Walking Out of Egypt

The title for the sermon today is Walking Out of Egypt. Walking Out of Egypt. The focus will be looking forward to the Passover and the upcoming Holy Days, which are just ahead of us. Last week in his message, Mr. Alwine mentioned the concept of types. Types. He mentioned that word in context, the night to be much observed. And he gave an example of a type as portrayed by the night to be much observed and then its spiritual fulfillment in terms of how it relates to us today. The Bible is full of people and events that we call types. A biblical type is literally a real person. It's a real event that occurred throughout the Scripture. You can go and read the story. And so it was real and it was actual, and yet it was a type as well that pointed to something that was of greater spiritual fulfillment. Something that then God would work out in terms of our lives today. Oftentimes when people read the Scripture, they read the type. You go back, you read the story, you read the actual event. But oftentimes there's a disconnect between the type and the fulfillment. So you read a story of something that took place in the Old Testament and you ask, why are you as New Covenant Christians keeping these Holy Days or doing the things that you're doing today because isn't all that done away with? Part of the problem is you read the type, you read the person, you read the story, the example, without appreciating the spiritual fulfillment or what is sometimes called the anti-type of that event.

God's Holy Days are a good example of that sort of type of the laying of the groundwork in the event and then the fulfillment. We find the Holy Days of God listed out for us, Leviticus 23. You can read through that chapter and it says, when the Holy Days will be. They're called the Sabbaths of God. It tells you how they'll be observed, at what time, and what they were a memorial for.

For example, Israel walked out of Egypt. They kept the days of unleavened bread. They kept the Passover and those things were memorial for something that had occurred literally in their life. And yet they are a type for a spiritual fulfillment as well. So a lot of the Holy Days, a lot of the lessons that we learn come from drawing the spiritual lesson from the type that God has given us in the Scriptures.

Unless you understand the rich spiritual fulfillment for which the type stands, the problem is you lack an understanding then of the purpose of the Holy Day and the reason that we would keep those things yet even today.

A good illustration of type and fulfillment would be that of the High Priest. It was the Day of Atonement.

I'll come back to the Spring Holy Days in a moment, but just consider the Day of Atonement for a moment. The High Priest, the Tabernacle, the Veil, the Holy of Holies, the room that was behind the Veil, the Ark of the Covenant. You recall that under the Old Covenant system, only the High Priest was allowed to enter through the Veil into the Holy of Holies only once a year on the Day of Atonement, not without blood for the sacrifice of the people.

And you can read through that. It was a literal event which took place as a part of the observance of the Day of Atonement under the Old Covenant. So once a year, the Priest would go through that motion. He would enter in before the presence of God with the blood of the sacrifice, sprinkle it on the mercy seat for the atoning of the sins of the people.

But again, that literal process was a type. The High Priest was a type. The blood of the sacrifice was a type. The mercy seat behind the Veil was a type. And yet it pointed to something greater that God had a purpose for.

I want to briefly turn to Hebrews 9 in this regard. Again, we're looking at the principle of type, the literal person and events, as well as the spiritual fulfillment.

Hebrews 9 and verse 7 says, But into the second part of the tabernacle, back behind that veil then, into the second part, the High Priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. So we're talking about the Old Covenant literal keeping of the Day of Atonement.

Verse 8, the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. So you had the holiest of all in terms of the physical tabernacle. It was a representation of God's throne in heaven, the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was, the mercy seat, which was the lid, the carobim whose wings outstretched. Over the mercy seat, it was a type, a representation of God's throne in heaven, and the High Priest went through this motion every year. But he's saying, verse 8, that the way into the holiest of all, God's literal throne, coming before God's literal presence, was not made manifest while the first tabernacle was standing. Verse 9, it was symbolic. It was a type. These things represented something yet future. It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience, concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances, and posed until the time of Reformation. Verse 11, but Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come. With a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, a physical sacrifice, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, clench your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

So what we come to see as we look at the type, if you go back again, Old Testament, read through what the High Priest did on the Day of Atonement, and then you look at the fulfillment. What you see is that the physical High Priest, the Old Covenant, was a type of Jesus Christ. The blood of the sacrifice that he brought in for the sins of the people that was sprinkled on the mercy seat was a type of the blood of the sacrifice as well of Jesus Christ.

