H HIGHLIGHT Exodus 12:1-13; 21-27 (HCSB) The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2 This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year. 3Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they must each select an animal of the flock according to their fathers households, one animal per household. 4If the household is too small for a whole animal, that person and the neighbor nearest his house are to select one based on the combined number of people; you should apportion the animal according to what each person will eat. 5You must have an unblemished animal, a yearold male; you may take it from either the sheep or the goats. 6You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight. 7They must take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat them. 8They are to eat the meat that night; they should eat it, roasted over the fire along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9Do not eat any of it raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over fire its head as well as its legs and inner organs. 10Do not let any of it remain until morning; you must burn up any part of it that does remain before morning. 11Here is how you must eat it: you must be dressed for travel, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in a hurry; it is the Lord s Passover. 12 I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. I am Yahweh; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. 13The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. E 21Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, Go, select an animal from the flock according to your families, and slaughter the Passover animal. 22Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and brush the lintel and the two doorposts with some of the blood in the basin. None of you may go out the door of his house until morning. 23When the Lord passes through to strike Egypt and sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, He will pass over the door and not let the destroyer enter your houses to strike you. 24 Keep this command permanently as a statute for you and your descendants. 25When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as He promised, you are to observe this ritual. 26When your children ask you, What does this ritual mean to you? 27you are to reply, It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and spared our homes. So the people bowed down and worshiped. 1 of 5
E EXPLAIN At Long Hollow, we want to equip every single person, no matter how young or old they are, to be able to read the Word of God on their own in such a way that they can hear Him speak. In the Explain section of the H.E.A.R. method, we will provide each person with a few tools to be able to examine the text so that it is personal and immediately applicable to their understanding of the Word of God. Leaders: feel free to use any of the Explain materials to guide discussion as it is needed or to expound on a certain area of the text as it comes up during your Life Group time, but the purpose of this section is to deepen your own personal understanding of the Word. Your members have access to all of this material as well. In this passage, we will see that the blood of the sacrificial lamb is all that can save the Israelites from destruction. Because the Passover is a foreshadowing of Christ s sacrifice on the cross, we can understand this more personally: the only thing that has the power to spare us from God s wrath is the sacrificial blood of Christ. At this point in the story, the Jews are captives in Israel. Moses, the Egyptian princeturned-shepherd, has approached Pharaoh nine times with the same plea straight from the mouth of the Lord: Let my people go. Each time, Pharaoh has refused and a plague has come upon the Egyptians. Now the Lord is giving directions to Moses for how to prepare His people for the final plague which will eventually convince Pharaoh to, at long last, let God s people go. v. 3: The people, or all the congregation, depending on your translation, is the Hebrew word edat. An edat is a group of people joined together for a specific purpose. It describes Israel as a religious body; this is the first time in all of Scripture where you ll find it. Edat carries similar connotations to the New Testament Greek word ekklesia, referring to the church. v. 4: Rabbis have determined the number of people that constituted a household that is too small for a whole animal as no less than 10 people per Passover lamb, but no more than 20. Consider having your Life Group, which probably fits within that range, bond with, slaughter, and cook an entire lamb to eat in one night. v. 12: Any time firstborns are mentioned throughout Scripture, the idea of privilege should come to mind. The firstborn was considered the favored one before God and received all manner of special treatment. If God is judging the firstborns, He is making a statement that any of the rest of us are under His judgment all the more. Ancient Egyptians had a great many gods, many of whom they believed were incarnated as animals. God killing the firstborn of the animals was not just needless or overly cruel; it was a direct insult to the Egyptians religious system. He was demonstrating that He was the only true God and the only One worthy of people s fear. 2 of 5
