Introduction
Today we’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so we’re going to jump right in. But, I want you to keep something in mind as we walk through the Passover and the Exodus story. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” When Paul wrote that he was referring to the Old Testament. Of course it applies to the New, but it especially applies to the Old as that is what Paul was addressing. And we need to keep that in mind as we dig into the Old Testament.
The Old Testament applies just as much now as it ever did, unless it is expressly changed in the New Testament. For instance, circumcision is no longer required under the New Covenant. But, by and large, the Old carries over to the New, except that in the New the principles and blessings of the Old are expanded to a greater degree. What was given to Israel, one nation under God, is now given to the church, made up of all nations. And what is given to the church is to overtake the world. There is continuity across God’s Word, and as God’s Word goes its reach expands more and more. God’s Covenant of Grace keeps expanding out until all things are made new. So, with that in mind look with me at Exodus 12, starting in verse 1.
Context
As we’ve seen over the past few weeks, Moses has been confronted and commissioned by God. The God who has promised that He is, “the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9)… So, because of His covenant faithfulness to Abraham and His people, because He is a God who keeps His Word, God called Moses to go to Pharaoh and command him to let His people, Israel, go. They had been in bondage for 400 years, but the time had come for them to be led out of slavery, and led into the promised land. But Pharaoh refused to let them go. So God unleashed 9 plagues upon them. God turned the waters of Egypt into blood, unleashed plagues of frogs, gnats, flies, diseased livestock, boils, hail, locusts, and darkness… Yet even after all of that Pharaoh still refused to let Israel go. And this is where we left off last week.
Passover
God is about to unleash the 10th and final plague upon Egypt. And this is where our passage starts today. In Exodus 12:1-2 we read, “1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 ‘This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.” This is probably about the middle of March, yet God tells them this will be the start of a new year for them. It’s a new year, a new month, a new day, a new beginning. They’ll be starting fresh with a freedom they’ve never had before. And that’s so many of our stories as well, or that’s the story so many of you are longing for.
God’s gospel, His rescuing of sinners and sufferers out of bondage and into right relationship with Him, is a new beginning. It doesn’t matter what our background is, what we’ve done or haven’t done, or how long we’ve been in bondage… Who the Lord sets free is free indeed (John 8:36). Just like Pharaoh was no match for God, neither is our sin any match for His grace. God is in the business of saving sinners, even the very worst of sinners. He gives new starts and new beginnings. And don’t misunderstand me… He doesn’t just give second chances. As I read earlier, and as we sang, His mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness! And it is because of God’s covenantal faithfulness that Israel is getting a new beginning here. A new year, a new month, a new day, a new life…
Keep that in mind when you see no way forward in your own life. When you don’t know how you’ll face tomorrow, let alone make it through it. When you don’t know how forgiveness and reconciliation can happen. When you don’t even know what repentance looks like… Remember, God is faithful, and His mercies are new every morning. Indeed, He is in the business of making all things new. So look to Him, for He will see you through. He will lead you; He will guide you; He will provide grace to help you in your time of need (Hebrews 4:16).
Now, after speaking of this new year and new beginning, starting in Exodus 12:3, God says, “3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. 4 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. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.”
First, notice that God not only deals with individuals, but with households. Each household is supposed to take a lamb without blemish, and make a meal so that each member of the house may eat of that meal. This is to be a family meal for the whole family. From the youngest to the oldest, every adult and every child who was no longer merely nursing, who could eat solid food, was to partake of this meal. And if a family was too small to need a whole lamb they were to partner up with another household and share the meal together. They were to pick out their lamb and make their plans for this meal so that on the 14th day they could gather together with God’s people as a whole assembly and slaughter their lambs together.
Here we see a few things that set the pattern for the Christian life today. We see believing households in fellowship with one another. Families led by heads of households who have said with Joshua, “As for me and my house we shall serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15). Two or more believing families breaking bread together and helping one another trust the Lord. Which is exactly what we ought to be doing. And along with that, we see them gathering together with the whole assembly of the congregation to slay their lambs, reminding us of the importance of assembling with the saints each Lord’s Day to worship the true Lamb of God who was slain to take away the sin of the world. This whole scene is a microcosm of the Christian life.
We, as a church, ought to be near and dear to one another. We ought to be close to one another relationally and physically, so that we can feast together, fellowship together, and of course gather to worship together. These are the basics of the Christian life: the ordinary means of grace like God’s Word, God’s sacraments, and God’s people. We need Christian families, we need Christian friends, and we need Christian churches. There’s just no way to live the Christian life faithfully without these. We must give ourselves to worshipping God faithfully as individuals, as families, and as churches. It’s all of life and it’s all of us.
