Exodus - Lesson 13

• With the start of chapter 12, we entered the third division of the book of Genesis, God’s redemption of His people through the Passover and it runs through chapter 13

  • Last week we studied the details of the Passover judgment, including  looking for many of the signs of Christ evident in the memorial

    • And at the end of the lessons, we had reached the point where the nation was no longer enslaved

    • They were now free to leave

  • Not only were they leaving behind slavery, they also left behind poverty

  • They walked out a rich nation, having plundered the Egyptians

  • Now Moses records the departure and the early stages of the Exodus

    • Last week we read they traveled a short distance from their encampment in Rameses to Succoth

    • This brings them to the border of Egypt

    • At this point, they leave Egypt and become a nation under the charge of the Lord

Ex. 12:40  Now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
Ex. 12:41 And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

• Moses reports that the nation of Israel lived in Egypt for 430 years

  • And that after 430 years, to the very day, all the host of the Lord went out from Egypt

    • God’s sovereignty is clearly evident in Moses’ statement

    • God orchestrated events so that the day of their departure matched perfect a day 430 years earlier

  • But this synchronicity is even more remarkable than it seems at first

    • And in order to understand how, we need to take a closer look at the 430 year period Moses is describing here

    • We will rely extensively on the slide handouts to explain this section of Scripture

• First, let’s consider Paul’s commentary on this timeline in Galatians

Gal. 3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “ And to your seed,” that is, Christ.
Gal. 3:17 What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise.
Gal. 3:18 For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.

• Paul uses to mile markers to anchor the 430 year period

  • One anchor is the giving of the covenant to Abraham when he left Ur and entered Canaan

  • This is the Abrahamic Covenant

    • The other anchor is the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai

    • Between these two points Paul says there are 430 years

  • If we place that timeline on top of the earlier timeline of Exodus 12, we immediately find an apparent conflict

    • Israel could not live in Egypt for 430 years AND the time between  Abraham’s covenant and Moses’ covenant also be 430 years

  • So we have a dilemma to resolve

    • But it gets worse

• When we look at the moment when Abraham received that covenant in Genesis 15, we hear the Lord say this:

Gen. 15:13 God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.

• The Lord’s testimony to Abram seems to say that his descendants would be in Egypt for four hundred years

  • Again, if we overlay this timeline on the others, we find a third contradiction

    • Stephen repeats the 400 number in his speech in Acts 7

Acts 7:6 “But God spoke to this effect, that his DESCENDANTS WOULD BE ALIENS IN A FOREIGN LAND, AND THAT THEY WOULD BE ENSLAVED AND MISTREATED FOR FOUR HUNDRED YEARS.

• Now the period of time in Egypt is 400 years long, or so it seems

  • Now we have three different statements to reconcile

  • But it gets worse

  • In that same giving of the covenant, the Lord reveals to Abraham that his descendants will eventually return to the land

    • And that return will happen after four generations

Gen. 15:16 “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”

• The four generations that experienced time in Egypt began with Jacob’s sons who entered the land

  • We can trace the generations  who lived in the land in severals places in the Bible

  • In Exodus 6, 1Chron 6 and 1Chron 23 we see the genealogy of Israel traced during the time of sojourn in Egypt

  • Using the genealogy in Exodus 6 we trace the four generations from Jacob to Moses

    • Jacob’s son, Levi, entered the land

    • He brought a son Kohath with him when he entering Egypt

      • So even as the time in Egypt began, the next generation was already alive

    • Then Kohath had a sin Amram

    • And Amram was the father of Moses

  • So the four generations can be represented by Levi, Kohath, Amram and finally Moses

    • Moses was the last generation to live in Egypt

  • Even under the most generous estimates of age, we cannot cover 400 years (much less 430 years) with only four generations

    • Even the most generous estimates still fall over a hundred years short

    • So the “four generations” requirement places an upper limit on how long the nation lived in Egypt

    • And this upper limit is far less than 400 years, probably closer to half that time

    • So now we have a fourth discrepancy to reconcile

    • But it gets worse

• While we can’t accurate determine the length of time between generations in Egypt, we can accurately calculate the time between generations before Israel entered Egypt

  • Abraham received the promise of the covenant when he was 100

    • It was 25 more years before Isaac was born

    • It was 60 more years before Jacob was born

    • And Jacob was 130 years old when he entered Egypt

Gen. 47:9 So Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The   years of my sojourning are one hundred and thirty; few and unpleasant have been the years of my life, nor have they attained the years that my fathers lived during the days of their sojourning.”

