WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:01.520 Good morning, church. 00:00:02.720 --> 00:00:06.959 Today's reading is from Exodus 12, 29 through 36. 00:00:07.919 --> 00:00:21.039 At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborns in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. 00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:31.600 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:44.799 Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel, and go, serve the Lord as you have said. 00:00:48.320 --> 00:00:53.679 Take your flocks and your herds, and you have said, and be gone, and bless me also. 00:00:54.320 --> 00:01:01.200 The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, We shall all be dead. 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:07.760 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks and their shoulders. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:16.640 The people of Israel had also done as Moses had told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. 00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:24.400 And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they so that they let them have what they had asked for. 00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:26.799 Thus they plundered the Egyptians. 00:01:26.959 --> 00:01:28.159 This is the word of the Lord. 00:01:28.239 --> 00:01:29.200 Please be seated. 00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:33.680 Thanks. 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:35.599 Let's make a deal. 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:38.079 Good morning. 00:01:39.280 --> 00:01:41.040 Thank you all for joining us this morning. 00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:42.560 It's great to be together with you. 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:47.120 My name is James Rathman, I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver. 00:01:47.519 --> 00:01:51.359 And we are continuing through Exodus. 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:56.560 And here in Exodus, uh, we finally reach the Exodus. 00:01:56.719 --> 00:01:58.239 This is the day, the big day. 00:01:58.319 --> 00:01:59.519 They finally get out of Egypt. 00:01:59.599 --> 00:02:01.599 That's uh we've been waiting a long time for this. 00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:05.120 So let's pray together and then we'll move through our text for the day. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:13.360 Father in heaven, we praise you that you hear our groaning. 00:02:14.479 --> 00:02:17.039 You hear our groaning under the weight of sin. 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:21.680 And Lord, you come towards us to perform our rescue. 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:33.840 Lord, we find ourselves trapped in a place that we cannot get out of, Lord, that we are under a deep oppression, and that we even welcome in and agree with the oppression that we are under. 00:02:34.479 --> 00:02:43.759 Lord, I pray that you would open our eyes, that we might see the wonders of your glory, that we might pursue you above all else. 00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:56.719 Lord, I pray that you would work in our hearts in order that we might see the loveliness that you offer us, Lord, and that we might see plainly that you are our rescuer. 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:06.560 Father, I pray that you would show us how real you are, that you are the most real. 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:15.759 Lord, that you would reorient our hearts to love you, that you would transform our hearts by cleansing us from sin. 00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:23.120 Lord, we praise you that you promise us all these things in Christ Jesus, and we lift this up in Jesus' name. 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:23.840 Amen. 00:03:26.080 --> 00:03:34.240 So the Exodus, this event, is the central sacred event of the Old Testament. 00:03:34.479 --> 00:03:41.840 It's the most referenced event throughout the scriptures, and it is the central sacred event of the Old Testament. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:50.240 As we move through Ecclesiastes this summer, we saw that our hearts long for an experience of the sacred. 00:03:50.639 --> 00:03:55.520 And we cannot make sense of our lives outside of an experience of the sacred. 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:02.319 Now, sacred, what do I mean when I say that? 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:10.159 I just simply mean that which is set apart, consecrated, made holy. 00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:20.639 That is something that touches the transcendent, but that we are able to experience here in the imminent. 00:04:21.680 --> 00:04:28.639 And those become these anchors that show us the reality of the work of God in the world. 00:04:29.360 --> 00:04:37.519 And then they allow us to orient ourselves towards the reality of God in the world, and then that transforms our hearts. 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:54.160 One helpful definition of the sacred that I've heard is an encounter with the sacred is an encounter with that which is most real, which is most orienting, and that which is most transformative. 