Why do you do Passover?

[00:00:00] Again, everyone we are back. You've got me every day? Hey Becky! Hi Dan! How are you doing? I am good. How are you? I am fantastic. We have so many cool things to talk about today. We are just days away from Passover. Yes.

[00:00:49] And we are going to continue our Passover series last week. We kind of gave them overview and this week we're going to actually talk a little bit more about Passover.

[00:00:59] But before we get into that, we need to tell you guys a neat little story and something that happened us over the weekend. So Becky and I, we've been kind of, you all know we have four children and they're all getting older.

[00:01:14] And so we don't have a lot of stuff like we were when they were little ones breaking all the time. And you know destroying the stuff that we have.

[00:01:24] So now we're kind of getting the point where we're starting to buy things that we like that are more nicer. Should I say, more of our style instead of just utilitarian?

[00:01:38] And so we had this idea that we wanted to get rid of this old couch that we had. I think the dogs used more than the kids and us. They had definitely commented it as their own. And so we decided we want to get rid of that couch.

[00:01:54] We want to put some chairs in there and get something that is a little more comfortable and more usable for the room. We started a couple weeks ago looking at chairs and we had some ideas of some things we liked. We were kind of, So we decided,

[00:02:08] They were okay. Yeah, they were so okay. There were some things. So this past weekend we finally decided we're getting the chairs. We're going to go and we're going to go. So we went to one of these huge two story furniture stores that's in Orlando.

[00:02:23] And we started walking around. We said, you know what? We're going to sit in every chair. All the chairs. In this entire building. And let me tell you, this store had a lot of chairs. They had chairs downstairs. They had chairs upstairs. They had chairs that clearance.

[00:02:39] They had chairs for way too much money. They had chairs that had sparkly things all over. Oh my goodness, what was with that? I don't know if you're one of those people and I understand there's people that love to have like glittery sparkly things. This chair was like,

[00:02:57] And it was with a bedroom suit too. Yeah, the whole room was sparkles. It was like not only the chair but the table and the bed. And it was like, it was something that you would see in the movie of like a bad boxer.

[00:03:15] You know, like when a boxer who doesn't have anything gets too much money and they're like, I'm going to buy something. I'm going to buy the thing. And they buy this glitter bedroom set whatever too much money. But we probably... To shiny.

[00:03:29] We probably spend, I don't know, three hours. More maybe. Was it that kind of? No, it just felt like that long. It was about an hour and a half but it did feel that long.

[00:03:39] So it was one of those were the lady, the sales lady talked to us and then she was looking things out for us. And then she was like, just text me. I'll be in the store somewhere. That's how big the store was.

[00:03:50] And so she goes off and we finally decide on one. We finally, like this is the chair. We want to get to of them. We like it. It sits well and it's not a ridiculous price tag. Right. The color was right. What we liked.

[00:04:05] I mean, the color was what we were looking for. So we're like, let's get this chair. And she gets on her little thing and goes, We don't have those in stock. We won't have those in stock for months. For months.

[00:04:18] And if you order it now, you can have it several months from now. Yeah. And the thing was, it's like... And she was like, now don't think you can't order it. Sorry, I just hit the microphone everybody. Everybody's like, wow, what's that sound?

[00:04:33] It wasn't a thing where it's like, oh, if you don't like them, you can come back in a couple of months because we'll have them in stock. No, it was like, you ordered them now and paid for them now. And you might get them in June or July.

[00:04:46] And so after spending all that time and deciding on the two chairs, Becky and I were pretty pretty down. A little bit frustrated. Didn't help that we were hungry too. Yeah, we were a little hungry too.

[00:05:01] And you know, after spending all that time and finding a thing you want, and then they didn't have it. We were like, you know what? Maybe just maybe we'll go to this other store. And maybe God's got something for us there. Maybe... Actually said that as we left.

[00:05:16] Maybe this was God going, no, I got something better for y'all. Yeah. I got something better for you. Maybe it's in this other store. So Becky and I, we get in the car. We head over to the other store. We go in there.

[00:05:32] We another two story place here in Orlando. And we get out. We see this chair. We go over. We sit in it and immediately. It's like... It was the chair. This is the chair. This is it. We are going to buy this chair.

[00:05:48] We're going to buy two of these chairs. And what else do they have? It had an Ottoman. Y'all, okay. Everybody in this house is taller than I am. Everybody's got long legs. And when they all come home from work, they want to sprawl out.

[00:06:05] Which is part of the reason why we had the big couch that the dogs Commendured. We needed long things for people to be on. So the Ottoman was a nice thing because now it's not just a chair. It's a chair with leg rooms.

[00:06:18] So we ended up getting the chairs. We were very grateful. After we bought them and then we realized we got to get these home. And our vehicle now, our new vehicle that we bought is not like our old vehicle that had a whole lot of space in it.

[00:06:35] Right. But we were shocked and surprised. We were able to get both chairs in the vehicle. They fit exactly between the wheel wells. Perfect. Perfect. And the Ottoman. Perfect. And so that was our big thing this weekend.

