As the girls and boys go and learn of that truth of who the risen
Lord Jesus is.
We're going to look at this longer passage in Exodus.
It was one of those.
Well, there's two things about this passage.
First of all, 28 verses, it's longer than what we're used to or
have been used to, but if you notice it repeats itself a number
of times.
And so I felt put it together so that we can see it in its full
context of what the people are being told and how they respond.
But secondly, it's one of those passages in scripture that
really in its reading it is self explanatory.
It would have been enough to read it to know what God's heart
is towards his people in this.
But you expected to be here to half 12.
So I'm going to keep you here to then at least.
And we're going to look at a few things to understand from this
passage that aren't simply reserved for Egypt, but that have
bearing for us still today.
Now I think it's quite universal when we prepare to go on
holidays.
There are different rules for different people in our households
and each one takes a different one on.
Perhaps you are the one in your household that does everything
and that's good.
You have your system.
You know for sure that when you step out the door you are in
control of absolutely everything.
Or maybe you're in a household where those jobs indeed are shared.
Someone packs the suitcases, someone packs the car, someone makes
sure the house is locked up, someone.
Someone carries the passport and someone weighs the luggage to
make sure that it doesn't exceed the allowances of the airline.
Now the method of divide and conquer has its strengths.
Until something goes wrong.
Up until this point it feels like a well oiled machine of getting
everything sorted out of the house and into the car.
But once there's a bump in the road sign some way by someone forgetting
something, then accusations will come.
Well, that was your job and it really can be hit or miss of trying
to get away when you're traveling with others and you've
had a part to play in getting everyone out the door.
Now that may be what happens in your household, or maybe particularly
men.
It all just wonderfully happens and all you have to do is
sit in the front seat and that's it.
Well, we are thinking about a journey today.
A journey where the people had to get ready.
It wasn't about suitcases and who did what.
Although I'm sure there were defined rules within these households
of who had to do What?
But the instructions are very clear.
It's almost as if the people are given a laminated sheet of the
steps that they have to do so that they can leave the land of Egypt
as God promised.
And they can do that.
Well.
Well, the children of Israel hadn't had to travel in over 400
years.
Remember, they moved down as 70 when Joseph was there.
And now, 400 years later, their enslavement had meant that
they simply went from house to place of work and back again, day
after day after day.
And that was their enslavement.
That was their lot.
There was no leaving the land.
There was no holiday or vacation.
It was simply work and home.
But things have been very different for the children of Israel
in the weeks that have been approaching.
Chapter 12.
They had seen the plagues of judgment fall on the Egyptians, and
they were very aware of how their masters were responding.
With nine plagues coming onto the land, the people of Egypt were
having a bit of a respite.
Now, they were probably getting their homes sorted again
or out in the fields to look at the devastation of the crops.
But while the Egyptians were focusing on the plagues of the past,
the children of Israel were preparing for the final plague yet
to come.
But the instructions given to them here in chapter 12 were not
simply for the night in which they would leave the land of Egypt,
but it was to be a memorial that they would practice each year
as a reminder of the Lord's deliverance of his people from.
From Egypt.
And verse one confirms that the instructions are given to Moses
and Aaron so that they could then retell them to the people.
Verse two tells us that the current month in which they're in
in Egypt will now be the start of their year.
Now, this is significant for the people.
It's not just a little detail for us, but what is God telling his
people there to do as they move from one year into the next?
And we know the significance of that from the 31st of December
over to the 1st of January.
Well, he was telling them that as they started a new year, they
were to remember how God had brought them out of slavery and redeemed
them from the hands of the Egyptians.
And so their calendar will now begin with a reminder of the Lord's
redemption.
Initially, this month, first month of the year for the children
of Israel will be called Abib, which is an Egyptian or sorry, a
Canaanite word.
And then later it will become Nisan, which comes from the Babylonian.
So that as they came out of exile, the first month was renamed
and it falls sometimes between or sometime between March and April.
Now, I hope there's a few dots being joined up for you here.
Passover links to Easter.
And when is Easter, March or April, which is the traditional start
of the Jewish calendar.
But the Lord continues in his instructions that on the 10th day
of this first month, each household is to get ready and to
get a lamb.
But you know, the Lord remains good even in these instructions.
He's caring for his people.
He knows that they're not all the same.
And so look at what he says in verse four.
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 each
person that will eat.
