A Nail in the Coffin
The plagues of Egypt had wiped out their whole economy: Crops were ruined, the water polluted, their livestock gone; it would take a generation for the Egyptians to recover from this disaster. The people had suffered boils, darkness and fear as they experienced judgement after judgement over them. Pharaoh had been stubborn, and I suspect, lost the peoples respect, who probably just wanted life to return to normal, and in the end, not only were they glad to see the back of the Israelites, they even lavished gold and silver upon them as they went.
The Israelites … asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.”
Exodus 12:35-36
The last plague was the nail in the coffin, not just literally: the country was ruined, the future balance of society turned on its head by the decimation of the firstborn from each household. As a result the country would be in mourning for a generation while they overcame their loss—Egypt had been thoroughly and comprehensively judged.
“I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment… And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against [them] and bring the Israelites out of it.”
Exodus 7:4-5
For the Israelites, who had been miraculously protected from all the judgements, this was quite the beginning for them as a nation. They left numbering probably over a three million, according to estimates, having arrived 430 years earlier as 12 average households—that’s quite the blessing. They arrived desperate to survive and left with riches beyond count.
Beside the ruin of one nation, was the most incredible birth of another. It began with the inauguration of all inaugurations—that of the Passover; an inauguration in blood. If the Passover was a significant event for the Jews (still celebrated thousands of years later), the Exodus from Egypt marked its defining moment. God often referred to it, reminding them of His promises and of what He had done for them, in carving them out from the crucible of slavery and delivering them into their land of promise.
The Passover
Death passed over all households covered by lambs blood; the Angel of Death was unable to carry out its grim task on those who had obeyed and followed Gods prescribed application of it to the doors and lintels of their households. A perfect lamb had been slain for each and its blood applied for their protection from the coming of Gods wrath and judgement. But the real significance was what it signifies to us: the passing over of our sin, by Jesus’ blood shed on the Cross.
“The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you.”
Exodus 12:13
Jesus Lamb of God
Jesus, was the lamb of God; a one time sacrifice for all. We fast-forward past the hundreds of years of annual sacrifices by the Jews for the sins of the nation by the blood of many lambs, because the sacrificing of these lambs had no lasting effect over the sins of the people. But Jesus’s sacrifice was sufficient for all people over all time; the sacrifice to end all sacrifices.
“Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God… For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
Hebrews 10:12-14
Through obedience to the call of God: to believe in His Son—that all must obey to be saved—His sacrificial blood is applied to us. Death passes over us, it can no longer have its way with us at the judgement, because by faith, the death caused by Adam’s rebellion no longer counts against us, it is all on Jesus’s account, not ours. Just like the Israelites hunkered down behind blood sprinkled doorways, we are protected from Gods wrath, judgement and death, because Jesus blood has averted the Death Angel’s gaze from us.
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”1 Corinthians 15:54-55
Christians don’t celebrate the Passover—the Jews still do that—but we do celebrate the Death and Resurrection of Jesus each year. At Easter let us remember that because of what Christ has done on the Cross, we no longer face death because of our sin, and because of His resurrection, we will make it to the Land of Promise where He is awaiting our arrival—if only you would believe.
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