God, Moses, Israel and Us

Well, thank you once again. Happy Sabbath to all of you. It's getting a little toasty in here.

As we approach the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread this year, we've spent a good amount of time on self-examination and personal reflection, and a look at God's love and grace towards His children. I'd like to do something a little different today. I'd like to go back 3,500 years in history to review the original Exodus events that led up to the Passover, the original Passover that year, and to review the lessons that we can learn and apply to ourselves from that history. We're going to examine who the God of the Old Testament was and the lessons that are there for us today provided by reviewing these very ancient events. We're going to begin where God revealed Himself to Moses after he had spent 40 years in a land called Midian. If you'll turn to Exodus chapter 3, beginning in verse 13, that's where we're going to start today. Midian, geographically, was located in the Arabian Peninsula, south of the land where the Israelites would make their home, their promised land. This was where Moses spent 40 years as an outcast after killing an Egyptian. Moses married Zipporah, you may recall the story, the daughter of a Midianite priest named Jethro, and he dwelt in the land of Midian. Exodus chapter 3 and verse 13. So we'll pick it up right here. God reveals Himself to Moses.

Now this comes from the same root word, but it's different in the Hebrew. Lord meaning what we pronounce today, Yahweh, YH, VH, or the consonants. The Lord, God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations. So let's take a few seconds and look at this phrase. He revealed Himself to Moses. I am who I am. That sounds like an unusual name or an unusual description, doesn't it? This is actually the inner meaning of Yahweh, what's translated here, Lord, in all capitalized letters. It emphasizes God's dynamic and active self-existence. It presents the understanding this way. God says, I have always existed. I presently exist, and I will always exist. I am self-existent. I am is the ultimate statement of self-sufficiency and self-existence and God's immediate presence. Here's what the Believer's Study Bible says about this phrase, I am who I am. Quote, it's a literal rendering of the Hebrew text expressing God's real, perfect, unconditional, independent existence. God exists in a way that no one and nothing else does. He is without beginning or end. He is the only being who is self-existent. All other existence is dependent upon His uncaused existence. Jesus is the same as God. End of quote. So in this account, we see the ways that God reveals Himself to Moses. He says that you can call me I am who I am. You can call me something very similar to that, the root of I am who I am, which is Yahweh. Again, the letters YHVH. He says you can call me either one of those. That is how I am known. So now let's see what Jesus Himself said about His relationship to Abraham and Moses and what He said to the Jews the day that He was literally in the temple. We're going to go to John chapter 8 and verse 56. And this was an event that occurred, of all places, in the temple. Jesus is having a discussion with the Jews, and if I can use a modern expression, what He says blows them away. They're stunned. To them, it's the most blasphemous, heretical statement their ears ever heard in their lifetimes.

He says your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, meaning the day that Jesus Christ would walk on the earth and fulfill the role that He had. And he saw it and was glad. Now you'd have to go back to Genesis chapter 22 and explore Abraham being told to sacrifice his beloved son and the fact that all represented what God the Father would do for His own son. You may recall Abraham was stopped at the last minute. Don't do it! And there was a ram that was caught in the thickets, and the ram became the substitution for his very own beloved son. And he got it. At that time, he realized that all that God had put him through, the internal turmoil being told to sacrifice his own beloved son, that all of that was because that was exactly what God the Father would do in the future through Jesus Christ. So that's why Jesus said he saw it and was glad. Now verse 57.

Before Abraham was, I am. The exact same declaration that God gave Moses in Exodus chapter 3. We just read about a few minutes ago. Before Abraham was, I am. Jesus Christ was saying that I was the God of the Old Covenant. I was the one who talked with Abraham. I was the one who talked with Moses. I was there. Verse 59, and this is the part that blew them away. When they heard this, and they took up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

The reason that they wanted to stone him was for their perception of his blasphemy. They clearly understood what he said, and he said it with the phrase, most assuredly, I'm telling you this. In other words, this is an absolute fact, just so that there is no doubt or misunderstanding about who and what I am.

