David says this, no one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them-- the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough-- so that they should live on forever and not see decay. Seems pretty hopeless, right?
Who can save us from death? How can we be saved? No mere man is enough. But there is one who is able to redeem us.
He then says in verse 15, but God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself. Now you have to understand in the Old Testament, we don't have too much talk about the afterlife, of what comes after death, and yet we see David express such confidence in here of God's ability to redeem him from death.
Now, how is God going to do this? He does this through his son, Jesus Christ, our Passover Lamb, the one who is fully human but also in fact fully God, God in the flesh. He dies on the cross, a death that would otherwise justly and hopelessly consume us all, so that under his blood, under his perfect life, we can be raised and spared the coming judgment. He died so that we might belong to God.
Let yourself be amazed by these details. Wonder at how nearly 1500 years before Jesus lived, we see the foreshadowing of his appearance in the events of Exodus. See how the groundwork is laid, so that King David can say a thousand years before Christ lived that he was confident that God would redeem him from death. It all comes together in the one who died under the shadow of Passover and three days later conquered the grave. It's a long history, but it's God's sure plan and we are part of it. So rest under his guiding hand, the hand of the one who redeems us. Let's pray.
Dear Father, we, we are so thankful for your faithfulness. We see how you are faithful to your promises in the pages of Exodus, how your promises to Abraham are fulfilled and the promises you gave to Moses are fulfilled, that you would indeed deliver Israel from their slavery in Egypt.
And Father, we are just amazed by how you so intentionally delivered them in a manner that would foreshadow the coming of Christ that you delivered in them in a way so that we could understand the significance of Christ. That just as they were delivered from death under the blood of a firstborn perfect lamb we are truly delivered once and for all under the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you for redeeming us in him. Father, we pray that you would help us to remember this. Remember his sacrifice. And to trust in you. To trust in you through difficult circumstances as the Israelites lived, that our salvation that has appeared, Jesus Christ in the flesh, that he will appear to us once again on the day of his return.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we worship God and hear the preaching of his word. It's our joy to welcome you into our community
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)