He Has Protected Us
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Justice and Mercy
Justice and Mercy
The law is harsh and cannot help us to receive forgiveness.
In Craddock Stories, a collection of outstanding stories by Fred Craddock, is the following account with one who could understand law, but not grace.
Craddock preached in Blue Ridge, Georgia one Sunday while the pastor was away. He preached on the lectionary text which was on the prodigal son. After the service a man said, “I really didn’t care much for that frankly.”
He asked the many why and the man said he just didn’t like that story because it was morally irresponsible.
Craddock said, “What do you mean by that.”
“Forgiving the boy.” the man replied.
Craddock asked, “Well, what would you have done?”
“I think when he came home he should have been arrested.” answered the man.
Craddock writes, “This fellow was serious. He’s an attorney, I thought. I thought he was going to tell me a joke. But he was really serious. He belonged to this unofficial organization nationwide, never has any meetings and doesn’t have a name, but it’s a very strong network that I call “quality control people.” They’re moral police. Mandatory sentences and no parole, mind you, and executions.”
Craddock then asked, “What would you have given the prodigal?”
He said, “Six years.”
What’s this revealing? We have a really hard time balancing justice and mercy.
How do we reconcile the two? Its a problem for many
Exodus is full of that tension…how can God smite the Egyptians and rescue the Israelites…especially when we’ve seen both are sinners…none are righteous?
How can God be both wrathful and merciful at the same time?
That’s a question the Passover begins to answer…
A Deliverance to Remember
A Deliverance to Remember
Before we get into the main focus of the message, I want you to see whats going on here.
There are really in this chapter 2 things going on.
In one part God is instructing Moses and the people on the event itself…the provision to protect them during the 10th plague.
But intermingled in there is the perpetual nature of the feast. That what they are doing the night of the Passover they will continue to do generation after generation.
This is instructional not only for the immediate, but also for the long term.
And honestly that’s why Passover is sometimes sad. I love the rich symbolism…I love the ancient traditions…I enjoyed when we have done seders together in the past.
But, it reminds me that as Jews sit down to eat this meal this week everything about it is missed. Everything this rich celebration is meant to direct their attention to is lost to tradition.
And as time has gone on the holiday has become more and more removed from the essential core that makes it possible to connect it with its ultimate fulfillment in Christ.
That’s where I am going this morning. I want to help us understand that perhaps this story is far more rich than even we as Christians realize.
Pass Over?
Pass Over?
There really is so much here, I cannot possibly do justice to the entire passage. There’s also a temptation in detailed passages like this to present more a Bible study than a sermon…to get bogged down in the details and miss the big picture and ultimately herald the name of Christ.
So, I am going to do that. I am going to take this Passover passage and zero in on what through my study I have seen as the big picture…the thing we cannot miss.
Now, as we begin looking at this passage I want to say right up front I saw something this week I’ve never seen before in the Passover story. I was clued into it when another Pastor asked if I had studied the word translated as Pass over…and does it really mean what we think it means.
So I went on an expedition and let me tell you the deeper in the mine I got the more I began to really question what I had always believed this passage to teach.
I am going to make a case this morning that the Hebrew word Pesach that we translate pass over is perhaps not the best translation of that word...
But, this is not my idea. I’m not picking something out of the air here. There has been scholarly work done on this from Christian Hebrew scholars and multiple Jewish Hebrew scholars that have arrived at the same conclusion.
Now, I want to let you catch your breath with that…and realize how seriously I am taking this…Because anytime you find something in the text that is not widely held you wonder if it is really something to present. But, here’s the litmus test for that…does the Bible back up what I am learning? Can I defend the position from the text alone? If so, then I think we’re on to something.
So, keep me honest this morning…make sure as you evaluate this that what I am saying comes directly out of the Word of God.
Now, this isn’t something that radically changes the story. I’m not going to give you anything that makes you question everything you’ve ever believed. But, what I do hope to do is show you how this story is perhaps deeper and richer in showing us the merciful character of God than we have previously understood.
The Hebrew root word Pesach is found throughout this chapter. It is used both as a noun and a verb. In the noun sense, it is referring to the event or the feast…The Passover…or the Passover lamb. Its a thing right?
But the verb, translated in verses 13, 23, and 27 as pass over (two words) is the one we want to focus on.
This is important, because these three verses describe for us God’s deliverance of the people from this plague of death.
Remember, God must act or we die.
What’s the action going on here?
Well, God is coming in judgment against Egypt. No house will be spared. The firstborn of every human family and the cattle will be dead. There is going to be great mourning in Egypt. This is the final and ultimate judgment as God says against the gods of Egypt.
But the Israelites, following the command of God can be spared of this plague by obeying his instructions to the letter. The blood of the lamb without blemish applied to the doorposts and the lintel would be a sign to the destroyer not to touch that household.
Now reading this in the English translation what is your default understanding of this?
God sends the destroyer…commonly understood as the angels of death. How do we get that? Exodus 12 doesn’t mention angels at all...
