Bloody Doorframes
Notes
Transcript
Scripture: Exodus 12:1-30
Sermon Title: Bloody Doorframes
We are in week 4 of our Sacraments series, and today we’re looking at the old celebration of Passover. As I was preparing this week, I thought some of what I was going through was awfully familiar, like I had gone through it recently. Then I realized that when we looked at Matthew 26 and the last supper in March of 2020, we looked some at the origins of Passover. Yet there’s still plenty more for us to gain by looking at it again and also that wasn’t part of that message.
Before we get to our text and what became an annual memorial that God gave to the Israelites, how do we get from where we were a couple weeks ago—Genesis 17, Abraham given the sign of circumcision for the covenant associated with the Promised Land, the land of Canaan—how do we get from there to the Passover and its setting—the Israelites enslaved in Egypt?
The family tree goes from Abraham to his son Isaac to his son Jacob, whom God gave the name Israel. He had Joseph, whose brothers sold him. Later when a famine hit the land, those brothers went looking for food in Egypt, and who did they find there? Joseph, though they did not know it was him at first. Despite arriving as a slave, he was given authority over time, and with his authority was able to provide for many, including showing mercy to his family. He got approval for them to stay in Egypt, and Exodus 1:7 tells us, “…The Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.”
That might sound like it should be followed by “and they lived happily ever after.” But after some time, the Egyptian response was to enslave and oppress these foreigners, to work them ruthlessly. This lasted for several hundred years, but Exodus 2 moves along the account quickly. We find in verses 23 to 25, “The Israelites groaned…and cried out…God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.” We’ll hear more specific details as we get into the message, but following that point, God called Moses and he sent nine plagues on Egypt. The Pharaoh, however, would not let the Israelites, God’s people, go, and then we get here. If you have a Bible open, you can see chapters 11 and 12 go together. Chapter 11 tells of Moses explaining to Pharoah what the tenth plague would involve and his continuing refusal. Then God speaks again.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, I have fond memories of family parties from when I was growing up. When I was young, most of my extended family—my parents and siblings, my grandparents, my uncles and aunts and cousins—all lived in the same town or within half an hour to 45 minutes. Everyone’s birthday was celebrated—sometimes two or three would be combined on the same night, and we’d also get together for Easter and Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, for Memorial Day and the 4th of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas. At least on my dad’s side, we didn’t regularly do Sunday dinner altogether, but there were a lot of parties. Quite often whoever was hosting would hang streamers in their house or there’d be matching balloons, tablecloths, napkins, and cake picked by whoever’s birthday it was.
Those were special times, especially around the meal. When we went to Grandma and Grandpa De Graff’s the rest of the family would wait in their living room while others were preparing the meal in the kitchen. We’d wait for those words, “It’s ready, you can go find a seat.” Two long tables were put end-to-end, and everyone sat around them. It was now dinner time, and we were going to be there for a bit. As little kids, we’d get antsy and ask our parents repeatedly if we could leave the table and go play, but as we grew up, you’d sit and eat and talk until whenever grandpa or someone else read the Bible and prayed.
Those parties involved a celebratory feast, and how long that went on for didn’t really matter because the family was together. Maybe you’ve experienced that in your own families or when you’ve gone to a wedding or funeral or some other get-together with friends. It’s not difficult to be present; there’s no rush. The Passover we find here in Exodus 12 was not that kind of meal.
We’ll come back to why that is in a little bit, but let’s first look at one of two things that shows up repeatedly, that is, blood. Our first point, why is there so much blood in the Passover? If anyone here or anyone viewing the recording is a vegetarian, I’m guessing this isn’t a very friendly passage. It starts out that all these Israelite families were to slaughter a lamb, roast it, and eat it. That doesn’t seem too crazy, but then the Lord instructed in verse 7, “‘…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 lamb…’” How they were to do that is explained in verse 22, “‘…Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood…and put [it] on…’” I know crepe paper streamers weren’t invented yet, but wouldn’t a cloth or some type of banner have been enough? Why blood?