Again, notice this isn’t just the adults taking part in this, but the whole family. Moses was called to go to Pharaoh and to command him to let the children of Israel go. And Pharaoh almost did a few times, telling Moses that he, the people, and even the little ones could go, but then changing his mind. But God is about to give Pharaoh no choice, and then the children of Israel, from the youngest to the oldest, all the people of God will be set free. Yet, in order for that to happen all of the people of God must trust and obey.
Again, God deals with households. As we have seen, God entered into covenant with Adam and his household, Noah and his household, Abraham and his household, and now Moses and his household, along with all of the households of Israel. The modern notion of American individualism is nowhere in view here. God deals with His people in and through covenant, and covenants have covenant representatives, and each of those representatives have covenant responsibilities. As we’ll see in the weeks to come, this gets brought out more later in God’s covenant with Moses, but though each person will answer to God for their life, God still operates primarily by dealing with covenant heads: husbands and fathers as head of households, pastors and elders as heads of churches, magistrates and governing officials as heads of state… and on and on it goes.
Moses is currently in a role similar to that of pastor, but that does not exempt each head of each household from leading their family in faithfulness and worship to the Lord. And that faithfulness and worship is expected of each member of each household. Sure, they have a choice as to trust and obey or not, but one leads to life and the other leads to death. And so it is for us today. Maybe not as immediate as it was for them, but still true nonetheless. We can trust and obey the Lord or perish. This is the call on us all, but especially on believers and their households.
I often hear people say today that they don’t want to indoctrinate their children or force anything upon them… But that’s not possible. We’re either teaching them the right thing or the wrong thing. We’re either rightly indoctrinating them or wrongly indoctrinating them. We are either leading them in faithfulness or leading them astray. There is no neutrality. It is not whether you will indoctrinate them or not, but with which doctrine will you indoctrinate them with. Which is why God commands us to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, in the covenant culture of Jesus. And friends, that tells us that your families are more important than you know. No doubt, evangelizing and discipling the world is right and good, but the ordinary and typical way God has ordained for His Kingdom to grow and expand throughout the world us through faithful Christian families. That means who you are and what you do as a husband, as a father, as a wife, as a mother, as a son, as a daughter, as a grandparent… as a member of your family and of God’s has eternal implications.
Notice here we see that from the youngest to the oldest, all of the children of Israel are a part of the people of God by virtue of God’s covenant and their relationship to believers in their household. And God treats them as such inviting them to His table for His Passover feast. Indeed, the main purpose here is not only to free the children of Israel, but to pass over the firstborn child of every Israelite family. So, in a very real way, Exodus seems to be saying the same thing Jesus does in Matthew 19:14, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” Husband and wife, dad and mom, and each child is in covenant with God, and are to be treated as such, and to live as such. For that is how the world is transformed for Christ.
Now, notice how our passage goes on. Starting in Exodus 12:7 we read, “7 Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. 12 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. 13 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.”
Each household of God’s chosen people is in covenant with God, but they must choose to walk in faithfulness or not. And here they are told that faithfulness means slaying the lamb and marking their doorposts and the lintel of their house with the blood of the lamb. It’s interesting to me that God says that He will see the blood and will pass over them, but that the blood is a sign for them. God sees the blood and passes over the houses of Israel, but Israel sees the blood and it’s a sign for them as well. It’s a sign that they belong to God. Indeed, it’s a covenant sign that reminds them who they are and whose they are. They are God’s blood bought people who He has redeemed. Indeed, this sign says the same things as the sign of circumcision and the sign of baptism for that matter; it reminds them that they are not their own. For they have been bought with a price. Therefore they are to glorify God with their body.
Along with that the blood of the lamb was a sign that pointed them to the true blood of the true Lamb that was slain for all of God’s people. Again, like circumcision and baptism, the Passover ultimately points to the gospel. It all points to Jesus, the Son of God, who took on flesh and lived the perfectly faithful life we have all failed to live, then died the sacrificial wrath-absorbing death we all deserve to die, and rose from the grave in victory conquering sin and Satan, and satisfying God’s wrath for all who trust in Him. But, there’s something particularly special about the Passover and the death of Christ. And we see that in the Lord’s Supper, in Communion.
Just before Jesus goes to the cross He eats the Passover with His disciples and there institutes the Lord’s Supper. In Matthew 26:26-28 we’re told, “as they were eating (the Passover), Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’” Like the Passover, the Lord’s Supper is a sign that points us to the gospel. And like the Passover, the Lord’s Supper is something the God sees as well, thus passing over His people and forgiving the sins of all who are in true communion with Christ.