• Therefore, we can easily calculate a period of 215 years between the moment Abraham received his covenant and the moment Israel entered Egypt

  • This number places a limit on how long Israel could live in Egypt

    • So now we have a fifth data point to reconcile

    • We had better stop looking for before it gets even worse

• As you might imagine, people who doubt the Bible’s authority and wish to discredit what it says have pointed to these apparent inconsistencies as proof of the Bible’s untrustworthiness

  • As you’ll soon see, such claims are merely proof that the accuser is ignorant of Scripture and lacks the counsel of the Holy Spirit

    • We may not always be able to solve the riddles of scripture in a moment when we’re challenged

    • But we can rest assured that the riddles have solutions and the Lord will shame all His accusers in the day of His glory

  • And this riddle is no different, so let’s solve it

• First, let’s begin with the scripture references that provide unshakable time anchors

  • For example, Paul’s teaching in Galatians clearly establishes that the period of time between the two covenants was 430 years

    • Everything else must fit within that period

  • Secondly, the ages of the patriarchs are irrefutable in scripture

    • So we know the time from the covenant with Abraham until Jacob entered Egypt was 215 years

    • These two data points give us something to work with when examining the rest of the references

  • The next thing we notice is that the 215 is exactly half of 430

    • So using simple math, we calculate that the period from Jacob’s entry into Egypt until the nation leaves under Moses’ leadership was also 215 years

    • Therefore, the period of four generations mentioned in Genesis 15 spanned a second period of 215 years

    • This length of time works much better when calculating the ages of the Levi’s descendants than the earlier 400 year suggestion

• Next, let’s revisit where we started tonight in Exodus 12

Ex. 12:40 Now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
Ex. 12:41 And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

• In my Bible (NASB) we read that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt four hundred and thirty years

  • Interestingly, Moses is using the 430-year period again as did Paul

  • But Moses seems to say the 430 years represents the time Israel lived in Egypt

    • But we’ve already established conclusively that Israel could only have lived in Egypt for 215 years

  • This statement flatly contradicts what we’ve already concluded, so how can we reconcile this verse?

  • The answer comes from a closer examination of the Hebrew text itself

  • And in this case, we need to go back to one of the earliest translations of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint (LXX)

    • The LXX was a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible authored by 70 learned Jewish leaders

    • It represents one of the most authoritative versions of the Jewish scriptures in existence

    • When we look at these same verses found in the LXX, this is what we read

Ex. 12:40 (LXX) And the sojourning of the children of Israel, while they sojourned in the land of Egypt and the land of Chanaan, was four hundred and thirty years.
Ex. 12:41 (LXX) And it came to pass after the four hundred and thirty years, all the forces of the Lord came forth out of the land of Egypt by night.

• Notice that this translation counts the 430 years very differently

  • Here the time period includes all the people of the seed promise sojourned in both the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan

    • Then the 430 years was complete when the sojourning ended

    • When the nation was no longer wandering in a land that wasn’t their own, then the clock stopped

• So the period of 430 in Exodus 12 is the same period that Paul is describing

  • It is the period from the call to Abram and the giving of the covenant until the giving of the second covenant when Israel left Egypt

    • The period is a total of 430 years, divided into two halves of 215 years

  • Notably, Moses says they nation left on 430 years exactly on the day

  • What day would that be then?

    • What happened exactly 430 years earlier from the day Israel left Egypt?

    • It was the day God appeared to Abraham in Genesis 15 and gave Abraham the covenant promising Isaac

    • And what day was that? The 14th of Aviv

      • The Passover day

  • Now we see an even more impressive display of God’s sovereignty

    • He worked to bring Israel out of bondage just as He promised Abraham on the day of redemption

    • Exactly 430 years later

• We still need to make sense of the Lord’s statement made in Gen 15 promising that Israel would be in a foreign land for 400 years? How does this fit?

Gen. 15:13 God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.

