The Passover (Exodus 11:1-12:30)

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Actually can just share one more quick announcement before we dive into the Word this morning. Very exciting announcement. Some of you may be aware of this. You’ve heard little bits and pieces here and there, but wanted to let you guys know that Kyle’s book, storing up treasure, 30 verses to learn, live and love, is at this point, available for pre order at the Good Book Company. And so we mentioned that, yeah, you can certainly mention that because, well, probably we just wanted you to hear it from us first, instead of just seeing it online or something like that, since we are family here, but also because Kyle wanted me to extend on his behalf his great thanks to all of you, the elders the church, the staff of the congregation, including some families who read chapters early on to get feedback from them. Just wanted to thank you all for your support in this writing process. And that’s everything Kyle wanted me to say. But I’m going to say one more thing, because I’ve said here many times, the coopers do not attend Cityview because you guys hired me to be your senior pastor. We attend Cityview because you hired Kyle to be our Family Ministries pastor, and we wanted to raise our kids under the Family Ministries that he leads, because he has such gifting and passion for it that comes out in this book, certainly. So I would encourage you, if you have kids in the home still, maybe to think about making that pre order, because we know that you will be richly blessed by it with that then go ahead, grab your Bibles. You can open up to Exodus chapter 11. We’ll be in chapter 11 and a good chunk of chapter 12 this morning as well Exodus 11 as you’re turning there. Do you remember where you were when? And here we could fill in some different blanks. Do you remember where you were when? Well, if you were born, say 1957, or earlier, do you remember where you were when JFK was killed or 95 and earlier. Do you remember where you were when the planes hit the Twin Towers, September 11? Or, if you’re from around here and of a certain age, you remember where you were when the Cubs finally won the World Series after a millennium and a half, or something? We remember, right? We everyone has Yes. Was the answer we were getting there. Of course, I remember where I was when these things happened. We remember life shaping events. In fact, go even farther to say we should remember life shaping events. We talk a lot about this is why there are memorials on September 11. And we say things like, never forget, because we want to make sure that they don’t fade from memory. And I think that’s especially true when it comes to our spiritual life. We want to remember what God has done for us, in us, through us, but we forget. We forget regularly. It was Claire Davis, who is a church historian, who said that the Christian life is a combination of amnesia and deja vu, where we say things like, I know I’ve forgotten this before. We’re guilty of this gospel amnesia. Just every day it feels like the truths of the gospel fade from memory. That’s why, actually, one of the most common commands in Scripture is remember, remember your Creator in the days of your youth. The teacher tells us in Ecclesiastes 12, remember the Lord who is great and awesome. Nehemiah four, and that’s to ensure that they don’t lose a heart and become afraid of the opposition. Remember the wonders he has done. Psalm 105, remember, maybe most importantly, Paul tells Timothy, remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead? Well, this week and next week are all about remembering. Last two weeks were all about hard hearts. These two weeks are all about remembering this week, especially what we remember and why, and then next week, how we remember and why. We’ll look at this in three scenes, just a bit of context, in case, this is your first time here. We’re in the middle of the series in Exodus, of course, and we just finished the first nine plagues. Covered most of them last week, in fact. So that’s where we are. We’re we’re building to this climactic moment, the final plague. That’s where we are in the story. So let’s pick it up there. Scene one, the message is delivered. Chapter 11, all of the chapter in fact, let me read it for us now. Now the Lord had said to Moses, I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely. Tell the people that men and women are like are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold. The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded. In Egypt by Pharaoh’s officials and by the people. So Moses said, This is what the Lord says about midnight. I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh who sits on the throne to the firstborn son of the female slave who is at her hand mill and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt, worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. But among the Israelites, not a dog will bark at any person or animal. Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. All 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. The Lord had said to Moses, Pharaoh, will refuse to listen to you so that my wonders may be multiplied. In Egypt, Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go out of his country. So this one is distinct from the other. Plagues. Plagues one to nine, again, covered most of them last week. Some key distinctions that Kyle mentioned last week, that the first nine plagues, they come in these three triplets well and now this one is all by itself, and it is different. The Lord, for example, he acts without Moses or Aaron. There’s no raising of the staff or anything like this in this plague. He announces the success of this plague beforehand. You see it there in verse one. He’s going to let you go. Finally, at this point, whereas previously he’d announced that it wasn’t going to be successful, Israel has to do something in this plague, as we’ll see, which is different. And then the other thing that’s different is we get this lengthy introduction, which is what we have here in chapter 11. And so this introduction marks the last plague off as climactic like this is the moment we’ve been waiting for deliverance is at long last, at hand. Now what happens? Verse four picks up where we left off last week. In fact, it almost looks like a contradiction for a moment, because verse chapter 10, verse 28 Pharaoh said to Moses, get out of my sight. Don’t come back. You know you’re going to die if you come back again. And Moses says, That’s it. I’m not going to appear before you ever again. And then here he is appearing before Moses. Well, it’s because verses one to three are just a little like back story. So you can almost picture Moses. Maybe he’s actually started to walk away from Pharaoh. He gets the word from the Lord. He like pauses at the threshold and it looks back, and he delivers this last message to Pharaoh. So picks up right where 1029 left off. He delivers God’s message. Every first born in Egypt will die, and the first born of the lowest slave, even the cattle, all the way up to the firstborn of Pharaoh himself, which is important, because this is the first plague that affects Pharaoh personally. In fact, we’ve seen him usually escaping the consequences himself in a lot of ways. You know. Take the first plague, the Nile turns to blood, and he goes home to his palace. All the other Egyptians are out digging wells. Pharaoh wasn’t digging a well. Somebody was bringing him water still wherever they found it. But this one affects him personally and justifiably so, because Israel, we learned all the way back in chapter four, Israel is God’s first born son, he has adopted the people of Israel as his son. Pharaoh has messed with God’s first born, and now God is going to mess with his so there’s this balance here. There is in this section, a sense of the perfect justice that is being meted out. Now this would be a good example, almost, of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, which is a badly misunderstood phrase that was given in the context of courts like this, is a legal standard. So it is true that personally, we don’t do eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. We repay evil with blessing as Christians, because that’s what God has done for us. But that’s not what you want to have happen in the courts. You don’t want somebody who murdered a family member or something. The judge looks at him and goes, Hey, I’m gonna repay your evil with blessing. Go, you little rascal. You You know, try not to make any more mischief. That would be a bad moment. Okay, so we’re dealing with courtroom legal standard here, and we get perfect justice again, Pharaoh messed with God’s first born, and so it’s his first born who will suffer. The Israelites were crying out same word that’s translated here as the loud wail that will come from Egypt. And remember that Egypt had attempted a genocide of Israel’s boys, the baby boys. They were all guilty. They all participated in tossing the baby boys into the Nile River to kill them, and so they will experience genocide themselves. Culture wide. This is common in Scripture, this idea of. Of the sin you do will bring those consequences on you. Here’s just a representative example Psalm seven. Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit. They have made the trouble they cause recoils on them. Their violence comes down on their own heads. That’s the boomerang nature of sin. The violent will suffer violence. The genocidal will suffer genocide. They get what they deserve. In other words, and if you’re unsure, if you’re feeling squeamish here, like I don’t know, God seems a little tough in all of this, maybe a little harsh, just to remember also and Kyle went to great lengths last week to make this clear. They were all given so many chances to repent, to turn and in fact, next week, we’ll see something interesting with that. So just hang on to that thought until next week. But with that, Moses walks out. He’s boiling mad at this point, maybe because of the death threat he just got, I don’t know, but this is his last conversation with Pharaoh, because the last of the blows is about to fall on Egypt. And here’s what Pharaoh should have learned by now. Remember, the overarching theme of Exodus is, who is the Lord? And that’s the question Pharaoh asked Moses first comes to him and says, The Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, Let my people go. Pharaoh says, Who? Who is the Lord that I should listen to him, that I should obey him. Well, he’s got his answer. Now. He should have learned by now, here’s what he should have learned. He should know that God is all powerful. He’s a lot stronger than the gods of Egypt. That’s for sure, that God is sovereign, even over nature. The winds and the waves obey him, the frogs, the hail, everything obeys Him. Our God is a jealous God. He will have no other gods before him or alongside him, not the false and enslaving Gods of Egypt. Our God is a just God, and our God is a merciful God. He’s got all of that. He’s got the message. What will he do with it? Will he respond? Or what we see in verse 10 gives us our answer, will he harden his heart? Still and again? All right? Scene two then, and we’re ready, right? Everyone’s ready for the climax. All right, here we go. The memorial is established chapter 12, when we read verses one to 20, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, this month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year, tell the whole community of Israel that on the 10th day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 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. The animals you choose must be year old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats take care of them until the 14th day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night, they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire along with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire with the head, legs and internal organs. Do not leave any of it till morning. If some is left till morning, you must burn it. 