Both the Passover and Communion are all about the true Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). That’s why Jesus instituted Communion in and through the Passover. The Passover pointed to, and was always meant to give way to Communion. In partaking of Communion, both we and the Lord remember the gospel. We partake of the body of Christ in the bread, and the blood of the covenant in the cup, and both we and the Lord renew our covenant as we feast in fellowship together. God remembers the person and work of Christ—His perfect life, sacrificial death, and death-defeating justifying resurrection—and because we are in union with Him He sees us in light of His perfect Son, covered by His perfect righteousness, and He gives us His perfect grace. And we remember that same gospel and receive grace, and all the more as we feast in communion with Him and His people. And this is the same reality we see in the Passover.
This is why Exodus 12:14 says, “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.” Like Communion the Passover was a memorial feast to the Lord. And it goes even still, throughout the generations, in and through Communion. Though now we no longer roast a lamb in our meal, but just partake of the bread and the cup, because the true Lamb has already been provided. The Passover was all about Jesus, and thus Jesus took it to its proper place in the New Covenant in the Lord’s Supper. And this meal is to be kept throughout the generations, for both men and women, and boys and girls… for every Christian household together with the household of faith, the church.
When Israel partook of the Passover feast they were to eat the roasted lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. As we have seen, the lamb represents the sacrificial atonement for sin that Jesus, the true Lamb of God provides in the gospel. And the unleavened bread signifies purity; for God’s people are not to be leavened with the leaven of sin and the world like the Egyptians. As Paul said, “a little leaven leaven’s the whole lump” (1 Corinthians 5:6). Nor did they have time for leavened bread, for they were to go in haste after the Passover meal. They were to flea the sinful pleasures and treasures of Egypt and their bondage to Egypt and sin, and run to the Lord. Which is why God said in Exodus 12:11, “In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste.” They were to be ready to go, and to go quickly. And the bitter herbs were to remind them of the bitterness of their slavery to Egypt and the sweetness of freedom that they longed for and had coming in the Lord. And after eating, before the morning, they were to burn whatever was left over, reminding them that they were totally dependent on God’s sovereign grace to provide for and deliver them. Without God’s help they could do nothing, just as Jesus tells us in John 15:5, that without Him we can do nothing. So the Passover meal itself illustrates redemption, sanctification, and gratitude for their deliverance by God’s grace.
In the New Covenant this is all kind of flipped on it’s head. It’s the same, but different, because it expands out to a grander scale. What I mean is, in the Old Covenant there was a lot of concern about Israel being holy and clean to great extremes, where they weren’t even allowed to eat or touch certain things. But in the New Covenant God has made all things clean, and instead of a large concern for God’s people being corrupted by the leaven of the world, God’s people and the gospel, the Kingdom of God itself now acts as the leaven that is working its way through the dough of the world, turning the world upside down for Christ. Just as Jesus could touch a sinner or diseased person, and instead of getting infected or corrupted He healed them or saved them… so too is the church and God’s gospel now the contagion. We are not to hide in corners in fear of being infected by the world, we are to go out to the highways and byways and infect the world with the leaven of Christ. We are to joyfully submit every area of life to the Lordship of Christ, seeking to bring all of Christ into all of life, seeking to see the leaven of the Kingdom leaven the whole world.
This is why many churches now use leavened bread in Communion instead of unleavened. Along with the fact that in Communion we remember the gospel, and we remember that our Lord and Savior rose from the grave; and so some used leavened bread to remind them that Jesus is risen, He is risen indeed. And that we who are in Christ are now dead to sin and raised with Him to newness of life, for our good and His glory. He lives. He reigns. We belong to Him, and the nations belong to Him. And so, because He is the risen Lord they use bread that has risen as well. Which I think is beautiful. Of course I think all of the symbolism in the Passover and Communion, along with circumcision and baptism is beautiful.
I mean, think of what it says to us that God includes the whole household here—every child and every adult. As theologian B. B. Warfield once said, “Every time we baptize an infant we bear witness that salvation is from God, that we cannot do any good thing to secure it, that we receive it from His hands as a sheer gift of His grace, and that we all enter the Kingdom of heaven therefore as little children, who do not do, but are done for.” I know many of us are in the habit of thinking about baptism as our sign and seal to God, as a sign of our faith and dedication to God, but that’s not really how God’s Word talks about it. Baptism is God’s sign and seal upon us; it’s a mark of His Lordship over us and His grace offered to us. And so it is here with the Passover.
