New Year

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Text: Exodus 12

New Year feels like new opportunity and new beginnings. It’s a fresh start. That was certainly the case in Israel’s history. Israel enjoyed the prosperity of Egypt for a while, but the Pharaoh’s began to fear the Israelites as they multiplied. Pharaoh became aggressive like a dragon. One Pharaoh attempted to kill all the males in Israel. And another afterwards turned the Israelites into slaves. The oppression lasted many years until the rise of a deliverer named Moses.

Moses attempted to convince the Pharaoh to let Israel go into the wilderness to worship God. Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he kicked against these requests. After each request, the LORD sent a plague on Egypt. Pharaoh’s nation became a war zone between the God of Israel and wicked Pharaoh. The final plague is where we are in Exodus 12. It will be the death of all firstborn in Egypt. You say how horrible! Yes, after 9 simple requests to let the Israelites free, the LORD is now going to inflict on Pharaoh and his nation a punishment matching Pharaoh’s genocidal mania. Except in the LORD’s punishment, He will offer a way of escape for whosoever will memorialize this event.

The New Year (vss 1-2)

• The Israelite’s year would begin with redemption from bondage. It was a new beginning.
• This time became known as the Passover because death would pass over the nation.
• The elements of Israel’s new year would be as follows. If you so chose to participate with the God of Israel in this new beginning, this is how you must do it.

Death of a Passover lamb (vss 3-10)

• It would begin by selecting a lamb. Not just any lamb.
  • Unblemished
  • Male
  • The lamb is to be eaten.
• The lamb was examined for four days and then killed. Some of the blood must be applied to the door of the house that when death past by that night, the house was safe (vss 7, 12-13).

Faithful participation in this redemption (vss 11-20)

• Faithful participation in this redemption looks like the following things.
• You’ll eat this lamb in haste. You must be ready to leave Egypt, with your clothes on, your bags packed, and all tools for traveling ready to go (vs 11).
• You’ll take the lamb’s blood and apply it to the door of your home (vss 12-13).
• You’ll gather as a congregation at the beginning and end of this week (vs 16).
• You’ll bake your bread without leaven for a week (vs 15).
• Non-Israelites who want to participate in this Passover must do the same (vs 19)

Moses faithfully prepares the people for the plague of death (vss 21-28)

• By faith, Moses kept the passover (Hebrews 11:27-28).
• Tell your children (vs 26)
• Faithful participation in this redemption meant honoring the sacrifice of the lamb. This is what calling on the LORD looked like. Nobody would be told to pray to be saved. Your responsibility was to honor the sacrifice of the lamb.

Death devastates Egypt, but liberates the Israelite slaves (vss 29-36)

• There was so much sorrow in Egypt that night because of Pharaoh’s stubbornness.
• Pharaoh and the Egyptians demand the Israelites get out of the country.

Christ our Passover

• The Lord Jesus Christ would begin his ministry with John the Baptist saying, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.  Making clear that Jesus Christ is the passover lamb.
  • On the 10th day of the month Jesus, the Lamb of God, enters the temple and cleans it out. He is interrogated by lawyers, priests, and politicians for four days. 
  • The evening before the passover he eats a meal with his disciples explaining things regarding his death. Then says his body and his blood are the basis for the covenant God will make with mankind.
  • That night Christ is arrested and beaten multiple times. Falsely accused, mocked, whipped, punched, lied about, but like a lamb to the slaughter he is silent.
  • Governor Pilate and King Herod argue about who’s jurisdiction this case falls in. Until Pilate finally washes his hands of the whole thing, parading a bloody and beaten Jesus before the Jews, he says, Behold your king! John notes that when Pilate said this to the Jews it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour:
  • Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, was then crucified outside of Jerusalem. And LISTEN to THIS! God the Father would see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied: for he shall bear their iniquities. The Father would now accept this death of Jesus Christ on behalf of whoever would want to participate in this redemption.
  • 1 Corinthians 5:7 …For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
• Faithful participation in this redemption looks like the following things.
  • You must be ready to abandon this world (vs 11).
  • You must honor the sacrifice of the Lamb by applying his blood to the door of your heart. How? I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Like the Israelites who came in and out of their homes being constantly reminded of the sacrifice by the blood on the door, you too be reminded of Christ’s sacrifice. Let this mind be in you (Philippians 2:5-11).
  • You must gather as a congregation faithfully. Hebrews 10:22-25
  • You must remove the old leaven and begin with a new dough which is Christ, the Bread of life.