Missions Paul

Midnight is never a good time.

God is never convenient. Moving a nation out of a nation at midnight has got to be difficult. But perhaps this is the way of the Lord, and maybe you can testify that though God delivered you from something, it was a tough time when He did. 

“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. 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. During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.” The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!” So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The Lord had made the Egyptians favourably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.” Exodus 12:29-36

The Lord struck at midnight. During the darkness when all were asleep, and no one was expecting anything (except God’s people), judgement came. 

There were no exceptions. “There was not a house without someone dead.” From Pharaoh’s palace to the prisoner’s dungeon, wealth, power, and status had built nothing that could stop this. The wailing that rose that night came from every spectrum of society. 

The man who once asked “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him?” now begs for a blessing from the God he refused to know.

The Egyptians who had enslaved Israel for generations now urge them to hurry, and they hand over silver, gold, and clothing on the way out. God doesn’t just deliver His people, but He sends them out blessed, exactly as He told Moses at the burning bush He would.

Deliverance of your situation may not look orderly. You could be going through some fast changes right now. It may be very messy; in fact, deliverance can be as painful and concerning as the pain of being held and constrained. But this period of time is God’s moment of moving you into the next chapter. Notice the commands that come from the enemy:-

Up! Leave! Go! Worship the Lord.

When the doors of your life open up, they can do so almost violently. It can mean you have to act without delay, for the door may only be open for a short time and it may even be very inconvenient, at midnight.

Is there another chapter in the Old Testament as important as this one? The blood of the lamb, that had been slain, for the only reason that it would identify to ‘the Lord’ that the household belonged to Him. The gospel of Jesus Christ is being displayed throughout this story and its power is as much for today as it has ever been. The blood has never lost its power!

“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. 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. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’ ” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.” Exodus‬ ‭12‬:‭21‬-‭28‬ ‭

The blood has to be visible.

It was visible to the Egyptians as they watched their Hebrew neighbours bizarrely painting their door frames blood-red. 

It was visible to those inside the home, they needed to see it and know its protective power. During the time of the ‘destroyer’ can you imagine those inside holding their breaths, wondering if their home would experience a pass-over?  Can you imagine one of the family bringing assurance, ‘it’s okay we have all seen the blood of the lamb on our homes,’ we are safe and we will be saved. The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter of Romans 8: 31-39, “… If God is for us, who can be against us? … Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? … Who then is the one who condemns? … Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? …”

The answer is nothing and no-one, for we see the power of the blood of Jesus Christ.

More importantly than the world seeing the blood over us and even ourselves having confidence in the blood, there is one person who sees the blood and they are the most important. 

“When the Lord … he will see the blood … and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.”

The blood has to be visible to us, but is visible to God. 

So many times in our Christian lives we may wonder if we come under His grace or condemnation. 

Trust the blood.

Teach that to the generations to come, to our children and children’s children. 

We are saved not by any effort of ourselves, but by the blood of the lamb.

We are not painting door-frames anymore. But we still live under blood we didn’t shed, sheltering behind a sacrifice we didn’t make.

To be able to live to the fullest is to know that God has seen the blood of Christ over our lives. 

When He looks at you, He sees the blood. Amen! 

“‘This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord – a lasting ordinance. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day until the seventh must be cut off from Israel. On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do. ‘Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.'” (Exodus 12:14–20)

It was never about bread. It is always about holiness. It is about remaining clean.

Don’t leave any yeast in your houses — for as with sin, just a little spreads and causes pain.

God is starting them off clean. They left Egypt with the blood still on their doorframes, but they left clean. Their houses were bloodied but they were clean before God. The whole idea of no yeast was not to allow anything to quietly creep back into their lives.

Jesus picked up this same image centuries later. He warned his disciples, “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Luke 12:1). Hypocrisy is yeast exactly because it works unseen.

What may be quietly working through your life right now? What is festering under the surface? It may only be a small thing — a small conversation you wish you could have. You may be carrying anger and pain that needs justice.

Is it worth checking on yourself? Is there yeast lying there?

In this chapter, God gives Israel instructions for the big escape and, in doing so, sets the pattern for everything the cross would later fulfil.

“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 lambfor his family, one for each household. ⁴ If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbour, 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 members 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 boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. 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 of both people 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.” (Exodus 12 v 1-13)

The tenth judgment isn’t just going to appear like the other nine. It will PASS over. The protection this time will not be whether they are a certain nationality, but whether they have blood on their door frames.