We get it from Psalm 78:49 speaking of the Exodus
49 He let loose on them his burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels.
Here’s how I have always read it…that the Destroyer would bypass the houses with blood on the door. Its as if the blood itself was the thing that kept the destroyer out.
<<that one, that one, not that one, that one that one>>
How does God describe the role of the blood?
Verse 13…a sign (testimony, distinguishing mark) FOR YOU.
Exodus 12:13
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.
See that? The blood is not what saves Israel…it is a sign that points to what saves Israel. And what ultimately saves Israel? A dead lamb? NO…God himself.
So, if the blood is a sign of the reality of God’s salvation…what is God doing as he goes throughout the land?
So we come back to that word…that verb translated as Pass Over.
Interestingly, we’ve seen this word used elsewhere recently.
Remember these verses when we studied Elijah’s life?
1 Kings 18:21
21 And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.
1 Kings 18:26
26 And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made.
Hmmm...
It is also used in Is 31 :5
5 Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it.”
We can’t look at this in detail…but if we diagrammed that verse, understanding it is Hebrew poetry...we would see that the word spare and the word hover correspond to one another…so the idea of sparing is also the idea of a bird hovering…particularly over its young.
So in the OT the word is translated to pass over, to limp, to spare. In other places it indicates describing someone being crippled. In all of these there is a sense of hovering…or wavering.
The text appears to indicate the word “pass over” is not merely God passing by the houses that have blood on the door…but actively standing guard over them.
Lets look at it a bit more closely in context...
First, verse 13
We’ve already seen how the blood functions here as a sign…a sign of what?
How God has accepted the sacrifice and is going to deliver them.
But v. 23 is key to this understanding…look at it again...
Exodus 12:23
23 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.
<<explain, diagram sentence>>
So, what am I getting at here?
God sends the angel of destruction…angel of death into the land of Egypt.
The angel’s task is very clear…kill all the firstborn people and cattle.
What…according to v. 23 prevents the destroyer from entering the houses of Israel?
The LORD (psh Pesach) the door…not allowing the angel to enter.
Are you getting it? The angel is not the one distinguishing…it is the LORD more or less…using figurative language here…standing in the doorway not letting him in.
So, what if we understood the word pass over to mean actively protect? to cover or hover over like a mother eagle protecting her young?
Here’s one more piece to this…verse 27...
Exodus 12:27
27 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.
The word there spared in the ESV means to protect. So in this passage its telling us…God’s act of passing over…or as I’m saying here…covering over…is God protecting the houses of Israel.
Ok so what…why take all this time to suggest very slightly changing our interpretation of this Hebrew word?
Well, think about the implications.
Here’s a question to think about...
What distinguished the Israelites from the Egyptians?
Were the Israelites blameless? Werent they also sinners? Were they morally superior to the Egytians?
No
It was God’s grace…the fact that God has chosen them.
Likewise on the night of the tenth plague…what will save them? Shouldn’t they be also punished for their sins? Why should they be any different?
But, that doesn’t happen. God provides a provision…he shows mercy and grace.
But how?
Like I said before…traditionally we understand it to mean that God skips over the houses of the Israelites…he just bypasses them.
But, as we’ve seen that isn’t really the best interpretation perhaps.
So, what’s actually going on?
Again, I owe most of this to the work of some very knowledgeable people…but I find this just incredible...
Someone said “God is not merely skipping those houses (and therefore the sins) of the Israelites, but he is preemptively shielding them and thus delivering them from his own wrath by vicariously standing in their place. God is not ignoring the sins of his people, but in the midst of this great drama of judgment he is atoning for them.”
Hold on…full stop…is that really whats happening here?
Go back to the question we started with…how can we balance God’s judgment and mercy?
Someone said
So now it is that we can see in Exodus 12 God’s answer to the question of how justice and mercy meet. Contrary to popular understanding, it’s not a matter of “good cop” Jesus contending with “bad cop” God the Father or a Marcionite “unhitching” ourselves from the Old Testament in order to live under the grace of the New, but rather the full participation of the fullness of God in which he righteously judges all sin and mercifully take the place of the sinner who, like John the Baptist, sees “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29).
God saves believers from his own wrath, not by “skipping over” their sins, but by covering their sins by his self-sacrificing death as symbolized in the lamb. God saves us from himself by becoming the object of judgment.
The wonder of grace deepens when we recall that by reason his personal Presence hovering (pasah) over the Israelites houses, the Lord himself was their shielding shelter (pesah).
The lamb is the pesah and the Lord is the pesah!
But here is what it is pointing to…of course…the ultimate fulfillment in Christ.
Because remember, this is still a type and shadow of what is to come.
This is the great defining moment of deliverance for Israel, especially under the Old Covenant…but it is not her final one.
Because…here’s the reality…many more lambs are going to die…a lot more innocent animal blood will be spilled…year after year…day after day...
Until the Lamb of God comes
And here’s where this beautiful picture we’re uncovering in Exodus comes into perfect clarity...
