0:00 Exodus chapter 12. We spent last week talking about the feast of unleavened bread because it is totally relevant to the Christian. And if there's one takeaway that we can receive from the Feast of Unleavened Bread, let's do let's just do a recap here. What's the first feast that was instituted by the Lord? Passover.
0:21 Passover. Yes. What was the second one? Unleavened bread. Unleavened bread.
0:26 You guys are looking more like Israelites week after week. That's good. When was the Passover? Excuse me. I I I don't know my Bible too much, and I wanted to know when the Passover was held.
0:35 What month and what day? Nisan. Nisan. Okay. What number is that in the calendar?
0:42 The first month? And so when when was it that you got the lamb? The tenth day. But when was it that you killed the lamb? Fourteen.
0:50 K. Now, there was a second one that you mentioned. It was unleavened bread. Now, when was that one celebrated? Fourteenth.
0:57 Fourteenth. Fifteenth day. Of what month, though?
1:00 Nissan, which is the first month. Right? Yeah. Okay. Sure?
1:04 Yes. And how long did you celebrate the month of, or rather the Feast of Unleavened Bread?
1:09 Seven days. Yes. That's right. Seven days. Okay.
1:17 Now there's so many truths to pull out of that, but I have a question for you. Why is it that the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread intersect on the fourteenth day?
1:29 Because the Passover well, the Passover is when they start making unleavened bread, so that starts the feast and it represents, like, the crucifixion. And the unleavened bread is like the burial, so it happened on that day.
1:41 Okay. So in light of Jesus, we know the Passover represents his crucifixion. We know that the feast of unleavened bread represents his burial. But what does that gotta do with me as a believer today? What does the blood of Jesus do for us?
1:56 It starts with the letter j. It justifies. Justifies us. It is the source of justification. But what's the Feast of Unleavened Bread all about?
2:06 I mean what's the symbolism there about getting rid of leaven from your house? What does leaven represent? Sin. And so we remove sin from our homes, We remove sin from our lives. Seven days, which represents the celebration, but also it's a number of wholeness completion, which means our whole lives we uproot sin.
2:29 We uproot sin. We identify it and remove it and ask God to give us the power to overcome it. And so when it intersects on the fourteenth day, it teaches us that you cannot separate justification and sanctification. That the response to Jesus Christ dying on the cross for our sins is that we get rid of the sin in our lives and we live in a continual state of sanctification. And so when people say, you can believe in Jesus, but live how you want, that's not true according to Exodus.
2:57 I mean, it's so clear in the New Testament, but even in the Old Testament it tells us that you can't separate the truth, that you live in a continuous fight and battle against sin by the power of the Holy Spirit in light of the fact that you are a child of God. Oh, so many glorious truths and a feast. I can't wait till we touch the other ones. But we find ourselves here in verse 21 of Exodus chapter 12 where Moses gives further instruction concerning the Passover, but we won't go over these verses because we kind of touched on them here and there the past couple weeks. What we're gonna do is we're gonna jump straight to verse 29.
3:35 At midnight, the Lord struck down 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 the livestock. And Pharaoh rose up 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 someone was not dead. Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, Up. Go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel, and go serve the Lord as you have said.
4:08 Take your flocks and your herds as you have said and be gone and bless me also. Let's just stop here let's park and talk about these verses. So here it is the the tenth plague, the plague that we've all been waiting for has finally been implemented by the Lord and there are some insights in these verses here about pharaoh specifically. Maybe there's other things that you've seen. What can we say about these few verses, these three verses here?
4:43 Apart from those with blood on their door, God is totally impartial in the punishment from Pharaoh who's clearly the most wicked to all the servants.
4:52 Wonderful observation. The Bible is trying to tell us something here that there is no throne too high and no dungeon too low for you to escape the judgment of God. In the same way that every single person that applies the blood is safe, the opposite is true that every person, no matter who you are, is not safe concerning the coming wrath of God. And so he says from Pharaoh and his throne to the one who was a captive in a dungeon, they all experienced the wrath of God. Does Does that remind you of a New Testament picture?
5:27 In the book of Revelation, this scene that we're all gonna see one day, well we'll be at a different judgment but whether we see it or not is not very clear in scripture. In Revelation twenty twelve, look what John the Apostle says, and I saw the dead. This is the great white throne judgment. Are we at that judgment? What's the judgment that we're all gonna be at?
5:50 You know we're all gonna stand before judgment. Right? Okay. I know people don't like to say that, but anyways, the judgment seat of Christ. Is that to determine whether we're saved or not?
6:02 No. It's to determine what? A reward. Because you and I, it doesn't matter who you are in this place, you will be judged and I will be judged on how we live their Christian life. You and I will be judged based on what God has instructed us to do clearly in his word, what he has given you as a calling, what you've done with the gospel, what you've done with the power of the Holy Spirit, what you've done with the opportunity in this land called America where we can freely serve him, we will be.
6:26 Oh, he's taking grade every week. And we know that there's another judgment, the Great White Throne Judgment. That is for those who are not saved and that's to determine the degree of punishment that they will experience. But look at the people that will be there. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and books were opened.
6:46 Great and small. See on Judgment Day, it doesn't matter what your social status is, doesn't matter how popular you are on earth, doesn't matter what you've invented, doesn't matter what you've done for society and for culture, it does not matter. All of that disappears in light of the judgment. The only thing that will matter is whether there's blood on your life. And so every person rich and poor, popular, unknown, throne or dungeon they cannot escape the wrath of God.