So just like today, the households of Israel were varying
in sizes, and no one was to be left out, nor were they to be overboard.
So if a whole lamb provides too much meat for a household, then
neighbors are to share in the lamb.
And the lamb cannot have physical blemishes.
Now, it could be taken from the sheep or the goats and it would
have this.
It would be without blemish, because then if it had a blemish,
it would be less valuable and it would be an improper sacrifice
brought before the Lord.
The Lord says it also must be male, and we link this to what is
about to happen.
A male is given by blood sacrifice, and who will be sacrificed
by way of punishment for their rejection of God?
The firstborn sons of Egypt.
But it must also be a year old.
And this seems now to be what is the ideal age for sacrificial
animals as recorded in other parts of the Old Testament.
So even though God is not setting down sacrificial laws at
this point, he's already getting the people ready for what
he expects of his community beyond Egypt and how they will worship
Him.
God is truly gracious.
He doesn't take them out and then tell them, but he's warming
their hearts to this sense of worship.
What does it mean to truly worship God?
Yes, it means to worship him his way.
But he is gracious enough to lead us into worship.
We don't have to make it up.
He's given it to us in His Word, and this is what we see here
with his people.
And so people who desire to worship God today, because they know
Christ as their Savior, follow that way of worship as God has given
it to us in Scripture so that we can be faithful in what he commands
us.
Now, verse six tells us that the Lamb is not to be slaughtered
until the 14th day of the month.
And no reason is given for this four day wait from when they
go out to get it and when it is slaughtered and then the instruction
is given that these lambs are all to be slaughtered at the same
time, twilight perhaps, since that's the beginning of the night,
the time when the Lord will pass through the land and therefore
when the lamb's blood would come to play its significant role.
And the passage tells us on three occasions that the blood is
to be smeared, and it's the third one that we're told, it's with
Hyssop that is to be smeared on each house's doorposts and lintel,
the sides and the top of the doorposts, signifying to the Lord
that he should not enter that door to kill the firstborn, since
the lamb's lifeblood stands in its place.
And so the Lord will therefore pass over that home in peace.
Again, are you joining the dots?
Why is it called Passover?
Because quite literally, as the Lord moves throughout Egypt,
as we discover a name, the Destroyer, he passes over the homes
with blood on their doors so that the people can enjoy this meal
that will forever be called the Lord's Passover.
Verse 9 tells us that the meat of the lamb is to be eaten, roasted,
not raw or boiled.
And living in this part of the world, I have discovered that the
eating of lamb is quite a debate.
It's quite literally, half of you love it and half of you hate
it.
I didn't realize it could be so divisive.
The children of Israel had no choice.
There was no likes or dislikes in this one.
The Lord told them clearly it was to be a lamb roasted and eaten.
You see, the rule against consuming blood in Genesis 9:4 explains
why the meat cannot be raw.
But the reason why it cannot be boiled, which is allowed in other
sacrifices, as we will see under sacrificial law.
It's not given to us here, but what we do know is the entire lamb
is to be eaten with the accompaniment of unleavened bread,
that is bread without yeast, and also bitter herbs.
Now, the unleavened bread will commemorate the haste with which
the Israelites leave Egypt.
Yeast has to rise.
There was no time for this.
So they simply made what they normally made without the yeast and
ate flat bread.
But the bitter herbs have a more significant meaning.
And it actually takes us back to the very beginning of Exodus.
You see, the word for bitter is related to the verb describing
how the Egyptians had made the Israelites lives better with hard
labor.
And this is what's told us there in the first chapter in verse
14, they made their lives better.
That's the Egyptians made the lives of the Israelites lives better
with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work
in the fields.
In all their hard labor, the Egyptians used them rich, ruthlessly.
These were people who didn't have lives.
And what was the best word to describe what they were living in?
Enslavement, Bitter or bitterness?
It wasn't that they had an attitude, but I'm sure they did.
But it wasn't that bitterness towards the Egyptians and the taskmasters
they had.
It was actually that their lives were bitter.
Be that with the taste of the sweat going down their brow, be it
with the limbs that were aching and sore each day, and the
bitter medicine they would have to take to try and heal and
restore.
It was this work of slavery that made the children cry out to
the Lord to cry out that their lives were better.
And he has heard and he has answered, but he wants them to remember
what they have been redeemed from, what they've been rescued from.
