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Readings:

1.        Ex.11:1 – 12:28

2.        Ex.12:29-51

Over a period of some months Egypt has been battered by a succession of plagues that are a clear demonstration of the power and rule of the LORD who alone is the True God.

As each successive plague has broken upon Egypt led by the stubborn Pharaoh the gods of Egypt have been shown to be powerless and inept. Pharaoh's own authority has been shown to be anything but absolute – in fact he can only act as under the overarching authority of the LORD.

However Pharaoh remains stubbornly opposed to doing what is right despite all the evidence that has been accumulating that the LORD is King over all.

Even before Moses had returned to Egypt to begin calling upon Pharaoh to release the Israelites from bondage the LORD had instructed him to tell Pharaoh that the LORD regarded Israel as His first born son and that because of the way Pharaoh was treating them the LORD would kill his first born.

We are not told at what point Moses actually told this to Pharaoh for the first time but as we come to ch.11 the moment has come when this warning, having gone unheeded, will be put into action.

It is a solemn moment indeed.

Pharaoh has surely by now received sufficient confirmation of the fact that the LORD is both able and willing to carry out what He says He will do. After all after the various signs and the successive plagues he has ample evidence. The evidence seems to have been sufficient to convince those who surround Pharaoh of the importance of Moses and his role as the LORD's mouthpiece – but Pharaoh remains stubborn to the end.

His stubbornness is wilful and culpable but yet serves as a platform for the LORD to display His power most clearly. Paul writes of this his letter to the Romans:

Rom.9:17 "For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”"

As we consider together the events of this final plague and the provision the LORD made for the safety of His people as He made a clear distinction between Egypt and Israel we must take care not to imitate Pharaoh's illogical and disastrous stubbornness by not taking the LORD God seriously.

Ex.11:1 "The LORD said to Moses, “Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely."

This final plague was to be awful. It was to involve the death of the first born throughout Egypt from the highest person in the land to the lowest – even the animal kingdom was to be affected as well! The grievousness of this plague highlights in the clearest possible way the gravity of sinful rebellion against and the wilful refusal to honour and obey the Living and True God. This is how God views sin – it is serious in the extreme and we neglect it or minimise it at our peril.

Sin calls for judgment and while the LORD may stay His hand for a long time that does not mean it will be stayed forever! This final plague is the execution of His judgment.

Ex.12:12 "For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD."

Now how are we to understand this? Is the LORD becoming desperate in His attempts to secure the release of His own people? Is He becoming frustrated at Pharaoh's stubbornness and in some petulance resorts to what might at first sight seem so cruel?

The conviction of the ancestor of the Israelites, Abraham, had been made clear as he prayed in the context of another judgment declaration. Contemplating the destruction of Sodom Abraham prayed:

Gen.18:25 "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

This conviction remains the conviction of God's people to this day.

As the LORD had spoken to Moses about striking down the first-born before Moses reached Egypt it is obvious that this final plague was no knee-jerk reaction as though the LORD couldn't think of anything else. No, it was planned and carefully planned at that.

The Egyptians were ripe for such judgment too. For long years the Israelites had been cruelly mistreated and this reached a head when Pharaoh ordered:-

Firstly that the Hebrew midwives kill newborn baby boys and then when this failed he

Secondly ordered the people of Egypt to take matters into their own hands and throw such baby boys into the Nile so they should drown.

In describing His people Israel as His first born the LORD was declaring His special love for His own. He was concerned with their future and how appropriate then was the punishment that was meted out – the first born sons of Egypt would perish, there would be no cherished future for those who stubbornly opposed God!

Moses had the task of announcing the imminent destruction of so much life – it will cause great distress throughout Egypt but all Israel will be able to be at peace:

Ex.11:4-7 "So Moses said, “Thus says the LORD: About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel."

This is not the first time that this distinction has been made clear. When livestock in the land had died none of the livestock belonging to Israel had been lost (9:4-7). Catastrophic hail had fallen on the land of Egypt but none on the region of Goshen where the Israelites lived (9:26). Similarly when an unusual darkness had covered the land the only place light was to be found was where the Israelites lived (Ex.10:23).