So Jesus Christ was the God who spoke to Abraham. He was the God who existed before Abraham, and obviously Moses came generations after Abraham, so he was also the very God who spoke to Moses.

Well, let's see a further connection between Moses and the God of the Old Testament, who would later volunteer to empty himself of his glory. He would be born a human being on earth whose very name, whether you want to call him Joshua or Yeshua or Jesus, depending on the language you come from or your pronunciation, the very meaning of those names means a Savior or a Deliverer. He would live a perfect life and become the Lamb of God, and we'll be celebrating that fact during the Passover, and shed his blood for the forgiveness of sins. Let's now go to Exodus 17 and verse 1. If you'll turn there with me, Exodus 17, verse 1. Again, we're making some connections here on just who the God of the Old Testament was, and we're going to see here that this God was tempted by the disobedience and the lack of faith of the ancient Israelites.

He had done so much for them. He was giving them freedom. He had given them some simple things to obey, and they just struggled over and over again to do things that were right. They kept being drawn back into a negative mindset, wanting to go back to Egypt, struggling with respecting God and having faith in what he told him. So Exodus 17, beginning in verse 1, Lord, again, notice this is all capital letters, why do you tempt Yahweh, the same one who revealed himself to me, going back, as we saw in the third chapter of the book of Exodus. And the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses and said, why is it that you have brought us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?

So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, what shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me. So I want you to notice here that Moses stated that their disobedience, their complaining, their lack of faith, tested God's love and his patience toward them.

Later on, Moses sent out spies to the Promised Land, and the majority of the spies came back with a negative report about the Promised Land and said, we shouldn't go. And God told him in Numbers 14 and verse 22, he said, So we see by these two scriptures that God's love and patience was tempted or tested by their disobedience, by their complaining, and by their lack of faith. Understanding that, let's now go to 1 Corinthians and see who Paul stated was the God who was tested in these situations described in Exodus, some accounts, of course, in Leviticus, and some in Numbers. Again, this was their lack of faith, their complaining, their whining to Yahweh, all capital letters, L-O-R-D, and let's see what Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 1.

Paul referring to the blessing they had of God's instruction, the Word of God.

Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all of our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized in the Moses, in the cloud, and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food.

Again, that's the Word of God.

Paul drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

So, what's Paul telling us here?

Paul is telling us that the one who later became Christ and walked on earth, emptied himself of his glory and walked on earth, previously was the God of the Old Covenant, of the Old Testament, who spoke with Moses, who spoke with Abraham, who was there, who was present in all the events with the ancient Israelites, drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

But with most of them, God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Can it be any clearer who the very God of the Old Testament who later came to earth is, and the very fact that it is Jesus Christ?

Moses himself sang a song about that very Lord, all capital letters that he communicated with, and here are some of the verses of that song in Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 4. He says, He is the rock. That's actually what Paul was quoting from. He is the rock, says Moses. His work is perfect. All his ways are justice, a God of truth, and without injustice, righteous and upright is He.

So again, we're putting the puzzle pieces together to understand who this God was that Moses was dealing with. Dropping down here to verse 8.

Verse here that oftentimes confuses people in the way it's translated into English. So we'll give it a little punch when it's done.

Paul says, Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day 23,000 fell, nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents. Again, this English translation may cause some to miss what Paul's saying here. He's saying we should not tempt or test Jesus Christ just like the ancient Israelites tested Jesus Christ.

That's what Paul is saying here. They suffered some serious consequences because they continually tested Christ, His love and His patience for them. Again, Paul is implying that Christ was previously the God of the Old Testament who spoke with Abraham and spoke with Moses.

So now with this background in mind, we know who this God is and who He would later become when He would empty Himself of His glory and walk on earth. Now with this background in mind, let's spend the rest of the sermon looking at some ancient events that occurred before the Passover of approximately 1446 B.C.