The mercy seat was a type of God's throne of grace by which we come before when we come to God in prayer, again, through that sacrifice. And so the way through the veil into God's presence before his throne has been made clear by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Again, he is that High Priest.

So we see the type, and then you come forward and see the fulfillment, and it gives us understanding as to why these days have spiritual significance for us even today.

Now again, through type and fulfillment, we can draw many lessons, and for us in the Church of God, type and fulfillment honestly make up a large part of the study that we do and spiritual lessons that we draw. From the biblical examples of the Holy Days.

When we come to this time of the year, as I said today, the first week of the first month, right? First of Nissan. Does it mean next month will be the first of Toyota? I'm not quite sure if I got the pronunciation precisely as it should be. But the first of Nissan, you count 14 days, and then it's the Passover. So this time of year, we examine certain elements in Scripture within the Bible, pointing towards the Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread, and to go back to the Genesis of that takes us to the book of Exodus, primarily.

Today, what we're going to do is we're going to look at some of the types and fulfillments that we can find in Scripture surrounding Israel's Exodus from the land of Egypt. Again, the sermon is titled, Walking Out of Egypt, and we're going to see the type, but we'll also examine the spiritual fulfillment by which you and I live by today. Let's start here in Exodus chapter 1, just right back to the beginning of the book.

Exodus chapter 1, we step into the story here, and we see the condition of the physical nation of Israel. We see the oppression now that they've come under by the Egyptians, because Israel has been multiplied greatly. It's according to the blessing of God's promise to Abraham to make of them a great nation. And now the Egyptians are fearful. They put Israelites under bondage. Exodus chapter 1 and verse 6 says, Verse 8, now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. You recall, Joseph was sold in slavery, right, in Egypt, and then he rose to the position of the Pharaoh's right-hand man. He executed a number of things that he brought about implemented in Egypt that literally saved that nation, as you consider the famine that took place. And through that whole process, then Jacob, who was later named Israel, and his children came into the land, settled into the land under the provision that Joseph provided.

Now their tribes have grown. A new king now comes on who did not know Joseph. The memory of him has now faded into the distant past. Verse 9, and he said to his people, look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply. And it happened that in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land. Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to afflict them in their burdens, and they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pythium and Ramses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew, and they were in dread of the children of Israel. So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor, and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, in brick, and in every manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor. So what we have here, again, the physical people of God, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, are now subjected to bondage in the land of Egypt. They're slaves to the Pharaoh, their ability to simply get up and walk free, now restricted.

The first type we can recognize here, and we need to come to understand in this narrative, is that Egypt, which was the land of Israel's captivity, Egypt is a type of this present world. Mr. Frickie alluded to that in his sermonette. Egypt is a type of this world. It's a type of a world of sin and idolatry, a world opposed to the ways of God. And it's representative of humanity's captivity to the environment of sin. Israel was captive to Pharaoh in Egypt. And we live in a world that is held captive to the consequences of sin. Probably all of you remember in the history of our literature, because it appeared more than once over the years, the picture that would come on the cover of our publication that would have the globe, and it had the prison bars across it. Well, I went back. I didn't have the magazine, but I printed off a picture of it off of our website. So you have the earth here. You have the bars across it. I thought that was rather graphic at the time. The caption is, a world held captive, a world held in bondage, a world under the effects of sin, and the bondage that it places on people. And so what we see here is, this is a visual image of spiritual Egypt, this world in which we live. And there is captivity that has taken place across this world and upon mankind due to the enslavement of sin. Now there came a time in our lives when God determined to call us out of this world, out of spiritual Egypt, to open our minds to His truth, to help us come to understand the sacrifice of His Son so that we could walk out free, so that the prison bars could be removed, the door could be opened. That's what we acknowledge and represent through the Passover, through the days of Unleavened Bread. Again, Egypt is very much a type of this world. And what we're going to notice as we walk through this account here is then God's plan to deliver His physical people, Israel, from the bondage of Egypt as well. Exodus chapter 3, now in verse 7. Exodus 3 and verse 7 here. God has just appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and He's given him instructions to lead His people out of bondage. Exodus chapter 3 and verse 7 says, The parasites and the hivites and the Jebusites. So this is describing the Promised Land. God says, I'm going to bring them out, I'm going to deliver them to the land of promise. I promised to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob. And for us, the Promised Land is a type of the Kingdom of God. Is it not where you and I are heading? By God's call, bringing us out of spiritual Egypt, our destination, our trek that we're on today, is indeed to the Kingdom of God. The Promised Land being a type of that fulfillment.

