The Gospel According to Exodus
Crash-Helmet Religion
Exodus 12.1-13, 21-30
10.22.06
My wife and I have 3 young children, and one on the way. We don't go out to movies as much as we used to. We still rent, probably more than we should. But, we got to go out this week for a date and a movie, that's what my wife loves to do (and I love her and love to be with her, so I went with her). We went to see a move that was probably one of the most violent movies that I've ever seen in my life. You're wondering, "why is the preacher telling us this?" Well, it was one of those that was disturbingly violent movie, and I didn't really know quite the extent before I went in. Disturbingly violent. Now, think about that for a second. Maybe you've seen a disturbingly violent movie. What happens? What happens if you open your Bible and you see disturbing violence? More disturbing than any hollywood movie could dream up. Because, that's what we see this morning when we open the Bible to Exodus, chapter 12.
What we see is what becomes the defining moment for the people of Israel, this thing called the Exodus. The center of the Exodus is this meal that they eat called the Passover meal. Even if you're not Jewish or don't know anybody who's Jewish, you've probably heard of the Passover meal. It becomes a central meal for the Israelites, and guess what? It's what Jesus was celebrating on the night he was betrayed, on what we call the "last supper" which was actually the first supper. On what becomes also by extension the central ceremony, the central meal, for Christians. And make no mistake, it is intensely violent. Why? What's with all the violence and blood?
Back in Chapter 5, which we looked at last week, Pharaoh asks a question. Pharaoh is the most powerful person in the world and his own people think he's a god, and he asks this question when Moses and Aaron come to him and say, "let my people go, let them go worship me, let them go into the desert and worship me." And here's what Pharaoh asks, what you ask, what you ought to be asking, "Who is the Lord? Who is the Lord that I should obey him?" You ought to ask that. And God says, "I'll show you." He shows up and: violence. Now, hang on. Hang on. Hang on.
I suspect there are some who know this story, where the angel of the Lord shows up and has violence in his hands, and some of you might be thinking, "good! I believe in a God of justice. I believe in a God who smites the bad people. Finally. The bad people are going to get what's coming to them. People like Pharaoh." Some of you, I suspect, are saying, "Look, this is why I left organized religion in the first place. Because of all this stuff. All this blood, and it seems so barbaric and primitive and offensive and even dangerous. It seems so barbaric to have a God like this." Just bear with me for a few minutes, because the Bible is a big, long, story and don't walk out 15 minutes in. Don't walk out of the movie just because there's one scene that you don't quite understand, or that's maybe even hard to stomach. Hang on and give me a few minutes to flesh out the story. And it's one of those stories that has a twist at the end. I love those kind of movies, with the twist at the end, where you're like, "Ah! They got me!" That's what this is.
This is God's word, Exodus 12:
1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 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. 4 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. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 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. 12 "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. 13 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.
(skip down to verse 21)
21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 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 doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. 23 When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
24 "Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26 And when your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?' 27 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.' " Then the people bowed down and worshiped. 28 The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron.
29 At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. 30 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.
This God's holy, inerrant and life-giving word to us, thanks be to God.
Pharaoh asks the question in chapter 5, "who is the Lord, that I should obey him?" and God says, "I'll show you." There are these plagues that come upon Egypt, and after all of the nine plagues, there is this tenth plague, this most awful and horrific of all plagues. God answers Pharaoh's question, and your question, with two answers: "I am the Destroyer" and "I am the Lamb."
"I am the Destroyer." Look at verse 23, "When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down." The Destroyer is how he refers to himself at this point. There are other ways God refers to himself, but You've got to get that fixed in your mind if you're going to understand that. Who is he coming after? Who is he coming to destroy? Look at verse 12, and we'll get this answer. "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt." Even if you're a follower of Jesus, this has got to make you a little uncomfortable. It's gotta be a little confusing at best, and for some of us this is deeply, deeply offensive to our ears. Judgment? And not just judgment, judgment on firstborn children? Even overflowing to firstborn cows? What's going on here? Well, it is difficult to understand.
