Quick Note – Exodus 12:1-4 – The Sufficient Lamb

Exodus 12:1-4 – “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ² “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. ³ Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. ⁴ And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.”

Jewish people celebrate the Passover to commemorate the night when God delivered His people from Egyptian slavery. After sending nine plagues on Pharaoh and Egypt for not letting His people go, God decided that the tenth plague would be upon all the firstborn in Egypt whether livestock, slave, or royal. All the firstborn would be killed. However to preserve His people who lived in Egypt, God told the Israelites to take a lamb, kill it, and place its blood on the lintel and doorposts of their houses. In this way, when the angel of the Lord was coming to strike the firstborn, if it saw the blood on the house, it would pass over that house, sparing the firstborn inside. That night when the angel of God struck the firstborn of Egypt, all the Israelites were safe, because he passed over their houses when he saw the blood of the lamb. This is why the holiday/celebration was known as the Passover.

After that night, each year the Israelites were called to celebrate the Passover by taking a lamb and repeating this rite to remember that day. However, what is even more interesting is that each year when the Passover lamb was sacrificed, it was not just done as a commemoration of the past, but also, a representation of what would happen in the future when the Messiah would come to this earth to die for the sins of the world. Just as how the Passover lamb was slain as a replacement for the firstborn that was to die, the Messiah was to come and die as a replacement for sinners, whose wages for sin is death (Romans 6:23). When Jesus Christ came, He came to be that Messiah; He came to be, what John the Baptist called Him, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29). He did this by living a perfect sinless life yet dying as a replacement on the cross for us. He paid the penalty that was ours, so that we could find life in Him. He acted as that Passover lamb, who would be sacrificed in our place to spare us from the judgment that was awaiting us. For that, we should accept His gift of salvation and always thank Him.

One question I have always had though is how many lambs were sacrificed during that first Passover. In vs. 3, the people were told that they were to take a lamb and sacrifice it for each household. They were to kill it, place the blood on the doorposts of the house, then roast the lamb and eat it, so as not to waste the sacrifice that was spilled in their place. However, vs. 4 tells us that if a household was too small for a lamb, then that house was to share a lamb between two households. This probably meant that two or three households could all stay in the same house and have the angel of God pass over or maybe use the same blood and place it on the lintels of two or three houses and share the meat of the lamb. I mean there must have been more than enough blood from one lamb to cover four doorposts and two lintels, right? So I wonder how many lambs were slain in Egypt during that night. Hundreds, thousands, or just a few that were shared for multiple houses.

As Christians though, we know that only one sacrifice exists for our sin, and that sacrifice is Jesus Christ. He came to this earth once; He died on the cross once; and He was raised again once. After His death and resurrection, no other sacrifice was needed; no other person needed to die; no other lamb needed to be slain. The reason for this was because He paid the full penalty for the sins of the world on that cross, when He cried out, “It is finished.” So there would only be one Passover lamb for the sins of the world. But why is that? Why only one? It is for the same reason why multiple households shared one Passover lamb during that first Passover – because one household could not finish that single lamb. The whole world and all its sin could never use up the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He is enough. He is sufficient. He is complete. All of us can share that one Lamb, because no matter how many sins we commit, no matter how bad they are, it is still too small to use up the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. His grace is enough. His mercy is enough. His love is enough. He is more than enough.

So if you believe that you have failed too much, sinned too badly, or fallen too far, remember that the sacrifice of the true Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ, is still more than enough for you. He is enough to pay for the sins of the world and that includes yours. Give your life over to Him today. Take part in that sacrifice by accepting Him as your Lord and Savior, and be saved today. Let His blood be the reason that the judgment of God will pass over your life.

Quick Note – Deuteronomy 29:18-20 – Abusing Grace

Deuteronomy 29:18-20 – – Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those nations.  Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, “I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.”  This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.  The LORD will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven. 

