Chapter 6

Please read Exodus, chapter 12.

Exodus 11:1 “Now the Lord had said to Moses ‘I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and Egypt, after that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely.’ “

Nine times already the God of Heaven had allowed Pharaoh to see something (chapters 7 to 11). Nine times, as well as His power, He displayed His patient grace.. And time after time Pharaoh would not see, listen and obey. He decided that he was able to take it up against God, the One Who so clearly was using all creation around Pharaoh. Wilfully he maintained his own ideas and foolishly refused to give in to the God of Heaven. Finally one more plague would end his stubbornness.

Exodus 12:1,2 “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt ‘This month is to be for you the first month of your year.’ “

‘I am Who I am’ does not divide eternity into years. But for Moses and Aaron and for all Israel, there was to be a new beginning. This month is to be the first month of ‘your’ year. Yes, they were still in Egypt, still under the rod of Pharaoh. Nobody or nothing else could release them for a new beginning. But there and then the first month of their new year did begin. The God of Heaven stepped into their misery. What did He ask of them? Mass protest meetings? Did God ask for a revolution against Pharaoh? No! All His heart desired was that they should believe Him. All He required was FAITH! And so it is today. Nobody can in any way improve his or her appearance before the face of a Holy God! That is totally impossible. There is an old hymn, loved by many Christians ‘Just as I am, without one plea, o Lamb of God, I come to Thee’. Jesus, the innocent Lamb of God has made, will make any sinner acceptable to God. And all He desires of us is FAITH! ‘ Faith in His Person, faith in His work, faith in the cleansing and healing power of His innocent blood. Do you believe He is trustworthy?

He that believes in Me HAS EVERLASTING LIFE! For all who do believe, at that very moment, there is everlasting life. That is THE NEW BEGINNING. A new beginning while they still remain in enemy-territory. Not under the rod of that enemy but, to him, still accessible. Nevertheless transferred from eternal death into eternal life. If a human being will not have the truth when it is presented, that person will surely have a lie. If you will not have the Christ of God, you will certainly have His enemy, Satan!

Now shall we see how Israel is to show faith in making that new beginning?

Exodus 12:2 “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

v:4 “ You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat.”

‘On the tenth day of this month’. Not on the ninth or on the eleventh. Not on the day when it suits you! But at the time when God is speaking to you!

‘In accordance with what each person will eat’. It is such a very personal business. Each person. Not your mother or father, son or daughter, your parson or your priest. Will you absorb the truth? Will you believe what God is saying? Or will you be a stubborn Pharaoh? Only when you cast away unbelief will you be able to see and accept, the free to you offer of God’s grace and salvation in Jesus.

Well, each man was to take a lamb for his family. What sort of lamb? Any lamb? Throughout the ages, what have millions of people been trying to offer to God? In which way were they seeking to have peace with God? How many ways are there in which people try to earn that peace? Hundreds! Why? Because most people do not want to accept God’s way, the only way which is valid. What? A lamb? Can you see some of the possible disdain on Israelite faces? How can a lamb release us from Pharaoh and free us from Egypt? Such Israelites also made a mistake! They could never expect that from a lamb. They should not put their trust in the lamb. Their trust should be nowhere else but in the God of Israel, the God of their fathers. He ordained the lamb.

Exodus 12:5,6 “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 fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight”.

On the tenth day they were to select a lamb. And on the fourteenth day they were to slaughter it. In between those days they were to take care of them. Why was it to be like that? Three days of caring would give them the confidence that their lamb was perfect, without any defect. Why must the lamb be like that? Because God most holy must be satisfied! They must slaughter it at twilight and

Exodus 12:7 “Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.”

Blood on the doorframes! Why not on the door? Because the blood on the frames would make it a sacred door! The angel of death, who would destroy all the firstborn in Egypt, would not approach the door with the bloodstained frames. As long as the blood was on the frames, Israelites behind that door were safe. Secondly, for them to get into the full enjoyment of their new freedom, they themselves must open that door and walk through it. At the cost of a young, innocent, animal’s blood. In my weak, human imagination, I would write a word on that door. Only one word: FAITH! But God did not require that word. God desired FAITH in the HEARTS of the Israelites. FAITH expressed in OBEDIENCE. After they had applied the blood to the doorposts they were to eat the lambs.

Exodus 12:8,9 “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 cooked in water, but roast it over the fire - head, legs and inner parts.”

Not raw, not cooked in water, but roasted over the fire. In the Bible fire consistently is typical of judgment. God’s holy and righteous judgment did not fall on sinful Israel but on an innocent animal. And that is why the lamb must be perfect and roasted over fire. And Israel must BELIEVE that it may go out free, through the door, with the posts covered in blood.