Again, that date is an approximation when all of these events occurred. Let's see what we can learn together as God's people from these experiences as we prepare for the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread this year. Exodus chapter 3 and verse 6. If you'll turn there with me. Exodus chapter 3 and verse 6. Go back a few verses earlier than we just read a few minutes ago. Exodus chapter 3 and verse 6. In His discussion with Moses, He says, Moreover, He said, I AM the God of your Father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid His face, for He was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrow. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from the land to a good and large land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Parezzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Now hold your place there in Exodus because we'll be going to a few other scriptures in a couple of minutes. There are two things that I really want to emphasize out of this scripture we just read in Exodus chapter 3.

The first one is that God made specific promises to Abraham about his descendants. The point is, and the reason that he identifies himself as the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, is he's saying, I keep my promises. Yes, they may appear to be delayed sometimes, but when I make a promise to anyone, it is absolutely, positively sure to occur. He's promised us the reward of immortality, and eternity is the children of God.

We need to realize and appreciate that God keeps all of his promises. However, he fulfills them on his timelines according to his purposes, not the way that we want it. And we struggle with that, don't we? Because when we pray for something, we want instant gratification.

We want an instant answer. We want things to happen now, where God has his own timeframe. He knows when the time is right. He knows when it's good for us to answer our prayers. And sometimes we struggle to deal with that, but we need to realize that God loves us, and God always keeps his promises. Way back in Genesis 15, verse 13, God had told Abraham that his descendants would be in slavery for 400 years. And by now they had been. And God was saying to Moses at this time, time is up. 400 years have ended. Now the blessings will begin. My promises are about to be fulfilled for the descendants of Abraham. Let's go to 2 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 19, and see what Paul says about the promises that God gives us. What are the promises that God gives us because we have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, because we have repented of our sins, because we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit as a result of that repentance and that baptism, that we have put our hand on the plow, and we've decided to move forward in life and not look backward. What are those promises that God gives us? The promises of immortality, eternal life, sonship in his family for all eternity, being able to rule with him over nations and perhaps over worlds. God has great and wonderful promises for us. And what does Paul tell us about God's promises for us? 2 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 19.

Here's what he says, For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me, Sylvanus and Timothy, was not yes and no, but he was yes. For the promises of God in him are yes. And in him, so be it. Done deal.

From God's perspective, it's as good as done. That's what God's promises are to us. Verse 21. Now he who has established us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

When we received the gift of God's Holy Spirit, that is God's 100% guarantee that he keeps his promises.

God's promises to God's people today, to you, his promises are not maybe or perhaps, if I feel like it, if you do enough good works to earn it, his promises are yes. And just like Jesus Christ kept his promises to Abraham regarding his descendants, and they did go into the Promised Land, and they did have influence in the world after that point, beyond that point in history, he will absolutely, positively keep his promises to his spiritual children living today.

That's why we have to keep our hand on the plow and moving forward. That's why we do that self-examination and make sure that our minds and our hearts are in alignment with God, because he will never forsake us. He will never leave us. His promises are yes.

All we have to do is continue the journey. Keep our hand on that plow. Keep moving forward. The second point that I wanted to bring across from the book of Exodus that we just read is you'll notice the word that he commented on oppression, and indeed, the people were being oppressed.

I want to draw a metaphor from that. God looked down and decided to call us out of this evil world and this culture that we live in. The truth is that Satan has enslaved the entire world. Satan is this world's taskmaster.

He's the driving force behind the problems and sins of this world, including war and famine and greed and selfishness and violence and abuse. He is behind each and every one of those attitudes and motives that exist in this world today. As Paul wrote in Romans 6 and verse 16, Paul says, when we sin, we are just acting out the fact, confirming the fact that we are slaves to Satan the devil.