The longer we are Christians, the more likely we become callous to sin.  I have noticed that when a person first gives their life to the LORD, they are on fire for Jesus.  They want to follow Him; they want to do what is right; they want to obey His every word.  They hate sin and will do whatever they can to stay away from it.  However, as the years go by, they start to compromise here and there.  They allow the occasional “white” lie; they slack off reading the Word of God for a day or two a week; they stop praying as often.  And gradually, sin starts to creep in.  They begin to participate in the sins that once made their heart heavy, excusing themselves because God is a forgiving God.  And unfortunately, many Christians stay there.  They live lives telling themselves that it is okay to sin, because God is a God of grace anyways.  Since they won’t go to hell, they feel it is okay to continue in sin.  But this is the wrong attitude for a Christian. 

Moses, in Deuteronomy 29, warned the people of Israel before they entered the Promised Land to keep and to follow God’s law.  He warned them to be careful, lest there be one person in their nation who thinks to himself, “I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.”  He wanted them to be wary of anybody who thought, “I am part of God’s chosen people, so I will always be protected by Him, so why be afraid of breaking His law?  He will forgive me anyways.”  Moses knew that this attitude towards God’s mercy and grace would lead to the downfall of the nation, so he warned them about it. 

Unfortunately, this attitude exists in many Christians today.  This is the attitude that I described earlier, where a Christian abuses grace by continuing in sin, because he is already “saved.”  This attitude was so damaging that Paul warned the church in Rome in Romans 6:1-2, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”  This nonchalant attitude towards sin has creeped into the church and harmed its witness to the world.  It has damaged its reputation, which desperately needs repair today.  So stop living in the stubbornness of your heart, thinking that God will not punish you for your sin.  Yes, salvation will never be taken away from you; however, God can and will bring judgment for your sin.  So instead of living in sin, let us run towards God.  Let us follow His commands and reprove any Christian, even ourselves, when we abuse God’s grace and mercy.

PS:  If you continue in sin, you need to consider whether you are a true believer.  For 1 John 3:8-10 says, “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.  No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.  By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”

Quick Note – 2 Kings 9:22 – True Peace

2 Kings 9:22 – 22 And when Joram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” He answered, “What peace can there be, so long as the whorings and the sorceries of your mother Jezebel are so many?”

Have you been struggling to find peace in your life?  Is your heart and mind filled with turmoil and pain?  There is likely a reason for that, and that reason is sin.  Jehu was anointed by a prophet to become the replacement king for Joram, a descendant of King Ahab.  Ahab was an evil king who brought Baal worship into Israel.  His descendants followed in his footsteps, leading to the people away from God ant into idolatry.  For this reason, God sent Jehu to punish the family of Ahab.  Jehu, after hearing that he was anointed as king, then led a rebellion against Ahab’s kingdom.  He rode to Jezreel, where King Joram was staying, to kill Joram.  As he was riding, Joram met Jehu and asked, “Is it peace, Jehu?”  To which Jehu replied, “What peace can there be, so long as the whorings and the sorceries of your mother Jezebel are so many?”  Basically, Jehu was saying, “There can be no peace in Israel as long as idolatry continues.”  There can be no peace when there is sin against God. 

The right place for mankind is to be in a close relationship with God.  We were created for this purpose, so we find our peace when we are close to Him.  However, sin is an abomination to God, and as long as, sin sits in our lives, our relationship with Him is broken.  Why do you think God had to send Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden after they sinned against Him?  It was because God cannot be in the presence of sin; for He is a holy God.  This is why God needed to send His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross to pay for the penalty of our sins.  By doing so, He opened a route so that we can have a restored relationship with Him by believing that Jesus Christ saves us from our sin.  By giving our lives to Him as Savior and Lord, we find peace.  Jesus gives us His peace (John 14:27). 

So if you feel like you don’t have peace in your heart and life right now?  Consider whether you have given your life to Christ.  He is the only One who can bring true and lasting peace in your heart.  You might find temporary reprieve in what the world gives, but it will never give you peace.  True peace can only come when there is no sin in the heart, and that can only come about through Jesus Christ.  And if you are a Christian, and you aren’t experiencing that peace right now, consider whether there is sin in your life that needs to be confessed and repented from.  God does not take sin lightly, so banish it, remove it, and have a pure, unadulterated, open relationship with Him. 

