From Egypt To Heaven - Part Iii Series

“Behold, The Lamb of God”

(The first Passover)

“The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said,

‘BEHOLD, THE LAMB OF GOD WHO

TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD!’”

John 1:29

“...FOR CHRIST OUR PASSOVER ALSO HAS BEEN SACRIFICED”

I Cor 5:7

“knowing that 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.

For He was foreknown before the foundation

of the world, but has appeared in these

last times for the sake of you”

I Peter 1:18-20

From eternity past, all God’s purposes had reference to Christ. Before the worlds were formed, before God broke the eternal silence to speak His creation into existence, His great plan of redemption was settled. All the acts of Satan, from his deception in the garden to his diabolical influence over the throne of Egypt, only served to accomplish that divine plan.

We have been dealing all along with ‘types’ of Christ and of life in Him. What we refer to as ‘types’ or ‘shadows’, are the ordinances given by God, the rituals ordained by Him, and even the seemingly everyday events in the lives of men and women who are no different than you or I, that were foreshadowings of God’s Christ, the Lamb of God.

Nowhere though, are these types more prominent and profound as here in the ordinances given for the Passover. It is these types that we will study in this section; the types and their entirely significant relationship to us as believers.

Our focus will be almost entirely on Exodus chapter 12. Before we begin though, pause for a moment and consider the solemn gravity of chapter eleven verse one.

“Now the Lord said to Moses, ‘One more plague

I will bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt;

after that he will let you go from here.

When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out

from here completely.’”

How utterly vain it is for man to attempt to thwart the purposes of God, for He is able to grind to dust, the hardest heart.

“...He is able to humble those who walk in pride.” (Dan 4:7)

Man puffs himself up with thoughts of his own attainments and his worldly position. He looks around him at the glitter of gold and the genius of invention and supposes that these are the ultimate goals of life, and the greatest securities for himself.

Little does he realize that he is a puppet, and Satan is behind the curtain, pulling the strings and laughing.

Pharaoh thought the kingdom was his own entirely. He thought he ruled supremely and that all he could see and touch was his own to do with as he pleased. He sat with arrogant defiance against God and puffed up with pride against God’s lowly servants and supposed that in the end he would triumph. Little did he realize that he was only a pawn to the one who stood behind the throne, pulling the strings and laughing.

He mocked Moses and Aaron and treated them with contempt; infinitely worse, he mocked their God and treated His Word with contempt; and now, as he sat in a palace surrounded by destruction and waste, hated by his own people, blinded and deceived by his own chosen master, God was outside of the palace, meeting with His chosen man.

“One more plague...” Ominous phrase.

Enough of the darkness of Satan’s lair. Let’s go to chapter twelve and feast with the people of God.

The first order of business is to make a new beginning.

“Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the

land of Egypt, ‘This month shall be the beginning of

months for you; it is to be the first month of the

year to you.”

Imagine if you will, God sending word to all Christians through some world-recognized Christian leader (Billy Graham?) saying, “March 10th of this year you are to consider that day the first day, of the first month of a new year for Christians. Develop a calendar to that effect, and from now on you will live by that calendar; by God’s time and not man’s.”

This is what God was saying to them, and it is the first of the ‘types’ I was talking about above.

“Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away, behold, new things have come”

II Cor 5:17

Remember that Egypt is a type of our life before Christ. So the type being given us in God’s establishing of a new calendar, is that of the truth declared by Paul in II Corinthians 5:17.

The people were going to leave Egypt (the old life) behind a new leader, Moses, (Christ) and they were to consider their entire life to be brand new. Even their estimate of times and seasons was not to be as before.