It is impossible for me to read this without thinking of the Passover Seder and, of course, the Lord’s Supper.
I know what seems like the climax of the story. It’s in Exodus 14:13, when Moses says to the people who are trapped between the sea and Pharaoh’s army, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today!” The sea parts, the Israelites escape, the Egyptians pursue, and the sea swallows them up.
But that’s tomorrow’s reading, and just seems like the climax.
In actuality, the battle had already been won. For every family that had painted the doorposts of their homes with the blood of the lamb walked across the sea on dry ground. The Egyptians weren't the ultimate enemy; that enemy is “death,” which, the apostle Paul says, is “the last enemy to be destroyed.” (1 Corinthians 15:26) The real enemy had passed over Egypt and taken the firstborn of any home NOT covered by the blood of the lamb.
The lamb of Exodus 12 is God’s down-payment and promise of the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. (John 1:29) God sent His firstborn, His only-born Son to bear sin’s penalty for us.
Here’s a “what if:” What if there was an Egyptian family, so sensitive to the message of the plagues, so enamored with the Hebrew people, so curious about their God, that they found faith. Seeing what the Jews were doing that night, they imitated them, killed their own lamb, and painted their own doorposts with the lamb’s blood. Would they have been saved form the angel of death? Would they have left with the Jews?
Until tomorrow,
Pastor Gary
I know what seems like the climax of the story. It’s in Exodus 14:13, when Moses says to the people who are trapped between the sea and Pharaoh’s army, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today!” The sea parts, the Israelites escape, the Egyptians pursue, and the sea swallows them up.
But that’s tomorrow’s reading, and just seems like the climax.
In actuality, the battle had already been won. For every family that had painted the doorposts of their homes with the blood of the lamb walked across the sea on dry ground. The Egyptians weren't the ultimate enemy; that enemy is “death,” which, the apostle Paul says, is “the last enemy to be destroyed.” (1 Corinthians 15:26) The real enemy had passed over Egypt and taken the firstborn of any home NOT covered by the blood of the lamb.
The lamb of Exodus 12 is God’s down-payment and promise of the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. (John 1:29) God sent His firstborn, His only-born Son to bear sin’s penalty for us.
Here’s a “what if:” What if there was an Egyptian family, so sensitive to the message of the plagues, so enamored with the Hebrew people, so curious about their God, that they found faith. Seeing what the Jews were doing that night, they imitated them, killed their own lamb, and painted their own doorposts with the lamb’s blood. Would they have been saved form the angel of death? Would they have left with the Jews?
Until tomorrow,
Pastor Gary
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