Approaching Your Year(2023-4)-4[part 1]

APPROACHING YOUR YEAR-IV[part 1]— Exodus 12:3-13(:1-13)

•God’s people must approach their ‘New Year’ within the confines of an exclusive worldview.

Need:

For all that this New Year will hold, God’s people should & can approach it with Confidence! Even when we cannot know all that our future holds, we can live in peace & certainty thru it all, because our confidence rests in the absolute faithfulness of Almighty God toward His people!

God established a novel way for Israel to approach their calendar year.

God’s people should have a particular approach toward understanding their calendar year.

How are we to approach our new year?

Rom. 14:7-8—“For none of us lives to himself, & no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; & if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”

We’ve found previously that

A proper approach toward your year is found in...

1. Your GOD(:1a)

2. Your SPOKESMEN(:1b)

3. Your EGYPT(:1c)

4. Your PATTERN(:2)

5—A proper approach toward your year is also found in...

Your DELIVERANCE(:3-13)

Explanation:(:3-13) Faith/Passion

:3—““Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.”

Moses is to openly share what God reveals to him.

Moses is to share it with “all the congregation of Israel.”

He is to reveal God’s plan for extracting Israel from enslavement by Egypt. Israel will be specifically instructed about what their part is, in receiving their freedom!

This is a true history, & at the time recorded, the multitude of the children of Israel, were enslaved to Egypt & the Egyptians.

“This month”(cf-:2, 13:4; 23:15)—Abib(Canaanite)/Nisan(Babylonian)—~March-April

13:4-5—“On this day you are going out, in the month Abib. And it shall be, when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites & the Hittites & the Amorites & the Hivites & the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk & honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.”

“On the tenth day of this month...”—*See :6—“until the fourteenth day”—

4-5 days, were to be spent keeping the “lamb” healthy & ready for sacrifice! The specified “lamb” would thus be ‘intimately known’ by the family.

*This speaks to a person’s relationship to the Lord Jesus, who is our ‘passover’ sacrifice!

“Every man shall take for himself a lamb...”

The ‘saving sacrifice’(lamb) is PERSONAL.

“According to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.”

One “lamb” was expected to fulfill the need of one particular “household.”

:4—“‘And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him & his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb.”

*The ‘saving sacrifice’(lamb) is to be SHARED(among closest neighbors)

•The family unit was to be extended to their “neighbor next to” them. Thus the Passover(:11, 13) was an intentionally bonding event, that fostered the joining together, of all who were of ‘like faith.’

It can be assumed that no one was expected to ‘gorge themselves’ on the sacrifice...no one would be encouraged toward gluttony.

The amount of meat that would be supplied by the single “lamb”, was to be determined/calculated “according to” the amount which each person would/should eat.

•We are not told how much of “the lamb” was designated for each person. Nor are we told in what way it was to be determined.

*The ‘saving sacrifice’(lamb) establishes COMMUNITY.—draws those of common bonds/faith together.

:5—“‘Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.”

:5a—“‘Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year...”

The “lamb” was to be a ‘substitute’ for all who were in the faithful ‘family.’ It was a bittersweet & heartrending reminder of their own ‘perfect’ children whom they loved.

•Those children would not be lost to the plague, as would the first-born children of the Egyptians supportive of their hard-hearted & belligerent government!

•Isa. 43:1-4—“But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia & Seba in your place. Since you were precious in My sight, You have been honored, And I have loved you; Therefore I will give men for you, And people for your life.”