The Passover both Old and New by Steve Keeler
Exodus 12:1-13
Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of
Egypt, this month shall be the beginning of months for
you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. Speak
to all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth of
this month they are each one to take a lamb for
themselves, according to their fathers' households, a
lamb for each household. Now if the household is too
small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to
his house are to take one according to the number of
persons in them; according to what each man should
eat, you are to divide the lamb.
Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old;
you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You
shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same
month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of
Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take
some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and
on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with
fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and
bitter herbs.
Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but
rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along
with its entrails. And you shall not leave any of it over
until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning,
you shall burn with fire.
Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins
girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your
hand; and you shall eat it in haste it is the LORD'S
Passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt on
that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the
gods of Egypt I will execute judgments I am the
LORD.
The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where
you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you,
and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I
strike the land of Egypt.
Children often will play with models, model cars, trains,
airplanes if you are a man and doll houses and little tea
sets if you are a woman. The point of a model is that it
provides a simplified and scaled-down version of the
real thing.
The story of the Passover in Exodus 12 is not only a
record of the miraculous deliverance of the Israelites
over 3,000 years ago, but it also provides a wonderful
model of God's way of salvation as achieved by Jesus
on the cross of Calvary.
It's a three dimensional model and those three
dimensions are what we are saved from, by, and to.
The first dimension:
We are saved from destruction.
Exodus 12:12, 'For I will go through the land of Egypt
on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the
gods of Egypt I will execute judgments I am the
LORD.'
This is the 10th and last plague that the Lord inflicted
on Pharaoh and his land. Time after time the Lord had
sent Moses to Pharaoh and told him, "Let my people
go." Time after time the Lord had asserted his
authority over Pharaoh and his gods. Time after time
Pharaoh had refused and hardened his heart.
God was finished trying to deal with Pharaoh. The time
had finally come for the end of all the warnings and for
God's judgement and wrath to begin.
Exodus12:29-30, 'Now it came about at midnight that
the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt,
from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to
the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon,
and all the firstborn of cattle. Pharaoh arose in the
night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and
there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no home
where there was not someone dead.'
What an awful thing it must have been to awake to,
what a terrible price Egypt had to pay for willful
disobedience and disbelief. Something many people do
these days is believe that God's judgement is just for
the Old Testament. Please don't make that mistake.
Listen to Paul in Romans 5:9 as he speaks of being
saved from God's wrath through Christ. It says "Much
more then, having now been justified by His blood, we
shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him."
The difference is, that in the Old Testament God's
judgement is mainly temporal, in the New Testament it
is usually eternal.
It was Jesus himself who told us to not be afraid of
those who can kill our body, but to be afraid of the One
who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
(Ref. Matthew 10:28)
So, let's never forget what we as Christ followers have
been saved from. If we abide in Him will be saved from
the wrath of God which can utterly destroy both body
and soul in hell. Please keep that sense of urgency in
our hearts to remain in Him.
The Second Dimension
We Are Saved By The Blood.
A perfect lamb is carefully chosen, then it is brought
into the house much like a pet for four days. This little
lamb lives with the family and follows them where ever
they go. I'm sure that many of the families came to love
that little lamb which must have made it very difficult on
the night of the Passover for the father to take a knife
and kill it by slitting it's throat.
I'm sure this was very similar to what the Father must
have felt as He sent His one and only Son to be slain
on the cross for you and me. What a terrible thing to
have to watch His Son go through the agony of the
cross.
After they slew the lamb, one for each household,
some of the blood was dabbed on the doorframes and
to arch of the door of all those who were obedient to
God.
Exodus 12:13 says, 'The blood shall be a sign for you
on the houses where you live; and when I see the
blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you
to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.'
The Bible tells us that there was death in every house
that night: There was the death of the firstborn in the
houses of the Egyptians and those who didn't believe
what Moses had told them. And within the houses of
the believing Israelites, there was the death of a lamb.
So you can see, the lamb was the substitute when the
angel of death walked the streets of Egypt. God's
people where spared because the perfect lamb was
not spared. That perfect substitute paid the price to
satisfy the wrath of God so His people wouldn't have
to.
Now we look ahead 1000 years where the New
Testament also teaches that we are saved by the blood
of a lamb.
I would have loved to have been there when John the
Baptist pointed to Jesus and declared, "Behold, the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! "
The Gospels are careful to point out that Jesus died at
the time of Passover, and they associate the Last
Supper with the Passover meal itself. Peter uses
Passover language when he talks about our salvation.
1 Peter 1:18-19 says, "you were not redeemed with
perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way
of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious
blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the
blood of Christ."
Paul clinches it in 1 Corinthians 5:7, '...For Christ, our
Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.'
Again, there is a difference: in the Old Testament, the
Passover became an annual sacrifice. But Christ's
sacrifice is once for all. His sacrifice was a complete
atonement for our sins, past, present and future.
This is very important and I want you to take note of
what I'm about to tell you. There is something that
remains the same in both the Old and New Testament.
In the Old Testament, the lamb's blood was not merely
to be shed but it had to be applied to the doorpost of
the home.
In the New Testament, Christ blood was not merely to
be shed for sin but it had to be applied to the doorpost
of your heart. If you don't apply the blood, your destiny
will be the same as those who didn't apply the blood to
their doorpost in the Old Testament when the angel of
death came.
The blood of Christ is not just a concept it's not a
theory or a debatable point. It's the most important part
of our Christian walk. It's when we trust in God, walk in
the light and have fellowship with one another that the
blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all our sin.
The Third Dimension
We Are Saved To Celebrate.
Exodus 12:2 "This month shall be the beginning of
months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to
you."
The Passover signaled the beginning of a whole new
calendar. This was, after all, their 'VE Day' Victory
over Egypt day.
Exodus 12:14 says "'Now this day will be a memorial to
you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the LORD;
throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as
a permanent ordinance.
The Passover is week-long festival, the Feast of
Unleavened Bread. A wonderful celebration for the
Jewish people. We are also saved by the blood to
celebrate. We are to praise God for His deliverance
from the darkness of sin.
1 Peter 2:9, 'But you are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own
possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies
of Him who has called you out of darkness into His
marvelous light'
Next week we will be celebrating Communion and once
again there is a difference between in the teaching
between the Old and New Testament.
In the Old Testament, the bread of haste was broken
and the blood was applied to the doorpost to save
them in a temporal way.
In the New Testament, it was the body of Jesus that
was broken, and it was His blood shed and if applied to
our hearts becomes a means of eternal salvation.
Revelation 5:9b says "You were slain, and purchased
for God with Your blood men from every tribe and
tongue and people and nation."
No wonder the continual song of the redeemed in
Revelation 5:11-13 rings out in heaven "Then I looked,
and I heard the voice of many angels around the
throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the
number of them was myriads of myriads, and
thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,
'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power
and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory
and blessing.' And every created thing which is in
heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on
the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, 'To Him
who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing
and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.'"
Amen!
