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Redeemer Bible Church

16205 Highway 7
Minnetonka, MN, 55345
952-935-2425
www.redeemerbiblechurch.com

“Remembering the Exodus”

June 27, 2004
By: R. W. Glenn
Exodus 11:1-13:16

Introduction
We are a forgetful people. We too easily forget all that the Lord has done for us. We
forget what it means to be the people of God. So we need lots of reminders. This is what
prompts David to say, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits; Who
pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; Who satisfies your years with good
things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle” (Psalm 103:2-5).

And it is what allows the Apostle Peter to say what he does in his second epistle
concerning our salvation: “Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even
though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.
I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder” (2
Peter 1:12-13). Our problem is not always that we are ignorant, but that we are forgetful. So we
need lots of reminders.

In addition to the basic need for being reminded of the Lord’s benefits, there are certain
things which the Lord has done that demand special attention. I say that they “demand special
attention” because quite literally, God has commanded that we give them such attention. And in
the history of redemption until the time of Christ, nothing figured more prominently in the
cultural, social, and religious memory of the Jewish people than the events of the Exodus from
Egypt.

In fact, following God’s mighty deliverance of his people, the language of the Exodus
became a common way of which to conceive of God’s subsequent acts of deliverance. As early
as Joshua 4:23-24, Joshua conceives of the crossing of the Jordan in terms of the crossing of the
Red Sea: “For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had
crossed, just as the LORD your God had done to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until
we had crossed; that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty,
so that you may fear the LORD your God forever.”

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And the prophet Isaiah looks forward to a future deliverance as a second exodus. Isaiah
43:16-19 says,

Thus says the LORD, Who makes a way through the sea And a path through the
mighty waters, Who brings forth the chariot and the horse, The army and the mighty man
(They will lie down together and not rise again; They have been quenched and
extinguished like a wick): “Do not call to mind the former things, Or ponder things of the
past. Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware
of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.”

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So whether the deliverance is from Assyrian captivity, or from Babylonian captivity, or it

refers to God’s eschatological deliverance of his people to the glorified Promised Land, God’s
people are a delivered people. And that deliverance begins with the seminal act of redemption in
the history of the people of God: the Exodus from Egypt.

Now part of the reason for the emphasis on the Exodus throughout redemption history is
the result of the Lord’s insistence that certain religious rituals be kept in remembrance of those
formative events—formative events in which were evidenced God’s special care for the sons of
Israel, his commitment to his promise to the patriarchs, and his jealousy for the magnification of
his fame through the salvation of all who trust him.

The rituals and the events to which they point find their origin in Scripture in Exodus
11:1-13:16. So turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus 11.

A Literary Collage1
The passage that runs from the beginning of this chapter (chapter 11) to 13:16 is very rich
—rich in the sense that it is multilayered. It forms a kind of collage in which the events of the
Exodus are cut and pasted with the rituals that will be observed in the future commemoration of
those events. And, of course, it preserves for us the continuing saga of the work of Yahweh in
delivering his people from Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm by great
judgments.

What is most interesting about this collage is that the events and the liturgy meant to
commemorate those events seem to be ordered haphazardly. In other words, it really looks like a
collage. Pictures from different magazines and newspapers have been cut out and pasted in such
a way as to defy logic. It is as if the artist gathered images that related to the Exodus from
different time periods and just started pasting them at random. At the top of the collage are the
words, “Remembering the Exodus,” and below are the various narrative vignettes placed in no
particular order.

Let me show you what I mean.

After Moses has thrown Pharaoh’s words back in his face, agreeing that they will never
see one another again in 10:28-29, as we would expect, 11:1-3 advances the events of the
narrative.

So the narrative opens with three elements: (1) the Lord announces to Moses that there is
only one more plague left (as you know, Pharaoh and his people have already experienced nine);
(2) the Lord commands Moses to speak to the people to tell them to ask their Egyptian neighbors
for articles of gold and silver in keeping with the promise of 3:21-22. There the Lord says, “I
will grant this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be that when you go, you
will not go empty-handed. But every woman shall ask of her neighbor and the woman who lives

1
When I preached this sermon, I erroneously used the term “mural” instead of “collage.” I owe this correction
to our church secretary, Paula Poppe.

