A Survey of the Old testament Law--Consecrating Aaron and his sons (part 1)

We’ve seen what the tabernacle and all its furnishings probably looked like. We have seen what the garments of the high priest probably looked like. And today we are going to see Aaron and his sons set apart—consecrated—for the priestly service. And before we read our text, I think it would behoove us to understand the reason for the priesthood. And that reason is quite simple. We are vile, wicked, sinful, prideful people who have sinned against a perfectly righteous God. We have broken His law, despised His commandments, and rebelled against His authority. And because we have done these things, we are spiritually separated from God, and cannot approach Him directly. We need someone to plead with Him on our behalf, to ask Him to have mercy on us because of our sins. And that is where the office of priest comes in. Now most people, when they think of the word ‘priest’ they think of a guy in a black robe with a funny-looking collar. And the Roman Catholic church has indeed misappropriated the term ‘priest’ and has convinced those who have been deceived into following her that only the ‘priest’ can forgive you of your sins. The Roman Catholic priest can do nothing for you.

Now here’s the good news—we have a High Priest who has already entered God’s courtroom and who continually intervenes on our behalf. Hebrews 7:24-25—24 He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. 25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. And He has made us priests as well. Revelation 1:5-6—5 To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, 6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. And because we are kings and priests we can call upon this holy and righteous God at any time. Hebrews 4:16—Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. However, until that Great High Priest came, the only way for a person to come to God was—well, first you had to become Jewish, and then you had to go to the Jewish priest, and you had to have an acceptable offering to give. The priest would then kill it, cut it up and burn it, thus making intercession for you. Now, as we've seen in the videos we've watched over the last couple weeks, God was very particular about how things were to be done. Very detailed in His descriptions of the building of the tabernacle and its furnishings and the garments of the high priest. Very intricate details.

And not only was God very specific about the tent and the furnishings and the garments, He was also very specific about who could serve as priest. And it was God’s will that only the “sons of Aaron” could become priests. If we go way back to Genesis, we know that God made a covenant with Abraham that all nations would be blessed through faithful Abraham. Genesis 22:18—"In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." Then Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. But the promise was only to come through Isaac. Genesis 21:12—“In Isaac shall your seed be called.” Then, Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau. Jacob was eventually given the name “Israel.” And Jacob—Israel—had 12 sons, who became the heads of what we call the “Twelve tribes of Israel.” These 12 sons were Simeon, Reuben, Gad, Naphtali, Dan, Issachar, Benjamin, Zebulon, Joseph, Judah, Asher and Levi. Levi had sons who had sons who had sons and eventually the line of Levi produced two sons named Moses and Aaron. The duty of serving in the tabernacle was given, in general, to the male descendants of Levi. And only the descendants of Levi. If you belonged to the tribe of Benjamin—forget it. If you belong to the tribe of Simeon—sorry. If you belong to the tribe of Reuben—not a chance. Gad, Dan, Naphtali? Step aside. To serve in the tabernacle you had to be a descendant of Levi. Not only that, but in order to enter the priesthood, not only did you have to be a descendant of Levi, more specifically you had to be a descendant of Aaron.

And it is in chapter 29 of Exodus that we see these sons of Aaron set apart for the priesthood. Exodus 29:1-4—“1 And this is what you shall do to them to hallow them for ministering to Me as priests: Take one young bull and two rams without blemish, 2 and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil (you shall make them of wheat flour). 3 You shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket, with the bull and the two rams. 4 And Aaron and his sons you shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and you shall wash them with water.” Now, I want to stop right here for a moment. What we have here is this: These commands were to be carried out once the tabernacle and the furnishings were finished. So, chronologically, this would have taken place some time after about Exodus 39 or 40 (And in fact we read about this ceremony taking place in Leviticus chapters 8 and 9). At any rate, Moses is to bring the sons of Aaron—Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar—to the door of the tent, and to bring a bull and two rams and all these unleavened breads and wafers. And the first thing that Moses was to do was to wash them with water. Head to toe, not just a little dab under the pits and behind the ears. This was to be a full-body bath. And here we have one of those places where the Law pointed to Christ. Once Aaron and his sons were washed at the door of the tabernacle—and of course they had to go through all the other rituals we’ll be looking at—they were then admitted into the priesthood. After that, the only time they needed to undergo a washing was when they would offer a sacrifice on the altar of burnt offering. One of their priestly duties was, of course, to kill, cut up and burn the sacrifice on the altar of burnt offering. After they burned the offering, before they could go into the tent they had to go to the bronze laver and wash their hands and feet. But they did not have to wash the whole body. That had already been done. How does this act as a prefiguring of Christ? I'm glad you asked. Hold your place here, and turn with me to the gospel according to John.