[00:06:49] We were super excited that God provided us something better than we even thought that we were going to get. To bring it all the way around where we do this thing, seeing God in our everyday, sometimes that's what happens.

[00:07:02] You do all the research, you do all the planning, you do all the things you're like, this is it, this is the one, this is the thing. I have it figured out. And then it's not. And what do you do with that? Do you go?

[00:07:17] All the research I did was for waste, all the research I, all the things I did searching was that always. Or you just rely that God number one had something better for you.

[00:07:27] And you go, thank you God for allowing me to go through the process of eliminating everything else. Right. So when I got to the one thing that was supposed to be, it was like thank you God for that.

[00:07:38] And it's it's y'all it's not that we don't get frustrated. We were frustrated. Oh yeah. You know, it's, it's not that we're these cute little polyan things over here going, oh it's all good. You know, it was not all good. We were frustrated.

[00:07:51] We were hungry and we've been on our feet for a while running up and down stairs. And the more you build that relationship with the Lord, the more you really do realize that in those moments where everything that you thought you had figured out.

[00:08:04] And man it was all coming together when it all doesn't. Right. In a spectacular way. There is that piece in that calm that underlies those moments. You know, where you go. Well I'm frustrated, but I also know my father cares about even the stupid little things

[00:08:24] like what chair goes in my living room. Right. Yeah. And to just be grateful. Yeah. And so we did. We were very grateful that we were able to get the chairs.

[00:08:34] We were excited to get them put them in the house and they look great in the living room. And we are very happy with that. And so far the dogs don't like them. That's the most of the time.

[00:08:46] They keep looking at them and they're like, oh, not quite sure what we know what this is. And we're like, yes, stay off them. Stay off them now. It's great. So very good.

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[00:09:46] We want to encourage you to see God in your everyday. And we're having a little our puppies are with us in the room. We didn't lock him out this week. So you might be hearing little noises in the background.

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[00:10:29] So thank you guys. Alright everyone. So this week we are going to be continuing our lesson basically on the Passover. And last week we gave a quick overview of kind of where came from, where Israel came from, basically.

[00:11:03] How they got into captivity, how Joseph set him up and put him basically and they became a nation within a nation. And now they've grown to the point where now the new Pharaoh who didn't know Joseph and didn't know what he had done.

[00:11:20] The new Pharaoh who was pretty much, as you read the story, he's pretty much an evil guy. As you read in the Old Testament, I mean he's pretty much the first bad character from Cain.

[00:11:35] Basically he's the first guy that is pretty much kind of evil and he's attacking the children of Israel. He's wanting to kill their first born so that this nation doesn't overpower his own nation. He's a powerful desk but who wants to hold his power.

[00:11:55] Yeah, he's just kind of like when you're reading the story you're kind of like, you know, he's not the likable, you'll Brenner. You know that we see in the 10 commandments, he's not, you know, who's this, this Moses?

[00:12:08] You know, he's not that guy. He was, he's really kind of dark and evil. He's not a character, he's a pretty much an embodiment of a bad guy.

[00:12:19] We see Moses run away after he kills any gypsum and he's running for his life and getting away from basically Pharaohs like we're done with this Moses guy. He's not even, you know, my son anyways or grandson anyways, we're done with him. He's got to go.

[00:12:40] So he runs off, he starts a new life in Midian. It gets married and then he has the encounter with the burning bush. And you want to take it over there just for a few minutes on that. Sure, so that's kind of where we left him last time.

[00:12:57] So we had that whole slavery to salvation cycle repeated a couple of times. And now the Israelites are in slavery and bonded once again and God has spoken to Moses and said, you're the guy. Okay. So you're the one that's you are remember he was the Levi.

[00:13:13] So he was a priest from a priestly line. He married a woman from a priestly line. He was of the Hebrew children. He was away from them and he was being sent to return and saved them from slavery. Sounds familiar, yeah? So in obedience, Moses goes back.

[00:13:32] He returns to the land and goes and wisely chooses to obey what God has said. Now we're going to skip some details here. This whole wrangling where he says, I'm not qualified and God says it's okay. I'm sending Aaron and okay.

[00:13:45] So now in confronting Pharaoh going into to speak to him and make a demand on behalf of the Israelites.

[00:13:54] Again, he was raised in the palace. So he has clearance, right? He has clearance to enter and to go and speak to the Pharaoh in a way that none of the other Hebrew slaves would have had.

[00:14:08] He is properly positioned. It's like God knew he was going to do this beforehand. So he's properly positioned to be able to go in and speak to the Pharaoh.

[00:14:17] And he and Aaron go in and they make this demand and they say, listen, the Lord God of the Israelites says, you need to let them go. And there was a purpose here and I want to just put this in here real quick because we as Americans,

[00:14:32] we I mean, freedom is like the you know, it's the ultimate. It's you know, we can totally picture Moses going in and demanding to be set free for freedom sake. Right. Okay. Moses went in to demand that the Israelites be set free so that they could serve God.