7:16 God is not a respecter of persons. Every person is sinful, every person who is not in Christ is an Adam and if you're an Adam you will receive judgment, but if you're in Christ you will receive mercy. So we see that. Great observation. What else can we say?
7:33 Verse 30. And Pharaoh rose up in the night. Yes. Is it he just is that, like, I mean, this is a question too. Is it just he just woke, like, he just arose in the night for a reason, or he knew that this was coming?
7:45 I think because there was a warning beforehand, you can imagine the different scenarios going on. There's probably parents there waiting in anticipation, not knowing when it was gonna happen specifically. Pharaoh probably woke up because of the echoes of cries that were happening throughout the land because of people realizing. Can you just imagine that? Sometimes we read and we don't just visualize in pitch darkness, in the quietness of night, all you hear is just echoes of screaming and wailing because people are realizing that the firstborn of their families have died, not only of human but even of livestock.
8:16 And we know that livestock is so important concerning the economy of the land. All of that just in a moment was finished. And so we don't know how he woke up. Perhaps he heard the cries. Perhaps they heard something about the people dying.
8:30 That maybe there was a sound. It doesn't tell us, but they did wake up in the middle of the night and realize these things. Any other observations with these verses? Yes, Marfa.
8:43 The legacy of Pharaoh through his son was destroyed because of his firstborn.
8:51 Good observation. The legacy of pharaoh was destroyed because his firstborn. I mean, when God wants to humble you, he knows how to humble you. What else can we say? Yes.
9:03 This time he said to to take your children and all your all the animals and stuff.
9:09 Yeah. So this time when he says you can go, you can go. I mean, he says just take it all because prior to this, Pharaoh was giving these conditions and these kind of contracts, you know. Yeah. Yeah.
9:19 Go, but don't leave the land. Yeah. But don't stay too far. Oh, yeah. Don't take the land.
9:23 Oh, yeah. Go. But just the fathers. But now he's just like, go. Go.
9:26 Go. And he adds something to the end of that. What does he say? Bless me. What does that mean?
9:35 Why would he say bless me? He realized the judgment and a blessing comes from the world. Yes. So he realized who God was, that he was not God. He's not deity.
9:55 Maybe not curse him. Yeah. No. Like, don't curse him.
10:00 Yeah. So he's responding out of fear? Sure. Who wouldn't unless you were so calloused? Is this the turning point for pharaoh?
10:11 No. He missed his turning point. He missed his turn. God his heart is hardened. He's He's been set in that place in which he's gonna come and chase after them in a couple chapters.
10:22 So he says, bless me. And for me personally, disagree with me if you'd like. I don't read why he's saying that. I'm reading I'm reading how he's saying that. Not that he's saying it sarcastically, not that he's saying he's not meaning it, but notice he's asking for God's blessing but he's not willing to be broken and repentant and asking God for mercy in the sense of realizing that he was wicked.
10:46 He just wants you know there are people like that that just say, God bless me, and they don't want to give themselves over to Christ. They don't want God to be Lord over their lives. And we would look back at Pharaoh when he said, I did wrong, and then right after he withheld his promise of letting the people go, right? It was just all lip service, it was just all talk, it was just response in the moment, but down deep inside even to the end it had to take him getting buried under water for him to realize that he is not in control. Bless me.
11:17 Bless me. Yes. It's just the initial reaction. Yeah. I want God's goodness, but I'm not willing to give God my life.
11:23 Take your flocks and your herds as you have said and gone be gone and bless me also. What else can we say about that? Isn't it amazing that people have to be broken before they realize this? He could have been blessed a long time ago, but he had to come to the place where he was humiliated and crushed in order for him to realize who he was and who god is. You don't have to wait that long.
11:52 You can just realize that he's good now, that he wants to bless you now. Let's read verse 33. Sorry. Unless Phoebe had something.
11:59 They actually yeah. Well, it says, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. It's just shocking that none of the Egyptians, even though they've seen God's hand, every house, all the Egyptians, they had a dead in there. Mhmm. None of the warnings.
12:20 One after the other, he was getting no warnings and none of them. Not even one home decided to you know, it just it's so scary.
12:28 It is scary. I don't believe we and I've said this more than once, but I don't think we understand how wicked our hearts are. I don't think we understand how deep our sinfulness is, really. I mean, look at the book of Revelation if you think this is extreme and look at all the things that people will go through and people will go to hell cursing God on their way there. It's true.
12:51 That's how rebellious we actually are in our nature. Now if you're redeeming here, you think, How can that be? But trust me, people are that bent on wickedness. Verse 33, The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. I mean, they should have been urgent to respond to the call of God earlier as we just talked about.
13:10 They were urgent to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, We shall all be dead. So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up, and their cloaks on their shoulders. The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians so that they let them have what they asked. Thus, they plundered the Egyptians.
13:39 So many wonderful truths in here. What happens in verse 33? The Egyptians were urgent. Why were they urgent? They feared the Israelites.
13:55 They feared the Israelites. Yes. They were the reason for all the plagues. They were the reason pretty much for all the plagues or so they thought. They were the reasons for all the plagues, but they saw the association.
14:07 They said, okay. Go. You can find it. Just we want nothing to do with you. Just get out of here.