And indeed, this world is in bondage. This world is in slavery. You may recall in Luke 4 when Jesus confronted Satan in the wilderness. And one of the things that Satan did in Luke 4 and verse 5 was take him up to a high mountain. You may recall that. It says, He took him up to a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. So within a moment of time, Satan is there with Jesus Christ and Satan saying, Here's the kingdoms that exist in China today. I own them. Here's the Roman Empire. I own it. Here are the tribes and the people that exist in the American continents that these people don't even know about. I own them. I control the whole shebang. He said, and if you want all of it, if you want this all, it's mine to give you. All you have to do is worship me. You don't have to go through death. You don't have to go through crucifixion and the terror of having nails hammered through your hands and your feet. You don't have to have, if you're side jabbed with a spear, you don't have to be humiliated. All you have to do is worship me and I'll give you everything now. And thankfully, Jesus Christ had the character and the purpose to decline that generous offer by Satan the devil, and he was able to become our Savior. But why could Satan the devil do that? Why could he say that to Jesus Christ? Because indeed the kingdoms of this world are controlled, they are owned, lock, stock, and barrel by Satan the devil, the God of this world. They're his to do with as he pleases.

Let's go to Matthew 11, verse 27. What Satan offers is oppression. And what do we see in that oppression? Just open the newspapers. We see millions of empty lives, people taking drugs to try to hide the pain and the loneliness they feel. We see suicides. We see relationships breaking up all the time as people strive to be happy and they get connected with someone that isn't compatible.

We see children growing up in homes in which they're neglected and they're unloved. We see violence occurring throughout the world. We see a lot of tragic problems and issues in our world today because of sin. But God offers us something very positive if we truly get it and live by it. In Matthew 11, verse 23, the contrast to oppression is what Jesus Christ offers us. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and the one whom the Son wills to reveal him. So he's saying no one knows about the Father. They don't know who he is. And only those whom I reveal about the Father will be able to know him.

Verse 28, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take your yoke upon me and learn from me. Have an open mind. Have a humble heart and learn the things that I want to teach you because they'll make your life better. They'll give you a greater sense of fulfillment and purpose in your life if you understand what I have to say and what I teach. He says, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. The way of Satan is servitude. And what's the result of that we see in our world today? We see tremendous amounts of sin, ten commandments broken constantly. We see people living with guilt and shame and empty lives, and again, people taking drugs to cover up the emptiness they feel. Many taking their own lives because they're hopeless. They no longer feel like they have a purpose. We see frustration in people's lives. We see all of these things in a world that is enslaved to Satan the devil. On the other hand, Jesus Christ offers forgiveness and hope for the future. A clear purpose and reason to get up tomorrow morning and to live life with enthusiasm and zeal because you have a purpose not just for this life, but for what God has planned for us for all eternity. And we have given something to help us to guide our lives. The perfect law of liberty that James mentions in James chapter 1 and verse 25.

Jesus Christ is a teacher who is gentle and humble in contrast to being in slavery to sin.

What God asks us to do compared to waking up every day in a sense of shame and guilt and hopelessness in a life that lacks purpose, what God asks us to do is easy and light compared to that if we follow Him in faith and complete trust. If we keep our hand on that plow and we keep moving forward, it's a lot easier life. It's a lot more fulfilling. It's a lot more productive than waking up every day as so many billions of human beings do, saying, Why was I born? Is there a God? Why am I so unhappy? Why do I soil everything I touch? Why do I hurt every human relationship that I come in contact with? Why am I so unhappy? Jesus Christ says there's an alternative to living that way of life, and that is to understand who Jesus Christ the Savior was and what His purpose was.

I want you to notice what God said earlier in Exodus chapter 3 and verse 8. He had said, and we read it a few minutes ago, So I have come down to deliver them. About 1,500 years later, He would literally come down to earth as Jesus Christ to deliver all humankind, not just a few million Israelites, but to deliver all humankind from judgment and from death. Exodus chapter 5 and verse 1. Let's go there now. He says afterward, Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, thus says the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go. You're a taskmaster. You've abused them long enough. Just like there was a time in the heavens when God signaled that He was going to call us out of this world. Satan didn't like that either, I might add. Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness, that they may keep my festivals and my feasts. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? He's saying, I'm superior to God. I'm better than this God that you worship. I'm more powerful. I'm the prince of the power of the air in this nation. I control everything that happens in this world, Pharaoh says. I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go. So they said, The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go three days journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. Hint, hint. Lest plagues start coming upon the land. Of course, He doesn't get it. It goes right over Pharaoh's head. Then the king of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor. What are you two doing here? Don't you have jobs? What are you doing here telling me what I should do? Don't you know who I am? And Pharaoh said, Look, the people of the land are many, and you make them rest from their labor. You want them to go three days and not do any work to go out to worship this Lord of yours in the desert.