[00:14:52] Correct. Okay. So that needs to underlay everything that we're about to go into. God was opposed to their bondage because they were not free to worship him and serve him and fulfill the purpose that he had for them.

[00:15:07] Right. Yeah. Because it was more than just slavery. It was more than just them not being able to be free to do what they wanted. Right. They weren't free to worship as right they were being asked to or God wanted them to.

[00:15:23] So we get this now continuation of the story where God hears the cries of his people. He wants to pull them out of slavery and he sends Moses in to do this.

[00:15:36] And Moses is confronting Pharaoh. You know, it's the it's the the scene you know with the staff and Moses, you know, and he's going to tell him, hey, you need to set my people free.

[00:15:50] Pharaoh is an interesting character like I said, he kind of embodies evil almost to this point in the in the scriptures and it says that he already had a hard heart.

[00:16:00] Right. And it says that he continues to hardened his heart and Moses goes listen if you don't let my people go.

[00:16:09] God's going to send these flags. They they start almost simple and they keep increasing. So let's go over these real quick. So I got a little thing here, a little graphic for you guys to I'm going to interrupt you two seconds. Okay.

[00:16:23] Before you launch into that while I just there's one little piece, I love this, you know, I was I was talking to me to go like it's God set Moses in the proper position because it's like he knew what was going to happen.

[00:16:36] So I'm going to show you how to set Moses in the proper position and then he's going to set Moses in the proper position. born son and I say to you let my son go so that he may serve me. See, there's that

[00:17:13] purpose. If you refuse to let him go behold, I will kill your first born son. Yeah, you know, that would be... That's a big old foreshadow there. Yeah, it would be if you one of those things like if you were in a writing class they would be like

[00:17:32] circle this point because we're gonna come back. This is what's gonna happen, but it doesn't start up there. No. And that's the thing is that even in all of this God continues to leave the door open. Yes. And you see that and as we go through the

[00:17:51] different plagues you actually see number one as it increases in difficulty as it increases in intensity there's always an opportunity. Right. And that's the thing that is really kind of lost in the story is that there's God is always

[00:18:11] leaving an opportunity for redemption. Even for the Egyptians, the evil king. Yeah. So here we go. Here's a little graphic and I hope it comes out. You know, I kind of put this together just to kind of give you a visual of some things. Let's go

[00:18:30] through the different plagues, babe. And I'm gonna just kind of ask you the first plague is that one up there in the top there it's the red liquid. It's the river now turning the blood and what's that all about? Okay so that one was the river

[00:18:46] now turning the blood. But I stayed awake in sunny school. Good job. It actually went farther than that. Moses was told to take his staff and strike the Nile and it was it ran with blood. Okay bad bad bad right Nile was the life blood of Egypt. Yes.

[00:19:04] That was bad enough. But Moses told Aaron to take the staff and go do the same thing to every other water source he could find rivers, creeks. The scripture says that even down to the earth and vessels in their homes. So no clean water anywhere.

[00:19:22] And none. And Egypt is still in the middle of the desert. So this is bad. Yeah, the Nile is their water source. Right. So and so in that moment as that was going down they lost

[00:19:38] all access. I mean think about all the things that we use clean water for. Right. And they they not only don't have clean water they don't even have dirty water that they can filter. Right. They got no water. It's all turn to blood. It's all turned to blood.

[00:19:51] So that kind of wakes Farrell up. And he promises okay fine. If you make this stop I'll let you go. So it stops and it decides not to do to let him go. It's like no, not

[00:20:02] not going to let you go. So then we have a permit de frog. I don't think it was this cut as that. He's like, I hope I'm here to ruin everything. So the next thing is like

[00:20:13] this pestle on a frog's which is great. Okay. So the frog's not only it's kind of interesting here what happens. So so Moses and Aaron both struck the water right and turned it to blood. This time Moses says, okay, Aaron you do it. Right. Aaron you stretch

[00:20:30] out the rod and cause the frogs to cover the land. And they do they came up out of the Nile and man you know the scripture is graphic sometimes and it describes them

[00:20:41] up in people's houses in the bowls where they would need their bread in the, oh okay. This is nasty. Okay. There are frogs everywhere covering everything. I mean you think about little kids running around in their sandals and they'd just squish and frogs

[00:21:00] everywhere. Yeah. Oh, okay. This is disgusting. You know as you were talking I was thinking you know what Moses was like the first discipleship program. He was here. I'm going to demonstrate and then you do. Yeah. So so after that you know Farrell's like you

[00:21:18] know what? This is bad also. So I'm going to like say, okay, I will let your people go if you stop this. So Moses goes out and makes all the frogs return to the Nile.