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:57.839 That is the experience of the sacred. 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:06.319 Okay, so when you're if you're taking notes, if you're a kid in here and you're thinking, what should I be paying attention to throughout this sermon? 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:12.720 Listen up for those words, the most real, the most orienting. 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:17.360 That's a weird word, but it just means that it's how you can tell which way you're going. 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:21.120 It's like if you're hiking to the top of a mountain, you want to be able to see the top of the mountain. 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:23.040 It's how you orient your direction. 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:25.360 And most transforming. 00:05:25.519 --> 00:05:29.040 So most real, most orienting, most transforming. 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:36.959 We know that we desire those encounters with the most real, most orienting, most transforming. 00:05:37.040 --> 00:05:42.399 It's why many of you packed up your U-Hauls and you moved to Colorado. 00:05:42.879 --> 00:05:46.639 It's because you wanted mountains, Gandalf. 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:49.199 You wanted to see the mountains again. 00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:53.920 That's what the and you because you've had this experience of seeing these things and they're like the most real. 00:05:54.240 --> 00:05:56.480 You know, it's five, they're so stable. 00:05:56.800 --> 00:06:04.639 They're so profound, and they're most orienting, especially on the front range, because you can tell which way's west. 00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:06.639 And they're most transformative. 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:08.800 They maybe there would be this hope. 00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:12.959 You know, you thought when you moved out here that you would live this life of constant adventures. 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:15.759 And now it's been a while and it's just life. 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:17.519 You know, it's just life. 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:20.560 But there's this longing, and they keep calling to us. 00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:32.800 You know, the mountains keep what they're calling, you know, the mountains are calling, and uh that's the extent of John Muir that I've read is bumper stickers. 00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:40.240 But those uh an encounter with those sorts of things, it's most real, it's most orienting, most transformative. 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:42.079 You you remember that experience. 00:06:43.759 --> 00:06:47.759 So if you have an experience like that, that's an experience of the sacred. 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:51.279 Here's what it might sound like if you have an experience like that. 00:06:51.439 --> 00:06:54.800 You would describe it in terms of an encounter with something real. 00:06:54.959 --> 00:07:00.399 It would be like a, it would transform you, it'd be like you were born again, an experience like that. 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:03.120 It would, it would, you would orient yourself towards it. 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:09.759 It would be like, here's a here's the way that I would say it if I were to just describe like what an experience of seeing the mountains for the first time was like. 00:07:09.839 --> 00:07:14.079 I would say like he was born in the summer of his 27th year. 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:18.720 Coming home to a place he'd never seen before. 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:23.759 Left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born again. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:27.519 You might say he found the key for every door. 00:07:28.079 --> 00:07:30.000 That's who is it? 00:07:31.199 --> 00:07:34.399 John Denver, patron saint of our city. 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:40.160 But you hear his description, that's a description of the sacred. 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:44.720 It's an encounter with the sacred, and we know that our hearts long for that. 00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:57.759 But a sacred event, you know, when this happens at a real scale, not just a 27-year-old who comes to Denver and is like, I'm gonna I'm going to name myself after this. 00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:01.600 You know, that he loved the mountains, I think. 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:11.439 And there was a uh it's it when that happens at a personal level, then it's like there's this wonder and it's romantic and it's and it's this reorienting experience of the sacred. 