Missions Paul

I’ve just found myself scrolling Facebook and came across a member of my church that I pastored. I am so grateful for having known him. His name was Steve. He died on my birthday in 2012, and I was with him and his wife, Janet, when he passed into heaven. The year before, in January 2011, Steve presented the Church with leather bookmarks and key fobs he had made with the words of our preaching theme that year, “The time is near: this is my time”. When Steve died, I couldn’t accept the timing. It still looks wrong from my earth. Like a picture of bread without yeast, Steve, for me at that time, hadn’t risen to his full potential. However, though it was hard for his wife, beautiful girls, and family to accept, and perhaps still is, when God saved Steve from his ‘Egypt’ on February 22, 2012, the timing was perfect for him. For he entered into a perfect life of no pain, simply perfection.

“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt (v1) … 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. V12) … With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.” (v39)

 430 years is a long time to be without arriving at your true destination.

 The children of Israel’s destination was Canaan, the Promised Land. As you know, symbolic of our destination being heaven. The world and all that it offers is our Egypt. Yet it is what happens here that is so important for our Canaan. For it is here:

 * That God speaks and at the right time (v1).

 Today, in the place of limitations, sorrows, and difficulties, listen: God is speaking to you.

 * That God sees and at the right time (v12).

 How many of us are so thankful that the important matter is God seeing the blood of the true Passover lamb, His Son, Jesus Christ, in our lives? Sometimes we don’t feel Christian. Sometimes other people don’t see us in a good light. We are imperfect. But what God sees counts.

 * That God saves and at the right time (v39).

 The day we are rescued from this Egypt world of ours, the timing will be perfect from God’s side but not necessarily from our perspective.

 The time is near: this is my time.

For Steve. Not forgotten.

The Exodus story isn’t always chronological, and this is a good example. Exodus 12 tells us the Passover instructions were given first (12:1-28), then narrates the plague and Israel’s departure to Succoth (12:29-42) and only then comes back to add this second block of regulations. These aren’t new words spoken on the road; see v. 51. They are the last words given to Moses and Aaron, spoken before anyone flees Egypt, the final regulations for a meal that hadn’t been eaten yet.

“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover meal: “No foreigner may eat it. Any slave you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised him, but a temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat it. “It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. The whole community of Israel must celebrate it. “A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat it. The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you.” All the Israelites did just what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. And on that very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.” Exodus 12:43-51

The Passover lamb’s blood on their door frames would save them. It would be the foundation for the important Passover meal that would be regularly shared together throughout history.

Before they even step over the border of Egypt, God gives them instructions on who and how to eat the Passover meal.
So, who may participate?
No foreigner unless all his household are circumcised.

No temporary resident, unless he is circumcised.

No hired worker, unless he belongs to the household.

A slave may eat it but only once he is circumcised.

In a nutshell, “The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you.”

The exclusion line was never drawn around nationality or birth. Anyone could come to this table if they had been marked.

Then, almost as an aside, tucked into the regulations, *do not break any of the bones.*
Remember this? When the soldiers came to the crosses to break the legs of the crucified, they found Jesus had already died. So they didn’t break his. John looks at the Passover instructions and connects the dots. “So that the scripture would be fulfilled: not one of his bones will be broken.” (John 19:36)  A regulation about a lamb, kept perfectly, in the body of a man.

So we have the gospel, and it really is good news!

The Passover asks this: who is marked enough to belong?

The cross answers the question for good, but it changes what the mark is. What Christ does is cut by no human hand at all. Paul calls it “a circumcision not performed by human hands” in Colossians 2 v 11-12.

The knife becomes the cross. You are found in Christ, or you are not.
Gentiles who were once “foreigners to the covenants of promise… far away” are now “brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2 v 12-13)

The very language that shut people out in Exodus becomes the language that lets them in at Calvary, again, by blood that isn’t their own.

The Passover meal still has a restriction. But it is not determined by birth but by whether you let yourself be marked.

 

God is never late. He is always on time. Even after over four centuries. 

“The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves. Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt. Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come.” Exodus‬ ‭12‬:‭37‬-‭42‬ ‭

Six hundred thousand men on foot, plus women and children, plus flocks and herds too large to count. A whole nation on the move. Don’t underestimate this. Try and picture the chaos. They had left with dough that hadn’t risen because there wasn’t time to wait for bread.

But look at the detail: “the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt.”

To the very day.

You and your family may have been held in difficult circumstances for a long time. You may be waiting for God to change the landscape of your life. We can all wait for something to change for so long that we begin to feel that our predicament is permanent, no matter the promises of God we may have had. Have you resigned yourself that the next chapter you long for is just not going to come?

God is on time. 

The delay is never neglect.

God’s timing simply arrives, exactly on schedule, and only in hindsight do you see that it was never late at all.

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.