Exodus 12v1-13v16
The Passover: Remember the Rescue
Well I wonder what’s the most significant day that you like to remember and celebrate every year?
I suppose for many of us it’ll be our birthday. Or maybe your anniversary. Or maybe for you it’s one of the religious holidays; easter or Christmas.
Well for us as a country, one of the most significant holidays is the 27thof April: Freedom Day. This is the day we remember our first democratic elections. In his speech at the first anniversary of this special day, Nelson Mandela referred to it as the birth of our nation. And so when we remember Freedom Day, its almost like we remembering our birthday. This is a day worth remembering. We no longer under apartheid. We a democratic country. We the new South Africa.
Well in our passage today God gives Israel a day worth remembering. And you can see that right at the start of that passage Vernon read for us. chapter 12 verse 2.
“The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.”
In other words God’s completely changing Israel’s calendar. He’s giving them a new start. He’s saying this is your new birthday. Just like we remember our birthday as the start of our lives. In the same way, this day marks a new start for Israel.
And so from now on every day will be counted with reference to this day. Just like we count our years with reference to the coming of Jesus and we say we living in the year 2017 AD. Just like we divide our history into BC and AD, they now gona divide it into BP and AP (Before Passover and After Passover). And every day will now be counted with reference to this day.
Clearly God sees this as a day worth remembering.
And so this morning I want us to see why this is such a significant day. What happens? Why’s should we remember it 3400 years after these things happened?
And basically, the answer is rescue. That’s what the Passover’s all about. It’s about the rescue of God’s people.
In fact that’s what the whole book of Exodus is about. Apparently the word exodus is still used today in modern Greek language today. If you fly to Greece and you take the Greek Olympic airways, then before the flight the air hostess will point to you where you can escape from the plane if there’s any difficulty. And she’ll point you as theyalwaysdo to the exits. But in the Olympic airways you won’t see exit written there, you’ll see exodus. And that’s a good reminder for us. That’s what the book of Exodus is about. It’s an exit. It’s a way of escape out of danger and difficulty.
And just to bring us all up to speed. Israel are slaves in Egypt. God hears their cries for help. He sends Moses to rescue them. But Pharoah’s heart is hard. He refuse to let the people go. And so God sends the plagues. Not just one plague but ten so He can multiply his wonders. But this morning we come to the tenth and final plague. And its important to notice, this tenth plague doesn’t fit in with the other plagues. It stands alone. It’s the climax of the plagues.
And you can see that just by how much space is devoted to it. All the other plagues have between 5 and 20 verses. But this final plague goes all the way from chapter 11 all the way to chapter 13. Its pretty much 3 whole chapters. 77 verses. This is the key plague. In fact it’s the turning point in the book of Exodus. If Exodus is a book all about rescue. This is the heart of it. This is where the rescue takes place.
But we need to go a bit deeper. If this passage is all about a rescue, then we need to be clear… whattypeof rescue is it? What exactly are the people being rescuedfrom?
And I want you to see that there actually two rescues taking place in this passage.
At one level, this is a rescue out of Egypt.
If you look at all the other plagues there’s a very simple pattern in all of them: Firstly, God predicts. Secondly, God fulfils.
So God predicts frogs. The frogs come.
God predicts the hail. The hail comes.
God predicts the darkness. The darkness comes.
And if you look at this final plague, uv also got this prediction – fulfilment pattern. But there’s just an interruption in between
So if you can look at chapter 11 verse 1, notice the prediction of this plague. Verse 1. “The LORD said to Moses, “I’ll bring one more plague on Pharoah and Egypt. After that, he’ll let you go… ..and when he does, he will drive you out completely.”
Verse 3, the people will be favourably disposed to you. They’ll give you their silver and their gold.
Verse 4 God’ll pass through at midnight. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die. Not just the people. Also the animals. There’ll be worse wailing than ever before. The Egyptians will beg the people to leave.
That’s the prediction of the plague. But if you wanna see the fulfilment, you don’t get it straight away, you’ve gotta jump down all the way to chapter 12 verse 29. That’s where you see the fulfilment.
So Just look at verse 29 of chapter 12. Its exactly what God predicted.
“Its midnight. God strikes the firstborn. Not just the people, also the animals. There’s loud wailing in Egypt.
Verse 31 – the Egyptians urge the people to leave.
Verse 36 they favourably disposed. They give the Israelites their silver and gold.
And so it’s all exactly what was predicted in chapter 11.