00:08:11.519 --> 00:08:19.120 When that happens at a civilizational level, sacred events at a civilizational level are horrifying. 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:26.639 Events that are the most that become the most real for a people. 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:46.480 An encounter with that which is most real, events which become the most orienting, which is that they they reform the world, they reform the structures that we inhabit in the world, and the events that become the most transformative, they rename a people. 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:49.200 These are horrifying events. 00:08:49.679 --> 00:09:09.279 These are events like the sack of Jerusalem in AD 70, the Jewish wars in Rome, a temple destroyed, a people nearly annihilated, and a sacrificial system that lasted thousands and thousands of years never to happen again. 00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:12.879 Gone off the face of the earth. 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:21.039 The Norman sack of England in 1066, a whole way of life that had been taking place in England forever, gone. 00:09:21.759 --> 00:09:24.000 Never to be returned to again. 00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:31.039 The dropping of the atom bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945. 00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:36.399 It is a global shifting event. 00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:40.799 A terror, a terrible event. 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:47.200 You remember where you were on 9-11? 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:50.000 I was in fifth grade, Mrs. 00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:55.919 Cotton's class, and kids around me just suddenly started getting checked out of school. 00:09:56.159 --> 00:09:58.320 And I was full of envy. 00:09:59.919 --> 00:10:01.919 So that's a fifth grader's memory of it. 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:13.039 But then I was, I was, you know, got home later, was informed of the events, and the days started to come together, and I I I grew up a little that day. 00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:23.440 These events are the most real, they're the most orienting, they're the most transformational. 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:25.840 It's a sacred event. 00:10:27.039 --> 00:10:27.919 A sacred event. 00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:29.600 We memorialize them. 00:10:32.159 --> 00:10:38.399 The Exodus is the central sacred event of the Old Testament. 00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:45.039 And we'll see that it is most real, most orienting, and most transformational. 00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:52.240 But it points us towards the most sacred event in all of history. 00:10:53.200 --> 00:11:06.320 And I hope that we'll see that that event, which is the event of Jesus Christ, is for us the most real, most orienting, most transformational. 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:22.720 So the most real in Exodus 12, 29 to 36, at midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. 00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:33.840 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:42.399 The midnight that Moses had warned Pharaoh about to his face, that Pharaoh had ignored, has arrived. 00:11:43.519 --> 00:11:51.600 And now there is not a house in Egypt in which someone is not dead. 00:11:53.519 --> 00:11:56.799 The way that the text describes it is almost horrifying in its plainness. 00:11:56.960 --> 00:12:00.159 There was not a house where someone was not dead. 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:06.320 A great cry goes up in Egypt. 00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:11.600 It's an unimaginable horror. 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:15.360 What takes place in Egypt. 00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:25.120 It is an encounter with something that is undeniably real, although they would have wished to deny it. 00:12:25.679 --> 00:12:32.000 It is the type of thing which, it is the type of reality which is truly, it is a true horror. 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:42.799 It is an event which thrusts itself upon you, which you would desperately like to deny, but you find yourself unable to deny because it is too real. 00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:46.240 It's too real. 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:48.240 And what is it that they had experienced? 00:12:48.399 --> 00:12:58.320 They had experienced that the judgment of God is precise and absolute. 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:04.240 And it reframes all of what the previous nine plagues had been. 00:13:04.399 --> 00:13:11.519 We see that the previous nine plagues, although they were catastrophic in their measure, they were warnings. 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:18.799 The previous nine plagues were all opportunities for repentance. 00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:27.440 And what's discovered here is that the opportunity for repentance has passed. 