Verse 6, So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves, and you shall lay on them the quota of bricks, which they made before. Same quota. They're going to have to make the same number of bricks, only now they have to go out and get their own straw. It won't be provided for them. For they are idle. He said, They've got too much time in their hands. That's why they're thinking about this God stuff, because I'm not working them hard enough. And it's no coincidence that in this world so many billions of people have to work so hard just to make ends meet, so hard just to find enough food to provide for their families, that their lives are distracted from thinking about God, or having anything to do with the people. For they are idle. Therefore, they cry out, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Pharaoh represents Satan the devil. When God called us, Satan was not happy about it. But much like Pharaoh really didn't have a choice, Satan didn't have a choice either in our calling. When God said, I'm going to call this person, and I'm going to offer them salvation, and I'm going to offer them in this lifetime relationship with me, there's nothing that Satan the devil can personally do. But he can make life difficult for a while. He can make sure that we're making bricks with the additional burden of finding our own straw. Again, Satan didn't have a choice. And reluctantly, he lost his domination over ancient Israel, and he lost his domination over us. But he is not too happy about that fact. Pharaoh states in verse 2, he says, Nor will I let Israel go. Satan is always trying to pull us back into his control and his dominance. And particularly early on, the first number of years after we are called, he works overtime to get us to quit, to get us to give up. You know, he pursued the Israelites to the Red Sea. After he said, yeah, you can go, he left. He pursued them all the way to the Red Sea.

And even beyond that, a mixed multitude was among them who were loyal to Egypt and Pharaoh, and were allowed to demoralize and cause problems within the nation for years and years as they wandered throughout the desert. Every time something happened, oh, Egypt was so wonderful. If only, only, we had stayed in Egypt. Oh, Pharaoh will welcome us back. If only we had done this, if only we had done that. And brethren, in our lives, we have to realize that Satan wants to demoralize us. He wants to cause problems in our lives. As Peter said to the Church of God itself in 1 Peter 5 and verse 8, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. We have to be very careful, because Satan certainly would love to devour us, would love us to turn our back on God and to go back to the world, to go back under his control and domination, to go back to sin, to go back to the distorted lives that we had. This phrase, bricks without straw, Satan usually makes it harder for us when we begin to respond to God's calling and very early in our conversion as babes in Christ.

He says, I'm going to see if I can break them. I'm going to see if I can get them to throw in the towel, if I can get them to quit, get them to give up and turn around and go back to a life of hopelessness, a life of sin.

As we continue in the book of Exodus, we won't look at chapters 7 through 11 today. If we were to look at those, we would see that God strikes Egypt with ten plagues, and each of those plagues mocked an Egyptian god that was worshipped by the Egyptians.

The first three of those events, which was the Nile River turning into blood and a plague of frogs and lice, it affected both the Egyptians and the Israelites alike, even in their own land. God protected the children of Israel from the seven last plagues that occurred out of the ten.

And the story here, what we need to be reminded of, is sometimes this world's experiences, when it experiences war or economic decline and people lose their jobs or political unrest, when there's political instability, sometimes God's people are also affected by these things, just like Israel was affected by the first three plagues that came upon Egypt. However, we're encouraged to know that when the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord happens in the future, that we will, as God's people, be protected, just like the Israelites were protected in the land of Goshen during the seven plagues. Exodus 12. Let's go there. Chapter 12 and verse 1.