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in her house, articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; and you will put them on your
sons and daughters. Thus you will plunder the Egyptians.”

And (3) also in accord with God’s promise in chapter 3, the author notes that the
Israelites have gained favor in the sight of the Egyptians and that furthermore, Moses has been
afforded great renown among all the Egyptians as well, including Pharaoh’s own courtiers.

All this is clear enough: there is one plague left and Israel will leave Egypt with the
blessing and at the pleading of the Egyptians. Now at this point we might expect the plague to
begin. But we don’t get what we expect. Instead, beginning in verse 4, we read of a
conversation between Moses and Pharaoh.

This should be remarkable to you not only because the events of the narrative have been
suspended contrary to expectation, but also because in 10:28-29, the narrator records that Moses
had ended negotiations with Egypt’s hostile dictator. Didn’t Moses say to Pharaoh: “You are
right; I shall never see your face again!”?

So what we read in verses 4-8 is a confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh that
apparently fits chronologically somewhere in the white space at the end of chapter 10. Or
perhaps Moses, after saying that he shall never see Pharaoh’s face again, turns around to Pharaoh
on the way out and says, “Oh, by the way…” However we may try to construe the events of
10:28-29, 11:1-3, and 11:4-8, it is clear that they do not appear to be neatly ordered.

Then, as if to bring to a conclusion the plague narrative begun way back in 7:8, we get a
summary in verses 9-10. Well then, perhaps now, the events of the narrative will move forward.
Let’s read 12:1-13 to find out.

So does the plague against the firstborn come to pass? Do the events transpire? Not
really. Keep in mind that back in 11:2 the Lord told Moses to speak now in the hearing of the
people, which in terms of the narrative he has yet to do. What we get in 12:1-13 are the
instructions for the Lord’s Passover.

Then, in 12:14-20, not only does the narrative fail to advance, but we get liturgical
instructions for the future—to the time after Israel has been delivered from the Egyptians.

Look especially at verse 14: Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall
celebrate it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a
permanent ordinance. In fact, verse 17 construes the events of the exodus as a past event: You
shall also observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts
out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations
as a permanent ordinance. And in verse 19 we read of instructions for aliens and natives of the
Promised Land, indicating clearly that this is meant to be celebrated in the future.

Then, after all we have read, the events of the narrative finally move forward in 12:21-23.

In obedience to the Lord (see 12:3), Moses assembles the elders of Israel to communicate
God’s word to them (which they would in turn convey to the rest of the people—nearly

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2,000,000—this is the reason, by the way, Moses goes to the elders. He would never have been
heard in a multitude that large.).

But then, in verses 24-27, Moses gives more future liturgical instructions.

This time, as you can see, the instructions are not for the perpetual observance of the
Feast of Unleavened Bread, but for the perpetual observance of the Passover. Thus all of the
instructions of 12:1-13 are not only meant to be obeyed at this moment in time, but yearly (at the
beginning of the year, the beginning of months). Notice that verse 24 says, And you shall
observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever.

Then after this instruction for the future, we read a summary of the people’s response to
the Lord’s instructions for the present (that is, for the present of the people under Egyptian
bondage). Read 12:28 with me.

What happens next? Well, in 12:29-41, the action anticipated in 11:1-3 and continued in
12:21-23 moves forward.

