Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 12:14, 17

14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.

17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.

Verse 14 shifts back to detailing the observances that are to be held by the Israelites each year at the Passover. The first thing that stands out to is that God tells the people that they are to observe this ritual “by an ordinance for ever.” Then He repeats that detail a second time in verse 17.

Of course, in my Christian faith I don’t keep the Passover as one of my religious observations, because I am not Jewish. Any Israelite blood that has entered my family line is probably very minimal, and I do not claim the captive Hebrews as my ancestors. On the other hand, today’s practicing Jews do still observe the Passover. The sacrificing of the lamb does not occur anymore, as there is no temple for them to perform those offerings, but they are still quite meticulous about meeting God’s directions on what types of food to eat, the absence of leaven, and the dates to be observed.

Of course there are some rituals, beliefs, and observations that have been continuous from the Jewish people to the Christians. For example, both groups have a form of baptism and both believe that we are God’s children. Others, however, seem to have been specific to the Israelite people and their direct descendants today, such as the Passover and the law of circumcision. Thus there are two types of religious observation, the specific and the universal. Each are sacred and have their place, but it is good for us to understand the distinction between them. Just because something is sacred and mandated by God does not necessarily mean it is mandated for everyone. Some of them are and some of them are not, and it is expected that we will each make ourselves aware of which category we fall within, and what is expected of us.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 12:12-13

12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.

13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

Here, at last, God explains the curse He is about to bring upon Egypt and how the blood of the lamb will save the Israelites from it. In many of the prior curses, God also put a separation between the Israelites and the Egyptians, but in each of those cases there was not anything that the Israelites had to do to receive that protection, it just came for granted. This final curse is unique in that the Israelites will still be separated, but only so long as they meet the requirement that God has given to them.

We see this same sort of idea in the Christian theology, where we believe that some gifts come to all, and some don’t. All people are saved from death by the resurrection, and no effort is required of us to receive this free gift, but at the same time Christ calls us to become perfected in him, and do the work that he gives us, that we may enjoy a oneness with him and the Father in heaven. Of course, even in the cases where some effort from the faithful is required, God’s grace is always still a factor. Even though the Israelites did the work of following God’s commands to kill the lamb and put its blood on their posts, there isn’t anything inherently life-saving in those actions. They only worked because God made them work by His grace. It is the same with our efforts to become more like Christ. They only work because of a miracle of transformation that God brings to our hearts.

Also, note in verse 12 that God is not merely doling out His judgment upon the Egyptian people, but also upon their gods. He had made mockery of their pagan beliefs before when He sent the murrain that slew their sacred flocks, and now He had His people slaying those same lambs, eating their flesh, and painting their blood on the doors for all to see. The Egyptians would consider all of these acts a spiritual desecration, yet the Israelites would blessed and preserved for doing it. God would therefore justify what the people of Egypt denounced, and He would denounce what the Egyptian gods had justified.

In short, there were multiple layers of destruction and humiliation facing the Egyptians this night, and when they awoke they would become a profoundly broken people.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 12:8-11

8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

9 Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.

10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.

11 And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s passover.

God provided further instructions for how the Passover meal was to be prepared. First, the lamb was to be roasted, not boiled, and all in a single piece: head, legs, and edible organs included. Other commentators have pointed out that roasting would have been the quickest way to prepare the food, beginning a theme of haste that we will see continued in the other details. Also, roasting is simpler than boiling, especially when it is an entire lamb that has to be cooked, and therefore more accessible to the simplest and poorest of the Israelites.

Secondly, with the lamb the Israelites were to have unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Unleavened bread is also a sign of haste, as they were not allowing time for the bread to rise. Bitter herbs are also quick to assemble and prepare. These two items also represent hardship, as leavened bread and sweeter herbs would be more pleasant to the taste, but the rougher alternatives are a more fitting match to the bondage that Israel had suffered for generations.

Finally, all of the food was to be consumed in a single night, and any leftovers burned with fire. A camp that is on the move, that needs to flee in the morning, has no purpose for leftovers and so it is tossed in the fire. This idea of being ready to move is further reinforced by the instruction that they eat dressed, with their shoes on, and the staff in their hands.

