European Bible Study Meeting, 2002God’s Plan Revealed through the History of the IsraelitesApril 3rd, 2002, Evening Lecture Part 1For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Isaiah 9:6This Is the Lord’s PassoverMoses lived in Egypt for forty years, then he went to Midian and lived there for forty years. After that, he returned to Egypt and led the Israelites out of Egypt to live in the wilderness for another forty years. Having lived through these three periods of forty years, he passed away at the age of 120.But what happened before Exodus chapter 11? Moses went to pharaoh and asked him to let the Israelites go a three-day journey out into the wilderness to worship the Lord there, but the heart of pharaoh was hardened and he refused to let them go. So God struck the land with nine terrible plagues.When the pharaoh still refused to let Israelites go, God gave him a final warning. It was only after all this had happened that the pharaoh agreed to let the Israelites go. This is what we read about from Exodus chapter 11 on.The Lord said to Moses, “Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely. Speak now in the hearing of the people, that they ask, every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor, for silver and gold jewelry.” And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people. So Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again.’”  Exodus 11:1-6It was through this incident that the Israelites were able to leave the land of Egypt. God warned that this huge incident would take place, and Moses told Pharaoh about it. It was also Moses who forewarned Pharaoh about the nine plagues that preceded this. Moses grew up very quietly at the center of the royal palace of Egypt. Quietly, he penetrated the center of court life, where he grew up to be at the center of an event unprecedented in the land of Egypt as he led the Israelites out of bondage there. Such is God’s method. “‘But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’”  Exodus 11:7This verse is saying that no one at all would be able to lay a finger on the Israelites. As it says in Exodus chapter 12, those people in the houses where there was blood on the doorposts and lintels would be protected. God told them not to go out of their houses until morning (see verse 22).Chapter 12 tells us what it was that protected them that night. The Bible says, “that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.” This brings to mind Genesis chapter 1 verse 4 where it says that “God separated the light from the darkness.” God makes these separations, these divisions, these distinctions.“And all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, you and all the people who follow you.’ And after that I will go out.” And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land. . . . 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.”  Exodus 11:8-10, 12:1-2God said that the month in which this took place was to be the first month of the year for the Israelites.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. 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, 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.  Exodus 12:3-6Please underline the words, “at twilight.” 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. 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 the morning you shall burn. 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.  Exodus 12:6-11God told them to prepare to leave and eat in haste. After this, the Israelites did indeed make haste to leave Egypt for fear of being pursued.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.  Exodus 12:12-13Now underline the words “blood” and “sign.” This is saying that the blood was to be the evidence. God said that “not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast.” No one would be able to lay a finger on the people in these houses. God said He would protect them.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.  Exodus 12:13-14God shed the blood of an animal and from its skins He made garments for Adam and Eve to wear; Abel offered a lamb as a sacrifice; when Noah came out of the ark, he offered some clean animals to God as a sacrifice; and Abraham offered up his son Isaac. Isaac did not actually die, but when he was offered to God it was tantamount to dying. Also, Jacob covered his skin with animal skins when he went in to receive the blessing from his father Isaac. Now, the Israelites as a whole had a similar experience.Let’s read verse 13 one more time.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.“When I see the blood.” This is related to all we have discussed so far. Why blood? God told Noah, “You shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood,” and that if one person shed the blood of another, the price for the sin must be paid with blood (see Genesis 9:4-6). Also, in Leviticus chapter 17 it says, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, . . . for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life” (verse 11), and in Hebrews chapter 9 it says, “Under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (verse 22). In this way, the Israelites slaughtered an animal, daubed its blood on the doorposts and lintels of their houses and went inside. God said, “If there is blood on the houses where you are living, it will be a sign for you when I strike the land of Egypt, the blood will be a sign for you, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you.” He did not say, “I will open the doors of the houses and go in to see what you are thinking, what you are doing, what clothes you are wearing, or whether or not you are dressed up. What did He say He would see? “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”The Bible says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” Was blood shed, or not? Blood was shed. Blood was shed two thousand years ago. Jesus, the Son of God, came in the flesh and shed His pure blood, and that blood now covers you. When God looks at you, first He sees the blood of Jesus that covers you. The Bible says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Is your sin included in the sin of the world, or not? Your sin is also included. God was over the cross on which Jesus died. When God looks at the world, He looks at it through the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son who came to this world. You just need to be in Jesus when God looks through His blood. How can you be in Him? You need only acknowledge as you are reading the Bible that you, too, are included in “the world,” and therefore your sin is also hidden in Jesus. What more do you need? What more do you think you need to do? What further sacrifice do you want to offer?The Bible says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” How much sin there is in the world is irrelevant, since God who created everything in the heavens and the earth was born in human form and by shedding His pure blood, He covered the sin of everyone in the world, each individual person. In that case, like the Israelites, we are inside the house, since we are included amongst the people of “the world.”Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the 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.”  Exodus 12:21-22God told them that none of them was to go out of the door of their houses until 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.  Exodus 12:23What does it say He will see? It says, “When he sees the blood.” Such is the power of the blood. As the hymn says, “There is power in the blood.” This blood is a life line that connects the life of God with the life of man. It covers all of man’s sin and washes it away so that man can be directly connected with God. There is tremendous power in this blood. We may think of it as nothing special, but Jesus’ blood was no ordinary blood. His blood is like a fuller’s soap (see Malachi 3:2). It is like laundry soap. Soap is needed to wash anything that is dirty, but blood—the blood of Jesus—is needed to wash away sin.“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 in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.  Exodus 12:24-27In the Old and New Testaments, we find that the Israelites turned their backs on God’s word and in the end they had Jesus crucified, but at this time they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord.Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.  Exodus 12:28The Israelites did as God had told them and so they were protected, and then they left Egypt.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, “Up, 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 in their cloaks on their shoulders. The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians. And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.  Exodus 12:29-37A huge multitude of people left Egypt. When they went down to Egypt, there were barely seventy of them, but when they left the grown men alone numbered six hundred thousand. Some people estimate that including the women and children there would have been about two million. Similarly, through one seed falling to this earth, someday the time will come when countless people who have believed in the power of His blood will gather before Jesus.A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves. The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It was a night of watching by the Lord, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a

정회원으로 가입하시면 전체기사와 사진(동영상)을 보실수 있습니다.