14:21 An association with, like, how the world views us as Christians, they want us to be disassociated, and they want us to flee from them from every aspect.
14:31 Sure. If the world will not receive you, they will ultimately reject you. This though the parallel is not dot to dot, I couldn't help but think of Mark chapter five when Jesus came to heal the man who was demon possessed, who was cutting himself with stones, and the one who was placed in a graveyard and was going crazy. And Jesus comes. We know the story, right?
14:51 Mark chapter five. He comes along and he delivers this man from demons, from a legion of demons, thousands of demons. And then he takes all those demons and he places them in the swine, 2,000 pigs, and they go over a cliff and the people hear and so they run back to town to tell what happens. The people come back. They've heard and they've seen the man who was delivered in his right mind sitting at the feet of Jesus, but it also says that they heard about the pigs.
15:18 And it tells us in verse 17 that they begged Jesus to go. Can you imagine that? Jesus just delivered probably the most demon possessed man that they've ever known filled with thousands of unclean spirits and they come and it says that they begged Jesus to leave the region. Now why would anybody do that?
15:43 They cared more about their swine than the person.
15:48 Exactly. They were so consumed with the fact that this deliverance ruined their economy and their business. They were so caught up in that that they did not even care about the deliverance and they said, You know what Jesus go. And so many people reject Jesus because when He comes into your life He changes things around and that makes them feel uncomfortable and it exposes them and it rearranges their lives and so instead of inviting them they say, Would you just get out of our lives? This is how people respond.
16:16 There are people who do not respond to the call of the gospel because they know that the moment that they receive Christ literally everything in their life will be rearranged. And God might ask you to leave your job, and God might ask you to do something, move to another place. And that idea just frightens people and so they say, Get out, I want nothing to do with you. And here we see in some sense without going too far with this that the Israelites were exposing the darkness of the Egyptians. That God through the Israelites being there was showing that one God after the other could not line up with the true and living God.
16:52 And they were so shocked and shattered by this that they said get out of here we want nothing to do with you. And sometimes we think that the world is going to accept us the world's not going to accept you all the time. And I take comfort in the fact that if they rejected Jesus they will reject me. And they don't reject me really, they reject Christ in me and Christ in you. And so we see this reaction it's a great observation just go.
17:15 We're all gonna be dead. If you stay long enough it's gonna be the end of who we are. But look what happens in verse 34. So the people took their dough before it was leavened and their kneading bowl was being bound up and their cloaks on their shoulders. So what happens here?
17:32 They're leaving Egypt. What did they not take with them?
17:38 Yes. Because when you leave Egypt, you leave Lebanon in Egypt. When you leave Egypt, guess what's staying behind you? Kiss your sin goodbye. It's not coming with you, it's staying in the world where it belongs and this is exactly what's happening.
17:56 God is teaching them something that when you leave the world guess what you leave behind? Your behavior of the world. The things that the world celebrates and the world are entertained by and what things the world loves, it's not coming with you. You have a new appetite, you have a new desire, you have a new diet so to speak and it's unleavened bread. Keep the leavened back.
18:21 The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold, jewelry, and for clothing. And, Lord, I've given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. So what happens here now? They're leaving Egypt, they leave Lebanon behind, but what comes with them? Jewelry, gold, clothing.
18:50 Now why would God do that?
18:53 Because he spoke about it in Genesis 15.
18:55 Yes. He spoke that they would leave with possessions. Absolutely. What's the meaning? What's what's God's motive behind it?
19:02 To pay them back for all their work.
19:04 Retribution. God is a just God. And notice it wasn't the Egyptians, rather the Israelites going to the Egyptians saying, Hey, pay up buddy. You made me a slave for so long. Come on.
19:18 Who was in charge of this? It was the Lord. And so when they were treated unjustly, you know who God who knew who took care of it? God took care of it. God was the one who brought retribution.
19:29 God was the one who dealt justly with them, and we can take that same principle in our lives today. Great comfort in that, that when people treat us unjustly now pay attention because this will free you from offense. This will free you from anxiety. This will free you from trying to implement things in your own strength. This is a New Testament truth.
19:50 Let me read it to you. Romans twelve nineteen. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, Vengeance is mine I will repay, says the Lord. New Testament principle.
20:06 So if anybody ever treats you unjustly, especially if it's out of your control, shady business deal, whatever it may be, you know what you can rest in? God, this is yours. You take care of it. And God and another translation says leave room for God's wrath. Leave room because if you're gonna implement it yourself you know what God will do?
20:30 He'll respect your decision. Do you want to take care of it yourself? Hey, I'm God. I know how to do it. But you want to take okay fine.
20:35 But when you by faith give it to God, He will begin to move and He is a righteous judge. He will know exactly what He needs to do. He will know exactly when He needs to remove from that person or do to that person and you don't even need to worry about it. You can go to bed and rest at night. I take great comfort in that.
20:57 Somebody says something, somebody tries to trash your reputation, somebody tries to speak against you, somebody tries to harm you, you know what you can do? You can lay your head on your pillow and quote Romans 12 and say, God, you'll take care of it. It's yours, not my problem. You said vengeance is yours. I'm not gonna implement it.
21:16 I rest in your grace and I rest in your sovereignty. Oh, there's some scary stories that when people try to mess with the people of God. Oh, there's some scary stories. Kind of hard to believe stories. You know?
21:29 But let's not talk stories. Let's just talk Bible for a second. It's in there. It's in there. But there's a second principle to this.
