The Passover and the Blood | Ex. 12:1-32

Intro

Good morning Church Family, hope everyone is doing well.

IF this is your first time here this morning, my name is Austin Ussery, I’m the Students and missions pastor here at FBC Gray.

Once again happy Mother’s Day.

Also, as always, thank you church family for letting me be up here To fill in for Randy when he is out.

And also, thank you to Pastor Randy for letting me fill in when he’s gone.

I’m always thankful and grateful to be here.

So let’s get in to it.

Have you ever sat back and thought that some of the imagery in Christianity is weird? Like, we talk a good bit about blood.

Humor me for a moment.

Don’t think of it as a believer, but think of it as an outsider. Someone who has never heard about Christianity in any capacity.

Disassociate with me for a second.

Because what we are going to talk about this morning, we gloss over, because we have just heard the story so many times. And it seems normal to us.

It is common place to us.

Not a bad thing, but I want you to realize the importance of what we have in Christ. The importance of what is going on here.

So think about it, if you had no dealings with Christianity at all.

think about walking in to big ornate building, and seeing a man, beaten, bleeding and nailed to some wood.

If you had no clue about Christianity, you would be like, “Hey, what’s up with that?”

Or if someone was like, “oh man, my grandma’s favorite song is, There is a fountain filled with blood.”

What kinda music does your grandma listen to?

It’s weird if you remove it from the context.

now, I know that you know, it’s not weird to us,

because we have 2000 years of church history and culture building.

but in the early church history, this is was one of the reasons Rome persecuted the church.

It wasn’t just that early Christians wouldn’t accept Caesar as Lord, or god.

But it was what they did when they worshiped was downright weird to them.

Sutonius, a Roman historian, wrote this in the time of Nero, that Christians were a superstitious bunch, superstitious meant blasphemous to the Romans, Sutonuis wrote, speaking of Nero.

He likewise inflicted punishments on the Christians, a sort of people who held a new and impious superstition.

What the Christians were thought to be doing was blasphemous to the Roman world.

In the Roman eyes, Christians were cannibals. Which is just as repugnant to us as it was to the Romans, that is not what we believe.

But when they heard, Eat my body and Drink my blood, that weirded them out.

So much that they wanted to crush them.

They made fun of that. They ridiculed them.

If you have ever said the phrase Hocus Pocus, when you do a little magic trick, but that phrase actually comes from Romans making fun of Christians.

Some of them thought they were Greek magicians.

Hocus Pocus comes from the Latin, “Hoc est corpus meum” Which means, “this is my body.”

Hocus Pocus was the slang term for that.

Christians seemed to talk about someone’s body and blood.

And to the world, the blood is weird, but not to us,

to us, the blood is everything.

Without the blood, there is no hope.

In death, we have life.

So this is where we are going to live this morning.

The blood is everything.

Context

So this morning we are going to be in ex. 12:1-32.

It’s a huge passage of scripture

But this is the turning point in the story.

So last week,

Pastor Randy went through the Plagues, the first 9 Plagues.

Yahweh is waging war on all of Egypt.

Crushing them on all fronts.

people are dying form these plagues.

Yahweh is making known that He is the one true and living God.

And as Moses is going through writing down all that is happening, Moses, Pauses.

Moses stops and includes something else.

The Plagues are broken up.

The first 9 are grouped together.

These were all Plagues directed at Egypt. The Hebrew people were spared from these. They didn’t get gnats, bloody water, hail, frogs. All that, they didn’t have to endure that one.

But the final plague is different.

in chapter 11 the final plague is threatened, but is not carried out in that moment.

There is a pause.

And there is instruction.

The first 9 plagues, didn’t come with instructions for the Hebrew people. They were not subject to it.

The 10th plague Did.

So this is where we find ourselves in the story this morning.

Yahweh Is giving them very specific instructions.

Telling them, look I’m coming to devastate, but I am giving you a way to make it through.

So Exodus 12, verse 1-32. If you have a bible great, if you don’t grab one in the pew, if you don’t have bible at home take that one with you.

I want to read almost all of it, but we are going to break it up in to a giant chunk and then a small chunk.

So let’s read the first 28 verse, then let’s talk about it.

Kids if you are following along here are your three words — Passover, Blood, and Lamb.

So let’s read this scripture together

but before we do that, let’s pray for our time in the word together.

Pray with me

pray

Okay y’all read this with me, Exodus 12:1-28 that’s the first chunk. I know it’s long, but stick with me. There is so much in here.

Exodus 12:1–28 ESV

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.” Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’ ” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped. Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

Okay so this reads different than the plagues.

The Plagues read like war reports

Moses stretches out his staff, Gnats Are dropped.

Pharoahs’s heart is hardened.

Moses takes some soot. Boils appear.

Pharoahs heart is hardened.

They read like formulas.

