Painting a Picture on Passover

Tomorrow is Passover. This holy day, along with Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), ranks among the top three holydays in Jewish faith. Unfortunately, Passover does NOT rank very high in the Christian calendar – probably because it gets lost in Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

But remember, the New Testament is concealed in the Old Testament, and the Old Testament is revealed in the New. That means, without knowing about the Passover, it would be impossible to fully understand Good Friday OR Resurrection Sunday.

St Paul and all the writers of the New Testament understood the importance of the Old Testament. It surprises many Christians to know that the New Testament quotes or alludes to the Old Testament nearly 900 times.

Nine hundred times.

St Paul, in his letters, quotes or alludes to the Old Testament nearly 150 times. Not surprisingly then that Paul wrote to the church at Rome: “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Romans 15:4)

I hope it is clear to us that God intends His people to be familiar with the ENTIRE Bible, not just the New Testament.

Now, regarding Passover, because of time constraints, I cannot now read the entire chapters in Exodus that speak of the Passover, though I’d like to do that for the sake of context. The best I can do now is simply recommend that you read Exodus chapters one through thirteen on your own as homework. So, now I will read only portions of those chapters to give us context. Here is a portion of chapter 11:

“Moses said (to Pharaoh), “Thus says the Lord, “About midnight I am going out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the millstones; all the firstborn of the cattle as well . . . But against any of the sons of Israel a dog will not even bark, whether against man or beast, that you may understand how the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. . . . [and] the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.

Now to chapter 12: “Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt . . . Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household . . . .Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families and slay the Passover lamb. You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel [top of the door] and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to smite you. And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever.

As many Christians know, Jesus was crucified during Passover. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5:7 “For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.” And Jesus told His disciples: (Matthew 26:2) “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be handed over for crucifixion.”

It was with His crucifixion that God placed His last brush strokes on the painting – so to speak – that He began some 1500 years earlier in Egypt. I call that canvas, ‘Redemption.’

In your mind’s eye, can you not see how our bruised and bloodied Lamb of God ‘painted,’ as it were, the ‘lintel’ of the cross with blood from His scalp wounds? He painted to two side posts with blood dripping from His hands. The blood from His feet finished the painting which should have reminded those there on Calvary’s hill of the Passover lamb’s blood that painted their ancestors’ doors – blood that held back the hand of the angel of death from their homes as he swept across Egypt.

How did those on Calvary’s hill not recognize that link? I don’t know, but I hope YOU do not miss that link because the picture that God painted on those Israelite doors and on Calvary’s cross frame the eternal plan God set in motion before the creation of the world.

Israel had been a very long time in Egyptian bondage. So severe was that bondage that Pharaoh even forced parents to kill their own newborn sons so he could reduce the male population among the Israelites. And don’t think for a moment that Pharaoh didn’t have his ‘spies’ among the Israelite’s neighbors who’d report noncompliant Jewish parents to Pharaoh’s police.

It was a long time they’d been in bondage, but God knew of their groans and desperate heartbreak. And when He sent them a deliverer, He did so in the person of Moses. Many of you know the story of the plagues God inflicted on Pharaoh and his people, but – and again for the sake of time – we must limit this message to only the last plague – the death of the firstborn throughout Egypt. Here again is that text from chapter 11:

“Thus says the Lord, “About midnight I am going out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the millstones; all the firstborn of the cattle as well . . . But against any of the sons of Israel a dog will not even bark, whether against man or beast, that you may understand how the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.

Blood on the top of the door and the two side-posts, forming a cross in blood. God ‘concealed’ in that event what He would eventually reveal 1500 years later on Calvary’s cross. But here we are yet another 2,000 years after Calvary. Does God's painting at the Passover and on Calvary’s hill really have any relevance to us in 2024?

Of course, it does, because God is eternal, His word is eternal, and His plan for humanity’s redemption is eternal. The psalmist reminds us (Psalm 119:89-90) “Forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness continues throughout all generations.”

God told the Israelites to paint their doors with the blood of the sacrificial lamb and the Angel of Death would ‘pass over’ their homes. And by FAITH they obeyed what Moses told them – and they were saved.

Let’s pause a moment and make some application: Are YOU covered with the blood of the Lamb of God who takes away your sins? (see John 1:29).

While we do not today sacrifice a lamb and paint our door lintels and side posts with its blood to deliver us from the power of our oppressors, we CAN and MUST – if we hope to be delivered from the power of sin and of death – we must by faith apply the blood provided us by God's Son Himself who, as the Scripture tells us, ‘loves us and released us from our sins by His blood.” (Revelation 1:5).

I love the hymn which includes these lyrics: “Would you be free from the burden of sin? There's power in the blood, power in the blood. Would you over evil a victory win? There's wonderful power in the blood.

