# 36 2024 Dev. Ex.11-12. Passover! Read all of chapter eleven and twelve first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s Story. Do you believe that this may also be part of our story, in our time? All passages are taken from the NIV.
Ex. 12:33 “The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. ‘For otherwise,’ they said, ‘we will all die!”’
Ex.11-12 This will be the last plague and more destructive than all the other plagues. We keep reading “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart”. Yes, that is because the Holy Spirit was driven from his heart by his refusal to listen, by his arrogance and his complete disregard to honor the Lord. That is going on today; Hamas will not let the hostages go, not until they are completely destroyed. Like Pharaoh they are incapable of peace, their hearts have hardened, the Spirit will not engage them again. The back story in Egypt is that Satan is behind the destruction of the Israelites still going on today. “Salvation comes from the Jews.”John 4:22. There are people and countries today still helping Satan to destroy the Jews.
Chapter 11:1-9 “Now the Lord had said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely.” Pharaoh is told what will happen but he did not listen and would not let God’s people go.
Chapter 12: “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ‘This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.’” This event of the exodus is to change much in the life of the Jews. They will have their own calendar, their own festivals, from now on it will be a unique nation. The passover has unique implications for the Jews and for us as well, it is an event of God’s grace to God’s people and to us as well. The blood on the door posts is for us the blood of Jesus’ forgiveness of our sins, set free from slavery for the people and for us, set free from the slavery of sin in our lives.
Vs.1-11 Moses is given specific instructions about the passover, the animals to sacrifice, the sprinkling of the blood, the matter of cooking the meat and unleavened bread. Only those part of the community, no uncircumcised person may eat of this meal.
Vs.12-20 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. Eat all the roasted meat, do not leave any of it and eat in haste. “Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.”
Vs.21-30 “Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.’” Moses further instructed them, “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony…At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.”
The Exodus. vs.31-42 “During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, ‘Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me… The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.” It must have been an unbelievable sight, the Israelites did not lose livestock during the plagues, and six hundred thousand men, that was a mass of three million people all together. “At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt.”
Vs.43-51 Here the rules and the restrictions of the passover are repeated indicating the importance of the Passover celebration. It was the founding of the Jewish nation that goes on to this day. For Christians the passover meal that Jesus had with His disciples is what we do on a regular basis as communion, we remember Jesus’ sacrifice, the Passover Lamb, we remember and celebrate until He comes again. Praise be to God!
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