October 16 2022
Exodus 12:1-27
Hurricane Ian, as we know all too well, caused devastation that truly boggles the mind. Florida has not experienced such devastation since 1935 which just puts everything in perspective. Over one hundred people lost their lives, thousands upon thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed along with the loss of great stretches of highways and bridges. The pictures that emerged after the storm were beyond belief. There was the one of a shark swimming down the street of Fort Myers or the one where a piece of lumber had gone straight through a palm tree, or the one where the boats in the harbor have been piled up on top of each other. Seeing all of this, I couldn’t help but think of people I had heard about who decided to stay in their homes because they had installed windows that were able to withstand hurricane force winds. I thought what good would those windows do when the roof gets ripped off. It is so tragic that every time a hurricane hits there are always people who think the best option is to stay in their homes and ride it out. It is tragic because with every hurricane that hits the coast of Florida there are also many shelters that are open to provide a safe place for people to endure the storm in safety.There are even shelters that opened up to care for people’s pets. So, you have to wonder just why it is that people always make the unbelievable choice to stay in their homes instead of heading to a place where at least they will be around to rebuild after the storm moves through.
In much the same way, what our story for today from the book of Exodus is describing people who are seeking shelter from a storm that is moving in, a storm which will produce certain death for any who refuse to seek shelter. Yet to understand fully just how and why this storm of death has come about we first need to have a quick look back as to what has happened prior to this fateful evening.
What we have previously learned as we have studied the life of Abraham is that God whispered in the ear of Abraham and told him to go out under the starry sky and look up and count all of the little twinkling lights above him. God was telling Abraham that this is how many offspring that would call Abraham their ancestor. We are left wondering then, did such a breathtaking promise that God held out to Abraham, did this ever come true? Well, as we come to the book of Exodus we find that the people of Israel, the grandson of Abraham, were fruitful and increased greatly, they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. The only problem was that they had done so in the land of Egypt where they found themselves. Over time the kings of Egypt were frightened that these people of Israel would end up being too numerous and too strong so much so that they might try and join with the enemies of Egypt and fight for the overthrow of Egypt. So, these kings, the Pharaohs , decided to make slaves out of the people of Israel. Yet all was not lost and without hope because we are also told that the cry for rescue that came forth from the slaves in Egypt had made its way to the very ears of God who heard their groaning. We are also told that God remembered the covenant he had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. As we recall, when God made his covenant with Abraham, God told Abraham that the covenant was not just between him and Abraham but it was also between the offspring that would come after Abraham throughout their generations, an everlasting covenant. So, here in the book of Exodus we find God making good on his promise, hearing the cries of the offspring of Abraham and doing something about their duress because he had bound his life to their life.
So, as we might recall, God called a man named Moses. The Lord God we are told, appeared to Moses in a bush which appeared to be burning yet was not consumed. Here again God was communicating to Moses that yes, he was indeed a consuming fire but because of his mercy, God chose to not harm that which he had decided to keep alive. From out of this burning bush, God called to Moses and told him to take off his sandals because the place where he was standing was holy ground. Then God told Moses that he was the God of the father of Moses, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Here again, we hear God remembering the promises that he had made to Abraham and it was because of these promises that God was sending Moses to Egypt to bring the children of Jacob, also known as Israel, up out of their slavery.
Moses, rightly had many questions about this mission God was sending him on, one being, just what is the name of the God who was sending him into Egypt. God replies to Moses that he should tell those who ask that the name of their God is I am who I am; I am has sent you. Once again there are echoes in this name of what Abraham also discovered about God because when he first enters into a covenant with Abraham, God says to Abraham, “I am your shield.” And again when God comes again to Abraham to further covenant with him we hear God tell Abraham, “I am God Almighty.” It’s important, I believe, to hold on to these two “I am” statements as we come to this story of Moses because what God is saying to Abraham is that who he was is who he is and who he is is who he always will be. In other words, when God tells Moses that his name is I am the I am, he is stating that who he was yesterday is who he is today and who he will be tomorrow. God is telling Moses then in no uncertain terms that he is the unchanging one, the one who is outside of time and the ever shifting sands of time; God remains eternal. Once this is revealed that God is the I am, we can know that if God said the he is a shield for Abraham, then this being a shield is something God is and always will be. When God tells Abraham that he is almighty then, again, this is something God is and always will be. As we move forward in our story of God rescuing the descendants of Abraham from slavery in Egypt, we must hold fast that who God has revealed himself to be is who God will be for his people who have cried out to him.
