This week is a time of celebration. Wednesday evening began a celebration of the Passover. This morning is a celebration of the resurrection. These historical events are awesome demonstrations of God’s love and provision for His people.
In this message I want to focus on the Passover deliverance, then tie it into the Lord’s resurrection. Our primary text will be Exodus 12.
To set that passage in its context let’s briefly review the events surrounding the Passover night.
Ch. 1: Book of Exodus opens with the Hebrew people suffering cruel oppression as slaves in Egypt.
Ch. 2: Moses is born. He grows up in Pharaoh’s palace; feels the call of God on his life; attempts to fulfill that call in his own strength; kills an Egyptian; and flees to the dessert. He spends 40 years there with his wife, Zipporah, and his father-in-law, Jethro.
Ch. 3: Moses has his Burning Bush experience in which God sends him back to Egypt for the deliverance of the Hebrew people.
Ch. 4: Moses connects with Aaron and returns to Egypt.
Ch. 5: Moses begins his confrontation with Pharaoh. Circumstances get worse for the Hebrew slaves. They blame Moses and Aaron for making their lives harder.
Ch. 6-10: Nine of the ten plagues are executed.
Ch. 11: The last plague is introduced: the death of the firstborn.
Ch. 12: (Our text) God instructs His people on how to keep the Passover and be safe during the plague. In response to this last plague, Pharaoh lets the Hebrews go.
Ch. 13: The Hebrews leave Egypt.
Ch. 14: Pharaoh changes his mind and pursues the Hebrews. God parts the Red Sea, rescuing them from destruction. Pharaoh tries to chase them down. God uses the Red Sea to destroy Pharaoh’s army.
Ch. 15: Israel celebrates their deliverance.
Follow with me as we read Exodus 12:1-13.
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 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. 4 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 what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 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. 12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 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.i
We will process these events by pondering four questions.
1. WHO INITIATED THIS WHOLE SERIES OF EVENTS?
Was it the devil? Was it Pharaoh and the Egyptians? Was it Moses or the Hebrew slaves? A study of God’s message to Moses at the Burning Bush leaves no ambiguity about the answer to that question. God was the master strategist behind it all. Moses didn’t initiate this. At the burning bush he initially resisted the idea. The Hebrew people didn’t understand what God was doing. They opposed Moses when Pharaoh made them gather their own straw in response to Moses’s first confrontation with him. All the Hebrews could see was the immediate difficulty they were experiencing. The devil was active in his influence on Pharaoh. The order to kill the male Hebrew infants was diabolical. The Egyptian pursuit of the Hebrews at the Red Sea was satanically inspired. But Satan’s activity was only secondary. It is clearly not the focus of the biblical story. The focus is God’s plans and purposes. The focus was God’s deliverance of His people. In any crisis our first point of focus must be on God and what He is doing. That positions us to cooperate with Him.
Let’s read God’s explanation as to why all these events occurred. Exodus 3:7-10: The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
The first three plagues impacted the Hebrews as well as the Egyptians. God was shaking them loose from the status quo so that they could move into a better future. But that was an uncomfortable experience for them. Even though Moses told them what God was doing, they were focused on how it was impacting them at the moment. Exodus 6:9: “Moses reported this [God’s purposes] to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor.” God’s primary purpose was for the deliverance of His people.
But there was also something He had in mind for the Egyptians as well. In Exodus 7:5 God said to Moses: “And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.” Egypt is a type of the world. The Egyptians were idol worshipers who did not know God. But all that God did during these plagues left them without excuse. During this time God demonstrated His superiority over their false God’s. It was an opportunity for them to turn from their idols and submit themselves to the Lord. Some of them at least recognized the validity of Moses’s warning. When Moses pronounced the plague of the hail, Exodus 9:20 says, “Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside. 21 But those who ignored the word of the Lord left their slaves and livestock in the field.” So, some Egyptians were responding differently than others. We are also told there were other nationalities who joined themselves with the Hebrews when they left Egypt. Exodus 12:37-38 says, “The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38 Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.” The King James Version says, “And a mixed multitude went up also with them. . . .”
What God was doing affected everyone. God is sovereign. He initiated these events to fulfill His purposes. On the surface some of it appeared negative to the natural mind. But God’s purpose for doing it was beneficial to His people.
2. HOW DID GOD'S PEOPLE BENEFIT FROM ALL THIS?
Most obviously they were delivered from slavery. They were spared the destruction of the last plague. But beyond that, they were brought out of their bondage. Are you a slave to any habit or addiction? Is there a bondage in your life that you need broken? The promise to God’s people in Romans 6:14 is that sin would “not have dominion over you” (KJV). It would no longer be your master. That is the spiritual application of Israel’s deliverance out of their slavery.
But the benefits did not end there. God brought them out--to bring them in! He brought them out of slavery so He could bring them into the Promise Land. It is never God’s intention that His people remain in bondage while in the Promise Land. He wants us free so we can enjoy the fullness of His promises. There was abundance of provision in the Promise Land God was leading them into.. It was a land flowing with milk and honey. That is what God has in mind for you and me. Freedom and blessing. Everything God was doing was to that end.