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. 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. 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. 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. For seven days, you are to eat bread made without yeast 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. On the first day, hold a sacred assembly and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on those days except to prepare food for everyone to eat. That is all you may do. 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. The first month you to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the 14th day until the evening of the 21st day 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. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread. Okay, we were expecting the climax, and we got. Have detailed instructions for a feast instead, and that’s to highlight the importance of what’s coming. I mean, this is just in marked contrast to the Breathless pace of the narrative that we’ve seen in the past few chapters, and Kyle mentioned this last week, like in Prince of Egypt, you know the plagues, they just like run together, because that’s kind of how the narrative goes. There’s a reason people think this all happened in a week instead of five months. Then that’s because the story is just going and then this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened, and then we get this. Let’s talk about yeast for a moment. Here. It’s in gandalf’s famous words, the deep breath before the plunge. So we slow down for a moment, because this is such an important moment. It’s such an important moment, in fact, that God here even before it happens. God reforms the calendar in light of it. This is a new day. So this would be like the Fourth of July for us. All of a sudden, this day that had just been an ordinary day is now kind of a big deal for the nation, or maybe even better, because we’re speaking spiritually, although nationally for Israel as well, but spiritually, it’d be a little bit like, well, it’s Sunday. It’s the first day of the week. The week has changed as a result of what God has done. So this is the first month of the year. Now for the Jewish people, God has given them new sacred rhythms. Why? So they remember in the same way that we have rhythms so that we remember again we’re here on the first day of the week. Why? Because Sunday is resurrection. Sunday, every week, we remember what God has done. So if this is why God has given us these rhythms, I think it’s worth asking ourselves, like evaluating ourselves, what do your rhythms look like, weekly and yearly? We’ll talk more about this next week, but I think it’s worth checking. I mean weekly rhythm. The old quip, for example, that that preparation for Sunday morning starts on Saturday night. Is that part of your weekly rhythm to go we get home at a certain time, we’re in bed at a certain time, so that we are rested and ready for the Lord’s day? Or is your yearly calendar? Is it shaped by the secular instead of the sacred. Is it the school year? Is it, you know, Hallmark holidays, instead of God’s Holy Days? Now, Ecclesiastes tells us that there’s a time for feasting and there’s a time for not feasting. Where are we right now in this story? I mean, Israel is still in Egypt and still in slavery. If there’s a time for feasting, this, ain’t it. And yet God commands the feast, which means they’re going to celebrate this feast by faith. It is still faith in future deliverance, and isn’t that true for us today too? Because we’re invited to feast regularly. As Christians, we’re going to feast today on the broken body, the shed blood of Christ to be nourished by His grace. As we take communion together, what do we say after we take communion? The words from First Corinthians 11. As often as you do this, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes again. Has he come again? Not yet. So we’re celebrating this by faith. There will still be that day when every wrong is set right, when there’ll be no more sin, no more death, no more crying, no more pain, and we feast in anticipation of that day by faith. Well, the center of the feast here in this story is the Lamb, and it is to be a lamb without defect. Why? Malachi tells us a little bit about this. It says, If you offer a defective lamb. It’s not true sacrifice, which means it’s not true worship. You’re bringing a lamb that you didn’t want to reproduce anyway, from your flock, and so you’re not really giving anything. I’m sure that’s some of what’s going on here, but, but there’s more than that going on here. It has to do with the nature of the substitute, because the lamb is in your place, as we already sang, and the imperfect can die for their own sins, but only the perfect can bear the sins of another, and that’s why, in the verse that Kyle read for us earlier, we read that we are redeemed not by gold, not by Silver, no, we are redeemed by what by the precious blood of Christ, a Lamb without blemish or defect. So the lamb here at the original Passover Feast gets us ready for the lamb with a capital L. And it’s actually interesting to see how all these