Exodus 11,12
Peace be with you, listening friends.
We greet you in the name of God, the Lord of peace, who wants everyone to
understand and submit to the way of righteousness that He has established, and
have true peace with Him forever. We are happy to be able to return today to
present your program The Way of Righteousness.
In our last lesson, we saw how Pharaoh tried to fight
against God. The Lord purposed to deliver the people of Israel who were slaves
in Egypt, but the king of Egypt was determined to keep them as his slaves.
However, "an egg should not wrestle with a rock!" {Wolof Proverb}.
Thus, we saw how God brought upon Egypt nine terrible
plagues by
the word of Moses and Aaron. Yet all these miracles and signs did not cause
Pharaoh to submit to the word of God and let the Israelites leave his country.
Today we plan to continue in the story and see how God
brought upon Pharaoh one final plague, the tenth, so that
Pharaoh would allow the Israelites to leave Egypt. In our last lesson, we heard
Pharaoh, after the ninth plague, say to Moses and Aaron, "Get
out of my sight! Make sure you do not appear before me again! The day you see
my face you will die!" (Exod. 10:28) Now let us read in chapter
eleven and hear how God Himself answered Pharaoh, through the mouth of Moses.
The Scripture says:
(Exod. 11) 4So
Moses said [to Pharaoh], "This is what the Lord says: 'About midnight I
will go throughout Egypt. 5Every firstborn son in Egypt will
die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the
firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn
of the cattle as well. 6There will be loud wailing throughout
Egypt, worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. 7But
among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any man or animal.' Then you will
know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. 8All
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.
Thus, we see how God planned to bring a plague upon
the land of Egypt which was to be worse than all the other plagues that had
already happened. God announced the impending death of every firstborn son in
Egypt. What a terrible plague! And what would happen to the firstborn of the
Israelites? Would they die along with those of the Egyptians? Certainly, they
did not deserve to escape God's judgment, because they also were sinners, just
as all the people of Egypt were. However, God who is faithful and merciful, designed a
plan to
protect the people of Israel from that plague.
Let us continue in chapter twelve and hear what God
told Moses to instruct the Israelites to do so that their firstborn would
escape death. The Scripture says:
(Exod. 12) 1The
Lord said to Moses and Aaron…, 3"Tell the whole community
of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a
lamb for his family, one for each household… 5The
animals you choose must be year-old maleswithout defect, and you may
take them from the sheep or the goats. 6Take care of them until
the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel
must slaughter them at twilight. 7Then they are to take some of the
bloodand put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of
the houses where they eat the lambs. 8That same night they are
to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made
without yeast. 9Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but
roast it over the fire: head, legs and inner parts… 46It must
be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not
break any of the bones."
11"This
is how you are to eat it: with your 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. 12On that same night I will pass through
Egypt and strike down every firstborn, both men and animals, and I will bring
judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13The
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."
Let us pause here. Do you see the plan that God
decreed to save the firstborn sons of Israel from death and redeem all the
people of Israel from their bondage of slavery in Egypt? It was an amazing
plan; a plan which, to man's way of thinking, was utterly ridiculous. He
purposed to redeem them with the blood of a lamb-the blood of a lamb
without blemish-blood with which they would stain the doorframes of their
houses. Only the blood of the lamb could save their firstborn from death.
After God had finished speaking to Moses and Aaron,
they assembled all the elders of Israel, telling them the word which God had
spoken concerning the sacrifice of the lamb. When the elders of Israel heard
how the Lord planned to save their firstborns from the plague of the death,
they prostrated themselves and worshiped the Lord. After that, the elders and
all the people of Israel did exactly what God had commanded Moses.
Thus, the Scripture says:
(Exod. 12) 29At
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. 30Pharaoh
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.
Did you hear what happened on that dreadful night? Did
God judge the land of Egypt as He said He would? Yes He did! At midnight, the
angel of destruction passed through the land of Egypt, striking all the
firstborn, from the firstborn of king Pharaoh to the firstborn of those in
prison. On that night, great crying and wailing echoed throughout Egypt,
because there was not one Egyptian house without someone dead!
But what happened in the houses of the Israelites? Did
God save their firstborn from the plague of death? What do you think? God had
promised them, saying, "When I see the blood, I
will pass over you." The people of Israel had
stained the doors of their houses with the blood of a lamb, just as God
commanded them. Consequently, there was not one death among their firstborn.
However, in the houses of the Egyptians, every firstborn
died because
they did not take part in God's way of deliverance, the way of the blood of a
lamb.
