Category: God Passes Over

Exodus 12:18 (NIV) – The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron.

Proverbs 3:1-14 (NIV) – My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity.
Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.
Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.
My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.
Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.

The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron. The brevity with which this is stated implies unquestioning obedience, and the reader is expected to assume that everything was done according to the instructions given in 12:3-27 (Alexander. Exodus, p.230, IV Press). Their response implies that they believed and trusted the way that God was instructing and providing for them. We don’t even want to think about the consequences had they second-guessed God and refused to believe when God commanded them to place the blood of the lamb on their doorposts and shelter inside. Their response was that they took God at His word and connected their belief with active obedience. Whatever emotions and thoughts and turmoil that may have been racing through their hearts and minds essentially took second fiddle to God’s word to them and it resulted in their witnessing God’s amazing power and experiencing firsthand the change that was happening in and around their lives. More abundantly than we can imagine, God has saved us and called us to powerfully witness and experience firsthand the transformation He brings by the power of His Spirit to those who are in Christ. What is needed is the connection to an obedient and active response to His word in every part of our lives.

Read, mediate upon and pray through the verses of Proverbs 3:1-14, asking God for His empowering to obediently respond and follow the commands of these verses. Is there a present circumstance in your life that is bringing you down or causing heartache or turmoil? Commit and dedicate your heart to trust in the Lord and not lean on your understanding. Don’t hesitate, instead simply do the instructions of these life-giving words, trusting in the favor of God’s salvation power to bring real transformation into your life.

– CH

Exodus 12:1-2;14-17; 13:1-2 (NRSV) – The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.

(vv. 14-17) This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a solemn assembly, and on the seventh day a solemn assembly; no work shall be done on those days; only what everyone must eat, that alone may be prepared by you. You shall observe the festival of unleavened bread, for on this very day I brought your companies out of the land of Egypt: you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a perpetual ordinance.

(vv. 13:1-12) The Lord said to Moses: Consecrate to me all the firstborn; whatever is the first to open the womb among the Israelites, of human beings and animals, is mine.

Romans 6:11-13 (NIV) – In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.

1 Peter 2:9-12 (NIV) – But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Israel’s rescue was so miraculous and significant that the nation was to commemorate it every year throughout the coming generations, but it was not the end of what God had done for them when He brought them out of Egypt. God had told them that they would know that He was making a distinction between them and Egypt (Ex.11:7). First, God designated “this month” to be the first month of their calendar. It was going to be a new beginning. Second, God gave them instructions regarding future commemorations. One distinctive feature of these future festivals was that they were to abstain from eating leavened bread (i.e. bread baked with yeast). But what was the distinction God was making? Was it about calendars, festivals and diet? Yes and no. It wasn’t about the actual dates, rituals or specific foods they could or could not eat. It was about everything new – life, identity and purpose. God transformed their status from being slaves to becoming royal priests in His service. Their distinction was that God brought them to Himself to be consecrated to Him. He was calling them His own. They now belonged to God, and God was with them. Therefore, the way they lived and expressed their faith was supposed to also distinguish them because they belonged to God.

It is the same for us who believe and follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We, too, were dead and made alive to God in Christ Jesus, given everything new – life, identity, and purpose. We now belong to God. We are His church. How can we live this new life for ourselves?! We have been wonderfully saved! We must now together be wonderfully determined to be and live set apart for God. We are to live for Christ. This means that our time, our daily priorities and even the food that sustains us are now different, because our primary work is to do the will of the Father.

Today, listen to and worship with the song, “Set Apart”, and let’s offer all of who we are to God and pray that He would fill us with His Spirit to live as those who belong to Him, so that our lives together would sing His praises to make Him known to the people around us so that they too may be brought to God to belong to Him.

– CH

Exodus 12:14 (NRSV) – This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.

Exodus 12:21-27 (NRSV) – Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select lambs for your families, and slaughter the passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning. For the Lord will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down. You shall observe this rite as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children. When you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this observance. And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this observance?’ you shall say, ‘It is the passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed down and worshiped.

1 Corinthians 5:7b (NIV) – For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

Some things are hard to remember, but God was determined that His people remember the night He passed over the houses of the Israelites. Even before the victory was realized, God called them to celebrate the LORD’s Passover year after year, but why? It was to be a serious yet celebratory reminder of who God is and who they were as His people. They would be facing many challenges, dangers and fears and God wanted them to remember how great was His mercy and how He protected and loved them. This would also reassure them of God’s promise and how He was leading them into a new beginning and life journey with Him. In other words, as they looked back and remembered God’s faithfulness, they were reassured of their future blessing from God.

In the midst of daily life, don’t we also need God’s reassurance? As we face difficulties, we may be tempted to doubt God’s love for us and ask, “Does God really love me?” As we daily face our human frailty, we can become nervous and even afraid of the uncertainties of this life. But we, too, are called to remember who God is and who we are – that Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. As Christians, the Lord’s Supper, was passed on to us to help us remember the immensity of God’s love and the centrality of God’s great salvation in Christ. The Lord’s Supper is often referred to as “super worship” because through it we are brought back into awe as we remember the seriousness of our sin, the reality of God’s judgment, and the wonder and amazement of how we were spared by God’s mercy. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can experience both gratitude and confidence as we grasp the power of Christ’s blood in realizing that we have been passed over and saved. This is our everyday reality!

