Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Exodus 12 | Date: July 19, 2020 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Open your Bibles with me, if you will, please, to Exodus chapter 12. As you know, we’ve been working our way through Proverbs, but today we’ll take a detour from that. We were observing the Lord’s Table, and I thought it would be good to look at Exodus chapter 12 in the account of the Passover. Just a program note, our plan is to continue with Proverbs through the summer, and then probably after Labor Day, begin another series on the biblical teaching on salvation. I had mentioned that we’re going to go through James next, and I think that will be in the evening services once we resume our regular schedule.

But this morning, Exodus chapter 12, and I want to take the time to read the first 36 verses.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the 10th day of this month, every man shall take a lamb according to their father’s houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons, according to what each can eat, you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the 14th day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire. With unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning. Anything that remains until morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it, with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.

For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and 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 are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations, as a statute forever. You shall keep it as a feast.

Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses. For if anyone eats what is leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day, you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day, a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days, but what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread, for on this very day, I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a statute forever. In the first month, from the 14th day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the 21st day of the month at evening.

For seven days, no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your dwelling places, you shall eat unleavened bread.”

Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select your lambs for yourselves according to your clans and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning, for the Lord will pass through to strike 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 enter your houses to strike you.

You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ You shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover. For he passed over the houses of the people of Israel and Egypt when he struck the Egyptians, but spared our houses.'”

The people bowed their heads and worshiped. Then the people of Israel went and did so as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

At midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. From the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel, and go, serve the Lord as you have said. Take your flocks and your herds as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also.”

The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, “We shall all be dead.” So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up with their cloaks on their shoulders. The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, where they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. And the Lord had given people favor in the sight of Egyptians so that they let them have whatever they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, what a sobering passage of scripture this is, and yet what a wonderful prospect it holds out for us. What a great act of deliverance, and what a wonderful picture of the great deliverance we have in the Lord Jesus. Give us eyes to see it, give us hearts to receive it, give us faith to trust in the Lord Jesus alone. We pray in his name. Amen.

The Event That Shaped Israel As A Nation

Well, the Passover, as we have read, and as I’m sure most all of you are aware, is the event—the event—that shaped Israel as a nation. It was also a holiday to commemorate the saving power of God in Israel. God himself had, as we’ve read here, carefully prescribed in detail how that holiday was to be observed. It was a holiday that marked Israel’s new year, and it was a holiday that marked Israel’s very identity.

God had promised in covenant with Abraham that he would make his descendants his people, that they would be a common nation, a great nation that God would shape for his own use. And now those descendants of Abraham had for some 400 years been in Egypt and for a good long time had suffered under slavery, under the Egyptian Pharaoh. The year, the best we can tell, is 1446 BC. The Pharaoh, the best we can tell, Amenhotep II, and he was a Pharaoh who was particularly cruel to the Israelite slaves.

But God heard the cry of his people, and he sent his servant Moses to bring them deliverance. And Moses, as we see several times throughout this account, beginning back in chapter 4, comes before Pharaoh to bring the word of the Lord to him. In chapter 4, verse 22 and 23, Moses says to Pharaoh, “Israel is my firstborn son. Let my son go that he may serve me.” And so he warns the Pharaoh that he must let Israel go.

But of course the Pharaoh of Egypt was much too important to be intimidated by the God of the Israelite slaves, and so he refused. He became only more cruel, as you remember the account. He now required that the Israelites produce the straw themselves to make the bricks that were required, and the same quota had to be kept up. But if it’s true that Pharaoh was too important to be intimidated by the Israelites’ God, it is also true that no Egyptian Pharaoh would ever frustrate the God of heaven.

And in fact, in Exodus chapter nine, we read that it was God himself who raised up Pharaoh. And in fact, God intentionally prolonged the confrontation with Pharaoh just to demonstrate his uniqueness and his greatness. Exodus chapter nine, verses 14 to 16, if you’d like to follow along: “I will send all my plagues on you yourself and on your servants and on your people so that,” notice the purpose clause, “so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show my power, that by my name, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”

That is, it would have been very easy, just as easy for God to order the deliverance of the people, let them walk out of Egypt without any interference, but he determined to make a public demonstration of his uniqueness and his power over Pharaoh, over the Egyptian armies, and in particular, over the Egyptian gods. We see that here in chapter 12, you might have noted it as we read through in verse 12, that God’s intent is not just to show his power over Pharaoh, but over the gods of Egypt. Chapter 12 and verse 12: “I will pass through the land of Egypt that night and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both men and beast, and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments. I am the Lord.”