I want to throw out two things that may help us get to an understanding of what exactly is going on here. What exactly is going on the bible. To help us understand this passage a little bit more we have to understand two concepts: debt and this concept of the firstborn. Let's take it easiest to the most difficult.
Debt. Some of you understand it all too well. Right? "We're trying not to think about debt this morning, thanks for bringing it up." Debt. It's something that's going on, and it's underneath this passage. In fact, it's underneath the whole Bible. Now, what do I mean? I mean moral debt. Think about it for a second. Someone does something to you that's very hurtful, very painful, very difficult. It's something, not a small thing, a big thing. In a real sense, the way we ought to understand that is that person has moral debt against you. Think about it. Let me ask our children, they will understand it. Children, your favorite thing, your favorite toy, my daughter's Bear-bear. Someone in the neighborhood, someone at school, someone out of disrespect and without caring, breaks or tears apart your favorite thing. What do you do with that? Adults, someone smashes your car window and then laughs about it. What's one way of understanding what's going on inside of us at that moment? Because you don't say, "Ehh, no big deal." You go, "Argh!" because there's moral debt. And we need to begin to think in those categories.
What do you do? What do you do with debt? Either someone else pays it or you pay it. Some of you are feeling the heat of that this morning. You have envelopes at your house this morning that you need to pay. Now, how does it work in the area of moral debt? You can make them pay, and you know how that works. You begin to burn with anger, you begin to hate them, you begin to nurse bitterness and anger towards them. And you may be smiling on the outside, but on the inside you are putting them over the flames. You may sabotage their reputation behind their back, gossip about them or slander them. Some way, you are going to make them pay for what they have done to you, if it's only in the seething bitterness and anger of your soul. Or, you can pay. What does that look like? Every time you have an opportunity to speak badly about them, every time you have an opportunity to think badly about them, you don't. You take the hit. You take the payment yourself. Instead of making them pay, you pay, and take the pain. There is pain, you know it.
What's the current that runs underneath the Bible? That God made humans perfect, and humans said, "smash!" on that car window and then laughed about it. That's what rebellion is, that's what the Bible calls sin. And listen, you don't sweep it under the rug. Someone hurts you or does something horrible to you, you don't say, "no big deal. it's okay." You don't act that way, there's moral debt. Okay, now, that's the first concept. I'll come back to it in a minute.
The second on if firstborn and that's a little harder to understand because we bring 21st century American eyes to the Bible and say, "it doesn't makes sense to me, therefore it can't be true." Well, maybe it doesn't make sense to you because we're not understanding it. This concept of "firstborn:" you and I may not understand it because we don't think in these terms, but everybody in all of these cultures did. Egypt, Israel, all these cultures, had a much bigger understanding of family than we do. You get married, you take your family and you get away from your family a lot of times, right? "My goal is to get away from my parents!" That wasn't their goal.
The family's name, in every sense of that terms, the family's fortunes, in every sense of that word, were wrapped up in the eldest son. I'm not saying that's the way it should be, I'm just saying that's the way it was. As your eldest son went, so went your family. And God speaks into that cultural reality, and here's what he says, "Just so you know that I'm God, I own your firstborn son." That's what God says to the Israelites, "Just so you know that I'm God, I own your firstborn son. And what that means is that every year you have to redeem your firstborn son. You have to bring a sacrifice every year for your firstborn son, he is mine. And guess what? Your family is liable for his decisions. If you don't redeem him, you are liable." Everything is wrapped up in the son.