We see this truth that God is someone who does not change in the acts that God does to convince the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh, to release God’s people from slavery. To change Pharaoh’s mind, God uses a series of plagues, like turning the Nile river into a river of blood, and making it rain frogs and on another day God made hordes of gnats and flies come upon Egypt, and after this God caused the death of all of the livestock that the Egyptians owned. Each time God brought forth a plague he had Moses announce when the plague would happen to prove that he is a God who is outside of time thus able to know precisely when his work would be evident. What must also be understood is that each of these plagues represented the gods, the powers that the Egyptians worshipped. So, in a very powerful way God was communicating that he alone was God over every other lesser idol that was worshipped by the Egyptians. So, when God states that he is God almighty, we can know that God is over all of the powers, a God who can not only control the powers but do so at a specific time. We see this when God took the sun, which was worshipped by the Egyptians, and for three days plunged the land of the Egyptians in deep darkness. Yet even so, we are told, the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he would not free the people of Israel from their slavery.
At last then we come to the last plague, the plague of death which would come one night upon all the land of Egypt. We are told that this plague of death was going to strike down all the firstborn, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh, to the firstborn of his captive to the firstborn of their livestock. Here then is the great hurricane of death coming to wash over the land of Egypt and destroy all of the first offspring. Now, it may seem kind of strange that God would single out the firstborn yet to understand what God is doing we must know something that God had relayed to Moses before he headed down to Egypt which was that God thought of Israel as being his first born child. So, God is communicating to the Egyptians that the grief they will feel is the same grief God was experiencing at the thought that his firstborn would die a slow and painful death as a slave to the Egyptians. Sometimes the only way for people to understand what is at stake is to allow them to experience the consequences for themselves.
At last, then, we come to our scripture for today, the story we know as Passover. Now, the name, “Passover”, is actually a poor rendering of the Hebrew word used to describe what happened over every home of the people of Israel that fateful night but to see why this is so we must first understand just what has happened prior to the midnight hour. We are told that at twilight on that fateful day, while the light was fading into night, the people of Israel were told to take a lamb, and kill it and save back some of its blood. This sounds fairly straightforward however as is is told to us earlier in the story, in the eighth chapter of Exodus, the people of Israel could not offer sacrifices to God in the presence of the Egyptians for fear that the Egyptians would stone them. The reason why offering sacrifices to God was so offensive to the Egyptians is that the animals to be sacrificed were considered to be gods which were worshiped by the Egyptians. So, imagine what was going through the minds of the Egyptians when they saw the people of Israel taking a lamb and slaughtering it right there in what remained of the light of day. Then imagine the outrage when these same Egyptians watched as these slaves of theirs took the blood from what they considered to be a god and with a crude brush took and wiped that blood all over the doorposts and the top of the door frame. Come morning there would be that horrendous sight of door after door smeared with the blood of their object of worship; surely heads were going to roll. Yet such speculation about what was going to happen in the morning was a bit off the mark because no one quite knew just what was to take place on that fateful evening. All the people of Israel knew is that they were to take the slaughtered lamb and roast it. They were to eat with their belts fastened and shoes on their feet and their staff in hand. In other words, they were to be ready to go when God sent the word to do so.
