Exodus 11:1-12:14
I remember talking to a girl of about 15 a number of years ago who was struggling with the question of whether she was really a Christian. She’d grown up in a Christian family and had always been a Christian, but now was having to work out what that meant for herself. Her parents were both involved at church. They taught Sunday School, her father was on Vestry, they were always sharing the gospel with people. They read their Bibles for 30 minutes morning and night without fail, and she just didn’t feel like she measured up. She had begun to wonder whether her faith was real or not.
I find this happens often. It’s not just something that 15 year olds worry about. Often people begin to wonder whether their faith is real when they look at other people whose Christian life seems so active. sometimes the reason for their questioning is that they don’t feel like they’re living a life of victory over the attacks of Satan. Well, they may not put it in those exact terms. Often they’ll say they feel like the Christian life isn’t real any more. Or they’ll say they don’t have the excitement or enthusiasm that they once had or that others say they have. But however they express it, what it indicates is that they’ve lost confidence in themselves as followers of Christ.
Now what do you say to someone like that? What do you say if that’s you? Don’t worry about it, it’s just a passing feeling? You’ll be back to normal again soon? Well, chances are, that won’t be much help will it? So what can you do? // Well, let me suggest that the way God helps us in that situation is to remind us of what he’s done in the past and of what he will do in the future. More importantly, he reminds us that everything that needs to be done, he has done, or he will do. That is, everything depends on God. Nothing depends on us.
This is what the story of the Exodus, thus far, has been all about. (Exodus 11) The people have been struggling under great hardship and God has come to rescue them. They’re powerless to help themselves so God has come to set them free. And this message is to be remembered and told from generation to generation. Be clear about this: the Passover celebration which we’re looking at today is focused on the generations to come. This is to be a lasting ordinance so future generations can celebrate it as a festival to the Lord: as a reminder to them of God’s rescue of his people against all odds and as a reminder that the freedom they enjoy came about not by their own efforts but by the power of God alone.
Now I want to do something a little bit different today. I want you to do a bit of the work. So I want you to open your bibles, if you haven’t already, to Exodus. Turn to 7:22 and tell me what was the result of the first plague, the plague of blood? (Nothing because Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.) Now look at 8:15,19, & 32, after the frogs, the gnats and the flies. Each time there was a plague Pharaoh softened his stance until the plague was removed, then when the danger was over he hardened it again. And the same process is repeated for each new plague. So why does this happen? Why doesn’t Pharaoh learn his lesson? // Well, partly it’s because, as I said last time, he’s an arrogant and stubborn man. He thinks he knows how to handle a political situation like this. He’s like so many politicians. He thinks he can promise what the electorate wants but doesn’t need to deliver on his promises. He can always wheedle his way out of them. Well he’s wrong this time isn’t he?
But that isn’t the only reason his heart is hard. Look back at 7:3-5. What does that tell us? // The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart has three effects. First it’s the catalyst for God doing even greater signs in their midst. Secondly the result of these greater signs is that God will lay his hand on Egypt and bring his people out of Egypt, company by company. And thirdly, the result will be that the Egyptians will know that he is the LORD.
So God is laying the groundwork for his later act. He wants them to be in no doubt that their rescue from Egypt was due to his mighty power alone.
But there’s one other thing he wants them to know. Turn over to ch 11:7. What is the thing there that he wants them to understand? // He wants them to know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. That is, that Israel is God’s special people. His special possession he calls them in another place. God cares for all peoples of the world, but he has a special place for Israel, because of all the nations, they’re the one that he’s called out to be his. They’re the one that he’s made a covenant with, to make them a mighty nation, to make them a blessing to all peoples, and to give them a land. And to fulfill that covenant that he made with Abraham in the beginning, he’s about to rescue them and take them to that land, the land of Canaan.
Well, now I want you to think about the sort of rescue God achieves for them. We’ve already seen that God’s bringing of the plagues on Egypt only served to harden Pharaoh’s heart and that even as the plagues increased, his heart only got harder. But after this final plague, this plague of death, things are different. Look at 11:2 and then 12:35-36. What was the end result of God’s intervention? // The Israelites plundered Egypt. They took silver and gold jewellery and fine clothing. Now can you see what sort of action this is? Some people have been embarrassed by this action of plundering the Egyptians, so they explain it away as the Israelites getting the just rewards for their years of forced labour. But that’s to misunderstand the tone of the passage. The word used is plunder. Who is it that plunders a country? It’s normally a military conqueror isn’t it? Yet there’s been no military action at all. They come away with the spoils of battle, yet there’s been no battle. This is made even more ironic when you think back to Pharaoh’s concern back in 1:10 that led him to oppress the people in the first place. What was it? // That they might form an alliance with some invading enemy and help to overthrow the Egyptian army.
Well, nothing of the sort has happened, and yet they come away with the spoils of a great victory. So how has it all happened? // God has given them victory. All they had to do was wait and be ready. Ready, that is, to act on his promise.
Look at 12:7&13. The first thing they were to do was to take some of the blood from the lamb they’d prepared for their meal and put it on the door posts and the lintel of their houses. This was to be a sign that they were of the people of God. So, what if someone hadn’t bothered to put the blood there? Well, presumably the firstborn of that household would have died. Why? Because they didn’t believe God’s word or trust him to do what he said.