Now what are we to make of this? Are we simply meant to understand this as suggesting that the Egyptians were guilty sinners whereas the Israelites were somehow squeaky clean?

No, the Bible teaches everywhere that all men, women, boys and girls fall far short of leading the kind of lives that God requires of them and here it is no different. The Israelites will be spared but only upon the fulfilment of certain conditions. They are provided with a course of action which, if carefully followed and adhered to, will lead to their complete safety. The clear implication is that without such adherence they too will suffer just as the Egyptians – morally and spiritually they are no better than the Egyptians. The difference resides in one thing alone – the sovereign electing love of God which freely chooses to provide a way of escape for His people!

Let us look at what was involved in that way of escape. What was the provision that the LORD made to secure the safety of His own people? It is known in the Bible and in subsequent Jewish history as the Passover.

During the evening and during the night when the LORD went through the land to destroy the firstborn in every house the Israelites were to be occupied with a special meal and special signs linked to the meal. They were to do so in order to be protected and in order to be ready to leave Egypt at a moment's notice. This is what they were to do – the details concern historical realities, these things really happened, really took place.

Each family had to prepare a special meal which was to include lamb, bitter herbs and unleavened bread. There were specific requirements that needed to be met.

·       The lamb had to be the right size – sufficient for the needs of the family and no unnecessary wastage. If the family was small it should join with neighbours.

·       The lamb had to be the right age – a year old, in the prime of life.

·       The lamb had to be in the right condition – it was not to be a weak or damaged animal that wouldn't live in any case but a perfect specimen.

·       This lamb had to be watched carefully for a number of days at the end of which it was to be killed. The death of the lamb was absolutely essential – it would be of no value to a household to have taken the lamb in if the lamb was no then killed and its blood poured out.

·       Some of this blood had to be taken and put up as a sign on the doorposts and upon the door lintel. The blood thus daubed on the outside of the dwelling testified to the fact of a death having occurred within. When the LORD went out into the land of Egypt He promised that wherever He saw such blood He would pass-over. The LORD would regard the death of the lamb, so signalled by the presence of blood on the door frame, as a substitute and no further death would strike that household.

·       The members of the household were to stay indoors where they remained under the sign of the blood on their door.

·       Bitter herbs were to accompany the roast lamb – the herbs were a reminder to the people of the bitterness of the years of harsh slavery they had had endured in Egypt.

·       Only unleavened bread was to be eaten. This had two lessons to underline for them. Firstly, they were to eat in haste ie. they were to be ready to leave at a moment's notice – as bread takes time to rise they were not to take the risk of not being ready so unleavened bread. Secondly, leaven in the Scriptures frequently represents sin and the people, in eating unleavened bread ie. bread uncontaminated by sin, were to demonstrate their willingness to leave sinful ways behind them as they were to go out from slavery into a new life of freedom. The people that belongs to God is to be characterised by holiness and by separation from sin.

Now this is just what the people did. It wasn't something that the people had dreamed up for themselves – how men and women like to imagine that their own religious ideas and practices must please God! No, the people did as Moses instructed them and thus they celebrated the sacrifice of the LORD's Passover.

And so we read these simple but oh so profound words of Exodus ch.12:28. Having been given all the instructions by Moses the people's first reaction was that of worship but they didn't stop there but went further:

Ex.12:28 "Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did."

About midnight the LORD went out through Egypt to carry out His threatenings. Great cries of distress arose from the Egyptians as each household had experienced the death of an important member. Pharaoh himself, in a most unroyal manner, is up too in the middle of the night urging Moses to take the people with all their possessions and to leave as quickly as possible. The Egyptians were in a right panic believing that they were all about to die.

And so the LORD did what He had said He would do! He had delivered His people from Egypt and in doing so He had manifested His majesty and power in such irresistible and incontestable ways.

Again and again our text emphasises just what it was that the LORD had done, He had delivered His people!

Ex.12:42 "It was a night of watching by the LORD, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a night of watching kept to the LORD by all the people of Israel throughout their generations."

Ex.12:51-2 "All the people of Israel did just as the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron. And on that very day the LORD brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts."

