People’s Church
Partington
EXODUS 12: 31-50
Exodus 12: 31-50- 13:15
The Exodus
We’re working our way through the book of Exodus, the 2 nd book of the Bible,
looking at how God delivers his people from a life of oppression, slavery,
victimisation in Egypt we’ve read how the Pharaoh of Egypt at the time had
attempted to wipe out the Israelites by murdering all the newly born males, which
is pretty horrendous. While all that was going on we’ve seen how God had
caught Moses’ attention, spoken to him about his faithfulness and how he was
going to lead the Israelites out of slavery into the promised land, and that’s what
we’re looking at this week. The preparation for the Exodus, leads read Exodus
12…
31
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. 32 Take
your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.”
33
The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. “For otherwise,” they
said, “we will all die!” 34 So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and
carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. 35 The Israelites did
as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for
clothing. 36 The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people,
and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.
37
The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred
thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38 Many other people went up with
them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. 39 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.
40
Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt[b] was 430 years. 41 At the
end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD’s divisions left Egypt. 42 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.
43
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover
meal:
People’s Church
Partington
EXODUS 12: 31-50
“No foreigner may eat it. 44 Any slave you have bought may eat it after you have
circumcised him, 45 but a temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat it. 46 “It must
be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of
the bones. 47 The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.
48
“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. 49 The same law applies both to the nativeborn and to the foreigner residing among you.”
50
All the Israelites did just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 And
on that very day the LORD brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.
Ex 13: 1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 “Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first
offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.”
3
Then Moses said to the people, “Commemorate this day, the day you came out of
Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the LORD brought you out of it with a mighty
hand. Eat nothing containing yeast. 4 Today, in the month of Aviv, you are leaving. 5
When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites
and Jebusites—the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk
and honey—you are to observe this ceremony in this month: 6 For seven days eat bread
made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the LORD. 7 Eat
unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among
you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders. 8 On that day tell your
son, ‘I do this because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ 9 This
observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that
this law of the LORD is to be on your lips. For the LORD brought you out of Egypt with
his mighty hand. 10 You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year.
11
“After the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as he
promised on oath to you and your ancestors, 12 you are to give over to the LORD the first
offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the LORD. 13
Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck.
Redeem every firstborn among your sons.
14
“In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With
a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 When
Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed the firstborn of both people and
animals in Egypt. This is why I sacrifice to the LORD the first male offspring of every
womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.’ 16 And it will be like a sign on your hand
and a symbol on your forehead that the LORD brought us out of Egypt with his mighty
hand.”
People’s Church
Partington
EXODUS 12: 31-50
So this is a passage about the build up to the Israelites crossing the red sea,
which will also be a lot of fun to look at next week. We see a number of things
going on in the passage, some of which we looked at in last week’s passage too
so we’re not going to dwell on all of it too much.
But we do see plenty to talk about and think about in here though. Firstly, we see
the Pharaoh of Egypt actually acknowledging God. As we’ve read and heard in
previous weeks, Pharaoh has been completely opposed to God, Pharaoh HAS
tried to wipe out God’s people. Bringing it up to date slightly you could look at
the regimes of Adolf Hitler or Idi Amin or that sort of thing – attempts to wipe out
a people group, and that gives us a glimpse of what Pharaoh had been trying to
do. And we see here this power mad leader, dictator the Pharaoh finally
acknowledges the God of the people who he’s got down as slaves. It’s not a
‘moment of giving his life to God’ for the Pharaoh but it is an acknowledgement,
‘God is bigger than me’ He is real, He is powerful. The most influential person in
Egypt acknowledges, ‘their God is real’ – it’s a powerful moment. And what we
see off the back of this is the Egyptian people in general, wanting the Israelites to
be released to freedom too. You don’t see many Egyptians here opposing the
Pharaoh’s call that God is real. He’s seen God at work, he’s seen God’s
superiority and power over all things, over all the supposed gods of Egypt, and
he acknowledges the true God.