Okay, so let's take the concept of debt and the concept of firstborn son and put them together. Here's the principle, here's what you need to understand: There is a debt that hangs over every single family on the face of the earth, and God, in this passage, is calling in his debt. That's what's going on in Exodus 12, and I hope you're squirming. I hope that makes you uncomfortable. And I know that some of us are thinking, "That is such an overreaction. I mean, because of a little sin God is going to judge the firstborn and all of the gods of Egypt? That sounds like such an overreaction." I bet it does, because some of us have never ever understood anything about this God and anything about the Bible. It's hard for you to understand the Bible if you don't understand that God takes my rebellion far more seriously than I do. God takes your moral debt far more seriously than you ever will. What we tend to do is to go, "Isn't it God's job to forgive? Isn't it God's job to let bygones be bygones and sweep things under the rug? Isn't that what God is all about?" That's not even how you do it, why would you think he does it that way? Why?
By the way, because some of you have had this "easy forgiveness" version of Christianity, it's why you don't understand Christianity and it has never changed your life. It's never changed your life. You're completely uninspired and bored and you've never been changed. But there is that moment of realization, when you're going to deal with the real God, and not a plastic one. There's a moment of realization when you realize he's alive. He cares. He's awake. And he takes himself seriously enough to take my rebellion against him seriously. he takes himself seriously enough. And so what that means is if you're sitting there, excitedly, saying, "God of justice, who's going to get the bad people!" You need to also say, "And I'm one of them." And all of a sudden the rules change. That God takes himself seriously enough to take my self-righteousness seriously.
What's going on in Exodus? God is scrolling ahead in time, and saying "on this time, in this place, I'm going to give you a pre-release. A midnight pre-release. A midnight preview of what's coming on the last day. We're going to have a tiny little judgment day right here, so you understand exactly what's coming." That's what all the plagues are. They're pre-releases and they culminate in this last firstborn plague. And you know, here is the question, what is the only way you can stand against this most ultimate force of the universe, the only way it can be stopped: a lamb. A little fuzzy, sweet, cute, leaping lamb. Look at verse 6, "Take care of them," the lambs, "until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people 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 doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs." What's going on here? Lambs and blood, it's kind of weird.
What's up with the blood of the lamb? Look at verse 13, he explains it, "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." Did you notice, by the way, that the firstborn children of Israel, God's chosen people, were just as liable as the firstborn Egyptians? They weren't saved merely by being born into an Israelite family, they were not safe from the Destroyer. The fact that some Israelite boys woke up the next morning was because of one reason: blood on their door frames of their houses. That is the only reason. It was because of the blood. Here's what that means.
Imagine you are in Egypt that night, use your imaginations. Imagine you're there. Twilight comes, you're a 6-year-old boy. Twilight comes and your family slaughters a lamb along with a whole bunch of other families. You haven't done this, not in this way, ever before. That night you come home, and there is an air of seriousness about the whole family. That night you come home and you eat a meal that you have never eaten before. Your dad takes some of the blood of the lamb and put it on the doorposts. That night, around midnight, you start hearing out your window, across the river, down the street, 6 streets over, down the hill where Pharaoh's houses are where the nobles live, you start hearing people scream. You start hear mothers weeping. You are scared. You look at your dad and you say, "dad, why is this night different from every other night?" He says, "son, God is coming to rescue his people. We are so enslaved that it will take nothing less than the death of the firstborn to bring us out of slavery. Don't worry, I put blood on the door frames. I put blood around us, and God has said he will pass over us." And the son suddenly sinks in relief, and falls asleep in his father's arms.
House number 2, one street over, all those same things happen. At midnight he asks his dad almost the exact same question, his dad gives him almost the exact same answer, but it doesn't do the trick. He's still anxious, he's still nervous, he still wonders, "what is the Destroyer is coming for me?!" And you know what? They were both saved. What that means is, it is not the quality of your faith, nor the quantity of your faith, but the object of your faith. That should be great comfort to some of you this morning, who live your lives in self-doubt and fear. And your father says, "look at the blood. You will be safe there." That night, more than any other night in the history of the world, it was clear that the only thing that would help God's people was the blood. So, the little boy sits at table and he looks over and he sees a lamb sitting on the table and here's what he and his people say: "the only reason I am alive tonight is because that is dead." And if you want to understand this whole concept of the lamb, this whole concept of Christianity, you have to understand this word, this concept: substitute. Substitute. "The only reason I am alive tonight is because that is dead." That's why verse 13 says the blood is a sign for God so that he will pass over. Did you notice what else it is? It is a sign for you. Look at it again, "The blood will be a sign for you . . . I will pass over you."
