EXODUS 12 lesson # 9
THE TENTH PLAGUE: WATCHING GOD
I. Greetings.
II. Introduction: The Tenth Plague.
A. A Fulfillment of A Dream and More.
Q Have you ever dreamed of something you wanted but it seemed like it would never come?
An = Christmas was like that for me as a child. I also remember the eighth grade science project because I really doubted I would ever get through. (It would help to give an example from your own life of something that as a child you though was impossible but later took place.) The Israelites hated the slavery, the killing of so many of their children, but it only seemed like a dream that they could be free.
Note: It had been discouraging for Moses, because he did miracle after miracle and Pharaoh lied repeatedly and it seemed that they would never be free. But God had predicted this. We are in chapter 12 today, but let me read parts of chapter 3 before Moses even got to Egypt.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 3:19-20.
Note: God predicted it would not be easy, but he predicted more, something the Israelites would not have dreamed of: payment for all their years of slavery.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 3:21-22.
Q Was God going to make Israel sneak out of Egypt?
An = No, He was going to bring them out with reward, with payment for their slavery. They left not as slaves, but with new status, “as persons who have been raised to a new level of life by their God”. (Fretheim, p. 142)
B. Warning = Judgment, Not Selfish Revenge.
Note: Let me share two more thoughts with you before we look at chapter 12.
1) Before God strikes in chapter 12, He warns Pharaoh in chapter 11. Hitler did not warn in his blitzkriegs. God knew the Egyptians were guilty of murder (Moses was almost one of those killed), and they were guilty of oppression with their slavery, but still God gives them a chance to repent. If God wanted to merely crush – He would not have warned. God wanted to convert the Egyptians and seems to have been partly successful as we shall see next week.
2) God’s speeches precede and cause the plagues. God’s Word precedes the event because God’s Word is creative and powerful (Childs, pp. 205-6).
Q How is this similar to the Genesis account of creation?
An = Just like in Genesis 1, God spoke and there was light, God spoke and the stars appeared, God spoke and the plant life began, etc. Turn with me to one more example of this power of God’s Word to Luke 8:22-25.
>>>> Have someone read Luke 8:22-25.
Note: Jesus’ disciples were Jewish lads and they knew something was afoot: speech followed by power over nature. Nature knew who was in the boat that day, even though the disciples did not.
III. The Passover: Chapter 12.
A. Explaining the Passover.
Q What is the last plague about?
An = The death of Egypt’s first born. God is going to kill the first born of all Egypt, both high and low. He has warned with 9 other plagues and Pharaoh has scoffed at those acts of power, but God still warned. Now He prepares the Israelites. He gives them the Passover ritual. This is probably the most important ritual in the Jewish religion.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 12:1-4.
Q What is the central part of the Passover ritual?
An = It all centers on the sacrificial lamb. God goes on to give the details of the ceremony in 12:5-11 which we will cover later, but notice in these verses and all through the ceremony, the key element to the Passover = “the lamb”. The lamb must be slain and its blood put on the door.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 12:12-14.
Q Who was going to go through Egypt and strike the final blow that frees the Israelites?
An = God or His angels, but clearly not the Israelites themselves. Israel did not save themselves with the Passover ritual – that was God’s decision and God’s power. He decided to save them way before the ritual was even given to them (Have two different people look up 3:17 and 11:7 and read to the rest of the group).
>>>> Re-read Exodus 12:14.
Q What is the “passover”?
An = It is commemorative service. We cannot make God do what we want. Salvation is all God’s thing – He saves. Those old signs we used to see, “Jesus Saves” are simple but correct. It is God who saves, not ritual, not religion. It is God who wants to save. The “Lamb of God”, Paul reminds us was slain before the foundations of the world were even set.
Note: It is good to watch our behavior, to be obedient, but sometimes the Bible invites us to watch God. To watch Him in action and marvel, to watch Him in mercy and in power to save, it is good get our minds off what we do and watch what He does.
Q Do you know what the name “Jesus” literally means?
An = God (Yahweh) saves. This is what the Passover celebrates.
Q So, if ritual does not save, why is it important?