And why the bitter herbs and bread made without yeast? Year after year the Jews were to commemorate that one night, in which their God did kill all the firstborn of Egypt and passed by or -over the bloodstained doorposts of Israel. Yearly Israel must celebrate the pass-over feast. And do so with the bitter herbs and bread made without yeast. The bitter herbs, we do not know whether or not Israel did understand the meaning of the bitter herbs. But those herbs must have left a bitter aftertaste. We do know that the consequence of sinfulness may be as bitter as gall. The bitter herbs point to their utter ruin, not under the thumb of Pharaoh, but under the reign of sin, a master much more cruel. As yeast is corruptive in bread, so is sin in the lives of human beings. And a holy God must judge sin as being unholy. With death being the penalty over sin. But in Egypt His righteous judgment fell on the innocent lamb. Its blood was shed. Death could not be escaped. And yet, the people went out free. Free to have a new beginning, a new life. Righteous, holy judgment and loving grace met each other and God could accept His sinful people as if they were without sin. A substitute had died in their place.

Why does every human being need to learn about all this? The event was a foretelling of another historic event. The Lord Jesus, the eternal Son of God desired to be the Lamb of God, to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). He Himself never knew, never had sin in His human body! The perfect, sinless Son of God chose to become the Son of man, chose to embrace the sin of the world, as a substitute He chose to take, on Himself, the penalty for human sin, sacrifice His innocent, human blood, and die a human death on a most cruel, human cross. God the Son allowed human hands to place Him in a human grave, And allowed those hands to place a large rock over the opening; also a group of Roman soldiers, to keep watch over a dead man in a dark grave

Why do you need to know about all this? Because to you this is a matter of eternal life or eternal death! Jesus, the Son of God chose to come into this world, the son of Mary. For some thirty- three years He carried on Himself the flesh of humanity, and that without any sin! As a man of flesh and blood He died and was buried. Having been innocent, being God, the Son, He returned from that grave and showed himself, many times walked and talked with witnesses, several of whom had buried His human body, also ate with them.

For fifty days the evidence was established and then, in front of human witnesses, He returned home to His father in Heaven:

Acts, chapter 1:9, 10, 11 “After He had said this, He was taken up BEFORE THEIR VERY EYES, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee’ they said ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? THIS SAME JESUS, Who has been taken from you into heaven, WILL COME BACK IN THE SAME WAY you have SEEN Him go.”

That is the reason why you need to know all this. It is so that you may BELIEVE!

Open the door of faith. Stop all your self-defence and arguments of innocence. And excuses. You are sinful, because, at long range, you are a descendant of sinful Adam and Eve. The sinful natures of two parents, four grandparents and great-grandparents have made your nature as it is today. It is a sinful nature! For quite a while my wife and I had an orphan-boy in our home. He told us that, when he still was a small boy, his grandfather took him on the knee and had him help drinking glasses of beer. And surely, in later life, this boy became a derelict alcoholic. We did our best to tell him about, show him Jesus, but we still do not know if that man ever opened the door to step out of the slavery to alcohol and enter into the freedom of the Jesus life, life eternal. My dear friend, if never before you did that, do it now. God has provided the Blood of His dear Son. He is asking you to open the door of FAITH! Come out of that door, away from your slavery to Satan, and step into a new beginning with Jesus, believing the God of the Bible.

Exodus 12:11 “This is how you are to eat it (the roast lamb); 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 pass-over.”

The cloak tucked into the belt, sandals on the feet, staff in the hand, eating in haste, it all meant that their new beginning was imminent and a journey was at hand. They still did not know what to expect, God knew. Just like me, they may have asked ‘Why? Why? Why?’ Because God is marching on! In that one night all the firstborn in Egypt would die. And God would pass over all the doors that had blood on the doorposts. To do all that, God would not require a second night. That one night would present one large step in the carrying out of the plan of His eternity. And Israel should prepare to follow in His footsteps and get under way. I certainly do not want to be nagging but I must ask you again; ‘Will you be willing to follow the God of the Bible? Step out of and step into?’ Did Israel earn or deserve God’s intervention? No, they did not and never could. Nor could God lower His standard. The God of Israel is Most Holy. He must and will judge in righteousness. He also is the God of all grace. Mercy and grace also are His characteristics. Mercy and grace for Israel, Sufficient mercy and grace too, for you and for me.

Exodus 12:28 “The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.”

Well? What about blood on the inside of the doorposts? Or blood on the window frames? Buying a lamb in the morning? No time to slaughter a lamb today? What do you think would have happened? God’s way is HIS way and all human ways, suggestions and objections to His way are enmity to the mind of God. The Lord commands in love, like Israel, we too better obey. The Egyptians suffered the bitter consequences of disobedience.