00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:35.200 And what has come instead is the judgment of God on the nation of Egypt. 00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:45.679 They might have thought that it had been forgotten that all the Hebrew boys under Pharaoh were murdered. 00:13:46.720 --> 00:13:48.080 God had not forgotten. 00:13:48.960 --> 00:13:55.600 They realized that there is a justice and a judgment that is most real. 00:13:57.120 --> 00:14:08.000 And so that morning, in the house, in every house in Egypt, there were dead people and crying people. 00:14:09.440 --> 00:14:10.399 Most real. 00:14:12.240 --> 00:14:24.320 So then Pharaoh responds in verses 31 through 32, then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, Up, go out from my people, both you and the people of Israel, and go serve the Lord as you have said. 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:29.600 Take your flocks and your herds as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also. 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:38.080 What the absolute judgment of God creates, what it affects in Pharaoh is unconditional surrender. 00:14:38.399 --> 00:14:41.120 This is the first time this has been offered by Pharaoh. 00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:47.519 Pharaoh has refused to send out the people of God, and he's refused to send them out completely. 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:52.240 He'll send out just the men, but keep for himself the women and children. 00:14:52.399 --> 00:14:56.799 He'll send them out as a whole people, but he'll keep for himself their flocks and herds. 00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:05.519 But now the surrender is absolute and unconditional because the judgment of God is most real. 00:15:06.159 --> 00:15:13.759 It is more real than the apparently absolute authority of Pharaoh. 00:15:17.039 --> 00:15:23.759 It turns out, and Pharaoh learns this, there was something above him the whole time. 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:26.240 Most real. 00:15:31.120 --> 00:15:33.600 He says, and bless me also. 00:15:36.320 --> 00:15:43.120 Pharaoh is now trying to offer something like something like repentance. 00:15:45.519 --> 00:15:46.559 It isn't. 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:47.600 It isn't. 00:15:48.799 --> 00:15:51.840 It's not repentance at this point, it's defeat. 00:15:53.679 --> 00:15:55.120 It's a cry of defeat. 00:15:55.519 --> 00:15:57.919 It's the other side of judgment. 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:08.320 It's the grand reveal at the end of the story where you where Pharaoh realizes he's been reading this wrong the whole time. 00:16:09.919 --> 00:16:15.759 Because what he's acknowledging is he is not the one who is able to bless. 00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:18.960 He is the one who requires the blessing. 00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:21.519 It is the greater who blesses the lesser. 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:28.000 And he realizes there is something greater above him, but Moses does not respond to Pharaoh anymore. 00:16:28.240 --> 00:16:32.080 The time for repentance has passed. 00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:41.840 And so he looks back and he realizes these catastrophes that he had been experiencing through these plagues. 00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:43.840 This was not judgment. 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:47.840 This was opportunity. 00:16:49.840 --> 00:16:53.519 So it's opportunity to recognize the true God as the true God. 00:16:53.600 --> 00:17:01.679 And he looks back on all of those now longingly, realizing the opportunity for repentance has passed. 00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:05.279 Exodus is a ter is a terrifying warning. 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:11.200 The time for repentance is today. 00:17:13.440 --> 00:17:20.799 Because there is a time that is coming for all of us where the time for repentance will have passed. 00:17:23.680 --> 00:17:26.319 That is a sacred event. 00:17:28.400 --> 00:17:39.039 The time for repentance, the time for forgiveness, the time for faith is today, just as it was for Pharaoh. 00:17:39.359 --> 00:17:42.880 Because at your death it will be too late. 00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:46.799 Pharaoh sees this. 00:17:47.119 --> 00:17:48.480 It's a picture of that. 00:17:50.720 --> 00:17:55.759 He encounters the most real in the judgment of God. 00:17:56.880 --> 00:18:00.079 And we'll see that it is the most orienting. 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:14.240 Because the orientation of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh as the beacon at which the whole civilization is oriented towards will now completely shift. 00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:18.400 Exodus 12, 33. 00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:21.359 The Egyptians, the Egyptians, so not Pharaoh, right? 00:18:21.920 --> 00:18:28.319 He was too, but the Egyptians, just the people, were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:31.279 For they said, We shall all be dead. 00:18:32.799 --> 00:18:36.319 There's a whole new orientation towards one another. 