• First, notice that the Lord’s promise begins with Abraham’s descendants

  • So the Lord isn’t starting the clock until Abraham has a descendant

  • At the moment God gives Abraham this declaration, we are 11 years away from Abraham receiving Ishmael

  • But we have to remember that the Lord’s statement to Abraham in Genesis 15 was part of God’s promises in His covenant

    • And the Bible tells us that these promises were spoken not of Ishmael but of Isaac

    • And we are 25 years away from Isaac’s arrival

  • So If Abraham’s descendants will be oppressed for 400 years, then we must add 25 more years that Abraham spent waiting for that descendant to arrive

• Secondly, the Lord’s statement in Genesis 15:13 must be understood in light of the Hebrew grammar

  • The Lord says that Abraham’s descendants will be strangers in a land, enslaved and oppressed for found hundred years

  • What does the time period “400 years” describe?

    • Is this the time they were strangers having left Ur?

    • Is it the time they were wanderers in Canaan?

    • Is it the time they were enslaved in Egypt?

    • Is it the time they were oppressed in slavery?

    • The grammar of the sentence indicates that 400 years describes all these things

      • So Abraham’s descendants will be subjected to a period of 400 years of wandering as strangers in a land that is not their own

      • And a part of that time will include slavery and oppression

• So the 400 years ends when Israel leaves slavery in Egypt

  • And it goes back to the time Israel wandered in Canaan, which was a strange land that was not their own

    • Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’s wanderings were a sign of faith in this promise

    • They lived a nomadic lifestyle as a matter of choice to demonstrate their faith in this promise

  • But when we place the 400 years on our timeline and add the 25 years Abraham waited for Isaac’s birth, we still come up 5 years short

    • Where are the extra fives years to be found?

    • Let’s go back to Galatians to find the answer

Gal. 4:22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman.
Gal. 4:23 But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.

• First, we remember that Abraham had two sons, as we said

  • And the one we are using for our count is the child of the promise, Isaac

  • When Isaac was born, Ishmael was already 13 years old

    • And though God considered Isaac to be Abraham’s heir, Abraham was still assuming Ishmael would share in his inheritance

  • So from Abraham’s point of view, the true descendant was still unclear

    • Only after the true heir was identified does the 400 year count begin

    • For the first few years of Isaac’s life, that clarity was lacking

    • So the 400 year count didn’t start with Isaac’s birth

  • When did it start then?

Gal. 4:29 But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.
Gal. 4:30 But what does the Scripture say? “ CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON,
FOR THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN SHALL NOT BE AN HEIR WITH THE SON OF THE FREE WOMAN.”

• After Isaac’s was weaned, the Lord appears to Abraham and instructs him to send Ishmael away because Ismael was not to be an heir

  • This was the moment when Abraham finally learned that Isaac alone was to be his descendant according to the promise in Genesis 15

    • Genesis tells us that the moment of this separation was on the occasion of Isaac’s weaning

Gen. 21:8  The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
Gen. 21:9  Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.
Gen. 21:10 Therefore she said to Abraham, “Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac.”
Gen. 21:11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because of his son.
Gen. 21:12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.

• Children were weaned in the ancient world with a feast on their fifth birthday

  • So we take the 400 years in God’s promise for Abraham’s descendants and add 25 years of waiting and another 5 years for the weaning

    • After the additional 30 years God clearly identified to Abraham who would be the descendant

    • At this point the 400 years begins to count

    • And these dates reconcile perfectly with the rest of our timeline

• So to summarize, Abraham and his descendants wandered in Canaan for 215 years, and then sojourned in Egypt for another 215 years

  • And during the second period of 215, the nation was enslaved and oppressed

    • But after 430 years, God’s promise to redeem Israel was fulfilled

    • In fact, Moses says that it was exactly 430 years to the day that God’s promise to Abraham was fulfilled

    • Such exactness demonstrates that God is so careful in keeping his promises, that He doesn’t even round off the numbers

    • The Lord’s uncompromising faithfulness is reflected in His perfect precision and timing

  • One more thought on God’s timing...

