Exodus – God’s Way Out
What is the first thing you say to your kids when you are ready to leave? “Get your shoes on! It’s time to go!” I would be rich if I had a dollar for every time I said this to kids and grandkids! They are never prepared to go until you tell them. God tells His kids the same thing. It is time to leave! God’s way out of their bondage is happening now! “Slaughter the lamb, get dressed, put on your sandals, eat standing up and prepare to leave.” God provided the Way Out and the time is now!
NEED TO KNOW
Something must die in sacrifice for our sin to be fully redeemed. Our sins, our turning from God to go our own way, must be repented and reconciled before we can come into His Holy Presence. Why? Because God is perfectly Holy. God cannot be where sin is. So if we have sin in our lives, unresolved, not repented, God can not and will not come where we are. He still loves us but cannot come near us.
God knows us and knew we needed a way to Him.. God planned a Way out of the mess we find ourselves in when we go our own way, fail miserably in life and relationships and wonder, in our emptiness that brings fear and anxiety, if there is something more. There is. There is God, our Father, Creator, who longs to be with us and is waiting form us to turn back in His direction.
He designed a way in Moses’ day that sufficed for centuries, paving the Way for the coming day when all sin, once and for all, would be paid in full by our perfect Redeemer, His Son, Jesus Christ.
God’s people were enslaved in Egypt for generations. In their misery that forgot who God was and is. God came near enough to hear their cries for help. God then provided a Way Out. He redeemed them from their oppressors in power and strength. He was not only showing His power to the Egyptians but to His own people who had forgotten Him.
God’s people needed to be saved. They needed to know God was their God, their only God. God presented His plan. They got their sandals on and did EXACTLY what God told them to do. This EXIT (Exodus) plan is still remembered and celebrated all over the world by those who believe.
This plan of God’s Passover was created to, again, distinguish God’s people from the Egyptians. The blood of the lamb over their door posts showed who belonged to God. Death passed over the blood stained doors of God’s people. They were spared and saved from death in their household. God’s plan also involved His detailed instructions for preparing to leave their old way of life for a new life with Him!
The first Passover also signified their final and complete release from bondage. It all began with the shedding of the blood of unblemished lambs.
Exodus 12, The Message
1-10 God said to Moses and Aaron while still in Egypt, “This month is to be the first month of the year for you. Address the whole community of Israel; tell them that on the tenth of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one lamb to a house. If the family is too small for a lamb, then share it with a close neighbor, depending on the number of persons involved. Be mindful of how much each person will eat. Your lamb must be a healthy male, one year old; you can select it from either the sheep or the goats. Keep it penned until the fourteenth day of this month and then slaughter it—the entire community of Israel will do this—at dusk. Then take some of the blood and smear it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which you will eat it. You are to eat the meat, roasted in the fire, that night, along with bread, made without yeast, and bitter herbs. Don’t eat any of it raw or boiled in water; make sure it’s roasted—the whole animal, head, legs, and innards. Don’t leave any of it until morning; if there are leftovers, burn them in the fire.11 “And here is how you are to eat it: Be fully dressed with your sandals on and your stick in your hand. Eat in a hurry; it’s the Passover to God.
12-13 “I will go through the land of Egypt on this night and strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, whether human or animal, and bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am God. The blood will serve as a sign on the houses where you live. When I see the blood I will pass over you—no disaster will touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.
14-16 “This will be a memorial day for you; you will celebrate it as a festival to God down through the generations, a fixed festival celebration to be observed always. You will eat unraised bread (matzoth) for seven days: On the first day get rid of all yeast from your houses—anyone who eats anything with yeast from the first day to the seventh day will be cut off from Israel. The first and the seventh days are set aside as holy; do no work on those days. Only what you have to do for meals; each person can do that.17-20 “Keep the Festival of Unraised Bread! This marks the exact day I brought you out in force from the land of Egypt. Honor the day down through your generations, a fixed festival to be observed always. In the first month, beginning on the fourteenth day at evening until the twenty-first day at evening, you are to eat unraised bread. For those seven days not a trace of yeast is to be found in your houses. Anyone, whether a visitor or a native of the land, who eats anything raised shall be cut off from the community of Israel. Don’t eat anything raised. Only matzoth.”
21-23 Moses assembled all the elders of Israel. He said, “Select a lamb for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the bowl of blood and smear it on the lintel and on the two doorposts. No one is to leave the house until morning. God will pass through to strike Egypt down. When he sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, God will pass over the doorway; he won’t let the destroyer enter your house to strike you down with ruin.24-27 “Keep this word. It’s the law for you and your children, forever. When you enter the land which God will give you as he promised, keep doing this. And when your children say to you, ‘Why are we doing this?’ tell them: ‘It’s the Passover-sacrifice to God who passed over the homes of the Israelites in Egypt when he hit Egypt with death but rescued us.’”
The people bowed and worshiped.