21:39 They left. They left with gifts. They left with treasure. They left with blessings. And in the Old Testament, in this context, it emphasizes on physical and material blessings that when God takes you out of Egypt, He doesn't leave you empty handed for the wilderness.
21:57 When He brings you through the wilderness, there's gold, there's jewelry, there's clothing, there's stuff to sustain you, there's stuff to for you to purchase different things and for you to be okay as you're walking along the path that God called you walking. In the Old Testament, it's physical materialistic emphasis. In the New Testament, it's spiritual. That when God delivers you and takes you and me out of Egypt, guess what? Ephesians one:three, that he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
22:24 He dispenses gifts, first Corinthians 12. He gives gifts and he empowers people with gifts by the same Spirit. And so when you and I are walking through this wilderness, guess what? He's given us the things necessary to be sustained. These things would sustain the Israelites through the wilderness journey And the same thing applies to us, that when we're delivered from Pharaoh and from the power of slavery, he puts things in our hands.
22:49 He gives us what we need to be sustained throughout our path. It's a glorious truth. Is there anything else we can say about these verses here? He gave favor in the sight of the Egyptians. He did it.
23:05 Thus, they plundered the Egyptians. Now what's the danger about these blessings that we know about? They turned into the Right. They were the very things that they turned into the golden calf. So when we receive things from the Lord in our lives, it can be spiritual or physical, they can turn into idols.
23:24 And so we must fix our gaze upon the giver of gifts and not the gifts themselves. Verse 37, And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about 600,000 men on foot besides women and children. So let's just stop here and do the math. If there's 600,000 men, let's say each of them had a wife and each of them had a child. It's probable that there was way more than one per family.
23:52 So what are we estimating here? 3,000,000. Yeah. Two to 3,000,000 people, four even maybe. There's a lot of people and God delivers them at a moment.
24:02 That's how powerful he is. He can deliver 2,000,000 people in one moment. And so here they come. They're leaving Rameses. They're going to their first pit stop on the Exodus in Succoth.
24:13 But I love verse 38 because it's it gives us something for the rest of the Pentateuch. A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. Who in the world are the mixed multitude?
24:35 Egyptians? Who says Egyptians? Anybody say anything else? Any other guess or idea of who the mixed multitude are? Other slaves.
24:54 Other slaves from different races? So different slaves that were taken from different nations, who holds to that view? Now where's everybody else at? Confused? Who are the mixed multitude that we're talking about here?
25:10 Well, let's let's play a little investigation here. Go to Leviticus 2four 10. This might be a clue. I mean, it's not dogmatic who the mixed multitude are, but there is a concrete answer. Leviticus twenty four ten, now an Israelite woman's son, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the people of Israel and the Israelite woman's son and a man of Israel fought in the camp and the Israelite woman's son blasphemed the name of the name and cursed and they brought him to Moses, his mother's name.
25:44 So let's just go back. Now an Israelite woman's son whose father was an Egyptian. So there are some who say that the mixed multitude was a mixed breed, that the same way Joseph married an Egyptian, over time the Israelite just intermarried with the Egyptians. That's one way of looking at it too. And some would say, no.
26:05 These are these are foreign races that were also slaves during the time. And no matter where you're standing on that, there's one thing for certain, and this is even debated but this is what I hold to, that they were not supposed to be the ones coming out of Israel or Egypt. They were not intended to leave with the people of Israel. How do we know that? When we go back to Exodus three, it tells us.
26:30 Exodus three shows us what God's initial plan was in verse nine and ten. And now behold the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. So let's have a little debate. Debates are good sometimes.
27:02 Was it right for the mixed multitude to leave? Was that the initial plan? Was that something that is that something that we should say, okay that's fine, that's good, more people are leaving Egypt? Or is this something that we can see in a different light? Yes, go.
27:17 It causes problems later on in numbers.
27:21 It causes problems later It
27:24 Who would disagree with that and say, no. This is great. Mixed multitude of people coming out of Egypt. This is fantastic. Yeah, Paul.
27:30 I'm not sure if it's great, but in Leviticus, we see the heart of God with strangers and aliens. Yes.
27:35 It's very inclusive of those
27:37 who are sojourners and aliens. And so while it may not have been beneficial for Israel,
27:43 god is I don't wanna sound like social justice y, but he's inclusive of people that are aliens, that
27:50 are foreigners. And so I don't think that God would refuse those who try to join the Israelites in their exodus.
27:59 No. That that's where the debate is. Some people would look at this and say, this is this is an early picture of Gentiles being included with the people of God, a mixed multitude of people coming? This is fantastic. And then there are other people that might look at this in a different light because when you look later on, as Gil mentioned, they cause some problems.
28:19 They cause some issues. And so looking at this text, linking it with Numbers eleven:four, can we look at Numbers eleven:four together? Numbers eleven:four. The King James would say it differently, depends on your translation, but here's what it says in the ESV. Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving.
28:50 The King James would say the mixed multitude. Now the mixed multitude that was among them had a strong craving, and the people of Israel also wept again and said, Oh, that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that caused nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. The only thing missing in there is hummus, I guess. But now our strength is dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.
29:24 So who are the rabble? The mixed multitude. And so we see them manifesting again later on in the book of Numbers. And guess what they do? What what happens here?