While it is interesting to study history and to see just how the LORD delivered His OT people and how He taught them to remember just what He had done for them there is much more in this episode than a mere historical study.

The whole story of how the LORD delivered His people at the Passover provides a paradigm that enables us to understand the life and ministry of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This was immediately clear to the writers of the NT. For example Paul described Jesus employing the very word Passover:

1Cor.5:7 "For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:"

The apostle John recorded John the Baptist pointing out the Lord Jesus Christ to some of his own disciples saying:

Jn.1:29 "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"

It is also far from being without significance that Jesus was actually crucified at the time of the Passover celebrations.

Let's look more closely at this.

·       Is Jesus the right size? What on earth do I mean by that? Well if the lamb of the Passover was to feed those taking shelter inside the house how "big" does Jesus have to be if He is to be the Saviour of the World? Can He really satisfy the needs of all? Well as we've seeing in recent weeks in our mid-week studies the Bible regularly and systematically teaches that Jesus while a man is no ordinary man, rather He is God who has taken humanness to Himself. Since Jesus is God – Uncreated and eternal He is by virtue of His infinities easily capable of meeting the need of all those who will place their trust in Him!

·       What about His age? Well Jesus was not a weak child who died, nor was he a dotard long since passed his sell-by date. But He was a mature adult male some 33 years old and in the prime of life!

·       More importantly He was in the right condition! The lamb to be sacrificed at the Passover had to be without blemish, free of any physical impediments. So important was this that the lamb had to be kept a under of days to make sure that all was well. In Jesus' case it is not physical suitability that is to concern us but His moral and spiritual qualities.

Peter compared Jesus to a sacrificial lam to such a lamb as was without spot or blemish! In other words Peter was declaring Jesus to be without any sinful spot or stain that marred His life.

Peter had walked with the Lord Jesus during the three years of His ministry and yet after such close keeping of Jesus' company Peter could identify not weakness or stain on His character declaring Jesus to be:

1Pet.2:22 "He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth."

·       The Passover lamb had to be killed – if kept alive in the household there would be no blood to mark on the doorframe. Jesus too was killed. His blood too was shed. You see it was absolutely necessary for Him to die and for us today it is absolutely necessary that He did! Having Jesus inside the house as a great teacher, or as a miracle worker or as a wonderful example would be like having a lamb inside the house when the destroyer was in the land.

The lamb being slain meant that no other death need take place within that house – but the wages of sin are death and without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. The wrath of God against sin would forever remain unsatisfied if the Saviour had not shed His precious blood!

Does your understanding of Christianity have a place for the blood of Christ, the death of Christ? If it doesn't then your Christianity has really very little to do with the Christianity of the Bible. Indeed the death of Christ is central to Bible Christianity and so must it be for us too.

·       The blood of the lamb had to be painted outside the house on the doorframe. Blood had been shed inside the house and the marks on the doorframe indicated that those inside were taking shelter under that shed blood.

Have you personally done the same? Is your only hope in the death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? Have you allied yourself openly with Jesus Christ and His cause?

Rom.10:10 "For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved."

·       The Passover meal involved eating bitter herbs and being ready to move on leaving the old way of life behind. Have you realised the bitterness of life outside of Christ? Are you ready to follow Him as He leads you on?

The message of Christian gospel is not about making yourself good enough for God to accept you – the message is all about what God has done in Jesus Christ to procure your salvation. Salvation is the free gift of God's grace to be received by faith. But on the other hand the Christian message is not a message that leads to or condones moral/spiritual indifference! The man or woman who trusts Christ is called to live a holy life, a life separated from sin and separated to God.

For a man or a woman to profess faith in Christ yet to live an unchanged life is sadly something with which we are perhaps only too aware. But in Bible terms this is an impossibility! When the Spirit of God inhabits a person there will be change – it cannot be otherwise – what fellowship has light with darkness? So we must conclude that a profession that leads to no change is a spurious profession.

May we all come to understand what our spiritual needs really are. May we all come to see what God has done in Jesus Christ to meet those needs. May He grant to all of us the grace we need to believe trustingly and openly in the Saviour. And may He lead us in the paths of righteousness for His names sake!

Amen.