An = Amongst other things, it helps us realize our role and God’s. For pagans, ritual manipulates God, for the Bible, it causes us to remember and to participate. Let me explain with a familiar Christian celebration: Christmas.
At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus. We do not cause God to come among us but we can remember that in Jesus He most certainly did. He came in humility, and in poverty. He came so low as to identify with the lowest and the most humble, so that all may know that God wants to include us all. We can celebrate that! We can participate too, because we believe. We remember that glory came near, we can sing about His beautiful humility, and we can participate too. We give gifts like God gave us Jesus – we give to the poor and the needy. We can act out in a tangible way that we understand that Christmas is a time to celebrate giving. So it is with the Passover.
B. Understanding the Passover
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 12:21-23.
Q What is the sign that God accepts and therefore passes over a home?
An = When God’s angel sees the blood, it is the sign that Israelites believe and trust in God to save them. It is the blood of the lamb, slain in their behalf that allows their freedom from the judgment on Egypt. The Passover was a celebration of salvation. It helped the Israelites to remember how salvation really came about.
Note: The Passover helped the Jews watch God. It helped them watch His act of Salvation. They then understood that they were part with that original group that came out of Egypt. When we celebrate the “Lord’s Supper” we are doing the same thing: we are watching God. That act long ago becomes part of our lives. Let us look at a few more thoughts about the ceremony before we close. There is more but here is a sample.
C. Understanding Some of the Details.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 12:1-2.
Q Is it good to date our lives from the day of our salvation?
An = Here the text does not say other things were not important, but it does say real existence begins with our salvation. It is good to go back and remember when we accepted Christ as our sacrifice for our sins. It is good to remember the day we were given the Holy Spirit to help us understand the things of God.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 12:11.
Q What does the eating in haste mean for us today? How is that part of the ritual of importance to us?
An = To eat in haste reminds that when God says it is time to move, it is time to move. Paul will later remind us that “now is the appointed time”. We cannot tell God when we will be saved, He sets the time table, or we are still “play-acting” God.
Q Has God ever asked you to do something and you hesitated? What happened? Does anyone want to share an example?
Note: We eat the Passover, “ready to go”, “ready to leave Egypt”, ready to leave the place of our slavery. Everyone knows you cannot not stay in sin, it must be left, or we are re-enslaved. If you do not leave Egypt, you will not come to the promised land.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 12:8-10.
Note: The roasted with fire reminds us of Jesus’ suffering.
Q What do the bitter herbs symbolize?
An = The bitter herbs the reminds us of the bitterness of slavery and for us Christians the bitterness of slavery to sin.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 12:5-7.
Q What does the animal having to be perfect in verse 5 symbolize for us?
An = The animal was to be perfect which reminds us of Jesus’ perfect life. He was without sin, and yet was sacrificed for our sins.
Note: In verse 6, the lamb was to be selected four days before the Passover ritual took place reminds that Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, four days before the crucifixion.
Q In verse 7, why does the blood have to applied to the door?
An = They were to take blood and apply it to the sides of the door reminds us that Jesus’ blood must not only be shed but applied by us to our sins. Many who go to church have not applied His blood to their lives.
Q How does one apply the blood of Jesus?
An = He specifically told them what to do. Remember the ceremony of the Passover was an actual killing of an actual lamb with its actual blood going on the door. The obedience to God must be acted out in our flesh, not just in our emotions or mind. That is why some folks walk forward to an “altar call”. It is a tangible expression, a physical expression of their applying the blood to their lives.
IV. Application:
Perhaps these thoughts on the Passover can be applied in a variety of ways but let me suggest two. 1) Make a list of what God has done for you. Actually write out what you have seen God do. Write it in your Bible, or on a card, or something but actually take the time to write out what God has done. Write a list of all His goodness to your personal life.
2) To help you remember what God did back on the Cross read this week before we meet again chapter 19 of St. John’s Gospel. Oswald Chambers says we should brood on the great truths, and one of those truths is the sacrificial death of Jesus for our sins. Read John 19 and take time to watch God in action in behalf of you.