Sermon Tone Analysis

*The final plague of Egypt*

Let’s run a quick recap of where we left last week.

The plagues in Egypt were set up by God as a reminder for his people of where their worship should go.

It was a reorientation of worship away from Pharaoh and the control of Egypt.

And the plagues were meant to demonstrate that worship is to go towards God, and God alone.

Anything other than this is what the Bible calls idolatry.

Here’s the thing coming out from that and going into this week.

This is so important to remember.

They were all guilty.

All of the Israelites were guilty of idolatry.

They were all guilty of failing to direct their worship to God, and God alone.

This is important; we’ll come back to it in a minute.

And now God is ready to lay down one last plague.

It is this final plague that will signify the moment that will change everything for all of God’s people.

And this is a moment which God wants to ensure that his people will never forget.

So God gives to Moses what looks like some pretty odd instructions for how this final plague is to be received—and thereafter celebrated and remembered.

It is the moment which the Bible calls Passover.

So the final plague to occur is the plague of the firstborn.

This is God’s judgement against all the people in Egypt for failing to worship God alone.

It is his judgement for turning their lives in submission and dependence upon Pharaoh and on things other than the LORD.

Now remember, the Israelites were guilty of this too.

This is a plague, that when it comes upon the land, will affect the Israelite people as well as the Egyptian people.

So God instructs Moses to walk the people through this somewhat bizarre ritual called Passover so that they will never forget what is about to take place.

Because the people are all guilty of turning their worship away from God, this final plague of the firstborn should certainly fall upon them as well.

But instead, God steps in and gives them a sign to use that will forever be a reminder for the people that they were delivered from this plague.

Exodus 12:21–28 NIV

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.

The blood around the door was the sign.

This was the mark that God placed so that the righteous judgement of God against sin would pass over his chosen people.

*The meaning of the Passover*

Let’s spend a few minutes first on the meaning of this Passover event.

Consider how the Exodus did NOT occur.

God did not come to Moses and tell him to go to Israel and shape up their act so that they could be set free from Egypt.

God did not give instructions to—first—correct all their broken and wayward behaviors before they would be allowed to leave Egypt.

The Passover is set forever as a reminder for Israel that God came to them and rescued them even while they were still living in rebellion against God.

The law of God would come later—after the exodus.

The decrees of God for how the people should live comes later—after the exodus—as a response to the exodus.

NOT as a condition for the exodus—for God’s rescue.

So in the final plague, there is only one way for the people to escape the devastating blow of this plague.

And this escape can certainly never come from anything that any of the people can offer on their own before God as justification for why God should let them escape.

No. God himself needed to provide that escape.

It had to be something which came from God alone, because the people could not provide anything to do it on their own.

The instructions are this.

Quickly prepare a meal, and eat it quickly.

Be at the ready, because now is the time that God is going to deliver you.

Unleavened bread and lamb.

You got some carbs, got some protein.

It’s a good meal to give you a boost for the journey that is going to begin before you get to the next meal.

Take some of the blood from the lamb and brush it on the doorframe of your house.

THIS is the sign for God’s plague to pass you over.

Why this?

Why blood?

Blood was life.

blood gives life.

Without blood you cannot live.

Without blood there is no life.

Blood on the doorframe meant this: God is providing the blood you need to live—the blood you need to be delivered.

Whomever is under the protection of this house, is under the protection of God’s life-giving blood.

God’s rescue shows up here.

Nothing else will do it.

There is nothing else that any person can ever put up that will result in rescue from God.

No Israelite could ever ignore the sign of blood, and instead replace it with anything else.

No Israelite could say instead, “but we are descendants of Abraham, that’s all I need.”

Nothing about who they were, and nothing about what they had done could ever substitute for the blood.

Passover is to forever be a memorial for all people to follow that God himself provided the blood that would rescue his people.

Passover would forever remind the people of God that there is nothing that anyone can ever do on their own to provide that rescue for themselves.

Passover would forever cement the lesson of the plagues: your life comes from God, and God alone; worship belongs to God, and God alone.

*What signs are on my door?*

How quickly this lesson becomes lost.

How quickly God’s people forget their rescue—their very lives—come from God, and God alone.

How quickly in generations to come the Israelites replace their dependence on God alone—their worship of God alone—with dependence on their own efforts, dependence on their own abilities.

Jesus comes at a time when those who are the religious leaders of the day have completely covered over the lesson of Passover by loading on layer upon layer of their own efforts to show worthiness to God.

Instead of living in a way that demonstrated dependence on God alone, they were living in a way that demonstrated they could earn their way to God on their own—or so they thought.

And so instead of the sign of God’s life-giving blood, they preferred to show off other signs—signs which they created themselves.

Signs that said things like, “look at how well I keep the law.”

“Look at how well I follow the rules.”

All things for which Jesus calls them out as hypocrites and compares them to whitewashed tombs, looking presentable on the outside but full of rotting death on the inside.

What about us?

What about our lives today?

What about the church today?

What are the signs that we are putting on our doors?

For some it might be regular repetition of a handful of rituals.

Look at how regularly I show up to church.

Every Sunday I’m here.

That must count for something, right?

I mean, if that by itself is not enough for God to rescue me, surely it makes me a more favorable candidate for salvation, right?

After all, don’t these actions show to God just how dedicated a Christian that I am?

For some it might be generosity and service.

I give so much of what I have to support other worthy causes.

And I dedicate so much of my time to help others as a volunteer.

I mean, the Bible tells us to love others—to love our neighbors.

So if I have signs in my life that this is actually happening, surely that must count for something.