John chapter 13. This is the night before the crucifixion, Christ and His apostles are in the upper room celebrating Passover Seder. And Jesus does something interesting. John 13:5-10—5 After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. 6 Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, "Lord, are You washing my feet?" 7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this." 8 Peter said to Him, "You shall never wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me." 9 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!" 10 Jesus said to him, "He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean." Once a person has been cleansed by Christ, they need only go back to “have their feet washed” so to speak, because their whole body is clean.


Listen to Jesus’ words again, John 13:10—"He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean." Notice He uses several different words here—bathed and washed ans clean. And these are two different words in the Greek.The first is λούω (louo), which means to bathe—that is, to bathe the whole body. The second word, νίπτω (nipto), means to wash various parts of the body. Then "clean" is translated from καθαρός (katharos). And this is the point that we see Jesus making here. The priest washed his hands and feet, but only because he was handling offerings for sin. Christ is our offering for sin, so we no longer need to handle dead animals. But what Christ is saying is that as we walk through this world, we build up dirt and grime on our feet—spiritually speaking. But we have already been bathed—spiritually speaking. Titus 3:4-5—4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing—literally, the λούω (louo), the bathing—of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. We have been washed, regenerated, renewed, consecrated, set apart to God by being bathed by the Holy Spirit. First John 1:9—If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse (καθαρίζω (katharizō)) us from all unrighteousness. The word ‘cleanse’ is from the same Greek word (καθαρός (katharos)) that Jesus uses in John 13:10 that is translated ‘clean.’ “He who is bathed…is completely clean (καθαρός (katharos)).” If we have been bathed λούω (louo) in the Holy Spirit, we wash νίπτω (nipto) our feet by asking for forgiveness, and God will cleanse (καθαρίζω (katharizō)) us from the dirt and grime that we have built up on our feet from our daily walk in this world. Because we are never going to be perfect. In these bodies, we will get messy from time to time. But if we have been bathed by the Holy Spirit, we only need to go back to have our feet washed. 

Exodus 29:5-7—“5 Then you shall take the garments, put the tunic on Aaron, and the robe of the ephod, the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with the intricately woven band of the ephod. 6 You shall put the turban on his head, and put the holy crown on the turban. 7 And you shall take the anointing oil, pour it on his head, and anoint him.” And again we stop here. Once Aaron put on the garments that signified his office, they took the anointing oil that we will look at in Exodus 30, and they poured it over him—they were to pour the oil over his head, and it was to run down to his beard. Thus he was set apart as belonging to God and ministering for the people. This of course was a picture of Christ, specifically our fellowship in Christ, the Holy Spirit having been poured out upon all Christians. Psalm 133:1-3—1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments. 3 It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion; for there the LORD commanded the blessing—Life forevermore. This was not a neat and tidy ritual. It’s a good thing this was done in the desert, in the sand, than on a marble floor because that could have gotten very messy and slippery.

In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus reads from Isaiah 61:1-2—“1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” And it is this section of the scroll of Isaiah that Jesus read from in one of the earliest parts of His ministry (see Luke 4:16-21). The pouring of oil—many times you will run across the phrase “poured out”—it is a picture of the Holy Spirit being “poured out” upon either Jesus as the Christ or on the individual believer. The Greek word “Christ” is a synonym for the Hebrew word “Messiah” and both of these words mean “anointed.” And in the OT, we see the act of anointing being performed in order to set apart certain men to certain important positions. We of course have Aaron anointed to set him apart as high priest:

• We see Elisha anointed as prophet in 1^st Kings 19:16—And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place.
• We see David anointed as the future king of Israel in 1^st Samuel 16:13—Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward.