Our lesson here as we walk through Israel's story is that apart from God's miraculous deliverance, you cannot walk out of Egypt. Apart from God's direct, interventive, miraculous deliverance, you cannot walk out of Egypt. And the same lesson is true for each and every one of us in this world today. It is the globe with the bars of prison across it, the world held captive by the consequences of sin. And apart from God's miraculous intervention, no one can walk out of Egypt. Under our own power, you and I had no ability to escape the sentence of death, apart from the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Just as Israel had no power to walk out of bondage and subjection to Pharaoh. Not apart from God's active involvement. Verse 9, continuing on, Exodus 3, it says, Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?

You know, who am I? And the answer is, honestly, Moses, nobody. Apart from God, apart from what God would add, Moses was nobody to do that. God didn't need his ability as a great military general, such as he had been in Egypt. God did not need Moses' skill as a shepherd, such as he had been now in the wilderness of Midian for 40 years.

Now, there were obviously lessons that Moses learned through that process. What God needed was a humble heart willing to serve him. Moses said, who am I? If he would submit himself to the will of God with a humble heart, God could use him. But apart from God, and part of the lesson that we learn, our value truly comes from God. Verse 12, so he said, I will certainly be with you. And that's the point. That is the key. God says, I'm going to send you, but the point is, I will be with you.

It is my ability through you that will accomplish these things. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you, that when you have brought the people up out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. Shall be down to verse 16. He said, Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob appeared to me, saying, Moses is just out minding his business, tending the sheep, tending the flocks, and now here's this burning bush, and God appears, and he says, You go deliver my people.

I'm sending you. Gather the elders together. Tell them, The Lord God are your fathers. God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob appeared to me, saying, I've surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt. And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to a land of the Canaanites and the Hittites, the Amorites, the Parasites, Hivites and Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Then they will heed your voice, You shall come, and you and the elders of Israel, to the King of Egypt. And you shall say to him, The Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us. And now please, let us go three days' journey in the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. But I am sure that the King of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand. Verse 20, So I will stretch out my hand, I will strike Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in their midst.

And after that, he will let you go. We know the story here. There's back and forth now between Moses and God. Moses is maybe trying to convince God. Surely there's somebody better you could choose to do this. But God says, you know, I'll be with you, and I'll be your mouthpiece. And the power by which you will do these things will come from me. And ultimately Moses then decides to go. A little convincing from God. And Moses and Aaron then confront Pharaoh.

Exodus 5, verse 1.

Exodus 5, verse 1.

It says, Afterwards Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I shall obey his voice, and let Israel go? Says, I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.

Who do you think this God of yours is? I'm Pharaoh. These people are mine. I don't know the Lord. Neither will I let Israel go. Verse 3. 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. Then the king of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron, Why do you make the people take the people from their work? Get back to your labor. You know, Moses showed up and said, God's going to deliver us. I'm going to talk to Pharaoh.

People are thinking, We're walking out of here today. And Pharaoh says, Why have these people ceased from their labor? You're creating some trouble here, Moses. Verse 5. Pharaoh said, Look, The people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labor. 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 brick, as before.

Let them go and gather straw for themselves, and you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore, they cry out, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let more work be laid on the men that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words. False words, according to Pharaoh's perception, these were the words of God, as people indeed would be delivered. Another type that we need to recognize in this biblical account is that of the person of Pharaoh. Pharaoh failed to recognize the authority of God, even when confronted with it, even when Moses and Aaron came before his presence by the authority of God.

