Gold for the heart - Exodus 11-13

Exodus 11

God gave His people Favor with the Egyptians

1 And the LORD said to Moses, I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt; afterwards he will let you go: when he lets you go, he will thrust you completely out of here. 2 Now speak to the people, tell every man to borrow from his neighbor, and every woman from her neighbor, jewels of silver and jewels of gold. 3 And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants, and in the sight of the people. 4 And Moses said, The Lord says this, About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt: 5 And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of animals. 6 And there will be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, like has never been before and will never be again.

The lives of God’s people were joined to the culture of Egypt.
Each plague exposed a lie and set them free from evil practices.
God created life; He created us all. He says who lives and who dies.
He is more than fair; He is infinitely loving because He gave His firstborn to die to pay for our sin.
These Egyptians refused to believe in their Creator.
Also remember how many male children of the Hebrews the Egyptians had killed….babies! Innocent babies.
God is never cruel, He is righteous.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

He multiplied His wonders

7 But not a dog will move his tongue against any of the children of Israel, against man or beast so that you may know that the LORD puts a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. 8 And all these, your servants, will come down to me, and bow down themselves to me saying, Get out! And all the people that follow you: and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger. 9 And the LORD said to Moses, Pharaoh will not listen to you so that my wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt. 10 Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh: and the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land.

Psalm 83:18 That men may know that you, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, are the most high over all the earth.

1Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

Exodus 12

God changed Israel’s calendar based on the Passover

1 And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, 2 This month will be to you the beginning of the months: it will be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel saying, in the tenth day of this month every man is to take to themselves a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house: 4 And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the souls; count for the lamb according to how much each man should eat. 5 Your lamb is to be a male of the first year without blemish; you will take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: 6 And you will keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will kill it that evening.

The lamb pictures innocence.
Every animal sacrifice of the Old Testament was a picture of God’s great love poured out for us in the death of His eternal Son.
The lamb was to be perfect because Christ is perfect.
God starts our new lives in Christ with redemption-His purchase of us out of slavery to sin.
They kept the lamb with them four days so that it became dear to their hearts, as Christ was dear to the Father’s heart.
Our sins killed God’s perfect Son.

John 1:29 Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

John 3:16 God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him not perish, but have everlasting life.

Daniel 2:21 And he changes the times and the seasons: he removes kings, and sets up kings: he gives wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding

7 And they are to take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses, where they will eat it. 8 And they are to eat the flesh that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread; they are to eat it with bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat it raw or soaked at all in water, but roasted with fire; its head with its legs, and its inner organs. 10 And you are to let none of it remain until the morning; and you are to burn with fire what remains of it until the morning. 11 And this is how you are to eat it; with your clothes on, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you will eat it quickly: it is the LORD’S Passover.

The placement of the blood on the doorposts and side posts formed the top of a cross.
‘Roasted with fire’ represented judgment against sin.
Eating it raw would depict Christ as a moral teacher, but not judgment against sin.
Eating sustains, strengthens, and becomes part of those who eat it.
Not leaving anything until morning signified that we are not to leave anything out of the gospel.
Shoes on your feet and staff in your hand means you are ready to move from the place of sin.
It is essential to trust Christ for salvation quickly.
If God had just lifted them out of Egypt without the display of defeating all their false gods, their bodies would have been delivered from slavery, but not their hearts and souls.

1Corinthians 11:24 And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: do this in remembrance of me.

1Peter 1:18 For you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from your empty way of life received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot:

God judged the false gods of Egypt

12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal; and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt: I am the LORD. 13 And the blood will a sign for you on the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague will not come on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 14 And this day will be to you for a memorial; and you are to keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.

The unseen warfare between God and evil has raged throughout history. It will continue until the new heavens and the new earth ‘wherein dwells righteousness.’
God is in charge of everything in the universe so He is the One we are to listen to.
If false gods could make a universe, they wouldn’t be trying to steal God’s.
We do not deserve to be delivered from sin, death, and hell.
But God’s love is so magnificent that we are delivered and will live in eternal glorious joy rather than the torment that we deserve.

Psalm 96:5 all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.

15 You are to eat unleavened bread for seven days; on the first day you are to put away leaven out of your houses: for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul will be cut off from Israel. 16 And in the first day there is to be a holy gathering, and in the seventh day there will be a holy gathering to you; no kind of work will be done in them, except what every man must eat, only that may be done by you. 17 And you will observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this exact day I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore you are to observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever. 18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you will eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses: for whoever eats what is leavened, that soul will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a foreigner, or born in the land. 20 You are to eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you are to eat unleavened bread.

Leaven is God’s picture of sin. It permeates everything it touches. It puffs up like pride puffs up our hearts.
See how stiff-necked they were and we are. God had to threaten and enforce dire warnings to bring us into a place of blessing.

21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, go out and take yourselves a lamb according to your families, and kill the Passover. 22 And take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you are to go out the door of his house until morning.

A qualification for leadership of God’s people is beautifully seen here.
God spoke and Moses repeated exactly and only what God had said.
Hyssop is a reed with a spongy tip.
"You shall not go out…” speaks of protection in the LORD. John 15, Abide in Me.

23 For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. 24 You are to observe this thing for an ordinance to you and to your sons forever. 25 And when you have come to the land that the LORD will give you, as he has promised, that you are to keep this service. 26 And it will come to pass, when your children say to you, what do you mean by this service? 27 That you will say, it is the sacrifice of the LORD’S Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped. 28 So the children of Israel went away and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, this is what did.

God told them exactly how to answer their children’s questions.