The lamb is the pesah and the Lord is the pesah. And
In Jesus Christ…the Lord becomes the lamb
Do you understand?
In Exodus God himself is shielding his people from His own wrath…but as wonderful as that is…as merciful as that is…the blood of that lamb in the house was not sufficient.
So God himself became the lamb. He became the shield and the sacrifice…He took on flesh…God was not only guarding the door…his own blood was on the doorpost...
Do you see it church? Do you see what your God has done?
Do you see how the Exodus points to Jesus? Can you see him…the blood dripping from his brow…the nails piercing his hands and feet…That’s your God! That is your God not only standing in the doorway protecting you from his righteous condemnation for sin…but it is his own blood he has spilled to accomplish it.
If that doesn’t move you to worship…I really have no idea what will!
And on the cross we see this perfect intersection of God’s justice and mercy…we see Jesus lifting up as God brings a plague upon him…while at the same time satisfying his own justice that all sin of his people would be atoned.
God doesn’t merely pass over our sin…he pays for it with his own blood and then covers over us protecting us…my Lord…what a salvation!
The Lamb of God
The Lamb of God
We have been dealing this morning with the question…how can God be both a righteous judge and a merciful savior...
Really, the nitty gritty of that question is this…
How can God forgive sin and still be true to his character?
Paul addresses this question in the book of Romans
Romans 3:21-26
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 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.
Look at Paul’s argument here...
He restates the problem…all are sinners…this is the reality we faced between Israel and Egypt…both were sinners…both should have been condemned...
But before that he says that there is no distinction…no other way of salvation…it is only through faith in Jesus Christ...
he then says justification (remember that’s a legal term saying we are declared not guilty) justification is a gift of grace through Jesus
Who God put forth as a propitiation…fancy word to describe restitution, recompense, satisfaction…in other words PAYMENT…ransom as it were for God’s wrath and punishment against our sin...
By his blood…ok by His sacrifice as the lamb of God…to be received by faith.
Notice it is received by faith not resulting from faith…big difference…our faith doesn’t save us…Jesus does
Faith receives what Jesus offers
Ok, so now why did Jesus die? Why did the lamb become the propitiation...
That God’s righteousness would be shown…because the time of God’s forbearance was over.
Ok, what’s that mean? Well…all the sacrifices, the types and shadows of the Old Covenant had been fulfilled in Jesus.
God’s patience held back his wrath against Israel during that time…he agreed within himself to accept the sacrifices of those animals…but they were never going to be full and final…
God endured that with patience knowing he would one day send his son.
But now…in the present time…he shows his righteousness as look again at this…verse 26...
to be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
See that? Just and the justifier…what’s another way of saying that?
That he would be just in punishing sin…and also the one who is punished for the sin...
Only God could come up with such a wonderful plan…
God provides in Jesus what he requires.
Because think of it this way...
If I forgive you the hundred dollar debt you owe me, that means I must use one hundred dollars of my own money to pay my creditors.
I cannot really make you a hundred dollars richer without making myself hundred dollars poorer.
If the debt is objectively real, it must be paid, and if it is my mercy that repays your debt, I must pay it.
That is the reason why Christ had to die, why God could not simply say ‘forget it’. Instead he said ‘forgive it’ and meant that if we did not pay it, he paid himself.
The passover is so much more than a feast…so much more than a historical event…it is a wonderful picture of God’s character and His heart
to be just in punishing sin and merciful in forgiveness.
I asked last week what side of the dividing line you were on…that question still reverberates this morning...
Look, I don’t really think its helpful to scare people into the kingdom…I think there something inauthentic about that.
But, I do have a responsibility and a heart to tell you the truth.
The Passover story, as we have seen…is an amazing and wonderful story of God’s mercy…of his compassion…of the glory of Jesus.
But, it is also a sobering story. It is a reminder of the seriousness of sin and the reality of our own mortality.
One day time will be up…its a reality. In one way or another the hour glass sand falls. Either you die, or Christ returns…but its coming.
And when judgment comes to you…is the destroyer entering…or is the door guarded by the presence of God and the blood of the lamb Jesus Christ?
But its not just about the end of your life…its about today. Not only was the passover a picture of God protecting Israel from her own sin...
It is also a picture of God redeeming them from slavery and bondage in Egypt.
And if today you do not know Christ as savior…you are a slave and in bondage to the Pharaoh of this age…the enemy…the evil one…and even more closely bondage in your own sin. You may not realize it yet, but those chains and shackles of bondage to sin are far more restrictive than they seem.
People dont want to follow Jesus because they think it means they wont be able to do what they want…but the lie is that sin is freedom. Its not. Sin is slavery…sin is restrictive…sin keeps you locked down in a life you were not designed to live.
But, Christ frees us…when Christ enters our lives those chains and shackles are broken…no longer are we slaves to sin…but servants of Christ. We are reborn into a new life that is free to be who we were created to be.
So, don’t let this passover go by without seriously considering the blood on the doorpost. without seriously considering the suffering savior who gave his life that you might live.