Sermon Central
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The Blood Still Works Series
Contributed by Charles Jones on Apr 11, 2013 (message contributor)
Summary: Our text occurs on the eve of their deliverance from Egypt. They are ordered to kill a lamb and to prepare it for eating with bitter herbs. They were also ordered to take the blood of the lamb and use it to paint the exterior door posts of their homes. T
The Blood Still Works!
By Charles C Jones
And they shall take the blood and strike in on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. Exodus 12:7, 13.
Our text focuses on Gods instruction to Israel as He is about to deliver them from Egypt.You know the story of how Israel had been slaves in Egypt for over 400 years. As slaves of the state, they built roads, pyramids, palaces and other works for the Egyptians. They prayed constantly for deliverance. Our text occurs on the eve of their deliverance from Egypt. They are ordered to kill a lamb and to prepare it for eating with bitter herbs. They were also ordered to take the blood of the lamb and use it to paint the exterior door posts of their homes. This strange decoration would be a sign to Gods death angel to spare anyone on the inside of that home from the death of their first born, which was the 10th and final plague against Egypt. As promised, the death angel came. Each home that had the blood applied to the door posts were saved. Those without the blood applied over their doorposts suffered the death of their firstborn, whether they were Israelites or not. Inside the homes of the people who were obedient to God,I can imagine they were filled with joy and hope because it appeared that the terrible midnight of their enslavement was about to end. The joy they shared on the interior or inside their homes was because of the blood that was applied on the exterior or outside of their doors.
As Both the Jews and Christians celebrate Passover and Easter:
For the Jews Passover marks a new beginning for them and it bounds them together as a nation. For it commemorates the children of Israel's deliverance from the hand of Pharoah in Egypt.
In the Bible,Egypt is a type, or symbol, of bondage or sin.
Although the Lord would take the Egyptians through a series of plagues and complications in order for the Israelites to be delivered from Egypt, their deliverance would require the Blood of a Lamb.
How many of you here today know that when the Lord sets you free from bondage, it’s the dawning of a new day and the beginning of a new life?
Whenever you read or hear the words “redeem” or “redemption” in the New Testament, they speak of freedom from slavery.
Whenever you mention words like Deliverance,Bondage,or Redemption to the Jews they immediately think of Passover and Israel’s deliverance from Egypt through the blood of the lamb.
Whenever you mention words like Deliverance,Bondage,or Redemption to the Christian right away we begin to think of the Sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross to set us free from the enemy. He was a Passover Lamb as well.
Now the Jewish nation in the Old Testament had two calendars, a civil calendar that began in our September–October, and a religious calendar that began in our March–April. New Year’s Day in the civil year(“Rosh Hashana”—“beginning of the year”) fell in the seventh month of the religious calendar and ushered in the special events in the month of Tishri: the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. But Passover marked the beginning of the religious year, and at Passover, the focus was on the lamb.
One day while going up to the mountain with his Father to be offered as a sacrifice Isaac asked the question Father? Where is the lamb? (Elaborate on this Story) (Gen. 22:7)
When Issac asked this question he introduced one of the major themes of the Old Testament as God’s people waited for the Messiah. Well even though God provided a Lamb in the thicket. The question was ultimately answered by John the Baptist when he pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John1:29).
The Passover lamb is a picture or type of Jesus Christ and it was confirmed in the New Testament by Philip the Evangelist in Acts 8:32–35 when he came across an Ethiopian eunech who was reading in Isaiah 53:verses 7 and 8 that Jesus was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
