- Passover started the calendar year,
- while the Day of Atonement started the religious year.
- Passover marked Israel's redemption,
- while the D of A marked Israel's atonement.
- Passover looked back to the Exodus,
- while the D of A looked back to Israel's past year.
- Passover was a time of feasting together,
- while the D of A was marked by fasting.
As we prepare for Good Friday and Easter this week, it's good to remember that God planned out Christ's substitutionary, redemptive work in a way that built around SACRIFICE and PROPITIATION (our two new words). Although we don't have community groups this week, I trust these reviews of Christ as our propitiatory sacrifice will help you to remember Christ's death and to celebrate Christ's resurrection. The messages basically answered two simple questions: "How do we deal with the reality of vengeance?" and "How do we deal with the reality of anger?"
FIRST- SACRIFICE: HOW DO WE DEAL WITH VENGEANCE?
"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." Ex 12:12-13
All of us instincively have a desire to see justice executed. Like Inigo Montoya who was dominated by the quest to see his father's death avenged, we can all have an internal cry for justice when we're wronged: "There will be blood tonight." But we know that God calls for forgiveness from us and extends mercy to us... so how does this square up? Sin should result in blood, but God calls us to defer instead for patience and kindness towards those who sin... but where does justice fit in all this? Exodus 12 reminds us that sin requires a sacrifice that only God can provide. We see this in two parts in these verses:
1. Sin results in death: God had exacted 9 judgments against the gods of Egypt- plagues that had humbled Egypt and shattered their view of God as a weakling slave deity. But God had one more plague in mind... one that resulted in great blood. And it's easy to dismiss this view of God until we remember sin for what it is: "an act of treason again our cosmis authority... an insult to God's holiness" (RC Sproul). When we remember that our internal idolatry and love affair with this world is a direct insult to God's holiness as we thumb our noses at Him, it seems right to remember that sin results in death... not simply as a natural consequence. God often brought death on those who offended Him, like Uzzah or Ananias and Sapphira. And this causes us to stop and consider whether we're trivializing the vestiges of our rebellion against God. Isn't it treasonous...
- when we fawn over people we admire?
- dream about the stuff we could purchase?
- work like dogs to advance our careers?
It's not simply the forbidden that gets us off track, it's the fact that the secondary pursuits of life overtake God in our lives... suddenly, the first commandment to love God without rival seems fairly difficult. We must start by remembering the way God dealt with this is Egypt... sin results in death.
2. But blood atones for sin: What an amazing phrase hits us in verse 13- "when I see the blood." The truth is that Passover... that sacrifice... is a bloody pasttime. In fact, given the way that sacrificial language dominates Scripture, the Bible is a pretty bloody book. What amazes me is the way God responds to blood! Some of us have different responses when we see blood (mine are fairly shameful)... but when God sees the blood of His sacrifice, He responds with mercy. Only God could provide the kind of sacrifice that could evoke this type of response. So God hid a glorious reality in a dying system. From the beginning, blood was shed to cover Adam and Eve, to atone for Noah's condition, to cover up Israel's sin... but ultimately to point to the One that John called "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." You see, when Christ appeared, he did so "once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." (Heb 9:26). What an atonement He provides: He builds a sense of blood-justice into us, He exposes our need that deeds can't undo, and He provides a sacrifice who would bleed on our behalf:- One who bled from the fists at the courtyard
- One who bled from the thorns in His forehead
- One who bled from the nails in His wrists
- One who bled from the spear in His side...
...but One who bled was bleeding before they even touched Him. As He pled in prayer over the cup of wrath He would drink, His blood began flowing then- in preparation for the "sacrifice of Himself." If this is true, and it is, then our need for vengeance against others in satisfied... as believers, the blood we want from others is either paid by Christ or one day will be exacted by Him. (Vengeance is not ours.) In the same way, we don't need to offer up some way of atoning for our sins... that work in finished as well. As the song says, "His blood has forever ransomed me!"
more to come in the next post...