The Lord says this, Morse does. Plague. Pharaohs heart is hardened.

Plague 10 is threatened and Pharoah’s heart is hardened.

— Then we get to the instructions for the Passover.

And this is what they were to do.

Each family was to pick a lamb. Year old, so a probably cute lamb.

Unblemished. This is a hallmark card lamb.

Bring it in to their house.

They feed the lamb, they treat the lamb like family.

The kids name the lamb. Lamb Chop.

The Lamb becomes a part of the family.

For 14 days, this lamb has won the lottery.

Until that last day.

Then the family joins with the other families and they all slaughter this Lamb together.

And you can imagine this may be kinda emotional, especially for the kids Who named the lamb.

But when they ask, “Daddy, why are you doing this?”

The father looks down and says, because if I don’t then it’s you that has to die.

This lamb isn’t just something to kill and eat.

This is a sin atoning lamb. They were to remind themselves of this for the whole of the year.

The Lord actually divides time based on this.

This is marking the first of the year for them. This is the new years celebration.

This was to remind them of what Yahweh has done for them.

And it starts with a sacrifice.

A sacrifice for sin, a sacrifice that takes the place for the first born. That takes the place of us.

That’s what the first born signified, it was the families future. It flowed through the first born.

SO this is what I want you to see.

P1 - Yahweh makes a way for His people.

Yahweh makes a way for His people.

Because this is what they were to do after they killed the lamb.

Take some hyssop and and wipe the blood on the door posts for your house. The whole door frame has to be covered.

So what is important is that through the blood of the lamb, Yahweh is making a way for His people.

Because this is what Yahweh is doing here in the 10th Plague, he isn’t just judging the egyptians,

Yahweh is coming to judge sin.

The Hebrew people, they were his people, but they were still sinful.

In the 400 years so far they had forgotten about Yahweh. Some of them may have given the gods of Egypt a try. See how ol’ Horus works out for them.

Yahweh is coming to judge sin. And wipe out the future for those he finds unworthy.

Which without the blood, is every single one of them.

The Blood matters.

Blood for the all of the ancient near east people was a super important thing. Blood through out most cultures was a super important thing.

But to the Hebrews they held blood as sacred.

Blood was life.

They have laws against consuming blood.

No medium rare steaks.

Blood was precious to the Hebrews. Because blood is what made up for sin.

If you go through the whole of scripture even in the beginning.

After Adam and Eve ruin everything, they try to cover their shame with fig leaves and vegetation.

God has to sacrifice an animal, blood has to be shed. To make them skins to cover their shame and guilt.

They needed the blood on the doorposts. That is where the life is.

Then Yahweh gives them special instructions.

Eat the lamb,

Roast the Lamb, eat all of the lamb.

Open fire, roast the lamb.

And to be honest, what Yahweh is giving them instructions for, we kind of identify with here in the south.

This may not be the technical term.

But this is BBQ.

The is open flame cooking. They had to get it done all the way through. The best way to do that is slow cooking over an open flame.

God knows what he is doing.

Then he says, eat the whole thing and what ever is left, burn it.

God what’s them to get the lamb that was the sacrifice in them.

This reminds me of Revelation when the angel tells John, eat this scroll. Consume it. Let it grow you. Let the word become muscle and bone of your spiritual life.

Because this is what matters. The Hebrew people were about to be going, and this was probably the last really good meal they were going to have for a while.

Yahweh knows this, and so how much and in what manner they eat it matters.

He tells them, eat with your sandels on and staff in hand. Eat a bunch, fast.

Be ready to go, because when I move, you will be moving too. be ready.

The Lord will pass over you and then you will be leaving.

So this is the first mention of the blood in this passage. This blood is atoning for sin.

P2 - Yahweh knows his people.

Then Yahweh mentions it again. In verse 13 Yahweh says Ex. 12:13

Exodus 12:13 ESV

The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

So see this, Yahweh knows His people.

The Blood will be a distinguishing marker for who was truly His people.

and lets think about it.

Why does Yahweh need this as the marker. Why did it have to be blood on the door posts? Had they sacrificed the lamb and eaten lamb. Why would that have not been enough.

Why did they have to put blood on the door post? The feast is secondary to the blood.

But why?

When I in High School, my least favorite subject was math. Nothing wrong with math, i just wasn’t good at it. Still not great at it.

And Jokes on all my teachers who said you wouldn’t have a calculator on me at all times.

But one of the worst phrases in all of math, in all of numberdom is the phrase that follows a complicated math problem and it says, show your work.

And for me it wasn’t that i could really do it in my head, i just didn’t want you to see just how dumb i was, let me write a 4 and be wrong.

But what happens if you give the right answer and you show no work?

You get it wrong. because you didn’t do what was asked. It was to show that you understood what was going on.

Yahweh says this is the marker. Blood on the doorpost.

