The Exodus Exodus 12:29-51

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February 13, 2022 - Morning Service Faith Bible Church - Sacramento, California Sermon - The Exodus - Exodus 12:29-51

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Well, good morning, and welcome to Faith Bible Church. Good morning to the folks watching at home that are homesick and ill and not able to come in.
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We ask the Lord to bless you exactly where you're at, that you will stay close to him, because when you're separated from the body, it becomes really, really hard to keep your faith strong, to keep your trust in him consistent.
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There's a reason we gather every week, you know, that we don't gather once a month. We need this.
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You know, we're a forgetful people, just as Israel was in biblical times, that we know that they, you know, they rise and fall and fall away from him, but we need to remember our
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Lord, and that's why we gather, one of the reasons why. So in the way of announcements,
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Ladies Bible Study is next Saturday at 10 in the morning, and later in the afternoon, the Men's Bible Study is at 3 .30.
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As we prepare for worship and anticipate our meeting later, I'm reminded that this is his church, and it's our privilege and our blessing to be able to be a part of a local body, to gather as we do.
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This is somewhat unique, and it's a gift, and we need to realize that.
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And although I won't be singing it like Victor has in the past, I'm going to read a few lyrics from a hymn, and it's the church's one foundation.
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This came to mind, and sadly, many churches have departed from this truth, that Christ is not their center.
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But just two verses out of it, the church's one foundation is Jesus Christ, her
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Lord. She is his new creation by water and the word. From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride.
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With his own blood he bought her, and for her life he died. Mid toil and tribulation, and tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forever, till with the vision glorious, her longing eyes are blessed, and the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.
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Isn't that our hope? That is so comforting. It really is. You know, the world doesn't have something like this to hold on to, but we do.
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So let's do it. Let's hold on to that, okay? So would you join with me in prayer, please?
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Lord God, we thank you, Father, that you allow us to gather as a body of believers, Father, that we come before you,
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Father, in a manner that will honor you, that will please you, Lord. As we lift our voices, as we hear the word being preached and taught,
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God, I pray that our hearts would be right before you. You are a holy God, Father, and we are not holy, but through the blood of Jesus Christ we can approach the throne.
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We can be with you. We can commune with you. And today, this is a wonderful day and a wonderful time that we can do that corporately as believers together,
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Father. We pray for those that are hurting today. We are aware of some, Dave Hahn and his passing of his dad just in the last 24 hours.
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Lord, we pray for comfort for him, for his family members. God, be a blessing to them,
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Father, as they prepare to go back later this week. God, we know that there are others out there with work challenges and occupation changes,
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Father. We would pray that you would be the center of their decision process, that they would pursue you as their all -in -all so that whatever you put on their hearts to do, it would be according to your will.
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So God, bless us this morning, Father. We have so much to rejoice and to thank you for. And we do that now in Jesus' precious name, amen.
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And I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
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And let's stand and sing. Amen. I sing, almighty,
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I surrender. I sing, oh,
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I surrender. Thank you for singing and please be seated at this time.
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Let's start scripture reading. Scripture reading this morning is from the book of Psalms.
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Psalm 105, verses 26 through 38.
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Psalm 105, verses 26 -38.
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He sent Moses his servant, and Aaron whom he had chosen. They performed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.
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He sent darkness, and made it dark, and they did not rebel against his word.
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He turned their waters into blood, and killed their fish. Their land abounded with frogs, even in the chambers of their kings.
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He spoke, and there came swarms of flies and lice in all their territory.
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He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land. He struck their vines also, and their fig trees, and splintered the trees of their territory.
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He spoke, and locusts came, young locusts without number, and ate up all the vegetation in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground.
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He also destroyed all the firstborn in their land, the first of all their strength. He also brought them out with silver and gold, and there was none feeble among his tribes.
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Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them had fallen upon them.
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May the Lord add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his holy word. Let my mouth be filled with thy praise, and with thy honor all the day.
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Just like a platter, bind my wandering heart to thee.
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Grown to wander, here's my heart.
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Lord, take and seal it, seal it for thine. Thank you all for singing.
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Please be seated. Children are now dismissed at Children's Church. Please turn with me to Exodus chapter 12, verses 29 through 51.
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Exodus chapter 12, verses 29 through 51.
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And it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock.
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So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
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Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night and said, Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel, and go serve the
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Lord as you have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also.