lambs. The Old Testament, get us ready for Jesus, who is to come, because we just see the salvation spread. This is the second lamb, really. The first lamb is when Abraham is about to offer his son, Isaac as a sacrifice to the Lord. But the Lord wants nothing to do with child sacrifice. So what does he do? He provides that ram caught in the thicket instead one lamb for one person. Here, what do we see? One lamb for one household, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the Jewish year. What happens? You get one lamb for one nation, goat in that case, for one nation, for one year, I might add. And then we get to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, one lamb for all nations, all people, and for all time. Which means this is not just about the feast. This is not just a party again. Go back to the Fourth of July. Maybe got barbecue on the Fourth of July. Why? It’s not doing anything sacrificially, you’re just you’re just having a good time. That’s not what this is. Because they’re told to slaughter the lamb, and that word is a technical term. It means to sacrifice the lamb. So we’re dealing in a sacrificial moment here, and then they’re supposed to take time hyssop and use it as a paintbrush and paint the threshold of their door with the blood of the Lamb, whose blood is important. Hebrews nine tells us, without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness, because the life is in the blood, the life of the substitute. And every house and every person in the house needs that sacrifice, needs that substitute, and so you paint the blood on the door to say, sin has already been judged in this house. Someone has already died for sin in this house. And that’s so important is go back to chapter 11. What I just read for us a moment ago in verse seven, God says, I will make a distinction between Israel and Egypt, and the distinction has nothing to do with merit. It’s not that Israel is better. Hey, keep reading in Exodus, okay, we’ll get there in a few weeks. You’re gonna be like these people are not better, that’s for sure. And that’s important, because that’s true for us also. God saves us by grace, through faith. Some of us, we come from rough backgrounds. Sin has strongholds in our lives. There are Christians who are not as good as their Muslim neighbors, as the atheist across the street from them. The distinction is not merit. The distinction is the blood. Because Romans, 323, there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, between Israelite and Egyptian, between Christian and Muslim. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but those who trust are justified freely by what by His blood. The only distinction is faith, trust in God’s provision, which means you’re acknowledging that you can’t and didn’t earn it. You can’t and didn’t go back to the scales we talked about two weeks ago, right? It means you’re you’re standing there in front of the scales, and you’re going, No, no, I don’t want to do this. To do this. I know what righteousness looks like, and I know what my life looks like. Is there another option? And God says, Yeah, sure, blood. And you go, I’ll take that. I’ll do that instead. So painting the blood on the door frame is faith in action, and it really is faith, of course. I mean, you’ve sacrificed a lamb that’s that’s money, that’s costly. You’re doing something silly, like putting blood on a door, like, that’s weird, that’s so weird you’re gonna stay in the door. Also, it’s bad for you. But especially, this is Faith in Action, because you are trusting in the substitute. That’s the key, right? And that’s key too, because it reminds us that our trust, what matters is the object of our faith, not the subject of our faith. And that could be an encouragement to some of us, because so often we start to wonder, like, how much faith do I have. And you can kind of imagine what this would look like there in Egypt. Don Carson talks about this. You got amusing little illustration. He kind of pictures to Hebrews, you know, living next door to each other. They’re out there with their, you know, paint can and hyssop and stuff, and getting ready to paint. And then, you know, Fred and Jim, and they’re talking and, and Fred’s like, Man, I don’t know about this. Jim’s like, What are you talking about? Like, what I mean really? Like, we’re just gonna put blood on the door, but that’s it. We’re gonna be good. And Jim’s like, yeah, that’s what God said. He’s gonna do it. It’s gonna be awesome. And Fred’s like, I’m glad you believe man. Like, I’m struggling here, but All right, let’s do it. Which one of those two was spared death at the Passover? Both. Faith? Why? Because they put the blood on the door frame, right? That’s what matters. Weak faith like Mark chapter nine, I believe, help my unbelief. Weak faith is still real faith, because weak faith in a strong God is real faith. So how do we put faith in action? Because I think that’s the bigger question. Where you go, okay, but is there something I can do to just like paint blood, where I’m like, Okay, now I know I believe. And the answer is, yeah, of course, there are lots of things we do that just show it you’re doing one of them right now. We gather with the Lord’s people. It doesn’t save us, but it shows I believe. I want to hear from God’s Word. We make sacrifices of our time, of our energy, of our finances, but most importantly, we profess Jesus Christ, and then we proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s not just a lamb, though that’s not all they’re eating. They’re also eating bitter herbs. Why? Because the Egyptians made their lives bitter. We read all the way back in chapter one, same exact word. So they’re eating the bitter herbs. They’re remembering the bitterness of their slavery. And shouldn’t we do that also? Because we are actually in a more grievous slavery. Slavery to Egypt is bad, slavery to sin is worse, and that’s the slavery that we know so we grieve our sin in order to experience the full joy of grace. The Puritan preacher Thomas Watson says it like this, till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet. But once sin is bitter, Oh, how sweet Christ and His salvation is. And then they got to finish the lamb, because it’s not just about sustenance, just not a counting calories. Kind of moment they got to finish the lamb, because the lamb has been set apart, has been consecrated, has been made holy. And in eating the lamb, they are set apart, they are made ritually holy by eating the sacrifice as well. So this is a different sort of meal.
