The Bible in 16 Verses: 7. The Passover

Okay, so as you know, we're going through the whole

Bible in 16 verses. We're still in the Old Testament. We've gone through creation, human beings, the fall, redemption promised,

Abraham, Judah and Judah the king. Today we're actually leaving Genesis. This is the first time we're out of the beginning and we're going to talk about the

Passover lamb. Then we'll get to King David, the suffering servant, resurrection promised and the new creation.

And then the time has come. This is the New Testament, the new covenant where all the things promised in the old covenant will find their fulfillment.

So we'll see the fulfillment, the cross, the resurrection, justification and glory.

So last week as a quick recap, we learned about God's kingdom and God's sovereignty.

He's sovereign over all things. He promises a royal seed of Judah, that a king will come from that line and rule with a scepter.

There's no way that that could happen apart from God's sovereignty. God just didn't, you know, guess into the future that that would happen.

He promised that it would happen and in his providence he brought about, he will bring about that.

So the story so far, God created a very good kingdom of which he is the king. He created human beings, his children to represent him in that kingdom and they were responsible to expand it.

Through their sin, Adam and Eve rejected God's commission and rebelled against their father and creator. Yet God proved his covenant love toward them despite their unfaithfulness.

Very good did not turn into very bad. It just proved the character of who was always very good.

There will be ongoing enmity between the offspring from now on. But God promised a redeemer who will crush the head of the enemy and secure

God's victory. With this promise, very bad turned into very hopeful. Next God chose

Abraham, an idolater, to bring the seed through whom the covenant blessings would come to all the families of the world.

Despite the sinful lineage of Abraham's family and specifically Judah's royal seed, God is still faithful to bring the covenant blessings to the world which would be ruled by a king.

So today we're up to, the time is coming, we're going to read Exodus 12, 23.

Our verse for today is, for the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the

Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.

And our quote, there will be blood. It was a movie, there will be blood. But before we get to that,

I just have to make a correction. Pastor Chris pointed out to me last week that Jeroboam is not

Rehoboam's brother. Now I don't know where I came up with that, I don't know if I heard it or just concluded that in my mind, but Jeroboam and Rehoboam were not brothers.

Jeroboam is of the son of Nebat, the tribe of Ephraim, and Zeruah who was a widow.

He founded the kingdom of Israel when the nation was split following the death of Solomon. His father was an official under Solomon and came from the village of Zerudah in the

Jordan. As a young man, Jeroboam showed such ability that Solomon put him in charge of the fortifications and public works of Jerusalem and made him overseer of the levy from the house of Joseph.

However, he used this position to stir up dissatisfaction against the government. So him and Rehoboam were at odds with one another.

One represented the seed of the serpent, one represented the seed of the woman. Now I want to put this up here publicly because I announced it publicly.

So I'm hoping that everybody who heard me say that now gets to this point and erases all my error, right?

This is not good. So I'm thankful to Pastor Chris for bringing that to my attention. And here's what

I want to tell everyone. Don't be afraid when someone comes to correct you. This is a blessing.

I now have the opportunity to counter the error that I made and I pray

I don't make any more. I'm a human being. I probably will. So let's move forward. Thank you, brother. All right.

Bloody lamb, bloody doorpost. Why all that bloody stuff in the Bible? Couldn't God just have skipped past the law with its sacrifices and weird regulations and go straight to the good news?

Many Christians struggle to understand why the law of Moses was necessary. So in this lesson, we'll focus on the law, especially its sacrifices, by concentrating on the

Passover in Exodus 12. And the Passover in Exodus and the deliverance of the

Jews from Egypt into Israel is an ongoing picture of what happens in the life of a believer.

As we're taken out of bondage, out of slavery and brought into redemption, this happens over and over in our lives.

It's a continual story. At the beginning of Exodus, we discover that Abraham's family is actually farther away from living in God's place and extending the blessing to the nations than when he left off.

After Abraham's family went down to Egypt in the time of Joseph, they settled there and started to multiply.

During the next four centuries, they grew from the 70 -person family that Jacob let down from Palestine into a nation of around 2 million people.

They became known as the Israelites after a new name that God gave to Jacob. He called Jacob Israel.