Aaron was anointed as high priest; David was anointed as king; Elisha was anointed as prophet. What’s the connection I'm making here? This anointing of priest, prophet and king with oil was symbolic of God anointing Christ—King, Prophet and Priest—with the Holy Spirit. But I also think there was another event in Christ’s life that this pointed to. And it’s not one that we like to think about.

Many times when we read about what Pilate and Herod and the Roman soldiers did to Christ during His crucifixion, we often point out how the crown of thorns and the purple robe were meant to mock the claim that Christ made to being king of the Jews. And during His ordeal we read about the servants of the high priest spitting in the face of our Lord in Matthew 26:67—Then they spat in His face and beat Him. The Roman soldiers also did the same, in Matthew 27:30—Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head. And remember this: these men that we’re talking about here, both the servants of the wicked priests as well as the Roman soldiers. They were driven in their disgraceful actions by Satan. These were men that would eventually drive metal spikes through the flesh of His wrists. Do you think they were going to stop with a few drops of spittle? They, for all intents and purposes, “anointed” Him with their spit. The servants of the high priest “anointed” Him as prophet and priest, the Romans soldiers “anointed” Him as king. We see this foreshadowed in another place, Isaiah 50:6—I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting. Job 30:10 (NET)—They detest me and maintain their distance; they do not hesitate to spit in my face. I wonder what they will say when they stand before the Great White Throne of Christ? The very same Christ that these wicked men treated with such contempt—will be the one who passes ultimate judgment on them. But here is the grace of God—if one of those servants or one of those soldiers had followed Christ up Golgotha, and watched as He was lifted up, and if that man had fallen down and begged forgiveness—he would be forgiven.

So, coming back to Exodus, Aaron was to be bathed head to toe. He was to be clothed in the high priestly garments and anointed. Verses 8-9 we will take next week. For now we’ll look at Exodus 29:10-14—“10 You shall also have the bull brought before the tabernacle of meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands on the head of the bull. 11 Then you shall kill the bull before the LORD, by the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 12 You shall take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and pour all the blood beside the base of the altar. 13 And you shall take all the fat that covers the entrails, the fatty lobe attached to the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar. 14 But the flesh of the bull, with its skin and its offal, you shall burn with fire outside the camp. It is a sin offering.” Going all the way back to the book of Genesis, even to that point immediately after Adam sinned, we see that the cost of sin is what? Death. Whenever and wherever there is sin, there must necessarily be death. And blood. By placing their hands on the heads of this bull, they were acknowledging their sins, and are confessing that this animal was being killed to cover over their sins. And until these men confessed their sins and made restitution for their sins, they could not be set apart as priests to God.

Oh, and you see those beautiful, hand-made garments up at the top of the page? The ones that God gave the instructions concerning their intricate detail and to make these garments that would glorify God? Well, after killing and cutting up these animals, guess what happened to these lovely works of man's hands? They were covered with blood. Almost symbolizing the fact that no matter how much work you did, unless your works were covered by blood, they were useless. Just like our "good works" today. Many people do "good things." But unless those things are done in the name of the Lord Jesus, and for the glory of God, and unless one is covered by the blood of Christ--all those "good works" will not do the person a bit of good. And unless the garments of these priests were covered in blood, they were useless as well.

Now, getting back to the sacrifice. What functions do the kidneys, intestines and liver perform? They get rid of stuff. What these men were doing was acknowledging the despicableness of sin. These were—and are—some of the most disgusting parts of an animal. I don’t care if you like chitterlings, they're disgusting. They were to burn them on the altar, right then and there. Now, let me finish up with what they were to do with some other parts of that bull. Exodus 29:14—“But the flesh of the bull, with its skin and its offal, you shall burn with fire outside the camp. It is a sin offering.” I like how the NET renders it, it says “It is a purification offering.” Now, the word “offal” literally means, how can I say this nicely, ‘dung’. The flesh, the skin, the dung—these were the only things that were to be taken outside the camp. Once they had gotten the tabernacle finished, and had gotten all the tents of the various tribes in their proper places, they perform these rituals, everything that was to be killed, cut up and burned to consecrate Aaron and his sons and the tabernacles and all its furniture was to be burned on the altar of burnt offering—except the flesh, skin and dung of this purification offering. This purification offering was meant to bear the sins of the men who were set apart as priests.