Now Moses doesn’t enumerate for us here which gods in particular he has in view. He says all the gods of Egypt to give you a kind of feel for just how many gods the Egyptians had and worshipped. They had a god for this and a god for that and a god for the other and worshiped them all and tried to manipulate them by their various maneuverings for those gods. I want to give you a sense of that.

The first plague, as you’re aware, was the plague of the bloody waters. That probably would have been an attack on Osiris, the god of the Nile. Actually, there were several gods of the Nile that the Egyptians worshipped. There was Hapi, also called Apis. He’s the bull god, the god of the Nile. There’s Isis, the goddess of the Nile. There’s Khnum, K-H-N-U-M, Num, the ram god, the guardian of the Nile. And there were other guardians and gods and goddesses of the Nile as well.

The second plague, the Plague of the Frogs, that probably was an attack on the frog goddess, Heqet. The third plague, the plague of the gnats, an attack on Set, the god of the desert storm. And so on it went with the fourth plague, the fifth, the sixth, and so on with all of the plagues. Specific gods were evidently in view. We come to the ninth plague. We have the plague of darkness that would have been an attack on the great god Re, the sun god.

And then we come to the tenth plague, the final one, the death of the firstborn. And that probably was an attack on all of the gods all by itself—perhaps especially the god Min, the god of reproduction, probably also the goddess Heqet, who attended women at childbirth, Isis, the goddess who protected the children, and in fact Pharaoh himself was considered a god, and his firstborn son was considered a god, and God now is demonstrating his power over all the gods of Egypt.

Exodus chapter 7 verses 3 to 5, God had said to Pharaoh through Moses right up front, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. And the Egyptians shall know that I, the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”

When we come to the seventh and eighth plague of Egypt, the hail and the locust plagues, Pharaoh quote-unquote confesses his sins. He wants relief from it. It turned out to be just words only. Chapter 10, we read that during the eighth plague, Pharaoh’s servants are pleading with the Pharaoh, “Let these people go, we can’t take any more of this.” And of course, it all comes to climax now in the 10th plague, the death of the firstborn throughout all of Egypt, both men and animals, the firstborn, stricken.

God through Moses had warned Pharaoh, chapter four, “Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son. And I say to you, let my son go that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.” You can scarcely imagine the events that we have just read in chapter 12. Chapter 12 verse 30 tells us, “There was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead.” If you can just imagine, every house, every neighborhood, every county, throughout the whole nation, there’s not a house without someone dead—both man and animal. Even Pharaoh’s own son was dead.

Archaeologists, by the way, have picked up some reflection of that. It’s a little thin to call it proof, but it is some reflection of it. There are actually several findings that archaeologists have found. Some of them are a little debated as to how much bearing it has on this. But one, I think, certainly does, and that is Pharaoh’s firstborn son who died before Pharaoh himself, Amenhotep II, before his son was of marriageable age, died and was given the honor of being buried in Pharaoh’s, the royal tomb, an honor not given to his other sons.

Pharaoh’s own son was dead. He, of course, relents then, temporarily as it turns out, and Pharaoh and all the gods of Egypt are utterly devastated. Until finally, Pharaoh and everyone on down through the nation says to the Israelites, “Take what you want and leave.”

So through a succession of plagues, God had escalated, deliberately escalated the confrontation against Egypt to demonstrate, and to demonstrate vividly, that he is in fact God over all. Not mighty Pharaoh, not the gods of Egypt, no one will frustrate God’s purpose or interfere with his purpose to save his people. He will do all that he has purposed to do, and he will judge the wicked in the meantime.

Sinners Deserve Divine Wrath

Now this is one of those passages, I think, that tends to embarrass Christians today. How could God kill so many people? We tend to get embarrassed about that kind of thing. We read it in Joshua of God killing so many people and we tend to be embarrassed. Is that right for God to do all of that?

A couple of years ago I had occasion to sit down with an Old Testament professor, seminary—not the seminary where I teach by the way—but he was expressing some hesitance with regard to these kinds of passages where God kills so many people. I simply made the point that you cannot judge God by your own sensitivities. But what we ought to notice above all is that the biblical writers themselves never shy away from this kind of thing. But they are intent to press the point that God does not owe life to anyone at any time.

