The Passover

The Passover

Exit/Entrance

The Lord has laid on me today the awesome task and responsibility to show how the blood of Christ has been the means of exit from bondage and the means of entrance to the freedom which God gives.

First, in the Book of Exodus the 12 chapter we are made aware of a new word called the Passover. Before now there was never any mention of this word.

The word is introduced by a dialoged or more precisely a monologue that God had with Moses.

The events leading up to this monologue is well rehearsed in religious circles and no doubt each of us is well aware of them. Briefly, though, we may summarize how God had heard the cries of the Israelites who were being oppressed by the Egyptians under a Pharaoh, who did not know Joseph and the contribution which he had made to the society. This Pharaoh had become afraid of the economic and the population growth among the Israelites and had become threatened by their growing influence, feeling that they would one day overthrow the Egyptian government. As a result he made the Children of Israel slaves. The children of Israel bore the excruciating burden of servitude for many years and theh burden had become more than they could bear. They therefore cried unto God for deliverance from this bondage. God in-turn raised up Moses and later Aaron to be the ones to deliver the Israelites from Egyptian bondage.

Moses was sent to Pharaoh, and requested that he let the children of Israel go that they may worship the Lord their God. This antagonized Pharaoh, and he stubbornly refused to accede to Moses’s request. As a result, his nation, was hit with several divinely inspired plaques; the final being the death of the entire first born in Egypt.

Our discourse finds its genesis here. Exodus 12:1 and the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, this month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you….

Your lamb should be with out blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep or the goats…and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the house, wherein they shall eat it… For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.”

First we see God giving specific instructions:

“this shall be unto you the beginning of month: it shall be the first month of the year to you.”

Second, He instructs that each person do something: “In the tenth day of the month they shall take to them every man a lamb with out blemish from the sheep or the goats.

Third, he instructs what is to be done with the lamb: “And the whole congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening, and shall take the blood and strike it on the two sides of the posts and on the upper door of the house wherein they shall eat it…..

Fourth, He told them how the lamb was to be eaten: And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s Passover.

Fifth, He makes a promise: "For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first born in the land of Egypt, both of man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord"

Sixth, He gives the purpose of the blood. “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt."

It is important for us to note, that God is omniscience, omnipotent and omnipresence this means that he knows all things, he is every where at the same time and he is all powerful. therefore, we may conclude that he did not need the blood on the door post to know where the Israelites were; he may have used this as a means to test their faith, their obedience. We know that this whole episode pointed to the work which Christ would perform in the redemption of man kind by shedding his blood on Calvary; those who accept by faith Christ’s sacrifical death would be save from their sins and ultimatley death.