So it is only now after so much liturgy that we read of God’s act of judgment and Israel’s
deliverance. And it happens exactly as the Lord said it would:

1. At midnight, the firstborn of all Egypt are killed—from Pharaoh down to the firstborn of
the men in jail (12:29 w/11:4-5).
2. An unprecedented lamentation flows from the mouths of the Egyptians (12:30 w/11:6).
3. Pharaoh and all the people drive Israel out of the land of Egypt (12:31-33 w/11:1b, 8).
4. The people of Egypt grant the Israelites’ request for gold and silver (and clothing) so that
the Israelites plunder the Egyptians (12:35-36 w/11:2-3).
5. Pharaoh learns that the Lord is partial to Israel (12:31 w/11:7). This I say because for the
first time in the entire account of Moses’ confrontations with Pharaoh, this is the first
time that the Hebrews are referred to nationally by Pharaoh. He calls them the sons of
Israel. He recognizes them as the nation under Yahweh’s protection.
6. And finally, Israel departs (12:37-38, 40-41).

Having said that, I want to call your attention to something the narrator mentions twice in
connection with the events of the smiting of Egypt and Israel’s departure. Look first at verse 34:
So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls bound up
in the clothes on their shoulders. Now jump down to verse 39: They baked the dough which
they had brought out of Egypt into cakes of unleavened bread. For it had not become
leavened, since they were driven out of Egypt and could not delay, nor had they prepared
any provisions for themselves.

These two comments intertwined as they are with the events of the plague of the firstborn
and exodus from Egypt, form a link to the teaching of verses 14-20. There, as you’ll remember,
God’s people are given instructions about a feast of unleavened bread. And verse 17 gives the
reason for observing it: You shall also observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this

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very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall observe this day
throughout your generations as a permanent ordinance.

But 12:14-20 does not explain the significance of the unleavened bread itself. As it
stands, it is not until this point in the narrative—the end of chapter 12—that we learn why
unleavened bread is to be used. And what is the reason for unleavened bread? It is to
commemorate the haste with which Israel was made to depart from Egypt. They didn’t have
enough time to add sourdough to their lumps of dough.

I point all this out simply to show that here in 12:29-41, like the section as a whole, the
liturgical and narrative elements are intertwined.

And in keeping with what appears to be this rather haphazard arrangement of the literary
material, rather than moving on to the Red Sea and Egypt’s pursuit of the Israelites, the narrator
introduces more instructions about the Passover. This time the future is exclusively in mind.

Then as we come to verse 50-51, we are again brought back to the events of the day of
Israel’s departure with a summary word of Israel’s obedience to perform what is necessary in
order to avoid God’s judgment and to be spared the sinister work of the plague of death.

Now we move into Ch 13. It is very difficult, if not impossible to specify the “when” of
the then of verse 1.

All we know is that at some point, perhaps in Succoth, the Lord tells Moses to sanctify to
the Lord every firstborn, the first offspring of every womb among the sons of Israel, both of
man and beast; it belongs to the Lord.

But then just as we might expect to see the consecration of Israel’s firstborn, we receive,
that’s right, more liturgical instructions. This time it is the future celebrations of Feast of
Unleavened Bread that come into focus.

It is not until after this instruction regarding the Feast that we read about the
sanctification of Israel’s firstborn. Notice 13:11-16.

At this point, there are two features of the material of 13:1-16 that are worth mentioning.
First, the Lord asks for the firstborn presumably at the time of the Exodus but it is not until 40
years later that the people are able to observe the commands of verses 11-16.

The second feature follows from the first. In spite of the gap of time between the giving
of the command to sanctify every firstborn and its fulfillment, it is clear that the writer finds
this rite to be inextricably linked with the events of the Exodus. I can say this because instruction
about the Feast of Unleavened Bread is wedged in between the command to consecrate the
firstborn and the procedures for doing so.

And I can also say that the sanctification of the firstborn should be understood in terms of
the Exodus because plainly the connection is made in verses 14-15. Look at those verses again:
And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What is this?” then you

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shall say to him, “With a powerful hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the
house of slavery. 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.”

So then, in a section that deals with the tenth plague against Egypt, there are three rites
which seem to be rather clumsily pasted throughout the flow of events. The Lord’s Passover, the
Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the sanctification of the firstborn. In the case of the Passover, it
is first celebrated the night of the plague. As far as the Feast of Unleavened Bread is concerned,
even though the Israelites are left with their bread unleavened on the night of the Exodus, they
would not celebrate the feast until the following year in the wilderness of Sinai. And as we have
just learned, although Moses receives his command to sanctify to the Lord Israel’s firstborn in
the context of the events of the Exodus, the command is not kept until Israel arrives in the
Promised Land 40 years later.