By faith – faith in the commandment of God to paint their doors with Lamb’s blood – by faith they were saved during the Passover. And it is also by faith in God's commandments that we ‘paint our hearts’ – so to speak – that we today are saved from God's wrath and the oppressive power of sin over our lives.

Listen: It was by God's grace that Israel was saved. And it is STILL by God's grace that all who come by faith and humble obedience to His Throne that anyone today is saved from the angel of death who will bring all who have rejected the Blood of the Lamb to eternal death.

How do we come to God's Throne? I’ll say it again for emphasis. I don’t want anyone to miss this: Jesus is the absolutely critical key. All who desire forgiveness and eternal life must come through the only door God provided – Jesus the Christ. Jesus the Anointed One. Jesus the Messiah.

He alone is the direct link between the angel of death’s Passover of 3500 years ago, and the same angel’s passing over of your soul and mine. That is why Jesus said – and you and I must believe this by faith – Jesus said of Himself: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” (John 14:6). It was Jesus who said to Martha, the sister of Lazarus: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.”

And notice how Martha responded to His follow-on question: “Do you believe this?” She *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.”

Jesus asked essentially the same question of the disciples: “Who do you say that I am?”  Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16)

Which circles us back to the Passover and the question Jesus still asks people today – men and women even here at Ashwood Meadows: Who do YOU say that I am?

And then there is this related question: What do you think happened to those Jews who did NOT believe Moses and did NOT paint their doors with the sacrificial blood?

We can extrapolate from what happened to the Egyptians who did not believe Moses’ warning about the plague of the hailstorm. God spoke to Pharaoh and his servants through Moses saying: (Exodus 9:18-21) “Behold, about this time tomorrow, I will send a very heavy hail, such as has not been seen in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. Now therefore send, bring your livestock and whatever you have in the field to safety. Every man and beast that is found in the field and is not brought home, when the hail comes down on them, will die.”’”  The one among the servants of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord made his servants and his livestock flee into the houses; but he who paid no regard to the word of the Lord left his servants and his livestock in the field.”

What happened to the Jews who did not believe Moses and paint their doors with blood? I think it is safe to say, the firstborn in their home died. But please notice again here the mercy of God . . . even to the Egyptians who had enslaved His people for generations. Mercy – to warn them and to protect even them. Why? Because God is a God of MERCY and is not wanting ANYONE to perish.

Mercy. And it STILL doesn’t matter today what we’ve done to others in the past. It STILL doesn’t matter whom we have hurt in the past. God will STILL accept the penitent AND will forgive the penitent, wiping each of those past sins as far as east is from the west.

Consider David and his egregious sins of coveting, adultery, and murder in the affair with Bathsheba and her husband Uriah. And consider God's willingness to forgive Saul the Pharisee – better known as St Paul – for his murders of Christians. And I won’t even begin to tell you of the horrible sins in my own past.

But all of this circles back again to the Passover and God's mercy toward the Egyptians, and His mercy today as He continues to warn humanity – even those in church pews and church pulpits: “Believe My warnings” He pleads. “Believe My threats. These are not idle warnings or threats. Repent. Believe the gospel. OBEY the gospel.”

Please hear this: All who will NOT bow in faithful obedience to Christ, they will experience God's eternal retribution when – and I now quote from St Paul’s letter to the CHRISTIANS at Thessalonica – “the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.”

Let me bring this message now to a close in this way: Jesus the Passover Lamb takes away all of the sins of the penitent. Please, all of us – and I include myself here as well – we must pay attention to this ongoing warning of the Holy Spirit to Christians:

(Hebrews 3:1-7) “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts . . . .”

Do not harden your hearts as Pharaoh did multiple times, and as people all around us still do day after day. It is vital that we remind ourselves that when Pharaoh hardened his heart against the Lord, God turned around and furthered the hardening. For example, you can look up these texts on your own: Exodus 3:19; 5:2; 8:15; 8:32; 9:34 along with 4:21; 7:3; 14:4; 14:17.

The point of all that is this: God is not One to be trifled with. There is only one way to avoid Pharaoh’s fate of a hardened heart – and that is to walk HUMBLY with God, obediently following His commandments – not the least of which is, by faith trusting God to be telling us the truth about sin, righteousness, eternal life, and eternal judgment.

If you have never done so – AND even if you HAVE done so in the past – then today, while it is still called today – by faith, make Jesus lord of your life, your time, your talent, your treasure. His blood alone can cover our sins – just as the Passover lamb on Israel’s doors protected them from the wrath of God.

When the penitent tax collector prayer: “God, be merciful to me, the sinner,” Jesus told His disciples, “This man went to his house justified.” (Luke 18:14). And so, sinners – all of us here wear that label before God – remember that word of Christ.

The penitent among us all are justified because of what Jesus did for us on that Passover 2,000 years ago.