Thus, the Scripture says:
(Exod. 12) 31During
the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Up!
Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you
have requested. 32…and also bless me!" 33The
Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. "For
otherwise," they said, "we will all die!"
Finally, Pharaoh had no choice but to give in and let
the Israelites go. We have already seen how, at first, Pharaoh said to Moses
and Aaron, "Who is the Lord,
that I should obey Him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and
I will not let Israel go!" But, in the end, Pharaoh
and all the Egyptians were forced to admit that the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Israel is the Almighty God, more powerful than any of their idols, fetishes,
and marabouts! "An egg should not wrestle with a rock!" No one can
fight with God and win!
On that night, the Israelites made their exodus from
Egypt, and left with much wealth that the Egyptians gave them. The Scripture
says:
(Exod. 12) 35The
Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of
silver and gold and for clothing. 36The Lord had made the
Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they
asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians… 40Now the length of
time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years.
All this took place to fulfill what God had promised
Abraham hundreds of years earlier, saying,
"Know for certain
that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they
will be enslaved and ill-treated four hundred years. But I will punish the
nation they serve as slaves, and afterwards they will come out with
great possessions." (Gen. 15:13,14)
The story we have seen today, known as the
Passover,
is like a deep and wide ocean full of hidden treasures. There is so much that
we could say about the story of the Passover. Obviously, we do not have time to
explain all the truths contained in this story. However, there is one very
important truth which we must retain in our minds. It is God's promise to the
Israelites: "When I see the blood I will
pass over you!"
Why did the firstborn of Israel not die along with
those of the people of Egypt? They did not die because God opened for them a
way of salvation through the blood of a lamb. God decreed that the firstborn would be spared
from death in
every house where the door was stained with the blood of a lamb. But every
firstborn found in a house where the blood had not been applied would die!
If a youth from among the firstborn of Israel
questioned his father, saying, "Father, why does our innocent lamb have to
die?" The father would reply something like this, "My son, as you
know, God has condemned every firstborn son in the land. Because of our sins,
we all deserve God's judgment. However, God, in His mercy, has told us that if
we sacrifice a lamb without defect, and apply {Lit. in Wolof: stain} the blood to our
doors, the plague will not strike us. The lamb must die, because the payment of
sin is death. God is righteous and cannot simply overlook our sins. The lamb
will replace you. We will sacrifice it in your place, as our forefather Abraham
sacrificed the ram in his son's place. Our God is righteous and does not take
sin lightly! His word to us is clear. He will only pass over our house if the
blood is on the doorframes!"
Dear friends, what we need to realize today is that,
before God, all of Adam's descendants are like the firstborn sons of the people
of Egypt and Israel. God's holy law condemns every one
of us to
die and face God's righteous judgment. That is what the Scripture says: "There
is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God." (Rom. 3:22,23) The payment of sin is eternal
condemnation, "shut out from the presence
of the Lord and from the majesty of his power!" (2 Thes. 1:9)
What then must we do to be saved? How can God save
sinners from the penalty of their sins without compromising His righteousness?
We cannot take it very far today, but what we need to know is this: The
lambs which
the Israelites sacrificed to escape the plague of death symbolized
the Redeemer who
was to come and pour out his blood to pay the debt of sin for all the
descendants of Adam. Concerning that Redeemer, the Scripture says: "He
died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to
bring you to God…[like a sacrificial lamb offered up to God on the
day of the Passover]." (1 Pet. 3:18; 1 Cor. 5:7). Thus, the blood
of the lamb, which the Israelites applied to their doors to save their
firstborn from death, was an illustration. It pictured the blood
which the Savior of the world would shed upon the cross, so that whoever
believes in Him, might escape God's everlasting punishment.
How about you? Do you know what God's prophets have
written concerning the blood of the Redeemer? The Redeemer shed His blood so
that God might forgive you of your sins without compromising His righteousness. Do
you believe what
is written concerning the blood that has the power to save you from the
punishment of hell and guarantee you a place in God's presence forever? In the
Day of Judgment, will God's terrible judgment pass over you? Or will it fall
upon you as it did upon the Egyptians?
Friends, our time is gone. We thank you for listening.
In our next program, God willing, we will continue with the story of the
Israelites and see how God opened a path through the middle of the sea.…
May God bless you and reveal to your hearts the deeper
meaning of the words which He spoke to Israel, saying,
"When I see the
blood I will pass over you!" (Exod.12:13)
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