What does that mean for you? What is faith? Is it as Kierkegaard said, "A leap into the darkness of absurdity?" Absolutely not. The Bible says this, here's what faith is: it is to see and agree with God that my sin is so terrible that he has every right to do terrible things. If you don't believe that, you do not have what the Bible calls faith. But there's a second part. God has provided a lamb. "My sin is so terrible. God has every right to do terrible things, but God has provided a lamb. Look at the blood." And listen, you have to live there. Some of you visit there every once in awhile. "Every once in awhile I look at the blood. When I became a Christian, I looked at the blood. When I die, I'll look at the blood. But I only visit there." You have to live there. That's why the passover was every year. To remind you that all you have is a lamb, and that's enough.
Now, there's one other home. Little further up the hill, little bigger home. Because they can trace their ancestry straight to Joseph. 400 years. They have the family coat of arms up there. And they're very moral, like some of you are. They're very religious, like some of you are. And they're very proud of being children of Abraham. But there was no blood on their home. Your moral superiority will bring the destroyer upon you. If the blood is not covering your home.
I hope you're skeptical. I hope you're sitting there going, "this is weird. Lambs and blood. Fluffy is going to take away sin? Come on." Because if you're thinking that, you are right on. You're dead on. There's a reason why we read that passage from Mark 14, because Exodus 12, this Old Testament picture of a passover lamb, is a neon arrow pointing forward. To someone else. Another one who would celebrate a passover some 1500 years later. Here's what happens, the passover was celebrated every year. In the passage that we looked at from Mark 14, that Grant read earlier, what were Jesus and his disciples celebrating? They were celebrating a Passover. That's what they were celebrating on the night he was betrayed. It's not a coincidence.
What happened in the Passover? It was a long meal. You can get online and read about a Passover seder. It's a fascinating meal. I actually participated in one once. There are all sorts of aspects to the meal. Imagine we're all gathered around this huge table, with all sorts of things to eat and drink, and this meal goes on for hours, literally. There are points during the meal when the host, the provider, gets up and describes part of the meal. Like the bitter herbs, for example. Like the unleavened bread. Now, listen, all of the people who were followers of Jesus and were with him in the upper room, they had heard all of this before. Kind of like you. They had heard it all before. 30 or 40 years, they'd been listening to the passover, and maybe they knew parts of it by heart. You know, they'd had a glass of wine, and maybe they were feeling warm, maybe half asleep.
There's this part where the host is supposed to stand up and say this, "This is the bread of affliction, which our ancestors suffered so that we could be free. Whoever is hungry, let him come and eat." You've heard those words before, 30 or 40 times, and that's what you expected. Then Jesus stands up and says, "This is my body, broken for you. Take and eat." You kind of rouse yourself, you look over at John and say, "what'd he say? is that new language? Is that a new translation of the ancient Hebrew?" Then he stands up, and holds up a cup of wine, and you expect him to say "This is the cup of redemption, the blood of the passover lamb." But instead he says, "this is my blood. poured out for you." And you start thinking, "something different is going on here." You are right. Fleecy, fluffy little lambs can never take away sin.
When Jesus shows up, and he's walking through Jerusalem one day, John the Baptist says, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." And people start going, "Hang on a second. What's he talking about? This is new." The most intense moment in the entire Bible, in the history of history, comes when Jesus is hanging on a cross and he looks up to Heaven and says, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" In a loud voice. At twilight. At the same hour the lambs were being slaughtered. It's not a coincidence. It was all looking forward to this moment. Jesus answers his own question, "Father, why have you forsaken me?" with, "Father, forgive them." Both, and. "Father, forgive them." Do you understand what's going on? Give Jesus the respect to deal with him on his own terms. Jesus is saying, in no uncertain terms, "My death and resurrection is the turning point of history. Not religious history, not Christian history, and everything before has been pointing to me, and everything after will arrange itself according to me." That is exactly what Jesus is saying, that is what the Bible is saying. And if you sell him short of that, if you delude yourself into believing that he came for some other reason, then you haven't read what he says about himself. There's bread on the table, there's wine on the table, there's no lamb. That's not mentioned. Why is there no lamb on the table? Because there's a lamb standing at the table.