Both young and old are totally saved by God’s grace. We are saved by what He has done, not what we have done or may do. Salvation is all of grace, and so are the means of grace like circumcision and the Passover, or baptism and Communion. I mean, Jesus tells us that in taking Communion we are to remember Him. That is, we are to remember who He is, what He has done and will do. We are to remember His faithfulness, not ours. We come to Him for grace because of our lack of faithfulness. We come needing His grace, not because we’ve already had our full, but because we are in desperate need.
The Passover meal was open to every covenant household. Later on in the last part of Exodus 12 it says those any males who were to partake of the Passover had to be circumcised, meaning they had to be marked out, signed and sealed by God’s grace through the initiatory right of circumcision. And this is how it is with us and Communion. We must first be baptized if we are going to partake in Communion rightly. And like the Passover, a person must be old enough to eat, but beyond that the meal is open. Believers and their children were to be circumcised, and therefore believers and their children were to partake in the Passover. Again, at the heart of the point of Passover was the salvation of the children. And all of that reminds us that we are saved by God’s sovereign grace!
We tend to focus a lot on discerning the body and making sure we are rightly taking Communion, and rightly so. But that makes people think that children can’t take Communion. But, all discerning the body really means is having a very basic understanding of who the church is and what Communion is, and not being in known sin against the Lord or His church. And let’s be honest, though we often joke about how sinful our children are, we adults sin in far worse ways than them. It is we adults who so often sin against the body of Christ and cause division. And that’s what Paul is talking about when he speaks of discerning the body and taking Communion rightly. He means not causing division and not excluding people. Many of the Corinthians were getting to church early and eating all of the Communion bread and drinking all of the Communion wine and getting drunk, and leaving nothing for those who hadn’t arrived yet. In their sinfulness they were excluding their brothers and sisters from Communion. But, our children are not like this. They delight to include and be included.
From a very young age they understand that we are the family of God; that we are their people; that this is their church; and things like Communion are what we do. Just the other day I saw Saint Augustine over there, little baby McNutt putting his hands in the air when we were singing Psalm 134, when it says to, “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the LORD.” Beloved, that’s exactly what he was doing. And I have no doubt that the Lord was blessed indeed. A few weeks ago I heard little Isaac Hammond say in his sweet little voice that he loves Jesus too. And of course he does. That’s how he’s been raised… in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And let’s be honest, he’s walking in greater faithfulness than most of us. So, both the Israelites and the church are to walk in faithfulness, and we are to let the little children come to Christ. The Lord welcomes them. Sinners and sufferers of all ages have a seat at God’s table, by grace. We are all called to worship the Lord. And that’s what our passage is ultimately about.
After God tells Israel what to do and how to do it, and that the Passover will be an annual feast after this, God goes forward with His plan. The Israelites mark their homes with the blood of the lamb and partake of the Passover meal and the destroyer passes over the Israelites but brings death upon every firstborn of Egypt. And through the pain of loss and death, and in what appears to be anger and fury, Pharaoh finally let’s the Israelites go.
Picking it back up in Exodus 13:17 we’re told, “17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, ‘Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.’ 18 But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. 19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, ‘God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.’ 20 And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. 21 And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. 22 The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.”
Like Abraham before them, God is with them in the fire and with them in the smoke. He has led them out of bondage in Egypt, and now He’s leading them to even greater freedom in the promised land. No doubt, they had already been through much. They have been through 400 years of sorrow and slavery, but God had not forsaken them. And God would not forsake them now, though they surely had many trials before them. Traveling through a desert wilderness with that many people, with that many mouths to feed, was a trial in and of itself. But God was with them. And by day and by night He was leading them. And He has already shown Himself to be faithful and good again and again, so though they might not understand why He’s leading them the way He is, they can trust His leadership nonetheless. For He can lead them far better than they can. But, what happened next sowed great doubt in their hearts.
In Exodus 14:1-12 we read, “1 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. 3 For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ 4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.’ And they did so.
5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, ‘What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?’ 6 So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, 7 and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. 8 And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. 9 The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.
10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, ‘Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.’”
As I always say, when you can’t trace God’s hand you must trust His character. And as we have seen, His character is faithful and good. The Israelites have seen and experienced more than enough to know that, yet here they are doubting everything. They can’t make sense of what God is allowing to come their way and so they are tempted to lose all faith. Hebrews 11:25-26 tells us that Moses was a Christian, who, by faith, chose to be mistreated with the people of God because he considered the reproach of Christ of greater wealth than all the pleasures and treasures of Egypt. But here the Israelites are doing the opposite.