[00:21:31] They're confined now to the water space and they rose says, oh, now that the pressure's off and the gross has gone, yeah, no y'all got to stay. Yeah. So you're starting to see

[00:21:44] a pattern here. And you can see why there's some problems coming on the future. But none of us are ever like that right where we agree to obey God when the pressure's on and as soon

[00:21:54] as the pressure goes away, we kind of decide we like it our own way better. Yeah. We don't do that. It's like, please answer my prayer. Oh thanks for answering my prayer. I'm not going to do what I

[00:22:05] say I was going to do. So the next thing was, um, grenades. And listen, we live in Florida. We know nats. We know nats. And I know that pretty much everywhere, nats are an issue that there's nothing

[00:22:22] to me more annoying than walking and inhaling a big mouthful or noseful of nats. Yep. And there's no avoiding it if there's a swarm of them. You know, you breathe and they're up your nose and in your eyes

[00:22:36] and your ears, quick them out of your beard. It's this gross. And you know, we kind of see the same thing. Right. So this time again, discipleship 101, right? Moses hands air in the rod,

[00:22:48] air and strikes the earth. Now the description in scripture, y'all need to go read like Exodus chapter 7, 8, 9. We're we're breathing over these but the, but the, um, the details are in

[00:22:58] there. So Moses, or sorry, Aaron strikes the earth with the staff and it says that the dust of the earth rose up and covered the land like a cloud and became nats. Let. Yeah, you know,

[00:23:11] it's just everything about this is bad. Yes. You know, it's like, oh, yeah, this, no, that's not good either. That's not good either. And you know, we think we have a bad right now at the oak tree,

[00:23:21] you know, covering everything in yellow pollen. That's nothing compared to the nats. Yeah. So after this, um, you know, we're thinking, okay, maybe, maybe Pharaoh will kind of get this and he does. He promises, he promises if you will make the nats go away, you may leave, please,

[00:23:42] until the nats win away. Yeah. Clearly the nats weren't enough. So now the next thing is God himself. Mm-hmm. And it kind of interesting because you're starting to see the things ratcheting up,

[00:23:57] sense flies. Now I was in food service for years. I was a manager at a restaurant and I hated seeing flies because to me that means there's something rotten. Something is starting to rot.

[00:24:14] So when you saw flies, that means that there was food hidden somewhere. There was something rotting somewhere in the restaurant. And there's disease being carried on those little legs. Oh, yeah, it's a gross. You would think that, you know, after these flies come in and stuff.

[00:24:36] Well, this is also the first one that God specifically says, okay, so here's the deal. Moses and Aaron, y'all just go, tell Pharaoh what's going to happen. I'm going to make it happen.

[00:24:48] But he also says that this time, I'm sending the swarms of flies, but they will not go into Goshen, which is where the Israelites were staying. And they were in the Goshen area of Egypt. So this is the first real clear demonstration that Egyptians y'all the problem

[00:25:08] and the Israelites are my protected people. And this is also interesting to look at too because first three plex were affecting the Israelites as well. Right. I'm going to sidebar here on this is that we

[00:25:21] we so many times here, oh God's going to take you out of the trouble or take you. You're going to just listen, there are times when God's demonstrating something to someone else or to a group of people

[00:25:37] and you're right in the middle of it. Right. Now the important thing is that you should no better because you know that God's in control even in the midst of the trial and the tribulation. But I find

[00:25:49] it very interesting that God allowed the people of Israel to go through the situation with the frogs and the nets and the blood. And now as it started to ratchet up a little bit, now you're starting to see

[00:26:02] like he said, like Becky said, it's directed more towards the Egyptians. You're going to see that even more coming up. So Pharaoh does the same thing. Right. But this time his response, okay?

[00:26:15] So now now there's this clear delimiation between the Israelites and the Egyptians so now he's feeling a little targeted y'all. Yeah. So this time he doesn't just go, oh yeah yeah yeah yeah I find I'll let you

[00:26:31] go. This time Pharaoh goes to Moses and says, would you plead with your God to make it stop? Right. He's starting to realize that these aren't hockest pocus things. Right. This is a God that's actually causing these things and the Egyptians believed in many

[00:26:50] gods so they didn't actually have a problem. Right. That was a god of the Jews or god of the Israelites. And up to this point, some of his magicians in his court had been able to replicate some of the things

[00:27:02] that Moses and Aaron had done. So now here's this thing that very clearly is not affecting the Israelites who worshiped Jehovah God but it's also something that his guys can't do.

[00:27:14] Right. So now he begins to recognize, oh I'm not just dealing with Moses and Aaron. I really am dealing with their God. Right. It just keeps getting worse because next thing we have as you see on

[00:27:25] the screen with the dead cow there is that livestock starts to perish. So that tells you that this last one even though he pled with God to make it stop when it stopped what he do? He said no.

[00:27:37] He said no. He didn't let him go. So the next thing is his livestock and again this is God is God is actually making this happen now. It's not Moses and Aaron standing up there calling it out

[00:27:52] right. This is something that God himself is taking care of. And so when all the livestock die there's you know I don't know if y'all have ever seen dead livestock it tends to

[00:28:05] rot in the field and bloat and it oo. Yeah. And brings the flies back more grossness. Yeah. So this time, so we've seen feirogo from okay I'll let you go no I won't.