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And the Egyptians urged the people that they might send them out of the land in haste, for they said,
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We shall all be dead. So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.
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Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing.
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And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested.
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Thus they plundered the Egyptians. Then the children of Israel journeyed from Ramesses to Sukkoth, about 600 ,000 men on foot, besides children.
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A mixed multitude went up with them also, then flocks and herds, a great deal of livestock.
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And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt.
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For it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves.
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Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was 430 years.
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And it came to pass at the end of the 430 years, on that very same day, it came to pass that all the armies of the
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Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night of solemn observance to the
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Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.
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And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner shall eat it.
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But every manservant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat it.
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A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat it. In one house it shall be eaten.
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You shall not carry any of the flesh outside of the house, nor shall you break one of its bones.
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All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the
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Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. And then let him come near and keep it.
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And he shall be as a native of the land, for no uncircumcised person shall eat it.
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One law shall be for the native born and for the stranger who dwells among you.
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Thus all the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. So they did.
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And it came to pass on that very same day that the Lord brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt according to their armies.
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This is the word of the Lord. Father, we come before you as your children.
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We thank you that you watch over us even when life gets hard, even through the loss and suffering.
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Father, there are brothers and sisters here who have lost their loved ones recently.
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And Father, we pray that you would be their source of comfort. I pray that they would lean on you as you love them more than anyone else on earth.
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And that you too grieve at the existence of death and suffering.
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And that you eliminated the eternal death for the believers because you love them so much.
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Father, we pray that our hearts would be open to you and that we would find comfort in your steadfast love for us.
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In Jesus' name, amen. This is finally the exit, the exodus of Israel from Egypt.
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And as we have read, they've sojourned in the land of Egypt for 430 years.
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That's older than this country. Now what is most remarkable about the exodus is that no life of Israelites was lost during the whole process.
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This sounds, I think we take it for granted that during the exodus, no life of a single slave was lost.
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Because we read it and we've heard of it so many times. But to set the modern context,
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I share with you some numbers. For example, the only successful slave revolt in which the slaves fought to gain their freedom, to earn their freedom was the
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Haitian Revolution at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century.
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This is when Haitians fought for their freedom against the French. And they succeeded and was able to establish their own government.
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The lives lost among the Haitian soldiers, so the former slaves, were 200 ,000.
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45 ,000 British soldiers volunteered to help, in fact, and they also died for the freedom of the
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Haitians. Our country also has a bloody history regarding the freedom of the slaves.
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And in fact, it is estimated that over 600 ,000 lives were lost because of the civil war, the war to end slavery.
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600 ,000 is the same amount of males who got out of the land of Egypt alive.
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This is remarkable that Israel had a
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God who was able to accomplish that without a single bloodshed of his own people.
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When humans try to end slavery, it's violent and there's a huge cost.
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But when God ended slavery in Egypt, it was not violent at all for his own people.
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No life being lost is, in fact, the greatest miracle in the land of Egypt.
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No life of a slave was lost in the land of Egypt against the superpower of the ancient world.
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That's the kind of God we worship. And the main point of this text is that because the
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Lord has always been faithful toward his covenant people, he delivers us completely.
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Because the Lord has always been faithful toward his covenant people, he delivers us completely.
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First point, the Lord is faithful to deliver his people completely.
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The Lord is faithful to deliver his people completely. The first section of the passage, verses 29 through 36, is filled with the fulfillments of the word of the
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Lord that we previously went over. This section is enveloped by the
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Lord's powerful actions to lead a complete deliverance of his people.
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While verse 29 shows the Lord's power in his final plague to deliver his people out of Egypt, verse 36 shows his merciful providence for his people's departure.
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A great miracle flank both ends. In between are the responses from both
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Egypt and God's people. God's mighty and merciful acts surround the human responses.
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Moses visually shows us that the deliverance of God's people is surrounded by the
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Lord's faithful fulfillment of his promises. Verse 29 starts with the fulfillment of the final plague in Egypt.
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When the Lord struck Egypt for the last time, the judgment impacted everyone.
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Every firstborn of Egypt was struck. From the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the captive in the dungeon, from the highest to the lowest, the
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Lord struck the wicked nation. This judgment is a divine retribution.