v. 22: Hyssop is a shrub that was traditionally associated with purification. It is seen elsewhere in Scripture in the following places: Leviticus 14:6 where it is to be used in cleansing skin diseases Numbers 19:18 Psalm 51:7 John 19:29 where it is used in purifying water where David is repenting of his sin with Bathsheba where it held the sponge with sour wine that Jesus drank A v. 23: The Destroyer is a word found thirty-five times in the Old Testament and refers to an instrument of God s divine will. Psalm 78:49 refers to the power that destroyed the Egyptians as a band of destroying angels, but in this case the particulars of the method God uses to exact His judgment are not the important thing: what is crucial is that God, Himself, is the direct cause of it. In Verse 13, He says I six times in reference to His divine judgment on the Egyptians. He is the Author of life and the Architect of death; nothing is beyond His sovereign control. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; Blessed be the name of the Lord. (Job 1:21) APPLY Your Leader Guide will have material that the member guides do not have. The bolded material is what the people in your group will have, the other material is only for you to help guide discussion. This guide can be used as a script or a resource, depending on what the leader needs. 1. What were your impressions of the sermon? (What stuck out to you? What challenged you? Was there anything Pastor Robby said that clarified this passage in your mind? etc.) or If you haven t heard the sermon yet, what are some of your initial impressions from the text? (Have you read it before? What kind of insights do you have at first glance? etc.) 2. Can you see any parallels between the preparations for the Passover and Christ's death on the Cross? The way that the Hebrews would be spared from the angel of death was if the spotless lamb died in place of the firstborn of their house. Likewise, we are spared from God s wrath by the blood that Jesus offered as a sacrifice in place of ours. The wages of sin is death. Christ s blood is sufficient to cover it. 3 of 5
An easy way to think about sufficiency in a practical way is in terms of money. Have you ever gone to pay for something with a debit card, only to find out that you had insufficient funds? Think of this in terms of Salvation: sin causes separation from God, and separation from God results in eternal punishment. Nothing we could save up would ever be able to save us from this punishment; the only thing sufficient to cover our debt is the blood of Christ. 3. Why did God need a sign on the doors of the homes? Didn t He know where His people lived? The blood was not just a sign for God, it was also a sign for the people. By covering the entrances to their houses in blood, the Israelites were given a lesson in why and how they were being spared. Death was coming to the entire land of Egypt directly from the hand of God, but He ordained it so that a lamb s death would spare all who applied it to their homes. It was not enough to recognize the saving power of the blood; they had to receive His gracious provision and apply it personally for it to count. 4. After the Passover ended, the Israelites would be able to say, I am alive because a lamb died in my place. How is this relevant to us today in light of Christ s blood that covers us? Ephesians 2 reminds us of our state before Christ: we were dead. But because God was merciful and provided a lamb to cover our sins He literally gave us Blood that would turn eternal destruction away we have been made alive with Christ. The beauty of the Gospel is not just that we don t deserve what Christ provided, it s that we actively deserve the opposite. Christ s blood, however, is sufficient to pay the penalty we owe on our own. 5. The Israelites painted their doorposts with the blood of the sacrificial lamb as a distinguishing mark (v.13). Think back to how you were before Christ and compare it to how you are after professing faith in Christ. What are some distinguishing characteristics that mark that change in your life? 6. What are some things that you have heard are necessary for salvation either from other people, other religious systems, or worldly philosophies? What does the Word of God tell us saves a person? For example: Romans 10:9-10 If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. Romans 10:13 Mark 1:15 Acts 16:31 Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Repent and believe in the good news! Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. 4 of 5
R RESPOND 7. The Israelites were instructed not to pick and choose which parts of the sacrifice they wanted to use (v. 10). What are some areas of our lives where we are picking and choosing the things that Christ s sacrifice requires of us that we need to hand over to Him? Even partial or delayed obedience is disobedience. If one of them had killed the lamb one day later, it would have been too late. Remember that it is okay if your group does not answer this out loud; some responses are best meditated on. Take two minutes to pray over your response to Question 7. Based on your time spent in prayer and on the truth you have learned from God s Word, write down your answer somewhere you will remember to see it this week. Encourage one another through email, text messages, or coffee dates throughout the week to build up and encourage each other. 5 of 5