The Passover: Remembering the Blood of Christ

Show Notes

Episode 455: 
In this episode, we explored the story of Moses and the final plague in Egypt, where the Israelites were instructed to mark their doorframes with the blood of a lamb or goat to protect their firstborn from the death angel. This act of faith and obedience symbolized the future sacrifice of Jesus and the protection his blood provides for believers. We drew parallels between the Passover feast and communion, highlighting how Jesus fulfilled the symbolism of the bread and wine during the Last Supper.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. Here we are today is Friday, TG. I f there you go. I wonder if everybody is working Friday? There are people getting ready to work? Are they are? They? Are they going into work and listening to us in the morning when they're getting ready? Well, thanks for ruining the morning, Chris. Why what do you mean everybody had a moment where they were going to just spend time with the Bible guys and not think about work. Oh? I see, I say, Well, guess what. We have a segment today because it's Friday, and it's the most important one is this is backed by popular demand. Our fans keep demanding that we want. Yeah, we had so many card and letter sent and email and text overwhelming pressure to have you explain to us once again your benevolent feelings for us. Yes, with regard to what made Chris mad this week, Yes, because you always are angry. Not for yourself, no, but for the on behalf of us, the world, for the world. Yes, So you're kind of an expert on humanity. Yeah, so I have that's funny. No, not freud me. Oh yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, so I would say that the thing they got me mad this week is have you ever been either in a school with a white board or maybe in the olden days a school with a chalkboard. Yes, and they actually had something written on the white I'll just say white board today. Right, it's something written on the white board and they want to write something else. But instead of erasing everything on the white board, they only erase the middle. Yes, they just smear it a little bit. And yeah, they smeared a little bit and then write something new. Okay, let me tell you something that those people deserve a special punishment. Wow somewhere and now I've seen you react about this before, so yes, yeah, no, you you have to erase if you're going to erase the board and start over, erase the board, the whole board, the whole board, every bit of the board. How could you possibly like like only erase the middle part and then have information around the sides, and especially if it's a chalkboard, then it's all that like it's just that smear. You know back in the day that you used to drive me nuts. But uh And by the way, do you ever clean chalkboard with a sponge and water? Yes? Yeah, I used to clean chalkboard all the time. I bet I'm solicited too, right, right, it's just what you did, I bet that's yeah. No, no, no, it's just what you did. You didn't even have to do it. You did it because it drove you nuts. Oh I thought you were meeting as a punishment clean the chalkboard. No, but this happened the other day at church. So somebody is, as you know, is a whiteboard filled with writing. They get up and they want to write something, and they erase like, yeah, ninety percent of it, and then they just continue as if that's acceptable. Yes, right, I saw this. I was in that meeting, wasn't I wasn't it the one that was well? I think because I saw you jump up and erase the rest of the boord. So, but the thing is, the world doesn't like this, the world, at least at least all of your OCD friends. No, the majority of the world, even those who aren't. My wife's on OCD, and she would say, what is he doing? Erase the whole board? Right, because that's just crazy. It's it's madness, I say, mad well, thank you, thank you for pointing this out. If you're a boss, if you're going to be writing on a whiteboard today, yeah, be curtious, erased the whole thing. Be courteous. There's going to be a Chris Star bond there that can't hear another word you say while there's a little red line over in the corner, and there's more of me than there is of you. I'm not sure about the teacher that that is. That's an obsessive thing. So there are people, there are people who are not OCD. That's still that drives them those Okay are you a little do you lean a little that way? Just a little, just a little, Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure I do. It was bad in college, was it really? You get really bad? Somebody had to actually point out that this is unhealthy and really bad. And then I had to learn to not be OCD. And I had all my labels up front. I used to hang my shirts in the closet, I take out a ruler and make sure that they were oh wow, yeah, I'm not kidding. Yeah, that's a lot. My brother when he used my hair dryer, he'd have to have it wrap a certain way, and I'd say, put it perpendicular on the dresser. And then if he didn't put a perpendicular, I'm like, I'm like, what does the matter with you? Put a perpendicular and he's like, what does the matter with you? And then uh. And then finally somebody mentioned it to me and I was like, oh, I wasn't familiar with this, and