So, with all the details of what happened prior to the actual passing over we come at last the what God was going to do. God told his people that he was going to pass through the land of Egypt that night and strike all the firstborn in the land both man and beast. Then God adds something which ties this plague in with all of the others because he tells the people of Israel that on all the gods of Egypt, God was going to execute judgment. In other words, on this night these so called gods that were worshipped by the Egyptians were going to be shown to be what they actually were, absolutely worthless in saving those who worshipped them from the power of death. Only the one true God would be found to have the power to save his people.
As we read the story of that fateful night down there in Egypt it is not exactly clear just what God is doing and the story is a bit confusing most likely because this was a strange and confusing night. Yet the clearest statement as to what happened that evening is found in the twenty third verse of this twelfth chapter of the book of Exodus where we read that the Lord was going to pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when God would see the blood on the top of the doorframe and the door posts the Lord would pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to enter the houses of the people of Israel. It is not God who strikes down the Egyptians but rather we are told it is the destroyer, the coming death that has been given a name. So, it is not God who brings death into the homes of Egypt but rather it is God who steps aside and allows death to have its way upon the firstborn. This is why the translating of the Hebrew word we know as being Passover does not seem to capture exactly what God is doing when the destroyer comes. No, a better understanding is that God is hovering over the homes of those people that he calls his own. God is placing himself between the coming death and the very life of those he has promised to unite his life with. So, when God told Abraham, “I am your shield.”, do you begin to see who God is for the descendants of Abraham? God hovers over them, shielding them from impending death.
You see, every home in Egypt, both those of the Egyptians and the people of Israel, were homes of death that evening. The death of the lamb whose blood was smeared on the door of the people of Israel took the place of the death of judgment that was inflicted upon the firstborn of Egypt. It was the blood of the lamb which marked the homes of those faithful to God with the sign of death. As God would later instruct his people, as found in the seventeenth chapter of Leviticus, the life of the animal is in its blood and the blood is given so that God might unite himself with his people. This is the truth that we witness as house by house, the people of Israel experience their God hovering over their homes shielding them from the destroyer of death.
It was at the stroke of midnight, we are told, that death came upon every house of Egypt. All throughout the land there was heard cries of anguish and mourning because everyone had experienced a terrible loss, everyone that is except the people of Israel. Pharaoh, a broken man, called Moses to his palace and told him that Moses and the people of Israel were at last free to go and serve the Lord. So, the people of Israel hurried up and gathered up their belongings and got out of town while the getting out was good. They didn’t have time to even wait for the bread to rise so they baked up bread that was instead flat and crispy. But it didn’t matter if the bread was different because they were at last free and not just free to do whatever they pleased, but they were free to go and serve the Lord because it was God who had acted so that the Egyptians would at last let his people go. The people came out of their homes of death, very much alive because of the shielding presence of God.
You see, when you meditate upon what happened that fateful night down there in Egypt, it is not a stretch to see that this story speaks volumes about Jesus, and how he who was proclaimed to be the very Lamb of God by John the Baptist, shed his blood so that we might be shielded from death. There have been many times when I have encountered people who refuse to believe that what happened here in the Old Testament has any bearing whatsoever on what we find in the New, as if the coming of Jesus can be separated from all that God had done before him. Nowhere is this so blatantly wrong as when we come to the story of the hovering over of God, his shielding them from death because a lamb had died and his blood, his very life, became the means by which the people of Israel could be united with God. I mean, how can you not but see Jesus in this story? How can we not see this same image of the God who hovers over us in what Jesus says in the thirteenth chapter of Luke where he cries out that he longed to gather the children of Jerusalem together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings? It is not hard to imagine that Paul, a good Jewish man who had celebrated many Passovers, had this story in his heart when he wrote to the Colossians that they had died, entered into the house of death, and they were now hidden with Christ in God, so that when the morning comes and Christ at last appears we too appear with him in glory, the glory of a life at last set free from the slavery of sin. I pray that you might know that the blood of Christ which has been poured out for you, this blood is so you might know God as your shield and your life is safe under his wings, in this life and in the life of the morning to come. Amen!
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