00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:40.720 Between the Egyptians and their slaves. 00:18:41.279 --> 00:18:46.480 It is no longer an orientation of possession and oppression. 00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:50.319 But the orientation is completely flipped. 00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:57.119 It is one of release and fear. 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:02.640 Do you see the radical nature of this flip? 00:19:03.759 --> 00:19:10.079 Their slaves are now who they are masters over are now, that is now the ones that they fear. 00:19:11.759 --> 00:19:18.079 Because they are no longer oriented towards Pharaoh as the one who stands in the place of God for the people. 00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:20.480 Now they are oriented towards Moses. 00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:21.440 Why? 00:19:21.599 --> 00:19:24.640 Because they had encountered the most real. 00:19:25.279 --> 00:19:29.119 There is an authority that is more real than Pharaoh. 00:19:32.799 --> 00:19:40.000 You know, the most the most high power that any of us can imagine are our nations. 00:19:41.680 --> 00:19:47.920 You know, you think of the the power of the B-2 bomber. 00:19:49.519 --> 00:19:53.200 I saw it once at the Indy 500. 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:58.240 It flew over and it was like it took our breath away to see. 00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:02.240 It was like it, I I swear they were flying that thing like 20 miles an hour. 00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:06.319 They're flying at like walking speed over the it was like that's impossible. 00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:07.920 It should just be falling out of the sky. 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:10.240 It should just fall down to the sky. 00:20:11.359 --> 00:20:15.680 It's an unimaginable sort of power that we have. 00:20:18.400 --> 00:20:20.640 And there's something above it. 00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:23.359 Pharaoh had that type of power. 00:20:23.440 --> 00:20:28.400 He could point his civilization towards any challenge that he desired. 00:20:30.319 --> 00:20:34.079 And they would overcome it, accomplish it on his behalf. 00:20:35.359 --> 00:20:41.119 No other leader of any civilization at that time could come close to what Pharaoh represented. 00:20:41.359 --> 00:20:44.640 How could he possibly imagine that there was anything above him? 00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:51.200 And now the people see there was something above Pharaoh. 00:20:52.319 --> 00:20:54.880 There's someone more powerful than Pharaoh. 00:20:55.440 --> 00:21:01.039 There is a power, an authority far more real than Pharaoh. 00:21:01.119 --> 00:21:05.680 It is a completely reorienting experience. 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:15.279 And it's not just for the Egyptians, because it's also a completely reorienting experience for the Israelites. 00:21:17.119 --> 00:21:36.000 Because whatever doubts they had had, remember when Moses first went to Pharaoh, and then it was was uh Pharaoh's response was to punish the Hebrew slaves more by causing them to make more bricks without straw. 00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:45.279 Then the Hebrews come to Moses and they say, See, you're trying to go up against Pharaoh, and it's just making things worse for us. 00:21:47.039 --> 00:21:50.880 And so they have this ambiguous relationship towards Moses. 00:21:51.279 --> 00:21:52.559 The Hebrew people do. 00:21:52.720 --> 00:21:56.079 But now they themselves have encountered the most real. 00:21:58.640 --> 00:22:04.880 They see themselves Moses is the one who represents the true God. 00:22:06.400 --> 00:22:09.200 And the true God is the God of us. 00:22:12.079 --> 00:22:13.839 He is our true God. 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:18.480 The God of our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 00:22:18.720 --> 00:22:22.400 He is the one who has promised to set us free. 00:22:22.559 --> 00:22:24.960 And look, he's done it. 00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:31.920 And so it's this, it's like this totalizing conversion, this total shift for them. 00:22:32.079 --> 00:22:39.920 What are the highest powers we can imagine of Pharaoh and of our nation and who the true gods are? 00:22:40.160 --> 00:22:48.960 We've seen it is now most real because in every home in Egypt it is full of dead and crying. 00:22:49.039 --> 00:22:54.640 And in every home of the Hebrews, there was a lament and a feast. 00:23:17.279 --> 00:23:25.039 A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. 00:23:25.279 --> 00:23:27.519 Look at this Exodus. 00:23:28.400 --> 00:23:32.799 Six hundred thousand men besides women and children march out of Ramses. 00:23:34.160 --> 00:23:42.160 Two to three million people are leaving Egypt. 00:23:44.319 --> 00:23:46.240 Two to three million people. 00:23:46.880 --> 00:23:56.160 When they entered Egypt, remember at the end of Genesis when the Hebrew people moved to Egypt for the food? 00:23:57.519 --> 00:23:59.119 There were 70. 