It’s a dramatic turnaround in the life and circumstances of the Pharaoh – from
‘every new born male must die’ to ‘go, leave, take everything, just go’. It reminds
us of the power of God, his supremacy over all things as we’ve touched on again
and again in this look at the Exodus. A turnaround that only God can make
happen. Time and again God has shown himself to be real, to be worth our
praise – as he’s turned lives around, as he’s transformed situations – from
slavery to freedom for Moses and the Israelites, from murderer to preacher for
Paul the apostle, to modern day followers of Jesus like Bear Grylls to Javier
People’s Church
Partington
EXODUS 12: 31-50
Hernandez – people who have seen God transform their lives. God is the God
who is able to transform lives and situations, and communities.
We get a glimpse of the size of what God has done as we read on. If you’ve ever
wandered where the phrase ‘mass exodus’ comes from this is it. Today if you
listen to Radio 5 on a Saturday afternoon you will often hear about the ‘mass
exodus’ that often goes on at Old Trafford in the 80th minute of United matches
because the game’s won, or more often, in the 70th minute of Liverpool matches,
when the game’s lost – but the mass exodus described on Radio 5 is not a patch
on what goes on here – this truly is a mass exodus. Six hundred thousand men,
and in addition to them, women, and children, and ‘many others’ (those
Egyptians, and Midianites and others who’d given their lives to God) departing.
We could easily be talking about a million people here! Sometimes when you
think about ‘Moses led the Israelites across the Red Sea,’ we can wrongly think
of it as Moses and his 12 best pals, maybe there was a couple of hundred of
them, maybe there was a thousand tops, but no, we’re told here, 600,000 men!
That’s just the men – this is the size of the task God has done – I think a million
is a very conservative guess, and God’s delivering a million people from a life of
slavery, to a life of freedom. From a life of being told ‘you’re not good enough,
you’re not working hard enough, you do exactly as Pharaoh says’ to a life of
freedom to be God’s people, freedom to live for him, by his values, worshipping
him. That’s a lot of freedom. To put it in perspective, God is about to lead from
slavery to freedom, this is just the men, Old Trafford filled nearly 8 times, or for
the Watford fans here, Vicarage Road filled 33 and a bit times – that’s just the
men who are being led to freedom. Only God can do that! It does remind us of
and highlight to us the oppression that the Israelites have been under. This isn’t
Pharaoh with one or two or five or 6 Israelites hidden in the cellar doing his
ironing, this is mass abuse, mass slavery, mass oppression, mass genocide
attempt, this is a guy who has said ‘these are 2nd class people, the power of
Pharaoh and of Egypt is here used for abuse, for oppression. God does an
incredible work. Pharaoh had used his power for evil but God overcomes that. It
People’s Church
Partington
EXODUS 12: 31-50
could also cause us to ask the question, is our view of God too small? You’re
having a bad day, a bad week, a bad year – struggles, frustration,
disappointment – God can you get me through, God are you able to get me
through? All the way through Exodus we see God who is able to do impossible
things. One million people from slavery to freedom in one night, that’s a big ask,
but God is a big God! Will we put our faith in the same God? Will we believe that
God is able – God who knows us, who created us, and God who wants us to
know his love. That’s what this week has been all about for us – sharing the love
of God in Partington in our actions.
God has turned around this situation incredibly, he’s about to lead over a million
people say, to freedom, and we talked last week about the sense of speed and
urgency in this. The bread was to be made without yeast so it wouldn’t rise
because of the need to rush out, and again we pick up here in today’s reading
the sense of urgency in the need to get out of Egypt, We’re told they passed
through Rameses and Succoth BUT ‘they’re not yet in the promised land’,
they’ve still got to cross the red sea, they’ve been set free, but they’re not yet
quite where they want to be either. They’re on what we could call ‘the way to
freedom’ .
