Where Is Jesus In The Old Testament? #4 “The Passover”
Introduction: This is a very important passage to understand to understand the Bible! Tim Keller says that, “for Jews this act is at the center of what makes them who they are, and for Christians, the new Passover is the central act of worship. And at the heart of this passage is the bloody sacrifice of a helpless victim.” This is a story that invites us to behold the Lamb and to adore Him as He is revealed to us this text.
I. There Is A Serious Problem
· God is teaching His people that they have 2 barriers to their being able to worship the Lord as He desired. In chapter 10, after the 9th plague, Pharaoh said Israel could go but that they would have to leave their herds and flocks. But God said no because it was vital for Israel to have what they would need to sacrifice and worship the Lord. God had a bigger plan than mere deliverance from slavery – He was committed to setting them free to worship Him and that meant dealing with the two barriers to their being able to worship God! Egypt is one of these barriers, but their own sin is the other one. Unless their sin is dealt with they can never worship the Lord. As 1Pet 2:6 says, all of our spiritual sacrifices are made acceptable in Christ!
· Israel is in slavery, but Israel is also in sin! We see this in the way God has been building up to this final plague. God had said back in Exodus 4 that if Egypt did not let God’s firstborn son Israel go, then God would slay Egypt’s firstborn sons. And the time has finally arrived for what the Lord had warned about – but now He reveals that Israel must be protected by the blood too!
II. God Gives A Powerful Picture Of Deliverance
· Why the special meal? The 10th plague earned their deliverance from Egypt, the blood on the door protected them from the Destroyer – so why the special meal? Why not just smear the blood on the door and then wait until it was time to go? Because God had always intended to do more than deliver them from Egypt – He also wanted to take Israel as His people (see 6:6) and it was vital to establish the sitting down and sharing table fellowship with the Lord required a substitutionary sacrifice.
· Notice the blood must cover the Israelites too! The Destroyer is God Himself and He gives them this picture of blood needing to cover them so that His wrath would pass over them. God is committed doing what needs to be done so that they could worship Him.
· A substitutionary death is at the heart of what God is showing them here. Exodus 12:30 says “there was not a house without someone dead” – either the firstborn died or the lamb died in his place, but in every house someone died. This is the only way to explain what is going on here. Think about it: The thing that will protect you from the Destroyer who will get into every house in Egypt – even into the depths of the dungeon – is a lamb. What? That sounds crazy! How can a lamb be any kind of protection!
· How can a lamb be any kind of protection? Only because the lamb is pointing to the true Lamb whose blood will cover us! Romans 3 says that God postponed punishing the sins of His people committed in the Old Testament and punished them on Jesus. God didn’t just Passover His people who deserved to die for their sins and unbelief that night back in Egypt – He called them celebrate a meal as a constant reminder of His mercy and to lead them to the True Lamb who He would send one day – even Jesus the Lamb of God.
· But some might wonder why the firstborn had to die. Ancient cultures they had more of a collectivist sense of things – therefore, if you sinned your family was thought to deserve judgment and the oldest son could be made to pay your debt. In modern individualistic Western society we only think that you can pay for your debt yourself. Thus, (As Tim Keller explains), while modern people think God’s command to Abraham must have struck Abraham as unfair, this is to miss the cultural background to this story. In the ancient world families put their hope for their future in their firstborn. And they understood that if God called for you to sacrifice your firstborn that God was calling in the debt for your sins. Abraham understood that God was calling him to give his son for his own sins. And this is why Abraham is so heartbroken. He is desperately hoping that God will provide a Lamb so that his little lamb doesn’t have to die for his sins.
· Now we see the same principle at work here – there must be a substitute! God has every right to call for the firstborn, but he offers His people a way to redeem their firstborn sons who deserve to die – and that way is through a lamb that will substitute for them.
· Look at the way the meal teaches this point: They lamb must be fully consumed or else the remains are to be burned. And the Israelite family is to carefully calculate how much each person will eat. The point is that there is to be as much of a one-to-one correspondence between the victim and the family being saved by the victim’s sacrifice as possible.
· We also see a beautiful picture of being born again and starting over. God says that from now on their calendar will be reckoned from this event! (12:1-2) What God is doing should be felt every day they live! Notice that this 10th plague is distinguished from the other 9 by the lengthy explanation and introduction given to it. This underscores the fact that this really is a new beginning as Exodus 12:2 claims.
II. God Issues A Sobering Call To Faith
· They are to feast while death and destruction is going on all around them. What a picture of how God’s people are to live in the world even today.
· Israel must exercise faith to be delivered from this 10th plague. In all the other plagues where Israel had been spared, the Lord had distinguished them from Egypt without their needing to do anything. God knew where they lived, He knew which houses were theirs! But God is teaching them that they need to put their faith in His provision of blood to cover them by publicly smearing blood on their doors. Why? The Lord does not say, “When I see you I will pass over” but “When I see the blood I will pass over.” The blood is vital. Why? Because Israel needs redemption too! Something needs to satisfy the judgment and wrath they deserve and God is calling them to put their faith in His provision through blood.
· God provides for an ongoing spur to faith in God through remembrance: God wants them to always remember this and so He gives them detailed instructions about how to commemorate this meal every year.
· The Lord gives great specific details about what to do and how to remember this event. This means this is serious stuff – pay attention because this really matters! (You can be cut off from Israel if you don’t follow God’s command here.) In matters of salvation we must follow the Lord’s way, not our own way.
· The symbolism is supposed to cause their children to ask the parents what it means. The ceremony of remembrance was supposed to stir up questions from the children because God wants the story to be told over and over. This is good for the parents and the children. (Ex. Children’s sermons helps parents too!)
· Outsiders are welcome – but they must put their faith in the Lord and his promises. This is often signified in the OT by embracing circumcision and becoming a part of God’s covenant people.
· Faith is necessary – but not blind faith. They had seen the Lord make and keep His promises in the 9 other plagues. Lack of faith now was more unreasonable than believing what God said.
III. God Gives Us An Invitation To Behold The Lamb And Adore Him
· We need to gaze upon Jesus as He is pictured in this feast! God called His people to celebrate this Passover meal every year, as a way to 1) remember God’s faithfulness, 2) as a way to remind them that God’s true desire was to share table fellowship with His people and live in their midst, and 3) to increase their hunger for the true Lamb of God that was to come!
· The sacrifice of Christ our Lamb is how we see God’s faithfulness. It is the way we see God’s commitment to be our God and to commune with us in rich relationship.
· The gospel is God to the rescue and we see it beautifully pictured here! This was God’s work without any human involvement. With the other 9 plagues there was something Moses had to do, use his staff etc. (Ex 7:19, 9:8) But with this one, Moses and Aaron were spectators watching God work. “All of the 10 disasters inflicted on the Egyptians were acts of God, but the final one was outstandingly so, for in its performance the Lord in person entered Egypt…” (Motyer)
· God comes to the rescue when it looks like all is lost. After plague 9, it looks like everything has failed and Moses storms out of Pharaoh’s court furiously. But God tells Moses, now is the time for Israel to be born again – I am about to do something so significant that from now on even the calendar won’t be the same!
· The meal is a meal for pilgrims – for a people called to go somewhere. They are to eat it standing up and ready to go. But also notice this: The meal took place in the evening, but the people are to eat it dressed like it is the morning and they are starting out for the day. We are pilgrims too!
· Salvation by grace brings peace and rest and we see that here too. The blood had already been applied to their door when they sit feasting inside. The symbolism is saying, “The death has already taken place, and all those inside are benefiting from it.” Death is all around but inside we are feasting.