    • Moses’s says the nation left precisely on the same day as the day God gave Abraham the promise

    • We know the day Israel left Egypt was the 14th of Aviv, Passover

    • So that means the Lord delivered His promise to Abraham on the 14th of Aviv, the future day of Passover

  • The Lord’s promise was to free Israel from bondage in Egypt

    • But it also included the promise that the Lord would bring a Seed through Abraham to bless the entire world

    • Paul tells us in Galatians that the “seed” refers to Christ

    • These promises were spoken on the 14th of Aviv (or Nisan) and both of these promises are fulfilled on the 14th of Nisan

      • Israel received freedom on the 14th of Nisan, 430 years later

      • And the world received it’s Passover Lamb on the 14th of Nisan when Jesus died on the cross

      • God’s sovereignty and precision are stunning

• Finally, the Lord reminds Israel of the sanctity of the Passover celebration

Ex. 12:42 It is a night to be observed for the LORD for having brought them out from the land of Egypt; this night is for the LORD, to be observed by all the sons of Israel throughout their generations.
Ex. 12:43  The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover: no foreigner is to eat of it;
Ex. 12:44 but every man’s slave purchased with money, after you have circumcised him, then he may eat of it.
Ex. 12:45 “A sojourner or a hired servant shall not eat of it.
Ex. 12:46 “It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring forth any of the flesh outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone of it.
Ex. 12:47 “All the congregation of Israel are to celebrate this.
Ex. 12:48 “But if a stranger sojourns with you, and celebrates the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near to celebrate it; and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat of it.
Ex. 12:49 “The same law shall apply to the native as to the stranger who sojourns among you.”
Ex. 12:50  Then all the sons of Israel did so; they did just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.
Ex. 12:51 And on that same day the LORD brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.

• Forevermore, the nation is to observe the night of the Passover as a memorial to the work of God in fulfilling His promise

  • This is the memory the Lord wants Israel to have from their time in Egypt

    • Though 430 years have passed and many events have transpired in the lives of Israel since the giving of the promise, the Lord only wants this moment to be memorialized

    • The faithfulness of God to passover Israel and bring them out of bondage

    • That moment is the one to remember

  • This is yet another another parallel to the last days of Tribulation, when God brings His ultimate fulfillment of His promises to Israel

    • The Exodus pictures the way the Lord will one free Israel from her bondage to sin and disobedience

    • The Lord will use great judgments to free the nation, but ultimately the nation’s freedom comes by way of their Passover, the Messiah

    • And after that moment, the nation will enter into the glory of the Kingdom

  • At that point, the only memory the nation will carry will be the memory of the Lord’s redemption

    • The Passover, that is Christ, will be the memory Israel carries into the Kingdom

    • They will not remember the years of wandering when they were scattered among the nations

    • They will not remember their years of oppression at the hands of their enemies

  • As Isaiah says

Is. 65:16 “Because he who is blessed in the earth
Will be blessed by the God of truth;
And he who swears in the earth
Will swear by the God of truth;
Because the former troubles are forgotten,
And because they are hidden from My sight!
Is. 65:17  “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;
And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.
Is. 65:18 “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;
For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing
And her people for gladness.
Is. 65:19 “I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people;
And there will no longer be heard in her
The voice of weeping and the sound of crying.

• Furthermore, the Lord commands that only those who are truly apart of Israel may enjoy the Passover

  • Foreigners may not participate unless they have become a part of Israel by circumcision

    • If they have not adopted the sign of the covenant, than they may not enjoy the fellowship of that covenant

    • The sign of the Abrahamic covenant was circumcision, while the Passover was a memorial of that same covenant

    • So is a person had not taken the sign, they were not free to participate in the memorial

      • Notice in v.49 this rule applied equally to both native (jew) and stranger

      • Women were always under the spiritual authority of a man, whether a father, uncle, brother or husband

      • If the man was circumcised, then all the women under his  spiritual authority were also covered

  • Our New Covenant in Christ follows a similar test

    • The sign of our covenant is water baptism

    • And the memorial of God’s faithfulness to the covenant is our communion meal

      • The meal remembers the Lord’s faithfulness to His covenant by dying in our place on the cross

    • If we haven’t been water baptized - even if we are a believer - then we are not permitted to participate in the communion meal

      • These are the only two ordinances of the church found in scripture, and they are linked in this way

• Before the nation begins their dash across the desert, in chapter 13 the Lord gives Moses one more command associated with the Passover observance

Ex. 13:1  Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Ex. 13:2 “Sanctify to Me every firstborn, the first offspring of every womb among the sons of Israel, both of man and beast; it belongs to Me.”
Ex. 13:3  Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt, from the house of slavery; for by a powerful hand the LORD brought you out from this place. And nothing leavened shall be eaten.
Ex. 13:4 “On this day in the month of Abib, you are about to go forth.
Ex. 13:5 “It shall be when the LORD brings you to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall observe this rite in this month.
Ex. 13:6 “For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD.
Ex. 13:7 “Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and nothing leavened shall be seen among you, nor shall any leaven be seen among you in all your borders.
Ex. 13:8 “You shall tell your son on that day, saying, ‘It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’
Ex. 13:9 “And it shall serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth; for with a powerful hand the LORD brought you out of Egypt.
Ex. 13:10 “Therefore, you shall keep this ordinance at its appointed time from year to year.