Now the Lord spoke to Moses. And Aaron, in the land of Egypt, saying, this month shall be your beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you. And of course, that was the springtime, about the very time of the year that we're in. The Egyptians observed the new year, by the way, in the summer, and God wanted to give them an orientation so that they could have festivals that were surrounded by the harvest, by growth. And that included things beginning in the springtime. So let's continue here. Verse 3. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, on the tenth day of this month, this is that very first month, Every man shall take for himself a lamb, and ultimately that lamb would represent Jesus Christ.

According to the house of his father, a lamb for a household, and if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of persons. So you didn't want to have a lot of waste. Continuing, According to each man's need, you shall make your count for the lamb. The lamb shall be without blemish a male of the first year. On the youngish side, Jesus Christ was about thirty years old when he began his ministry.

He obviously was perfect. He was without sin. Continuing, You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. That is, kill these lambs that have been set aside. And twilight was the period between sunset and when it's literally dark outside. So there's a zone between when the sun dips over the horizon and you can't see it anymore, but there's a period of time before darkness descends on the world.

And that's what's meant here by this Hebrew word, twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two-door post and on the lentil of the houses where they eat it. And they shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted with fire, with unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

Do not eat it raw nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire with its head and its legs and its entrails. God wanted it to be a whole sacrifice. If you boil it, you could have had the legs coming apart and you could have had it literally disintegrating inside of the water if it were boiled too long. Nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire, its heads and its legs and its entrails, and you shall let none of it remain until morning, or remains of it until morning, you shall burn with fire.

In other words, this is sacred and it should be treated sacredly. You don't keep the leftover lamb and have sandwiches in it for the next couple of days. Even our own church tradition, we dispose of any of the Passover wine that was not used that night. We burn any of the bread that's left over, the crumbs from the bread that we break up.

We literally burn with a fire because we realize the symbolism and we treat it very seriously and sacredly. Verse 11, and thus you shall eat it with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, your staff on your hand, so you must eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and I will strike the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt. I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. So let's make a few comments about this group of scriptures. Here we read the words of the same God who will become Jesus Christ, who will come down to earth and become Jesus Christ himself and fulfill the very symbolism that this Passover lamb represented.

The lamb pictured the future role of Christ Jesus, as Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 7, Therefore purge out the old leaven, as you are a new lump, since you are unleavened, for indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. So the very being giving these instructions to Moses and Aaron was the very one who later would empty himself of his glory, leave the Godhead, and come down to earth and live a perfect life and shed his blood, becoming Christ, our Passover.

Verse 7, it mentions the blood on the doorpost and the lintels. This pictures the shed blood of Christ on a wooden stake. His blood protects us from judgment. Just like that night, it protected the Israelites from the judgment of the death angel, who when saw that blood, would spare that family in the same way the shed blood of Jesus Christ protects us from the judgment of God, from all of the sins that we have committed.

As Peter wrote in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 18, knowing that you are not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by the tradition of your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. So that's what Peter reminds us again, picturing and symbolizing the fulfillment of Jesus Christ through these verses.

Verse 8, they were commanded to eat the flesh on that night. Now we no longer eat lamb because it was completed by Christ's sacrificial death, and the lamb was actually replaced by a new covenant symbol, as Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 23. For I received from the Lord that which I delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. So symbolically we do still eat that flesh, but not literally the flesh of a lamb, but the broken bread during the Passover that represents the body of Christ. In John chapter 6 and verse 53, Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I send to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. And of course, the unleavened bread that we eat during the Passover that was instituted by Christ represents his broken body. The wine that we will share together as God's people represents his shed blood, literally fulfilling the statement that he makes here in John chapter 6. Verse 8, in Exodus 12, the statement was made about unleavened bread. Unleavened bread pictures the sinless bread of life who gave himself for the sins of the world and whose righteousness we symbolize by eating it when we eat unleavened bread During those days, we say, I desire to have the righteousness of Jesus Christ living in me, the righteousness of God as part of every fiber of my being, my physical body, my emotions spiritually. I desire that righteousness. I desire to grow, to become like God.