This time judgment doesn’t just fall. It passes over. And what makes the difference isn’t a person’s character, their nationality, or their record. It’s blood on a doorframe.

Inside the houses of blood there are instructions on how to eat the lamb, in haste! The people were to be dressed ready for the escape.

The big verse is 13. “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

That’s the whole meaning of the atonement; this is the altar, centuries before the cross. It has never been about our worthiness. It was about a substitute lamb who doesn’t survive the night, but the household does.

The Apostle Paul would write, “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”

The one major question that this story poses is this: When judgment comes, it will never be about how good you have been but about who you have put your trust in. The only safest place to stand is under His blood.

Egypt and Pharaoh are still holding onto God’s people, and then this happens.

“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.” (Exodus 12 v 1-2)

This is a reset. Thank God for these moments.

God often announces a new day when the old day is still with us.

Egypt had its calendar. Its gods governed the seasons and the harvests. But now God draws a line.

He gives His people a new beginning while they’re still waiting for deliverance.

God doesn’t wait for the mess to be over before He starts something new. He starts the new thing in the middle of the mess.

Passover and deliverance happen here in this new month.

Whatever month, situation and difficulty you’re in, and no matter whether you can see the end in sight, God can mark it as the start of something.

He doesn’t just redeem your story. He resets your calendar. He says, “For you, this is your new chapter!”

The nation of Israel had not yet been birthed, but it was already sitting in Egypt.

“Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.” (Exodus 11:7)

There is a “not yet” in you. And it’s sitting in a present circumstance that is fashioning and crafting your character for just the right time.

God was already shaping a nation while Pharaoh still dominated the scene. He’s doing the same with you. Before your answered prayer and the breakthrough you are hoping for, character is already being developed in you.

So because of this, you can change the way you view your today:

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Cor 4:17)

So because of this, you can change the way you live your today:

“I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:14)

Today matters. It is carrying you into the person you will be tomorrow.

Your ‘Egypt’ will not get the final word.

Every chapter of your life, someone is holding the pen. There is always a Hand above the hand of your enemy.

“Now the Lord had said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely. ² Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbours for articles of silver and gold.” ³ (The Lord made the Egyptians favourably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh’s officials and by the people.) ⁴ So Moses said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. ⁵ Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. ⁶ There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. ⁷ But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any person or animal.’ Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. ⁸ All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow you!’ After that I will leave.” Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh. ⁹ The Lord had said to Moses, “Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you—so that my wonders may be multiplied in Egypt.” ¹⁰ Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go out of his country.” (Exodus 11)

The river had turned to blood. Then came the frogs, gnats, flies, livestock, boils, hail, locusts and then the darkness; all these were displaying that God was the true God above all the gods of Egypt.

Still Pharaoh would not release God’s people.

Now God tells Moses there will be one more. But this time it wasn’t a final request but an announcement.

*About midnight I will go throughout Egypt.*

This time He needs no instrument. He simply comes.

His coming will bring loud wailing and yet His people and even their dogs will be at peace.

*Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.*

We know ultimately what is coming next because we have read the story many times. But here in this moment, Moses walks out of that final audience with Pharaoh, ‘hot with anger’. He has pleaded with this man nine times and seen him go back on his promise every single time.

One thing that Moses carried in his mind was what God had also said to him.

*Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you — so that my wonders may be multiplied.*

Even the toughest battles of life, and many refusals we may face, are never outside God’s plan. It is at these times which God chooses to display Himself.

No one ever writes the ending. God does.

There are moments in our lives where we must insist on no compromise.

You’re leaving to worship with everything you have, since everything you have was bought with everything He had.

“Our livestock too must go with us; not a hoof is to be left behind. We have to use some of them in worshiping the Lord our God, and until we get there we will not know what we are to use to worship the Lord.” (Exodus 10 v 26)

 Yes it matters.

 If I just let your men go and worship and keep the women and children back is that ok? Does it matter?

Yes it matters.

 If I just let your men, women and children go and keep your animals back is that ok? Does it matter?

 Yes it matters.

 Not a hoof is to be left behind. It matters that much.

 Pharaoh is not dead. He still tries to bargain a deal on worship.

Most bargains look generous. That’s what makes half-hearted worship so dangerous. It can appear wise

 Do you have to go to church every Sunday?