00:24:00.559 --> 00:24:02.079 70 of them. 00:24:03.119 --> 00:24:06.960 Now the Lord has grown them into a nation in their own right. 00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:09.359 70 is a family reunion. 00:24:10.400 --> 00:24:18.319 And for it we used to go to my mom's family reunion every year in South Carolina. 00:24:19.200 --> 00:24:25.200 And there were like 400 people there that I didn't know at all. 00:24:25.599 --> 00:24:28.720 But there I was related to them in some regards. 00:24:28.799 --> 00:24:33.519 So it's like it's like a less than a quarter of a family reunion. 00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:34.400 70 people. 00:24:34.559 --> 00:24:36.480 Now two to three million. 00:24:36.559 --> 00:24:38.640 They're a nation as they enter. 00:24:38.720 --> 00:24:41.599 The faithfulness of God to them is just unimaginable. 00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:43.920 But look, look at this, because it's even more than that. 00:24:44.079 --> 00:24:47.279 That's just the people, the Israelites that walk out. 00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:52.960 They all leave, and it but there's something more wonderful. 00:24:53.039 --> 00:24:56.480 It's a mixed multitude that walks out. 00:24:56.640 --> 00:24:57.599 A mixed multitude. 00:24:57.759 --> 00:24:59.279 Do you know what that means? 00:24:59.599 --> 00:25:03.839 It means Egyptians are leaving with them. 00:25:06.559 --> 00:25:09.599 Do you see this reorientation? 00:25:11.599 --> 00:25:27.759 The Egyptians who are saying you can't leave, have had an encounter with the most real, and they're saying, not only must you leave, but wherever you're going, we're going with you. 00:25:28.400 --> 00:25:31.279 Because there is a higher God than Pharaoh. 00:25:31.440 --> 00:25:36.799 And the gods that we had learned, we are foolish to have worshiped them. 00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:44.880 Instead, we are going to follow the God of our slaves. 00:25:49.759 --> 00:25:53.680 It's an unthinkable reorientation. 00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:58.000 Just the the conversations among them must have been it must have been. 00:26:00.160 --> 00:26:02.400 Your God was the God of the whole time. 00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:08.000 You're we're we're following you. 00:26:08.160 --> 00:26:09.279 You're free. 00:26:14.640 --> 00:26:17.839 Such is the sacredness of this event. 00:26:18.880 --> 00:26:23.599 The total reorienting by an encounter with the most real. 00:26:23.839 --> 00:26:33.200 Verse 41 through 42 At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:38.319 It was a night of watching by the Lord to bring them out of the land of Egypt. 00:26:38.480 --> 00:26:45.200 So this same night is a night of watching, kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations. 00:26:45.599 --> 00:26:53.440 After 430 years, the Israelites walk out and they bring Egyptians with them. 00:26:53.839 --> 00:26:58.079 You know, 430 years, that's hard to capture in terms of time. 00:26:58.640 --> 00:27:01.119 But uh so here's one. 00:27:01.279 --> 00:27:06.640 The Mayflower was 413 years ago. 00:27:08.240 --> 00:27:15.599 So it's a longer than longer than, you know, all of this that's been going on. 00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:21.599 This is a this is a a a leaving of home. 00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:29.920 Just like you leaving and and never coming back to this continent. 00:27:32.559 --> 00:27:35.200 This is a deep leaving of home. 00:27:35.279 --> 00:27:46.319 Now the 430 years, it's a it's a difficult thing to grasp because it's not the the reference is actually 430 years since Abraham's call. 00:27:47.839 --> 00:28:02.079 Because for that 430 years, they had been a wandering people who have been in the land of the offspring of Mitzraim, which is the Hebrew word for Egypt. 00:28:02.799 --> 00:28:06.880 But it's also the offspring of the people who are the Philistines. 00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:25.440 So the scripture sees this as not just a civilization, but as also this lineage, this lineage that the people of promise have been living among, never having a homeland of their own. 00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:29.680 But now they walk out towards that homeland. 00:28:31.200 --> 00:28:36.240 And it is a night of watching, and it is a night that is set up as an institution. 00:28:36.640 --> 00:28:38.319 We remember the Passover. 00:28:38.640 --> 00:28:43.920 It is set up as an institution because this night is to be remembered, it is to be passed down throughout the generations. 00:28:44.079 --> 00:28:44.559 Why is that? 00:28:44.720 --> 00:28:50.880 It is so that all of the people would orient themselves towards this sacred event. 00:28:51.519 --> 00:28:54.720 That this would be the binding event where they would say, What happened? 00:28:54.799 --> 00:28:57.839 What is the thing that we gather together to celebrate as a people? 00:28:58.000 --> 00:28:59.440 What is it that we remember? 00:28:59.599 --> 00:29:00.880 What is our North Star? 00:29:01.039 --> 00:29:02.960 What do we orient ourselves towards? 