Exodus Chapter 12 Verses 29 – 30

• The time period between Exodus Chapter 3 and Exodus Chapter 12 is believed to be between 9 and 10 months, and could be as much as a year. Why would I bring that up?  Because it was Exodus Chapter 3, Verses 19 and 20 that God had said, “Pharoah won’t let you go so I will reach out and strike Egypt; after that he will let you go.”  And then shortly thereafter in Exodus Chapter 4, Verse 23, God had said, “Let My son (Israel) go that he may serve Me.  But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.”
• So, why bring this up? Because here we are, almost a year later and what God had warned, what He had promised, God’s Word comes to pass to the absolute disaster of not just Pharaoh, but all of Egypt.  Every home, not one spared, not one “lucked out.”  And the important admonition here, the reason I bring this up is that we ought to heed God’s Word because BE SURE, as God has laid it all out, it will come to pass!
• He has given great and awesome promises! That if you trust Him, the pathway is His and He will straighten it all out.  A wonderful well-known passage of Proverbs 3:5-6.  But He has also given great and awesome warnings.  Proverbs 13:18, “A life to be ashamed of is the reward of one who ignores correction.”  Proverbs 13:24, “To not discipline your child is the same as hating them and setting them up for failure.”  Proverbs 10:4, “Lazy hands make for poverty…”  Here’s my point.  Learn the Word of God and heed the Word of God because be sure, all of the Word of God will be proven in your life!

Exodus Chapter 12 Verses 31 – 32

• Check this out…Pharaoh’s problem, why he would not listen to God or Moses before, was not intellectual, not at all! He had all the objective evidence anyone could want.  All the signs.  He had all the knowledge of the power of God anyone anywhere anytime could ever ask for or need to make the correct, wise, tragedy preventing decision.  The problem wasn’t his knowledge…the problem was his  
• This is important because I have searched and found and learned what will be effective…that when someone is teamed up with Satan in their lives, driven by their emotions…living for themselves, putting themselves first before God and before others…living for convenience and pleasure and self-service…my default…what I will be inclined to immediately go do is try to give them knowledge. “Listen, man…God loves you, He desires the best for you!  Don’t you know where this type of living is going to lead you!?”  The answer?  YES!  They do know.  But that’s not the issue.  Their will is priority over God’s…emotions rule…and therefore no wisdom, no knowledge will break through.  The only thing that will turn that ship is a broken heart…
• So what do we do then? We pray.  We stop contributing support to their walk with the devil and their frolicking in the flesh…and we wait for them to break.  Two ways that happens.  First and the BEST way is for them to personally, they have to do it for themselves, and you have to do it for yourself, they or you personally humble yourself before God and willingly allow your will to become second class to God’s.  Oh, how wonderful and wise the man or woman that goes that route…This is Romans 6:14, “Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law (no longer subject to the flesh) but under grace,” (you are now subject to God!)
• The second way…Pharaoh. We talk about the “weight of the world,” but it becomes the “weight of the Word,” as poverty eats a soul alive and the pit of serving self gets so deep and dark that great tragedy is upon their or your very spirit.  Family, lost.  Victory over sin…  Friends, gone.  And the cry is so very great that the will is forced to bow under the weight of the Word…that was given, rejected and refused…and now has completely come to pass.  I don’t like that route at all because sometimes it ends in suicide, sometimes it ends in souls being lost for good…but sometimes, it ends in salvation.
• Now, see what I mean about contributing support to someone ruled by emotion…living after the flesh? Now I don’t mean grace and love and kindness, we are filled with the very Spirit of God who is ALWAYS on our team!  Always for us!  Always with us!  I mean material support…enabling and encouraging a life that is indeed destructive and void of good as Romans 7:18 says, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh…”  If you do that, from pre-teen to senior citizen, then you are the reason why their will never submits to God’s.  Knowledge is not the problem…pray.  Seek God’s Word and wisdom…and you be willing to take the hard and narrow path yourself…even if it means watching the weight of the WORD crush someone you love…do you want them to find relief or find Jesus?

Exodus Chapter 12 Verses 33 – 36

• Can you imagine if one of the Israelites got out into the wilderness and there they were unpacking and setting up their tents and all and their neighbor is pulling out these beautiful riches! Gold, silver, perhaps a bronze bust of Pastor Chin!  Just sparkling there in the sun!  HA!  And they were like, “Hey, what on earth?!  How did you get so rich?”  “We just did what God said!”  It’s just like that too…you see someone so kind, so gracious, so loving, so smiley (I love smiling, smiling is my favorite), someone able to navigate life so well and people look to them, respect them and they are always helpful to others…and you wonder, just how did they get so rich!?  Same thing has happened, they simply did what God said….  Proverbs 16:20, “He who heeds the Word wisely will find good, and whoever trusts in the Lord, happy is he.”

Exodus Chapter 12 Verses 37 – 38

• Scholars have estimated that as many as 2.5M people were included in the Exodus from Egypt. The six hundred thousand number given is only the number of men.  And then we read something interesting.  “A mixed multitude went up with them also.”  What on earth?  In the Hebrew, very revealing, the phrase literally means, “Many interwoven.”  Who are these?  Well, one thing is clear…they aren’t Jews…
• I believe this is a wonderful picture inserted by God as to how God will use His chosen people, the Israelites, to rescue and bring out a mixed multitude! Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”  Isaiah 49:6 also…I believe we have that picture here.  Those that have joined in believing in the one true God…the God that defeated all other false gods including Pharaoh himself (who is a picture of man and man’s will…)

Exodus Chapter 12 Verse 39

• Ok, let me just make a statement here. They are baking unleavened bread out of necessity.  Leaven in the Bible represents sin.  It seems to me that when someone is freed from sin by the acceptance of Jesus Christ, and they are filled with the Holy Spirit of God for the first time, when someone is saved and a brand-new Christian…there exists a necessity…a powerful, even controlling urge to abhor evil and cling to what is good.  Get all of the sin out of their lives…I think this is a picture of that…but then a little time goes by and there is regression.  I think the regression is not good but the learning of God’s patience, long suffering and grace is good…

Genesis Chapter 12 Verses 40 – 51

• Entirely exclusive isn’t it? The Passover wasn’t for everyone…it was for those who had come into the fold of God.  Universalism is demonic doctrine.  If the blood wasn’t on the door posts there would be destruction.  And then going forth, if there was no circumcision then you are not permitted to take part in the Passover.  Recall that Paul said in Romans 2:28-29 that the true circumcision is of the heart.  Have you opened your heart to enter into the family of God.  If not, you are excluded with the power of the law…if you have, or if you will, you are included with the power of grace!!