you know what cured me? And actually I'm not cured. I just tolerated, right, Like, what's what's his name? A beautiful mind? He just learned to deal with his schizophrenia things. But I do every day. I deal with OCD every single day. I just ignore it. But what cured me was being a youth pastor. His life is messy, Yeah, very messy, very messy, especially when you're a youth pastor. Yes, yes, and so I had to learn to deal with it. And I used to I used to have eye twitches every single day being a youth pastor. But I just learned to go with it. And so you've overcome all of it. Except an honey race, a thoroughly honey race. Well that's just that's just laziness. There's no excuse for you not to erase everything. Yeah, that's not OCD. It's just driving me nuts, right, It's just it's lazy. Hey. Uh, you know, there's there's nothing wrong with liking things done. One more comment. If you're out there and you're a person that decides to race only the middle part and then write something, I don't think I want to work for you. Wow. In fact, I would venture to say, I think you've told me everything I needed to know about you, forever, forever. I dismissed you from my life. Well, I just don't think I want to be friends really yeah yeah, okay, yeah, Well note to self. I have a whole list of things I'm always like, Okay, I'm in Chris's presence. I don't want to do that. I don't want to because I don't want to. I don't. I am. I am terrified to get canceled by you. I am. I spend most of my time obsessing about maintaining maintaining our friendship and afraid that I'm going to cross the line at some point. I'm always thinking, you know, I was just a home depot and I almost didn't return my cart, and I'm thinking what if zar bas here right. Hey, I'm getting dressed in the morning. I wonder if Crystal like this shirt. Yep, that's it. And then when it comes to now I've discovered I have to erase the entire board before Okay, well, thank you, Chris, thank you, and I'm sure on behalf of a whole segment of our of our listeners, yes, both of them. They are thrilled that you that you brought this up, and uh, the rest of us will seek to there. It is not be a distraction to you, all right. So we're moving on to Moses's last plague. So there have been nine plagues, Yeah, nine plagues up to this point, and Pharaoh just wants more. His heart keeps getting hardened. Finally, the god of the sun is darkened, and they're like shocked by that, but it doesn't matter. Then finally Pharaoh says, I'm not gonna you know, I don't ever want to see you again. Moses says, don't worry, You're never going to see me again. And now I remember this is very likely either his stepdad or his stepbrother, very likely one of them. Then the Lord said to Moses, I will strike Pharaoh and the land of Egypt with one more blow. After that, Pharaoh will let you leave this country. In fact, he will be so eager to get rid of you that he will force you all to leave. Tell all of the Israelite men and women to ask your Egyptian neighbors for articles of silver and gold. Now the Lord had caused the Egyptians to look favorably upon the people of Israel. Moses was considered a very great man in the land of Egypt, respected by Pharaoh's officials and the Egyptian people alike. Moses had announced to Pharaoh, this is what the Lord says. At midnight tonight, I will pass through the heart of Egypt. All the firstborn sons will die in every family in Egypt, from the oldest son of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, to the oldest son of his lowliest servant girl who grinds a flower. Even the firstborn of all the livestock will die. And then a loud whale will rise throughout the land of Egypt, a whale like no one has heard before, and no one will ever hear again. But among the Israelites it will be so peaceful that not even a dog will bark, and then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites. All the officials of Egypt will run to me and fall to the ground before me. Please leave. They will beg hurry and take all your followers with you. Only then will I go. Then, burning with anger, Moses left Pharaoh. Now the Lord had told Moses earlier, Pharaoh will not listen to you. But then I will do even more mighty miracles in the land of Egypt. Moses and Aaron performed these miracles in Pharaoh's presence, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. He wouldn't let the Israelites lie leave the country. So then God begins to unpack for them. How He's going to pass over the firstborn of Israel, and this becomes the most important national holiday, the most important religious ceremony, the greatest celebration within all of the Hebrew religious system is the Passover. Yeah, and so we're going to skip over the first twenty verses of chapter twelve where he basically instructs the children of Israel to have a Passover feast. Well, it's a feast of unloved bread, and they're going to basically he gives a great instruction on to sit down and to have this sort of a meal. And then while they're meeting, they have to do something in order for them to be passed over. Right, So then Moses called all the elders of Israel together this is verse twenty one, and said to them, go pick up a pick out a lamb or young goat for each of your families, and slaughter