29:36 They're craving the lifestyle in Egypt. And what does that do to the people of Israel? It's contagious, isn't it? Isn't complaining contagious? Oh, when somebody complains, you begin to think and you're like, yeah, you're right.
29:54 Chicago, yeah. This, yeah. Church, yeah. The way we did things, oh, yeah. It's so contagious.
30:03 The rabble that was among them had a strong craving, and the people of Israel also wept again, and they began to lament for the very same thing and crave the very same thing as the mixed multitude did. And I would argue the mixed multitude, when you come back to Genesis, are those who seem to come out of Egypt but still have Egypt in them. The mixed multitude are those who are amongst the people of God, who attend the meetings of God, who have the language of the people of God, who even look like the people of God, but inside their hearts they're really craving the things of the world. The wheat among the tares, the bad fish with the good fish, those that are so blended in. But when you really dissect their character and their attitude and their faith, they're really just a mixed multitude that have not really been redeemed the way God intended them to be so.
30:59 End, 11 still ended up coming.
31:01 That's right. Look how tricky the devil is. Here's Pharaoh. He gave four proposals. Hey.
31:09 Hey. You wanna you wanna stay in Egypt and sacrifice? That's cool. No. Okay.
31:14 Stay at the edge. Don't go too far. No. Okay. Let let the men go, but let the children stay.
31:20 No. Okay. Go, but leave the sacrifices. No. Okay fine, just go.
31:29 Just go. You know what? Satan doesn't have the fruit of the spirit. And you know one of the fruit of the spirits is? Self control.
31:36 He doesn't have self control. And so what does he do? Fine. You won't stay in Egypt? I'll just send Egypt to you.
31:47 You know what one of the devil's tactics is for you believer that have given everything to Jesus Christ and want to live radically and obey him? You know what his tactics are? The same way God sends people in your life to sharpen you as iron sharpens iron, He sends people in your life and He's so deceitful that they even look like believers but really in the end they convince you that manna isn't good enough. The carnal Christian. Oh, they come to churches.
32:16 Oh, churches are filled with them. Mixed multitude. Once again, they blend in, But their delight is not in manna. What does manna represent? Jesus, the Word of God.
32:28 And they convince the people of Israel, You know it's kind of boring that you've been eating the same thing for so long. Don't you miss the things of the world? Don't you miss the things that you ate in Egypt? How are you so consecrated to this diet? Change it up a little bit, man.
32:49 Lighten up. There's no need to be so holy and radical. They're everywhere. They're everywhere. And now ministers have to warn people not just of the world of those who sit in pews that are lukewarm, that have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof.
33:11 And so the Israelites were blended with this mixed and you and I have to be so careful of who we hang around with because if we hang around those that have different intentions that are not satisfied by the manna, that are not satisfied by this word and what God's will is but want a little bit of the Egyptian lifestyle blended in, it will affect you over time. Or at least it'll get you thinking. So choose your friends wisely. Choose your fellowship wisely. Find other people that delight in manna alone.
33:49 Because when they talk about manna, the same way when the people talk about the world and it could try to get you thinking, when people start talking about their experience with manna, guess what? That's contagious also. And they begin to stir your hunger. I love nothing, nothing more than talking to people who know Jesus really. The language, and we talked about this so many times, but the tasting of Jesus and how they express their devotion with the Lord and how they talk about how manna has blessed them and fed them and sustained them because it stirs your appetite.
34:20 But when you talk to other people that don't eat manna but are satisfied by the things of the world, guess what? It changes your appetite. You're like, maybe maybe I need a little bit of that cucumber in my life. Maybe I need a little bit of that worldliness in me. I haven't had it for a long time.
34:36 So the mixed multitude, whether they're Egyptians, whether they're different races that were slaves, they weren't a good influence on the people. And so keep your eyes open of the people that enter into your life and know how to frame your relationships. Is there anything else we can say about that? The time, verse 40, of the people of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. At the end of four hundred and thirty years, on the very day all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt, it was a night of watching by the Lord to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
35:18 So the same night is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations. And so Moses is just giving a recap of what has happened here. Is there anything we can say before we go to the next part? Yes.
35:33 In verse 40, it's almost like a fulfillment of what God said in Genesis 15, 13 where he said, the descendants of Abraham will be a foreign country and a slave
35:48 Yeah. It says four hundred years. Yes. So people debate, why does it say in Genesis four hundred years and why do we see four hundred and thirty years here? It's probably not a convincing argument and when you really get into the math listen, whenever you see scripture, especially in the Old Testament, you're going to find the most trouble and frustration with numbers.
36:09 And so it just takes an extra amount of studying to see how we reconcile these things. And to just kind of give a sample satisfactory answer, when you look in Genesis it talks about how they will be afflicted for four hundred years but here we see that they lived in Egypt for four thirty years. So it separates the idea of affliction and inhabiting. That make sense? So it's a different kind of category that's being given here.
36:33 But if you really want to dig into it, you can take the time to do so. But what's interesting is what happens in the next part because God just wants to keep talking about the Passover. The Passover isn't over yet. It's not in the beginning of chapter 12. It's still going on.
36:48 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, this is the statute of the Passover. No foreigner shall eat of it, but every slave that is bought for money and may eat of it after you have circumcised him. No foreigner or hired worker may eat of it. Three times it says they can't eat of it. Eat of it, eat of it.
37:07 It shall be eaten in one house. You shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it.
