Exodus 11:1-13:16: Never Forget

Introduction

Depressing - teaching college students and none of them remember 9/11… But… I remember. I remember where I was. I remember church service the following Sunday. Each year, ceremonies at Ground Zero. We’re told to “Never Forget.” (Or, Holocaust museum).

9/11 - remember a tragedy - remember people’s lives that were lost. In Exodus, God calls His people to remember a victory, the most decisive victory in the Old Testament and the cornerstone of the Old Testament story.

Several thousand years later, God calling us to remember. We gather around the Lord’s table to remember.

We easily forget the significance of God’s work in our lives, we easily forget the significance of what Jesus did for us 2,000 years ago.

Discouraged this morning? Remember. Stressed? Remember. Frustrated with life? Remember. Angry? Remember. Feeling guilty? Remember.

The story of the Passover in Exodus 11-13 points us forward to the Lord’s Supper - where we come to remember that 2,000 years ago God changed the course of human history.

Three truths to remember from the Passover:

Death is a just and deserved punishment for sin.

Nine plagues - God making Himself known to Pharaoh, Egypt, and the Hebrews. He is the God who Is.

Israelite in awe of the power of God, but where was their deliverance? The Hebrews were protected by God, but witnessing daily horror. With each passing plague, Pharaoh’s heart grows harder. Would deliverance ever come?

11:1 - It’s time. God will bring one more plague that will cause the people to see His glory in such a way that the Egyptians will actually give the Hebrews their valuables as the Hebrews made their way out of Egypt.

This plague different - no mediation from Moses or Aaron. No lifting of a staff, no throwing soot in the air; no symbolic act.

In this plague, Israel must take a stand as the self-declared people of God. They are not safe simply because they are in the land of Goshen.

vs. 4 - The final plague is horrific. Firstborn male of every household in Egypt to die - no exceptions - and firstborn of livestock. Why firstborn? In ancient culture, the hopes and dreams of the family rested on the firstborn son who would become the leader of the family clan after the father passed away. Take away the firstborn and you take away hope.

Also, Egypt had taken the lives of the Hebrews - Exodus 4:22. God justly punishing the Egyptians for how they mistreated the Hebrews.

vs. 7-9 - A distinction between Egypt and Israel. Egypt will know Israel is God’s chosen people.

12:1-13- Instructions about a passover meal to be eaten on the night that the angel of death passes through the land. 1. Eat unleavened bread - a meal eaten in haste as they make their way out of Egypt, bitter herbs, and a roasted lamb.

Blood of the lamb to be put on the doorposts of the home - the blood a sign of faith for God to pass over their homes. The only way for Hebrews to be saved was to be under the blood of a lamb.

If Hebrews did not apply the blood of a lamb to doorposts, they would suffer same fate as Egyptians - the death of their firstborn.

On the day after the Lord went throughout Egypt - a corpse in each home. Would that corpse be a child or a lamb? (12:30)

Reality: Hebrews provided a way of escape from death, but they were deserving of death just like the Egyptians. They didn’t simply get a free pass. They must in faith apply the blood of a lamb to their doorposts.

Psalm 14:2-3 - the sobering reality about the human condition. None is righteous, no not one. Romans 3:23 - We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.

1 John 3:4 - Sin is lawlessness - it’s rebellion against God’s holy law. It’s defiance. We’ve all done it.

If God is just, He must deal with all sin. The just punishment for sin is death, eternity away from the presence of a holy and perfect God.

How do you think about sin? We take way too lightly what God takes seriously and what God determines to punish.

Do you excuse your sin? Shift blame? Minimize? Play the victim? (I was in a tough situation…) Or, “I’ll sin now and ask for forgiveness later…”

Do you justify your sin? God made me this way… Or, it wasn’t really that bad… Redefine what sin is? (e.g., I wasn’t gossiping, I was just venting.) Comparing yourself to others. Appeal to desires. “God just wants me to be happy.”

Do you despise your sin? Romans 6:1-2 - How can we live in it any longer? Especially when we know the consequence of living in a state of unrepentant defiant sin.

You cannot escape death without your sin debt being paid.

Up to this point, the Hebrews asked, “How do we escape Pharaoh?” Now, “How do we escape the wrath of God?” Only through the blood of the Lamb. Unprotected, unsheltered humanity cannot stand in the presence of true Judge. God will only passover His people when He sees the blood (12:13).

12:1-6 - Much care in choosing a lamb. They had to do it exactly as God desired. Chosen on 10th day and not killed until 14th.

Your objections do not turn away the wrath of God. For some, the thought of God punishing sin is repulsive, and they object.

“That’s not fair!” If God were to give us what was fair, none of us would have eternal life.

“A loving God wouldn’t send people to hell.” A loving God has provided a means of escape for all who believe, but sin hardens our hearts and causes many to reject the Gospel.

“God’s wrath seems to harsh.” Sin is against an infinitely holy God. You simply don’t understand the seriousness of sin. Further, God desires that all men would repent (2 Peter 3:9).

“God should just forgive everyone.” God offers forgiveness to everyone, but you must receive God’s forgiveness on God’s terms.