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Recall how Exodus started out. The book of Exodus started out with the first Pharaoh ordaining a genocide of the innocent
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Hebrew boys. But on that night, Egypt experienced a taste of shock and grief that God's people experienced under their king.
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This was not a vengeance performed by the Israelites. No, the Israelites did not lift a finger to do this, but rather divine justice done by the
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Lord, their God. And this is what the
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Lord said he would do in Exodus 12, 12, as he would go through the land of Egypt, and every house that is not covered by the blood of the
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Lamb, they would lose their firstborn. And this was promised as early as Exodus 4, 22 through 23.
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Then you shall say to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn.
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So I say to you, let my son go, that he may serve me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed
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I will kill your son, your firstborn. This was one of the first messages to Pharaoh from Moses.
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And he, the Lord, is keeping his promise here. The Lord talks the talk and walks the walk.
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He is utterly faithful in fulfilling everything he has promised to his people.
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And that's the hope we have. God's faithfulness to his promises.
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Verses 30 to 33 show us the Egyptian responses to the Lord's last plague.
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First, verse 30 shows the national crisis starting from Pharaoh's very palace.
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The camera zooms out then to the rest of Egypt. Verse 30.
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So Pharaoh rose in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
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After witnessing the first nine plagues, the Egyptian parents probably took
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Moses' warning seriously. And they probably stayed up that night, unlike other nights, to check on their children.
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However, at midnight, they personally experienced the fulfillment of the
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Lord's word in Exodus 11 .6. That there would be an unprecedented crying out in the land of Egypt.
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Imagine the Egyptian parents staying awake late at night, hoping that they could perhaps protect their children somehow if they were to stay awake.
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But at midnight, their firstborn suddenly fall unresponsive.
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No matter how much they shake or shout their names, there is silence.
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From one house to the next, it began a cascade of wailings all throughout
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Egypt. An unprecedented national crisis.
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And verses 31 to 32 describe Pharaoh's response to such a national crisis.
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An unconditional surrender to the Lord. At the face of this national crisis,
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Pharaoh calls Moses back. Recall, during the last interaction with Pharaoh and Moses, Pharaoh threatened to kill
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Moses if he were to see Moses again. However, as we have learned over and over, here,
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Pharaoh breaks his previous promise. Pharaoh's consistently changing words and minds contrast with the
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Lord's faithfully unchanging words. The author of Exodus, Moses, shows us the better deity through the juxtaposition between Pharaoh and the
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Lord. Pharaoh keeps saying he would do something, he would let the people go, but doesn't, and he doesn't, and he doesn't.
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And one last time, he breaks his promise, I will kill you, Moses, if you see my face again, and he doesn't.
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And then here we have the Lord, who kept his promises to the dot.
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He never swerved from his promises. And instead of putting
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Moses to death, Pharaoh unconditionally surrenders. Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel, and go, serve the
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Lord as you have said. Also take your flocks and your herds as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also.
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Notice that this is the first time Pharaoh calls the Hebrew slaves as the children of Israel.
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Finally, Pharaoh acknowledges God's people as a national entity.
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Not only that, Pharaoh no longer tries to keep any of Israel back.
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Men, women, children, animals, anything that belonged to Israel must all go.
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And there is no temporal restriction. They do not have to come back at any time.
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And lastly, he asked Moses to bless him. This Pharaoh is utterly humbled by the
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Lord. And due to the last plague, the Pharaoh unconditionally surrendered, as the
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Lord said. The fact that Pharaoh asked
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Moses to bless him is an ironic end to Israel's sojourn in Egypt.
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The very first Pharaoh, when Jacob, who is also called
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Israel, came down to avoid the famine, to find refuge under Joseph's wings, that Pharaoh, the friendly
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Pharaoh, in fact asked Israel, the person Israel, to bless him.
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In an ironic sense, as Israel, the national entity, the people, are leaving
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Egypt, Pharaoh begs
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Israel to bless him. Two different contexts, but ironically well -ordained by the
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Lord. From the privacy of Pharaoh's throne room, the narrative broadens to the whole nation of Egypt.
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Verse 33 shows how the rest of Egypt responded to the Lord's last plague. And the
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Egyptians urged the people that they might send them out of the land in haste.
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For they said, we shall all be dead. The Egyptians want
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Israel out as soon as possible. The word for urging is actually the same word that was used for Pharaoh hardening his heart.