[00:28:19] Plead with your God. Okay, no I won't now this time he just goes no. Yeah. So he's starting to really build up resentment and anger because he's not going to get pushed around by this this puny god

[00:28:35] of the Israelites as he would. Right. These are his slaves these are his slaves. So the next thing that happens is a hail. No. Oh, I'm so well you skip boy. Boyles you know why? Because the picture is gone

[00:28:48] because I saved all of you from having a picture up there. People with boils all over their body. I thought about it. I looked about 10 or 20 pictures and I was like, I'll just save you from that.

[00:29:01] So if you if you have a desire to look at boils on people's bodies just go like Google it. Yeah. Yeah, I don't need to show it to you. And we don't need to look at that. Yeah. So but now it's really

[00:29:13] starting people now. It's just it's continuing to just multiply the the torment that's happening now. This time again you remember how Moses or how Aaron head struck the dust and it became nats.

[00:29:28] Moses takes a page from that and he takes some foot out of the kiln and he throws it into the air and it spreads out and covers people and causes these boils and it's not just people. Right. The

[00:29:42] livestock, the animal everything. If it was a living breathing thing boils and Pharaoh crosses his arms stamps his foot and says excuse me no and part of this part of this goes to the fact that

[00:29:57] Pharaoh believed himself to be the embodiment of a God as well. Right. And that's a whole another thing that we we want to just mention but not really going to because the Egyptian Pharaohs they

[00:30:09] believe themselves God just like Caesar does later in the New Testament times. It seems like people who get in that absolute power thing they absolutely goes to their head. So Pharaoh again

[00:30:23] says no now the next thing that comes is the hail. Now the hail. Yeah and the hail is it's not just discomfort and whatever now the hail is starting to destroy everything crops. But you know how

[00:30:42] earlier you mentioned that all through this God provides a way out and provides an opportunity for redemption. This time he literally gives a heads up. He sends Moses in and he says tell them

[00:30:54] that this is coming against only the Pharaoh and his servants. The Israelites will not be touched. It will not come near them but any of them this is going to happen he gives him a timeline.

[00:31:08] I'm sending hail to destroy everything it will happen tomorrow. So give them the warning to get their livestock under shelter to not be outdoors get themselves in a protected area and everyone there were according to scripture there were Egyptians who believed the word of the

[00:31:31] Lord and who got themselves their families in their livestock under shelter they were spared from this yelps because again like we said from the again God even in pouring out his wrath he was

[00:31:44] giving opportunity for redemption. Later on in the scripture we find that it is not his will that any parish but that all come to repentance that's that's the whole gig. That's his character that's his character and so he provides opportunity but those who thumbed their nose at God

[00:32:03] died. The crops were just I mean y'all have seen what hail does the crops were destroyed. The livestock was destroyed people were destroyed and Pharaoh now this this one kind of shakes

[00:32:16] Pharaoh okay before he said make it stop and he said tell your god to make it stop. This time he literally goes to Moses and says I have sinned. I and my people are wrong. Go make sacrifices

[00:32:33] what what do you need go make sacrifices to your god we've sinned we're in the wrong go make this right for us so he gets this right he has an intellectual understanding of what's happening and that

[00:32:48] he's done this to his nation with his obstinence and Moses goes and he sacrifices on the half of the Pharaoh and as soon as the storm stops. Pharaoh takes it all back again.

[00:33:05] Yep you know when you read this and it's like oh that was so many years ago another thing that's not applicable today I mean how many times do we see that how many times do we do that?

[00:33:17] Right do we even acknowledge and say it was my fault I was wrong I did it wrong and then 10 days later when all has smoothed over we're back to doing it again that's

[00:33:31] that head knowledge of the things that I do and of who god is but not an actual changed heart. He's not willing to bow to a god greater than himself. No okay so the next thing is the

[00:33:46] locus which you know that's the one that everybody actually remembers. Right. So plaguing pestilence they were like oh yeah wasn't it just locus wasn't all about locus? It was giant grasshoppers that came in eight. It was always the grasshoppers. Remember when we had the

[00:34:02] locus plague in Texas once. Oh my goodness they were everywhere on the walls okay never mind so they've had to deal with locus. Yep so this time again like with the hail Moses goes and gives a

[00:34:15] warning and he tells Pharaoh listen the locus are coming they're coming tomorrow and they're going to eat everything that the hail didn't destroy so so at this point Pharaoh servants are going enough is

[00:34:28] enough and they actually get up a little bit of nerve and speak up and they start pleading with Pharaoh and go in um we're gonna have to deal with this too these decisions you're making are destroying

[00:34:40] us and could you I mean let them go come on what are you what are you gaining here? Right. And Pharaoh just bows up and says forget it no I'm the god here no. I would not let the Moses go with his people.