the passover animal. Drain the blood into a basin. Then take a bundle of hissop branches and dip it into the blood. Brush the hissop across the top and the sides of the doorframes of your houses, and no one may go out through the door until morning, for the Lord will pass through the land to strike down the Egyptians. But when he sees the blood on the top and the sides of the doorframe, the Lord will pass over your home. He will not permit his death angel to enter your house and strike you down. Remember these instructions are a permanent law that you and your descendants must observe forever. When you enter the land the Lord has promised to give you, you will continue to observe this ceremony. Then your children ask what does this ceremony mean? And you will reply, it is the passover sacrifice to the Lord. For he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, and though he struck the Egyptians, he spared our families. When Moses had finished speaking, all the people bowed down to the ground and worshiped. So the people of Israel did just as the Lord had commanded through Moses and Aaron. And that night, at midnight, the Lord struck down all the first born sons in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh who sat on his throne, to the firstborn son of the prisoner in the dungeon. Even the firstborn of their livestock were killed. Pharaoh and all of his officials and all the people of Egypt woke up during the night, and loud wailing was heard throughout the land of Egypt. There was not a single house where someone had not died. A single house. Yeah, that is amazing. And you know, this becomes so significant for us because, as mentioned before, it seems to be like, you know, the things that Moses did physically, you know, represent things for us spiritually, right, and so this being the most important of them all right, because you know, the blood that is commanded to be spread on the door frames represents the blood of Jesus. So the Book of Hebrews tells us that without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sense. And so so just imagine if you were there. You know, you had to take a you know, sacrifice, you know, the firstborn, you know, without a blemish, without a spot, a perfect sacrifice. And this lamb has to be killed, and it's a pretty gruesome sight or goat. And then and then when he said lamb or goat, he said, take a young lamb or a goat. And and he said, and then and then go ahead and spread it on your doorposts. Well, the doorposts would be representative of the cross. Right, so Jesus is carrying his cross, and you know there's the there's the posts, and there's there's the crossbeam and and you know the blood that was you know, dripping off of Jesus' back and face and beard and head would have would have covered those timbers and and so and so you know, because the blood was sacrificed, the animal sacrifice, the blubble shed and then the blood represented uh, you know, uh, a passing over of judgment of sorts, right, not a physical death, or actually it was a physical death, but for us it's a spiritual death. Yeah. So God says, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you, right that, and he said my death angel will not kill the firstborn. And that's a really significant issue. It's the same for us. Right, We're still sinners, we're still the same humans, but we're covered in the blood of Jesus. There's Jesus blood that paid the price for us, that ransom that had to be paid in Romans chapter six was the blood of Christ. And so now the Bible says that when God sees us we are, even though our sins are as scarlet, that they'll be as white as snow. Right, So when God's looking through the blood of Jesus, he only sees us as clean, not covered in sin. And that's the idea. So I think it's really interesting the part we skipped over. God unpacks this entire meal. There's these bitter herbs, and there's roasted lamb, and there's you know, unleavened bread and all these things in every one of those is symbolic in the whole sacrifice. Of who Jesus was. This is all symbolic, but it's interesting because he tells them, first of all, get dressed for a journey, and they do. And so this sitting there ready for this journey, they had not yet been set free. As a matter of fact, nine other times Pharaoh went ah, changed my mind, right, But this time he says, I want you to get dressed, get all your stuff, get your walking stick, get everything, and then sit down for the meal. And this moment of preparing for the thing that God said was going to happen was an act of faith because it had not yet happened, and then they didn't know how God was going to deliver them. But in this moment when the death Angel comes through Egypt and just wipes out the firstborn of every family, finally Pharaoh's heart's broken to the point where he sends them away. But what's really interesting is before that, God tells through Moses, tells the people, hey, go and talk to all your Egyptian friends and borrow some gold and silver. Right. They literally, when they finally are freed, because we'll read in the next episode, we'll read about how Pharaoh sends them away, they literally plundered the land of Egypt, and God had prepared everything. He's sending them off with all the resources they