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When directly translated, it is the word to be strong. So hardening of the heart would actually sound like the
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Pharaoh strengthened his heart, or the Lord strengthened Pharaoh's heart in not letting
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Israel go. So if I had to give a wooden translation to illustrate this pun, it would sound something like this.
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Up until now, Pharaoh has been strengthening his heart to keep Israel enslaved in Egypt.
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But after the Lord's final plague, the whole land of Egypt is using all its strength to kick out the
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Israelites. So there's this pun used here to show that at this time, after the last plague, that strength is used in another way.
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That strength, that Egyptian strength, is used to fulfill what the
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Lord has commanded. And that's the great reversal that the
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Lord has fulfilled. All the might of Egypt is no longer used to keep
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Israel enslaved, but to get them out. All the might of Egypt is used to free
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Israelites. And from the Egyptian response, we see how
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Israel responded to the final plague in verses 34 through 35.
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And it's that of a total obedience. Verse 34 shows that God's people obeyed the
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Lord's command regarding the preparation of their bread. That would be their food provision. That's how they would live in the wilderness.
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Verse 35 shows us that Israel even obeyed the Lord asking their former masters for precious metals and clothing.
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Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses. And they had asked from the
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Egyptians articles of silver and gold and clothing. For the first time ever, the
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Hebrew slaves suddenly had more wealth than they could ever imagine in their whole lifetime.
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And because of their obedience, the Lord has provided for them in the wilderness.
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With the articles of gold and silver, they would be able to buy food from the surrounding nations.
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With the articles of gold and silver, they would be able to make the tabernacle in which they can have a continual relationship with the
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Lord. God mercifully provided for His people even after the full deliverance for the purpose that goes beyond the enslavement in Egypt.
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Unless we think the deliverance is done by human actions. Human responses were important here.
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The Egyptians responded according to how they were supposed to.
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And Israelites responded in obedience how they're supposed to. Those two are very important.
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But the Bible shows us that verse 36 shows us where the credit is due.
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And it is the Lord. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the
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Egyptians so that they granted them what they requested. Thus, they plundered the
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Egyptians. The Bible does not just lean one way or the other in terms of God's sovereignty and human actions and responsibilities.
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It's both and. And it's beautifully structured here where God's actions surround human responses.
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The whole deliverance was all according to the faithful action of the
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Lord but also the faithful response of the people. It would be tragic to emphasize one over the other.
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Here we see a very beautiful picture of how God delivers His people.
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Just as God perfectly fulfilled His promises of deliverance to Israel, He does so with the church, the
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Christians. From beginning to the end of Exodus, God is faithful in His deliverance.
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God is faithful to the uttermost to deliver His people from their enslavement.
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When Christ came, He delivered us from a greater slave master, a slave master who ruthlessly enslaved and never loosened his grip.
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Sin. And in order to free us from this slave master, God Himself had to come down to defeat it.
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He took on flesh and dwelt among us, sinners. He resisted every temptation of sin and lived sinlessly in the sinful world.
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And in order to free His people from sin once and for all, He took on our sin upon Himself and died the death that we deserved on the cross.
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He faced the whole wrath of God that we earned for ourselves. He Himself who deserved none of it.
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And on the third day, He victoriously rose from the dead, breaking apart the death grip of sin and death once and for all.
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Christ's death and resurrection provide for the ultimate exodus of His people.
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No longer are Christians enslaved to sin, but are free from sin through the power of the
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Spirit. There is no sin too great for Christ to deliver us from.
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Sometimes we like to think that our sin is too strong for God. We like to think that our sin is more sovereign than God.
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However, there is no sin nor effects of sin that are too great for God to handle.
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After all, He is the same God who was faithful to the uttermost to Israel.
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How much more so for His people whom
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He shed His blood for. That's why we remember the ultimate exodus.
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We have to connect the ancient exodus to the ultimate fulfillment of it.
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We have a God who is so faithful to keep
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His promises of deliverance of His people. Now, what was the extent of the exodus?
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How big was the deliverance? Every moment up to the exodus, the
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Lord has faithfully watched over all of His people. Every moment up to the exodus, the
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Lord has faithfully watched over all of His people. Here, we are actually told the great extent of the exodus.
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Who was actually delivered? Who was actually saved from the enslavement of Egypt?
