Showing posts with label PLAGUE OF THE FIRSTBORN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PLAGUE OF THE FIRSTBORN. Show all posts

Thursday, June 30, 2016

COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 125 - HOW GOD INSTITUTED PASSOVER AND THE FESTIVAL OF UNLEAVENED BREAD

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)



Soon the Egyptians noticed that they were affected by the plagues, but the people of Israel were not; and they gained a deeper respect for the Israelites because of how their God protected them.  These pagan people were seeing that SOME God had favor on the Israelites.  They began to treat the Israelites nicer.  Moses was greatly respected by Pharaoh’s men, and secretly they honored him even though they were still Pharaoh’s officials.  They were afraid not to; the fear of the God of Moses had come to Egypt.

God had another plan for one more plague.  Before He sent that plague He told the people to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold.  Since the Egyptians were favorably disposed toward the people by now, they quickly gave them what they asked for; being afraid that their God would return vengeance upon them if they did not.  When the Israelites had received the gold and silver from the Egyptians; God once again spoke to Moses:

“I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt.  After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely.”

So Moses told the people:  “This is what the LORD says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt.  Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all of the firstborn of the cattle as well.  There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt – worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.  But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any person or animal.  Then you will know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.  All of these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, “Go, you and all the people who follow you!  After that I will leave.”




Remember Moses had been told never to return before Pharaoh?  Moses must have returned ONLY because God had given him this word; but Pharaoh refused to see him.  Moses hot with anger, left without seeing Pharaoh, just as God had predicted would happen.  Moses must have proclaimed the word of God to Pharaoh’s officials instead of the stuborn Pharaoh.  The message was delivered even if it was delivered indirectly, and the time was set for every firstborn son in the land, from the lowest to the highest to sleep the sleep of death at midnight.  Everyone would be affected except the Israelites.  God had warned that no harm would come to them.

Note that God is very slow to wrath.  He could have easily killed every single Egyptian right from the start of this story; but instead He sent warnings in the form of plagues.  He gave the Egyptians time to repent, acknowledge that He was the One and Only God and he allowed plenty of time for them to treat the Israelites differently.  All the Egyptians had to do to escape these plagues was to obey God.  

Even when God did show his wrath, it was limited to only what was needed for the occasion.  He sent the death angel only to the firstborn sons; not the whole community.  God is always merciful.  He is always waiting on us to truly turn and follow Him and mend our broken ways. 

Today Christians must act as bravely and boldly as Moses did.  

Moses’ faith is remembered in the New Testament writings in Hebrews 11:27 and it says; by faith Moses left Egypt, not fearing the kings anger; he persevered because he saw Him who is invisible.  Are we persevering in leaving the things of the world behind and following the ways of God?  We have known Him who is invisible and we have believed.  We must gather ourselves together and have the faith of Moses and come out of the Egypt of the world. 

Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, just as God had told Moses would happen.  God had warned him; and all Pharaoh’s people could do was prepare for the worst.  

At the same time that God warned the Egyptians, He also was lovingly preparing his people Israel.

God spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave the instructions for the very first Passover:  “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.  Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.  If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are.  You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat.  The animals you choose must be year old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.  Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.  Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs.  That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.  Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire – with the head, legs and internal organs.  Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it.  This is how you are to eat it:  with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand.  Eat it in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover.   On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt.  I am the LORD.  The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you.  No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.  This is a day you are to commemorate, for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD – a lasting ordinance.  For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast.  On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.  On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day.  Do not work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat that is all you may do.  Celebrate the festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt.  Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.  In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.  For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses.  And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel.  Eat nothing made with yeast.  Where ever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”

Did you grasp those words from God speaking to His people?  Are we not His people today? Our Savior Jesus Christ has made us acceptable unto God and adopted sons of The Family of God.  Yes these instructions given so long ago have been fulfilled in Christ as our Passover Lamb, but did we forget what God originally instructed?   Did he not say this would be a lasting ordinance?  Did God not say to keep the seven day festival of unleavened bread and to remove the yeast from our homes before it started?  Yes it is all symbolic to us now of how the story has been fulfilled in Christ; but did God not give that command that it would be kept throughout ALL generations?  Do you not think He wanted us to do this so that we would NEVER forget how He showed us He was the One and ONLY GOD?  Do you celebrate Passover and keep the 7 day festival of Unleavened Bread?

Can we not have the faith of Moses and keep the feast in remembrance of how God by giving his firstborn son has given us freedom from bondage, first from physical bondage to false gods, and second from spiritual bondage from our own sins, and from Satan and his demons?  Surely we can keep a festival before God and remember as He commanded us to do so long ago!  Are we hard-hearted like Pharaoh?  

Each man must be accountable to God.  If someone is telling you none of this is important and it has all passed away; that person will not be standing before God in your place.  YOU are accountable to God for what you do in your own life; just as Pharaoh was accountable to God for making his country believe in false idols.     

One thing has changed in this observance and it's fulfillment.  Our hearts have been circumcised with the blood of Jesus.  The blood that the Israelites used to cover their door posts symbolizes the blood of Jesus that covers our hearts and blots our sins out so that God will not see them or remember them anymore.  They are no longer written down in the book of remembrance for those who have come to trust in Christ as their Passover lamb.  Praise God we are free at last!  Let us keep the festivals of freedom that God has decreed for us to honor Him with just as the Israelites kept them when they first gained their physical freedom.  

We now have spiritual freedom!  It is much greater and we have so much more to honor God with at our annual festivals now.  Let us honor Him with our whole heart by keeping his word and following his instructions; totally opposite to the Egyptians who did not listen to God’s instructions to Moses.  Let us not turn a deaf ear; but let us be hearing and doing!

Let us remove the leaven for seven days; just as God instructed in Exodus 12: 17-20!  Let us observe the Passover annually and remember that it is our God through Christ His Son who gives us freedom!  Whether we physically act this out or not; we will be just as saved because Christ died for our sins and if we are trusting and believing on Him we are forgiven.  However, it is the difference in cherishing and obeying what God has done and taking it for granted.  

So it was that Moses summoned the elders of Israel and said to them; “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.  Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the door frame.  None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning.  When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the door frame and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.  Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.  When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.  And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?  Then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians."

After Moses spoke this, the people bowed down before God and worshiped.  The Israelites did just as God had commanded Moses and Aaron. 




Midnight arrived.  God struck down the firstborn of all of Egypt, from the house of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, as well as the firstborn of all of the Egyptian livestock that survived the plagues.  Pharaoh and his officials woke up during the night to the sound of loud wailing throughout Egypt.  There was not one house without someone dead, including Pharaoh's beloved firstborn son.


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