All this suddenness and haste and living by simple means is also reflected by Jesus’ later instruction that “no one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Jesus taught his disciples that when one was called to the work there was not be any excuse or delay. One had to be ready to drop all and move as directed. Jesus further told his disciples that when they preached the gospel, they were not to pack food or extra clothing, but to travel with the absolute minimum, trusting God to provide the rest. All of this echoes back to the ritual of the Israelites on the Passover. The true disciples and the chosen people are to be in a state of constant readiness, quick to move at the command of their Lord, content to cast everything aside to follow.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 12:6-7

6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.

Not only would the Israelites eat the sacrificial lamb, but they were also to streak its blood across their doorposts. We will soon read how this unique practice would protect the Israelites from the death of their firstborn. The blood of the lamb was being used to mark a home as housing God’s people, and His favor and protection would be upon them. This is obviously representative of Christ, the Lamb of God, whose blood was shed to also make us God’s people, and to similarly mark us for His protection and favor.

This is not the only representation in the killing of the lamb, though. As we have already discussed, sheep were one of the creatures that the Egyptians worshipped. God had already mocked that pagan worship by sending the murrain that killed their sacred flocks, now He would mock them again by having His people sacrifice the animals right before the Egyptians. Perhaps the Israelites would normally have been harmed for doing this, if not for the humbling that God would put upon the Egyptians immediately after.

Another possible symbol in killing the lamb and streaking its blood on the posts might have been that the lamb was innocent and young, just like the Israelite baby boys that the prior Pharaoh had ordered to be killed and thrown into the river. At the start of Moses’s campaign against the Egyptians he had drawn the blood out of the river, presumably to show that Egypt’s sins had not been hidden and washed away. God still remembered that evil and He had come to recompense. Thus, slaying the lamb and painting their doorposts with its blood might have been a way for the Israelites to signify that “we have already had our young and innocent slaughtered, therefore pass us over in this next doling out of death.”

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 12:3-5

3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:

4 And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.

5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:

God had instructed the Israelites to follow a new calendar, now He instructed them on a special feast to be held on the tenth day of the first month. This, of course, would be the Passover. The significance of this event would soon be made apparent, and every year afterward the tradition would be used to remind the Israelites of the events that came on the first Passover.

God instructed the Israelites that they must each kill and eat a lamb in its first year during the Passover. Aside from this, the requirements for this offering were quite lenient. It could be one lamb for each household, or one lamb for two households, and it could be a lamb of the sheep or of the goats. Given that this lamb would be a key instrument in God’s redemption of the Israelites, it seems appropriate that His instructions were very gracious and accommodating, fitted to the convenience of His people.

A lamb in its first year would mean that it came from the previous calendar year and it would not live to see the next. It was therefore a lamb “of the year,” and every lamb in every year would be a potential candidate for the sacrifice. Thus, each lamb’s fate would hang in the balance until their first Passover, at which point their fate would be sealed one way or the other.

This lamb was being used as a food, as the main item of the Passover meal, and that seems to be representative of how God’s grace provides the earthly nourishment that people require to survive. He lends us our breath, our water, our sources of food. The fact that this Passover nourishment came by means of the creature’s death seems to represent that there is a real cost and a real sacrifice behind God’s grace. It is not just some magical reserve that comes from nothing. God genuinely gives up something to provide for us. What exactly that is will only become more evident as we continue the analysis with tomorrow’s verses.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 12:1-2

1 And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,

2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

Israel might not have been released from Egypt’s control quite yet, but God already began setting down the laws and traditions that they were to follow as a free nation. And so, even as Moses was coming to the end of his role as Israel’s deliverer he was beginning his new role as Israel’s lawgiver.