Exodus 12:29,30 “At midnight (while the Israelites were dining on roast lamb) the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his 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.”

What did I hear there? What were you thinking? This God of Israel, was He fair? This God of the Bible why was He so cruel? Allowing the Israelites to sweat, suffer and pray for 400 long years. Killing the firstborn child in every Egyptian home! All of them in one night! How awful!

Who thinks like that?

Some years ago the leadership of the congregation where I was attending asked me to take care of a young married couple. They had only just joined. Help them learn to understand the Bible and the God of the Bible. During our third home-session the young lady suddenly took her Bible and threw it away on to the table. She cried aloud, ‘I do not want this God! I will not have Him! How disgusting! To see your son, suffering and dying on a cross and do nothing about it. No, thank you, that’s not for me!’

Since that evening I never saw her again. I would have told her that the God Who did forsake His beloved Son, while He was dying on the Cross, was the God Who raised Him from the grave, into newness of Life. Yes, yes, in one mighty victory over human hands and hearts, over death, grave and hell, it is what God did.

BUT GOD! The mighty power of the eternal God! Gracious, patient heart and hand of God. Nine times He had shown Pharaoh and his people that He meant to have His will. And nine times they straightened their backs as if they were repeating Pharaoh’s words: ‘We don’t know the Lord’!

But, the hand of God!

God said: ‘One more plague, then they will let you go’. That same God moved the heavy rock away and opened the grave. The Roman soldiers were floored and Jesus, the eternal Son of God, rose up and walked away from that grave. Anyone defying the God of the Bible is gambling over eternal life or eternal death! God has created in you the faculties of choice and faith. Today, will you choose and obey the God of the Bible? Would that not be a sensible thing to do? Please do not harden your heart. Doing that may mean sad consequences.

Exodus 12:31,32 “During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said ‘Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, and worship the Lord,

as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.’ “

‘Also bless me!’ In the streets he heard his people crying. A firstborn died in his house and in every house in the land. By now, he knew he needed blessing. What about guilt and acknowledging that? What about confession and forgiveness? How could he expect blessing? When there was no change

of heart. While ignoring the God of Heaven and blaming the Israelites. Please,

my reader, do not make such a serious mistake.

Exodus 12:33 - 36 “The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. ‘For otherwise’ they said, ‘we will all die!’ So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading throughs wrapped in clothing. The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The Lord had made then Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.”

When God steps in, there cannot be any half-measures. He will require honest, true wholeheartedness. The Israelites must accept the interruption to their feasting on roast-lamb. Then they must leave the shelter and safety of their homes, open the door, step into a world that was under the judgment of God. Begin walking with God through that shocked world. While the Egyptians were humbled and hurting, the Israelites became triumphant and free.

Today, people who are walking with God must live in a stricken world of sin and sorrow. But in their God-given freedom they are looking ahead, while they find God leading them to His heavenly home. Make no mistake! In spite of all the world’s refusal and rejection, God will have His way and His will for His people. Opening the door was not the first thing the Israelites must do! First and foremost they must believe the God of Israel. Faith was to be their reason for action. Not trying to obtain faith, by their action. Faith in the God Who had provided for the blood on the doorposts. Faith that knew, passing through that blood was going to be safe. Faith, the assurance of God’s plan for their future. Faith in God needed to open that door. So it is for you and me today. Only faith, nothing else but faith in the God of the Bible and His guarantee of salvation in Jesus Christ His Son, will lead to the way of freedom from the punishment for sin.

Exodus 12:37 “The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.”

Today that is being estimated at about two million human beings. What did God promise Abraham and Sarah? A son, and descendants. What did He allow Abraham’s grandson, Jacob? Twelve sons. What developed from those twelve sons? Grandchildren, in number like the stars of heaven. What did He promise those descendants? He promised a land, flowing with milk and

honey. Today, anyone who thinks differently to the mind of God is sadly mistaken. The land still belongs to Abraham and his descendants. The larger part of His Church is already with the Lord in Heaven, the remainder will soon follow. After that, Israel will still be on this earth. In the end a new earth it will be.

Exodus 12:39 “With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked cakes of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.”

Amongst all the treasures they had taken from the Egyptians, they carried one most precious God-given one. It was dough without yeast. No corruption in unleavened bread. Blood had been shed. By faith in the blood they had opened the door and the innocent blood satisfied the Most Holy God. as if among them sinful corruption did not exist.

Their faith allowed Him to look at them in love and with satisfaction. That was GRACE!

There always have been people who cannot appreciate what they call ‘the blood theology’. Some laugh about it, to scorn. They are forcing us now to go to the New Testament. Let us read a few verses there.

Hebrews 9:13 “The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.”

