Casting A Shadow
Notes
Transcript
Reading:
25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Introduction:
Exodus 12 is the reality of the Passover sacrifice. Before chapter 12 of Exodus, the Passover theme had been introduced.
The Passover provided the Hebrews and the world, something worth waiting for.
We are about to have the question brought into history by Isaac back in Genesis 22:7.
Isaac asked Abraham:
7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
The world from Isaac to John would have been looking for the Lamb provided by God.
The shadow that was cast has been filled in Jesus, to which John attested.
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
This Lamb was attested to by Philip the Evangelist (Acts 8:32-35; Isaiah 53:7-8)
The Lamb was attested to by the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 5:7)
Peter also (1 Peter 1:18-20)
John too (Rev. 5:5-6; 13:8)
A lot of things in the Old Testament cast a shadow forward into the New Testament, and this is one of those moments, the passover here leaves us desiring a permanent sacrifice to hang our faith on.
Jesus was the one whom God provided as the sacrificial lamb who is worthy of peoples trust and faith to hang on.
Transition:
In Exodus 12 the shadow is cast with God explaining:
The Worthy Sacrifice (1-6)
The Worthy Sacrifice (1-6)
1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.
God is instituting something new for the Hebrews.
The “new” thing is the beginning of their religious calendar.
The Jews have a religious and a civil calendar.
After this the Jews will have a calendar over their daily lives and one for their religious festivals and spiritual lives.
The month that begins their spiritual calendar is the month Nissan, and from this passage in Exodus 12:2 and even until now the passover initiates the beginning of their spiritual calendar.
The Spiritual calendar doesn’t start in January.
It starts in the middle of March, the 7th month and the Passover is the celebration that kicks it off.
Transition:
This “new” moment right here creates a new beginning for the Hebrew people.
This shadow reaches into the New Testament.
The shadow is filled in with what takes place at the moment of salvation.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
At the moment of salvation we are changed positionally!
Before grace we are dead in our sins; but in Christ we are remade!
The person we once were can be buried in death, never to rise again.
It is final!
The new position provides us with a fresh start to live out our lives in honor and worship of our Savior who paid for us!
This new life is provided to us through the worthy sacrifice being offered!
3 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.
4 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.
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats,
6 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.
These passages provide the process for choosing a worthy sacrifice.
He gives us a list for the lamb that will be killed.
This list provides for us what God deems worthy, which we can measure the worthiness of Christ!
The Lamb was to be chosen before it is slain.
We have that information about Christ in 1 Peter 1:20-21
20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you
21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
God instructed each family to get a lamb for their household.
The Lamb was to be sacrificed at the appointed time, then cooked, and eaten, in it’s entirety.
If the home was too small for the lamb, they were to share with the nearest neighbor.
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats,
The lamb will be inspected and checked over for any flaws.
It has to be perfect in every way and male!
Jesus was a perfect lamb without spot and in His case an human without the stain of sin!
The sin nature wouldn't have passed onto Jesus seeing Joseph wasn’t His blood father.
He was born of a virgin!
He was tried and tested in every way, including Satan’s temptations.
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus is worthy to be the passover lamb to be sacrificed that offers a new beginning to all who believe.
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
The sacrifice was to be killed at the crack of dawn!
God was a barbecue connoisseur. (He knew how long it took to make a good smoked lamb).
Transition:
The Hebrews were told about their new beginning after the passover lamb was killed and eaten.
We, right here and now, have a similar opportunity for a fresh start to a new life.
By faith God makes our spirit alive again in tune with His.
The passover sacrifice reassured the Hebrews of the new life while on their journey to the promised land!
Through the instructions they are provided an opportunity to obey with faith.
They would prove what they believe with an outward action:
The Sign of their Faith - Obedience (7-13)
The Sign of their Faith - Obedience (7-13)
7 “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.
The blood on their door posts was a sign to the Holy Spirit that they believed God!
It was an outward action that revealed an inner trust!
Some might say that they were only doing it out of fear of God.
Good!
We should fear God and the Hebrews got a front row display of some of what He can do. Matthew 10:28
28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Application:
It wasn’t the life of the lamb that saved the people, it was the death of the Lamb.
22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Hebrews is referencing the law back in Leviticus 17:11
11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.
Notice that the blood was only effective when it was applied to the doorposts.
God had promised that when He sees the blood He would passover that home, acknowledging their faith.
13 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.
Because of Jesus death we can be saved.
To accept the salvation He extends to us we have to apply the blood to our lives.
We should be able to say what Paul did in Galatians 2:20
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
The appropriation of the Atonement must be personal, like with Thomas.
28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
Our relationship with Jesus is personal.
Just as the lamb was to be inspected per God’s instructions, the Hebrews were to cook and eat the sacrifice in a specific way as well.
8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.
9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts.
10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.
The whole sacrifice was to be eaten in one night.
The sacrifice couldn’t have any broken bones.
