Lent: Behold The Lamb Exodus 12:1-14

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1 Lent: Behold The Lamb Exodus 12:1-14 So we are in the midst of the season of Lent, which is a time which the church has set aside for fasting, repentance, and preparation for Easter. We ve given this time to walking through the Old Testament and seeing how it points towards Christ. -I had a professor who once said, Christians fundamentally reread the Old Testament in the light of Christ. There is some truth here, and yet what he meant to be disparaging is actually the only natural way to react to the culmination of human history in the death and resurrection of the Son of God There are at least two real ways to approach view a film, there is the prospective viewing which is a form of anticipation. You are experiencing the movie in real time, and wondering how things will come to an end. -At the end of the film, you are only able to consider the film from a retrospective perspective know where all of the narrative threads were heading. You know why all of the plot points have played out. In the same way, once you are aware of the ending, all of the pieces leading up to it help you to make better sense of the ending itself. So it is with scripture, once we see the one to whom the Old Testament has always pointed, the what was ambiguous or misunderstood comes in to focus as we gaze upon the person of Christ. There are 5 central events in the Old Testament, they re the headwaters out of which everything else flows -The Fall of Man -God s call of Abraham -God s deliverance of Israel out of Egypt -David being made king -Israel s Exile

2 But of these events, the exodus and the passover are most significant. They stand as monuments to a greater exodus and the final passover which would be accomplished in Jesus. So if you have your Bible s turn to Exodus 12:21-28 and we ll be there this evening Let me briefly give you a sense of context for what it is that we re about to read and where it is that we ve come from in the narrative of scripture. -The nation of Israel has found itself enslaved in the nation of Egypt for nearly 400 years and because of the growth of the population the reigning pharaoh has made the burdens all the more heavy. -Standing behind all of this is a promise which God made to Abraham, I will make you a great nation, and in you will all the nations of the world be blessed. For the people of Israel, with this promise ringing in their ears and the whips of slave masters against their backs, God s promise certainly feels untrue. Or at least out of touch with reality. In the midst of this God chooses a man, named Moses: raised in Egypt, educated in their courts and currently hiding in the desert as a wanted murderer, and tells him, You will speak to Pharaoh on my behalf, and you will tell him to let my people go. Pharoah s response is, Who is the Lord, I don t know your God Moses and I won t do what he says. -The whole first half of the book of Exodus is about Pharaoh learning the answer to that question. It s also about Israel learning the answer to that question. -It s tempting to think that these plagues are random ways of God doing bizarre and interesting wonders. But that s not how the Egyptians or the Israelites would have seen it. Each one of the plagues of Egypt is directed against something that the Egyptians worshipped as a God. -Water turned to blood is a judgement against Apis, Isis, and Osiris, gods of the nile -Livestock died as a judgment against Hathor, the cattle god

3 -Boils as judgement against Sekhet and Sunu, god s of health Perhaps you ve felt this mercy of God in your own life. Though it certainly doesn t feel like a mercy at the time. You ve felt God remove the so called, gods that you trusted to keep you safe so that you would finally come to know him as the only one able to do that -Perhaps you trusted in financial success -Perhaps you trusted a political leader Yahweh is no kinder now than he was in the days of Moses when it comes to dealing with our Idolatry. And so, What is at the heart of the book of Exodus is a God who is relentless in his pursuit of his people, and unwilling to be second to any man made god or spiritual power. The Passover is the culmination of his pursuit This shall be for you the beginning of months: I m not sure if you can point to events in your lives around which everything else orbits. But it seems that each of us have a few. Wether that s meeting the person you ve decided to spend the rest of your life with. Maybe the birth of your kids, the end of a long term relationship, the death of a loved one -Each of our lives seem to be marked by these, from now on moments God says to Israel, what is about to take place is so significant that this will be the beginning of your year. It is so important that for the rest of your national history, you will live in light of this moment. What I am about to do will cast a shadow over your national identity which you will never escape, and never forget. The Lord will pass through: Israel would have been shocked to learn that they were in danger of being harmed in the passover. God gives them elaborate instructions about how they are to offer a lamb as sacrifice, smear the blood on the doorpost, stay inside, roast the body and eat it. -We thought you were team Israel, not team Egypt