I think that’s true of the meal we take also. It’s one of the reasons why Paul tells us, again in First Corinthians 11, to make sure you take communion in a communion in a worthy manner, because it is a holy meal, and you don’t want to bring defilement into the holiness that’s to eat and drink judgment on yourself, Paul says. And then you eat bread without yeast, with your cloak tucked in. These are weird instructions, too. Why? Well, not unusual for me to come down in the morning and see a batch of dough sitting on my kitchen counter, and it’s a bigger batch of dough than I left last night. Not that I made it, but I saw as I left the kitchen last night. Why? Because the guy yeast and yeast, that’s what happens to bread. Don’t ask me the science. That’s not my thing. Okay, so it takes time. In other words, you leave it overnight before you bake it and coke tucked in. So you’re ready to run. In other words, you’re gonna eat this meal ready to go. You don’t have time for the dough to rise. You don’t have time you gotta have your running shoes on. You ever had one of those times where you got to eat quickly somewhere, and so you order your food and hand your credit card to the waiter at the same time, you’re all looking like, No, I’ve never done that. Like, okay, Kaylee did. Thank you, Kaylee. One person on my team, I do this a lot. I’m in a bigger rush than the rest of you. Okay, where it’s like, we just, we got to be able to go as soon as we’re done. So I’m gonna give you the card now. That’s what Passover is like, we need to be able to go as soon as this meal is over, but you see it means every part of this meal is meant to teach. Every part of this meal is meant to remind. Each piece is instructive, so that they remember, so that we remember. Because this is all really important, judgment is coming, verse 12, every first born will be struck down, because every firstborn deserves to be struck down, and every second born and third born, and fourth born, fifth born on down the line. And that includes the Israelites. In fact, that’s why they got blood on the door, right? I mean, verse 13, it says, this will be a sign to you. What sign is it? It’s a sign that they have protection from death. Well, death, at whose hands, not the Egyptians. They’re not attacking Israel in this moment. In fact, we saw back in verse three, they’re favorably disposed toward the Israelites. They respect Moses even, no, they’re protected from death at God’s hands. This is offering them protection from the protector. We’ll come back to that because you should be confused. It, but we’re all under the penalty of sin, which is why we need a substitute and why we need the blood. In fact, that’s exactly what it says later in verse 13, because God says when I see the blood, so it’s assigned to you, and when I see the blood, I will know the lamb died in the place of the firstborn and I will pass over that house. It’s so important we remember this that we are all under the penalty of death. We all will die. And so we all need to be ready for what happens after death. We all need to be ready to stand before God. Damian. Easley was a major league baseball player. Played with the angels. He was on the plane one of the times, you know, flying to and from games or whatever, and he heard his teammates, some of them, talking about God. And the one had asked the question, if this plane were to go down, like, right now we’re going to crash, we’re all to die. Like, How sure are you that you’re going to be okay in the life to come. And Damien was uncomfortable, even though this wasn’t directed at him. He was made uncomfortable because he wasn’t sure. And so he kind of scooted back a few rows and kind of leaned back, you know, like, see if he could listen to the conversation. But they weren’t giving him the information that he wanted, so he finally just turned around and started asking them questions. You know, basically the Philippian jailer, what must I do to be saved? And before the plane had landed, he had given his life to Christ because he saw that he was under a death sentence, but pardon was freely available. And then we’re really ready for the climax. Now, right? But we get instructions for another feast, verse 17, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, little bit earlier as well. Like what gives here? Well, here’s what gives, here’s here’s why this is here. We are saved. That’s what Passover commemorates. We are saved to be sanctified, to be made holy, to be made different, and that’s what the Feast of Unleavened Bread commemorates. I mean, yes, it’s unleavened bread because there’s a hasty departure, but yeast throughout Scripture represents sins, corrupting influence. You leave a little bit of yeast in dough and it will spread. You leave a little bit of sin in your life. Guess what happens? This is why Jesus says things like, watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees in Mark eight. Why Paul tells