28 The Israelites then went and did what God had commanded Moses and Aaron. They did it all.
29 At midnight God struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sits on his throne, right down to the firstborn of the prisoner locked up in jail. Also the firstborn of the animals.
30 Pharaoh got up that night, he and all his servants and everyone else in Egypt—what wild wailing and lament in Egypt! There wasn’t a house in which someone wasn’t dead.
31-32 Pharaoh called in Moses and Aaron that very night and said, “Get out of here and be done with you—you and your Israelites! Go worship God on your own terms. And yes, take your sheep and cattle as you’ve insisted, but go. And bless me.”33 The Egyptians couldn’t wait to get rid of them; they pushed them to hurry up, saying, “We’re all as good as dead.”
34-36 The people grabbed their bread dough before it had risen, bundled their bread bowls in their cloaks and threw them over their shoulders. The Israelites had already done what Moses had told them; they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold things and clothing. God saw to it that the Egyptians liked the people and so readily gave them what they asked for. Oh yes! They picked those Egyptians clean.
37-39 The Israelites moved on from Rameses to Succoth, about 600,000 on foot, besides their dependents. There was also a crowd of riffraff tagging along, not to mention the large flocks and herds of livestock. They baked unraised cakes with the bread dough they had brought out of Egypt; it hadn’t raised—they’d been rushed out of Egypt and hadn’t time to fix food for the journey.
The Passover
40-42 The Israelites had lived in Egypt 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, God’s entire army left Egypt. God kept watch all night, watching over the Israelites as he brought them out of Egypt. Because God kept watch, all Israel for all generations will honor God by keeping watch this night—a watchnight.43-47 God said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the rules for the Passover:
No foreigners are to eat it.
Any slave, if he’s paid for and circumcised, can eat it.
No casual visitor or hired hand can eat it.
Eat it in one house—don’t take the meat outside the house.
Don’t break any of the bones.
The whole community of Israel is to be included in the meal.
48 “If an immigrant is staying with you and wants to keep the Passover to God, every male in his family must be circumcised, then he can participate in the Meal—he will then be treated as a native son. But no uncircumcised person can eat it.
49 “The same law applies both to the native and the immigrant who is staying with you.”
50-51 All the Israelites did exactly as God commanded Moses and Aaron. That very day God brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, tribe by tribe.
CONSIDER THIS…
Our sin, and the sins of the world, has a high price. Jesus willing and sacrificially laid down his life to redeem (buy back), paying the high price our souls. HE was the Lamb. He thought of us as the nails were hammered into his hands and feet. Our souls held him in place on that cross. A perfect God-man, without sin felt all the pain but loved us enough to sacrifice himself for you and I. He died so that we would be saved forever. He rose that we would believe that He did! Hallelujah, Christ arose! Hope has risen! Our sins are gone…if we believe.
This powerful, holy relationship with God begins with our decision to humbly, sincerely come to Him and simply admit, “I’m sorry for all my sin” with a heart that loves and believes in what Jesus did, a mind that never wants to go back to our sin lifestyle along with a soul ready to be cleansed with all that Jesus bled, died and rose again to save. Jesus is the Lamb of God who was slain as a sacrifice for our sin.
BE RECONCILED TO GODBe reconciled back to God. Until we decide to “die” to self and the sin that enslaves us, we are separated from God who longs to fill all that is empty in us. We are separated from God until all our sin is paid in full. So God, who loved the world so much, sent His Son, Jesus, our Savior from sin, the perfect Lamb sacrifice for our sin. Jesus’ blood paid the price we owed and deserved.
HOLY PAUSE
Are you ready to be reconciled to God, through Jesus, and begin an intimate, holy relationship with Him? THIS is the most important relationship you will ever have. All other truly loving relationships begin with this one with Jesus. The more we realize God’s love for us, the more we love like Him…unconditionally and relentlessly.
Are we living as a redeemed people? Are we grumbling or grateful since we left the old sin nature for God’s holy best lifestyle? Our behavior, in what we are willing to “lay down”, shows our sincerity and humility before God.
Are we leaning on God’s promises to always be with us in this time of confinement in our homes as we try to avoid the virus?
Friends, there is a greater “virus” epidemic that evil is trying to spread. Satan wants a whole generation to himself, a generation of people who have never heard of Jesus and his saving power. Sometimes it looks as thought he is winning. But there is greater evidence to prove that God is in control. We see Him moving mightily among us as we deal with Corona virus.
As believers our response will make a difference in the lives of those God brings into our lives. Watch God work, testify of His power and rejoice in what He is doing. While we are sitting at home, praying, God is STILL at work! AMEN! Use technology or whatever means God’s gives you to get the word out…Jesus is alive. He has risen indeed! Get your shoes on, be dressed and ready! There will be a day when we leave our homes. Be prepared. Be in God’s Word. Do exactly what He says for He still speaks to our hearts. Memorize what He has said to us. Encourage each other. Then GO when He says go!
In Jesus Name and By His power in us, Amen. I believe!
