January 10, 2021 – Exodus 11-13

“The Lord said to Moses, “Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here” (11:1). Told you so! God intended for Israel to depart Egypt and go to Canaan, and depart Egypt and go to Canaan they certainly will. One more plague, though, and the Passover meal.

The significance of the Passover for Israel is clear: “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm” (Deuteronomy 5:15). For us, as John testified, Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). As the Passover lamb stood in the place of the Israelites, so Jesus stood in our place on the cross.

I have been reading the sermons of John Flavel, who preached in England in the 17th century. He reminds us, in that old English the Puritans employed (bulleted format by me): “And now we may say, Lord,

• the condemnation was thine, that the justification might be mine

• the agony thine, that the victory might be mine

• the pain was thine, and the ease mine

• the stripes thine, and the healing balm issuing from them mine

• the vinegar and gall were thine, that the honey and sweet might be mine

• the curse was thine, that the blessing might be mine

• the crown of thorns was thine, that the crown of glory might be mine

• the death was thine, the life purchased by it mine

• thou paidst the price that I might enjoy the inheritance. (Works of John Flavel, 1:101)

How precious is our Passover Lamb to us!