us, Galatians, five, first. Corinthians, five, a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough, not even just your life, but the community as well, and so this feast is a reminder to keep ourselves free from sin. Even today, the Jewish people will search their home for yeast and then physically sweep it out the door before Passover happens as a as a sign of their commitment to godly living, they’re making a clean sweep of their lives, and so must we like this is a great feast because it’s a reminder that there are no small sins, no small sins, because all sin corrupts, All sin spreads. It’s like mold under your kitchen sink. You don’t go, I got most of it because you get most of it. Pretty soon it’s all going to be back. This is when you take a sledgehammer to the cabinets and you bring somebody else in with plastic bags and like hazmat suits, like, we got to get this stuff out. And that’s what God is telling us to do here. It’s also why it’s punished so severely. I mean, did you see that if you eat yeast during this time, you’re to be cut off from the covenant community? You’re to be excommunicated, you are no longer a part of God’s people because you ate yeast, right? Because it’s an act of deliberate self exclusion. It is a despising of God’s promises and his salvation. Why would you exclude yourself from sitho Like that’s my question again. Look at verse 17. Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought you out of Egypt. And I love that, because you know what he hasn’t done yet, brought them out of Egypt. But when God says it, it’s as good as done. So it’s known as a prophetic perfect tense, it’s already over. So it takes faith, sure they’re eating this meal by faith, sure. But as Alex MATIER says, Faith is not a leap in the dark, but a leap into the light, and that’s what they’re doing here. And hey, how much so for us, by the way, because that prophetic Perfect. Well, that’s actually done at this point, it is done. It is finished, right? Christ already died in. Our Place. All right. Now we’re really ready for the climax. I got good news for you in this last section. We actually get there. So let’s finish the section in verses 21 to 30. Chapter 12, verses 21 to 30, the moment is at long last here. Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb, 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 door frame. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning, when the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the door frame and will pass over that doorway. And he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants when you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony, and when your children ask you, what does this ceremony mean to you? Then tell them, it is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians and the people bowed down and worshiped. The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded. Moses and Aaron at midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, King, 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. Pharaoh 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. So after 30 verses of anticipation, at last, the moment is here. The Israelites do what God commands to be spared when the Lord goes through Egypt to strike down the firstborn, he will see the blood and the door frame, and he will keep the destroyer from entering that home. Now it’s clear, right? The Lord goes through, the Lord strikes down the Egyptians, and he keeps the destroyer from striking down the Egyptians. So the destroyer is, in some sense, the presence of God manifested a little bit like the angel of the Lord that we’ve met in previous passages, which means, again, that God provides protection from himself. God provides protection for us from His just wrath, which means and this one usually throws people for a loop, but it’s accurate scripturally. I promise you, our problem is God. We have a god problem. Now we have a god problem not because God is a problem, but because we are a problem because of sin, right? But our God is a holy God, and a holy God cannot abide the sin and rebellion in our hearts. So is this confusing that God provides protection from himself? Yes, but as RC Sproul famously said, The glory of the gospel is this, the one from whom we need to be saved is the one who has saved us because he provides the means by which we are saved. And it is verse 27 tells us an atoning sacrifice, a sacrifice that and the big theological word is propitiates. Propitiates God’s wrath. Now, what does that mean to propitiate? We don’t use that today. It means to turn away that wrath, to appease it, to deal with his just anger, and it’s over. It’s turned away. So news this good must be remembered, of course, and that’s why verse 25 tells them that they are to observe this ceremony from generation to generation. That word observe is interesting. It can be used for a lot of different things. So it’s the word often translated worship, often translated serve, and earlier in Exodus chapters one and two translated as labor, like the harsh labor that the Israelites experienced while slaves in Egypt. And so it’s just this is this wonderful turn that has happened, this glorious freedom that they moved into, because they’re now freed from serving the Egyptians and instead freed to serve the Lord in worship and obedience. And that’s exactly what they do. You see it there in verse 27 where they bow in worship, because in the end, we all will either bow in worship or bend in judgment. And then all that build up 38 verses, and we get two verses on the climactic event. It’s almost anti climax. It’s a little bit like the Gospels, where you read, you know what? 27 chapters in Matthew or something, and then it just reads, and they crucified him. That’s it. Why? Why? Because