What God owes is judgment. The only reason we are alive and breathing today is because of divine mercy withholding what we deserve. The only reason we are not in hell today is because of divine mercy withholding what we deserve. The biblical writers are intent to press that. Every man and woman owes ultimate reverence and humble obedience to God. And our refusal to do that is an immeasurable, incalculable evil. And God’s justice demands condemnation. And that is what God owes. And this passage highlights for us then, among other things, that sinners deserve divine wrath.

But in fact, and this of course is the larger, more specific point I should say—the more specific point of the passage—that wrath did not fall on Israel. God had made provision for the Israelites to escape. Each Israelite household was directed to set aside, as we saw, on the tenth day of the month, a lamb, a lamb without spot, without any kind of blemish. It was to be killed and roasted and eaten, along with herbs and unleavened bread. During the feast, the Israelites were to be dressed in such a way that they’re ready to run, ready to go.

The lamb, as I mentioned, is to be without any kind of defect, spotless, nothing lame, nothing broken. If this is going to be offered to God, only the best will do. And that lamb then was to be taken and killed, and its blood was to be collected in a basin. Can you imagine doing this before your meal? A ceremony like collecting the blood in the basin and then taking a bunch of hyssop. Hyssop was a small plant in the ancient world, in the ancient Near East, a small plant, a sprig of which was perfect for this kind of thing, and you dip it in the basin of blood, and then you paint it on the doorposts above and on each side, and you dip it in, you paint some more blood, dip it in, paint some more blood, and the hyssop was used for that.

You can only imagine what was going on in the Israelites’ minds during this time. “Did you hear what Moses said God’s going to do tonight? He’s going to come through and kill all the firstborn in all the land of Egypt. But he said we could escape it. But do you hear what we got to do to escape it? We kill a lamb that we’re going to eat, but we got to collect the blood in a basin and then put some hyssop and then paint the blood on the doorposts, the top and sides, and then have our feast.”

I imagine many of them hung on to the words of verse—what is for us, verse 13: “The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I’ll pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” Actually, this verb here, “I will pass over you,” there’s some question as to exactly how to translate that. The verb has a range of meanings. There is one use of it in Isaiah where this verb is used, and it very obviously there means to hover over, like a bird hovering over her young. In that case, the imagery here would be not God skipping over that house, but hovering over that house in protection as he passes through in judgment on the other houses.

I’m not sure that’s the way it’s to be taken, or if we should take it as the translations consistently give us, “pass over,” because the imagery is God passing through, but passing over the other. In one way or the other, the imagery is clear that God will protect those houses that have the blood sprinkled on the doorposts.

And true to his word, as these instructions were followed, each Israelite home was spared. It just had to seem strange. Can you imagine sitting in your house, all of you gathered around together with your holiday feast? You’ve killed this lamb. You’ve got a really good meal. All around you, in every house in the nation, someone is dead, and the cry—a great cry went out all over Egypt. And there you sit in your home safely, eating the meal. And in those homes, virtually every bite, you’re looking back and you notice blood painted on the doorposts. And there you sit safely in your homes.

At least some thoughtful Israelites had to have recognized that in some real sense, some very real sense, that lamb had taken their place. The idea of substitution is just hard to miss. Judgment ordered by God to fall on each house had fallen in this house on the lamb instead of the people. It’s difficult to miss that. Because the lamb was slain, the Israelites were not. And in fact, because the lamb was slain, they were liberated from their slavery to begin a new life as the redeemed people of God. Difficult to miss all of that. And for all the succeeding generations, that meal then stood as an annual reminder of God’s mighty deliverance of his people from slavery in Egypt. Amazing event.

Christ Our Passover Has Been Sacrificed For Us

Well, centuries of Passover observance passed, year after year after year observing the Passover, year after year after year, until one day, the Lord Jesus gathered with his disciples in an upper room and they sat to observe this Passover meal. In a very important sense, that was the last Passover. Because our Lord, as he observed that meal, transformed it into a commemorative meal of another kind, commemorating another kind of deliverance. A meal and a ceremony that’s still filled with symbolic significance, and it still commemorates a deliverance, but it’s a deliverance of a greater kind and a deliverance by a greater lamb.

And Jesus takes that, what in the ceremony would have been the third cup during the feast. And as he takes that cup, he says to his disciples, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood that is shed for many for the remission of sins.” This event, the Passover, was intended all along to have a significance way beyond itself, to point ahead to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.