And so these bitter herbs will now remind the Israelites and that
the Lord is delivering them from a bitter existence.
Well, the Lord goes on to tell the people that all the meat is to
be eaten that night, and any leftovers are to be burned.
And again, the Lord gives no reason for why this is.
But the same requirement will be applied to peace offerings of
Thanksgiving in Leviticus 7:15.
And the context there suggests that the meat is considered holy.
And so it is to be burned to lessen the chance of it coming, becoming
defiled by insects or rodents coming and eating it.
And as they're eating this meal, the children of Israel are
to be ready to leave at a moment's notice.
They're to be dressed.
Did you get that?
In the third recounting of their cloaks hitched into their belts
with their sandals on their feet.
This is not what they would do in their homes.
They certainly wouldn't be holding a staff, a walking aid ready
to go.
A meal was to be enjoyed and timely enjoyed where you could relax
and not have your work sandals on or not have your cloak on.
And so this was a very different meal altogether, because
they were to be ready for a journey, and they were to eat the
food quickly, as though in anxious haste, waiting for that first
light of the new day to come.
The people are not to be comfortable and thereby miss their
opportunity to leave the land of Egypt at The end of verse 11,
we're told the name of this sacrifice, and it is the Lord's Passover.
The significance of that name is not simply a Jewish festival or
holiday that's still celebrated today.
It is actually telling us what the Lord did to his people.
He passed over them the judgment that should have been theirs,
but because of the blood of the Lamb, he passed over.
And the significance of this is explained in verses 12 and 13.
Verse 12 retells what has already been told to Pharaoh, that
the Lord's judgment will fall on both men and animals.
But the Lord goes further here and says that this will bring judgment
on all the gods of Egypt.
Now, the Egyptians believed in many gods, and we've been introduced
to some of them throughout through these plagues.
And while previous strikes may have highlighted that certain ones
of their gods were powerless before the Lord, the crushing devastation
of this strike will make clear that they are all powerless before
Him.
What does he declare about himself?
That he is the Lord God.
He is Israel's God, and he is the only true God.
None of these false gods worshipped by the Egyptians can deliver
them from his hand.
The Lord Almighty is God.
The other gods are not.
But the Lord continues in verse 13.
The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are.
And when I see the blood, I will pass over you.
No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
Now, by this stage, I'm sure the people may wonder why they have
to go through all of this.
And here the Lord tells them that it's all about their salvation.
Because their salvation is not just coming out of the land of slavery,
but their salvation is in the blood of the Lamb.
As the angel of death, or as the Lord the Destroyer will move
through the land of Egypt, the sign of salvation will be the blood
on the doorposts.
In many churches around the world, their church doors are red
to signify this very moment.
Not that they believe the Lord is going to pass over judgment, but
it's that sign of redemption.
Their redemption is not in the footsteps out of Egypt.
Their redemption comes by trusting in the blood of the Lamb.
And so this sign on the doorpost will direct the angel to
move on and so save that household from death.
Again, I remember, or I'm reminded of the 1956 film starring
Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner in the Ten Commandments.
This scene that I've just described is portrayed with people
waiting.
They're waiting in their homes, around tables, and there's
an eerie silence.
It's a Tense moment as you see them dressed and ready to go.
But it's a moment when they trust in the blood of the Lamb on
their doorposts to be their salvation.
And as the Lord continues, he transforms this one night feast into
a festival that is to be annually remembered again at the
start of each year.
And all the generations to follow are to take seven days to
celebrate the Lord, reminding the children of Israel their deliverance
by the Lord God Almighty.
Again, there's repetition now as we go through this passage, where
they're told that the bread that they're to eat is to be unleavened
bread for this celebration, no yeast whatsoever.
Verse 15 tells us that in fact, all that yeast is to be thrown
out of the house.
It isn't even to be anywhere near them.
Verse 16 commands them to gather as a people to worship God.
And this is new now to what we've been told, that on the first
day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day.
Do no work at all in these days, except to prepare food for
everyone to eat.
That is all you may do.
What did the people want to do?
They wanted to gather and worship God.
And now God is saying, this you will do in the Passover, not
just on this night, but for the generations that will follow.
So this festival is to begin and end with that holy assembly.
It's a command of communal celebration.
And because it is a holy day, then no work is to be done, allowing
people to focus on celebrating before the Lord.