[00:34:57] So Moses stretches his hand out the locus come they do exactly what he said they were going to do they eat everything that was left behind by the hail and so now Pharaoh says Moses go pleading with

[00:35:10] your god go pleading with your god and Moses pleads with his god and the locus go away and then Pharaoh you just says no you can't go you know you would think you know I would hope that we would be smarter

[00:35:26] than this you know it's like if I was Pharaoh would I be but the thing is is that what you saw at the very beginning where it was called out of his heart heart and the evil that he already had

[00:35:38] in his heart and he kept getting angrier and angrier and angrier even though he was realizing he was losing this battle even though he realized that his people were being hurt it didn't matter

[00:35:53] he was at the point where the only thing that mattered was that he got his way and you know that's a slippery slope I mean you think about how people act and how we need to be careful

[00:36:09] how we act and getting our way in that it could just get out of control if you let it. Yep so after the locus and Pharaoh says no Moses you cannot take the people's then the next plague comes and it is darkness that comes across the land.

[00:36:30] And I think the wording in Exodus 10 is very interesting here because the Lord says that it's darkness that can be felt it says that the people literally could not see each other they

[00:36:43] couldn't it was tangible pitch dark. Yep I remember a couple times when we lived out west there were times when it would get so, so dark at night and the thing is is we still had the

[00:37:01] stars even if the moon wasn't out right you still had the stars so even when it was pitch black and they were not lights for any any distance because we were out in the desert it was still light

[00:37:15] you know you could still you could make out a little bit yeah it wasn't dark to the point where you literally couldn't see your hand in front of your face but I mean just to imagine that being so dark

[00:37:28] that you can't even see in front of you and you know this again this is a time period where they didn't have city lights and stuff like that so you know so having something having it get

[00:37:39] so dark where you couldn't see is is I can just imagine how terrifying right must have been and this time this one this one kind of breaks your heart when you hear Pharaoh's response to this

[00:37:52] this time he doesn't just say no this time he is so self-willed so uncaring of the people and the nation that he was trying to protect from is real light domination right he doesn't care

[00:38:08] about any of that anymore right it it doesn't matter to him he literally you can hear him clenching his teeth and he says no and he tells Moses get out and do not return to my site again

[00:38:26] or I will kill you it's heartbreaking it is because you see because we continue the story because of his will and because of his selfishness because of his darkness and his heart so many

[00:38:42] people suffer right and even himself suffers um the final plague is the death angel right pass over this is one of those things like Becky said at the beginning it is actually kind of foreshadowed

[00:38:57] was that sort of a sort of that's thing in your writing class because this is actually something that Pharaoh brought upon himself with how he was treating the Israelites and killing the first

[00:39:10] born a pulling back of the veil basically and um and God showing his wrath and bringing his wrath on them right so so with this one what we wanted to do we've kind of given you an overview of

[00:39:24] several chapters at this point but this one because this is the pass over this is the celebration that we are going into this weekend um we wanted to actually read you that passage of scripture and if you want to read along it's found in Exodus chapter 12 verses 3 through 13

[00:39:44] Give me two seconds I need glasses to see this no and you can pause it and then jump back in Okay so the Lord is talking to Moses and Aaron again and he says tell all the congregation of Israel

[00:40:00] that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses a lamb for a household let me stop right there and backtrack just a minute before this

[00:40:13] conversation happens Moses has already gone before Pharaoh he's already told him listen the first born are going to die okay the first born of every household the first born of every livestock

[00:40:30] the first born of Egypt are going to die if you do not let my people go now and Pharaoh said so be it yeah now this is not a case of this is gonna happen tomorrow like the hail in the

[00:40:41] locust this is a case of this is gonna happen but then God gives some instructions so every man is to take a lamb according to their father's house as verse 4 and if the

[00:40:53] household is too small for a lamb then he and his nearest neighbor she'll take a according to the number of persons according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb

[00:41:04] your lamb shall be without blemish a male a year old you may take it from the sheep or from the goats and you shall keep it until the 14th day of this month when the whole assembly of the

[00:41:18] congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight okay so we know there's at least a four-day gap here okay between so can you imagine in the house of Pharaoh he's probably stocking around

[00:41:31] going well it ain't happened yet I won I won they said this was gonna happen but they're not gonna pull this one off who would do that back in chapter 12 verse 7 then after the whole

[00:41:43] of the congregation of Israel has killed their lambs at twilight they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two door posts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it okay so

[00:41:55] the lintel is the the board at the top right of of the doorway so okay get that picture top two sides okay they shall eat the flesh that night roasted on the fire with unleavened bread

[00:42:09] and bitter herbs they shall eat it do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water but roasted it's head with its legs and its inner parts roast the whole thing and you shall let nine of it

[00:42:21] remain until the morning anything that remains until the morning you shall burn so don't kill more lambs than you can eat for your household right put the blood on the door posts of the place where

[00:42:34] you're going to eat it and eat it all and anything you don't eat burn it verse 11 in this manner you shall eat it with your belt fastened your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand

[00:42:48] and you shall eat it in haste it is the lords pass over okay do you get the picture there unleavened bread don't wait for the bread to rise you ain't got time for yeast

[00:43:00] right okay eat unleavened bread only kill as much lambs you can eat finish it tonight and you better eat it fully dressed with your shoes on ready to move right verse 12

[00:43:14] for I will pass through the land of Egypt that night and I will strike all the first born in the land of Egypt both man and beast and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments

[00:43:26] I am the Lord but the blood shall be assigned for you on the houses where you are and when I see the blood I will pass over you and no plague will be for you to destroy you when I strike the land of

[00:43:41] Egypt again it's that thing that interesting thing that if a family and you didn't do this and you didn't heed the warning even as is is Rayleigh right as a child of Israel

[00:43:57] you were going to lose a child right you had to obey and do what was being asked for forgot to pass over right obviously the children of Israel did this right the Egyptians did not

[00:44:12] right that night there is crying and more than and weeping because all of the first born of Egypt even Pharaoh right loses their children you know it's one of those it's a hardest thing to almost

[00:44:28] read we look at it and we go out but God had constantly given opportunity he constantly opened the door and said do this if you do this this will not happen if you do this you know if you let my

[00:44:46] people go if you obey what I'm asking you to do this will not before you and it's um it's a sad thing but what happens is Pharaoh finally kind of comes to a senses right for a moment in inverse 33

[00:45:04] of that chapter as they're being as they're leaving it says the whole of Egypt the Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land so they ate that meal fully dressed

[00:45:18] and the Egyptians were pressing them to leave yeah we've got to get rid of this play are the plague the thing that's interesting is that as they're leaving and they're going to where God is

[00:45:32] calling them to to land that flows with nookin honey the land that was promised their fathers Pharaoh kind of again because of his heart being so hard it rages again and he actually goes after

[00:45:47] them the children of Israel are delivered through the red sea right and Pharaoh actually because of his unwillingness to soften his heart in any way he actually perishes in the red sea chasing the children of Israel to their freedom again just a horrifying story but also an amazing

[00:46:11] thing right of when we allow our heart to be hardened against God and what he's doing it leads to destruction every single time but the flip side of that the beautiful flip side of that

[00:46:26] is that every time we choose to bow every time we choose to obey every time we choose to honor God as God and worship him we find ourselves in freedom yeah we find ourselves able to rejoice

[00:46:41] our faith actually increases right our hearts actually become more and more soft right how you would say more and more soft softer rare so this is the story Jews tell their children and they are brought up with now why would Christians why would someone who

[00:47:05] you know i'm probably 140 something Jewish I have some Jewish and lineage i think Becky has a little bit too and they're in our past why would Christians in the year you know 2021 why would we be

[00:47:20] concerned about Passover why would we celebrate it why would we even make it a part of our lives in part okay because in the new testament we are told that as believers we are grafted in

[00:47:34] right we are grafted into the root stock the Jewish lineage through Jesus Christ and his sacrifice and and like we talked about last week every single thing in the Old Testament is foreshadowing and revelation of Messiah everything that God did back then was to prepare hearts to open

[00:47:57] eyes to when Messiah would come this story is no different right this celebration is no different now the Jews were actually instructed to keep this memory to this this meal that was eaten in

[00:48:13] haste to recreate it and keep it in Exodus chapter 12 verse 14 it says this day shall be for you a memorial day and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations

[00:48:30] as a statute forever you shall keep it as a feast okay so this is a if you are a Jew this is a a statutory feast appointed by the Lord because this is again where God showed himself bringing

[00:48:50] salvation through obedience and through the sacrifice of the lamb and we're gonna kind of leave that a little bit alone because we're gonna go into that next week right because we really want to tie together how Passover is fulfilled through Jesus Christ how our celebration of Easter

[00:49:11] is simply the fulfillment of the celebration of Passover and that will be next week so circle that in your writing class the foreshadowing but that's what we're going to talk about next

[00:49:24] week but we do want to before we finish up we do want to talk a little bit about Passover and the different elements and stuff like that about this thing you know a lot of times

[00:49:34] the Jewish festivals for Christians seems kind of strange and weird and in all this but when you actually study them and you look into them you go oh that makes complete sense right

[00:49:46] wow that actually makes more sense to me than to the Jewish people themselves because we know who Messiah is right and the other thing is Jesus actually celebrated Passover he did which we will talk about again next week but before we finish today's episode

[00:50:04] let's talk just briefly on the Passover Seder the elements and again we're not going to go in the super detail we will give you some do want to give you some places to go if you want to research

[00:50:15] a little bit more though there's some good tools out there it'll be down in the dubley du but yeah the Passover the Seder Plate and with the different elements on it it's again

[00:50:29] there's so much with the Jewish people there's so much symbolism in things and you know nothing is left without meaning and purpose which is so cool yeah it's it's beautiful so let's go ahead and

[00:50:43] start right there at the top and we want to okay I don't know if I'm going to go around it in order but I will tell you about everything that's on that okay like Dan was saying every single thing

[00:50:53] on that Seder Plate is symbolic the first part of of a Passover meal and celebration is going through the Seder Plate and then after that there there are there are readings

[00:51:09] and there are prayers and that are spoken we're not going to go take you through all of that again that's that's fruit that's a couple of hours worth process so but it is a beautiful