00:29:03.119 --> 00:29:04.000 What guides us? 00:29:04.160 --> 00:29:04.799 What do we know? 00:29:04.960 --> 00:29:08.880 We know that God was faithful to save us. 00:29:09.200 --> 00:29:19.279 When we could not save ourselves, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, He conquered our enemies while we feasted. 00:29:21.519 --> 00:29:23.599 And he set us free. 00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:31.759 At great cost, the killing of all the firstborn sons of Egypt. 00:29:32.720 --> 00:29:34.720 We walked out free. 00:29:39.039 --> 00:29:53.039 That is the central principle of the nation that God is forming for himself, of the people that God is forming for himself, that they are the ones that are saved and rescued by God. 00:29:53.279 --> 00:29:56.400 Every nation has a highest organizing principle. 00:29:56.720 --> 00:29:59.920 For Egypt, it was Pharaoh. 00:30:01.920 --> 00:30:06.400 He was the God man, the son of Ra. 00:30:08.160 --> 00:30:15.039 He held all of the order of the people together, and whatever he said would be absolute and would happen. 00:30:15.279 --> 00:30:19.759 He is the highest organizing principle of the nation. 00:30:22.079 --> 00:30:28.720 But now they see that this was an insufficient authority. 00:30:30.559 --> 00:30:36.160 There is a true authority over all nations. 00:30:38.799 --> 00:30:46.000 There is one true story that we all must organize ourselves around. 00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:49.519 There is a true highest principle. 00:30:50.240 --> 00:30:52.319 There is a true God. 00:30:54.720 --> 00:30:58.720 The nation of Israel sees this plainly, clearly. 00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:02.720 There was someone above Pharaoh. 00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:04.880 And they follow him. 00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:08.240 Most transformational. 00:31:08.640 --> 00:31:12.880 Most real, most orienting, most transformational. 00:31:13.200 --> 00:31:14.799 Exodus 12, 43. 00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:19.200 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, This is the statute of the Passover. 00:31:19.359 --> 00:31:21.119 No foreigner shall eat of it. 00:31:21.279 --> 00:31:29.519 So after this, we see uh a um the Lord communicates the Passover again. 00:31:29.759 --> 00:31:35.680 And we've already heard the instructions for the Passover, what it would look like, what why uh why this would happen. 00:31:35.839 --> 00:31:38.559 Why is the Lord now here after the Exodus? 00:31:38.720 --> 00:31:41.200 Why is the Lord communicating the Passover again? 00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:49.039 It's because there's all these Egyptians who they didn't hear it the first time. 00:31:49.839 --> 00:31:53.200 This was a Passover rite given to the Israelites. 00:31:53.440 --> 00:31:59.440 And so the Lord reinstitutes the Passover for this mixed multitude that comes in. 00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:01.920 And look at how transformational it is. 00:32:02.079 --> 00:32:03.680 This is the statute of the Passover. 00:32:03.759 --> 00:32:05.119 Here's this first limit. 00:32:05.359 --> 00:32:07.920 No foreigner shall eat of it. 00:32:08.319 --> 00:32:11.519 Now, look at this flip. 00:32:12.079 --> 00:32:14.160 Who are the foreigners now? 00:32:16.559 --> 00:32:20.319 It's not the Hebrew, the Hebrew people are no longer the foreigners. 00:32:21.680 --> 00:32:23.680 The Egyptians are the foreigners. 00:32:25.119 --> 00:32:28.400 Because there's a whole new nation that's formed now. 00:32:28.480 --> 00:32:32.559 There's a whole new world, a dazzling place I never knew. 00:32:33.759 --> 00:32:37.680 It's all reframed, it's all reformed under this higher principle. 00:32:38.480 --> 00:32:39.599 There's this incredible flip. 00:32:39.680 --> 00:32:41.119 But what has happened there? 00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:49.920 What's happened is it's it's precisely what God had promised would happen to Abraham. 00:32:51.359 --> 00:32:53.279 This is the moment that they are in. 00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:19.680 Now they're leaving. 00:33:21.039 --> 00:33:29.920 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 00:33:30.240 --> 00:33:35.839 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse. 00:33:36.400 --> 00:33:41.200 And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 00:33:41.359 --> 00:33:49.279 We have seen him curse Pharaoh for the dishonor that he had given the people of God and God himself. 00:33:50.640 --> 00:33:58.079 But look at this in you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. 00:33:58.240 --> 00:34:09.199 So, what is this restriction where the foreigners are not able to come and participate in the Passover, which it looks like, in a sense, had become their Passover? 00:34:09.760 --> 00:34:11.920 Because they are leaving with the people of God. 00:34:12.079 --> 00:34:18.159 They have experienced the most real, they have been reoriented towards the true God. 00:34:18.719 --> 00:34:19.760 What is the opportunity? 