The only exception is to prepare the food that's necessary
for the festival.
And then the Lord repeats most of what he's just said in order to
underscore to Moses and Aaron that this festival is to be observed
throughout the coming generations.
It is a festival to celebrate the Lord, not the people, but to
celebrate him and his deliverance, his redemption of them.
And it will last for a week, seven days long, with the start and
end times specified.
And no leavened bread will be eaten during this time, whether by
native Israelite or resident alien.
And on a side, whenever we get to that point, when the children
of Israel will leave Egypt, it wasn't just native Jews or children
of Israel who leave.
They become now known as Hebrews, because there are other
slaves who will leave with them who will be adopted into the
family of God through circumcision.
And so that's where we get this phrase, resident alien who will
live amongst the people of God.
Disobedience of all of this, then, is warned to the people in
verse 19 that anyone who breaks it will be exiled from the
community, because this is a holy ordinance given by God and therefore
must be obeyed, because it is his standard.
The third part of this chapter then closes it out, because Moses
now goes to the elders of the people and to the people with the
instruction of what they're to do.
And he commands them in verse 24, to obey these instructions as
a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.
This act of God will not be easily forgotten, nor should it be
easily forgotten.
It won't be forgotten by the generation experiencing it.
But it was now put in place by way of celebration for all generations
to remember what the Lord God had done, a testimony of his goodness
to his people.
That's why we're told in verses 26 and 27.
And when your children ask, 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.
And still to this day, the Jews around the world at Passover
remind themselves of this event.
And so it is now fulfilled that indeed, the people were never
to forget all that God had done for them.
They were to remember, because the Lord's Passover wouldn't just
remind them of the past and but it would cause them to look forward,
as on that very night, to look forward to freedom and to redemption.
But it should also cause them to look forward to the Lord's Savior
who will come, prophesied by Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel,
foretold by the Lord himself in the Garden of Eden.
Not to look to human salvation, but to look to the one
who would come, the Savior, who would rescue them from their
sins.
And what God did to the Egyptians was no surprise.
But what may seem surprising is the way he treated his people,
Israel.
Because, like the Egyptians, the Israelites were under a sentence
of death.
They still not by birthright, were God's people.
They weren't saved because they were born.
They had to worship him for who he was and obey his commands.
And so, the same night that God brought death to every house
in Egypt, he also visited the home of every Israelite with the
purpose of killing their firstborn sons.
But in his mercy, of course, God provided his people with a way
to escape his wrath.
On the first Passover, the Israelites huddled in their homes,
waiting for God to come in judgment.
That night, he would claim a life from every household in Egypt.
But the Lord's Passover points us to the death of another firstborn
son and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
For that is the meal to which we now look as the memorial that
we call communion and the Lord's Supper.
God's way of salvation has always been through life, giving
blood for the children of Israel.
On that night of the first Passover, it was through the blood
of the sacrificial lamb that as they spread that blood on their
doorposts, they trusted in the Lord that as the destroyer moved
through the land, he would see the blood and he would save them
from death.
And this would continue through the sacrificial system.
On that day of atonement, as the blood was shed for all the people,
the hyssop was still dipped in the blood and sprinkled against the
altar of worship to the Lord.
And so God was reminding his people now, even in the sacrificial
system, that it was by the blood and the correct worship of
him that they would know salvation.
But it is for us now to look to Jesus on Calvary's cross, who
is our sacrificial lamb.
The blood on the cross has the power to save because it is the blood
of Jesus, who is the very Son of God, the firstborn Son of God.
There is no more precious blood than this in all the universe.
Unlike the blood of even the most perfect Passover lamb, it has
infinite value.
And so Scripture tells us in Hebrews chapter 9 and verses 12 and
14, that Jesus entered not by means of the blood of goats and calves,
but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
How much more would the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal
Spirit, offered himself without blemish to God, purifying
our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
The only way to be saved from sin and delivered from death is by
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
God calls everyone to trust in his blood.
And this is what the Israelites did at the first Passover.
They trusted in the blood.
Putting blood on the doorpost was an act of faith.
In order to be delivered from death, they had to believe God's
word quite literally, to take him at his word.
And that meant doing what God had communicated through Moses.
It was by faith that each family chose a perfect lamb.
By faith that they took its life and roasted it with bitter herbs.
And by faith that they spread its blood on the door.