The Israelites are ready to run back to Egypt instead of trusting God and holding fast by faith. And though it would be easy for us to look down on them, the truth is we are often far more like them than like Moses. Despite all of the faithfulness and goodness of God that we have seen in our lives, despite all of our blessings we are still prone to wander. We were in bondage to sin, and even though God has led us to freedom, again and again we are tempted to run back to that which once enslaved us. And if we’re honest, we have run back more than we’d like to admit. Like a dog returning to its vomit we go back to the same old sins again and again, as though we think somehow this time we’ll find what we’re looking for. But the truth is, Christ is better than the pleasures and treasures of sin. So, no matter how many times we go back we will never find satisfaction there, for satisfaction like salvation is found in Christ alone. Moses was right. Christ is of greater wealth than all the pleasures and treasures of the world. Jesus is what we are truly looking for. So like the Israelites, we need to keep the faith and trust the Lord.
Picking it back up in Exodus 14:13 we read, “13 And Moses said to the people, ‘Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.’ 15 The Lord said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 16 Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. 17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.’
19 Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20 coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22 And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 23 The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, 25 clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, ‘Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.’
26 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.’ 27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. 28 The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. 29 But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.”
Oh church, if we could only remember what we see here… that the Lord will fight for us… He will lead us and He will fight for us. God does not forsake His covenant people. Even through the craziest and messiest of situations, even through the greatest and scariest of trials, even through the greatest sorrow and pain, God is working. God is always working all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). He’s always fighting for His people. What others mean for evil He means for good (Genesis 50:20). Each trial and tribulation, every good and every bad, every joy and every sorrow is ordained by God to lead us into true and full freedom. It’s all working for our salvation—that is our justification, sanctification, and glorification—and His glory. We may not see how, or fully understand it all, but God does all that He does in this world for His glory and our salvation. He is the God who saves, and He’s working in and through history to do just that. Even the destruction of the hosts of Egypt was for that grand purpose, that all the more might know that God is the true God to whom belongs the glory and honor of all.
1 Corinthians 10 calls this scene a baptism. Like Noah and the flood before, the Egyptians are immersed, and fall under the curses and judgment of God, while the Israelites are sprinkled as they pass through the Red Sea, and are thus all the more set apart by God as His covenant people, as those who belong to Him and are to glorify Him come what may. And again, like the Passover, the whole household partakes. From the youngest to the oldest… Every child and every adult of every believing household is baptized… And this is the way it is to be now… That’s why we see so many household baptisms in the New Testament. And, as I read earlier, that’s why Peter says in Acts 2:38-39, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
Conclusion
What we have seen again and again through this series and in this passage is that God ultimately relates to His people the same way now that He did then. There’s continuity across God’s Word and across the covenants, and this is because each covenant is really just a different administration of the same Covenant of Grace in Christ. In each administration God saves His people by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The Israelites had to take God at His Word, be circumcised, eat the Passover meal, and mark their houses with the blood of the lamb… but all of that was really just an act of faith in God’s promises, trusting that God would see the blood and pass over their household. And by faith they were to see that blood and see their need for a Savior, the true Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
No doubt, they doubted and feared, just as they did when they got to the Red Sea. Their faith was shaken and shown to be weak and frail again and again. I can only imagine how much they feared as they heard the cries of Egypt when death came upon them during the Passover, and again when the Red Sea starting crashing down upon them later. But, it wasn’t the strength of their faith that saved them, but the object of their faith. Their salvation didn’t come because of how strong their trust in God’s promises were, but because of how strong, gracious, and faithful the God who made the promises is. And so it is with us.
God has laid claim to the households of believers. As 1 Corinthians 7:14 says, believers and their spouses and their children are holy to the Lord. And though some of them may reject that, we should not assume any of them are rejecting it until they prove otherwise. Children, you belong to the Lord. He has welcomed you into His family. You are not your own. Therefore you are to glorify God, that is, you are to trust and obey Jesus. And so are you adults for that matter. And what that means at the most basic level is leaning on the promises of God. It will not always make sense to do so. You will not always be able to trace His hand. But you can trust Him. For He will never lead you astray. So may we all follow the Lord’s leading, come what may.
The Lord has been leading His people from the beginning, and He continues to do so even now. So, may the Lord lead us. May the Lord lead our families. May the Lord lead this church. May the Lord lead every area of our lives so that He will get the honor and the glory of us all. May the Lord lead us and give us the grace to follow.