40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Episode 73 (Exodus 11:1-12:12)

Episode Date: February 22, 2017

Gird up your loins! In this episode Chad Bird and Daniel Emery Price talk about the final act God will preform to convince Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go. They also look back at the previous plagues through the lens of Christ and the cross. Have a listen!

welcome to another episode of 40 minutes in the old testament we are going to wrap up some plagues today I'm Daniel Henry Price, joined by Chad Bird. Chad, you ready to get through these plagues? Hey, Daniel. Yes, sir, I am. Let's see. We finished 9. One more to go. Chapter 11 of Exodus, I think, is where we're going to pick up. We got the 10th plague, and you really can't talk about the 10th plague, of course,

without talking about Passover, and you can't talk about the Passover without talking about the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So our plate is full today. We got a lot of good stuff to get to. Yeah, yeah. Let's get into it, man. This is the big one, and there's going to be a lot to talk about. Yeah, yeah, there is.

So this 10th plague, you can kind of look at it from two different perspectives. You can look at it from the Israelite perspective, and you can look at it from the Egyptian perspective. And you kind of use a geography image, if you will, to summarize this 10th plague. So if you're if you're an Israelite, then this 10th plague brings you up to to the top of the mountain. You've been like climbing through these first nine plagues. You're about to get to to the summit. But if you're an Egyptian, then you've been going down and down through each of these nine plagues and you're about to hit rock rock bottom. So this 10th plague is certainly the crowning point, but it just depends on your perspective as to whether that's good or whether that's bad, because it's going to be great for the Israelites because this is going to mean liberation for them. But if you're an Egyptian, this is going to be the low point of the nation's history.

I mean, the nation's history throughout the history of the world, this is the lowest point in Egypt's history that's coming up here in chapter 11 and 12. So we've been building to this for quite some time. If you listen to the last couple of programs, you know that the ten plagues are that the first nine plagues are really divided into three different sets of three. And there's a certain pattern, a certain rhythm that these first nine plagues follow, but then the 10th is set apart. It's unique in lots of different ways, both in the people that it affects as well as how this connects with Israel's upcoming liberation. so here's uh chapter 11 basically is all about the what the tent plague is going to to do it didn't doesn't we don't get to the tent plague actually until chapter 12 later in chapter 12 but chapter 11 of exodus tells us what's uh what's going to to happen so here's how it begins this is

verse 1, the Lord said to Moses, one more plague, I will bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here. And if he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here completely. So God had already told Moses way back at the burning bush, actually, back in Exodus chapter four, uh, that he was going to, he was going to take the life of the firstborn sons of Egypt. Uh, he didn't say anything about the other plagues, but he did say that he was going to do that. So Moses kind of has a, uh, an, an inkling of what's, what's coming up here. God had already talked about the severity of the, of the plague that is to come. And now he's told that once this one hits, then Faber was finally going to relent and he's going to not just let

you go. He's not going to say, all right, you're free. He's going to drive you out, get rid of you completely. And then he goes on, he says that he wants the people to go to their Egyptian neighbors for the women to go to their neighbors and to ask for articles of silver and articles of gold. So not only are they going to leave, they're not going to leave impoverished. They're going to actually leave with at least a little bit of a paycheck from all of their decades of servitude there in Egypt. This is kind of like one huge paycheck that Israel is going to receive from Egypt for all of their years of unrequited labor. And the people, remarkably, are going to give this freely. In fact, it says the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians and that Moses, Moses was greatly esteemed in the land of Egypt, both in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people.

