Pearl Harbor, the J.F.K. assassination, the World Trade Center attacks. All of these things became (or are becoming) a marker for the people of the United States as a nation. They are events that associate us with what we are at our very core. In the end, we like to think (and it has often been shown) that the United States is a nation that is willing to stand together in courage and fight for justice and peace in the midst of times when it is quite difficult to do so. We hear stories from the past generation of who they were and who America is. We have memorials for most every war we’ve been in and for important individuals who led us through those times. We remember these things because they shine forth, exposing the very essence of who we are.
The same is true with the Israelites and the Passover. This final plague and God’s deliverance of the people out of Egypt chronicled in Exodus 12-15 (and throughout the rest of the book) becomes the very essence of who the Israelites are. It becomes the key event in the life of that nation. The month in which this event happens marks the beginning of months for them (Ex. 12:2), is a memorial to them (Ex. 12:14), and is observed as a permanent feast for them (Ex. 12:17). This event becomes so much a part of who these people are, that when we read the Old Testament, we find the phrase “out of Egypt” (which refers to the Exodus) around 135 times. The Passover and Exodus from Egypt is at the very nature of who the Israelites are; they are the nation delivered out of slavery by their God.
In the same way, we can see lessons as to who we are as Christians in looking at this story, for the Passover comes to foreshadow a deliverance that we have known today as well. It foreshadows the redemption that we have in Christ, as we were helpless and condemnable before God. And yet now we walk in no condemnation because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Thus, may our eyes be opened to truths from this story that the Israelites should have realized on that night, and that should be a constant realization in our hearts as well.
God tells the Israelites that He is going to slay the first born of the land in one night. He tells them in 12:12, “For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments – I am the Lord.”
And we expect it to be like many of the other plagues where God does something to the Egyptians but the Israelites are in no danger. But that is not the case. Why? Couldn’t Israel say, “But, God, we’re ….” what? Israel is in fact no different from the Egyptians and therefore deserves to be destroyed just as much as the Egyptians’ first-born that night. They are no different.
Isn’t that hard to settle? It’s hard to settle because we work on a merit system. We want them to be able to say that they were better or more deserving because of what they did. We want them to be able to say that they had earned the right not to have their first-born sons killed on this night. But the fact is that they hadn’t. And if they didn’t realize this truth that night, they would miss the grace of God that was being shown to them in this act.
But if they were equally deserving of punishment, why weren’t they grieving at the end of the night over the loss of their first-born sons? Why did the Lord “pass over” their homes? The answer is in God’s provision for them.
God made a way so that the Israelites, though they were deserving of death, might be able to avoid it. He told them to take an unblemished lamb (12:3, 5), kill it at twilight (12:6), put its blood on the doorposts and lintel of their houses (12:7), and eat it. Then the Lord told them, “The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt (12:13).
God provided a lamb for them, so that they might show the blood of the lamb on their behalf and be spared. This affirms again that the demand of God’s justice must be met if he is to show mercy. Indeed, without the atoning blood, the firstborn of the Israelites would have been killed.
But don’t miss how remarkable this provision is. For the picture is not one of God providing the Israelites a sacrifice to protect them against the wrath of a foreign enemy. For who is the one who is going house to house that night killing the first-born of any home not marked by blood? It is the Lord himself. Notice the first-person pronouns in 12:12-13. The Lord says, “I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments – I am the Lord. And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” It is indeed God himself who is going through the land of Egypt on the night of the Passover.
However, we should not mistake this grace as the act of a loving being warding off the wrath of some vengeful God incapable of extending love and mercy. Rather, the picture is that of God meeting the requirements of his own justice and providing himself a sacrifice for the Israelites that the requirements of his justice may be met in order that they might be shown mercy. In other words, the reason the Israelites were protected from the wrath of God on this night is because God himself made a way for their protection. The Israelites were not the ones initiating the offering of a sacrifice on their behalf. God gave them a sacrifice on their behalf. This is indeed the greatness of God’s love manifested as clearly as we can see outside of the cross. We see a picture of God providing a substitionary sacrifice for the sin of his people.