And this is a promise, one of the promises that God made to Abraham is that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky.

They went from 70 people to 2 million people. And anybody know what the word

Israel means? Israel means struggle with God.

Jacob was wrestling with the angel. He's called Israel, struggles with God.

So sometimes when you're battling with sin and God's disciplining you, sometimes you're struggling with God, right?

You're spiritual Israel. All right, quick recap. We went through creation,

Adam and Eve, God creates human beings. Then the serpent comes into the garden.

God promises he's going to crush the head of the serpent. Then mankind becomes even more wicked, right?

God saw that the inclination of man's heart was only evil continually, so he judges the entire earth.

He saves Noah and his family through the ark. Then he makes the promise to Abraham, right?

Abraham gives his lineage, through his lineage come Joseph.

Joseph becomes the number two guy in Egypt, ends up saving his brothers, which brings forth the

Jewish line. Then we get to the promise that a king will come and rule.

And now we're up to Pharaoh and the Exodus. So the

Egyptians enslaved the family of Abraham and forced them into hard labor. They were still not in God's promised land.

They were under the oppression of the Egyptians. Bottom line, they needed to be rescued. The seed of the serpent here, embodied by the

Egyptians, was rising up to try to extinguish God's promised line. To slow the growth of Abraham's family,

Egypt's king, the Pharaoh, commanded that all of the Israelite baby boys would be killed.

But one child escaped his fate. Moses was rescued, raised in Pharaoh's court, and eventually called to lead

God's people out of slavery after some trials along the way. Now when Pharaoh commands that all the firstborn be killed, what is that a picture of in the

New Testament? Herod. Right? Herod knows that the

Messiah is coming. He has an inkling. It might be around this time. Kill all the firstborn children.

So here, I want to show you something. Look at that. The headdress of Pharaoh looks just like the headdress of a cobra snake.

In fact, if you look up on the top left, there is a little snake there. So this is very clear imagery of what's going on.

And this represents the battle that's going on in the world today. You still have the seed of the serpent battling against the seed of the woman.

The seed of the woman wins. I urge you to get on the side of the seed of the woman. Repent.

Put your faith and trust in Jesus, who is the king. Pharaoh fears the

Israelites' growing numbers and responds with slavery. The Egyptians made their lives bitter with hard service.

When Israel continues to multiply, Pharaoh enacts a policy of population control, a direct contradiction of Scripture's command to be fruitful and multiply.

Pharaoh's like, kill them. Get them out of the way. What does the devil come to do? Steal, kill, and destroy.

So Pharaoh commands the Midwives to kill any newborn Hebrew male child. The Midwives, however, fear

God and refuse to obey the tyrant's unjust orders. As a result, their names are recorded in the

Bible for all posterity, Shiphrah and Puah. It is amazing that these two midwives are named while the

Pharaoh is never named. When God leaves a name out, that's kind of like a sign of judgment.

It's Lazarus and who? The rich man. You don't know his name.

You know what he's going to be known in hell as forever? The rich man. Look where the rich man ended up.

It's not about riches. Okay, I digress. In the ancient world, to record a name was to give honor, and to blot out or refuse to name was an action aimed at dishonoring.

The book of names' refusal to name Pharaoh is a form of judgment. Pharaoh's wickedness leads to his name being blotted out of the book of life.

In Exodus chapter 2, a woman of the house of Levi, one of the tribes of Israel, the priestly line, gives birth to a baby boy and devises a plan to save his life.

This brave and loving mother obeys the letter of the law and puts her newborn son in denial, but with a twist.

She makes a floating basket. In Hebrew, the word teva is the same word used for ark in Genesis chapter 6.

And she lays her son in it, entrusting his safety to the Lord. Once again, an ark will bring salvation, bringing this man forward who will become, he's

Moses, but will grow into the leader of the Israelites and lead them into the promised land. Pharaoh's daughter spies out the basket and commands it to be brought to her, although she recognizes the child as a

Hebrew. Hebrews circumcise children on the eighth day. She has pity on him and adopts him, refusing to obey her father's command of infanticide.

And that's an actual picture of the baby. Okay, lighten up.

