Exodus 12

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together. We have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2023, Lord willing, we'll make it from Genesis to Leviticus. I'm so glad to be with you today.
Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll get into God's word. Let's pray. Father, what a blessing it is to get to sleep. What a blessing it is that you woke us up this morning. What a blessing it is that you've given us. coffee and you've given us your word. Lord, we pray now that as we read it. That you would instruct us. That you would teach us about who you are. And who we are to live in light of that. In Jesus's name. Amen. All right. So we are at Exodus chapter 12. Here we go.
Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, this month shall be your beginning of months and it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel saying, on the 10th of this month, every man shall take for himself a lamb according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.
And if the household is too small for the Lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons, according to each man's need. You shall make yourself count for the Lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the 14th year of the same month.
Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. and they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lentil of the houses where they eat. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted with fire, with unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire, its head with its legs and its entrails. You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire, and thus you shall eat it, with a belt on your waist and your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, you shall eat it in haste.
It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, both man and beast, against all the gods of Egypt. I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. Now, the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So this day shall be to you a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout all your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.
Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them, but that which everyone must eat, that only may be prepared by you. So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance.
In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses. Since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.
Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families and kill the Passover lamb. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop. dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lentil and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning, for the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the stranger to come or the destroyer to come into your house to strike you.
And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. It will come to pass. When you come to the land, which the Lord will give you justice, he promised that you shall keep this service. And it shall be, when your children say to you, What do you mean by this service?
That you shall say, It is the Passover sacrifice of Jehovah. who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians and delivered our households. So the people bowed their heads and worshiped. Then the children of Israel went away and did so just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. So they did.
We're going to stop here and make sure we understand what we've been reading and what was this about, right? What is this about? It's this God instituting the first Passover. This is God saying you're going to have a new calendar and this is going to be the first month because you're going to always remember how important it was that I sent this plague.
Killed all the firstborn of Egypt, but you're going to Be driven out. You need to be ready. You need to have your belt on, your tunic tuck in. You need to have sandals on your feet and your rod in your hand. You need to cook a Passover lamb. You need to cook all of it by the fire. No boiling it right. Stick with, stick with my cookbook here. And you're going to take the hyssop branch. You're going to paint the door posts and the lentils or the door posts and the lintel of your house. Because when that destroyer comes, when that angel of destruction comes, that's how it's going to be a sign that you've been covered by the blood.
That your home is safe, that you believe in me. but you're not to eat any leavened bread, right? Not for the week leading up to this and not afterwards, right? There's this time period in which you're not to have anything leavened, right? It's supposed to show that you don't have time to make bread.
You got to be ready for when this happens, you're going to flee. And this is going to be a perpetual ceremony for generations to come. You're going to tell your kids about this. Your kids are going to ask, why are we doing this? Why can't we have any leavened bread? Son, daughter, God brought us up out of Egypt and it was in haste. We ate the Passover lamb and then we had to get out of there. God did an amazing work. And this is what we had to remember. He showed himself to be the Lord.
Well, it came to pass at midnight. The Lord struck all the firstborn of the land of Egypt from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon and all the firstborn of the livestock. So Pharaoh rose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, but there was not a house where there was not one dead. God was good to his word.
He'd warned them. He had told them. They wouldn't listen. They wouldn't believe. They wouldn't bow, as cost them dearly. And he called for Moses and Aaron by night and said, Arise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel, and go and serve Yehovah as you have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone. And bless me also. And the Egyptians urged the people that they might send them out of the land in haste. For they said, we shall all be dead.
So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders. Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses. And they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold and clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.
Then the children of Israel journeyed from Ramses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, beside children. A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds, a great deal of livestock. And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt before and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves. Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was 430 years and it came to pass at the end of 430 years on the very same day it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night of solemn observance to Jehovah for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is the night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout all their generations.
They're sent out. Go on, sayonara, see ya. Pharaoh says, go ahead, everything you want to just do it. And they got to do it in haste. They pack up all their stuff. They get their kids, they get the little ones. They had asked their neighbors for gold and silver and clothes. God had inclined their hearts. They take that with them and they hightail it out of there. They start moving, they start going.
The exodus has begun. Notice they had gone in with just over 60 people. And now it's 430 years later to the day. And now there's over 600,000, not including women and children. This is a huge multitude of people. God has not forgotten his people this whole time. We'll wrap this chapter up with this last part. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, this is the ordinance of the Passover.
No foreigner shall eat it. But every man servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he made it. a sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat it. In one house it shall be eaten. You shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it. He shall be as a native of the land, for no uncircumcised person shall eat it.
One law shall be for the native born and for the stranger who dwells among you. That's all the children of Israel did. As the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. And it came to pass on that very same day that the Lord brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, according to their armies.
This is a family meal. This is a meal for those who believe. It's a meal not for anybody who wanted to come. but only by those who had faith, even if they were a foreigner, not a not a Jewish person by birth. They had to believe, be circumcised, and then they were admitted to the meal. One of the reasons why we believe the Passover was a foreshadowing of the Lord's Supper, that Jesus replaced this meal, he replaced all the ceremonial meals by his blood as a different bread and a different drink. But here we find these regulations.
It's all meant to point out that it is the Lord who is sovereign. It's God who's brought them up out of Egypt. It's God who's redeeming them. It's God who is who is saving them from the plight that they have been in. He has moved armies of locusts He's conquered the greatest Pharaoh they've ever seen who maniacally hated them. He's always remembered them. And so what does this call us to do? Well, God has also conquered our foe. Sin and death. It has no claim on Jesus Christ. But he defeated death. He defeated the rulers and principalities of the air. He reigns as king now. He's coming again.
And so we need to be ready for his return. We need to be those who have our belts on. We have the belt of truth ready. We need to be those who are ready for our king to return. We need to be those who trust in him. I know that He's redeemed us. Not only did He bring the Israelites through the Red Sea, but He has also baptized us. And He's given us His Son. He's poured out His Spirit into our hearts. So we trust in Him also, for He is still the same God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much.
That you are a God who remembers your covenants. That you did not forget your promises to Abraham, even though the days seemed dark. You remembered. And you multiplied Abraham's seed. You brought them up out of Egypt. And Father, we pray that we might believe and that we might trust in you. For you are a God who does not change. And so, Father, you are that same God yesterday, today and forever. So we thank you for the mighty works of redemption you have done. I pray that you would teach us to trust and follow you. In Jesus's name we pray. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. And I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.