Here's what Jesus said in John chapter 6 and verse 48. I am the bread of life. By the way, that's one of the seven I AM statements in John. Again, I am going all the way back to what in Exodus chapter 3, Moses had been told by God that he was the great I AM. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. And again, that's what we symbolize and we will on the Passover, that we desire eternal life, that we desire eternity, that we desire to be like God. You know, inside of the Ark of the Covenant was a pot of manna, and that's mentioned in Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 4. That pot of manna represented Jesus Christ as the bread of life then and now. Then he was the bread of life because he provided manna for the Israelites and that's why they didn't starve to death and die. Today he is the bread of life because as we partake of that Passover and we eat of that unleavened bread representing his body, and as we drink that little vial of wine that represents his shed blood, we want to acknowledge the fact that he is our Savior. We want to reaffirm our commitment to Jesus Christ and the God the Father, to live lives of faith, to become loyal and faithful and committed disciples in everything that we do. Verse 11, it says, And thus you shall eat it with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You shall eat it in haste. Well, you know, in their case, they were about to rush out of Egypt, run away from Egypt and from slavery and begin a new life. They were excited to flee sin. How about us? Are we still excited to flee sin, to get rid of those stains, those areas in our life that we need to change? Are we enthusiastic about a mission to become more like Christ? Or have we flipped on the autopilot switch? Are we just kind of going through the motions? Are we ready to leave this upcoming Passover service forgiven? Humbled, excited, re-energized with a commitment to build upon the great calling God has already given us? To say, yes, I've grown thus far. I've made some progress, and I want to build on that progress and take my life to a whole new level. Are we willing to do that? Are we girded up and ready to make the most out of the Passover this year? As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 8 and 10, and in context he was talking about a promise that the Corinthians had made to help with famine relief in Jerusalem, I would like to just use these scriptures as Paul's way to remind us that we can do more, that God wants us to keep our commitments and our promises. Here's what he said, And in this I give advice. It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago, but now you must also complete the doing of it.

So are we just talkers or are we going to be doers? Continuing, he says, So that there may be a completion out of what you have. So God just doesn't want us to start something. He doesn't want us to have good intentions and good motives and to begin something.

He wants us to complete the project and we are all a work in progress, aren't we? We are and we need to work to complete that great work that God has begun in our own individual lives. Verse 2, last scripture that I'll actually refer to today. It's said there in verse 12 that I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. So here God declared that the firstborn would be killed as a judgment upon Pharaoh as proof of God's superiority. Do you remember when they first went to Pharaoh and they said, God said, let my people go and he said, I don't know who this God is that you're talking about. Well, I'm the God of this world, much like Satan proclaims. I'm the God of this world. And through this event, God wanted Pharaoh, particularly personally, to know who was really God. While Pharaoh had been killing every Hebrew infant boy mentioned in Exodus chapter 1 and verse 22, God only judged the firstborn of Egypt. So God's judgment was mild in comparison to Pharaoh's judgment. In contrast, in the future, the death of God's firstborn son that occurred when Jesus Christ came to earth, the death of God's firstborn son made it possible for judgment to be removed from all of the earth and for sin to be forgiven. All right, let's put it together. Some of the things we've looked at today. Today, we have reaffirmed who the God of the Old Testament was, who later divested himself of his Godhead and came to earth to become Jesus the Christ, the Son of God the Father. And thankfully, he was willing to do that. We have looked at some of the original events in the book of Exodus to see how these events pictured what Jesus Christ would later do and how the parallels exist between what they experienced and what we experienced and what God expected of them and what God expects of us.

So that's our sermon today. And during the days of Unleavened Bread, I will have part two to this sermon and we'll look at the events surrounding the crossing of the Red Sea and all the way up to them entering the wilderness and all the things that we can learn through those experiences as we continue to celebrate God's great festival, the days of Unleavened Bread. Have a wonderful Sabbath day.