3rd May 2024

3rd May 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 12:1-13 focus v12-13)


Message (Alan Burke)


C.S. Lewis had this turn of phrase that he used in the Narnia series male human visitors to signal their otherness in comparison to the folk of Narnia “Sons of Adam,” and the female human visitors “Daughters of Eve”. While it didn’t originate with him it is useful for us as we come to this passage. Because of the fall we have all been brought into an estate of sin and misery, that the first sin in the garden means that all of us are sinners. People don’t like to hear that, they push back against it but before a Holy God there is not one of us can stand. Here though we learn of how God spared his people the judgement that they were as equally deserving of as the Egyptians and it came through the blood of the lamb. 


That night that the Lord had told them he would move throughout the Land of Egypt, he would pass through Egypt, before he did they were to slaughter the lamb, sacrificing that lamb that had been running about their house for the past four days. Then as the Lord passed through Egypt, striking every firstborn men and animals they would be spared. The reasons why it is the firstborn of the family is that they were the ones whom received the best of the inheritance, they were the one who carried on the family. There was a reason why Prince Harry entitled his book ‘Spare’ for he would not benefit from the hereditary privilege of his brother who would become King, the firstborn male was to be killed. It was the Lord who would pass through the Land striking down the firstborn, the Lord himself was bringing this judgement, he was brining death. 


In this though the Lord was making himself known as the One True God, notice what we are told, the reason why the Lord would do this it comes there in v12, the Lord was bringing judgement on all the gods of Egypt. The Lord had been doing this throughout the plagues but this was the final decisive blow, their gods were powerless before him, they were nothing more than idols as all other gods are. The Lord in all of this was showing his sovereignty over all and brining his judgment, this wasn’t only his judgement upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians but also their false gods. 


And to what the Lord would do and did, he says “I am the LORD”. The capital letters denote the personal name for the Lord God, the one whom Pharaoh had mocked when Moses first came to ask for the release of his people, now he knew who the Lord was. The Lord God had made himself known, defeated all the false gods of Egypt, they were helpless before him. 


While the Lord would strike down the firstborn of Egypt, bringing judgment upon their gods showing that he is the Lord, the blood of the lamb that was to be spilled that night, that was put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses meant that as he came in judgement, even though his people deserved it they would be spared. The blood was a sign to him, when he would see the blood he would passover them, there would be no judgment upon them this night. The Lord would bring his judgment and spare his judgement, he provided a way for his people to escape his wrath. In his mercy the Lord passed over the houses of the Israelites, sparing them judgement, not because they deserved it but because of the blood that was spared for them giving them a new beginning. 


What God had done throughout the history of his people is to help them to see without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness, and that the Lord himself would provide a substitute. In this redemption that God provided from their slavery in Egypt, the lamb was sacrificed and eaten, it was to show to the people the substitutionally nature of what God was doing, that through the death of the lamb they would be released from captivity. The sacrifices of the Old Testament pointed to something greater that God would do. Until the fullness of time had come when God sent His Son to make an atonement by his blood, to be received by faith (Ro 3:25–26).


He became sin for us (2 Cor 5:21), in doing so he received the wrath of God that was due to the sins of His people. Through faith there is a glorious exchange, the righteousness of Christ is placed upon us, through His substitutionary life and death, in how he dealt with Sin. For the believer they can have confidence in this glorious exchange. Our sin should drive us to Jesus, knowing that it is reliant on the Lamb of God who came to take away sin, God’s amazing love should drive us Him, it is so counter intuitive, as God meets our greatest need for it is not what we deserve but rather what He gives us freely through the Lamb, Jesus Christ.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q. 29. How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us by his Holy Spirit.
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