Pharaoh refused to recognize the God of Israel, refused to bow his knee, refused to release his hold on the children of Israel, that they could have their opportunity to go out and worship God, again, as God commanded. Who does this remind you of? You think of one that would oppose God's people, his ability, our ability to even come before God, to worship before him. Well, Pharaoh is a type of Satan the devil. Pharaoh is a type of the oppressor of all of mankind.

You know, there were the prison bars across the world. Who's the jailer? Who's the one that inflicts the bondage? Who's the one that perpetrates and magnifies the sin? Well, that is Satan the devil. Humanity is under bondage to him, and he does not want to let anyone escape, lest they engage in a relationship with God. Keep your finger here. We'll be coming back to Exodus, but let's take a side trip over to 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4, again, Satan, the God of this world, one who does not desire anyone to walk free. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 3. The Apostle Paul here says, But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

We can preach the gospel. The word can go out, but it's like somebody has blinders on. They cannot see. Their eye is veiled to even coming under the acknowledgment of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He says, Their gospel is veiled to those who are perishing. Verse 4, notice, Whose minds the God of this age has blinded, Who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God, should shine on them.

So, Satan doesn't want to let the gospel, the message of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the gospel of the kingdom of God and what God is doing to bring sons and daughters to glory. Satan the devil does not want the light of the gospel to shine upon this world. Again, he is the jailer who are holding mankind in bondage. Remember the magazine cover. And apart from the spiritual deliverance that God provides through Christ, he would succeed. Just as Pharaoh opposed Israel. It's credible to me, brother, and over the years, as I counsel people for baptism, as I talk to other people who have counseled people for baptism.

And what you see, and it's not a coincidence because it happens time and time again, is when somebody is seeking to walk out of spiritual Egypt and come into a relationship with God, what happens? Well, using this story, I would describe it as Satan bids them to make bricks without straw. Satan throws a trial of such magnitude in their face that it's like, you think you want to get your life in order so that you can go to serve God?

Hang on just a minute. Let me give you a distraction so big that you can just forget about that God. You're consumed with what is happening right here. Make bricks without straw, why don't you? And it's happened time and time again. Pharaoh, the type of Satan the devil holding the people of God in bondage, again, is a type of our adversary today. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 24. 2 Timothy 2 verse 24. Types and fulfillments are so important to understand, brethren.

Verse 24. And the servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility, correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth. Notice verse 26. That they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

It's a snapshot of what has happened to much of mankind through the ages. Taken captive by Satan the devil to do his will, just as the people of God were in bondage to Pharaoh, build my cities, build my treasure houses, do these things. You will not walk out of here alive. You will not go seek your God. I am God.

I am Pharaoh. And it's the same message that comes from Satan the devil, the God of this age. Again, Pharaoh refusing to let Israel go. Let's go back to Exodus chapter 6. Exodus chapter 6 and verse 1. And then the Lord said to Moses, And God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name Lord Yahweh.

I was not known to them. I have also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers.

And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant. Verse 6. Therefore, say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. And isn't that what God has done in our lives today?

He has redeemed us from this world with an outstretched arm. In many cases, He literally reached out and grabbed us, grabbed ahold of us.

Oftentimes, it's been with, you know, you've heard people's stories of being called out of this world. It's been rather dramatic. In many cases, certainly miraculous.

That's what these days of Passover and Unleavened Bread represent for us. That's why we walk through this narrative and rehearse these things year after year, remembering where we were, what God called us out of, and what it took to bring us out of bondage, to take us out of the slavery of this world in service to God. Exodus, chapter 7, in verse 1.

Lord said to Moses, See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. Verse 2, you shall speak all that I command you, and Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay my hand on Egypt, and bring my armies and my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand on Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them. When you read through this account and you read through the plagues, and you read through what it is that God brought upon Egypt, you come to recognize that the reason God did that wasn't just for the sake of bringing Israel out, it was for the sake as well of identifying himself to the people of Egypt. He says, I'm going to show these signs and these wonders and do these things that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. Pharaoh says, I don't know your God. I'm not going to let these people go.

God could have just smoked Egypt in a moment, and his people could have walked free. Why go through all this process? It was so that the Egyptians, as well as the Israelites, would know who God was, who the true God of the universe, the God in heaven, the God who had called them to be his people, who he was as they walked out of the land of Egypt.