The first instruction that the Lord had for Israel was that the current month was now to be the beginning of their calendar year. Clearly this was because Israel was about to have a new beginning. This month would be the month of their rebirth, the month of their re-creation. Every year after this would begin with a celebration and a reminder of when God had redeemed and reformed them, giving back their life and freedom when they were perished and lost.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Finding Christ in the Conscience

We’ve all heard the admonition to reflect on “what would Jesus do” and then conduct ourselves in the same manner. This advice brings up the question, though, of how do we know what Jesus would really do in our particular situation? In some cases he showed compassion and reservation, such as when he spared the woman caught in adultery. At other times he showed judgment and passion, such as when he turned the tables of the money-changers in the temple. How can we really know which way he would deal with each situation, or even the things he would do that don’t even occur naturally to our minds?

Anticipating the behavior of another person typically requires a deep and intimate knowledge of that person. This is something else we are encouraged to develop: a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus. We are told that we ought to know his personality, his manner, his attitude. But once again, how do we do that when he isn’t here in the flesh?

Of course, we can glean some of Christ’s personality and pattern of behavior from the Biblical account, and we might gain further insights through personal, spiritual experiences, but there is also a third way that is perhaps the most reliable method of them all. Jesus told his disciples: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). Paul later confirmed to the Corinthians that he had sensed this light of Christ shining within him: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). This light of Christ is in all of us, even in those who have not yet accepted Christ. It is the conscience that always persuades us to do what is right. And this conscience is the key to learning who he is.

When we feel our conscience whisper in our hearts and we follow its counsel, we are at the same time both learning the nature of Jesus Christ and also doing what he would do. The conscience is telling us how he would behave in this instance, and as we do the same we feel his emotions and desires come alive in our own hearts. Thus, the prick of the conscience is an invitation to actually be Christ for a moment, and we are educated to his nature from within our very own selves!

Of course, this is also why following our conscience typically feels so strange and unnatural to us. It almost always means setting aside our own personality and choices, and stepping into an entirely different personality and pattern of behavior. This is a hard thing to do, but the more we practice it the more natural it becomes. Bit-by-bit we will be transformed from our old nature into Christ’s, taking on his attitude and likeness until we become his true representative. Thus, we can come to a deeper and more intimate knowledge of Christ than any other person. We will know him even as ourselves, because we will ourselves be as him.

If you truly want to know who Christ is, the tool to do so is already there in your heart. Practice bending yourself to the light he has put in you, and you will become a foremost expert on who the man really is. And then, everyone who sees you will also see the image of their Savior, and learn of him by you.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Chicken or the Egg?

The Paradox)

We’ve all heard the classic dilemma, “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” Most people merely see this as an amusing puzzle, and quickly discard it as having no suitable answer.

But really, it is a very serious question, one that was posed by Aristotle himself over 2,400 years ago! The fact that we are still talking about it to this day, and still shrug it off without any clear explanation is a very alarming fact!

Now, to the creationist, the question really isn’t that troubling. If God created the Earth, the atmosphere, the seasons, and the universe as we know it, is it really any stretch to say that He could have architected the egg-bearing chicken also? And whether He did that with an egg or a mature fowl doesn’t really matter, He could have begun with either without any paradox.

But the materialist throws out the idea of an omnipotent creator, and puts in His place the forces of undirected, spontaneous evolution. Darwinism states that neither the chicken nor the egg came first, but a single-celled organism which, through a lengthy process of mutation and natural selection, developed into the species that we now call the chicken.

And I might concede that this would be a possibility, if we could agree that the evolution would have to have been a tool purposefully directed by the hands of an intelligent creator. But if one insists that this evolution occurred totally at random, which is the position of modern science, well that’s just plain ridiculous.

The Requirements)

Again, the proposal is that the chicken would have had to originate as some sort of single-celled organism, one which reproduced by dividing itself in half, but eventually it evolved into a creature that reproduced itself via a fertilized egg. This would mean that at some point in between there would have been a creature that still reproduced asexually, but which was also gradually developing sexual organs. Organs that eventually were able to produce and lay an egg, but initially this egg would not yet have been functional.

This means that the pre-chicken was expending energy and effort, giving up nutrients of its own body, subjecting itself to a more vulnerable state, all to produce something that was—for the time being—useless. And again, this might be acceptable if some Higher Power was requiring the life form to undergo this process, but it according to the laws of natural selection, this would mean that the species had a detrimental mutation which would have led to its extinction, not to its flourishing. This unnecessarily-handicapped pre-chicken simply would have been overrun by all the other variants that weren’t wasting energy laying undeveloped eggs.