They are no longer slaves, but they’re not yet in the land flowing with milk and
honey. I think this ‘being caught in the middle’ is something we can resonate with
in life in general but also in our life of faith in God. For me personally we’re
working ‘like beavers’ to get our house ready for a new arrival. The study is pretty
sorted now but the kids room is not! But – we’re closer than we were 2 weeks
ago when what is now the study was a shell of plaster! We’re not where we want
to be but we’re on the way. I wonder how depressing life would be if my wife’s
love for me was based on how much of the house we’d completed. Once the
study is sorted, then I’ll approach her cos then she’ll love me. Once the kid’s
room is ready, then she’ll love me – that would be ridiculous wouldn’t it? If her
love for me was based on me getting ‘to where we want to be’.
People’s Church
Partington
EXODUS 12: 31-50
Yet sometimes we can do that with God - Sometimes the temptation in life is to
‘fix ourselves’ before giving our lives to God, opening ourselves up to God,
whatever. We think ‘God expects me to be a perfect Christian’ , or even just ‘God
expects me to be a good person’ I’ll deal with my anger, I’ll deal with my
judgementalism, I’ll deal with my addictions, and then I’ll come to church, then I’ll
‘try really hard’ with God. But, the honest truth is we will never ‘get ourselves
right’ before God, not by his standards. We will never get ourselves to where we
want to be with God to then approach him and say ‘hey God I’m presentable
now, let’s talk’ The incredible thing that the Bible speaks of is that God is the one
who makes us presentable. We don’t ‘try really hard, deal with our stuff’ and then
come to God. We come to God as we are, the good in us, the bad in us, the sin
we still struggle with, whatever, we come to God as we are and he does the work
in us by his holy spirit – he transforms us, he changes us. My wife loves me as
we get the house to ‘where we want it to be’ but her love is not dependant on my
DIY skills, praise God. God’s love for us is not dependant on our performance or
past record, but is open to us all – God invites us to know his love as we are, put
our trust in him and let him ‘get us to be who HE wants us to be. And I would put
it out there today, God’s plan for your life is better than your plan. God’s plan for
my life is better than my plan! The only way for the Israelites to get free here, was
to put their hand in God’s hand, as they were and to give themselves to him and
to be led by him into freedom. They weren’t ‘where they wanted to be yet’ but it
was only by giving themselves God that they were no longer ‘where they
definitely didn’t want to be.’ Can you imagine if the Israelites had said ‘God let me
sort my life out, I’ll get myself free, I’ll get myself out of slavery and into the
promised land, and then I’ll come to you – no, the only way to the promised land
was to put their hope in God, and trust, and follow. They’d been declared free,
and God was going to lead them. It says in verse 41 and 42 that God ‘kept vigil’ –
watched, made sure that his people were all getting free.
It can be the same for us. As Christians, we know with assurance that God is
with us, he is FOR us as he is FOR his people in the Exodus, As we put our
hand in his hand, trusting him with our lives and for our lives, God is there,
People’s Church
Partington
EXODUS 12: 31-50
declaring us free from our past, declaring us free from the chains of sin,
depression, addiction, false self image and self worth. God declares us free of all
that and as we trust him, as we give ourselves to him we can know freedom,
peace, joy in God for life. God spoke to the Israelites, ‘take my hand, I will lead
you, I will guide you, I will deliver you’ and that’s the same God we worship and
follow. He’s incredible. Where do you try to find freedom? And are you really
free? Free to get wasted and wake up not remembering what happened, free to
depend on other people’s views and opinions on how we look to guide our self
worth. Free to have our mood and character dependant on or defined by our
football team’s results – is that free?
The Bible, amongst other things, is about coming to God, and getting free. Clean
slate, new start. God doesn’t teleport us from rags to riches or from difficult
testing situation to glorious riches in an instant – but he does promise to be with
us, to deliver us, to guide us, and to bring us new life in him. His word says he
has plans for his people that are good plans, to give us a hope and a future. He
says, all who are weary, come to me, all who are thirsty, come to me. And as we
look back on our life with God, we can see, ‘oh yeah, God has been faithful, oh
yeah, God has been good, oh yeah, God has been with me in the hard times, oh
yeah God has done as he said he would. We might not be exactly who we want
to be yet, we might not be exactly where we want to be yet or wherever, but
God’s word is ‘put your hand in my hand and I will be with you and direct you and
guide you and make you the person that he intended you to be. There’s still stuff
in my character I’m aware of that I know God needs to work on, but, I know, he’s
already done a load of work in me – I’m a different person to who I was 6 years
ago because of God. I’m a different person to who I was a year ago, because of
God. He’s still doing a work in me – he can still do a work in you!
