Part 4 - Bible Study - Exodus 12:21-28

0:00Amen, glory to God. Welcome to the program. Welcome to Cafe Pastor Clark. Covington here with another episode of KJV Cafe. We'll call this a bonus episode because really was just intending on doing three parts. An Exodus 12, 21 through 28. But man, we got things moving right along and just all these topics and all these ideas came up. And here we are on part four of Exodus 12, 21 through 28. So there you go. Again, the beauty of the program. We can really take our time with it. And just the more that we go through God's word, the more thankful I am for that ability that as the Lord leads in guides, we can take some time with it. All right. So in Exodus 12, we're in the middle of Exodus 12, big chapter here ends with the deliverance of the Israelites, right? So Exodus 12 ends in 51. And it says here in verse 51, Exodus 12, and it came to pass the self same day that the Lord did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies. Right? So we see this deliverance. Okay? We see great focus on, you know, the Passover and the keeping of the Passover and all the rest.

1:08Okay? So this is really partly our history account of what's going on and partly a contemporary account of how to keep the Passover and what the Passover means. And that's really where the scripture is leading. So we look to this idea in verse 24 and you shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee into thy sons forever. And we talked about this idea of a everlasting ordinance, even in heaven, that they will still be doing the Passover and they as in the Israelites. And I believe we as in Gentiles will be there with them all celebrating the Passover because we're really celebrating Jesus. They're really celebrating Jesus, whether they know it or not, but we all will be doing that together in heaven. It's a forever ordinance. It also forever would also of course include now, right? And so we have the passage here, really dealing with the kind of application for now. So when we talk about tactically, how do we approach studying the Bible?

2:09We've talked about it many times in the program. A great way to study the Bible is to look at what did it mean then? So what did it mean in context of what's happening there in this account? What does it mean now? What does it mean in contemporary terms in today's time? What does it mean? And what does it mean to you? What does it mean personally? And the Passover is super simple way to do that because you can clearly see what it means. Then this was the final plague, the 10th plague. This was the pinnacle of the plagues, the climax of the plagues. This is the last plague. This is the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. This is God's choice and how he would deliver Israel through this animal sacrifice, through the blood on the lentil or the top of the door and the door posts, through the hiss up being used as a paintbrush or the mint, the cleansing. This is his choice to represent Jesus who is to come. This is foretelling of the Messiah. It's almost prophecy if you will, right?

3:09You have all of these things happening. God's choice to do it. That's what was happening then. Of course, there's more to it, you know, in terms of the rules of what they were to do. Don't leave the house, share with your neighbor if you're not going to eat all of it, all that stuff that's in here. That's what's happening then. What's happening now? Well, that's what really we see here in 25 and onwards. And it shall come to pass when you come to the land, which the Lord will give you, according to the promise that you shall keep this service. Okay? So when you get to the promised land, keep the Passover, which they weren't always faithful to do, verse 26. And it shall come to pass when your children shall say unto you what mean ye by this service that ye shall say. It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover who passed over the houses of the children of Israel and Egypt when he smoked the Egyptians and delivered our houses and the people bowed the head and worshipped. And the children of Israel went away and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron so did they.

4:09Let's take a break and we're going to tackle this really interesting concept of God saying I want you to remember because the children are going to ask. We'll tackle that we get back. Stay tuned. It's break time here at the cafe. As always, thank you for listening. I'm so blessed that you're here with me today. As we study God's word together, I pray that this program helps you and richly blesses you. You can learn more about us at kjvcafe.com. If you have kids, we have a kids ministry. Kidskjv.com. All right, back to the program. All right, so really the last kind of foundational thing we want to look at here next to this 12 is this idea of you need to be able to explain this to your kids. Verse 24, there's a little part in there. Verse 24, exit is 12 and you shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons forever. To thy sons forever. And I think that means broadly to your family, right? To your children. So this is to be kept forever, okay? And they need to learn how to keep it. So they would need either access to this text or this recording.

5:13They would need either access to this or the oral tradition, people telling it from generation generation. But better than that, God wanted them to really consider this at the time. It's almost like when you have a teacher that's a really good teacher, they give you some kind of context that you could relate to. Like they give you something that would be like, oh, okay, right? And that's what God does here as a really good teacher, a really good master, a really good instructor. And it shall come to pass when you become into the land, which the Lord will give you, according to the gift promise that you shall keep this service. Okay, obviously they keep forever. They got to keep it coming to the land. And it shall come to pass when your children shall say unto you what mean ye by this service. Think of kids. Kids are experts at asking questions. Kids are like the most inquisitive group of people you'll ever come across. They have endless questions. I feel like as soon as my kids could talk, they were asking questions. And they have not stopped since then. And you know, they're nine and 10 years old at this point.