That's not an actual picture of the baby. That was, yeah, that was the iPhone. iPhone one.

In AI, right? That's great. All right, lighten up, guys. Okay. God calls

Moses to a new mission. God tells Moses that he has looked down and seen the affliction of his people and that he will send

Moses to Pharaoh to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt. And you also got to remember, none of the people in Egypt remember

Joseph at this point. Like Joseph is, he's in the past. Joseph was the guy who helped preserve the nation and feed his brothers and bring them forward.

Right? Nobody knows Joseph now. This is a couple of pharaohs after that one. So Moses, however, is a man under a death sentence.

He fled Egypt for fear of his life after killing an Egyptian. And now the Lord is telling him to march right into Pharaoh's court and make demands on behalf of Israel.

So Moses' sin doesn't disqualify him from God continuing to use him.

The same way, our sin doesn't disqualify us from God using us. Right?

We have a savior for our sin. I'm not saying to sin, right? I'm saying to avoid sin.

But God uses us. We're sinners. He uses us to bring forth his kingdom. No wonder

Moses is not immediately convinced of his chances for success. He asks, who am

I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt? The Lord reassures

Moses, promising that he himself will be with him. And this is a refrain over and over and over.

Be strong and courageous. Do not fear. Why? I will be with you.

I will be with you. This is the great commission, going to all the nations, teaching them to obey everything

I commanded you. Why? I will be with you even to the end of the age. We have the promise of God's presence so that when we go and bring the gospel, he's with us.

We have nothing to fear. God heard the groaning of his people and Exodus 2 .24

tells us he remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and with Jacob. He's the covenant keeper.

He had pledged to keep his covenant with the patriarchs and he would take the next step in doing that by bringing his people out of slavery and giving them the law.

So whatever else we might say about the law and its commandments, we cannot forget that it is a continuation of God's promises to Abraham, which are actually a continuation of his saving promise to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 .15.

Remember, after Genesis 3 .15, Sinclair Ferguson says everything after Genesis 3 .15

is a footnote to that verse. Everything that happens after that is how

God is going to crush the head of the serpent. And God is a God who keeps his promises, who swears to his own hurt and does not change.

He's in covenant with us. It's an oath sworn in blood.

He walked through the pieces of the animals saying that he was going to accomplish this covenant apart from humanity's effort.

He's being faithful to his promise. He's going to finish what he started and bring forth the promise.

At God's command, Moses requests Pharaoh, let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.

Moses reiterates, let us go, we beg, a three days journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the

Lord our God. He recognized that he wanted to offer sacrifices to God. Then the

Lord said to Moses, see, I've made you like a God to Pharaoh and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.

God calls Moses to show his people and Pharaoh what Jesus is like. Moses is miraculously saved at birth.

His name means saved. He will speak God's word, redeem the people from slavery and lead them.

As they look at Moses, they will see something of Jesus. He's a foreshadowing. Moses tells the people that although he is like Jesus, Jesus is the one that they must follow.

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.

So God tells them that there's going to be a prophet who comes up like Moses. That's pointing to Jesus.

And what was Pharaoh's response? Pharaoh said, who is the

Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord.

And moreover, I will not let Israel go. Pharaoh was in denial.

I got it on the recording. It's very important. Thank you. Well, guess what? Pharaoh will come to know who

God is. Here's how. Through the plagues. All right. Each one of these plagues specifically addresses a

God that the Egyptians were worshiping. We're going to learn about that, the one about the blood in a little bit, but it's interesting.

The one about the frogs. I always remember this. You know, God sends the plague of frogs, they're two feet deep inside the palace, out all over the place.

Right? Moses comes to Pharaoh and he says, do you want me to remove the frogs? Pharaoh says, yes.

Moses says, when? Pharaoh says, tomorrow. Tomorrow?

Listen, tomorrow is the most dangerous word in the Bible. I'll repent tomorrow.

I'll trust in Jesus tomorrow. No. Tomorrow. That's an unregenerate heart.

So God systematically beats down every one of the gods that the

Egyptians were worshiping. This should also be a sign to the

Israelites when they go into the promised land that our God defeats every other

God. This is a sign to them to encourage them and build confidence in the God who said, go and do it and I will be with you.