However, let’s stop for a second here and ask ourselves a question: is God unjust in this act? For if Hebrews is correct (which it is), and the blood of bulls and goats (surely we could add other animals) cannot take away sins, then how is God just in passing over these Israelites who are as inherently evil as the Egyptians? For God cannot excuse sin without his requirement for justice being met.
This indeed could have been the question that individuals asked until some 1500 years later. However, after the death of Jesus Christ, this questioning of God’s justice could no longer be. For God sent Jesus to die on the cross as the atonement (the propitiation) for our sins, and showed that his forgiveness had been based on the death and resurrection of his own Son, thus vindicating his action 1500 years before. This is the message of Romans 3:21-26, as Paul writes, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.This was to demonstrate His righteousness [or justice] because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness [or justice] at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ” (emphasis added).
Therefore, the reason that God could pass over the sins of the Israelites on that night and yet not be unjust is because the sacrifice of the Lamb was to point forward to the sacrifice of his Son. That is to say, God “looked forward” to the sacrifice of Christ as the payment for the sins which he passed over;1 therefore, God could justly forgive his people.
The New Testament makes no mistake of this fact. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 5:7, “Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed.” But this is one of many connections made in the New Testament. All the gospel writers connect Jesus death with the Passover. And John makes it extra clear that his connection is with the Passover Lamb. This is in fact how John the Baptist addresses Jesus (John 1:29, 36), and John himself points out the detail that none of Christ’s bones were broken on the cross, which was a clear point of connection with any Jewish reader of the Passover lambs (Ex. 12:46). Finally, Jesus himself makes this declaration as he celebrates the Passover meal with his disciples and radically breaks from the customary declarations of the evening in declaring, “Take eat; this is My body” and “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:26-28).
Therefore, ultimately, the Israelites’ sins were able to be removed because the blood of the lamb foreshadowed the ultimate sacrifice for their sins which would be manifested 1500 years later. Thus, Abraham, the Israelites, and we are justified because of the same substitionary, sin-bearing sacrifice of Jesus Christ. His death purchased the redemption of all men who were saved from the beginning of time until now and of those who will be saved in the future. He is the sacrifice God has provided for the forgiveness of sins.
As Jesus ate the meal with his disciples that evening, he told them, “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:24). Paul, commenting on that ordinance given by the Lord, says, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:26). Therefore, just as the Israelites ate the meal that night and saw the sacrifice and forgiveness of their sins as they were delivered, but eagerly waited for the full promise of the promised land, so we, soon after reading Jesus’ words at the last supper, read of him shortly thereafter taking the penalty for our sins, dying on the cross, and raising from the dead. But we eagerly wait the fulfillment of our salvation and the day when we will see him face to face. Thus as we remember in this ordinance, we also look forward to the time with him again.
The only reason the Israelites were not destroyed that night is because God provided a lamb for them. Taste that and let it sink down into your hearts. Have you ever been to the point where you realize that you deserve to be in the position that someone else is in? I mean that negatively: have you ever realized that you deserve the same punishment as someone in prison, but you remain free? And no matter how much you try not to feel this way, your heart is just so thankful that it isn’t you? Then you begin to ask why. And for the life of you, you can come up with no other answer except that you have been shown mercy by God.
If not, ask God to drive this into your heart, for this is in fact something to which we all should say, “yes,” or else we don’t realize the event that has happened to us if we have been saved. All the Israelites could have said that night, “That easily could have been my firstborn” as they looked upon the weeping families throughout Egypt, and they would have been right. In the same way, we all should reap the consequences of our sins, but Christ has taken that consequence that we deserve, and we get to walk in the righteousness of Christ before God. May this truth sit as a dissolving pill upon our hearts until it seeps down into our very essence and changes our hearts in the way we sing, read, think, and act in living to the worship of God.
May this truth cause our hearts to burst forth in praise that hurts your heart unless you express it. Give your heart time this week and make it the efforts of your prayers as you read his word and sit before him. And as it does, and your heart grows in its desire for God, you’ll find yourself longing for more intimacy with him – for that time when we will eat of the Lord’s supper again with him, and as this is the state of our hearts, we will find our hearts desire in obedience to his word. Thus may we remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and allow it to constantly shape our hearts, that we might be utterly pleasing to him – “until he comes.”
Grace be with you. Amen.