This was the truth for the Israelites in the Old Testament. Please notice ‘ceremonially’ unclean but ‘outwardly’ clean. Day after day their consciences would accuse them of unclean sinfulness, but the blood of an innocent animal would still credit them ‘outwardly’ clean.

v.14 “How much more, then, will the BLOOD OF CHRIST, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!.”

Did you notice that? ‘The blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself UNBLEMISHED to God!’ The Lamb of God, absolutely without any blemish or defect. Every Christian still has a sinful nature! And does commit ‘acts that lead to death’. But by faith in the cleansing power of the blood of Christ the unclean becomes ‘inwardly’ clean. They will be sinners, but forgiven sinners who did receive eternal life, the life of Jesus. John the Baptist hit the nail on the head:

John 1:29 “Look, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world.”

‘The sin of the world?’ Yes, but why? Because ‘God so loved the world!’ (John 3:16,17). Everybody and anybody in this world, who believes the Person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son and Lamb of God, will be a forgiven sinner. Because God, on the Cross, and in the death of Jesus,

dealt with his or her sinfulness. And in His holy righteousness the God of the Bible does not punish again for a forgiven guilt. The Israelites, by faith, had to open the door and walk into the freedom provided by God. When they did that, they were on their way to the land as promised. And while they were walking, they would be sinful to the day of their death. You and I have to open the door of faith and, as forgiven sinners, get on our way to the glory of Heaven. While we are on our way there, we will still carry our sinful nature with us. And so, the Christian believer will have two natures. One, the holy nature of Jesus and two, the sinful, human nature of Adam. And, for every Christian, there will need to be, from hour to hour, a constant deciding and choosing: ‘Which one of the two will rule my life here in this world. We need to pursue this truth a little further. Relating to the principles of deliverance and freedom the Bible has two peculiar words. ‘Redeeming’ and ‘redemption’. These words were very important in the slave-markets of ages ago. The price of a slave, in those days, was of course, not determined by the slave. It was a matter decided by the buyer. If the buyer was a father, a brother, a friend of the slave, or just a sympathetic person, he could pay the owner of the slave the required ransom and set the slave free. The slave had been redeemed. But not without someone paying the cost. In such a case, what must the ex-slave do? Well, it would be appropriate for him to say ‘Thank you’. What is the difference between that slave and a sinner today?

1 Peter 1:18 - 21 “For you know it was not with perishable things, such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the ‘empty way of life’ handed down to you from your forefathers. But WITH THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, a Lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen, before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through Him you believe in God, Who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”

The Israelites were chosen by God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. People today become Bible-Christians because Christ was chosen BEFORE the creation of world! In Him, by Him and for Him they were bought, redeemed, at the price of His precious blood.

Will you believe in God and say ‘Thank You, God’ and in faith begin your walk in your new life? The precious blood of Christ does allow you to do that and, more than that. It means to take you to a feast.

1 Corinthians 5:7,8 “Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast - as you (Christian believers) really are. For Christ our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.”

A sinner, yes, but FORGIVEN! Christ our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed! Can you imagine a more joyful festival!

In this chapter 12 there are at least two more important matters we must look at.

Exodus 12:34 “So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading throughs wrapped in clothing.”v.39: “With the dough they had brought from Egypt they baked cakes of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves”.

Who caused all that hurry? Was that Pharaoh’s fault? No, surely not! It was the God of Israel, today also the God of the Bible, Who caused them to carry dough without yeast on their shoulders. Did they know it? Did they understand? We do not know, but we do know that the Lord God did accept a sinful people as if there was no corrupt sinfulness in their lives. God did accept them because, in the far past, He had made promises. Those promises were part of a plan that will be carried out in full and into eternity. And so they must carry with them dough without yeast and from year to year have the feast of unleavened bread. To remind them that God had accepted them, a grossly sinful people as if there was no corruption amongst them. And now something they must not carry with them, it must be left behind.

Exodus 12:9,10 “Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire, head, legs and inner parts. Do not leave any of it till morning; if any of it is left till morning you must burn it.”

For each household just one lamb, in bloodshed, had been killed. It needed to be roasted, thoroughly, by fire. Then, before Israel could depart from Egypt, the remains of the lamb must be totally destroyed by fire. Just one innocent lamb, through the fire, would avert the judgment of God over a sinful nation. Once that judgment fell on that lamb. Once Israel must pass through the blood stained doorposts. In all their commemorations of that solemn occasion they never needed another door or bloodstained posts! Now Israel may walk with God, for Him to bring them to their promised land. And so it is for every christian believer. Forever he or she will be safe from judgment, protected by faith in the precious blood of Christ and for sure, on the way to Heaven.

Exodus 12:50,51 “All the Israelites did just what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. And on that very day THE LORD brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.”