It doesn’t stop there, though. Verse 12, The Lord said, “‘…On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals…’” That’s not explicitly talking about blood, but it is about death. It’s fulfilled in verse 29, “At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt…” A lot of people are averse to death and blood in general today. But there are also Christians and other people who read the Bible, and wonder what to do with all of this. Why would God command such a thing? Why so much bloodshed?
Our answer begins in what God said in verse 13, “‘…The blood [on the Israelites’ doorframes] 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.’” When Moses told the elders, he elaborated, “…[The LORD] will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.’” We’ve been coming across that language of a sign the last few weeks and it’s vital here. God didn’t need the blood to know where his people were. It wasn’t for his benefit, so that he wouldn’t mistakenly pick a wrong house, striking down an unintended person. No, it was a sign “for you,” for his people. If they had gone on a neighborhood tour, they’d find that those who put the blood on their doorframes, who believed and trusted God’s message through Moses, theirs were the households untouched by this final plague. They had been passed over. God had spared their lives, and was delivering them from slavery. It’s a hopeful sign.
Yet maybe we still wonder: why any death at all? We’re told throughout the early chapter of Exodus that God make Pharaoh’s heart hard and he didn’t let the people go. Why didn’t God just make his heart soft and free them? Why did God involve these firstborns, and with that, we might broaden out, why were any of the plagues necessary? Why did God do this?
We may not be able to fully understand, but at least part of the answer has to do with the exercise of God’s justice. We go back to Exodus chapters 3 and 4. At this point, God had called Moses to lead his people, and in Exodus 3:19 and 20, God tells him, “‘…I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go...’” God may have made his heart hard to exercise these “wonders,” the plagues, but it was the king’s will to rebel against God’s plan for his people. He was already keeping them enslaved.
God knew how this would go, and so before any of the plagues, God told Moses to say this to Pharaoh. Chapter 4 verses 22 and 23, “‘…“This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, ‘Let my son go, so he may worship me.’ But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.”’” Along with this, we might add that the Israelites expressed in Exodus 5:21 that the Egyptians were working them to death—they were mistreating them.
While people, including maybe some of us, don’t like to think about God being the one responsible for the deaths of these people, that he shed their blood, God was exercising his righteous justice. When it came to his chosen people, his child, who he was freeing from the Egyptians’ oppression; the Egyptians had already turned their back on God. The blood was on their hands, but also the Israelites would spread the blood of these lambs as a sacrifice to the Lord.
That’s why there was so much blood. Let’s move on now to the non-bloody part of Passover, to the bread. As I talked about the parties and meals I experienced growing up with my family—Passover was also participated in with one’s family and possibly neighbors. However, it was not a slow meal. It was essentially a meal eaten to get on the road. That’s our second point.
After being enslaved for hundreds of years, God wanted his people to take up his call that night with urgency. They had four days to pick the lamb and be ready to roast it, but the bread for this meal was to be made without yeast, bread that can’t rise. They were also to eat the meal, “with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover.’” In our culture and maybe there’s as well, it would be very impolite to go over to someone’s house, spend some time there, but when they tell you it’s time to eat, you go grab your coat and put your shoes back on. Your host has put in their time, energy, and food resources to make you a meal and show you hospitality. Now you’re communicating you just want to leave. Yet that’s what God instructed the Israelites to do. Be ready to get out the door when the time comes. When their freedom was proclaimed, take what they’re supposed to and go.
This whole thing was to become an annual practice—Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Sometimes in Scripture those names seem a bit interchangeable; they apply to the whole feast, but sometimes remembering the single night when God passed over is that given that name and the Feast is the whole seven days. No matter the name, the absence of yeast was to be practiced. Verse 15, “‘…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…must be cut off…’” Later in verse 20, God added, “‘…Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.’”