You know, it's funny, you kind of get the impression that in an unexpected way through all of these plagues that Moses has gained respect from the Egyptians. he's become greatly esteemed so that really it's like the only person left in the whole land of egypt who doesn't really get it who doesn't esteem moses doesn't really understand that you know what god is working through moses the only person who doesn't realize all this is is thick headed and hard-hearted pharaoh it's like he he is the only one who doesn't really finally understand what's what's going on so the people the people favor the the the israelites uh they greatly esteem moses and uh they hand over all of this uh all of these uh these riches to them and then when we get to verse 4 of chapter 11 it's when god now explicitly says what this

final uh final decisive plague is going to be he says about midnight i am going out into the midst of egypt notice notice who it's i so this is god himself is going to is going to visit visit egypt and all the firstborn in the land of egypt shall die from the firstborn of the pharaoh who sits on the throne to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the millstones and all the firstborn of the cattle as well so we've got we've got the uh the human dimension but we also have the the the animal the the beastly dimension here it's it's not going to be just the firstborn of people but the firstborn of the of the cattle as well which the egyptians hell as sacred. They invested divinity in some kind of bovine sort of gods and goddesses. So

God is going to strike the firstborn, not only of man, but a beast as well. And as a result, there's going to be a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been before, and such as there shall never be again so that like i said earlier this is the lowest point in egyptian history this is the greatest cry that ever arose from any kind of suffering that takes place in uh in the land in the land of egypt why the first board well uh that's another thing that god had already had already uh clarified this is way back in uh chapter four when moses was still standing there at the burning bush. It says that he's going to say to Pharaoh, this is Exodus 4, chapter 4, verse 22, thus says the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn. So I said to you, let my son

go that he may serve me, but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn. So this is kind of a measure for measure that's taking place. Israel is always understood to be god's firstborn he is uh his special his special acquisition his special his special child and uh because his firstborn had been mistreated then god was going to respond in punishment toward egypt by doing the same to to their firstborn and this is where he then makes the distinction back to exodus 11 verse 7 it says but against any of the sons of israel a dog shall not even bark. That's a great image there that, you know, all of this catastrophic death is going to befall Egypt when God goes through to destroy the firstborn. But

among the Israelites, not even a peep out of one of the dogs. Everything's quiet. Everything's peaceful everything is is safe and in this way they're going to realize that god makes the distinction between between egypt and israel and then it kind of wraps up the chapter by saying uh the the egyptian the servants of the favor are going to come and bow themselves down before god and before before moses and going to beg them to go out so that's it's kind of it's kind of the uh uh the prelude to what's going to happen here god says all right the time has come and here's what's about to happen and here's why it's going to happen and here here's everything that's going to to to go down as this as this transpires so that's uh that's chapter 11 kind

of bringing everything now up to focus that we're going to see uh actually transpire in chapter 12 man there's there's uh there's so many things that that you want that you want to say about this and uh you're trying to i say your i am trying to figure out like okay where where do where do you where do you bring in where do you bring this stuff in right because because it's brutal man this final plague is is you know which is not not even so much a plague as it is just this wrath of god that is about to about to come down not in it not in a way that manifests itself in like pestilence or famine or some kind of natural disaster or something like that but in just the actual execution of of the first board i think this is this is one of those things where you're

like man god is this like how about could you could you just why not how would you just pharaoh's son that'd probably be enough like you gotta you gotta like kill every everyone like i kill the first the first born everything and i think that is a tough question to wrestle with i mean as you read this you're like man this like god is is going pretty pretty harsh here and i think that the way that you have to look at this sort of stuff i mean as a theologian of the cross the plagues brought upon Egypt culminating in death so all of these things that are horrible I mean boils and uh you know all of that stuff darkness uh the Nile turning to blood whatever it is all these things that are create make things physically difficult and that are things

that are hard to endure all of this i think sort of points you to the sufferings of christ and what and what he will ultimately do to take away the sins of the world in the flesh right christ's suffering isn't merely they didn't just like take him condemn him and then nail him to a cross but there's there's a lot of anguish that goes on during you know first he's beaten and flogged and mocked and ridiculed and then brought back up and tried again and brought back down and put you know crown of thorns on his head all this stuff meant that had to carry his own cross while after being beaten to a pulp through the streets uh up to up to calvary to eventually finally die and i think that you kind of see that in the plagues as of like what is god's response to sin and what what