it’s the meaning of the event, not the event itself, that matters so much. It’s the meaning of the event. What was this all about? Now, partly, this is short because there’s no. Celebration. The Israelites don’t throw a party because the Egyptians are dying. There’s no delight in the destruction of the wicked, not by the Israelites, not by God. As one commentator said, It neither relish nor revelry is to be seen. No, it just happens. It’s an objective event. The Lord struck them down. There is loud wailing, because there was no house without someone dead. And make sure you read that correctly. There was no house without someone dead, no Egyptian house, no Israelite house, either, because either the first born Egyptian died or the lamb died in the place of the firstborn. God provided the lamb, as he always does, For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but shall have eternal life. And that’s why John, when he sees his cousin coming to the shores of Jordan, says, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Why? Paul says, Christ, our Passover lamb has been slain. God provides the sacrifice we need to save us from the death we deserve. Our salvation is by grace, through faith. Remember, our problem isn’t Pharaoh. Our problem is God His wrath because of our sin in truth, the problem is not Pharaoh. The problem is that we’re all exactly like Pharaoh. We’re all just little Pharaohs who harden our hearts against God and do as we please. Tony Morita says we should remember, then in this story, the severity and mercy of God. We are all like Pharaoh. We all deserve this kind of judgment, and yet, like Pharaoh, some think they’ll never face judgment. Never have to give an account, you will. He will. So get your heart ready. How? How do you get yourself ready for that moment? Because you dip your faith in Jesus’s shed blood and paint it on the door frame of your hearts, even now, even today, even in this moment, the moment is here. What moment. The moment is here for you to decide, to remember what you deserve, but what you can receive instead by faith in Jesus, Christ. And so our big idea is really just that right there. Of course, it’s remember, remember, remember what? Remember your sin, the lamb’s blood and God’s grace. Never forget your sin, the lamb’s blood and God’s grace. It’s interesting, the Bible talks about Israel celebrating the Passover at a number of moments in their history. Joshua leads the people to celebrate the Passover before they attack Jericho as they go into the Promised Land, Hezekiah, Josiah, these kings of Judah, they celebrate the Passover at times of national renewal and restoration. Ezra leads the people to celebrate it when they return from exile. So these are all these high water marks in Israel’s history. Why do they celebrate the Passover then? Because whenever Israel returned to God, they returned to the foundational salvation event from their history. In other words, they remembered, and that’s the lesson for us, because we are always seeking renewal, revival, repentance, restoration. How remember? We remember, preach the gospel to yourself every day, and really all day, every day, as George Mueller used to say, get your heart happy in the Lord each morning because you remember what he did for you. Don’t be gospel amnesiacs. I remember forgetting this before. No, bring it front and center of your mind every moment. We need to remember more than we need new information. Like Pharaoh, we’ve got the information we need to remember it. CS Lewis, who said people need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed. That’s why we preach the same thing here every week. I don’t know if you caught that. You want to know what today’s sermons about. It’s about Jesus, His blood shed in our place every week. Why? Because you need to be reminded more. You need to be instructed. You don’t just need to do that on Sunday, though, remind yourself. Do that for yourself. Preach the same sermon to yourself every day. Let gospel remembrance, then shape gospel living, to consecrate you, to make you holy. We think I can for. Give this person despite how they hurt me, because I remember that God forgave me my sin. You think I can humble myself and put pride to death because I remember that I couldn’t earn this, that I didn’t deserve this, so I got no reason to be proud. You think I can serve sacrificially because I remember that Jesus, who was worthy of all worship, instead, served me sacrificially. Means in whatever circumstances I face, I can turn from complaining and grumbling to gratitude, because I remember what I deserve and what I have received instead, remember your sin, the lamb’s blood and God’s grace, and then bow in humble, grateful, odd worship. Let’s pray, Father, we bow in worship before you now, because we do remember what we deserve. We see the sin in our lives. We see how the sin has worked its way through our lives like yeast through dough. We know that we are no different than the Egyptians who perished that night. We know that we deserve destruction at your hands and yet And yet, you made a way for us to be saved. You sent your son, your only son, whom you loved, to be our substitute, to be that sacrifice, so that by His shed blood, which is a sign to us and which you see and death and wrath can be turned away, forgiveness and salvation can come instead. Lord, help us remember and Lord, for those who are here in this room now and who don’t believe yet, may this be the moment, the moment is here to understand for the first time who is the Lord? What has the Lord done for us? And may you bring them, Lord, to repentance and faith. May they paint Christ’s blood on the frame of their hearts and experience your salvation even now we pray for Christ’s sake. Amen.