At the end of the day, Ra was not God. The power of Ra was by which the magicians in Egypt exercised quite a bit of their miracles, other false gods as well. There were demons backing those things up. But Ra was not God. Pharaoh, who was worshipped as a God, was not God. And at the end of the day, all would know that the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was God.

And there is no other. This is part of the lesson of walking out of Egypt.

Verse 10, Exodus 7, So Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh, and they did so just as the Lord commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before the servants, and it became as a serpent. But Pharaoh also called the wise men the sorcerers, so that the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. And they could throw a rod down. It could become a serpent. Again, there was literally power behind the things that they did, but the source of that power was not God. It was of Satan.

Africa is a very cultural, you know, the rituals, the principles by many, the culture, the medicine, the rituals in the village. It's all mixed in with Christianity in Nigeria and Ghana. And what you have is actual power, demon power, behind a lot of things that go on. So you have somebody get sick, they go to the village doctor. It's not just medicine as you and I would expect it to be. There's Spiritism. There are so many other things mixed in with that. There's curses that are put on people. People believe in these things and they occur. And there literally have been times where people in the church are dealing with severe demon issues because of a doctor they went to ten years ago because of something that was done that they subjected themselves to. And they've opened the door to the demons and the power of that world.

Again, this is a contest. It's not just a physical contest. It's a spiritual contest which takes place in this world. We need to recognize it as such. This is a type. The spiritual fulfillment is so much greater even than that.

As the Lord said, there was no contest with the power of God. Satan may try to exercise what he will do, but it will not stand against the will of God. God's servants swallowed up Satan's servants. If you walk through chapters 7 through 11, we won't take time to do that today, but you can read through the plagues then that God brought upon the land of Egypt.

Then plagues, nine of them are through chapters 7 through 11. I'll just list them for you briefly. The water turned to blood. We call the, you know, the Nile was a place of worship. The Nile God that provided life to the whole land of Egypt turned to blood. Frogs which came up upon the land, so massive in terms of the quantity. I was reading through some of that this morning. You know, they were in your bed.

They were in your cooking bowl. They were everywhere. If you ever played with frogs, that's kind of gross. Imagine them where you cannot get away from them. When they died, they piled them in heaps and they stank, and the land stank. Lice like the dust of the ground, swarms of flies. Up in Spokane in the fall, we get those fuzzy aphids that hatch out, and you have a two or three week span where, you know, depending where you are, they're just so thick you can't walk from the car to the front door without blinking them in your eyes and getting them in your hair.

Imagine a plague from God across the whole land. Disease on the livestock so that they died. Boils, hail, that burned as fire. Imagine the trees, all the crops being destroyed. This is around this early harvest time, mature crops that are destroyed. Again, these are plagues which God sent upon them, the locusts that came in then, ate every green thing that the hail didn't destroy. Literally, Egypt was decimated. Looked like a war zone.

This is God again showing His power. Ninth plague was three days of darkness. And what you come to understand as you look through these things and study was God was striking at the gods of Egypt. There was the Nile God, there was the Sun God. Go back to our most recent Beyond Today magazine. There's a very good article about the parallels of the gods of Egypt and specifically the plagues that God sent against Egypt.

They were to show who God truly was striking against the gods that are literally nothing more than man's imagination, but again, backed by the power of Satan. I want to look at the tenth plague, though. It's what led to Israel's deliverance from physical Egypt and bondage. It's a type of what has led to our deliverance from bondage as well.

Exodus 11, verse 1, says, The Lord said to Moses, I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. And afterward, He will let you go from here. When He lets you go, He will surely drive you out of here altogether. He won't be able to get rid of you fast enough. Exodus 12, verse 1. Of course, this is referring to the Passover. This is the final blow that God will bring upon Egypt, but it will be an open door of deliverance to His people.

Exodus 12, 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. Again, here we are today on the first day of the first month of the year. Looking forward to the fulfillment of these events. Verse 3, Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. He says, 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 the persons, according to each man's need, and you shall make your count for the lamb.