what ends up being required and it's not as simple as well i'll just kill pharaoh's son real quick and it's sleep like no but there's like all this anguish and suffering that leads up to finally the last the last thing that that god does which is the death of the firstborn which of course you know jesus is the only son of god and so you have i think that's i think that's what it's trying to the picture is trying to paint the message is trying to get across that what christ will ultimately suffer for the sins of the jews for the sins of the egyptians for the sins of me and you involves more than than just you know it wasn't as though god said i'll put i'll put the sins of the world on christ and then kill him in his sleep

there's there's actually a tone of suffering that goes on um and uh and so in that in that way uh the death of the firstborn as a picture of what ultimately happens to christ is actually milder it's not more extreme than actually than what actually happens to christ yeah i uh i agree with everything that you that you said the uh plagues uh and in other parts of the old testament where you have you have a great slaughter that that takes place but we'll just kind of restrict ourselves right here to the plagues these plagues are are not understandable apart from from the death of god the everything that happens here in these plagues is is not just a foreshadowing but in some kind of strange way uh derives its uh its meaning its significance by its connection to

to the death of of christ so that you can't read these chapters rightly without imposing over the top of them kind of a picture of the crucifixion because you kind of have to read the bible backwards in this way so you you read all of these chapters from exodus about the plagues after having read the account of christ crucifixion and then just kind of continue this you look through christ crucifixion to the end of all things when there will be another great great destruction in fact revelation describes uh the end time judgments with language and imagery that's taken from the the 10 plagues of of exodus so kind of look at all three of these together you could get the plagues look at the death of christ you look at the end

time judgments that will that will come that wrap up the history of the world and all three of these are kind of a are kind of a unit that derive their their meaning their significance from the death of from the death of christ the plagues point forward to it the the end time plagues or judgments or destruction point point back to it everything in the death of christ is what really makes sense out of all of these other out of all of these other destructions and so the the plagues are a foreshadowing of the crucifixion in the same way that the crucifixion is a foreshadowing of of the of the end of the end times it's again as is so often the case it's it's only the cross that clarifies the rest of the rest of biblical history because it's only there that we really

see a revelation of what god is is up to in the plagues and what he will be doing at the end of the world that clarifies the cross clarifies all the biblical and all of really world history by revealing the kind of god we have uh what uh what he does in order to take care of sin and how that and reveals his heart to all of us as the one who actually takes all of evil and all of the plagues upon himself in order that we might be redeemed. Yeah, yeah, man. So some good cross theology, theology of the cross stuff in the plagues. And that's just going to continue as this whole thing.

This picture gets very vivid, but I think even just on the front end, before we get into the the the nitty-gritty of it which paints you know a really clear picture i think of of the death of christ i think even everything that we've looked at so far leading up to this pronouncement of this is what's going to happen uh is still uh only rightly viewed through the lens of the cross right yeah you know what we're going to see in chapter 12 is kind of a dual a twofold way of of looking at at the significance of of christ's death and you can look at it from the perspective of the plague the death of the firstborn but then you also look at it from the other lens and that is the the passover lens so just like i wear glasses i got

two lenses here and these these two lenses help me to to see by working working together well that both of these, the death of the firstborn as well as the Passover itself, they work together to give us a full picture of what all is involved with the death of the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. So let's get into it. Chapter 12. So I don't know how fast or slow we're going to be able to move here, but we'll proceed along here. And there's a lot of details that we'll try to clarify as we work our way through, but the first part of chapter 12 begins to give us some details about how the Passover is to be celebrated. So, chapter 11 told us, hey, here's what's going to happen. Here's what I'm going to do. This is what the

plague is going to consist of, but it doesn't happen right away because Israel has to get ready for the tent play. And this is the beginning then of how they get ready. So God speaks to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt. That's the way the chapter begins. And first of all, we have a clarification of how Israel from henceforth is to understand time, how they are to orient themselves just according to the way that their calendar is is uh is going to function as sort of the guiding the the guiding principle for their for their uh their worship life it says this month god says this month shall be the beginning of months for you it is to be the first month of the year to you so uh you got of course the israelite calendar is not like our calendar

of course we start in january but you kind of have uh you really have two different calendars operative uh in in the ancient world and and in israel as well you've got uh and neither of them start january 1st you've got you got some reckonings some some some evidence of a calendar in the Old Testament that actually begins in the fall. And then you have some evidences of a calendar, such as here in Exodus 12, of the beginning of the year falling in the spring. There's more occurrences, more references to an understanding of the year where it begins in the spring, in the month that's known by a couple different names, Aviv, as well as Nisan. So this is their equivalent of our January.

