#LENT2019 Day 10: Exodus 12
(For our lent devotional, we’ll be going through the book of Exodus with the rest of our church and be looking at the hand of God carrying the Israelites through their captivity and oppression as well as their sin and unbelief. Keep up with us as we look at how much God loves His people and never leaves us alone.)
First, read: Exodus 12.
Finally, the juicy chapter.
If you guys have been keeping up until now, you’ll know that everything has been building up and up and up— until this moment, THE moment we’ve all been waiting for— Israel’s freedom from the oppression of the Egyptians. God’s hand moves and hits the final straw, and they’re released out of Egypt— more like driven out of the land. But their freedom comes at a hefty price— and we see this hefty price, the tenth and final plague of the Firstborn, being paid in this chapter.
The chapter starts with God’s instructions to Moses about exactly what to do. The whole process of the Passover takes up 1 week from the moment you pick out a lamb to the last day you eat unleavened bread. With this particular wonder, God sets it up not just as a plague to be seen, but as a memorial week to be remembered for generations to come. It’s clearly significant for the nation of Israel.
Now, God has both demonstrated his might and the set-apart nature of the Israelites in the previous plagues, but everything seems to lead up to this plague. There’s no natural element to the plague— there’s no natural-related attack on livelihood or person. This plague is completely supernatural. God sends his angel of death over the land, and every firstborn, man or animal, will perish. It’s destruction and judgment on a completely new level.
Now, with this plague, God has plans to spare Israel just as much as He did with the others. But one distinction is clear here: unlike the other plagues, God was not sparing their land to help them avoid it completely. They cannot be spared from this supernatural, deep-set judgment of God. However, God covers the situation by having the Israelites pay the price of the death of their firstborn another way— with the blood instead of a young, unblemished male lamb one year old. When the angel of Death sees the spotless lamb’s blood on the lintel and doorposts of the homes of Israel, he will pass over the door without bringing anyone in the home to harm.
The Israelites worship God and do as He says. And sure enough, He saves them by the blood of the spotless lamb, something that the Lord clearly distinguishes as something to be held in remembrance for many generations to come.
The last day of Israel in Egypt is a hectic one. Egypt rushes them out after a great cry breaks out in all the homes where the firstborn is lost— including Pharaoh’s home. They let the Israelites take their jewelry and clothing, and Israel plunders an Egypt that is willing to do anything to get them out. And they finally leave, after 430 years, after the Passover, which is the greatest display of God’s power at that point.
What’s interesting is that God does this not just as the God of the Universe, but as their God, the God of Israel. God understands that Israel as sinners is no different than the Egyptians. The Angel of Death was to go over every door in the land impartially. But what sets them apart is not their land or their status as Israelite, but the blood on their door— what sets them apart is the sacrifice paid for them, on their behalf. And with that mark, the blood over their wooden doorposts, painted on with bunches of hyssop wood, the Angel of Death passes over.
Set apart by sacrifice. Blood on wood. A festival to commemorate. There’s no clearer sign that points to the cross. Jesus, the true and perfect Passover lamb, sacrificed, blood spilled. With his stripes we are healed; with His blood we are set free from the bondage and damnation of sin. We are free. And the thing to set us apart isn’t our character or our achievements, but is only the blood spilled by the Son, God’s only begotten Son.
This old covenant points to the new covenant that we live in today. And after 430 years, after a long period of waiting, God finally delivers. After 430 years of Israel being unsure of what’s going on, why God would let this happen, or if God is really there for them, God finally makes good on His promises. It happens in His perfect time.
I want to challenge you to read the chapter over, slowly, after reading this devotional. As we read the promises of God fulfilled, the freedom God has paid for and the new life that Israel is finally given, let’s reflect on the greater cost of the perfect Passover Lamb to set us free and win the victory once and for all. Let’s reflect on God’s perfect timing and remember that God is not only a God that is faithful and God is not only a God that remembers.
God is God. He is with us always, while we’re in the thick of everything and while the process has yet to be finished. So take heart, and remember the cross with me today. Lift up a prayer to God. Whatever you need to say to Him, say it today. And remember— God not only has paid it all for you already, but is also not yet done with you now.
love,
janedo