37:24 He shall be as a native of the land, but no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you. So it gives even more instruction concerning the Passover that gives us more revelation of our relationship with Jesus. What does that say there in verse 43? How can we break this down?
37:48 What's the first criteria that he lists here? That if you want to eat of the Passover lamb remember, it's about eating. If you want to eat of the Passover lamb, you have to do what as a male? Be circumcised. Be circumcised.
38:00 You can't eat of it if you're not circumcised. Now that's a great truth for the Israelites, but we're in the New Covenant. So how does that truth relate to you and me? Christ is our Passover lamb. Our hearts are circumcised.
38:18 For neither circumcision or uncircumcision matters, but a transformed heart, a transformed life, but a new creation. He says that in Galatians. And so we're talking about a different kind of circumcision but a same principle. What's that principle? If they couldn't eat the Passover lamb and enjoy the lamb and be sustained by the lamb and receive the nutrients of the lamb because they were not circumcised in the flesh, which represented what?
38:50 Circumcision of the flesh represented a covenant, a lifelong commitment to God and obedience to His Word. That's what it meant. It was an external representation of cutting off the flesh and living unto God. And that is true in the New Testament, but we don't do it physically. The Holy Spirit does it to our hearts.
39:08 But check this out. They could not eat the lamb. Remember, three times he says eat of it, eat of it, eat of it. He's he's not emphasizing the blood. He's talking more about the fact that you become eating and one with Christ.
39:19 That cannot become a reality unless you are first circumcised. And unless you and I, in the same sense, are changed by the power of God, you and I will never be able to enjoy fellowship with Jesus. And why do I say that? Because there are so many people that are trying to do C, D, E, F and they haven't done point A first. There's so many people frustrated when they hear something, an inspiring message, how to get closer to God, and these are some people that fall in this category.
39:47 And they say, Well I'm trying to read and I'm trying to pray. I don't get it. I'm so frustrated. And there are some genuine believers that just need to change a few things and and change the understanding of what those things are. But then there's a whole another category.
39:58 They haven't even been born again in the first place. They haven't allowed God to change their heart in the first place. And they're trying to do to put the cart before the horse where they have to take first the first step, which is let God change your life and become born again and repent and receive Him. And so people that are doing rituals and all these different things and are attempting to boast about communion with God when they don't really have it, it's because they haven't allowed God to change their hearts in the first place. There are many people like that.
40:27 And it's important to understand that the first step is being born again and then you will see the kingdom of God. And then you will enjoy true communion and relationship with Him. That's why sometimes we have to ask the question, when when did God change your life? When was the moment that God really changed your life? It's not until then will you be able to really know what it's like to have Jesus in you.
40:50 What else does it say? So become circumcised. You have to make that commitment that that, yes, God is mine and I am his for the rest of my days in order for you to enjoy the benefits of eating the lamb. If that is not something that you have made as a declaration of faith and as a commitment in your heart, forget about it. You won't be able to enjoy what Christ wants you to enjoy.
41:12 Many people fall into that. Verse 46, It shall be eaten in one house. You shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones. So here's some little bullet point instructions. Why eat it in the house?
41:26 He's so clear about this. Eat the lamb, but in one house. What makes up a house or people in the house? Usually, a family. A family lives in a house, and what he's saying here is that this Passover feast must be experienced and must be done amongst the family.
41:56 What a wonderful truth. We're seeing this surface over and over and over that this idea of eating of Jesus is not an individual thing alone. Guess what? God has a plan and a purpose for the family to enjoy Jesus as a family. Who do you think is in charge of that?
42:18 Numbers thirteen eight. This is about the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which which is tied with the Feast of Passover. He's speaking about what to do when you eat of this unleavened bread. Let's go back to verse seven. Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days.
42:35 No leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory. It's funny. We we talked about it earlier, talked about not being in your house, now it's not in your territory. And we see here, you shall tell your son on that day it is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt. So who's in charge here of implementing these feasts and teaching the children about the feasts?
43:02 Man, the man is a spiritual head of the house. That is a tremendous responsibility. As we know, he orchestrates and he instigates the reality of the family experience of what it's like to worship Jesus. Who here was this here past Sunday when we watched that movie? We watched this movie called Transformed, and it was about transgenders and those who have went across the line and performed surgeries upon themselves because they thought that they were a different gender and how these people came to Christ.
43:37 And And in the beginning of the movie they were sharing clip after clip of different people of what their childhood was like. What their childhood was like. And there's different common denominators but you can probably answer this if you've seen it. What was one of the factors that all of them had in common? A bad relationship with their father.
44:01 One of the very factors that created this emotional pain in their lives was that they did not have a healthy relationship with their dads. And I remember sitting back there and just watching that and thinking about why God so emphasizes the need for men to step it up. Because if you don't step it up in your own life it will have generational effects. Like the responsibility is beyond you. It's so amazing how we only think about ourselves.
44:31 Well, if I don't do this and I don't do that, it just affects me. No. Guess what, teenager? If you're thinking like that now, it's gonna affect your wife in the future. If you're thinking like that now, it's gonna affect your kids in the future.
44:41 You and I, God has ordained it I'm speaking to the men now. God has ordained it from the beginning of time that you and I hold a specific role and that role, whether we fail to do it or succeed in it, both ways will have generational effects. And you might be thinking, well, this is way over my head. That's why he's giving you the Holy Spirit so that you won't do it in your own strength. That's why he's giving you brothers so that you can walk with brothers and do this together.