need. Hey, you work for free for four hundred years. Here comes your resources. And so they had the resources. They get dressed, they're ready to go. They have this special meal, and then he says, I want you to keep doing this. Celebrate it year after year after year after year after year. And this celebration is so you can teach your children. And so I think of it in our world, what is that like? That's Easter, right, It's Thanksgiving, right, remembering that God gave us what God gave us. It's Christmas. And we need to keep rehearsing, re rehearsing the stories with our children. Not just make it about the cute elements or the fun elements, or the nice elements. Hey pass the mass potatoes, or hey here's Santa Claus. But we need to also be thinking, how do we tell the story that God came and invaded this planet, He rescued us from our sins, and then we are thankful for what He's done for us, right, the resurrection, the Cross. We need to be rehearsing them. And that's the whole purpose behind the Passover Meal for the Hebrews was so that they would never generation after generation after generatoration would never forget. And here we are thirty five hundred years later and they still do it. Yeah, they still do it. And it's by no accident that when Jesus was actually killed that he intentionally waited, remember, outside of Jerusalem, and he was in Bethany. He was hanging out and he would go into Jerusalem every day he would teach, he'd come back out. But then he finally entered in Jerusalem on what the first day of the Passover, and Passover is actually a term that is used to describe the week, Passover week, and it was a Passover festival that lasted a week. But then the Passover meal took place on Thursday night, and so there was a there was a there was a marching in, which is why we have Palm Sunday because that's when Jesus marched into the city. And it was by no accident that it was passover because during the Passover meal, that is when Jesus says, hey, remember this meal. I mean, I'm adding words, but he looks at his disciples and says, remember this meal. That you've observed years since you were a child. And he says, well, guess what this this bread that you that you realize that everything here symbolizes something. Those bitter herbs symbolizes four hundred years of slavery and you know, and in bitterness. Well, guess what this bread? This is my body right which is broken for you. You've wondered what this bread symbolizes and the tearing of this bread. Well, guess what this is me? And he takes the wine and he pours it out. Yeah, remember ceremoniously how you poured up this wine for the every year, for the you know, your whole life. Well, guess what this is my blood? This is me? And what are you're saying is I'm the fulfillment of this prophecy. God sets into motion and Exodus chapter number twelve a tradition that carried over you know what is it. It's it's fifteen hundred years until Jesus, Jesus. That's up to Jesus. And then Jesus finally comes and says, you know, I'm the fulfillment of this meal r you know this word picture And so he's going to die on the cross. He's going to die that week, in fact, the next day. Right, he's going to die the next day, and it's going to be just exactly like the blood that was spread on the lamb of the goat spread on the timbers. So that the judgment of God passes over our sin, passes over our death. We no longer have to die spiritually because Jesus died for us in our place. God says in that part, we didn't read about the bread, for instance, the unleavened bread. He goes, hey, for these seven days, I don't even want any leaven in your home. Right, if you eat any leavened bread, you know, bread that has been able to rise because of the leaven, you're going to be kicked out of the nation of Israel. This is don't mess around with this. And it represents so leaven in Jesus and his teaching. We'll talk about it too. Leven would represent sin, right, right, Not that leven is sin, but it represented a little bit makes that all you have to do is a little bit of yeast in a lump of dough and the whole lump rise, right, And so it's the picture, just a little bit of sin, a little bit of deviating over to the Egyptian way instead of God's way. It's going to ruin everything. And so the idea then is when when Jesus has that Last Supper with his disciples and institutes communion for the first time, what we would call communion. Now there's this unleavened bread, and Jesus said, he picks up this untainted bread, it would be a cracker essentially, and he says, this is my body. He's he's indicating it's sinless, right, my body has nothing to taint it. It's sinless and pure. And I'm going to give this as a sacrifice. And he holds up the wine and he said, this wine represents that blood because it's kind of grewsome the blood thing, he said, represents the blood. And then he goes and he pays the price on the cross. As as John said, behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. That's what That's what John announced three years before, was that this is the lamb. The lamb we've been looking for is that guy, and he's going to take away the sins of the world. And so this is why when God says, when I see the blood I'll pass over as when he sees the blood of