This is what will happen if they rise up against you. No fear. The first plague turns the

Nile into blood, a sign that recalls the drowning of Israel's innocent children. Justice is coming to Egypt for its infanticide.

But the ultimate purpose of the plagues is to teach a powerful message. The God of Israel is the one true

God of all. God's instructions to Moses bear this out. By this you shall know that I am the

Lord. The Egyptians, who were both very religious and very conscious of symbols, would see the

Nile's transformation into blood as an ominous portent, which is a sign. The Nile, the linchpin of Egyptian economy and life, was worshipped as the

God happy. To see the Nile, a constant source of life, now running with blood, would signify death.

And the conclusion drawn would be that the God of the Hebrews has struck a mortal blow to the

Egyptians' beloved God, happy. They were not happy after that.

Our God is the only true God. They weren't unhappy.

Right. Exactly. It amazes me the level of discomfort that people are willing to live with rather than turn to God.

It amazes me my level of discomfort that I was willing to live with without repenting.

Yeah, Jerry. You know, you're right. So the Nile, the Nile, is their way into the underworld.

And each one of those gods, there's a story behind each one, and you can go really deep into that. And people have.

We just don't have time to go into it today. But each one of those gods represented something to the Egyptians. So God wiping them all out.

This is, this is significant. This is paradigm shattering. And this is a sign to the

Israelites. Like, this is the God who we're with?

He's the one delivering us out of slavery, out of Egypt? Thank you. On the night before he would finally rescue the

Israelites from Egypt, God commanded each Israelite family to sacrifice a lamb and spread its blood over the top of their door and the doorposts on each side.

Then he said, for the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians. And when he sees blood, the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the

Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.

Right? God. Now, this repulses some people. God's going to strike down the firstborn in all

Egypt. But what we have to remember is God is the giver of life. He can also take it away. Hannah says the

Lord kills and the Lord brings to life. He brings down to Sheol and he raises up.

If God is the author of life, he could take it away at any point in time he wants. What we also have to remember is he could do whatever he wants with that soul on the other side.

It doesn't mean that all infants go to hell. Right? There's a whole big issue about that now. God chooses whom he'll choose.

He gives life, he'll have mercy upon whom he'll have mercy, and he'll give justice whoever he gives justice.

So him taking their lives is not cruel on God's part. In a very direct way,

God rescued his people with the blood of the Passover lambs. Because the lambs were sacrificed, the people did not have to die.

Because the blood of the lambs was spilled, the firstborn sons in Abraham's family were safe.

That's a little picture of that. This is what the Passover would look like. You'd have the blood on the lintel and Jesus would ultimately become the door.

Right? So here's our first picture of where we need a substitute. We needed a lamb sacrificed in our place.

So this speaks to the substitution that God would accept on our behalf. Why? Because Jesus would later become the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

He would be substituted in our place. It had to be this way because the

Egyptians were not the only ones under a death sentence. The Israelites were just as guilty.

We have to remember that all humanity has fallen short of the glory of God. Just because we're saved, it doesn't mean we're better than someone else.

We need to look at people with love and mercy. They are not our enemy.

There's an enemy that stands behind them. We're going to hear about that a little later. There's an enemy that stands behind them that uses them as tools in certain cases.

Our hearts should go out to those people because we stood in the same place as well.

The Israelites were just as guilty, or if not more so, they had the law. While the Egyptians were guilty of worshipping lots of other gods, the

Israelites were guilty both of idolatry and of doubting God's promises to save them.

They quickly doubted God's promises after Pharaoh increased their workload. Remember? Oh, we could have had leeks and onions.

Who would want to... Leeks and onions. Pineapple on pizza.

It's an acquired taste. It's an acquired... It's a good group this morning. All right. You guys are waking up.

I'm glad to see that. Even when they were slaves in Egypt, God said the Israelites would not forsake the gods of the

Egyptians. Oh, Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?

Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who swears to his own hurt and does not change.

That's Psalm 15 from before. Who's the one who swears to his own hurt and does not change?

