Moses and the Passover

Escape

In North Korea it is practically unthinkable to escape…The same has been true with countries such as the USSR, the Eastern Bloc

This week I was on youtube and I saw this famous video of a North Korean Soldier defecting to South Korea

If you have ever seen it, he drives this Jeep at full speed to the boarder then has to get out and run to the South Korean boarder...

He has to make it past barbed wire, landmines and not to mention his fellow soldiers all chasing him down and shooting at him

he was shot 6-7 times and he collapsed I think on the South Korean side or in the middle at least and there is this video of South Korean soldiers rescuing the man

That video is a chilling reminder of what it is like to live in a totalitarian country

In countries where there is total control the government keeps the power with violence and people that try to leave are dealt with...

During the cold war there are so many daring escape stories

people being smuggled through the Berlin wall, over the Berlin wall…different ladders systems...

The story is the same every time…Because when you have a strong man in power one of the ways that you maintain power is by not allowing people to leave...

We know about many stories like this in modern days....

It is not hard to imagine a Pharoah who is all powerful in Egypt not wanting at least 2 million parts of his cheap labor reserve to walk away but

It has been the same story for thousands of years…Kings always operate this way!

Passover

So the last two weeks have been all about the 10 plagues…and this week we are actually going to see the Israelites make their escape out of israel

So here is a quick recap,

There are 10 plagues that God uses to both reverse the blessing of his creation and to Judge the gods of Egypt....

The whole religious system & Cosmology of Egypt is put in check by the work of Yahweh and Moses

But what I want to do today is zero in on the last plague and the Israelites leaving Egypt

So there are these 10 horrible plagues…and did you notice...

9 of them did not affect God’s people...

And they didn’t have to do anything at all…It was just frogs there but not here…Dark here but not there

But on the 10th Plague they are not automatically safe from this plague ,

God requires them to do something in order to be saved

So if you have your bibles we will be in Exodus 12 for a few minutes this morning...

Exodus 12:1–13 NIV

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover. “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

So this by the way is the meal that Jesus is eating with his disciples the night he is betrayed and arrested

This is the meal that would both protect them from the plague of the firstborn and start something brand new with his people.

So if we look back on verse 1 Exodus 12:1-2

Exodus 12:1–2 NIV

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.

With this festival God is beginning to forge in himself a new people.

I mean right out of the gate with the instructions for Israel…God is saying that there is a new calendar with me

This is how impotrant this is, you have to reset your calendar by it...

So the question that I brought up earlier…Why is it that on 9 of the Plagues, Israel did nothing they just had to enjoy God’s favor but on this one…Man there are instructions are detailed

On the 10th day of the month they need to choose a year old male lamb, without defect , then on the 14th day of the month they slaughter at midnight

They have to take the blood and put it on the door posts...

Then there is bread you have to make without yeast and they have to eat it all with their cloaks tucked in their belt...

So what is happening here?

I think God is setting up a few ideas in to the minds of his people.

Following the passover guidelines was an act of faith that saved Israel.

that is what this is! The blood on the doorpost was a sign of obedience to the instructions that God gave Moses.

The blood on the doorposts showed acceptance of God’s plan for rescue and trust in his word.

After all, the sight of dried blood by itself had no power to deter death; it was only as the dried blood painted on the top and sides of the door was a testimony to the faith of the inhabitants in Yahweh that it had its efficacy.

Thus the statement, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you”—in other words, I will spare all those who show that they have placed their faith in me.

This is huge! Yahweh had to now build a people who will place their faith in him…A people who will act in faith...

This is why its the first festival of the new year…It’s a reminder that they are a people of faith

And faith showed up in the life of israel in that they physically obeyed…Faith for them was not just a mental exersize…like okay, I believe in God....now what…They took that belief and they made it actionable in their life

Our faith has to have action tied to it! Thats is the point of the meal....Faith in God’s instructions required them to act.

Secondly

The passover sets up the idea that Israel follows a Holy God who requires atonement for sins

Now at the time nowhere in Exodus 12 does this passage talk about saving the Israelites from sin…Its just not in the text

But I want to point out one thing that is super key

Exodus 12:14 NIV

“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.

This wasn’t just a little festival…This was a lasting ordinance to Yahweh

So God made it clear to his people that this wasn’t just for them but it was for generations to come.

I mean we know that traditions can be easily forgotten…With every generation there a a slight change or a little slack given to your family traditions right?

But God wanted this done every year exactly like it was done at the first exodus

I mean it doesn’t show it right here but this whole way to choose the passover lamb is what the book of Leviticus will use as a regulation to pick sacrificial animals...

And the whole idea of eating bread without yeast…The yeast would come to symbolize sin in the Bible...

Why do the Israelites need to keep this festival?

Its because generations down the line, the real passover lamb will come and he would make a perfect atonement for our sins...

The Old Testament Exodus was the paradigm of God’s saving acts;

the New Testament crucifixion was the ultimate exodus because it delivers not merely from bondage to human systems but from bondage to sin itself,

and thus it provides for life not merely in a promised earthly land but in an eternal promised land, the home of the Father...

So after the passover...

When the first born sons of Egypt had all died …This is what happens next

Exodus 12:31–32 NIV

During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.”

So now, finally after 10 plagues…Moses gets to lead his people out of Egypt...

And Pharoah asks for a blessing...

The last Israelite that blessed a Pharoah was Joseph...

Asking for this was finally almost a bow to the power of Yahweh…Like I finally respect Yahweh...

But it would be short lived because Pharaoh’s heart would get hard again...

So as the Israelites leave Egypt here is what happens next

Exodus 13:20–22 NIV

After leaving Sukkoth they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

So we have to remember, where does God first meet Moses?

In a little pillar of fire...