Shall We Alter the Collage?

Doesn’t this ordering of the material seem strange to you? Is this the way you think you
would have arranged it?

Well, most of you know that I taught high school English literature and writing. And let
me say that if the writer of Exodus had been one of my students and were to have handed me the
material arranged like this, my red pen would have been all over it—mainly a lot of red arrows,
indicating that he should rearrange it to make better sense of the order of events. Here’s what I
would advise:

1. Start with the announcement to Moses of the plague and how to avoid it with the blood of
the Passover. So take 11:1 and place 12:1-13 right after it.
2. Then have Moses tell Pharaoh about the plague. So put 11:4-8a, 9-10, and 8b together.
3. Next, Moses tells the people what to do—to plunder the Egyptians and perform the rite of
Passover. Paste 11:2-3 and 12:21-28 together and insert them here.
4. Now’s the time to have the plague take place and watch as Israel is spared and how they
plunder the Egyptians and finally leave the land. So you’ll need 12:29-41 and 12:50 to be
together. Stick them here.
5. After these events take place, it makes sense to introduce the liturgical material that is
meant to commemorate the events. Isn’t that the point of the rituals? So since the events
of the Passover take place before the Israelites leave without leavening their bread, I think
you should begin with the ritual of Passover. So insert 12:42-49.
6. You can include the two paragraphs on the Feast of Unleavened Bread—12:14-20 and
13:3-10. They will work wonderfully back to back.
7. And then, finally, you can combine 13:1-2 with 13:11-16 for a coherent conclusion on the
consecration of Israel’s firstborn.

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“Whew! Now that’s more like it. Okay, young man, I’ll see you next week for writing
lab with the changes I’ve suggested.”

Now although my interaction with the narrator of Exodus is certainly far-fetched, it is not
too far from the mark of how we often want to handle the sometimes complex literary material of
the Old Testament. In fact, in his commentary on Exodus, John Calvin does nearly the same
thing. He deals only with the material that pertains to the events of the narrative and skips the
future-liturgical material. He decides to save it for another time. He says, “I have here omitted
what Moses has related…because it pertains to the perpetual doctrine of the Law. I shall
hereafter insert it in its proper place.”2

As you all know, I have the utmost respect for John Calvin. But at this point I must
humbly part company with him; for I think that all of the material of Exodus 11:1-13:16 has
already been inserted in “its proper place.” The fact that it is ultimately the Holy Spirit who has
arranged it should be enough to warrant the conclusion that what we are reading is where it
belongs.

So instead of trying to rearrange the material of the Scripture in such a way as to make it
more manageable, our knowledge of the verbal plenary inspiration of Scripture should lead us to
believe that the Spirit intended this material to be organized in precisely the way we’ve found it.
And therefore we do a grave injustice to the integrity of this portion’s message by arbitrarily
breaking it up and reorganizing it.

So rather than trying to “fix” the narrative, we should be asking why the narrator has
chosen to weave together the liturgical instruction and the events such that they cannot be justly
separated from one another. Why has he blurred the lines between past event and present &
future commemoration of the event? What is the relationship between them?

Allow me to suggest to you that the biblical arrangement of the material moves the ritual
beyond a mere commemoration of the events of the Exodus and transforms them into a real
participation in them.

Participation, Not Mere Commemoration

Now let me explain why.

By ordering the material the way he does the narrator is saying that without the event
there would be no ritual. Now this should be very obvious to you. But in addition to this, the
narrator is saying something much more profound. He is saying the reverse. The biblical
arrangement of the material communicates that without the rituals there would be no event either.