Today, consider – what areas of your life need to be brought more fully under the power of Christ’s blood? Moment to moment, we can believe and apply the tremendous truth that Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed for us.

Worship God as you listen to and sing, “God and God Alone”, and may our hearts humbly bow down and lift Jesus higher and higher for He is God and God alone.

Father, please help us to bring the entirety of our lives under the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. Thank you that we can face every tomorrow with gratitude and confidence, because You have passed over us!

– CH

Exodus 12:1-11 (NRSV) – The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight.

They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. 

God continues to unfold the truth His judgment has revealed. God is holy, and His holy justice demands that sin be judged and punished. But God is also love, holy love, and so His justice also longs to rescue and save. And He is the only one in whom perfect and holy justice and love can come together and provide the way for His judgment and punishment to be satisfied and averted, so that when He passes through, He passes over. This is known as atonement.

Atonement means making amends, blotting out the offense, and giving satisfaction for wrong done; thus reconciling to oneself the alienated other and restoring the disrupted relationship. Scripture depicts all human beings as needing to atone for their sins but lacking the power and resources for doing so.  We have offended our holy Creator, whose nature it is to hate sin (Jer.44:4; Hab 1:13) and to punish it (Ps.5:4-6; Rom.1:18,2:5-9). No acceptance by, or fellowship with, such a God can be expected unless atonement is made, and since there is sin in even our best actions, anything we do in hopes of making amends can only increase our guilt or worsen our situation. This makes it ruinous folly to seek to establish one’s own righteousness before God (Job 15:15-16; Rom.10:2-3); it simply can’t be done. But against this background of human hopelessness, Scripture sets forth the love, grace, mercy, pity, kindness, and compassion of God, the offended Creator, in himself providing the atonement that our sin has made necessary. [J.I. Packer, Concise Theology]

There is that saying, “Don’t get lost in the details!” But we see here in Exodus 12 that God spells out the specific details required of His people so that they would be ready when God passed through. God commanded that blood from the lamb be placed on the doorposts and lintels of their homes. Every detail mattered because death was still required, but God provided an acceptable substitute – the slaughtered lamb. God had promised that when He saw the blood, He would pass over. The same God who gave the warning of His coming judgment provided the substitute as the way of rescue. You see, without the shedding of blood, there can be no rescue from God’s judgment, there can be no forgiveness of sin. God’s love and mercy defended and protected them from His own wrath. Every detail beautifully gave a preview of God’s greatest deliverance when He provided eternal salvation through Jesus Christ, His only Son, to die on the cross as our substitute. God gave Himself as the perfect atonement for our sin. How glorious is the grace of God in Christ Jesus!

As you listen and sing the song, “It is Well”, welcome the Holy Spirit to fill you with God’s powerful and everlasting presence. May our hearts be filled with praise and hope and peace as we each receive afresh that it is well with my soul!

– CH

Exodus 12:12-13 (NRSV) – For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

The LORD did not mince words when He declared his final plague upon Egypt and Pharaoh. Pharaoh’s heart had remained hard and stubborn and he thought that he could beat God. But the battle and the outcome belonged to the LORD. God was going to execute His judgment on them by passing through the land. What happens when God passes through like this? When God comes in judgment, there is death.

Scripture diagnoses sin as a universal deformity of human nature, found at every point in every person (1 Kings 8:46; Rom. 3:9-23; Rom. 7:18; 1 John 1:8-10). Both Testaments have names for it that display its ethical character as rebellion against God’s rule, missing the mark God has set for us to aim at, transgressing God’s law, disobeying God’s directives, offending God’s purity by defiling oneself, and incurring guilt before God the judge. This moral deformity is dynamic: sin stands revealed as an energy of irrational, negative, and rebellious reaction to God’s call and command, a spirit of fighting God in order to play God. The root of sin is pride and enmity against God… [J.I. Packer, Concise Theology]

We sometimes talk about having a “moment of truth”, an “aha!” revelation, where we realize or discover something that was true all along. This can be an intensely happy experience or one that is heart-wrenching, painful and even tragic. Pharaoh and Egypt had their moment of truth for God revealed what had been true all along – how futile their ways and beliefs were, and how tragic life is without truly obeying and worshiping the one true God, the LORD. But the Israelites also received their moment of truth – Ex. 12:13 – “The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” The Israelites thought they only needed rescue from oppression and slavery in Egypt, but they too needed rescue from God’s judgment for they were not exempt. And at the heart of this plague was God’s incredible promise – when I see the blood, I will pass over you.

We too are not exempt from God’s judgment on sin but the same promise of the Old Testament exodus is ours through the Gospel of Jesus Christ that heralds the new exodus –

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:5b-7)

Today, let us not mince words as we come to God in prayer. Are you trying to play His role in your life? Are there still areas in your life where you are fighting God? God promises that when He sees Jesus Christ in us, covering us, He will pass over us, so let’s confess and acknowledge the stubborn ways of our hearts to God receiving the washing and renewal of His Spirit who leads us into freedom.

– CH