INTRODUCTION
I recently ran across an article in a popular spiritual
magazine recently that was entitled, Do we still need hell? The writer presented
God's judgment as a dated concept that was now null and void. He conceded
that heaven would be the eventual home for everyone. That might sound good
to our ears, but in reality, it is very deceptive. It is easy to think of
a God that fits into our own idea of justice or mercy, but oftentimes, this
is not the God of the Bible. Yet so many take this for granted today. A
key component to spiritual health is an accurate understanding of the character
of God. We get this understanding by reading the Old Testament.
You have notice that we are making our way through the book of Exodus, studying
the Moses narratives. Last week, Reverend Karen spoke on the plagues, which
unveil God's retribution on a sinful nation. She pointed out that the plagues
were God's reversal of the creative order. Where once the animals served
mankind, they were now being used to judge the Egyptians. The first nine
were bad enough. But the worst was to come. In plague number ten, God will
destroy the first born of every Egyptian home.
But the height of His judgement is a revelation of His mercy. We call this
the Passover. In it, God would act differently toward the Israelites. There
are a few questions we can answer from today's passage. One is How does
God look at sin? Moreover, who receives His mercy? Hopefully, we will gain
some insight with the following message I've entitled, Christ, Our Passover
Lamb. Let us first learn that…
I. GOD PROVIDED THE ISRAELITES A MEANS OF MERCY.
The Passover occurred in the first month of every year, according to the
Jewish calendar. If we were to transpose it to our calendar, it would
figure to be in March or April, around the time we celebrate Easter. Now
there is a reason for this. This time reminded the Israelites of God's
protection from the tenth plague in Egypt. God commanded each Jewish family
to sacrifice a year-old male lamb, without blemish. On the fourteenth
of the month, the entire congregation was to sacrifice their lambs at
twilight and apply the blood around the door of the home. Why? Verse 12
has our answer. God said, 'For I will go through the land of Egypt on
that night, and will strike down all the first-born in the land of Egypt,
both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments--
I am the LORD. 13 'And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses
where you live; 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.
Here we can learn something about God, that judgment is one aspect of
His character. He is fair and righteous. God is holy and hates sin. By
His very nature, He obligates Himself to judge sin. The idolatry and the
immorality of the Egyptians provoked God to anger. He determined that
He had enough. God grew weary of their offensive actions. And so He was
executing His righteous judgement. But this judgment was not just upon
the people, but in essence, upon the Egyptian gods. Offering reason for
His actions, God said, …against all the gods of Egypt I will execute
judgments-- I am the LORD. God was out to prove to Pharaoh and his countrymen
that the gods they served were nothing but lumps of wood, clay and stone.
No other nation rivaled Egypt in their polytheism and idolatry. They had
a god for everything. This was the explanation for the plagues. Seeing
the Nile as a source of life, the Egyptians paid homage to it. So God
turned it to blood. Seeing the Sun as a god, the Egyptians worshipped
it. Therefore God struck the land with incomprehensible darkness. In the
plagues, God is trumping each of the Egyptian gods to prove that He was
all-powerful and incomparable to their deities. And so this judgment was
a means of unveiling the reality of Israel's God.
Too many of us go through life ignoring this aspect of God's character.
We forget He is holy when we make decisions. We fail to remember that
it was judgment that brought about the flood in the days of Noah. It was
judgement that brought about the plagues in the land of Egypt. It was
judgement that placed Christ on the cross. Christ died as a result of
God's judgment against sin. That leads us to our next point. Secondly…
II. CHRIST IS OUR MEANS OF MERCY BEFORE A HOLY
GOD.
Notice the animal used in the Passover. Why a lamb? Historically speaking,
we know that it was a lamb that Isaac had expected for the sacrifice he
and his father Abraham were to offer. Abraham replied to his son in Genesis
22:8, God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my
son. The lamb was a redeeming animal. Later on in Exodus 13 we see the
consecrating of everything firstborn of the Hebrews. Exodus 13:13 says,
Redeem every firstborn among your sons. 14 "In days to come, when
your son asks you, 'What does this mean?' say to him, 'With a mighty hand
the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 When
Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn
in Egypt, both man and animal. This is why I sacrifice to the LORD the
first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.'
So lambs were an animal of sacrifice, an animal of redemption.
It should not surprise us that many times in the Bible, Christ is compared
to a lamb. For instance, in the book of Isaiah, oftentimes called the
Romans of the Old Testament, we see a foretaste of the gospel. Isaiah
53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his
own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent
before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.
In the New Testament, Christ is compared to a lamb. In John 1:29 John
the Baptist forecasts the death of Christ by saying, Behold, the Lamb
of God who takes away the sin of the world! Or the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians
5:7 tells these Christians to, Get rid of the old yeast that you may be
a new batch without yeast-- as you really are. For Christ, our Passover
lamb, has been sacrificed. As the lamb was sacrificed for the Passover
in the Old Testament, so Jesus is our sacrifice for sin, the lamb that
still takes away the sin of God's people.
What does this mean for us? Just as the lamb was the animal of sacrifice
that stood in between God's wrath and the Israelites, so Christ is who
stands in the gap between us and God's judgement of sin. 1 Peter 1:17
… you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold
from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with
precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
Some have called Christianity a bloody religion. Many wonder, why did
Jesus have to die? The answer lies in our need for forgiveness. You see,
no one could have ever received forgiveness for his or her sins if Jesus
would not have shed His blood. All the sacrifices in the Old Testament
function as a type of the great sacrifice that occurred on Mount Calvary.
Hebrews 9:22 points this out by stating, …without shedding of blood
there is no forgiveness.
Therefore, through faith in Jesus Christ, we pass out of the realm of
judgement into the realm of mercy, just like the Israelites who celebrated
the first Passover. And Christ is our Passover lamb.
CONCLUSION
Today, you have learned two important lessons from the account of the
Jewish Passover. One, is that it is a description of mercy on undeserving
folk. Geerhardus Vos writes, The deliverance from Egypt was a signal demonstration
of the sovereign grace of God. The Egyptians were judged with respect
to their idolatry, and the Israelites were rescued and spared, in spite
of having become associated with their oppressors in idolatrous practices.
It is plain that the principle of sovereign grace alone will account for
such facts. We see that God provided the Israelites with a means of mercy
through passing-over their homes. Secondly, we see a foreshadowing of
our Lord Jesus, who came as a figurative lamb, to be sacrificed in order
to remove the guilt and power of our sin. If that does not give you hope,
I do not know what will. It should cause you to live life gratefully.
It should enable you to see yourself as undeserving of God's mercy and
that your spiritual welfare stands or falls on Christ and His cross. For
if it were not for the cross, there would be no forgiveness, only judgement.
ONCE PRESIDENT LINCOLN was asked how he was going to treat the rebellious
Southerners when they had finally been defeated and returned to the Union
of the United States. The questioner expected that Lincoln would take
a dire vengeance, but he answered, "I will treat them as if they
had never been away." This is how God treats the Christian because
of the cross.
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