• The Passover memorial also includes a requirement that Israel sanctify (or set apart) the firstborn of every womb, whether man or beast

  • The requirement was limited to the sons of Israel

    • This is not a requirement for Gentiles

    • The requirement is tied to the redemption of Israel by the Lord taking the first born of Egypt while preserving the firstborn of Israel

    • The Lord will give more explanation for this requirement later in the chapter

  • First, He reiterates the importance of observing the restrictions on leaven in the week following the Passover

    • Leaven could not be used in bread during the Exodus because of the rapid exit

    • So this will be memorialized in the absence of leaven in Israelite homes in the week following the Passover

    • We studied last week why the Lord orchestrated a rapid exit for Israel thus necessitating no leaven

    • He wanted  to create a picture of the absence of sin in the lives of His people, and leaven is a symbol for sin

  • Finally, the Lord explains that this memorial will occur annually so that no one in Israel will ever forget the work of the Lord in keeping His word

    • In fact, the repeating of this memorial will result in the nation of Israel declaring the Law of the Lord every year

    • That Law is a reference to the word of the Lord and His promises to Abraham

      • And while Israel will be remembering an event in their past, they will also be declaring prophetically the work of God in Christ

      • Even if they didn’t always understand the picture, the Gospel was still being preached through the memorial

  • Here we see a powerful example of how God works through memorials and observances

    • He gives us observance to ensure we never forget His promises and His faithfulness

    • He also wants us to declare His Law, that is His word, in the way He has prescribed

    • When we practice the Lord’s Supper, we follow a pattern prescribed by the Lord in His word

      • We are not free to modify it nor experiment with it

      • We proclaim it in the specific way it was given (which Paul affirms in 1Cor 11) so that the picture will be clear and the purpose fulfilled

      • We are called to preach the Lord’s word in all it’s forms so that the Lord will be see and glorified through it

• Now the Lord gives additional explanation for why the first born will be consecrated to the Lord

Ex. 13:11  “Now when the LORD brings you to the land of the Canaanite, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you,
Ex. 13:12 you shall devote to the LORD the first offspring of every womb, and the first offspring of every beast that you own; the males belong to the LORD.
Ex. 13:13 “But every first offspring of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.

• The Lord points forward to the years when Israel will spend living in the land of the Canaanites, in keeping with the Lord’s promise

  • At that time, the nation will devote the first born male of every womb (every mother) to the Lord

    • However, the consecrated animal must be a clean (or kosher) animal

    • Donkeys (and by extension, other unclean animals) could not be sacrificed

    • So a clean animal, a lamb, was substituted

    • If there was no lamb to substitute, the donkey’s life would be taken by a breaking of the neck

  • God has given Israel a clear illustration of substitutionary atonement in through this practice

    • He is teaching that God only accepts perfect, clean sacrifices

    • If we are unclean (that is, sinful), then we are not acceptable before God

    • Yet a clean, sinless lamb can be sacrificed in our place

      • If we do not accept the sinless substitute in our place, then we will die for the sake of our own sins

  • This is the essence of the Gospel

    • Since we are sinful, we cannot please God in ourselves and we are under penalty of death

    • Since Christ was sinless, therefore He can be an acceptable sacrifice to God in our place so as to satisfy God’s wrath against sin

      • If we accept that sacrifice, we will be spared

      • If we do not accept it, we will die for our sins

• Now in v.14 we come to understand why God wants the firstborn animals killed in this way and it explains why the Lord took the first born of every animal in Egypt during the Passover

Ex. 13:14 “And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ then you shall say to him, ‘With a powerful hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery.
Ex. 13:15 ‘It came about, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the LORD killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore, I sacrifice to the LORD the males, the first offspring of every womb, but every firstborn of my sons I redeem.’
Ex. 13:16 “So it shall serve as a sign on your hand and as phylacteries on your forehead, for with a powerful hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt.”