And so it’s almost like you could take out chapter 12 verses 1-28 and it wouldn’t feel like anything’s missing. If you just read from chapter 11 verse 10. And then you continue in chapter 12 verse 29, it just flows. Prediction – fulfilment. Nothing missing.
And if I was to ask you, what’s the rescue that’s taking place in these verses, what would you say? Well clearly it’s a rescue out of Egypt.
Just look at the repeated phrase at the end of this section.
Verse 41
“At the end of 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD’s divisionsleft Egypt.
Verse 42 – The LORD kept vigil that night to bring themout of Egypt.
Verse 51. On that very day the LORD brought the Israelitesout of Egypt.”
Clearly this is a rescue out of Egypt.
And we mustn’t underestimate what a great rescue that is. 430 years of slavery, oppression, harsh labour, genocide. God intervenes and rescues His people.
And in the great storyline of the Bible it’s a picture of an even greater rescue.
You see, Israel’s physical slavery in Egypt is just a picture of humanity’s spiritual slavery to sin.
And so we might not be slaves in Egypt, but according to the NT everyone who isn’t trusting Jesus is a spiritual slave.
And you might disagree with that. Maybe you aren’t trusting Jesus, but you feel free. Well if so, I just wanna challenge you to prove it. Just For one day try and obey God’s law. Maybe just take 1 law. Love God with all your heart and all your soul and all you mind and all your strength. Do you have the freedom to obey that law?
Just try it. See if you have that freedom.
If not, why not? What is it that’s controlling you and preventing you from obeying?
John 8 verse 34 says everyone who sins is aslaveto his sin.
You see we like to think of ourselves as having a free will, being able to do whatever we set our mind to. But actually we not as free as we might think. Just go read Ephesians chapter 2 – slaves to sin, slaves to our worldly desires, slaves to the devil.
And only in Christ are we set free.
John 8 verse 36 says: if the Son sets you free you will be free indeed.
And so ultimately this is what the Exodus is pointing to. Just like God rescued Israel from Captivity in Egypt. In the same way He can rescue us from captivity to sin.
But now I want us to go even deeper. There’s an even deeper rescue in our passage. You see this 10thplagueis differentall the other plagues. It doesn’t just go prediction then fulfilment. There’s something that comes in between.
And you can see it in chapter 12 verses 1-28. These verses describe an even deeper rescue for the Israelites.
Remember last week we spoke about those bombs America are working on with that gps system so that they only strike their enemies. They don’t destroy the primary school across the road.
Well that’s what we seen in the plagues. God is accurate in His judgment.
When He sends the flies on Egypt, the Israelites don’t have any flies.
When He kills thecattleof Egypt. The Israelite cattle survive.
When He sends the darkness in Egypt, the Israelites all have light.
Well this 10thplague is exactly the same. The only difference is that this time it’s not automatic. There’s something that needs to be done. The Israelites need todosomething in order to be saved.
And you can see what they need to do in chapter 12 verse 3. Every household must choose a lamb. It must be a year old. It musn’t have any injuries or defects. On the 10thday of the month they must take this lamb and they must care for it for 4 days.
Now if uv got kids you’ll know 4 days is plenty of time for an animal to become a pet. On Friday my little girl found a dazed bird on the road. And for the next 30 minutes she held it on her lap and stroked it continually. She didn’t want to do anything else. And she was in her element. And you can imagine her disappointment after 30 minutes when the bird suddenly recovered and flew away. And all her dreams of a mothering relationship to this bird were dashed. And that’s just after 30 minutes.
And so can you imagine, 4 days of caring for a lamb. Surely it gets a named. It probably gets dressed up in blankets and clothes. It probably gets played with and cuddled at bedtime.
But then verse 6 says, after 4 days, on the 14thday of the month, you must slaughter this lamb. And so try picture the scene. The kids are getting ready for bed. Dad takes out his long knife and starts sharpening it. And suddenly the kids realize what’s about to happen. And they just melt down.
They run around screaming and crying:
No Dad no!
Or why Dad why?
Maybe even I hate you Dad, I hate you!
Why you gona do this to our lamb?
And then mom explains:
If your daddy doesn’t do this to the lamb, then your brother will be dead in the morning.
And suddenly the crying stops and there’s a pause and your little child think about it and says: Daddy, I want you to kill the lamb please.
And I bet those kids go and make sure their dad really does it. And that he doesn’t just paint a few drops, but that he covers those frames, makes it clearly visible.