I can say this in the first place because the rituals are built into the event itself. Take the
liturgy of the Passover, for example. The killing of the lamb and the sprinkling of the blood took
place on the very night of the plague. Without that ritual there would be no “passing over” to

2
John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1996 reprint), 1.220.

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celebrate; there would be no event. So by linking the event with the rituals in the narrative, the
author is inviting us to see an interdependent relationship between event and ritual. Without the
rituals there would be no event.

The details of the text bear this out.

Look first to the nature of the rituals. All three—Passover, Unleavened Bread, and
sanctification of the firstborn—all three reenact some aspect of the events on the night of the
tenth plague. They are rituals of reenactment.

In the celebration of the Lord’s Passover, what the Israelites did in obedience to God on
the night of the plague is rehearsed to the last detail cf. 12:21-23, 28 w/12:3-11.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread reenacts the hastiness of Israel’s departure on the night of
the plague cf. 12:34, 39 w/12:8.

And the sanctification of the firstborn reenacts the manifestation of God’s ownership of
all the firstborn on the night of the plague cf. 13:14-15.

At the time of the tenth plague the Lord showed forth his dominion over all the firstborn
of the land both positively and negatively. Negatively, he manifested his ownership of the
firstborn through the death of Egypt’s firstborn and positively he manifested that ownership
through the salvation of Israel’s firstborn.

The negative aspect is reenacted through the death of a lamb in place of the donkey in
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 the positive aspect of that ownership is
reenacted in the dedication and not the demise of every firstborn son in Israel: Every firstborn
of man among your sons you shall redeem.

So the nature of the rituals is such that all three reenact some aspect of the events
surrounding the Exodus. They are rituals of reenactment and as such allow the one observing
them to participate in the events themselves. So without the ritual, there would be no Exodus for
the one commemorating it years after it originally took place.

That this is what the author has in mind is clear from the scope of the rituals as well. The
passage teaches us that God’s view is not limited to the generation alive at the time of the
Exodus. These rituals have been instituted in such a way that they embrace every generation of
Israelites following the Exodus. These rituals of reenactment are to be celebrated in perpetuity,
from generation to generation forever cf. 12:2-3 (it is built into their calendar!) 12:14, 17, 24, 42;
13:4-5, 9-10, 16 (sanctification of firstborn).

But most instructive is the language that succeeding generations are to use to explain the
significance of the rituals. Look first at 12:25-27a: When you enter the land which the LORD
will give you, as He has promised, you shall observe this rite. And when your children say
to you, “What does this rite mean to you?” you shall say, “It is a Passover sacrifice to the

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LORD who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the
Egyptians, but spared our homes.”

What I want you to see here is that the people are to say that the Lord spared our
homes. They are not to say that the Lord spared their homes, but ours. This is especially
important since this text has in view the time when you enter the land which the Lord will
give you. No one except Joshua and Caleb (if they were born before the Exodus) could have said
that the Lord spared our homes. The Lord has succeeding generations speaking as if they were
there at the time of the Passover.

Now turn ahead to 13:7-8 and read with me what the Lord says in connection with the
Feast of Unleavened Bread: 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. 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.” Notice again that beginning with the second generation
of Israelites, the men are to say, “It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out
of Egypt.” This takes the past events, events which happened in a previous generation and
applies them to the new generation’s current situation.

Finally, look down with me at 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.” Here, in connection with the setting
apart of the firstborn, the succeeding generations are to say that the Lord brought us out of
Egypt, from the house of slavery.

So the scope of the rituals is perpetual. And this perpetuity is highly personal. Every
generation can say of itself with the Passover, “I have been passed over” and with the Feast of
Unleavened Bread, “I have been released from bondage” and with the consecration of the
firstborn, “I belong to God.”

So then, why has the narrator intentionally blurred the lines between past event and
present and future commemoration? The answer is that he wants us to see that without the rituals
there would be no event. Though this is true for the initial participants in the Exodus, it is
especially significant for the Israelite living after the historical Exodus. The upshot of this
teaching is that the rituals are to be understood as more than mere memorials to what God has
done, but they are what allow the present worshipper to participate now in what God
accomplished then.