6:15And they're far enough questions just like they always have every day, all day. Question about this, question about that, question about everything. So it makes sense that if you're familiar with kids, that they would ask, hey, why are we doing this? Which when you look at this idea of them asking, hey, why are we doing this? It brings about this notion or this concept that God wants you to understand it well enough that you could teach your kids. And it gives this idea of a regenerative holiday, a regenerative, I'll get it out there, celebration, right? And think of God. He is regenerating, renewing, reconciling sinners to himself. And so the same way that the thing being described deals with deliverance from bondage to freedom. The same way he's saying, I want this to be reborn or regenerated from generation to generation. But I don't want it to have that tall tail type of fate,

7:18where you've got the fisherman who catches a sardine. And the next thing you know is big as a bass. And then the third generation says it was a shark. And the fourth generation awail. And the fifth generation, it was the Loch Ness Monster. You know, the sixth generation, it was 10,000 fish in that. So it just gets, you know, exasperated, exasperated. God wanted to avoid that, okay? So he's giving a very clear picture of what they are to do, what they are to teach, all of the things he's leaving very little to assumption or interpretation. It's very direct, so direct that it reads like marching orders. Stay in this night. We're going to do it this night. You're going to share this if you don't eat that much. You know, share it with a neighbor. On and on and on. Okay? Use the hiss up. Put the blood here, here and here. Right? The lamb should look like this. Okay? All of these things, all right? It's very important. In fact, he gives them a new year to institute this. Now it's a new year, it's a new time. Now you have this new holy or spiritual year to be combined with a civil year.

8:23So you have all of these things coming up that God wants us to know. This is incredibly important to him. And that our kids will ask. And then their kids will ask. And then their kids will ask. And it will be a continuing remembrance of what God did. It's very, very thoughtful when you read it. You know, when you see that verse 26, this is like the heart of God. It shall come to pass when your children shall say unto you what mean you by this service. God's saying, look, like I want you to give a good answer. You know, understand this well enough you could teach others. Right? Think of the parallel scripture. And that's from 1 Peter 315. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. This is a new testament here. And be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Again, you need to really be able to explain what it is God did for you.

9:24You can't just say, well, I'm saved and I'm baptized. And yeah, that's all I've got. That's not good enough. What is the reason of your hope and say it with meekness and fear? Not arrogance and pride. That's 1 Peter 315 and my paraphrasing and adding to it. But the idea is the same. Like the Bible's prompting you saying be ready to give an account. Right? For the New Testament Christian. And here in the Old Testament, you have something similar. When your kids ask, what do you mean by this service? You know, dad, mom, what are we doing? Why are we having this very specific week-long ceremony with this meal and all these rules and so forth? What's going on? Why are we getting rid of the leaven from the bread? Right? Verse 27,

10:33You know, not having to be under a bondage anymore. It'd be easy to, as time goes by and finally Joshua and the Israelites get into the promised land and they receive their inheritance. They defeat their enemies and so forth. It'd be easy to just relish at all of the pleasantries and all the dainty's, all the great things that they were having for this land in milk and honey. It'd be easy to not think about those times to almost wipe them away to compartmentalize them to maybe even assign some kind of other God as the deliverer, which they did with a molten cow. It didn't take them long. God knows our hearts or deceit will be on measure. God knows how wicked we can be and how quick we can drift. But you shall say it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover who passed over the houses of the children of Israel and Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses and the people bowed the head and worshiped. And finally here verse 28, the children of Israel went away and did as the Lord had commanded

11:36Moses and Aaron so did they. We see this picture of obedience. So we see here that God clearly wants the Israelites to teach from generation to generation the importance of the Passover and exactly what happened so that people's facts stay straight aligned with the scripture. And God gives us his word so that we can have that as well to understand what really happened, no matter what people say. That's why God gives us his word so perfectly. Now when you get to this idea of obedience in verse 28, it really underscores what we've talked about throughout the four episodes on this part of the Passover, which is that you have to do it by faith. It says, in the children of Israel went away and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron so did they. They were obedient to follow God. It doesn't say that God lifted them up and put them into shackles and made them do thus and such. It says that they went away as in they went away on their own accord and did what God called them to do.

12:38It must have felt odd. All these plagues had hit, there was panic in the land, there was lack of resources in the land. They didn't know what on earth was going on and God says have a feast. It must have felt a little odd. They always use leaven now they're going to get the leaven out. It must have felt a little odd. A lot of them were sheep herders and dealing with cattle and so forth and they would go out at night and now none of them can go out at night. It must have felt a little odd. All of these things, they have to then go against as they live by faith and say, I'm going to do what God called me to do. I'm not going to do what I normally do. I'm going to do what God's called me to do and I will keep this as a memorial to God. I will tell my children about it, my children's children, my children's children's children's children, on and on. So what we see here is a obedience and faith that leads to deliverance and that again kind of encapsulates the parallel perfectly that the Israelites were obedient and they were delivered. When we're obedient we are delivered.

13:44Think of the enemy of God and think of the enemies of God here on earth. They're called the children of disobedience. They're called the children of disobedience. Why? Because God calls us to be obedient. That famous verse in Samuel from Samuel is it's obedience is greater than sacrifice. You know, obedience is greater than sacrifice. Well, why is that so important? Because that's really foundational to what you see here. God's saying I'm going to give you a sacrifice, but I need you to be obedient to do it. If you do it in your own way, kind of like Aaron's sons very soon here offer strange fire and they're killed right away. This is Moses brother. This would have been Moses nephews that are wiped out because they offered strange fire, right? But in 1 Samuel 1522, we see this very familiar verse that says in Samuel said, how the Lord has great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as an obeying the voice of the Lord be hold to obey is better

14:44than sacrifice and harken or listen than the fat of rams. For time's sake, we got to wrap it up. I wish I could go on, but certainly we will tomorrow. Tune in then. Thank you as always for listening. Thanks for listening to KJV Cafe and we'll see you at the Cafe tomorrow.