God, Jesus. He's the one who swears to his own hurt, does not change, will not turn his back on us.

How many times, unfortunately, us, even as Christians, when we sin, have turned our back on God.

But he does not turn his back on us. Thank you, Lord. Even after God had delivered them from Egypt, they continued to doubt him at the

Red Sea, at Mount Sinai, and in the wilderness. Like Adam and Eve, they doubted that God's words were true.

And because of that, like Adam and Eve, they were under a death sentence. But when God judged Egypt, he provided a way of escape for his people.

And this way of escape laid the foundation for the law that was about to be given to them. So again, over and over and over, we see, as God's plan unfolds, he's showing the way by which we would be able to escape our sins.

It's through a substitute, and it's through the shedding of blood. As the Lord was passing through Egypt, striking down all of the firstborn sons, he passed over the houses that were marked with the blood of the lambs.

The lambs died so that the firstborn sons would not. Although we saw hints of this before, this is one of the earliest clear examples of the important biblical principle of substitution.

The Passover lambs were substitutes for the firstborn in Israel. In this first Passover, God considered the sacrifices of lambs to be sufficient to save his people from judgment.

And again, a lot of people always ask, why is it the blood? Why is it the blood? Because God chose the blood.

The life is in the blood. All right? This was God's means of redeeming our sins.

It had to be serious enough to not be taken lightly. So what was the pinnacle of God's creation?

Humanity, right? So what would be the worst punishment to humanity?

Killing them. The shedding of their blood. So ultimately, God is going to take on flesh, become a man, and give his life.

Because humanity is the pinnacle of God's creation, this is the pinnacle of sinfulness, of what sinfulness deserves.

But there was also a big problem with the sacrifice. The people soon would realize that they needed another one.

As we saw a moment ago, the people had sinned repeatedly in the past, and it would not take them long to see again and again and again that they needed to sacrifice a lamb.

In order to point the Israelites to their constant failure to trust that God's words are true and their constant need for forgiveness, he gave them the law.

The law is a schoolmaster to lead them to Christ. The law does not ever prove anyone innocent.

All the law does is prove you guilty. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 says it's the ministry of death.

It's designed to kill us, to show us our sinfulness, that in and of ourselves we'll never be good apart from the goodness of God.

After bringing them through the Red Sea and to the foot of the Mount Sinai, God continued to provide a way of escape.

He gave the Israelites a law that organized them into a nation and taught them about his holiness and what he demands of his people.

He gave them a covenant filled with stipulations and rules, but that covenant was built on both his previous promises to Abraham and his gracious work to free them from slavery in Egypt.

Again, the law never made anyone righteous. The moment you sin, even before you sin, again after the fall, we're born in a state of sin, but the moment

Adam and Eve sinned, they could never unsin. They could never be considered perfect and nothing imperfect enters heaven.

But the sacrificial system was designed to show them their sinfulness and their need for a substitute.

It shows them the severity of the penalty and the glory of the solution.

So the law set Israel apart as a nation. No other nations had the law that Israel had, as God's treasured possession.

But the backbone of the law was the sacrificial system. Every year the Levite priest, descendants of Jacob's son

Levi, needed to offer hundreds and hundreds of sacrifices. If they were keeping the commandments of the law, every descendant of Abraham would see the animal sacrifices.

The message sent to each of them by every bull and goat sacrifice was, you deserve this.

This should be your blood. And again, it was over and over and over and over until Jesus, who was sacrificed once for all.

And we know of another religious tradition that continues to re -sacrifice Jesus' body on the altar every week.

Why? Because it never makes perfect anyone who comes to it. The true sacrifice of Jesus makes perfect those who come to him.

They only have to be sacrificed once. Every year the nation would celebrate the anniversary of that first Passover in Egypt.

Every year each family was to sacrifice another lamb as a substitute. Put yourself in the place of an

Israelite for a moment. If you were truly grasping the message of the sacrifices, you would think the consequence of sin is death.

But in the garden, God promised to overcome the effects of sin and finality to defeat and finally defeat the serpent.

So all these sacrifices are happening. And think about what a family had to do. You had to bring your best lamb to the temple.

You had to put your hand on its head as the priest sliced open the neck of the lamb.