The blood was a public confession of their faith, a sign
that they trusted in the atoning work of the sacrificial lamb.
So they were saved by grace, through faith.
God provided the lamb, demonstrating his grace.
But the Israelites had to trust in the lamb, which is where
faith comes in again.
Hebrews tells us, by faith, Moses kept the Passover and sprinkled
the blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn might
not touch them.
If you'd been there for that first Passover, would you have sacrificed
a lamb?
Would you have done it to save your family and no freedom in the
Exodus, would you have done it?
Of course you would have done it.
You would have done whatever it would take to ensure that indeed
the Lord would pass over with his wrath, so that you could know
his mercy and his grace and know your salvation.
So why aren't we doing anything different today?
Why are we still rejecting the lamb that was slain, the Lamb on
Calvary's cross, where the blood is no longer spread on our
doors, but it was shed from Calvary's cross.
And that as a memorial around this table, we take the bread and
the wine to remind us of all of this, our public confession of
faith.
Just as in that first Passover was on the doors, that public confession
is now in the wine that we drink at communion.
You see, the blood of the lamb is still the only thing that can
save us.
But it's not a sacrificial lamb that is roasted.
It is the blood of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, who died for you,
but rose again so that you can be certain that passing through death,
so too resurrection promises yours and heaven for all eternity.
Romans, chapter three and the first half of verse 25 tells us God
presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his
blood.
It goes on that he says he did this to demonstrate his justice,
because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand
unpunished.
Do you see what God's done for you?
Do you see that he wants you to accept the Lamb of God, Jesus
Christ, by faith, knowing his grace to you, so that you will know
your salvation in the only blood that has infinite value.
Don't reject him again this morning.
But I say that to each and every one of us, because that rejection
comes in two ways.
Yes, we can reject him for our salvation, but we can reject him
by simply not living for him, even though we profess his name.
We simply go through life like everybody else and then all of a
sudden get cleaned up to come here and look the part.
But there's actually no difference in our lives.
So we talk like the world, we act like the world, and that is no
part in the kingdom of God, because God's standard in worship
and in how we Live is to be so different.
Because God gave us His Son as a sacrifice of atonement.
And it's all through faith in his blood.
And why did he do it?
He did it to demonstrate his justice, that his wrath would not
fall on us, but would fall on His Son, Jesus.
You see, each of us need the blood of Jesus today.
Each of us need to know that we are saved for all eternity.
And as we are, then we must live for Him.
Otherwise that sacrifice on the cross is worthless to us.
And in my life, I never wanted to be worthless.
The blood of Jesus must mean more to me than anything else, so
that I will know full assurance of glorious hope, resurrection,
glory of that day when Jesus will come again.
God has provided the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world,
your sins and mine.
And everyone who trusts in his blood will be saved now and for all
eternity.
If you were a child of Israel, on that first passover, you would
have run to get a lamb so that the destroyer would not come near
you.
Well, Jesus invites you to come to him, the living Son of God,
whose blood was shed, so that once again you would not fear the
destroyer.
But no assurance, full assurance of home in heaven.
Come to the Savior.
And the words of our hymn that we'll sing by response, by way of
think of what this means is Beneath the cross of Jesus.
And verse one tells us why we need to come to this blood.
Because it says, beneath the cross of Jesus, I find a place to
stand and wonder at such mercy that calls me as I am.
For hands that should discard me hold wounds which call me Come.
Beneath the cross of Jesus, my unworthy soul is won.
I will be singing this verse as a testimony of my faith in Jesus
Christ, and many of you will be doing likewise.
But for others who do not have that testimony of faith, will this
be the realization and your prayer this day of the living Lamb
of God, who indeed takes away your sins forever.
Let us pray.
Our Father God, we thank you for your word.
Again, a passage that has to make us think a little bit because
of its detail, but yet so much in it that points us to your goodness,
to us.
And so, while there is yet time, Father, convict us to live
lives for you.
Convict us to come to the Savior and his blood that was shed
so that we can know life in him.
So that we can know that beneath the cross of Jesus, indeed
our unworthy souls are won because of what Jesus has accomplished.
So, Lord, may we not fear you, but may we stand firm in Christ.
Change our hearts, change our minds that we will be people who
are faithful to you, to your gospel, and to the home that is waiting
for us in heaven when Christ will return.
So may we respond well this day.
In Jesus name, amen.