29 And it happened that at midnight the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captives in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of animals. 30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead. 31 And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Get up, and get out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel; go, serve the LORD, as you have said. 32 And take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also. 33 And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might send them out of the land quickly; for they said, We are all dead men.

God is a God of justice.
The one who led God’s people out of Egyptian slavery was one of the innocent male babies that Pharaoh had ordered to be killed.
The Egyptians didn’t release their cash cow of the Israelite slave labor except on fear of imminent death.
This chapter is a beautiful picture of how God’s death angel of wrath passes over the guilty ones who are covered with the blood of Christ.

Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

34 And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. 35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed from the Egyptians jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and clothing: 36 And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent to them the things that they required. And they plundered the Egyptians. 37 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. 38 And also a great mixture went up with them; and flocks, and herds, very much livestock. 39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not delay, neither had they prepared any food for themselves. 40 Now the time that the children of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. 41 And it came to pass at the end of the 430 years, the exact day it happened that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

70 men, Jacob’s sons and grandsons, went down to Egypt.
400 years later they had grown to a nation of at the very least 3 million (if each family had only two or three children. Their families were usually much larger).

42 It is a night to be much observed to the LORD for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the LORD to be observed by all the children of Israel in their generations. 43 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover: No foreigner is to eat of it: 44 But every man’s slave that is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he will he eat it. 45 A foreigner and a hired servant will not eat of it. 46 It is to be eaten in one house; do not to carry any of the flesh outside of the house; or break a bone of it. 47 All the congregation of Israel are to do it.

Circumcision was the physical sign of God’s covenant of faith.
The particulars of the offerings taught the people truths about our Savior.

Genesis 17:11 And you are to circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

John 19:36 For these things were done to fulfill the scripture, Not a bone of him will be broken.

48 And when a foreigner stays with you, and desires to keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised; then let him come near to keep it; and he will be just as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person is to eat of it. 49 One law will be to him that is home born, and to the foreigner that stays among you. 50 So all the children of Israel did this; as the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. 51 And it came to pass that exact day that the LORD brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.

God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt the exact day He said He would.

Genesis 15:13 And he said to Abram, Know for certain that your seed will be a foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them; and they will afflict them four hundred years; 14 And I will judge that nation whom they serve: and afterward they will come out with great substance.

Exodus 13

God set apart Israel’s firstborn

1 And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 2 Set apart to me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine. 3 And Moses said to the people, Remember this day, in which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; for by a strong hand the LORD brought you out from this place: no leavened bread is to be eaten. 4 You came out this day in the month Abib. 5 When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to give to your fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, you are to keep this service in this month.

God wants man. He always has.
He made us in His image and loves so much that He gave His only born Son to die for our sins that we may live with Him.
Abib corresponds to our month of April.

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will feast with him, and he with me.

6 You are to eat unleavened bread seven days, and on the seventh day will be a feast to the LORD. 7 Unleavened bread is to be eaten seven days; no leavened bread is to be with you; no leaven is to be seen in all your boundaries. 8 And you will show this to your son that day, saying, This is done because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.

Leaven is yeast. It is the scriptures illustration of sin. It puffs up bread dough like pride puffs up our hearts.
The Lord commanded them to explain to their children the meaning of the Passover celebration. This was a feast to celebrate deliverance.

God’s hand is strong

9 And it will be a sign to you on your hand, and a memorial between your eyes, for the LORD’S law to be in your mouth: for with a strong hand the LORD brought you out of Egypt. 10 You will keep this ordinance in its season from year to year. 11 And when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and to your fathers to give it to you, 12 that you are to set apart to the LORD all that opens the womb, and every firstborn that comes from an animal that you have; the males will be the LORD’S. 13 And you are to buy back every firstborn of an ass with a lamb; and if you do not buy it back, then you are to break his neck: and you are to buy back all the firstborn males among your children.

Psalm 33 shows God’s strength. This is a picture of Christ buying us back to God from evil with the precious blood of His only begotten Son.

Matthew 13:44 the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hid in a field; that when a man has found, he hides it, and for joy of it goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.

Psalm 33:6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made; all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. 9 For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.

14 And in the future when your son asks you saying, What is this? You are to say to him, By a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery: 15 And it happened when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of animal: therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all the males that open the womb; but all the firstborn of my children I buy back. 16 And it will be for a sign on your hand, and for frontlets between your eyes: for by a strong hand the LORD brought out of Egypt.

1Peter 1:18 For you know that you were not purchased back with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your empty/vain way of life received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot:

17 And it came about, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them through by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, so that the people do not see war and change their mind and return to Egypt: 18 But God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.

‘Harnessed’ means ‘five in a rank’. They walked out in an orderly march five abreast.
God’s leading is protective to keep us on His good path.

God went before them; He goes before us

19 And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had strictly sworn the children of Israel saying, God will certainly visit you; and you are to carry my bones away from here with you. 20 And they took their journey from Succoth and camped in Etham, at the edge of the wilderness. 21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: 22 He did not take away from before the people the pillar of the cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night.

The LORD stayed with them.
Today God’s Holy Spirit stays inside us, speaking to us from God’s word to lead us.

Deuteronomy 31:8 And the LORD, it is he that does go before you; he will be with you, he will not fail you, nor forsake you: do not fear or be dismayed.

Hebrews 13:5 Let your way of life be without covetousness; and be content with the things you have: for he has said, I will never leave you, or forsake you.

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SUMMARY: Exodus 11-13

The LORD gave His people favor in the sight of the Egyptians.
He multiplied His wonders
He changed Israel's calender based on the Passover
He judged the false gods of Egypt
He claimed Israel for Himself
His hand is strong
He went before them
He goes before us