Your lamb shall be without blemish, and may all the first year, you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now as you keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood, they shall put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted in fire with unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

Do not eat it raw or boiled at all with water, but roast it in fire, its head and its legs, its entrails. You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what of it remains until morning you shall burn with fire. And thus you shall eat it with the belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, your staff in your hand, so you shall 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 all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute my judgment. I am the Lord. Notice it is judgment against all the gods of Egypt, and the last remaining standing god here now is Pharaoh. Verse 13, Now the blood shall be assigned for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

So this day shall be to you a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations, and you shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. And so again, the Passover was the means by God, which then God struck at Pharaoh directly, struck at the other gods of Egypt, proving them to be nothing.

Now Pharaoh, the last standing god, the true god would defeat him personally through the Passover, through that process, delivering his people from bondage. Verse 15, Seven days you shall eat on leavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses.

For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them, but that which everyone must eat, that only must be prepared by you. Verse 17, So you shall observe the feast of leavened bread, for on the same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout all your generations as an everlasting ordinance.

So we have the instruction here that God is giving to his people, whereby Israel would observe the Passover and the days of leavened bread from that time forth.

What did it symbolize to them? Because we know what it symbolizes to us. What it symbolized to them was literally their physical deliverance from the land of Egypt. Verse 28, Exodus 12, verse 28, Then the children of Israel went away, and did so, just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

And it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck at the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the captives, who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. So Pharaoh rose in the night, he and all the servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. Then he called to Moses and Aaron by night, and he said, Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also. And the Egyptians urged the people that they might send them out of the land in haste, for they said, We shall all be dead. So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.

Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses. And they had asked from the Egyptians, articles of silver, articles of gold, and of clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians. Then the children of Israel journeyed from Ramses to Sakhath on the six hundred, about six hundred thousand men on foot besides children. And you just kind of wrap your mind around the number of six hundred thousand men. You figure women and children, this was literally two and a half to three million people walking out of the land of Egypt. Verse 38, A mixed multitude went up with them also. So Egyptians who recognized, you know what? These gods that we thought were gods are nothing. The God of Israel truly is God. We want to be with you.

Mixed multitude went up. Also flocks, herds, a great deal of livestock. And they baked unleavened cakes of dough which they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait. Nor had they prepared provisions for themselves. Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.

When the Israelites packed up, walked out of Egypt, walked out with their unleavened food, they were not thinking about being spiritually unleavened and walking out of sin. That wasn't the point. That wasn't their mindset. They were thinking, we're delivered from Egypt. We're heading to the Promised Land. And God is provided through the Passover, the open door by which we might walk out. They left in haste. That is why they were unleavened. God said, you're going to keep these days of unleavened bread as a memorial to my bringing you out of Egypt. But for you and I, brethren, they represent so much more even than that.

Church of God still observes the Passover and the days of unleavened bread today.

Why? You know, somebody asked you, why do you keep those days? Why do you, you know, the Bible says, keep the days of unleavened bread and the Passover in observance. Why do you keep it? And just, what do you think about people? Thousands of years ago, slaves that God delivered? You know, why do you keep these days? Well, if your answer is because God said so, that's good enough. All right. But someone might require a little deeper explanation even than that.

Where would you go to show them that these days mean more to us than simply a group of two and a half, three million slaves leaving Egypt in haste?

Where would we go to show the spiritual fulfillment of the type?

I want to share with you three scriptures in the New Testament to answer with, and we'll conclude on this point.

But we need to be able to show the spiritual significance behind why we keep these days. What is the spiritual fulfillment of the type of the people that God brought out of Egypt through the Passover?

Hebrews 2. Again, we'll look at three passages.

Hebrews 2, verse 14. It says, It says, Verse 15, So just as God delivered the physical nation of Israel out of bondage to Egypt through the Passover, He has delivered His people, His spiritual people, through the Passover. Jesus Christ, our Passover as well.

Two weeks ago, I read John the Baptist's words. He saw Christ coming and declared, Jesus Christ is the spiritual fulfillment of the Old Testament type, the Passover of Exodus 12, the lamb that was slaughtered.