And that’s just the matter of the chicken and the egg. But by itself, a female chicken still cannot produce a fertilized egg. Just as the species would have had to evolve from a replicating cell into a chicken that had embryonic and adult stages, it also would have had to evolve itself into male and female forms also. Thus it had go from being sexless to having sexed versions, but at least for a time those two halves would still have been reproducing asexually until they evolved into full sexual maturity. That means that there would now be two separate strands of random mutation, each evolving separately from one another, but somehow also in perfect tandem, developing in complementary ways, remaining compatible with one another once they both reached full sexual capability.

A Valid Question)

So as it turns out, the childhood question of “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” is actually a very weighty matter. It has all manner of scientific and metaphysical implications. 2,400 years later it still pokes holes in the most airtight theories of man and leaves us either with a stronger belief in our divine creator, or else a greater confusion of this inscrutable world.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Maintaining Hope in a Doomed World

A Vision of Destruction)

The Bible’s descriptions of the final days have struck fear into the hearts of many people. Even those who are otherwise unacquainted with the stories and messages of the Bible are still familiar with its visions of fire and brimstone raining down upon the world, destroying all the wicked, administering God’s judgment before the return of Christ. The passages also describe the terrible persecution that will first afflict the faithful, and that the world will ultimately reject the gospel message before they feel the wrath of heaven.

Given all this, it can be easy to feel pessimistic about ministry efforts in the world today. We’ve skipped ahead and read the end of the story and we already know that the world as a whole does not become convinced by the missionary efforts of the righteous. So why bother protesting evil? Why speak against the ways that society is moving towards its own destruction? The world is just going there anyway, so why not just separate yourself from it and live as a faithful hermit?

The Many and the One)

If, indeed, we are in the last days, there is a sort of logic to all those cynical, nihilistic questions. If we are fast approaching Armageddon, then no matter what we do the world is still doomed to fail, and so any effort on our part to save it are also doomed to fail.

But saving the world or abandoning it aren’t our only options.

Maintaining the light of hope and optimism, even in the midst of a world falling apart, only requires us to shift our perspective from the many to the one. I have made this point previously, that anyone who is focused on saving the whole world will be disappointed, but anyone who is focused on saving the individual may yet find success.

We could see ourselves as firefighters standing before a blazing building. Perhaps the fire has spread through too much of the structure to save it. Perhaps the whole thing is coming down no matter what we do. But what about the individuals that are trapped inside? There may yet be time to rush in and get as many of some of them as possible out to safety before it all comes crashing down!

Even if the earth is going to hell in a handbasket there is still a work for us to do, a challenge for us to meet, and a success for us to achieve. We can follow Christ’s admonition to stop fixating on the ninety-and-nine, and to go in search of the one, bringing it back with great rejoicing!

The fate of the world is already known, but the fate of you, your loved ones, and your neighbors still hangs in the balance.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 11:8-10

8 And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger.

9 And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you; that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.

10 And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh: and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land.

These three sentences appear to be a brief summation of everything that transpired between the Lord, Moses, and Pharaoh, following their first discussion. Pharaoh rejected God’s word, but the Lord told Moses that this served a greater purpose: to let the world witness His power and wonder. There then followed a series of plagues upon Egypt, and through it all Pharaoh continued to harden his heart.

If Pharaoh had relented after the first curse or two, it hardly seems that the story would have had the same impact and travelled far and wide. It truly is a remarkable thing to consider, that these events transpired some 3,500 years ago and are still so commonly known in the world today. If anyone ever doubts that the Bible is the bedrock of Western civilization they have only to ask themselves how many stories of the Hittite or Assyrian empires they know. Though the Israelite people were quite small, with virtually no impact on the larger world at the time of its liberation, theirs is the story that we know best today. And surely their freedom sticks so well in our minds because of its ten dramatic plagues being wrought one after another by the hand of the Lord.

As the Lord said in verse 9, His wonders were indeed multiplied. Multiplied in the doing, the telling, and the retelling, thousands and thousands of times over.