Moments With God

Exodus 11-12

The Lord Jesus Christ is the "Lamb of God" who laid down His life on the cross to pay the penalty for the sins of His people. (John 1:29) As His children we have been cleansed from our sins and made "white in the blood of the Lamb," our Lord Jesus Christ! (Revelation 7:14b)

This wonderful truth is pictured for us in the Old Testament story found in Exodus 11-12. Pharaoh, ancient king of Egypt, had continued to harden his heart over and over in spite of nine horrendous plagues which God had sent on Egypt. (Exodus 7-10) Pharaoh had repeatedly refused to obey the clear command of God to let His Old Testament people, the Israelites, leave Egypt. Hence, God sent a tenth plague on Egypt. About midnight God went throughout the land of Egypt, and every firstborn son from every family in Egypt died including the first born son of the great Pharaoh down to the first born son of the lowliest of slaves. Those who do not accept God’s grace and who do not bow the knee to the Lord will die in their sins. They will also reap the eternal consequences of that sin.

For the Israelites, God’s Old Testament people, God provided a way of escape and grace, however. The Israelites were instructed to kill a lamb "without defect." (Exodus 12:5) Next the Israelites were to put some of the Lamb’s blood "on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses." (Exodus 12:7) God’s promised His Old Testament people that if they obeyed Him in this matter, He would pass over their houses and spare their first born sons. The Egyptian families’ firstborn sons would die, but when God saw the blood on the Israelite families’ houses He would spare their sons. What a beautiful picture of Jesus Christ, our Lamb of God, who once and for all shed His blood for our sins on the cross! The Israelites were no more deserving than the Egyptians of God’s grace. Yet God saved them because of the blood of the lambs on their doors. We also are undeserving of God’s grace. Yet through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, and through Christ’s blood God has chosen to save us and make us His children! Praise His name!

The same night as the Lord passed over their houses, God’s Old Testament people were instructed to eat the meat of the Lamb that they had killed and to eat bitter herbs and bread made without yeast. Yeast is often used as picture of sin in the New Testament. I Corinthians 5:7a instructs us to "get rid of the old yeast" of sin. In thankfulness for what Christ, our Lamb of God, has done for us on the cross may we passionately seek to live our lives in practical holiness and obedience to our Lord. The Lord says to us in I Peter 1:18-19, "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed----, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." The lamb that was killed and whose blood was put on the doorframes of the houses of God’s Old Testament people needed to be a lamb "without defect." (Exodus 12:5) So our Savior and Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, is our perfect "lamb without blemish or defect." (I Peter 1:19b) Jesus Christ lived a perfectly sinless life for us that we could not live, and then shed His blood to pay the punishment for our sins! That monumental event in the life of God’s Old Testament people when God spared their first born sons was very significant. It was from that day on called Passover, and the Israelites remembered that event every year with the Passover celebration and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It also was a new beginning in their calendar year and truly a new beginning in the history of God’s Old Testament people. (Exodus 12:2) As the Passover was a new beginning for God’s Old Testament people; so in Christ we as His people today have a new beginning, a new identity, and a new purpose in Him. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, shed His blood on the cross to purchase our salvation. May we passionately live our lives in gratitude to Him!