There'd be blood going everywhere. This would traumatize the family.

This was your prized lamb. They probably raised it like a little pet. Now you've got to slice its throat and see the blood all over the place.

On top of the fact that there was probably many sacrifices that happened there before. The earth is full of blood.

This is a visual image to the Israelites that this is serious. This is not something we want to see on a regular basis.

And they were given that promise that there would be one who would crush the head of the serpent. That's why they were looking forward to a

Messiah. However, these sacrifices have to be repeated year after year so they can't actually be defeating sin.

In fact, when I offer a sacrifice, I am admitting that I deserve death. So unless something or someone greater comes, all

I am doing is delaying the inevitable. I need a greater sacrifice. I need the one who will come and crush the head of the serpent.

While God had many purposes for the law, one of the clearest and most important was to point to the need of a greater sacrifice to come.

The sacrifice would have to defeat the serpent and reverse the effects of God's curse. So we have to conclude that the promised seed would somehow defeat sin by providing a final and complete sacrifice.

Which once we get to the time is here, the new covenant, we're going to see that Jesus is the fulfillment of this.

God redeemed his people from slavery in Egypt by means of a substitute. Very early in the

Bible then, the patterns of redemption are established. In the first Passover, we see the pattern that God established in the law.

The entire Mosaic covenant points forward to the need for a greater sacrifice. It points us to the promised seed of Genesis 3 .15.

Any questions up to this point? Is this making sense? Yes, John. Well, at Genesis 3 .15,

he clothed them with animal skins. Yeah, this was the first time they would recognize that they needed a substitute in their place and that not only were the

Israelites under sin, they were under sin also. Adam and Eve, there was no one else there.

So, they knew that they, yeah, absolutely, definitely.

That was the first shedding of blood. This now institutes it as a holiday to be celebrated every year.

And they're told to teach their children, this is why we have the Passover, right? What do we teach our children?

This is why we have the cross. We point back to the cross, they point back to the Passover. Now, hopefully, our

Jewish friends will see the cross and what it actually represents, the sacrifice once for all.

The one who came to crush the head of the serpent is here. Good question.

After the newly constituted nation of Israel left Sinai, they wandered in the desert for 40 years because of their ongoing sin.

Time and time again, they succumbed to the temptations in the wilderness, but God in his grace eventually led them into the promised land.

Now, again, Moses doesn't get into the promised land because he disobeyed God. He struck the rock violently twice.

He was told to speak to the rock, right? And what does Moses represent? The law.

So, this is another picture for us that teaches us that the law doesn't get you into the promised land. Okay?

Keeping the law does not get you into the promised land. God gave them the law so that when they got into the promised land, they would know how to live in it, right?

It wasn't, oh, you kept the law, now you get the promised land. It's like, no, I'm going to give you the promised land, now here's the law that shows you how to live in it.

So, the law is not our means for salvation, right? The law points out our sin and leads us to Christ, leads us to a

Savior. God gave Israel victory over the nations occupying the land so that Moses' successor,

Joshua, eventually could tell them, not one word has failed of all the good things that the

Lord your God promised concerning you. So, now there's ongoing questions and controversy about Israel and the land.

Do they own the land that they're in now? And I would say this, God tells them, if they do not keep

God's law, He will spew them out of the land. What do you see happening?

There's the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, there's this ongoing battle happening trying to push

Israel out of the land. Do they deserve the land? No, no,

Jerusalem is the LGBT capital of the world, right?

They rejected God's Son. God's people believe in God's Son. They are of the lineage of Israel, but they are not spiritually

Israel. They've rejected God's Passover land. At this point in the story, it might seem that God finally was restoring garden -like conditions.

The Israelites had God's direct revelation through the law to rule them and God's blessing with His presence among them.

And He had brought His people into the land that He had promised them. But like Adam and Eve, they continued to doubt

God's word and defy His law and to desire to live apart from His presence. Like Adam and Eve, they were not satisfied with God's rule over them.

Eventually, they would ask for a king like those in the nations around them.

Another slap in God's face. He's with them, He's ruling over them, giving them promises, and they say,

Nah, we want a king like everyone else around us. Like the nation that, you know, you just trounced all their gods, we want a king like that.