Will we be like the Isrealites – he’s declared us free – will we walk into that
freedom? Will we entrust our lives to him, believing that he may just have the
best plan for our lives. Look at your plan – could God’s best for you be better
than life right now?
People’s Church
Partington
EXODUS 12: 31-50
Are there parts of our character or habits we struggle with that we need to bring
before God, and rather than saying ‘God I’ll talk to you again when I’ve got it
sorted’ Will we come to God with whatever it is and let him, work in us? In the
Exodus passage we’re looking at, God promises freedom, he declares freedom
over his people and he keeps vigil, leading them out of slavery in Egypt – step 1
towards the promised land. It can be the same for us – the only way to be truly
free to be the people God made us to be in life, is to put our trust and our hope in
him, as he leads us. Sometimes in our foolishness we can set ourselves little
goals often that we think will bring contentment and long lasting deep joy – I’ll get
the house straight then I will be happy, I’ll get a new TV / console / partner and
then I will be happy – we set these goals up as idols thinking that once we’ve got
there, life will be different, but we’re still trapped in false expectation and hope.
God is the only one who can lead us to true freedom. Will we take that step of
faith in God?
We’ve seen the power of God to turn around this situation for his people,
overcoming Pharaoh, and we’ve seen the huge scale of this evacuation mission,
we see God’s love and care for all who call on his name here, and we also see a
call to respond to God. God speaks to the Israelites about taking this pass over
meal and remembering what God has done. It reads in Exodus 13…
14
“In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to
him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of
slavery. 15 When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed the
firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt. This is why I sacrifice to the LORD
When someone asks you ‘why do you do it? What’s it all about?’ tell them ‘It’s
because of what God has done – he’s led our people and therefore me, out of
slavery into freedom. This is why I sacrifice to God.
It’s a response isn’t it? Because of who God is, because of what he’s done, I will
sacrifice to God. We looked at this idea of sacrifice last week as being a pointer
People’s Church
Partington
EXODUS 12: 31-50
to Jesus and his sacrifice for us – here it’s talking about our response to God.
And this is what we’ve been doing all this week with the Message team – giving
out flowers, giving out free lunches, paying for people’s haircuts, giving up our
time to share the love of God with others.
We’ve come across people this week who’ve said ‘I don’t deserve this gift’ and
we’ve met people who’ve said ‘I’ve never come across anything like this before,
why are you doing it?’ and the reason is, we’re doing it because of the love of
God – the love of God IS extravagant, the love of God IS generous, the love of
God IS for people who feel they haven’t made the grade or deserve it, the love of
God IS something that makes us want to give our lives to him, to follow him.
None of us deserve it, that’s the point! But God’s love is open to us all. Jesus
dying on the cross is all about the extravagant love of God for people like me
who don’t deserve it – but God’s grace, his goodness is real, is available to us if
we want it.
Look at what God has done – he’s led his people out of slavery in Egypt, God’s
people responded with a sacrifice. They put their hand in God’s hand and were
led out of slavery into the promised land.
Look at what God has done for us – through Jesus, dying on a cross for our sin
and offering us new life in him – we respond by living for him, sharing his love, by
sharing his goodness, by letting the world know about his love, we put our hand
in God’s hand and we’re led out of slavery to addiction, depression, sin,
whatever, into the promises of God.
We’re not God’s people because we’re good enough, we’re not God’s people
because we got ourselves out of slavery and earned it, we’re God’s people
because he’s good enough, and because he has pulled us from the pit, from
rubbish, from despair, from mundane life, from apathy, from life without hope,
into the promises of God.