• The Lord expects that sons in every generation will ask the obvious question of their parents of why the first born male was always sacrificed to God

  • In the judgment of Passover, the Lord killed both the first born of animals and men in Egypt

    • But the Lord spared both animal and men in Israel

    • Now the first born male of animals and children are consecrated or set apart to remember that event

  • Children are observant and bright, and so God’s expects the sons of Israel to ask why first born make animals are to be killed but first born male children are spared

    • Obviously, the Lord never permits nor desires human sacrifice

    • So the Lord tells Israel to answer such a question by saying that this is a reminder of the way the Lord brought us out of Egypt

    • The Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let Israel go so the Lord killed every first born in the land, both of man and beast

      • But Israel was spared

  • Therefore, Israel now sets apart both firstborn males of man and beast

    • The animals are sacrificed to represents the judgment against Egypt

    • This is why animals were included in the judgment against Egypt

    • They provide the opportunity to memorialize the event through an annual sacrifice

      • Clearly, if the Lord wants to memorialize the event, He couldn’t expect to repeat the killing of children every year

    • So animals become the substitute sacrifice

    • So the firstborn children also serve as a picture by the way they are spared every yeat - or as the Lord says “redeemed”

      • They represent the mercy shown to Israel

      • So both God’s judgment and His mercy are illustrated through this memorial

      • The animals serve the person of illustrating judgment while the sons illustrate mercy

• In this explanation, we have a foreshadowing of the sacrificial system which will be presented at the mountain through the Law given to Moses

  • The sacrificial system of the Law uses animals in various ways to picture the judgment and penalty for sin as well as the redemption offered through substitutionary atonement

    • God uses animals because human sacrifice is murder and not in keeping with God’s heart

    • Yet He wanted to present to men a clear picture of His redeeming work in Christ

    • Therefore, animals become a means to creating that picture

      • They are living creatures that experience death

      • They have blood in their bodies and the breath of life as do people

    • So they can serve as useful illustrations of life and death

  • But as we’ll study more in depth later, the spilling of the blood of these animals is never more than a picture and sign of faith for the participants

    • It does not actually provide cover for personal sin

    • We’ll look more closely at this relationship in the giving of the Law later in Exodus

• So now the Exodus is ready to begin

Ex. 13:17  Now when Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, even though it was near; for God said, “ The people might change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.”
Ex. 13:18 Hence God led the people around by the way of the wilderness to the Red Sea; and the sons of Israel went up in martial array from the land of Egypt.
Ex. 13:19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones from here with you.”
Ex. 13:20 Then they set out from Succoth and camped in Etham on the edge of the wilderness.
Ex. 13:21 The LORD was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.
Ex. 13:22 He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

• Moses says the route the nation took was not straight north as we might expect

  • Such a route would have brought the nation into direct conflict with the Philistines

    • Though God would be with them and was powerful enough to defeat the Philistines, nevertheless the Lord decided not to force that upon Israel

    • Had they encountered such a fight so early in their wanderings, they would have given up and returned to their homes in Egypt

      • This departure was a big step

      • Though they desired freedom, they were leaving the only home any of them had ever known

  • So instead, the Lord lead them around by the way of the wilderness to the Red Sea

    • They first move to Etham from Succoth

    • Then heir journey is around, by way of a wilderness ending at the Red Sea

    • Note that the Red sea make two gulfs on either side of the Sinai peninsula

      • Both are considered the Red Sea

  • Also, they are leaving Egypt, or as we will read next week, they go “out of Egypt”

    • As we glance at a map of ancient Egypt, we note that Egypt controlled a large part of the Sinai peninsula

    • In fact, historically Sinai has always been considered a part of Egypt and still is today

• As we study the Red Sea crossing next week, we will follow the Biblical commentary carefully and watch an interesting video explaining the likely Red Sea crossing

• Finally, we hear that Moses carries Joseph’s bones in the camp

  • Joseph was not left behind in Egypt but was carried with the nation to be buried in the Promised Land

    • This was done because Joseph made the nation swear to him before they died that he would leave with them

    • The fact that Joseph required such a promise is evidence to us that Joseph believed in the word of the Lord given to Abraham

  • When the Lord spoke to Abraham in Genesis 15, He promised that the nation would leave Egypt in the fourth generation

    • Joseph believed in this promise, and his faith is reflected in his request to be taken out of the land and reburied in Canaan

Heb. 11:22 By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones.

• Next week, we begin the study of the Exodus itself

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org