45:11 But there's this awesome job at hand, this awesome God given responsibility, and it's this: I am supposed to teach, and I am supposed to bring the lamb in my home and teach about the lamb and eat the lamb and feed my family with the lamb. So I'm supposed to be a spiritual provider and a spiritual protector and a physical provider and a physical protector. You shall not break any of its bones. Why is that important?
45:47 Jesus' bones will be broken.
45:48 So we talk about Jesus and this fulfilling prophecy of his death. What was it? That none of his bones will be broken. Right? And that's a fulfillment of that prophecy, but I think I think there's something deeper here too.
46:03 If the Passover land speaks of Jesus and it speaks of his bones, which are part of his body. You shall not break any of its bones. I believe he's talking about the body of Christ. Jesus is the head who's the body. Ephesians one tells us that we are the body and he's the head.
46:27 And what he's saying here is that you shall not break any of the bones. You shall not bring division within the body. Pay attention and stay with me here. In one Corinthians twelve twenty four-twenty six it says, But God has so composed the body giving greater honor to the part that lacked it that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together.
46:57 If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Paul taught that the church was the body of Christ because he received revelation. And I believe it was received on the road to Damascus. The revelation of the church being the body of Christ is something that was evolved with the understanding that when Jesus met Paul, he said, Paul, why do you persecute me? Well, he wasn't persecuting Jesus, he was persecuting the church.
47:28 Right, but if the church is his body you're hurting Jesus. And so when it's talking about no division in the body it goes way beyond God just giving us instructions and rules on a horizontal level. If you've ever been a part of anything called a church split or if you've ever been a part of anything where group goes against group amongst the believers, it's a painful experience. I don't think there's anything more painful than knowing or hearing of such a thing. But guess who it hurts even more?
48:00 The head. The head of the body. We don't think about that, do we? We don't think that the head is connected to the body. And when there's brokenness and division and one member trying to divide itself from the rest of the members, it hurts the one who is connected to the body.
48:17 And that's why there is such stern warnings against those who have this ability and this want and this craving to stir up division. It's a cancer to the body of Christ. In Titus three ten he says, As for a person who stirs up division after warning him once and then twice have nothing to do with them. Have nothing to do with them. Think about the things that the Lord hates.
48:44 Seven things that the Lord hates, right, according to Proverbs six. What was the last one? Does anybody know? The last thing that the Lord says that he hates, he despises. Does anybody know?
49:03 One who sows discord among the brethren. I mean, he hates it. There's seven things that he lists. You could list anything. And the last thing he lists is, I despise somebody that intentionally brings division amongst the people of God.
49:17 And with the revelation of it being connected to the head, which is Christ, I can see why. Because Christ is so intimately connected, like, my head is connected to my body. That when my toe is hurting, guess what else is hurting? My mind is hurting. My mind is a part of it, and Christ is so involved with us that whenever somebody tries to break a bone, it brings pain to his body, for he's the head.
49:44 Don't be a person. I don't want you or me or anybody ever to be a person that was responsible for brokenness in the body of Christ. If you want to be anybody, don't be that person because you have the head who is connected to it. Let's spill into Exodus 13 real quick and we're gonna end. Exodus thirteen:one, The Lord said to Moses, Consecrate to me all the firstborn.
50:12 Whatever is first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine. Then he goes on to explain the Feast of Unleavened Bread and gives slightly little different details, but we won't focus on that. So we come back to verse 11 where he sandwiches it with his first verse here. When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord's.
50:41 Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons shall redeem it. And when the time comes to your son asks you, what does this mean? You shall say to him, by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt. So here we go.
50:59 We have the son asking again from the house of slavery. For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of men and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrificed to the Lord all the males that the first opened the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeemed. So here's something else that's instituted. We have the Passover.
51:21 We have the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is feast. This is not a feast. This is just an ordinance that is to happen on a continuous basis with the firstborn of a family, a human family, or even amongst livestock. So there are three things happening here. You just have to read it very slow.
51:39 So when you get into the land of Canaan, you got to do three things. One, you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. Okay? So that's the rule. Whatever opens the womb for the first time belongs to God.
51:53 All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord. So the animal that comes out for the first time that belongs to God. How do you think it belonged to God? What did they do with the firstborn? In Numbers it tells us they sacrificed it, okay?
52:10 Now on a human level the firstborn that comes out for the first time that child is dedicated to God but what do we do with that? We don't sacrifice humans. So what happens? They bring the baby and it says that they redeem the child. What does that mean?
52:30 You give a price for the baby. So you give actual money for the child and you keep the child. So there's this act of redemption, there's a payment made for the child. So what does that have to do with all of this? I mean, what's the what's the principle behind that?
52:51 It's a Christ paying person. One is Christ. It's the idea again of the Passover. It's like the Passover within the Passover that there is a payment made for you to have life. Right.
53:02 That is one. But really it's a response to them being in the promised land. And so what's happening? A son was to ask their father, Why are you doing this? Why are you dedicating this lamb to be sacrificed?
53:17 Why are you and he teaches them. He says, The reason why we do this is because we've been delivered by God destroying the firstborn of the Egyptians. And so in response to the fact that God destroyed the firstborn of the Egyptians to deliver us, we give the firstborn of our livestock and of our children back to the Lord. So what it is is a response to the deliverance that they experience. You know know what I'm saying?