This is the depth of the depravity of the human heart. Not recognizing God is with you.

He's the one true God. He's delivering you out of Egypt. Thank God He was with you.

And thank God, our promise and their promise did not depend on their obedience.

The ultimate promise is salvation, I'll say. That doesn't depend on their obedience. God walked through the animal's cut in the promise that He made for Abraham.

Believe it or not, that is exactly what God gave them. But this was not the kind of king who would be able to finally lead the defeat of sin and death they should have been longing for, looking for.

Instead, King Saul was exactly what they wanted. A king like the ones in the surrounding nations. A king who relied on military strength, the wisdom of man, and the worship of false gods.

Yes. Right, and that's what makes it so difficult to understand.

They had Saul and should have recognized, this is a man of the world. That didn't work. Why are we looking for another guy like Saul?

Shouldn't we be looking for a guy like David? But this was not the king through whom

God's promises would come. There will be blood.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls.

For it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Obviously the blood is the pinnacle of, runs through the pinnacle of God's creation, right?

It's the one thing that's constantly moving, that feeds all of our other organs. The life is in the blood.

And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. There must be blood,

God, the

Lamb. Ultimately Jesus would come, John the Baptist would say, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

So, in today's lesson we learned redemption and substitution.

There has to be shedding of blood in order for there to be forgiveness of sins. And the

Lamb was the substitute for us. The Lamb stood in our place, gave its life, okay, in order that we would live and God would pass over our sins.

When we get to the New Testament, God doesn't just pass over our sins. Romans 4 talks about the forbearance of God, or Romans 3, talks about the forbearance of God, where He passed over the old sins but now

He's actually going to pay for them. For the sins all the Old Testament saints committed would now be paid for at the cross.

All our sins, past, present, and future, would be paid for at the cross, not just covered over.

So, our story so far, God created a very good kingdom of which He is the King. He created human beings,

His children, to represent Him in that kingdom, and they were responsible to expand it. Through their sin,

Adam and Eve rejected God's commission and rebelled against their Father and Creator. Yet, God proved His covenant love toward them despite their unfaithfulness.

Very good did not turn into very bad, it just proved the character of who was always very good.

There will be ongoing enmity between the offspring from now on, but God promised a Redeemer who will crush the head of the enemy and secure

God's victory. With this promise, very bad turned into very hopeful. Next, God chose

Abraham, an idolater, to bring the seed through whom the covenant blessings would come to all the families of the world.

Again, despite their sinful lineage, Abraham's family, and specifically Judah's royal seed, God is still faithful to bring the covenant blessings to the world, which would be ruled by a king.

Because all people were guilty and deserved death, the blood sacrifices of the

Mosaic Law revealed more clearly their guilt and ongoing need for a substitute.

Questions, comments? Right. There's a difference between knowing facts about something and then actually knowing something.

Like, put it this way, if Derek Jeter walked into the sanctuary here,

I would say, I know him. But he would be like, I don't know you. I know about him.

I admired him from afar, but I don't have a relationship with him. And that's the difference between knowing about God and knowing

God. He says about Israel, you only have I known. In other words, there was a special covenantal marital relationship between God and Israel that didn't exist between God and all mankind.

Right? So, when people who oppose Reformed theology say, well,

God loved the world. He says, yes, God loved the world in one sense, in that the whole world is his creation.

But he chose Israel out of all the other nations of the earth, and what? Set his love on them.

What does that mean? If God loves the world, why does he have to set his love on Israel? Because it's a covenantal marital love that he does not have for the rest of the world.

A love that will sacrifice itself for those people. So yes,

God has a general love for mankind, right? But God has a special love for his people, right?

Exactly. Yeah, they're upset with God killing the firstborn. Pharaoh killing them, not a big deal. And you want to ask, usually the people, these are skeptics who come, how could

God kill all the firstborn babies? Say, oh, good, you're pro -life. Well, no,

I believe in a woman's right to choose. Oh, but what God did was wrong. The contradiction in their worldview is just astounding, right?

And it's our job to point that out. Anyone else? We're good?