When the Hebrews came out of Egypt, they spoiled the Egyptians—not through violence, but through favor that God gave them with the Egyptians. They simply asked for resources from the Egyptians, and the Egyptians gave it to them.ii Never underestimate the power of favor. God has given me favor in some of the most unexpected place. That favor opened doors that I could have never opened myself. He often directs our steps by giving us favor where it is needed. Ask God to do that for you. When He does it, thank Him for doing it. Through favor given by God, the Hebrews went out full. There was a lot of shaking that preceded that. But God was leading them into His promises.
3. WHAT WAS THE KEY FACTOR THAT DISTINGUISHED THE HEBREWS FROM THE EGYPTIANS ON THIS FATEFUL PASSOVER NIGHT?
In Exodus 12:13 God tells His people what it is: “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.” The blood of the Paschal Lamb was a type of the blood of Jesus shed for our redemption on the cross. The protection was not there just because they were Hebrews.
There was privilege in being a Hebrew because they heard God’s instruction on what they were to do. But what if they had not applied the blood to the doorposts as instructed? They would have suffered the same fate as the Egyptians. They were to slay a lamb in obedience to God’s instruction.
Exodus 12:22 then gives instruction on how the blood was to be applied. In that verse God told them to: “Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning.” Hyssop was a shrub-like plant used to apply the blood to the doorposts. It was a lowly plant with a hairy surface on its leaves that held liquid well.iii The act of applying the blood to the doorposts was obedient faith. The blood was their only source of protection and salvation. But faith in that blood had to be exercised. They had to apply that blood to their individual homes.
All of that is a type of salvation through the blood of Christ. Jesus is the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). His blood alone can save us from judgment and provide eternal salvation. We apply that blood by placing our trust in what He did on the cross for us—in trusting His sacrifice to save us from judgment. Romans 10:9-10 instructs us on how to place our faith in Christ: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” That’s the New Testament counterpart to the Old Testament instruction to put the blood on the doorposts. Have you done that? Have you placed your faith in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for your salvation? That act of faith makes all the difference.
As believers, no matter what the threat may be, our confidence rests upon the sacrifice Jesus made in our behalf at Calvary. It’s not my own goodness that I’m trusting. It is the power of His blood to cleanse me from sin; it is His goodness as my High Priest that I’m ultimately trusting. Our song in heave will be, “"You [Jesus] are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9).
4. WHAT DOES LEAVEN (YEAST) REPRESENT IN THIS EXODUS STORY?
Follow with me as we read Exodus 12:14-19:
“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD—a lasting ordinance. 15 For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast [KJV: leaven]. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.
17 Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 18 In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. 20 Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”
Why all this emphasis on leaven? In Scripture leaven is a type of sin. Redemption is through the blood. But we are to live in that redemption without sin. Applying this passage to New Testament living, Paul wrote, “Get rid of the old yeast [leaven], so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor. 5:7-8).
There are a lot of Christians who want to claim the protection of the blood, but they don’t want to get rid of the sin in their lives. That’s not okay! Exodus 12:19 says, “. . . And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel.”
In 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 Paul makes this application: “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister[c] but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. 12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
So here are four fundamental principles we draw from the Exodus story:
(1) God is sovereign. He initiated these events for the good of His people.
(2) He is always working in our behalf—for our benefit —working all things together [even things we don’t fully understand] for our good.iv
(3) The blood of Christ distinguishes us from the world. “. . . when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”
(4) We are to keep the Passover without leaven. By the grace of God, we are to put sin out of our lives and serve the Lord “with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
The great redemption of Israel out of Egyptian bondage through the blood of the Paschal Lamb was only a type of the redemption that is ours through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
The RESURRECTION OF JESUS WAS GOD'S VALIDATION OF HIS SACRIFICE AT CALVARY.
In Romans 1:4 Paul offered this testimony concerning Jesus, “. . . who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” If Jesus had died on the cross but was never resurrected, we would rightly question the validity of His sacrifice. It was the resurrection that demonstrated the Father’s acceptance of the sacrifice.
In his sermon on the day of Pentecost Peter pointed to the resurrection as proof that Jesus is the Messiah, the only way of salvation. In Acts 2:22-24 he said, “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge [even in the atrocity of the cross God remained sovereign; He was working His plan]; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”
Paul also made Christ’s resurrection central to his message. After confronting the pagan idolatry in Acts 17 Paul said, “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent [I don’t know why some preachers are relegating repentance to the Old Testament. It is a dominate theme throughout the New Testament as well].31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
We have assurance today that our sins are forgiven, because God raised Jesus from the dead. We have assurance that His sacrifice on the cross is accepted by the Father, because God raised Him from the dead. We have assurance of a home in heaven because God raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand. Our eternal hope rests on His death and resurrection. Our resurrection is guaranteed by His resurrection. Live in that assurance!
ENDNOTES:
i All Scripture quotes are from the New International Version unless indicated otherwise.
ii The newer versions translate Hebrew sha’al in Exodus 12:35as “asked.” This is preferred over the King James translation of “borrowed.”
iii NIV Study Bible note at Exodus 12:22 on p. 102.
iv Rom. 8:28.