Why? Why? Because my soul is so enslaved, not to Pharaoh or Egypt, but to sin, that it will take nothing less than the death of God. Do you believe that? Some of you say, "Well, that's horrible." And it is, you're absolutely right. It's horrible. Unless you're the one getting passed over. Then, it's the sweetest sound you've ever heard. That the Lord passes over me. Unless you understand yourself that way, you don't understand Christianity or Christ. I don't care if you've gone to church all of your life, you don't have faith. Do you see yourself like those poor folks clinging to a roof in New Orleans as the toxic water rises to kill them and consume them? They long for bread, they long for something to drink, and the hero comes in to save them at the price of his own life? Is that how you see your life? And if it is, has it changed you? Because if it hasn't, you haven't. You haven't understood. It's all information in your head.
I want to speak to those of you today who would call yourselves followers of Jesus. I want to ask you some questions, ok?
Does this comfort you?
Does this give you joy?
I can tell you, there were no firstborn sons on the day after the passover that were bored or apathetic. I've got to be honest with you. When I look at the American church, I see a lot of boredom and apathy. And it makes me wonder if we've really gotten it. It ought to make you wonder, too. If you've gotten it, leave your trivia behind. Leave your mediocrity behind, and your apathy. You say, "how do I do that?" By understanding that the Lord came to rescue you from apathy and from laziness and from mediocrity and from all the little toys of plastic that we spend all of our time playing with. When you see the lamb. If you're not ready to put on a crash helmet (I love that quote by Annie Dillard*), if you haven't strapped it on, if you aren't ready to live and die for the king, then you haven't seen him. And you need to when we come to this table. Are you? Folks, when people say the American church is dead, what are we going to say to them? What are we missing? Look at the table. Let it change you.
Let me talk to you to those who are maybe here for the first time. "I'm so glad I got out of bed for this this morning. I'm so glad that I got out of bed to sit there and let that guy tell me that the destroyer is coming to judge and that I am guilty. All of my fears and thoughts about Christians have been confirmed." Let me say this. I don't know any gentle way to say this. I might be right. And there may be places in your soul that you have long forgotten about and have long numbed yourself. Doors in your soul that you have locked the door and have said, "I'm not going to go there. I'm not going to think about that." That maybe, maybe, maybe he might be right. That there might be a God, and he might take himself seriously enough to take my sin seriously. Not my sin from 10 years ago, not that bad thing I did when I was 14. Yesterday. And the fact that I yawned through worship this morning and I'm bored. Maybe he's there.
You know what we tend to do? We tend to numb ourselves. "Look, Toby. I've got a wife, I've got kids, I've got a family. You know, things are pretty stable right now. I'll think about that someday when things get less stable." "I'm 15. I'm just having fun in life. Don't saddle me with religion right now. I'll think about all of that someday." "There were great parties this weekend, that for a few hours I could forget about that. I could forget about that door that was locked." "I'm about to graduate. I've got things to do, I've got things to think about. I can't think about this right now." Let me ask you a question: who's going to pay that debt? This is not play. If it is play, stay home. But you know what's in that mist. There's a God there, who takes himself very seriously. Do you know that? Do you believe that? And all the things you've used to numb your soul don't work any more. How are you going to pay that debt? Either you pay or the firstborn lamb pays. Those are your choices. It's an invitation to follow Jesus, follow him wherever he goes.
* passage referenced is as follows: "Does anyone have the foggiest idea of what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews."