53:41 Do you guys understand that? It's an understanding of because I've been delivered, God, you get my first. It's this idea of giving to the Lord first priority because He is so gracious in your life and mine. That's what it is. It really is an act of worship.
54:02 God, because you saved my life, here's the first of my life. I I challenge and I hope we can get to this together where we can read throughout the Old Testament how God always asked for first. First fruits, first one of the animals, first one amongst you, first, first, first, first, because God wants top priority in our lives. And so translate that to our days. God are you first of my day when I wake up?
54:31 Whatever I receive Lord am I keeping in mind that Lord this is first yours and whatever you want to do with it, Lord, it belongs to you. Why? Because you redeemed me. And we say, Well, that's Old Testament principle. We don't have to do anything.
54:44 Hold on. One Corinthians tells us something different. First Corinthians or Second Corinthians five fifteen, And he died for all, that's Jesus, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. You signed your life away. All your possessions, all your time, all your resources.
55:09 It's funny, people get saved, but their wallets don't get saved. People get saved, but their resources don't get saved. No. He purchased you and when he purchased you it's a full package. All that is yours now belongs to him.
55:25 So giving isn't very hard when you realize that it was first given to you. Serving isn't very hard when you realize that He saved you and He sent His Son. So it's this understanding that He purchased me as a full package. And so this is an Old Testament picture of that: Lord, you delivered me. Here's my first.
55:46 Here's my first animal. Here's my first child. I redeem him. It's mine. But really it's a picture of saying, Lord, it's dedicated unto you.
55:53 But there is one exception because we saw that the firstborn of the animals was given to God and the firstborn of the children was given to God, but every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. Or if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck. So what's happening there? Isn't it does a donkey fit the category of an animal? But he's saying if it was born of a donkey, you don't bring it to sacrifice it like the other animals, you redeem it with a lamb.
56:33 And when you redeem it with the lamb, you can keep the donkey. But if you in your mind see a donkey and it gives the firstborn of another donkey and you say, I don't I don't want to sacrifice a lamb for that. I don't want to give I don't want to redeem with the lamb. Guess what you have to do? Snap its neck.
56:52 Why? Well, there's two things here. One, if it's not gonna be given over to God's purpose, it's not to be used by you. Whether you eat or drink or whether whatever you do, you do it for the glory of God. But secondly, why a donkey?
57:14 Why out of all the animals is he saying that if a donkey gives birth to a donkey, you can't bring it. You have to redeem it with a lamb. If not, you have to kill it. Does anybody know why? Donkey was used by the people absolutely it was of importance But there is something about the donkey and its nature.
57:45 Stubborn donkeys are stubborn. Okay, there's two categories in the Old Testament of animals. What's the first one? Which one is the opposite? When you go to Numbers eighteen seventeen, which gives more instruction about this specific ordinance it says, but the firstborn of a cow and the firstborn of a sheep and of the firstborn of a goat you shall redeem, they are holy.
58:18 So there are specific animals that are clean and there are specific animals that are unclean. One of those animals that are unclean is the donkey and here's a picture of that. When you go to Deuteronomy 20 two:ten you don't have to turn there it says that you cannot yoke together an ox and a donkey. Why? Because God is giving a spiritual lesson there.
58:40 The ox is a clean animal. The donkey is an unclean animal. It's a picture of us and the world. We do not walk and partner with the unclean. We are clean.
58:53 We are holy. Do not be unequally yoked with those. What's a yoke? When you put a yoke on an animal, it was kind of like this beam that rested on the neck of an ox, and it would be connected to another slot for another animal in which they would plow the field together. They had to be in unison, equal in strength.
59:11 So it's not even just believer and non believer. In some sense, it's about the spiritual level of another being partnered with the person on the same level in some sense. So don't be unequally yoked. That's the picture with a donkey because the donkey is an unclean and the ox is a clean. So what's happening here?
59:31 You can't sacrifice a donkey because it's unclean. You can't give it over. See earlier he said whatever came from the animal you could give because it fit the category of holy. It fit the category of clean, but the donkey did not fit in that category. And so what he's saying here is something very significant.
59:49 The donkey was unclean. It did not fit the standard for God's holiness. It did not fit the service for God's standard. Even if the donkey were to sacrifice itself, it would not be a pleasing sacrifice unto the Lord because it was unclean. So the only thing left for the donkey in order to live is if a lamb died in its place.
1:00:19 So take the lamb that is holy, that is without blemish, that meets the standard of God's righteousness and holiness. Kill the lamb in place of the donkey. And if you choose to do so, that donkey will live. But if that lamb does not redeem the donkey, it will die. Guess who represents the donkey?
1:00:46 We do. And so we see even in that one instruction you know what the Bible is doing? It's shouting the gospel. It's shouting and heralding the gospel of Jesus Christ even in this little detail. This unclean animal did not meet the standard of God's righteousness and holiness even if it sacrificed itself and it took the sacrifice of a lamb in order for it to be redeemed, if not break its neck.
1:01:13 That's you and me. Outside of the lamb being sacrificed on our behalf, there is no life. There is death. And what he's saying here, again, in light of the Passover, in light of the unleavened feast, is in this small small little thing, the gospel. It's all about the gospel.
1:01:32 It's about this lamb taking the place for you and me, and we have to understand that. And with that, we will end. We won't go further than that. We will continue next week.