Because the blood on the door post is a sign of faith, a sign of trust in Yahweh. That you understood that Yahweh could kill you and your family because of his justice, but that you understood that if you trust him. Yahweh keeps his promises.

That Yahweh would see the blood and say, this one trusts, this one has faith. This one has no faith.

Yahweh is not making distinctions between Egyptian and Hebrew, he knows who is a Hebrew And Egyptian, Yahweh is making a distinction between following and not following.

This is true for us today. Yahweh knows which one if us goes to church, God knows if we have perfect attendance in Sunday School, what matters is did we pick up our feet and follow Him? Is he Lord or is he acquaintance? There are no acquaintances in the kingdom, only sons.

The Blood signifies this.

This one has followed me, and has done what I asked.

This one has placed their trust in me.

The blood is a sign. The Blood is a distinguishing marker. It had to be blood.

In Steven Spielberg animated epic, The Prince of Egypt, Spielberg when it came to depicting the scene he wanted it to be a marker, just something on the doorposts. All of the religious consultants he hired to consult him on the movie, consulted him heavily. They all said no. It has to be blood. Can’t be anything else or you lose the story.

It had to be blood.

The blood is what says, these are the people of the covenant. These are mine.

Yahweh is acting to save you, he is the one who relents through your faith.

Yahweh keeps His promises.

The Blood.

The Blood distinguishes who is His and who is not.

P3 - Yahweh dies for His people.

And here is the thing that we need to remember, we need the blood as well.

The last part of the passage Yahweh commands for them to stay in the house, blood on the door posts. Door locked up stay with your family.

And then to observe this, remember what I have done for you.

Teach your children this.

Teach your kids to follow the Lord.

If there isn’t a more clear picture of family discipleship in scripture, I’m not sure where it is.

Do you think any Parent in this story is like, “Eh, will let them decide if they want to go outside while the destroyer is out.”

No!

Teach your kids to follow Yahweh. Discipleship starts in the home with the door locked before you set out.

Parents. You are the spiritual leader of your children. Teach them to follow Yahweh.

Then, after these instructions are given,

we see what happens.

After the blood has been shed, after the meal eaten. The doors locked.

Read with me the last chunk of this. verse 29

Exodus 12:29–32 ESV

At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”

Yahweh starts his plan.

Yahweh comes and judges sin.

And what is heard? Wailing?

Why because Egypt was decimated. their future wiped out.

it was too late.

This is an interesting passage here in scripture.

There are a lot of moments in scripture where I think God pulls back the veil and gives us a glimpse of heaven.

We see it in revelation. We see the new heaven and the new earth.

But i think this is different.

This is what we have here.

In the tenth plague we don’t just see the death of the firstborn.

We see God pull back the veil on what hell will be like.

A cry went out. Wailing. Total destruction and despair and nothing that can be done.

No hope, no future for those without the blood.

In the totality of this passage we have two pictures being painted.

We have the veil being pulled back on Hell in the plague, but in the Passover we see the glimpse of Christ that is to come.

Because ultimately Yahweh dies for His people.

We get the full picture in Jesus.

Randy read the passage earlier.

Jesus at the Passover feast tells them, I will not eat of the feast until it is in the Kingdom.

Jesus is telling the disciples at Passover, that He is the lamb.

The Lamb of the Passover that never gets to see the feast.

That he is about to be killed, his blood shed.

This is my body and my blood, broken and poured out for you. Eat and drink of it.

P2Christ - Do you have the Blood?

So here is the question that I want to you answer.

Do you have the blood.

The Passover shows us that Yahweh makes a way. Through Jesus we have a way to relationship with Him. Through the Blood shed on the cross for us.

In the tenth plague we see that there is a time coming when it will be to late.

So ask yourself, when you get to the end of it, when you stand before God, what will you tell him?

what will you plead?

Will you plead good works? Will you plead that you always came to church? Will you plead that you were a good guy? Or will you plead the blood?

If you plead anything but the blood. All you have done is killed the lamb and had dinner.

Without the blood of Christ shed for you, you have nothing.

This is the gospel.

That we are broken, that we do not deserve to be passed over, but that we deserve what Egypt got, the we deserve the wailing the dark.

But the good news is, Christ died for you. The Lamb, sacrificed in your place. Shed His blood for you and rose from the grave and will eat the feast with us.

That we can have his righteousness, if only we follow him. Not see him from a distance, not do good things, but follow Him as Lord.

So here is the invitation for you. Take the blood. Realize that you need the blood. Follow Jesus. become like Him.

Have him rule and reign. If you want to follow Jesus no better time than now. because there is coming a time when it will be too late. If you want to follow Jesus, come talk to me, talk to one of the students. Talk to the friend that you’re sitting next to.

Answer the question.

Do you have the blood?

So, come see Christ as Lord, come see Christ as King.

Pray with me.