Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: Welcome to Hope for Today, a weekly Bible teaching program that will bring you hope for every day.
It is good to have you join us for today's teaching from Exodus. We hope our study in Exodus will remind you that there is no God like our God. Let's go with Bible teacher J. Mark to Exodus for today's teaching.
[00:00:34] Speaker A: With all of our modern electronic devices we can keep watch constantly over the world.
Many nations of the world have their satellites in low earth orbit and by these they scan the surface of the earth constantly.
We have video and facial recognition technology that can track us almost anywhere we go.
We know more fully today than ever before the meaning of the saying, you can run but you can't hide.
We sometimes wonder, with modern electronic devices and all the progress in communication that's been made in the last decades, how can there be any place of safety?
It seems as though an ever watchful eye is over us constantly.
You know, I'm glad to say that God watches over us, but his intentions are quite different than those who observe us here on earth.
God watches over us in love when we turn our hearts to Him.
While there are various means of protection, the Scripture in Exodus chapter 12 and verses 1 to 14 sets forth protection under the blood.
And I want to show you how this protection is vital to your eternal well being.
So listen carefully as I read our text. Exodus 12:1 14 Here is the word of God and the Lord spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, this month shall be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, in the 10th day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house.
And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house, take it according to the number of souls, every man according to his eating shall make your count. For the lamb, your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year and you shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it up until the 14th day of the same month and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill the lamb in the evening, and they shall take of its blood and strike it on the two side posts, and on the upper doorpost of the houses, wherein they shall eat it and they shall eat the flesh that night roast with fire, and with unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
They shall not eat it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire his head and his legs, and with the pertinence thereof.
And you shall let nothing remain of it until the morning. And that which remains of it until the morning you must burn with fire.
And thus shall you eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste.
It is the Lord's Passover.
For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment, because I am the Lord.
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt.
And this day shall be unto you for a memorial. And you shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.
From this scene in the Bible, I find several encouragements to seek protection under the blood.
These encouragements, which first came to Israel, also speak to us today.
The first encouragement is the careful outline of details.
Moses told the people of Israel that this time in their history would be the beginning of months to them.
In other words, it was to be the new year, the time when everything else started.
The first month of the year to you. They were starting a new calendar. And then he explained how they were to select the lamb from the flock on the 10th day of this first month.
Every detail was carefully outlined. It was to be one lamb for a household. This was to be done by the size of the family. And so if your family was too small to eat all of the meat from the lamb, then two families, two neighbors, should join together.
Then the lamb was to be without blemish. It could have no spot, no scar, nothing wrong with it. And it was to be a male of the first year.
It could be a sheep or a goat.
And then from the 10th day of the month until the 14th day, the lamb was to be kept separate from the rest of the flock.
All of the families of the congregation were then to kill those lambs at the same time.
All the details were carefully outlined for a mass observance.
When the lamb was killed, its blood was caught in a basin. And then they were to take that blood and wipe it on the two side posts and the lintel of their doors.
They were to roast the flesh of the lamb, they were not to boil it or eat it raw, but they were to roast it with fire and to eat it with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs.
And if anything was left over from the lamb until the morning, it was to be burned with fire.
And did you notice even the clothing they wore for this event is specified?
They were to have their clothes on, ready to move their everyday working clothes.
They were to have shoes on and a staff in their hands.
They were to eat in haste. Because this is the Lord's Passover.
God outlined the details very carefully so that things would come out right.
The encouragement comes that in the carefully outlined details for the people of Israel, God brought them under the protection of the blood.
Another encouragement I find is the complete outcome of deliverance.
In verse 12, the Lord executed the final judgment. He said, I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments.
This was the final judgment.
In the earlier chapters of Exodus, God had spoken to Moses that he was going to exercise judgment against all the gods of Egypt. And that's what the various plagues were.
The water to blood, the frogs, the boils, the flies, the darkness, the sickness of the cattle, and so on, those were actually God's judgments on the various gods of Egypt. Those were things that the people of Egypt worshipped.
In this final judgment, the Lord said he was going to smite all of Egypt. All the firstborn in the land of Egypt were to be affected, from Pharaoh, the king, to the lowest slave.
In this final judgment, there would be no exclusions. Even the beasts, the cattle, would be affected similarly.
And at the same time, there was a complete outcome of deliverance, because to Israel, the Lord said, the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you. When I smite the land of Egypt, there was full protection, absolute protection, when the blood was properly applied to the two side posts and the lintels of the houses according to those detailed instructions.
And so the Lord said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you, I will pass over your household.
And further, he said, because the blood is on your doorposts, the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you. When I smite the land of Egypt, there was full protection.
It was a complete outcome of deliverance as a final judgment on the people of Egypt. And A full protection for the people of Israel. What was the blood?
The doorposts?
You know something? God always does what he promises to do.
When you come to him in full trust and do what he says, there is protection.
But you must understand that protection is only possible when you follow through with the details that God has given in this experience. He said it was the blood on the doorposts that would make the difference.
In the third place, we find encouragement in the commemorative outset of directives.
The last verse is a short verse, but it's full of meaning.
And this day shall be unto you for a memorial.
What's a memorial?
It's something to help us remember, isn't it?
A memorial day is a day which is set aside to remember. It's a day to be kept in mind. It's a particular day. And I suspect that in every country in your country, you have certain memorial days, days that highlight certain events that have happened in the course of your country.
We have certain days. In the country where I live, we have days that we set aside to keep alive the memories of special events.
And so the Lord said to the people of Israel that this day, this Passover day, was to be kept in mind as a memorial day or a day of memory.
And further, he said, it was to be kept as a feast unto the Lord throughout your generations.
In other words, it was not the kind of memory day that would pass with the years and then be forgotten.
No, it was to be an annual feast, an annual observance, a day that was to be kept throughout all their generations.
And so that means the parents would tell the children, and the children would tell their children, and their children would tell their children, and so on. In a perpetual remembrance of this day.
The final instruction from the Lord was, you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.
I was especially impressed by this word ordinance in the Hebrew Bible. It comes from the Hebrew word chekach, which means to inscribe or engrave.
This day was a never to be forgotten experience, somehow laid down so that it would never pass from memory.
It was to be a commemorative memorial, the kind of memorial that would never be forgotten.
It was engraved forever.
And you know something? The people of Israel keep it today.
Just several weeks ago, they observed the Passover.
We do well to remember the goodness of God. This day was to tell the people of Israel to remember the goodness of God. For he had brought them complete deliverance from judgment, and he had protected them under the blood.
These encouragements I bring to you from the experience of Israel in ancient times.
But you know something? God still acts the very same way today.
He has given careful details to complete your deliverance so that you might remember his mercy forever.
Every heart that is covered by the blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is safe from death, safe from eternal destruction.
So make sure the blood of Jesus is applied by faith to your heart and your life today.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: Thank you J Mark for this teaching from Exodus. And we thank you for joining us. As Christians, it is a privilege to serve and trust our God. Our God who is above every nation as his people. It is good for us to remember that the important principle in Daniel 4:17 it says that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdoms of men and gives it to whomever he will, and sets over it the lowest of men.
This verse teaches, our sovereign God is over the kingdoms on earth. What happens here among our leaders is known and directed by Him.
Our leaders may be powerful and important, or minor and less known, but it is our God who has placed them there and our God is using them to accomplish his will.
Be encouraged in this story from Exodus.
Do you have any thoughts from today's teaching? If you want to share them with us, here are a few ways you can contact us.
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[00:14:23] Speaker A: Sam.