Starts in the springtime, starts during barley harvest. It starts in this month that's known by a couple of different names. The older name is Aviv, and then Nisan is a name that came later on that was borrowed from the Babylonians. So this is the Israelite calendar. And it's significant that their year starts. this is the the genesis of the year is it begins with the month of the passover now why is this important because the passover is the moment of new creation for israel this is their moment of redemption this is their moment of liberation this is their moment when god acts in order to

redeem them so this month is going to be not just kind of the way things get started in the year but this month is going to define who israel is and what kind of god that israel has he's the god of redemption he's the god of the uh of the redeeming blood of the lamb so that's the way there's their year is going to start in this in this month of passover and then we get more specific about time. He says that on the 10th of the month, so this is the first month in the springtime, and on the 10th of this month, they're to choose the sacrifice. And this could be, we almost always think of the Passover sacrifice as a lamb, but it actually could have been a goat. So it can be either a lamb or a kid, a baby sheep or a baby goat. It could be either one.

It was almost always in subsequent history a lamb, but it says here that it could be the one. So on the 10th of the month, they're to pick out the sacrifice, the animal that they're going to sacrifice. And they're supposed to keep it for four days. So there's this gap. They choose it on the 10th, and the 10th was a significant day for the Israelites. It was on the 10th of the month that Yom Kippur took place. It was on the 10th of the month that Joshua crossed over the Jordan into the Promised Land. So the 10th day is significant for the Israelites.

So they choose it on the 10th, they keep it to the 14th. So for four days, you can kind of picture the Israelites. I like to think of it as kind of a time for preparation and reflection upon what God is about to do. You got these four days in which you've isolated this animal, you're keeping it separate, you're getting it ready for sacrifice. And so for four days, you're prepared for what God is about to do. So you don't just go out to the flock and grab one and bring it in and sacrifice if there is this time of a preparation it's kind of like you know uh uh the holy week that the christians celebrate you know there's this there's this time of preparation where you

christ enters on palm sunday and uh then he is is the sacrifice on good friday and between the between that sunday and that and that good friday is a time of preparation and anticipation for what he is about to accomplish. And so this is kind of like that for the Israelites. The animals to be unblemished, a male, a year old. They keep it from the 10th to the 14th and it all leads up then to what's going to happen at twilight.

So on the evening of the 14th day. Am I missing anything? there's a whole lot more that i can say at this point but uh nope for the for the sake for the sake of trying to keep it moving i think i think that that's that's enough to ponder okay all right all right well uh i'll keep going then so i i've made it through about the first six verses here uh so we've got we've got a goat or we've got a kid or a lamb we got the animal chosen we know that it's one year old we know that it's a male we know that it's unblemished you can't go out there and choose the run of the flock. That never was allowed. This was to be

as close to perfect an animal as you could choose. And the reason for that is pretty obvious because this animal that was about to be sacrificed, that was about to have its blood painted on the doorpost and the lentil, that was actually going to be cooked and consumed by the israelites this animal was the the prefigurement of the sacrifice that was that was to come so christ himself is unblemished he's whole he is he is undefiled he is the perfect sacrifice and yet just like this lamb so with with with christ what happens is the sacrifice bears the bears the brunt of someone else's problem so our problem is sin the israelite problem was was their their captivity and all of this then ends up being placed on on this

unblemished sacrifice and that blood that innocent blood is shed in order to redeem those who were enslaved and those who were guilty so throughout the old testament you always have a very strict guideline for unblemished animals being used to sacrifice if you tried to blame if you tried to bring uh like a crippled animal for sacrifice or an animal that was blind in one eye or an animal that was the runt of the of the litter so to speak then the priest would meet you at the temple and would send you packing there is no way that a priest would allow that kind of animal to be sacrificed because it would be it would send a message about sacrifice it was completely contrary to that which which god which god intended these sacrifices to give and that is