[00:51:20] memorial of what God has done but the elements that are on there are Maroor and Hazaret okay they are two bitter herbs different people do it differently the most common are horse radish

[00:51:33] and then either romaine lettuce or the leafy greens of carrot tops which it's bitter it's supposed to be okay being a person who doesn't I like horse radish I'll sign up for that

[00:51:49] that part is is supposed to be bitter and it's basically retelling the story that we've been going over with you last week and the first part of this week those bitter herbs memorialized the harsh treatment the sadness the despair of the slavery that the children of Israel suffered

[00:52:09] under Egyptian rule and then you have the harvests which is kind of the polar opposite it's it's very sweet it's made of with apple and walnuts and honey and it's this kind of really thick

[00:52:21] mixture it's delicious and that is meant to depict the clay the mortar and the bricks that were laid by the enslaved Israelites okay if you go back and read that those chapters in

[00:52:36] Exodus you will find that at one point Pharaoh is demanding that they make bricks and he says no I'm not going to give you any straw to do it figure it out so this is to depict that clay in that mortar

[00:52:48] that that they made the bricks with so again you see this is a memorial that they are keeping before the Lord you also have carpets which is it's green spring vegetables sometimes it's parsley sometimes

[00:53:01] it's celery it's that fresh leafy green of spring it speaks of hope it speaks of restoration but when this is eaten it's dipped in that salt water that's on the plate to remember the tears so

[00:53:16] even their hope was diminished by their tears they had been there for so long and there's such harsh treatment their their hope was bathed in tears and so that's what that signifies

[00:53:32] the zirowa is originally it was it's a lamb shank it's not always used as a lamb shank now a little bit of meat left on but it's it's a bone of roast meat that is on that plate it is never

[00:53:43] touched it is never used during the during the meal but it is there and present to symbolize the lamb of sacrifice from that night where remember every household was told to sacrifice a lamb

[00:53:56] and then eat it and that was the blood that was used on the doorpost right right so that provided that Passover protection there's also a roasted egg that goes on the plate and this is a symbol

[00:54:11] of the sacrifices that are no longer able to be offered in the temple because the temple is no more but again yeah more more foreshadowing here we got the fulfillment of that next week right

[00:54:21] so so that roasted egg symbolizes the sacrifices that can no longer be made eggs are also a symbol of mourning in Hebrew culture so having that that roasted egg on the plate it's a huge

[00:54:36] part of their worship that could not be affected because of the loss of the temple and then the the last element which I don't think is pictured there is um three uh mozzarella crackers it's

[00:54:53] their unleavened bread again little bit of foreshadowing of next week it is unleavened remember the bread that was eaten in haste don't let that bread rise the way that this mozzarella bread is made

[00:55:05] as it is pierced and it is cooked in a way that there are stripes show up on the exterior of the bread there are three pieces of that bread that are used in this Passover sater meal and the middle one

[00:55:20] they're layered and the middle one is always broken at the beginning of the meal and half of it is hidden away during the meal and it is joyfully and playfully sought after retrieved and becomes a

[00:55:37] great source of rejoicing at the end of the meal so yeah you can't put two and two together and see the symbolism there yeah yeah we'll talk about that a little bit more next week too it's it's

[00:55:48] a beautiful celebration and it is a memorial of what God has done and if you're a believer in Jesus Christ you will begin to see that it is a picture and a foreshadowing of Messiah yes why do people

[00:56:06] in 2020 Christians why would we celebrate Passover why would we even study Passover um because again it helps us to understand the character of who God is right it helps us to understand

[00:56:20] his long suffering that he has with his people and it also lets us know where we stand with him and you're gonna learn a little bit more about that next week well that's pretty much what we have this

[00:56:32] week I know we went super long we're like longer than we expected to go to beyond our long on this episode so you know play it I guess in two parts we're excited to share this stuff with you

[00:56:42] we get excited about it because we do we we know it knowing God's character and who God is it helps us see him better in our daily lives because we know that he's not just this God in heaven who spun everything

[00:56:57] and then stand back watching right but he's actually active in our lives and we can see who he is and we can see how he's moving things and how he's interacting and reacting to different things

[00:57:11] that happen and when you when you get to see when you get to see that his plan and his purpose and his revelation of himself he was already showing us back in you know book two of the scripture

[00:57:25] yep what was gonna be happening hundreds of years later yeah and yeah he is a purposeful father guys thank you so much if you've hung on to the viewer area and we are ecstatic please please

[00:57:41] like and share and and if you want to do some more research check out the what is it called the show description yeah and your description okay we'll have in links to some of the information also

[00:57:57] the booklet they had got it the Passover Hagata if you would like to celebrate your own Passover meal yep so we'll have links to all that in the in the in the show notes down at the bottom

[00:58:08] guys again thank you so much for hanging out with us we hope that you guys are enjoying this please let us know if you're enjoying this please talk to us and give us some feedback we'd love to have that

[00:58:20] wow that was a lot it was a lot that was a whole bunch so again thank you for hanging out with this we love you guys continue to look for God in all different places and keep seeing him in your everyday okay all right bye bye