Quick Note – Genesis 20:6-7 – God’s Warning

Genesis 20:6-7 – Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me.  Therefore I did not let you touch her.  Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live.  But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”

Sarah, Abraham’s wife, must have been very beautiful.  Even when she was 90 years old, King Abimelech still wanted her to become his wife, so when Abraham said that she was his sister, Abimelech assumed she was single and took her to be his wife.  However, being already married and someone else’s wife, this was wrong.  So to prevent Abimelech from sinning, God spoke to him in a dream.  He warned Abimelech that what he was about to do was wrong and that he would have to pay the consequence of death if he chose to approach her.  It was then that Abimelech told God, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people?  Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’?  And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’  In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.”  Abimelech did not do anything wrong yet, but if he was not stopped he might have.  So God warned Abimelech to prevent him from sinning, even unintentionally.  It was then up to Abimelech whether he would continue to follow through with his plan and sin or if he would listen to God. 

Like Abimelech, sometimes we wander into sinful situations unknowingly.  It is in those moments that God intervenes to prevent us from sinning.  He will try to guard us; He will try to protect us; He will try to warn us about the consequences of falling into sin.  He will give us every opportunity to stop and to turn away.  It then becomes our decision whether we will listen.  God will not judge unfairly.  He is righteous and kind and for those who in their integrity do not want to sin but may fall into it, He will warn.  1 Corinthians 10:13 reminds us that God is faithful and will provide a way of escape when temptations arise.  It is up to us to listen. 

Abimelech in this story listened.  After hearing God’s warning, he gave Sarah back to Abraham untouched.  He heeded God’s warning and did not sin.  What will you do when God warns you? 

Quick Note – Judges 16:20 – The Entanglement of Sin

Judges 16:20 – And she said, “the Philistines are upon you, Samson!”  And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.”  But he did not know that the LORD had left him.

Addiction is not born at one time, but it is a bad habit that is built, because of many failings.  Whether it be to drugs, alcohol, pornography, television, shopping, gambling, etc., a person does not fall into this hole because of one incident, it is many occasions where one has given into the craving that leads to this imprisonment.  Sin, which encompasses many of these activities, is an addiction.  It begins with a little taste here, a little touch there, until finally, one is entrapped and cannot escape. 

Samson, one of the strongest men that ever lived, experienced this first-hand.  Samson was a mighty man selected by God from birth to be a judge and deliverer for Israel.  His job was not only to defeat the Philistines, who were oppressing Israel, but also to lead and guide them back to the LORD.  However, Samson had a tendency to fall into sexual sin.  Eventually, he fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who was paid by the Philistine leaders to seduce him, to determine where Samson got his strength, and to entrap him, so that they might capture him.  Judges 16 describes how Samson quickly fell into a hole.  The first time Delilah asked him about his strength, Samson lied to her and said that if he was tied with fresh bowstrings, he would lose his strength.  When she did that, he broke the strings and escaped.  The second time, Samson told her if he was tied with new ropes, he would lose his strength, and when she did that, he escaped again.  The third time, he told her if she weaved his hair and fastened it into a loom he would lose his strength, and once again, he escaped when she did that.  Finally, after constant pestering, she obtained her answer, when Samson told her that he was a Nazarite and if his hair was cut, he would lose his strength.  Being that he escaped three times before, although Samson likely knew that Delilah would cut his hair, he thought that he could escape again, which is why Judges 16:20 states, “And he awoke from his sleep and said, ‘I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.’”  However this time, he did not.  He fell into the trap, was captured by the Philistines, and even lost his two eyes.  Samson played with sin, and although he thought he would not get caught, the trap had sprung. 

Sin is the same with every Christian.  We may dabble in it, a little here and a little there, thinking that we will never fall into its trap.  When the consequences do not catch up to us right away, because of God’s mercy, we become a little bolder and dive deeper into it.  But as we keep entangling ourselves into its web, we, one day, find ourselves enslaved to what we were simply toying with before.  It is when we least expect it that the Devil devours us like a roaring lion.  Sin is tricky, deceptive, and dangerous like that.  Let us be careful to never take sin lightly.  We must never assume that we can shake ourselves free, for it is when we think we stand that we will fall.  Stay far away from sin that is the best way to avoid it.