And all of those lambs that were slain to rescue the people of Israel in Egypt, and all of those lambs for the centuries that were slain in this commemorative event, all of them pointed ahead away from themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. And all of those centuries of commemoration pointed ahead to the cross of Christ. We come to the New Testament and we find the New Testament writers verifying it over again, just as our Lord Jesus himself.

John the Baptist introduces Jesus: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The gospel writers are very careful to note for us that Jesus died at the very time that the Passover lamb was being slain in the temple. First Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7, the Apostle Paul makes the connection very explicit: “Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us.” All through the New Testament, we have this emphasis on the sinlessness of Jesus. And then Peter makes that connection for us explicitly in 1 Peter 1, verses 18 and 19: We are redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

The sinless Savior standing in the sinner’s place. All of this pointing to that. The sinless Savior standing in the sinner’s place, taking the judgment of God to himself, freeing his people to become his through his own sacrifice and through his bearing in their place the curse of God against their sin.

I’ve told you before many times, the way I like to illustrate this is God does things—tends to do things—the exact reverse of what we do. In this regard, we have a great event that happens nationally, societally, culturally, whatever. What we do is we make a movie to commemorate it and look back. And what God does instead is he runs the movie ahead of time, pointing ahead to what he’s going to do. And here back in Egypt, 1400 and some years before the event, he gives us a glimpse of what he’s going to do.

In fact, the Old Testament itself gives us some of the symbol—it fills in a little more of the symbolism for us, particularly with regard to the hyssop, as well as the blood, of course, with all of the sacrificial system of the Old Testament picked up on this. We end up going to Mount Sinai and we have the giving of the law and the Mosaic code is given for the sacrificial system outlined for us in the book of Leviticus. But also in regard to this hyssop that is used.

Here in Exodus chapter 12, a little plant for the sprinkling of the blood. This is the instrument for applying the blood. We come up with hyssop again in Leviticus, and again the hyssop is used for applying blood. But here in Leviticus, it’s for cleansing, ceremonial cleansing. So if a man had been a leper, he’s been cured of leprosy finally, he’s healed of it all, he’s to be ceremonially cleansed and the hyssop is used for the sprinkling of blood. If a man has touched a dead corpse, he becomes ceremonially unclean and needs to go to the temple and be cleansed and the application of the blood with the hyssop is used again.

The next time we see it, I think the fascinating way is in Psalm 51. You remember Psalm 51, I’m sure. This is David’s great confession. After he had sinned with Bathsheba, he committed adultery, he had schemed in order to have her husband killed. He’s guilty of murder and adultery. And in Psalm 51, we have his great confession. And he prays there in Psalm 51 in verse 7, “Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.”

Now that’s interesting because in the sacrificial law there is no corresponding sacrifice for David’s sins of adultery and murder. And yet when David prays, “Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean,” he’s expressing a hope that somehow there must be blood that can atone for me. Just as God provided a lamb back in Egypt to cover them from judgment, so there must be blood for me to atone for my sins as well.

And then the very next time hyssop crops up in the biblical narrative is John chapter 19, the scenes of the cross. Jesus is suffering. It is near the last moments of his death, and he says, “I thirst.” In John 19 verses 29 and 30, we read, “A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished.’ And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

There may be, and I think there is, some symbolism involved in the wine as well. The wine being a symbol of God’s judgment throughout the prophets, even in the Psalms and the New Testament as well, culminating in the book of Revelation. God’s judgment described as the pouring out of the wine of wrath against the nations with a cup of wrath being poured out unmixed in full strength against his enemies, the symbol of divine judgment.

Here the hyssop is used to put that to his mouth. The hyssop already symbolic of substitution. And in all of this, then, we find the whole meaning, then, of the death of Jesus, symbolically proclaimed with the use of the hyssop, that Christ stood in the sinner’s place, bearing the judgment of God, taking his wrath, like we sing, “Took the blame, bore the wrath in our place.”

Harry Ironside was a popular Bible teacher in the early and mid last century, famous dispensationalist Bible teacher, pastor of Moody Church. He used to tell an illustration of a train wreck that had happened early in the last century. A train had stopped and so the flagman was sent back down the track to flag down the next train to avoid a collision. Flagman went down, waved his flag, next train came, kept going, slammed into the train that was stopped, and many people were killed.