In this way every generation participates in the Exodus through the rituals. Every future
generation says with its celebration of the rites, “I have been passed over; I have been released
from bondage; and I belong to God.” Through the rituals (then and now) the Lord works
salvation initially and perpetually in the lives of the participants.

Jesus Is the Ultimate Participant in the Events of the Exodus

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Now included in the subsequent generations that participated in the rites of the Passover
is the generation of Jews alive at the time of Christ. Turn in your Bibles with me to Matt 26:17-
19, 26-30.

There are several features of this text that deserve our attention. First, notice that in
verses 17-19, the disciples rightly assume that Jesus would be partaking of the Passover meal.
Jesus, being a Jew, would not leave off participating again in the events of the Exodus. He
would share the Passover with his disciples.

Nevertheless, Jesus makes some surprising alterations to the ritual. Jesus breaks the
unleavened bread, distributes it to his disciples and says in verse 26, “Take, eat; this is My
body.” He does not say, “It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt”
(Exodus 13:8). Instead of assigning the bread’s significance to the events of the Exodus, Jesus
assigns the bread’s significance to his own body—to his full participation in humanity, to the
body that he would offer up on the cross for his disciples.

Then he transforms the “cup of blessing” into his blood. In verse 28 he calls it, “My
blood of the covenant.” He takes the third cup of wine that belonged to the Passover meal, and
again does not associate it with the Exodus; rather, he associates it with his sacrificial death:
poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.

And then, as we learn from Luke and Paul, with the distribution of the elements Jesus
says, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24-25). Now this statement
must have been even more remarkable than Jesus’ failure to assign the significance of the
Passover meal to the events of the Exodus. For it is even more direct. Jesus says, “Do this in
remembrance of me.” Yet the Lord tells the Israelites over and over again in Exodus 11:1-13:16
to do this in remembrance of him, in remembrance of his mighty act of deliverance constituting
Israel and every generation thereafter as his unique people:

Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to
the LORD; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent
ordinance….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” (Exodus 12:14; 13:3).

All this notwithstanding, Jesus boldly proclaims, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

So what is Jesus saying? Well, because of Jesus relationship to the Old Testament
administration, Jesus is not really altering the Passover so much as he is revealing something that
had been hidden until the fullness of the time came; namely, that Jesus himself is the ultimate
participant in the events of the Exodus.

And Jesus’ revelation in the gospels invites us to see all the events of the Exodus through
the lens of Jesus himself. It is Jesus who is delivered from bondage. In the words of Paul,
through the resurrection Jesus is vindicated in the Spirit (1 Timothy 3:16). It is Jesus who is the
firstborn son: “This is my beloved son in whom I am well-pleased” (Mark 1:11). And in classic
ironical fashion, though Jesus is not passed over, he is the one who is sacrificed so that we might

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be passed over. As 1 Corinthians 5:7 says, “For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”
Christ is the Passover; Christ is the Unleavened Bread; and Christ is the sanctified son.

The ultimate participant in the Passover is the one whom the Passover always anticipated:
Jesus. He is the one in whom the Passover finds its true meaning. The eternal institution is
taken up by and absorbed in the person of Christ.

So by our union with Christ, though the people of God no longer celebrate the Passover
as expressed in the Old Testament, we do continue to participate in the reality to which the form
had always pointed. We celebrate the Passover in Christ. Because of Christ we know the true
meaning of the words, “I have been passed over; I have been delivered from bondage; and I
belong to God.”

This is your Christ. He is your Passover. He is your Unleavened Bread. His

consecration as the firstborn son of the father is yours. Do you see what a privilege it is to be
living at the fullness of the time? The time for which the patriarchs were waiting has arrived,
and we get to drink it in! Hebrews 11:39-40 says, “And all these, having gained approval
through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something
better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.” Oh, what a blessing to be
living in the time of “something better.” And how “better” it is! Amen.

Remembering the Exodus © 2004 by R W Glenn