DCLM Search The Scripture Youth For January 8, 2023 : Topic – The Passover And Israel’s Exodus
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YOUTH STS
LESSON 44
THE PASSOVER AND ISRAEL’S EXODUS
TEXT: Exodus 12:1-51; 13:1-22
MEMORY VERSE: And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:41).
After several messages from the Lord through Moses to Pharaoh to let go the children of Israel from Egypt, the Lord visited Egypt with this last plague because of Pharaoh’s hardened heart and refusal to heed His warning. God’s judgment on Egypt is to be a lesson to all youths in every generation that God always sends warnings to man before judgment.
Question 1: Having understood God’s judgment on Egypt, what should be the responsibility of Christian youths to the unsaved?
It is our responsibility as Christian youth to warn unrepentant sinners of the impending doom awaiting them, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences” (2 Corinthians 5: 11). Moses, in this chapter, communicates to the Israelites the message that would usher them to their last miracle and open unto them a way of escape from their bondage in Egypt. Their obedience brings the blessing of this unforgettable experience scripturally described as the Passover and their exodus from Egypt.
THE ORDINANCE OF THE PASSOVER INSTITUTED (Exodus 12:1-42; Isaiah 53:3-7; John 6:33-35,48-51; 2 Corinthians 2:14-16; Romans 9: 17,22; Hebrews 9: 13, 14)
God instituted the ordinance of Passover as an event to prepare the children of Israel for their movement from Egypt. He instructed Moses and Aaron to pass the message across to the Israelites. Each household or combination of households were to choose a year-old lamb or goat without blemish, kill it and use its blood to make a mark on their houses’ door posts. This sacrifice was divinely appointed as a substitute for the first born that would have died in the plague and commemorate the night that the Lord passed over the homes of Israelites marked by the blood. “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” (Exodus 12:13). This ordinance is to be observed annually.
Question 2: What does the lamb without blemish symbolise?
“Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats” (Exodus 12:5). The lamb used for the passover was a year old and was spotless and without blemish. For any Christian youth to Offer anything to God, it must be the best and free from fault. The lamb symbolises Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God that takes away our sins. The duration of eating the unleavened bread was seven days, Without leaven found anywhere in their houses. Leaven in their houses symbolizes sin. “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” ( 1 Corinthians 5:7). Moses, a faithful servant of God, delivered His message as sent to Pharaoh and to the children of Israel. Pharaoh hardened his heart after pronouncements of God’s judgment on Egypt. This led to the final plague of the death of the entire first born in the land. “He, that being often reproved and hardened his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy’ (Proverbs 29:1). On the other hand, the response of the children of Israel to God’s word in one, the observance of the first Passover in Egypt (Exodus 12:21-23) and two, the observance of the passover as a perpetual ordinance (Exodus 12:50,51) attracted God’s blessings to them, but God’s judgment to the Egyptians. As Christian youths, we should always obey God implicitly as Moses did (Exodus 12:28).
Question 3: What have you learnt from Moses’ attitude to God’s message?
OBSERVANCE OF PASSOVER IN THE SCRIPTURES (Exodus 12:43-51; Isaiah 56:6,7; Romans 10:4; Matthew 26:17-20,26-29; 1 Corinthians 11:17,18,23-32,34)
Pascal lamb, the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs as expressed in our text foreshadowed the blood of Jesus shed for the remission of our sins. All Israelites as well as their servants that are bought with money and are circumcised must partake of the ordinance. “And the LORD said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof’ (Exodus 12:43). Today, the Lord’s Supper has replaced the ordinance of Passover under the New Testament dispensation. Only those who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus are to partake of the Lord’s Supper. “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed unto many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28).
Question 4: What does the Pascal lamb, the unleavened bread and bitter herbs foreshadow in the New Testament?
The observance of the Lord’s Supper is to remember the sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation and the glorious expectation of His return to take all His saints to heaven. It is to be observed in the church in form of a solemn assembly free of sins, disorderliness and self-gratification (1 Corinthians 11:26-29).
THE ORDER OF CONSECRATION OF THE FIRSTBORN (Exodus 13:1-22; | Corinthians 5:6-8; Genesis 18:18, 19; Deuteronomy 6:20-25; Proverbs 20:24; John 10:4,5)
The glorious exodus from Egypt as a result of the passover affords the Israelites the following: (i) divine preservation of the first born of both man and beast in Egypt; (ii) divine exit with all their personal effects; (iii) divine favour from the Egyptians; (iv) divine intervention as touching their deliverance, and many more. In showing gratitude for these, God demanded from them the setting apart of their first born unto Him for His sacred use. “Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine” (Exodus 13:2). In like manner, Christian youths are to be sanctified unto God who sought them and brought them to the fold through the atonement of Christ for sin (Romans 5:8, 15; 1 Corinthians 15:21,22; 2 Corinthians 5:15). For the remembrance of the blessing of the Passover, the blessing of the passover, the Israelites were to celebrate the feast of the unleavened bread in the Promised Land with great caution. It should be done without leaven (sin) with the involvement of their children, in appreciation of the purpose of the feast. The Lord led the children of Israel as they commenced their wilderness journey because they did not know the way. He led them in form of pillar of cloud by day time and pillar of fire by night time. To every child of God, Jesus Christ is the most glorious light to guide us. Though we may not see Him physically, we are conscious of His nearness all the time (Psalms 119: 105; 23:4). When He leads, you cannot miss the way.