He came to court, and in court the conductor of the second train was asked why he didn’t stop. And he said, “Well, the flagman waved a yellow flag. So I slowed down and kept going.” They brought the flagman onto the stand. He said, “No, I waved a red flag. He was supposed to stop.” So all they could do was produce the flag. They produced the flag, and it was a red flag. But in all the years of use, it had faded and yellowed. Because of a yellowed flag, many people had been killed.

And then Harry Ironside would say, “Oh, the souls eternally wrecked by the yellow gospels of the day. Bloodless theories of unregenerate men in which the cross of Christ is not made prominent.”

There is only one place where we can be safe from divine judgment. There is only one way to be freed from the bondage of our sin. There is only one way for us to become the redeemed people of God. Safety is found only under the blood of the spotless lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s the message of the Passover. Salvation is found only in Christ crucified.

In what are you trusting? I hope you don’t think that you’re—not under the mistaken illusion that somehow you could do something better or it could be something prettier that would somehow commend you to God. What in the day of judgment will be that consideration that you expect will get you cleared?

I suppose the world must think it’s awfully odd that we Christians make so much of the blood, the blood of Jesus. Always talking about the blood of Jesus. Several years ago—this must be a dozen or so years ago—my dad’s church when he was still living up in Minnesota, they had a visitor in the congregation. They had gone through part of the song service. Partway through, this visitor got up and left. And one of the ushers met him at the back and greeted him. And the guy was very deliberate to say, “I got to get out of here. You guys make too much of blood.” And the usher had enough wits about him to say, “I’m very sorry to hear that. One of these days, you’re going to need that.”

The world must think it’s odd for us to make so much of blood. Yet you see, that’s the whole essence of the gospel. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. The spotless lamb slain. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I see, nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this is my plea, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace. This is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

And that is the message of the Passover. That’s our testimony. Each of us, we come to Christ saying, “Just as I am, without one plea,” I’ve got nothing to contribute, I’ve got nothing to offer. All I have is that Jesus gave his life for sinners and God promised that he would have me if I come by way of him. Our whole hope is just this: the sinless Lord of glory took our place and bore the judgment of God against our sin that was due to us.

What Do You Mean By This Service?

And before we close, I want you to notice one other detail here in this passage. Chapter 12, verses 24 to 27: “You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and your sons forever. And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he’s promised, you shall keep this service. And now note this. When your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ You shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians and spared our houses.'”

As we’ve already noticed, the Lord Jesus took this meal finally and he transformed it into the Lord’s Table, the Lord’s Supper, which we observe here today. I’m not quite recommending this. It would be certainly unconventional. But I’ve often wondered if it would be good sometime during the observance of the Lord’s Table if we would divide up in families and then instruct the children to ask, “Dad, what’s this all about? Why do we do this?”

And then have the dads respond, “Well, son, we were slaves. We were bound in our sins. We deserved divine judgment. We were without hope. If God had not sent a deliverer, we’d perish in hell forever. But you see, God sent his own son. He’s like a lamb without any defect. And he offered himself in sacrifice for our sins. And he bore the judgment of God that we deserved. And now we’re free. Because he died in our place, we’re free. We no longer fear divine judgment. We are safe forever under the blood of Jesus. That’s what it’s about.”

And so in this ceremony, we commemorate it. The bread, that’s a picture of our Lord’s body, which was given for us. The cup—you notice the color? Red, the symbol of Jesus’ blood. That’s the cost of our redemption, and it’s good for us to remember it. This is our whole hope. All we have—all we have—Jesus died in our place.

John Foote, F-O-O-T-E, a name you’ll never hear again probably, was a minister and evangelist at the end of the 19th century. Elisha Hoffman is another minister, end of the 19th century. You might see his name again in your hymnal. Elisha Hoffman actually was the son of a minister, grew up in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania, where 100 years later my children grew up. Elisha Hoffman and John Foote together wrote a very popular gospel song that I’m sure most all of you have sung. And it’s based right here on Exodus chapter 12, verse 13. As soon as I start quoting it, you’ll remember it.

“Christ our Redeemer died on the cross, died for the sinner, paid all his due. Sprinkle your soul with the blood of the Lamb, and he will pass, he’ll pass over you. Judgment is coming, all will be there, each one receiving justly his due. Hide, hide in the saving, sin-cleansing blood, and I will pass over you.”

This is what we proclaim as we come to the Lord’s Table, that Jesus taking our place is our hope. Amen.

Our Father, thank you for this glorious Redeemer that we have. What a glory to stand safely before you because he has taken our place. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming to save us. In your name we pray, amen.