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Verses 37 to 38 show us that it was the totality of Israel. Then the children of Israel journeyed from Ramesses to Sukkoth, about 600 ,000 men on foot, besides children, so not counting the children.
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A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds a great deal of livestock.
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Verse 37 shows us that this was not a small group of people. It's always easy to rescue a smaller group of people.
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It's always easy to just send in the Navy SEALs and get two or three hostages. But 600 ,000 men, not including the children and the women, and all of their livestock, and mind you, the livestock, they don't understand what's going on.
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They're not rushing. They can't. They're just leaving where they have grown up all their lives.
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So this is a slow group of large people. So God did not deliver a small tribe.
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God didn't choose an easy target here, but a nation of people. This was the biggest miracle that Egypt ever saw.
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A nation of slaves freed without a single loss of life, as I mentioned earlier.
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Verse 38 shows us that God delivered more than just the ethnic Hebrews, but rather there were people from other ethnic groups.
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In the Old Testament, we often get fixated that the old covenant people were just Jews.
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Now, they were mainly Jews. That is true. That in the Jewish people were the chosen people in the
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Old Testament whom God made a covenant with. That's also true. But what's not true is that God prohibited other people from other ethnic backgrounds from joining
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God's covenant people. There were a few. It wasn't the majority, but there were a few, and God didn't close them off.
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And here we see that. Since Egypt was a world superpower, there were, in fact, people from different nations in Egypt who actually witnessed the power of the
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Lord. And perhaps many of them probably were slaves too, conquered people.
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Egypt was successful. And this is a glimpse of the global blessing that the
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Lord promised Abraham in Genesis 12, that through Abraham, all the families of the world will be blessed.
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In fact, people of different nations who just happened to be in Egypt and got to experience the
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Lord's mighty and merciful acts, they got to have a relationship with the
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Lord. They could actually join the freedom train of the
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Israelites on that night. That night, it was not just the
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Jews, but a mixed multitude of people who were freed from the grasp of Egypt.
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And of course, we will see the ultimate fulfillment of that in Christ, when all the nations truly will be blessed through the
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Abrahamic offspring. No longer is
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God only accessible mainly to the Jews, but to everyone through Christ.
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Verse 39 shares again the food provisions, the leavened bread.
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This repetition is not insignificant. The unleavened bread will continually serve as a reminder to Israel of God's faithfulness in freeing them from enslavement.
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Every time they would see or eat, take a bite out of that hard unleavened bread, it doesn't bounce, it's just hard.
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It doesn't taste great, just bland. Every time they take a bite out of it, they will remember the mighty acts of God that led them to their redemption.
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After all, meals have significant meanings in human history.
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On Thanksgiving, we commemorate God's providence by enjoying the same type of food that the pilgrims feasted on, thanks to God's providence through the
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Native Americans. Some people might not like Thanksgiving food, but families still make them anyway because food is a significant memory tool, and that's the significance of the unleavened bread.
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It's not that unleavened bread was the tastiest of breads, but it was the most significant of them in Israel history.
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Verses 40 to 41 share the historical significance of the Exodus. Now, the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was 430 years, and it came to pass at the end of the 430 years, on that same, very same day, it came to pass that all the armies of the
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Lord went out from the land of Egypt. The number here is important because it connects back to what the
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Lord had promised to Abram in Genesis 15, verses 13 through 14.
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He said, "'Know for certain that for 400 years "'your descendants will be strangers "'in a country not their own, "'and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there.
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"'But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, "'and afterward they will come out with great possessions.'"
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This was the fulfillment of the words even back to Abram. Abraham, right?
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God was faithful to fulfill what He promised Abram, who has long been dead, who has not even gone with Jacob to Egypt to find shelter, right?
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Abram was actually buried in the Canaanite land. And this shows that the
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Lord was involved in the lives of His people despite their humble estate.
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And He was still sovereign over the historical events in a foreign land. God is in control over what happens to His people.
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God's people's lives were never jeopardized. God didn't just abandon them in the land of Egypt and told them, "'I'll be back in 400 years.'"
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That's not how it went. He was there since the day one. Verse 42 closes the section with the
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Lord's present commitment to His people. "'It is a night of solemn observance to the
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Lord "'for bringing them out of the land of Egypt.'" This is the night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.
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"'Even after Israel is freed, "'the Lord does not stop caring for His people.