Then look at 12:11. What was the point of these instructions? // Again, they were to ensure that the people were expecting God to do what he said. They were to be ready to leave the moment the word came from the leaders of Egypt. Eating with their loins girded and their staff in their hand didn’t contribute to their victory over the Egyptians, notice. All it did was to indicate that they expected God to do what he said. That they trusted God’s promise.
Now, can you see how this is the same with us? We don’t do what God says because our doing it will in some way contribute to our salvation. We do it, rather, because we believe his promises, and so we live with the expectation that those promises will be fulfilled. So, for example, we live upright lives, not because they make us more likely to get to heaven, but because we believe that God has promised to take us there some day soon because of the victory that Jesus has won. So why does that lead us to live upright lives? Because we know that when we get there only that which is pure and wholesome will survive. All the rest will be burned up like straw in a fire. So why put any energy into something that we know won’t last? Why not, rather, put it into something that will last forever.
The Israelites didn’t contribute to their rescue by being ready. God won the victory by his own power alone. But if they hadn’t been ready, or if they hadn’t bothered to put the blood on their door frames they would have failed to benefit from that victory wouldn’t they? And the same is true of us. If we don’t bother to listen to God and exercise our faith and trust in him, then we might be found in the end to have missed out: to have failed to finish the race, is how Paul describes it.
So these things are recorded for our benefit. So we’ll remember that our salvation is entirely dependent on God. The institution of the Passover was to be a lasting ordinance for all generations to come.
But as Christians, the Passover is even more significant to us isn’t it? The timing of Jesus death on the Cross wasn’t by accident, was it? He died on the night of the passover precisely because he was the true passover lamb, killed to take our place, so we could be rescued from slavery. Not slavery to a secular king, but slavery to sin. And what part do we have to play in that rescue, in that victory over sin and death? Well, exactly the same part the Israelites had to play in their victory over Egypt. All we have to do is be ready. All we have to do is to trust God to keep his promise. Of course in our case, as I’ve already mentioned, being ready involves different things to the ancient Israelites. We don’t have to have our loins girded and our sandals on ready for travel. Not literally at least. But Paul and the writer to the Hebrews both speak about the Christian life as being like running a race, with your cloak tucked into your belt, and any extraneous clothing thrown off, so you can run your hardest and reach the end of the race, where God has a great prize ready for you. Not a prize you earn by running, notice. The prize has already been won. But nevertheless it’s a prize that only comes to those who finish the race. So we run, not to earn the prize, but because we believe God’s promise that the prize is there waiting for us.
Something for you to think about after the service today, perhaps, or during the week, is what difference would it make if you knew that tonight was the night when Jesus would return? What difference would it make to your lifestyle, or your priorities if you knew, like the ancient Hebrews did, that tonight was the night that God would come to take you out of this world. I want you to think about that because it could be. Whatever else is true, each day brings Christ’s second coming closer. Each day is one less day that we have to prepare for that last day. If Christ was coming tonight, what would you throw off and what would you put on, metaphorically speaking, in your life?
This Thursday night when we celebrate the Passover, we’ll be doing two things. First we’ll be remembering the rescue of the people of Israel from Egypt, but secondly we’ll be remembering that especially because it reminds us of God’s rescue of us from slavery to sin and death, through the death of Jesus on the Cross. And as we remember that rescue, we’ll be reminded that the freedom we now enjoy, the freedom to call ourselves the children of God, the freedom to do what he wants us to do: that freedom was won not by any efforts of our own, but by the power of God alone; by the death of Jesus on the Cross on our behalf. And as we think about that victory we’ll be reminded that we can also trust his promise to raise us to new life with him. As Paul says in Rom 5:8 "If we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him." And again in Rom 8:31-32: "What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?"
What do we say to the person who’s struggling with being a "good enough Christian"; with whether their faith is real or not. The place to start, I think is here. To remind them of what God has done in the past: of the victory he won over Egypt, in order to rescue the people of Israel from slavery and bring them to the promised land, and of the victory he’s won over Satan, over sin and death, through the death of Christ. To remind them that those victories were accomplished purely by his power alone, that God’s people had no part in them, and that God expected them to have no part in them. And then remind them that their part is to trust God’s promises and to be ready when he appears. Jesus told a number of parables about being ready when he returns. That’s our part to play. Be ready! Like a good scout. Be prepared! Di & I are going overseas next week, so we’ve got our passports ready with the necessary visas. We’ve got our airline tickets. We’ve booked our hotels. We’ve got our foreign currency and credit cards. We’re well prepared. Well, we should be even more prepared for Jesus return shouldn’t we, because that’s even more certain than our departure for London next week.
If you feel like you’re not ready for Jesus return, don’t just sit there feeling bad about it. Do something about it. Repent of your lack of faith. Put your sandals on and tuck your cloak into your waist. Or in the terms of Jesus parable make sure you’ve got the right clothes on for the wedding feast when the bridegroom arrives. That’s all we have to worry about. Whether we’re ready. Whether we’re living in the expectation that Jesus will fulfill his promise to return, and that God will fulfill his promise to take us to be with him forever. The rest has already been accomplished through God’s power, by Jesus’ death on the Cross. The victory is won. The prize is waiting. All we have to do is finish the race.
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