Your appeals to your goodness do not turn away the wrath of God.

“I’m a moral person.” Compared to who? Compared to God? How do you compare to His standard?

“I’ve done a lot of good things.” What is good? How do you know when you’ve done enough good things to earn eternal life?

Your faith in the crucified lamb does turn away the wrath of God.

Exodus 12 = instructions about the passover that would be memorialized through an annual Passover feast and the feast of unleavened bread.

The night of the passover was a night for Israel to put faith in action. An odd request - put the blood of the lamb on doorposts. Would they question God or trust God? Will you question or trust God? Faith in a crucified Messiah? Will you believe?

Holy reverence - Brought face to face with the reality of their own sin. If they didn’t trust and obey, their would be death in their homes.

Simple obedience - They may not have understood all the implications of what they were doing or maybe they didn’t understand why God was asking this of them. But they obeyed, and they were saved.

The Gospel brings us face to face with the reality of our sin. If we don’t believe and repent, we will face the judgment of God. Belief in the death and resurrection of the Lamb of God is our only way of escape from the wrath of God. Jesus died in our place the death that we deserve. You owed a debt that you could not repay. You could not work off the punishment for your sin. You could not have lived a moral enough life to outweigh the sin you’ve committed. You needed One who would willingly pay your debt. Jesus did. Jesus lived the life you could not live and went to the cross as a sacrifice for your sin.

You must never forget how gracious and merciful God has been to you.

12:29 - At midnight - in the darkness of night, the LORD struck every firstborn male in the land of Egypt. vs. 30 - A large wailing heard all over Egypt - none of the plagues compared to this final plague. Death touched every home in Egypt yet spared every home among the Hebrews because of faith.

12:31 - Finally, Pharaoh lets the people go. “Get out immediately…”

12:36 - Just as God said, the Hebrews took valuables with them. 600,000 men and their families left Egypt after 430 years of captivity.

As they come out of Egypt, they come out with two ceremonies:

First, the passover meal followed by the feast of unleavened bread (a week of eating no bread with leaven to remember how they left Egypt with haste.)

The passover meal marked the beginning of the year for the Jewish people - a new beginning.

Unleavened bread - remember that you had to get out in haste.

The herbs - remember the bitterness of your time in affliction.

The lamb - remember the sacrifice.

The wine - 4 cups in a traditional passover meal - 4 promises of God in Exodus 6:6-7: The cup of sanctification, the cup of deliverance, the cup of redemption, the cup of hope.

The Passover was an annual celebration in every Jewish home where the head of the family would ask questions, children would answer, and the father would walk them through what took place on that night in Egypt. It was a participatory meal where the father taught and the family remembered.

Fathers - are you leading your family to know God? While you don’t share the passover in your home, and while the Lord’s Supper is a meal we share as a faith family, don’t underestimate the power of the table. What would it look like for you to turn your family dinner table into a place of learning? What if you committed to read just one chapter of the Bible a night at the dinner table, talked about it, and prayed as a family?

Ceremony 2: consecration of the firstborn (13:2). Every firstborn belonged to God. Every firstborn animal brought to the temple to be sacrificed. Every firstborn son went to the temple and a sacrifice offered as a symbol of consecration.

Both ceremonies point to Jesus - The last supper - Jesus shared a Passover meal with the disciples - the bread His body, the cup (Perhaps the 3rd cup of redemption) His blood - didn’t drink the 4th cup - waiting to drink the 4th cup with us when He returns.

The passover lamb = a reminder of unfinished business. That first passover, the final straw that broke Pharaoh’s back that led to Israel’s freedom. But they weren’t really freed. The Hebrews went from slavery to slavery - wandering for 40 years in the wilderness - enslaved to their own sin.

The blood of a lamb could never really free them. How can a lamb possibly pay the penalty for our sins? A lamb simply points to the ONE who would could pay the penalty for our sins - Jesus. No wonder, when Jesus arrived in the wilderness, John the Baptist said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Jesus is our lamb. He is our substitute. Every time you drink the cup of the Lord’s supper you should be thinking, “It should have been my shed blood - I should have died.”

Remember the sacrifice God has made for your redemption. He has been faithful to provide a way for you to escape the penalty of sin through the sacrifice of a lamb - His Son - the perfect sacrifice that actually covers all of your sin. Jesus has come to make a way for our Exodus - so we might depart from the slavery of sin and death and be brought into the Promised Land - life with Him.

Why should we remember?

To know what we have been saved from. Don’t run to sin. Run from it! What do you need to run from this morning? (Romans 6:1-2) Lord’s Supper is always a time for self-examination. When we don’t remember regularly, we run to sin instead of fleeing.

To know what we have been saved for. God saved you to know HIS NAME and to spread HIS NAME. You have purpose in the Kingdom of God. (Exodus 4:22-23 and Exodus 2:23) The word for worship same word as labor. Israel called out of serving Pharaoh to serve God. Both God and Pharaoh laid claim to Israel - but very different rulers. Sin laid claim to your life, but now Jesus does. He’s a far better ruler. You were called out of serving sin to serve the Lord.