To achieve this, the sacrifice had to be cooked whole, and not cut into pieces and shoved into a pot.
If anything was left by morning it was to be burned into cinders.
Imagine trying to quickly eat a meal while you hear throughout the land all the screams and cries.
That would be the most unpleasant meal you’ve ever eaten.
The items for this meal listed bring some spiritual implications to light.
The purpose for the eating of the sacrifice would be that you need the nourishment for the long and difficult journey.
You need your strength.
We in our pilgrimage through this world must feed on Christ as the source of our strength.
As we read His word He feeds our souls which provides strength to our spiritual man.
Hear what Jesus says about the source of our strength:
In one of Jesus’ temptations, Satan told Jesus to make a stone bread Jesus responded with Matthew 4:4
4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
Jesus is making a truthful statement about where our spiritual strength comes from.
We meditate, pray, and believe what God’s word says and apply it to our lives for it to be effective.
It’s necessary.
What do the bitter herbs and the unleavened bread achieve?
8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.
The taste of the bitter herbs would be a reminder to the Jews about their 400 years of slavery in Egypt.
We as humans are fickle, have you ever noticed that?
The Hebrews were devoted to Yahweh when they left Egypt, but as you read of their journey through the dessert they reverted back to an illusion of “better”.
You will notice as we go through Exodus that they constantly wanted to go back to Egypt because it was “better” there.
While in the desert, each time they celebrated the passover meal, it should have been a reminder of how bad it actually was in Egypt.
The bitter herbs would’ve been a taste that was unpleasant to say the least. Much like Egypt was not pleasant.
There are many times when we need this same reminder.
Before salvation what kind of heart did you have ?
What kind of attitude?
What kind of life did you live and did it honor God?
When God came looking for Adam and Eve they were hiding because they were ashamed of their nakedness.
God sacrificed an animal to cover their sin and shame.
We can cherish our grace more when we remember what God’s grace covered!
Allow yourself to remember what He saved you from.
If you were saved when you were young and don’t have a dramatic change, just know and thank God you don’t have as much baggage to drag around.
What is the bread speaking about?
The bread had no yeast in it, which would hinder it from rising.
But the leaven was significant to the Hebrews for 2 reasons.
There wasn’t time for the bread to rise before they left Egypt.
Indicating the haste for leaving Egypt.
The leaven to the Jews was also as symbol of impurity.
For a week following the Passover they were required to eat unleavened bread, symbolizing the removal of all impurity from their homes.
Throughout the year we should let God to remove the things that aren’t holy and acceptable to Him from our lives.
Impacting our spiritual lives and showing a testimony like we are instructed about int Hebrews 12:1.
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
Every part leftover needed to be burnt showing that the passover sacrifice wasn’t an ordinary meal.
Similar to how we aren’t to treat God’s word as just an ordinary book, it is a living word!
The Lord instructed them about their demeanor for eating this meal.
11 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.
12 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.
13 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.
They are instructed to “eat and run”.
Kind of like a teenage boy between school and their extracurricular activity.
Illustration:
When Katie and I first began dating we would go to meals together and this was what it was like.
By the time she had finished getting her meal all prepped and ready to eat, I was just finishing eating.
The Hebrews were to be prepared and ready to leave very quickly!
Transition:
Because this moment in Hebrew history was so important the Lord was going to make sure that it wouldn’t be forgotten or overlooked.
He made this meal:
A Dedicated Feast - A Continual Reminder (14-20)
A Dedicated Feast - A Continual Reminder (14-20)
14 “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.
15 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.
The Lord made sure to re-arrange their calendar so they wouldn’t forget; but more than that.
He instituted a week to observe the application of the sacrifice for their salvation.
This means in 400 more years all of the Hebrews would know why they celebrated the passover meal together with their families and their neighbors for 7 whole days.
To this day, anyone who is Jewish still recognizes this event in the same manner and with the same elements.
They are instructed to cleanse their homes from the “leaven”.
16 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.
17 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.
This is something that God put in place “forever”.
The word statute is a legal word, which expresses the authority of the one in power that institutes a binding law!
Only someone over God would have the authority to change the law.
There isn’t any.
The final verses indicate the importance of maintaining your holiness before the Lord.
18 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.
19 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.
20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”
Conclusion:
For 7 days they are to observe the passover.
Imagine the stories that might be told about the Exodus from Egypt.
I am curious if stories of ancestors were told to the next generation about Yahweh’s great deliverance from bondage that made it to their family?
Passover’s shadow was cast into the future where Jesus is the lamb provided by God, who is worthy to take away the sins of the world.
After the Passover instructions were given, it was up to the Hebrews to apply the blood to their doorposts for salvation.
For us, we can apply His salvation to our lives by faith.
The Hebrews were instructed not to forget who and where they once were, and the mighty hand of the Lord that delivered them.
We can’t forget the bondage that we once were in before God’s grace changed us.
- Pray!