that each one of them in their as in their perfection in their unblemished state was pointing forward to the sacrifice to come so unlimited animal and they are to it says to kill it at at twilight they take some of the blood they catch it in a basin and they take some of the blood from the animal and put it on the two doorposts and on the little of the houses in which they're they're going to going to eat it now we'll come back to that in a second and not only are they to do something with with the blood but they shall eat the flesh of the animal that same night roasted with fire and they're to eat it with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs and then we get very specific here it says don't eat any of it raw or boiled with water there's only one

way that you can cook it roasted with fire and no leftovers you shall not leave any of it over until morning it says but whatever is left of it in the morning you shall you shall burn with fire and one more verse and we'll go back and talk about some of this verse 11 says we have all these specifics so we we have uh you know how you to cook it where you to eat it what you do with the blood but there's even more because you're only going to to enjoy this meal dressed in a particular way this is verse 11 here's how you're supposed to eat it with your with their loins girded that's that's old language for your basically you're you're lifting up the long robe that you would have been wearing and tying it in such a way that it's more like shorts

that you're wearing but if you're if you're getting ready to to run somewhere if you're wearing a long robe and you're trying to run you can't do it so if you're going you're going somewhere in a hurry then you gird your loins that is you say you pull up the robe and bind it such a way with uh a belt around your waist that you'll be able to your legs are free you can run that's what it means when you gird your loins they would they would do this when they were going to go into battle right like so sort of a battle for like gird up your loins where we're going to go fight and you don't want to go fight in a in a dress yeah that's like not right that's not me being sexist i'm not it's not about that it's just about it's not the proper attire yeah

Yeah, I mean, if you try to picture a woman with a long skirt trying to run, and then if you picture a woman with shorts on trying to run, it's a completely different picture because you've got freedom of movement. and as it was custom it was customary back then for for all people to wear these the long robes and so it's getting your way if you're trying to to fight or to rush somewhere or to run with this long robe flapping at your at your ankles and so you you lift it up you you tie it in such a way that your legs are free so that you can actually move quickly where you need to go or fight the battle that's coming up that's my that's my go-to text when people are like why don't why don't you wear like vestments i'm like man i look at going into the pulpit like i'm going into battle my loins are girded up i gotta have my loins are girded i gotta have freedom i'm ready for battle

that's good no i have nothing against vestments it's a joke it's strictly a joke no what no what no one unsubscribe it's a joke i have seen people stumble in vestments when they get uh When they get caught walking up the step or something. There's something to that being having your loins girded, ready to go. And not only that, but sandals on their feet. So no standing inside your house barefooted. You got sandals on your feet, staff in your hand. And I love all these particulars.

And you can't dilly-dally around when you're eating it. You're supposed to eat it in haste. So you got to dress the right way with your loins girded. make sure you got your shoes on. Cause we don't, we don't want somebody, you know, Oh, hang on. We'll leave the leg of my sandals on first. Where did I put them? You know, I can't find them. No, put them on your feet. Get your staff in your hand and with your other hand eat in a hurry. Because why you're getting ready to, you're getting ready to leave.

It says, and this is the way it finishes up. This is the end of verse 11. It is the Lord's Passover. Well, there's, There's a lot here to talk about. I don't want to drag us along too slowly, but we can't pass up some of these aspects of the Passover. Because, keep in mind, this Passover section here in chapter 12 is basically the whole Bible shrunk into one chapter. I mean, there's hardly anything in Exodus 12 that doesn't in some way intersect with what's come before it, beginning of Genesis 1, or what comes after it going all the way to the end of Revelation. This Exodus 12 is kind of the whole Bible, the whole biblical picture of creation and redemption and the last day and the work of Christ compressed into this one single section. uh i mean right i mean right down right down to the name that he gives it right yeah right down to the name you know it's uh passover i mean there's the he the hebrew word