Jesus. Nothing in all of human history has been more important than the shed blood of Christ. Right. Equally important would be the resurrection, because lots of people have shed their blood, but not everybody who shed their blood to pay for sins also resurrected. So those two elements. But there's nothing more important for your salvation than the fact that Jesus shed his blood for you. That's right. And this is why communion is so important. When we receive and we're remembering those things, it's not just a religious ritual. It literally represents thirty five hundred years of this illustration of the fact that an innocent one died to protect the guilty ones, and that the guilty ones choose to remember by the unleaven bread the wine. And then he says, get ready, prepare to go. And a lot of us we consume all the stuff, the religious stuff, but we're not ready to go do the work right and go on the mission that God has us for. Yeah, and I always because our culture is so indoctrinated with confusing things about you know, the communion today you know frequency? And then is it you know, is it just bread. Is it grape juice? Is it wine? Is does it represent you know, the body or the blood? And is it physically the body or the blood. Well, listen, when you think about it in terms of everything we just said, when you think about it, because you know, a lot of times a lot of us don't understand that when we understand the context and he says, this is my body and he's referring to the Hey, this this ritual that you've been doing, this represents me. You know, Jesus wasn't literally saying that it was his physical flesh. He wasn't saying this is my body. And the example I always like to use this Jesus said, I am the gate, but he wasn't a gate. He said, I'm the door. He wasn't a door. He said, I am the rock. He wasn't a rock. Right, I'm the shepherd. He wasn't technically a shepherd. Jesus said all sorts of things, uh, you know, like like the salt metaphors. I I am the light. He wasn't light. Although actually trans transfiguration, he became light. But the point is is that it is a metaphor. It was it was It was a in so many different ways. He says, I this is my this is my body. Why would we take it to be that it's the physical body of Christ when stacked up against everything else we know about Jesus's teachings, right, And it's because we ask ourselves who has the authority of the Bible or the Church? Right? And you know, and somewhere along the way the Church has declared that. But if you look at the Bible, who we consider the final authority, we understand that that's not the case. And so and so the wine then he said, this is my blood. It just it means, hey, this this symbolically is is uh, you know who I am? Just just like it, just like Jesus is the cornerstone. He's not a little cornerstone of a building. Right. So so yeah, so the wine represented the blood of the sheep of the lamb, that's right. And they sat there and clearly understood that was not Lamb's blood. It was actual grape juice wine, that's right, right, right, So wine from a from a grape. So they knew already it was symbolic. But then since then we've changed it back into an actual thing. Some some religious people, but in the moment, they knew that this was not the blood of a lamb. It represented the blood of a lamb, right, And now he's saying, it represents my blood. I am the lamb. Right, He's the lamb. So it's a figurative thing, right, right, Yeah, and so and so that's that's what it is. And so just like Jeff said, we have to remember, and this is probably the good closing thought, right, that that this passover feast in Exodus twelve. If you go to church on a regular basis and you receive communion, just know that you are connected. I mean, you're very salvation is connected to the passover. That's great, I mean, you know our salvation. But but the observance of it, the the the appreciation of it, the gratitude for the understanding of all of that is represented in the ritual of one of the only two ordinances that God gives to the church. He gives baptism, which is a command, right, and then he gives communion. In communion is something that we observe. And he says as often as you do it, which means it doesn't matter how often you do it. And most scholars would say that he probably meant every year, once a year, because he says as often as you do this, he's referring to the Passover feast, as often as you do this, So if you really want to argue frequency, you could you could lean toward months annually, right, So it doesn't matter the frequency, because I'm sure there's no sin against doing it once a week or once every you know, two months, as often as you do it, that's right, that's right. So big picture, you were enslaved in sin, that's right. The lamb of God shed his blood. Yep, the sinless Lamb of God, undefiled, shed his blood. When God sees the blood, he passes over you and you pass from death to life, and then freedom is on the other side of that, which is exactly the story of the people of Israel. That's great. Well, that's a pretty massive milestone in the Old Testament. Huge, And that's what we're doing. We're covering the milestones of the Old Testament in this series. So we will pick up next time on Monday on the Bible guys, mhm hm