 Do you have to pray and read the Bible every day?

 Do you have to tell others about Jesus?

 Do you have to tithe and give offerings?

 Do you have to be hospitable?

Do you have to forgive the person who hurt you?

Do you have to guard your thought life?

Do you have to love the difficult person in your church?

 The list goes on and of course the answer because of God’s grace is “No I don’t have to”. But for those who know His grace and love it is definitely “Yes it matters”.

Pharaoh’s third offer looks generous. It looks reasonable. Most bargains do.

But God doesn’t negotiate. Every hoof matters.

Worship cannot be negotiated over. The altar demands our all. To bow before God without surrendering everything is not to bow at all.

Time is running out on Pharaoh, and for Moses the new day is nearly here.

“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.” ²² So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. ²³ No one could see anyone else or move about for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived. ²⁴ Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, “Go, worship the Lord. Even your women and children may go with you; only leave your flocks and herds behind.” ²⁵ But Moses said, “You must allow us to have sacrifices and burnt offerings to present to the Lord our God. ²⁶ Our livestock too must go with us; not a hoof is to be left behind. We have to use some of them in worshipping the Lord our God, and until we get there we will not know what we are to use to worship the Lord.” ²⁷ But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was not willing to let them go. ²⁸ Pharaoh said to Moses, “Get out of my sight! Make sure you do not appear before me again! The day you see my face you will die.” (Exodus 10 v 21-28)

Nine plagues in, this one is different from the rest. This is not just darkness. This is a darkness that could be felt (v21).

However, for God’s people, they had light. Lights shining in the thick darkness that the Egyptians were experiencing. That’s quite a gospel theme right there. In one place the darkness of judgment and in the other the light of mercy.

Again, Pharaoh tries to negotiate. Go and worship, take your families, just leave the livestock. It sounds generous. Moses won’t take the deal. “Not a hoof is to be left behind.” Worship that doesn’t cost you everything isn’t worship.

Darkness fell over Egypt for three days. But the greater darkness is always in the hearts of people who will not bend before God.

The question for us is this ancient one: what are we still negotiating with God over?

Pharaoh moves from refusal to negotiation.

He knows that his outright “no” is only escalating the plagues. Resistance to God often looks like a compromise. Instead of a slammed door, it is one that is slightly open, you can show obedience but it isn’t complete.

“Pharaoh’s officials said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the Lord their God. Do you not yet realise that Egypt is ruined?” ⁸ Then Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. “Go, worship the Lord your God,” he said. “But tell me who will be going.” ⁹ Moses answered, “We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, and with our flocks and herds, because we are to celebrate a festival to the Lord.” ¹⁰ Pharaoh said, “The Lord be with you—if I let you go, along with your women and children! Clearly you are bent on evil.¹¹ No! Have only the men go and worship the Lord, since that’s what you have been asking for.” Then Moses and Aaron were driven out of Pharaoh’s presence. ¹² And the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over Egypt so that locusts swarm over the land and devour everything growing in the fields, everything left by the hail.” ¹³ So Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and the Lord made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts; ¹⁴ they invaded all Egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers. Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again. ¹⁵ They covered all the ground until it was black. They devoured all that was left after the hail—everything growing in the fields and the fruit on the trees. Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt. ¹⁶ Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. ¹⁷ Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the Lord your God to take this deadly plague away from me.” ¹⁸ Moses then left Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord. ¹⁹ And the Lord changed the wind to a very strong west wind, which caught up the locusts and carried them into the Red Sea. Not a locust was left anywhere in Egypt. ²⁰ But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go.” (Exodus 10 v 7-20)

Egypt was in ruins, “How long will this man be a snare to us?” they asked. Even his own advisors could see what Pharaoh refused to see.

If your enemy cannot stop your desire to worship God, he will certainly introduce the idea of compromise.

Only men can go and worship. Moses was told to leave the women, the children and the flocks behind.

But God doesn’t negotiate when it comes to surrender.

So the locusts come. Again Pharaoh repents. “I have sinned,” he says. But the moment the pressure lifts, again so does the repentance.

This ancient story continues to ask us the question: are you offering God a negotiated worship?

God has never wanted a token. He wants young and old, everything you have and are.

Christ didn’t die for part of you. He didn’t hold back an arm on the cross so you could hold back a portion of your heart.

Has God got all of you today?