That was the type. It brought deliverance from bondage to physical people. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment.

Brings delivery to the spiritual people of God today.

Second Scripture showing why these days, again, mean more to us than simply a type. Romans 6, verse 10.

Romans 6 and 10, the words of the Apostle Paul, says, When we were enemies, enemies of God, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.

Much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have received the reconciliation.

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and that's Romans chapter 5, very close to what we're talking about. All right, I'll go to 6 in a second, but while I'm here, let's run with it.

Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, all right, that was Adam, the first man, the first sin, does death spread to all men because all of sin.

For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death rained from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come. Wasn't that amazing?

That was an accidental read.

Jesus Christ, a type of Moses, to deliver us from the sin, the type of Adam, excuse me, to deliver us, again, out of sin. Adam, in one sense, was a transgression, and through sin, sin came into the world, but Jesus Christ is the spiritual fulfillment of the literal man who would come to deliver us from sin.

Verse 15, But the free gift is not like the offense, for if by one man's offense many died, much more by the grace of God and by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ, that grace then abounded to many.

And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned, for the judgments which came from the one offense resulted in condemnation, in bondage, in death, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification, that which Jesus Christ took on himself.

Verse 21, let's jump down there, catching my eye, says, So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, again, from bondage, from the beginning of mankind's existence, from the first man now to deliverance through Jesus Christ.

Let's look at what I was really intending to look at now, Romans 6 and verse 10.

For the death that he died, Jesus Christ, he died to sin once for all.

For the life that he lives, he lives to God.

Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lust.

And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

The bondage which comes, the consequences of sin, he says, will not have dominion, because you've come under the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And by the Passover you have been set free.

Verse 15, what then shall we sin because we're not under law but under grace? Certainly not.

Do not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness.

But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.

And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

The Passover, the days among leavened bread which you are approaching, serve as a reminder of the slavery that you and I have left behind.

The fact that the wages of sin is death and we were sold under that, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Again, the salvation, the deliverance that comes through that sacrifice through the Passover.

And just as we prepare for these days and we put out the leavening, it reminds us that we are no longer to be slaves unto sin, but rather we partake of the unleavened bread of life, Jesus Christ, and we are to be slaves unto righteousness.

Israel went out in haste. Their bread wasn't leavened.

And they remembered that as an annual memorial, but you and I have been called out of this world.

And the reminder is we are to be slaves of righteousness, indeed slaves to God, who is the most righteous, the most perfect taskmaster that we could serve.

Third and final passage showing the fulfillment of the type of these days.

There's more than three, but just three for us today. First Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 6.

The context of this here is taking place during the days of the leavened bread.

The Apostle Paul writing, he says, Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

You make up some dough, you throw in just a little tiny bit of leavening and what happens? When you give it enough time, the whole lump is infected.

It begins to rise, it is puffed up, and it is a type of vanity in sin.

It is a type.

Verse 7, Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened.

For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.

Can you see the type and the fulfillment?

Therefore let us keep the feast. Not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Paul says, Let us keep the feast. Who was he writing to?

Was he writing to Old Covenant, Old Testament Israelites coming out of Egypt?

You know, was he writing to the Jews in Jerusalem?

No, he was writing to a Gentile church of the New Covenant. Let us keep the feast. God has called us out of this world.

He's bringing us to the kingdom of God, the Promised Land, and we are to live a sin-free life.

And the justification is by coming under the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Brethren, God has given us His holy days as a blessing.

And they're holy days filled with much spiritual meaning.

We're starting the course again this year through God's holy day cycle, and it is a blessing.

And they're full of meaning and significance for us.

The Bible contains many types pointing to their ultimate spiritual fulfillment.

As we go through these days, let us study both.

Study the type.

Study the story, the example by which we draw the illustrations and the lessons.

Study as well the fulfillment, the spiritual reality that God has called us to.

As we do, let us appreciate the rich blessings of faith, of mercy, of the deliverance that God the Father has provided for us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Brethren, what a wonderful blessing it is to understand these things, to observe as a memorial to these things through God's call. What a wonderful blessing it is to have been called by our Father in Heaven to put on your belt, take up your staff, and walk out of spiritual Egypt.