is pasok or pesok pasok is the verb pesok is the is the noun and uh the the typical way that that's been explained although there are other there are other explanations but uh i think the the most straightforward one is when you pasak you you pass over in fact this is going to come up later in in in verse 27 he says it's the passover sacrifice to the lord who passed over who pasak the houses excuse me the houses of the sons of israel so there is this idea there's this image of god bypassing passing over these homes that held the the israelites because they were covered in the blood of of the lamb so even the name itself is a is a foreshadowing of the work of christ as well as the lord's supper which we which we'll want to get to as well now i want to bring

us back to some of the details here uh why why why was he so concerned for instance about uh how you're supposed to eat it well because it was it was customary in some pagan some pagan religious practices for sacrifices of animals to be eaten either raw uh so the blood was consumed with the meat or to eat them boiled and so to to uh to shield the israelites from any pagan connotations the meat of the lamb was to be was to be roasted with fire so this is barbecued this is barbecued lamb that's the only way that it was allowed to be to be consumed and uh the the blood was supposed to be used in a very specific way the hyssop is not mentioned here it's mentioned later in the chapter, but a plant was called the hyssop, which had perfect, perfect, what's the word I'm looking

for, it was, it was, it was structured in such a way that made a good sponge, a paintbrush, if you will, and so the hyssop would be used as a paintbrush to dip into these basins of, of lamb blood or goat blood, and then that was used to paint the door frames and the, the lintel of the Homes inside of which the families dressed and ready to leave would be consuming the barbecued flesh of the lamb. Now, you simply have to look at all of this from the broader perspective of the work of Christ. I mean, there is so much rich Christology here that every time I've taught this chapter so many times and every time I go back over it, I'm amazed at the way in which God structured the Passover so as to give us this beautiful picture of everything about the work of Christ. And not just about what he did, but then how he gives his work to us in a very tangible sort of way. So just think about this for a moment.

Not only is an animal sacrificed for you, but the very blood that was shed for you is now your shield. It protects you from the wrath to come. It protects you from death and from destruction, so that if you are behind the blood of this sacrifice, then nothing can harm you. Not a dog will bark. Not a peep will be made. You are so safe when you are shielded by the blood of the sacrifice that even the wrath of God passing through will not touch you so that that is that is us shielded by the blood of the lamb that nothing can harm us absolutely nothing because we are safe behind the blood of that sacrifice and not only that but i think i think what's most remarkable about this sacrifice

is not just that it's made and not just that the blood is painted on the doorframe and on the lentil but the people consume the very price of their redemption so the very meat of the one who died in their stead the very body of the lamb that was sacrificed is now consumed by them so that the price of their redemption becomes part of part of their bodies and this of course is uh is exactly why jesus instituted his supper the the new passover in the context of the passover meal when he said to his disciples you know drink of it all this is my blood or take eat this is my body he he didn't do that at any other time than the passover so that it might be there's no possible way for us to miss this because what the lamb of god who takes away

the sin of the world what christ is doing is he is feeding us and giving us to drink the very price of our redemption so the body that was sacrificed for us is now consumed and and to and we have it better than the israelites because now the blood that was poured out for us is taken into into our bodies so that in the most incredibly tangible way god gives to us the the price that was paid in order that we might be might be set free and all this is foreshadowed way back in uh way back in the time of the of the passover man look at that we are not going to get through the passover but you know i think we've set it up the table the the the table as it were is set uh i think that we're going to see that next week the the

people of israel are going to implement these things and uh god's going to make good on his on his uh word uh yeah man i had a feeling it was gonna be tough there's just too much there i need to you know next time next time i'm going to gird up my loin so i can do a little faster it's not hey i don't hey we never we didn't we didn't create this podcast so we could move quickly we just we just wanted to move too many riches here to go too quickly that's right that's Right. Well, guys, that is good news in the midst of some absolutely horrific events, but such is the Christian life, that as death and destruction are all around, that God has made a way for us to be protected and preserved in the midst of it.

So thank you guys for hanging out, and we will see you next week. Thanks for watching!