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"'From the beginning of time, "'the unsleeping eye has steadfastly been fixed on His people.'"
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God has never lost His grip on His people.
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God has never lost His sight over His people. And as God's people leave
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Egypt finally, we find out that He has been working through them all these years, 430 years, even before the
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Exodus. The Lord's steadfast love toward His people did not start with the plagues.
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It did not start with the burning bush. But it never paused. Even through the enslavement,
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God was watching over them. This means God doesn't show up at the opportunistic time just to take the credit.
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He is with His people through the whole process. That's who
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God is. And oftentimes we doubt this.
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When life gets hard, I have a tendency of believing that I'm all alone.
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Maybe God forgot. Maybe God is having me go through this by myself.
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We have a tendency of thinking we have been abandoned by God. When we take a look here,
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God has been with His people ever since the first 70 Israelites arrived in Egypt.
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And He has not left them since. Precisely because God was with Israel that they grew to 600 ,000 men besides children and women from mere 70 individuals in Genesis.
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It was precisely God was with His people that they survived through a genocidal king and still remained fruitful.
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They survived through a king who made their burden even harder than ever and still remained fruitful.
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And as Christians, we have a more certain guarantee that God has not abandoned us.
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And that's because Christ remained on the cross when it was the hardest and most excruciating for Him.
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Instead, He faced the wrath of God for our sake. He had every choice to leave.
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He had every choice to call upon the angels to save Him.
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He even said that. That button was open. He could have pressed that button any time.
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Yet He remained on the cross. That's how we know that God has not abandoned us.
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God Himself remained on the cross to be with us for all eternity.
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What makes us think that Christ will suddenly leave us when life gets hard for us? That's a lie from the devil in the flesh.
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Not only that, God sends us His Holy Spirit when we trust in Christ.
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He dwells in us to sanctify us, to comfort us, to counsel us, to connect us to God, to commune with God, to experience the heart of Christ.
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We have the Holy Spirit. For Christians, there is not a single moment in which
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Christ is away from us. There is not a single blink from God where He misses seeing us.
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Now, who gets to partake in God's deliverance?
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Who gets to celebrate the Lord's deliverance? The Lord delivers those who are in covenantal relationship with Him.
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The Lord delivers those who are in covenantal relationship with Him. All of a sudden, we return to the
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Passover laws. For our modern minds, this may be confusing.
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I thought we were just at the Exodus. They just celebrated the Passover. But it was important for the
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Israelites because they became a newly established nation of Israel to identify, and they had to know, how do we identify a true
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Israelite who can celebrate the Lord's deliverance with us from someone who's just dwelling with us, a sojourner?
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After all, here we find out there were numerous foreigners already in the founding group of Israel.
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The Lord designates in verse 43 to 45 who may participate in celebrating
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His deliverance. First, verse 43 reveals the prohibited group, the group that cannot celebrate the
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Lord's deliverance. This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner shall eat it.
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Verse 44 shares the exception to the prohibition. But every manservant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat it.
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The Lord is not discriminating based upon ethnic backgrounds. That's not at all, right?
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Verse 44 tells us that a person, a foreigner who is bought and circumcised may actually participate.
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But He is discriminating based upon the covenantal commitment to the
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Lord, which is outwardly shown in circumcision. Verse 44 shows that if a servant is circumcised, then he may take part in the
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Passover meal. He will be treated just like a native Israelite.
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No distinction. And in the
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Old Testament, circumcision was the outward sign of the covenant relationship with the
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Lord. The Lord commanded this to all the way back to Abraham.
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And it has been passed down ever since. The covenant relationship with the
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Lord was more than just a legal contract, right? A legal contract deals with properties and wealth.
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Covenant, a covenant deals with people who are involved.
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A legal contract deals with the giving of things. Here's what you will owe me if you fail to do blank.
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A covenant deals with the giving of self. When the
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Lord made a covenant with Abraham, the Lord committed Himself to Abraham and his offspring.
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The Lord said, I will be your God. It's a personal relationship.
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The Lord gave Himself to Abraham. And in response,
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Abraham committed himself to the Lord, right? That's why the Lord said, and you will be my people.
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It's a relationship, but a faithful one, an unchanging one, a committed one.
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That's why in the Bible we see two types of covenants. Covenant with the Lord and a marriage covenant.
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It's a giving of self. It's an intimate, personal relationship that deals with the people, not money, not things.