In a bush that doesn't burn up

And now what Moses had first experienced, all of the Israelites get to experience...

This is the way that God is present with his people

So as God’s people are escaping Egypt, God took them on a longer route and Pharaoh’s heart again got hard and he thought hey I let them go but now I can pursue them again…so the text says he does with 600 Chariots...

And you have to understand in ancient warfare…This is like taking a Blackhawk helicopter to a fist fight...

It is an overwhelming show of military power

And then here is what happens next:

Exodus 14:10–14 NIV

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

I love that every step of the way, even when they were back in Egypt…The Israelites like don’t want to be saved...

They are like…All of that just to die out here?

But I love Moses’s reply here

Don’t be afraid…stand firm…Do nothing! God will do the fighting

God fights for his people and—no matter how undertrained, ill-equipped, poorly organized, or outclassed they might be—eliminated their foes.

Moses gives us five attributes of God’s Character

(1) God is a dispeller of fear, a comforter of those who are afraid.

(2) God is a deliverer from distress.

(3) God invites and expects his people to trust in him

(4) God removes danger.

(5) God is a warrior against the forces of evil

When your faith is rooted firmly in Jesus you will realize that fear has no place in your life

A lot of times we go through situations that we think we have to be fully in control of. And it is like the more in control we try to be the more out of control we become.

But when we surrender our battles to the Lord and let him fight them you will be shocked at what happens...

In 2011, I was a youth Pastor, I had built a successful second service at our church for college and young adults…God was really moving in powerful ways..

But then my boss, my mentor, my senior pastor who had battled cancer successfully twice, Got sick and passed away...

All of the Sudden our District Superintendent came in and said to me and the executive pastor,

“We will look internally first and either call one of you to be the pastor or not” and if not we will do an outside search...

Well all of the sudden I am this 28 year old kid really who is barley starting in ministry, up against this 50+something executive pastor with tons of business experience and just a ton of real world experience...

And this executive pastor started to really fight for the job…I had people coming to me saying…

Man…This guy is really gunning for the job…He is really trying for this position....

You should really say something... You should do something

I was convinced that being a pastor was not something that you fight for but that God calls you to.

This verse in Exodus came to mind....”The Lord will fight for you, you only need to be still.”

So instead of listing to everyone’s tactics…I told them. My strategy is to do nothing and let the Lord work it out...

And I have to tell you that it was both the easiest and the hardest thing that I have ever done.

I did absolutely nothing…I just did my job…

And right after I interviewed for it…I came home and I was telling Desiree and my parents who were there how it went and I got a call from the vice chair, offering me the job

Everything in us wants to take the Lord’s battle and make it our battle...

There is no faith required for that

When you are going though something it is so hard to allow the lord to fight for you because everything in you wants to fight!

But when you fully hand that battle over to the Lord, then he is freed up to do some amazing things...

Moses had been through this already but the people of God haden’t yet…Moses understood and knew that the battle was the Lord’s and he had to model that

The last point I want to make today is this

The passover and the exodus teach the Israelites that they must pass through death in order to find true life

Exodus 14:21–22 NIV

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

I love this because just moments earlier the Israelites were like…hey this is certain death...

But what they learned in both the passover and the exodus is that what looks like death actually brings life

With the passover…God is like okay…your going to escape…but kill the unblemished lamb and eat it first…Its like…What are you talking about God

This is what Jesus told his disciples

Matthew 16:24–25 NIV

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

He is saying hey, what looks like death is actually your salvation!

When you lay your life down for me…I will pick it back up!

This is what the exodus teaches all the Israelites...

You have to willingly step into the red sea! You have to willing walk into what could be your own death...

You have to lay your life down so that God can and will build you back up again!

Because what looks like death…is actually life

The disciples of Jesus would stand and look at their savor dying on the cross with no understanding that in that moment, Jesus was doing battle....Jesus was fighting death itself and that he would actually overcome it and take his life back up again

After all of the Israelites cross out of Egypt

God would allow the red sea to come crashing down on the armies of Egypt...

The Lord would actually do that battle for them...

Israel was saved, because it walked through the waters of death...

You know this is where we get some of the first images of baptism....That as you walk into the waters…it is a death to your old life and as you walk out of the water it is being raised up to a new life....

All thought the Bible, what looks like death, actually brings new life

Killing this passover lamb.....an act of faith that atones for their own sins

Walking through the Red Sea

Shadrach, Meshach and Abenaego would be thrown into a fiery furnace…It looked like death but it would be the strange way in which life would come

Daniel would be thrown into a lions den and again what looked like death was actually the way to life

Jonah would be thrown overboard and spend three days in the belly of a fish…what seemed like death would actually bring life

It all points to Jesus on the cross…What seems like death…and what actually is death…is the greatest reversal of all because not only does Jesus get raised from the dead…We all have the opportunity for new life...

And in this moment…The moment of the Israelites escape…it all echos back to this one sentence that God spoke to them earlier....

Exodus 6:6 NIV

“Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.

On the other side of the red sea…They are literally able to feel their redemption...

God made good on his word!

He always does

Application/Challenge

Let’s be honest.

Some of us here either don’t follow Jesus at all or follow him casually....You’ll follow Jesus all the way up to the hard part We are not willing to have the faith that is required to walk though the waters of death

You look up at the cross and know that this is what Jesus is calling us to but it’s just so hard to leave behind a life of your own desires…your own dreams your own wants

What you need to hear today is that by laying your wants your desires…your own agenda down for your life and crossing the red sea...

Walking into what seems like death

Is actually this amazing reversal…this amazing way in which God brings about new life

So maybe your here today…The alter is open…Maybe you need to lay your life down and begin to follow Jesus…To put your trust in him rather than yourself

Maybe you did that but somewhere along the way…life became all about you again

Die to self

walk through death