00:34:20.480 --> 00:34:27.280 Could they be, could the Egyptians be transformed into the people of God? 00:34:28.719 --> 00:34:34.639 So that God might say, You are my people, and the Egyptians might say, You are my God. 00:34:34.800 --> 00:34:37.440 Could they speak the covenant in that way? 00:34:37.599 --> 00:34:41.039 It seems like there's a hope of this here. 00:34:43.280 --> 00:34:44.559 And there is. 00:34:53.599 --> 00:34:57.119 Listen to this in the Exodus 12, 48 through 49. 00:34:57.519 --> 00:35:07.280 If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. 00:35:08.079 --> 00:35:11.360 Then he may come near and keep it. 00:35:12.159 --> 00:35:19.679 He shall be as a native of the land, but no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. 00:35:20.239 --> 00:35:25.920 There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you. 00:35:26.079 --> 00:35:29.199 Look at how the look at how God has formed his people. 00:35:29.440 --> 00:35:39.920 These people who are now suddenly foreigners in the land, who are now declared in the plainest terms by God, you are not my people. 00:35:40.400 --> 00:35:47.840 The Lord comes and reinstitutes the Passover to this mixed multitude, and he says to them, Come be my people. 00:35:52.000 --> 00:35:54.639 Take on this sign of the covenant. 00:35:54.880 --> 00:36:00.639 They'd say, but that was a sign that was given to Abraham and to Abraham's offspring. 00:36:00.719 --> 00:36:07.199 And you can imagine the Hebrews were probably thinking, Hebrew people are probably thinking like this, but they're not the offspring of Abraham. 00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:13.920 How can they come in and be treated just like they're no longer strangers in this new land? 00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:15.440 Wasn't that half the point of it? 00:36:15.599 --> 00:36:20.480 And God is saying, What makes you my people is being a child of the promise. 00:36:21.199 --> 00:36:25.920 Because the true children of Abraham are the children of the promise. 00:36:26.159 --> 00:36:27.840 And what is the sign of the promise? 00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:29.280 It is circumcision. 00:36:29.519 --> 00:36:31.840 And so take this sign upon you. 00:36:32.159 --> 00:36:36.000 Come in by faith, take this sign upon you. 00:36:36.079 --> 00:36:40.320 And this problem, and this promise will be for you and for your offspring. 00:36:40.559 --> 00:36:43.199 And then come, eat the meal. 00:36:45.599 --> 00:36:47.760 Because this has been the shape of it the whole time. 00:36:47.920 --> 00:37:00.079 The promise to Abraham is that he will be a blessing to all the nations, that all the families of the world will be blessed in this promise to Abraham. 00:37:00.239 --> 00:37:06.960 The blessing was always to the nation of Israel, to the people of Israel. 00:37:07.039 --> 00:37:13.119 The promise was always for all the nations of the world. 00:37:15.119 --> 00:37:19.760 And we see that happen as they are brought out into this mixed multitude. 00:37:19.840 --> 00:37:25.760 And so there shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you. 00:37:25.840 --> 00:37:28.960 They are all brought under the one true God. 00:37:29.119 --> 00:37:33.119 If you live in this land, then you are under the laws of the one true God. 00:37:33.199 --> 00:37:41.119 And you have opportunity to come into full, faithful participation where God would say, You are my people, I am your God. 00:37:41.360 --> 00:37:46.800 And the Egyptians would say, But you, you, how is this, how has this become my rescue? 00:37:46.960 --> 00:37:50.559 How am I brought into the covenant people of the one true God? 00:37:50.800 --> 00:38:05.440 It would say, by the rescue that I accomplished, by the by this judgment, which was a freedom for them, it was first to the Jew, but it's also to you if you were to if you would come in and you would receive it, if you if you would take this. 00:38:08.800 --> 00:38:12.239 The Exodus is a sacred event. 00:38:15.280 --> 00:38:20.559 It is just this world reorganizing, this transformation. 00:38:21.280 --> 00:38:25.199 You know, you just think of that walk from Ramses to Suckoth. 00:38:27.119 --> 00:38:31.440 You think we've got to, and they're they're all walking out together. 00:38:31.679 --> 00:38:50.159 And the the Hebrew people are walking out where with the clothing of the Egyptians, not slaves' garments, with the clothing of the Egyptians and their earrings and their gold and their bracelets and their, you know, I've seen movies, and Egyptians have a lot of stuff on them. 00:38:50.239 --> 00:38:53.840 That's how you can tell that they're Egyptians. 00:38:53.920 --> 00:39:00.800 And then the Egyptians are walking with them, and they're looking at them and they're like, oh, well, that's I remember when that was mine. 00:39:00.880 --> 00:39:02.320 It looks nice on you. 00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:18.159 But wherever you I what they're saying is the glory that has been given to you, by faith I I want to share in. 00:39:24.159 --> 00:39:29.760 So this is the same story that we tell. 00:39:30.320 --> 00:39:33.840 This is the story of the good news to the Gentiles. 00:39:34.639 --> 00:39:40.320 This is the story of the one who came to rescue, who was from the Jews. 00:39:41.119 --> 00:39:48.719 Salvation comes from the promise that was given to this people, but it is for the world. 00:39:50.880 --> 00:39:54.400 And the way that this salvation comes is in the same way. 00:39:55.039 --> 00:40:14.719