In Deuteronomy, a little later in Israel’s history but still in Moses’ life, he reminded the community about this. They didn’t have to keep putting blood on their doorframes, but they were to, “‘…Sacrifice…an animal from [their flocks or herds] at the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his Name. Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread.” Here’s an addition, “The bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste—so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt…’”
This whole event was not just a sign of God’s judgment on the Egyptians. It was also a sign and a reminder year after year, generation after generation of God’s freedom from slavery and freedom to the covenant blessings he had promised them. The late theologian Lawrence Richards commented on this passage, “Passover night was an end to slavery, but a beginning of life with God. While the people of Israel were always to remember that ‘the Lord brought [them] out of it’ (Ex. 13:3), they were not to remember Egypt! They were not to look back, but to move out immediately on their journey to the Promised Land.” What we can take away from that with this message of urgency is they were not to stay put. They were not to enjoy the yeast they could purchase in their enslavement. They were not to remain somewhat comfortable as they would grumble about in the desert. They were to follow God wherever and whenever he led them.
We need to be discerning in how we take this and apply it, but when God tells us, his people, to do something, our response should be a ready obedience. Sometimes his call is to wait and endure suffering. He allowed his people Israel to suffer for these centuries in Egypt. Following the days of the Old Testament prophets, there were over 400 years of silence before the angels announced John and Jesus’ births. It’s been almost 2,000 years since then, two millennium in which Christians have been waiting for his return. Yet when God leads and calls clearly and urgently, the appropriate response is to go and to trust him.
Let’s go to our final point: why aren’t we doing this anymore? Why don’t we as Christians, once a year, slaughter a lamb, roast it with bitter herbs, and eat it with some unleavened bread? Why don’t we clear the yeast out of our homes for a week? It’s in the Bible. God commanded it. Jesus early in his life and with his disciples celebrated Passover. Shouldn’t we still be doing it?
The answer to those questions is no. We don’t have to do it. It’s not because we don’t care about the Bible. Not because we don’t believe God was behind this. Not because we should forget how God judged the Egyptians and freed his people. We don’t practice this because we believe the true and better Passover lamb has been given once and for all.
In 1 Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul is rebuking the church in Corinth over sin that they had become proud of. You can look it up yourself for more details, but there was sexual immorality that was being celebrated. He makes clear that the sinful nature needs to be destroyed in order for one to be saved; it’s not something to boast about or be proud of. Then he writes this, starting in verse 6, “…Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.”
It’s important for us to see how God cared about and miraculously intervened for the sake of Israel in the book of Exodus. That is an event of redemption, but it is just a glimpse of what Jesus came to do. All people are deserving to be judged by God because of our sin, the sin that enslaves us. Yet Jesus came and lived and died, he rose, and ascended. Part of what he did was to provide a sacrifice for us. He, the perfect, spotless Lamb of God, gave himself as a sacrifice. Like the Old Testament Passover lamb, we’re told not a bone in his body was broken. He bore the wrath of God on sin and provided freedom for all who believe. We heard about that last time with baptism; we’ll hear it again next week in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus provides a redemption that is so much greater than what was experienced in Egypt. His redemption was not just for the Israelites or any other single ethnicity or family line. His saving grace is for any and all who believe in him.
This is why we don’t celebrate Passover, but instead we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. We remember and celebrate what took place on what we call Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter. But we don’t only look back either—we’re also to look forward to the return of Christ, to him welcoming all the redeemed into his glory. That is our freedom in full, from our sinful nature and this life’s burdens.
While we don’t have to celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus in haste like the Israelites did, we should proclaim the gospel with urgency. We shouldn’t tell people that they don’t have to worry, or that they don’t have to think too much of their sin. It is so important, and it is urgent—none of us know how long we have on this earth—it is a huge deal that people turn to the Lord and believe in him. We don’t have to put blood on doorframes or make unleavened bread, but we must repent and believe. We must put our faith in God and live lives that show our faith. Brothers and sisters, as we enjoy our times together and celebrate what we hopefully all share in looking ahead, let us not give up on urgently proclaiming the message for others to seek the Lord and find perfect and eternal hope in him alone. Amen.
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