In verse 8 they cook the lamb. They eat it. And then they all go to bed. But I doubt anyone sleeps. If anyone does drift off they woken at midnight with a terrible cry across the land. A wailing, as one Egyptian parent after the other wakes up to discover their son is dead.
According to chapter 11 verse 6 this wailing is worse than ever before and it’ll never be repeated again. This is the darkest hour in Egyptian history.
According to chapter 12 verse 30, there isn’t a house without someone dead.
And so once again, we reminded, don’t underestimate God’s judgment. The judgment of God is the most tragic and terrifying thing.
But the point we meant to notice is that it isn’t only the Egyptian houses that taste death this night. There’salsoa death in every Israelite house.
Apparently it’s an old but a true story that there was a man travelling in Germany many years ago. And he looked up and he saw in the tower of a church an etching or a carving of a lamb in that tower. And he was told this story: when that church was first being built, the workmen were working on that tower and they were on the scaffolding surrounding that tower. And one of the workmen fell off that tower to the ground below. And the other men looked down in horror and hurried down, expecting to find their friend dead. But amazingly when they got down to him they found that he was virtually unhurt. It just so happened there was a heard of sheep being hearded past this tower at the precise moment this man fell. And he landed on this lamb. And as he landed, the lamb was crushed. But the man survived. And that’s a picture of what’s happening here.
The only reason the firstborn sons of the Israelites don’t die is because the lamb dies in their place.
And so I hope you can see the deeper rescue in this passage.
Not only are Israel being rescued fromEgypt. Even more than that they being rescued from of God. And this gets repeated three times in the following verses. Look at verse 13.
“The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and whenIsee the blood,Iwill pass over you.
Same thing verse 23.
“When theLORDgoes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the top and sides of the door-frame and will pass over that doorway,… He will not permit the destroyer to enteryourhouses and strikeyoudown.
Same thing verse 26.
And when your children ask you, “What does this ceremony mean to you? then tell them, ‘it’s 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 so clearly the great rescue in these verses is not just from captivity in Egypt. Even more than that its from thejudgmentof God.
And I wonder if werealizethat’s still our greatest need.
Not just to be saved from our circumstances…
Not even just to be saved from our sins…
But ultimately to be saved from the judgment that our sins deserve.
To be able to stand before a holy God and to have access into His presence and to have a relationship with Him without being destroyed. That’s our deepest need.
And one of the reasons why we find it easy to forget this is because we divide the world into goodies and baddies.And we don’t have any problem with God punishing the baddies. The Adolf Hitlers, the Osama ben Laden’s, the murderers and the rapists of this world. What we struggle with is that God could punish “good” people, “nice” people, respectable people. People like us.And so its not really a surprize to us that God punishes the Egyptians. After all they deserve it for their cruelty and brutality and murder of the Israelites babies.
But here’s the shock of these verses: even the Israelites deserve to die.
And so ultimately there’s only one thing that distinguishes the Israelites from the Egyptians. It’s not their nationality. Its not their culture. Its not their race. Its not that some of them are goodies and some of them are baddies.The difference is simply that some of them have blood on their door. And some of them do not.
Just look at verse 13 again. Notice what it is that protects the people.
“thebloodwill be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see theblood, I will pass over you.”
Verse 23. “When the LORD… sees thebloodon the top and sides of the doorframe, He will pass over that doorway.”
You see, it’s all about the blood.
And you know the same is still true for us. According to 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 7 Jesus is the true Passover Lamb. And the only the thing that distinguishes a saved person from an unsaved person is simply His blood. You won’t be saved because of your race or your upbringing or your education or your efforts of righteousness. It’s only the blood of Jesus that can save you from God’s judgment.
And so I wonder if you realize this, its not automatic that God’s judgment will pass over you. Just like with the Israelites, there is something you need to do. The most crucial question for the Israelites that night was , “have you applied the blood to your door?
In the same way, the most crucial question of your life is Have you applied the blood of Jesus to yourself?
And this is a crucial questions for a country like ours. Where there’s so much nominalism. 80 percent of our people claim to be Christians. But so many of them are only Christians in name.
Just like for these Israelites, it wasn’t enough just toknowabout the blood of the lamb or just to understand these instructions they needed to apply the blood to their doors.
In the same way it’s not enough just to know that Jesus died as a sacrifice for sins. We need that blood to be applied. We need to trust it for ourselves.