4 So we have to ask the question that they would have asked: Why is Israel in danger here? Because God himself is coming down, He is now entering Egypt in some new way. And no Son of Adam has the right to stand before him, none can escape his presence without judgement. -He makes this clear to Moses on the mountain later on, You cannot see me and live. So at the heart of this final plague is the question, Who can stand on their own before a holy God? -The answer is a resounding, Nobody. Israel is not safe in the final plague because Israel is sinful just like everyone else This whole event would have been particularly difficult to swallow for the Pharaoh, because in this point in history the Egyptian Pharaohs claimed that they were in fact gods. That would have made Pharaohs first born the son of a god. -In this final act of judgement Yahweh is saying, You are not a god, and you cannot protect your people. I am the Lord, and I will deliver my people. -You cannot even stand in my presence without judgement I wonder how many of us our in need of this sort of a moment? Not literally, I m not wishing catastrophic death upon any of you. But how many of us think of ourselves as masters over our own destiny? How many of us view ourselves as functional gods? How many of us desperately need to be reminded, You are not a God. A Corpse in Every House: So Israel is warned that they will not be safe in the presence of the Lord, that they are equally worthy of judgement. So God gives them this set of instructions which for many of us will feel bizarre. Yet each of these elements point so deeply to Christ.

5 A perfect lamb: In order for Israel to be able to stand in the presence of the Lord, there would have to be death. One of a spotless lamb carefully selected for this purpose. But we should be clear here, this doesn t point us to any sort of a works based righteousness. It s not as though Israel is presenting something she has to appease God. -Only a few chapters before, The Lord stretches out his hand and destroys the livestock of egypt. Except for the livestock of Israel. The only reason Israel has a lamb to offer is because the Lord has provided it for them. They have nothing here to boast about. Years ago a Bishop named Augustine got in to a heated dialogue with another leader named Pelagius. At the heart of this debate was the question of God s fairness. -If we can t ever live perfectly holy lives, and God expects holiness from us, God must be unfair for judging us. So it must be possible for us to live perfect lives, if we try hard enough. Augustine s response has become legendary, as he wrote a lengthy treatise against this idea. But at the heart of his response was this simple plea, God, command what you will and grant what you command. -God, ask of me whatever you will and give me the strength to do it. God asks Israel for a spotless lamb, and then he provides the lamb for them. Is it any wonder then, that 1,500 years later John the baptist will look to Christ as he begins his ministry and declare, Behold the lamb of God! Blood on the Doorpost: I think many of us grew up during the time when Steven Spielberg produced, The Prince of Egypt. Which was a kids cartoon based on the book of exodus that did reasonably well at the box office. In the script, there is a monologue from Moses where he describes God s command to him. -The original script had Moses saying, When I see a mark upon your doorframe. Yet the religious advisors for the movie told him that simply wouldn t do. So the script writers finally agreed to change it back to, When I see the blood.

6 What is it about the blood of the lamb that is so central to God s saving work at passover? Blood is a synecdote. blood stands for the whole of someone s life. -I ll keep my eyes out, or Check out my new wheels It s not just that the passover lamb bled, it s that the lamb has shed it s blood unto death. God is clear, When I see the blood I will pass over. This is because someone in that household has already died. And make no mistake, it is a member of the household The lamb who has been kept with the family, who has identified with them, who has shared a dwelling place with them has now died on their behalf. So that by his death they might live -In the same way, the eternal son of God takes on the fullness of our humanity, becoming like us in every way. Sharing in our suffering and our sorrow so that by his death the judgement of God might pass over us. There is a body in every house in Egypt on the night of the passover. For the Egyptians it is the body of their firstborn sons. For the people of God it is the body of a spotless lamb who has died in their place. During the season of easter, Christians celebrate Palm Sunday. The day in which Jesus rode in to the city of Jerusalem, during the week of Passover. You've seen the pictures of Jesus riding on the donkey, and you ve heard how the Crowd laid palm branches at his feet crying out, Hosanna -But the irony of their request couldn t be more clear. Because this day was the day that the Passover Lambs were brought in to Jerusalem to be sacrificed. Hosanna is an ancient phrase that means, Save us. Our passover lamb enters the city, and that is exaclty what he will do.

7 The passover is not just an episode in the history of Israel and Egypt. But it is a shadow cast by the fullness of the person and work of Jesus Christ. -In these pages of Scripture we are invited to see a God who delivers his people, and to behold the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world. Benediction: During this season, and all of our days, may we join in the song of the angels and declare, Worthy is the lamb who was slain. Announcements -Down to the last two weeks for The Resurrection Signup -There are books back there that are free -Thank you for praying for our Wiumauma Team