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And in order to partake in the Passover, which celebrates the
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Lord's deliverance, the people, the partakers, had to be committed to Him.
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And the participants must belong to the Lord and no other gods, and that was seen through the practice of circumcision of the foreigners.
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That's how they knew that you belonged to the Lord or not. And verses 46 through 47 repeat the manner of celebrating the
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Passover meal. It is done in one household, and the lamb must remain whole.
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And as we went over last week, that's important because it sets the background, the ground, of the ultimate
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Passover lamb, Jesus Christ. He wasn't decapitated. He remained whole.
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His manner of execution was that he remained whole without any broken bones, just like the
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Passover lamb. But His blood covers us from the ultimate judgment for our sin.
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And verse 47 emphasizes that the Passover is done with the whole assembly of God's people.
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Oftentimes, it's easy to get stuck into the mindset that Christianity is all about individual walk, although we are individually saved upon our faith in Christ, the walk with the
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Lord is very much communal. The walk with the Lord and remembering
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His deliverance is a gathering. That's right. That's why the church is about gathering together to remember what the
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Lord has done and to encounter the living God through His Word. And that was true back then, and that's true here.
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Verse 48 emphasizes the concept of covenantal faithfulness over ethnic partiality.
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And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it.
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And he shall be as a native of the land, for no uncircumcised person shall eat it.
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That's marvelous. All throughout the history of nations, immigrants were often treated differently under the law of the land.
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It's only really under the U .S. Constitution, and even so after the
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Constitution where the court cases had to come about, where foreigners were treated actually the same way as the native -born citizens.
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Back then, even in the ancient times, the nations treated foreigners as second -class citizens.
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That's the truth of humanity, human sinfulness. Yet, under this law, under the
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Lord's gracious deliverance, even a foreigner, if he is committed to the
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Lord, will be treated just like the native. There won't be a distinction. That's the mercy and grace of the
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Lord that we see even in the Old Testament. And that's what
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God looks for in a relationship. People's covenantal commitment to him, not the skin color, not the cultural background, not the socioeconomic background.
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He doesn't care where you come from, how much you have. He only cares about covenantal commitment.
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Are you committed to the Lord rather than other deities? And circumcision was the outward expression of that.
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That's how the ancient Jews knew. Now, does this mean that Christians have to be circumcised to be in a covenant relationship with the
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Lord? According to Jeremiah 31, verses 31 through 32, the new covenant will actually look different.
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In fact, it directly mentions how it will be different from the covenant that God made with the
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Israelites when he delivered them from Egypt. Behold, the days are coming, says the
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Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.
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The context here is that the old covenant in which was symbolized and signified by the outward expression of circumcision would be actually different.
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The new covenant will be actually different from the old covenant. The first main difference between the old and the new covenant is that unlike the old, the new covenant will set
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God's people apart according to their internal reality, not the external reality, which would be the circumcision.
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That's why the Lord says, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts, and I will be their
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God, and they will be my people. That personal relationship with God is based upon what happens inside people's hearts.
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When they are made into new creation from inside out, the moment they believe, they're regenerated.
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They become a new creation, and they follow and obey the
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Lord out of the desire of their heart by believing in the gospel of Christ, not because a stone tablet said so.
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That was the main difference. So instead of the external reality of circumcision and laws written on stone tablets, the new covenant people are made
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God's people due to the reality of their hearts, the new birth in Christ.
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The new covenant people will be changed from inside out, and for Christians, the sign of our relationship with the
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Lord is no longer the outward actions of circumcision, of dietary laws, but the inward transformation by the
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Spirit of God when we start to trust in Jesus Christ. That's how we set apart the believers from nonbelievers.
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And in order to do that, in order to enter into the new covenant, it's by faith in Jesus Christ, who died for your sin on the cross and rose on the third day.
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There's no other way. Christ is the only way to enter into the new covenant.
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No action that we do, not circumcision, not obedience, but only through faith in the gracious act of Christ.
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Let us pray. Father, we are thankful that we can celebrate and enjoy for the rest of our lives and for all eternity what
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Christ has done for us, the greatest exodus. Not that we've earned it, not that we've done anything good to deserve it, but that it's graciously given to us, and all we have to do is receive and believe.
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Father, we pray that we would remember where we were before Christ and always be grateful where we are now because of Christ.