And wouldn’t you know it; we have a picture of Christ. Where was Christ crucified? Golgotha. Was Golgotha inside the city walls of Jerusalem? No, it was outside the city. Christ is not only our High Priest; He is also our offering for sin, true? He is the Offering that purifies us—our Purification Offering, since we too are priests to God. Listen to Hebrews 13:10-13—10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. 12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. 13 Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. Only the sin offering—that we will see in Leviticus 4—and this purification offering for Aaron and his sons were to be burned outside the camp. Christ, our sin offering, bore our reproach when He was crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem, and what I think the writer is saying here is, “Let us no longer serve the weak and beggarly elements of the Law that could not make us righteous. Let us instead look to Christ as being the author and finisher of faith and righteousness, since we have been crucified with Him.” By fulfilling these things that were symbolized in these rituals, He has fulfilled all righteousness.

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.

A survey of the Old Testament Law--"You Shall Keep the Passover" (Part 2)

Last week we used Exodus 23:15 as a jumping-off point for part 1 of what will be a 3-part study of the Passover. So if you have your Bible let’s go ahead and turn to Exodus 12:43-49—43 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "This is the ordinance of the Passover: No foreigner shall eat it. 44 But every man's servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat it. 45 A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat it. 46 In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones. 47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. 48 And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as a native of the land. For no uncircumcised person shall eat it. 49 One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you." Before we start, I want to mention something. Right in the middle of this paragraph, we see God command the people, at the end of Exodus 12:46—“…nor shall you break one of its bones.” We’re gonna skip that for now, come back to it later

Under the Old Covenant, God split the world up into two groups of people: Jew and Gentile. It was easy. If you were born to a Jewish family, you were a Jew. If you belonged to any other ethnic group, you were a Gentile. The lines were drawn and they were very distinct. And one sign that one was a Jew was circumcision. Today parents have their children circumcised for any number of reasons. But under the old covenant, circumcision was a sacred rite, one by which one was permitted into the nation of Israel. Another sign that separated Jew from Gentile was the feasts. If you were a Jew, you took part in the feasts. If you were not a Jew, you could take part in the feasts—if and only if you had been circumcised. These commands were given because of what we see in Exodus 12:37-38—37 Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. 38 A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock. The “mixed multitude” was made up of Egyptians who feared the LORD and who saw His mighty hand and wanted to worship this One who could do such mighty works and topple the gods of Egypt. Now, if we fast-forward to the NT, we find the question of circumcision being one of the most hotly-debated issues in the early church. We, who are living today, tend to think that many of the errors we see today are ones that have taken 2000 years to develop. That is not quite true. There were, I dare say, just as many heresies trying to creep into the church in its infancy as there are now. And in fact, many of the NT epistles were written to correct those heresies. Colossians and 1^st John were written to denounce the heresy called “Gnosticism”, which was a heresy that taught that to attain salvation one had to gain this mystical, secret knowledge. They also taught that material things are evil; therefore Christ could not have had an actual body of flesh and bone. Which is why 1^st John 4:3 says Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.

Probably the most common heresy in the early church was the issue of circumcision, and whether a Gentile had to be circumcised in order to be saved. The reason this was an issue was many Jews brought up the fact that for one to take part in the Passover, one had to be circumcised. They then applied that to Christ—He being our Passover. So they said, “If you have to be circumcised to eat the Passover, then it’s obvious you must be circumcised to partake of Christ’s life.” And time after time the apostle Paul—a Jew among Jews—soundly rejected that thinking. We could spend weeks going through all the verses that pertain to circumcision, but we’ll just hit on a few. Galatians 6:6—For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. Romans 2:28-29—28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. Ephesians 2:11-13—11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Under the old covenant one could not be joined to the nation of God except through circumcision of the flesh—that is, by becoming a Jew. But now, under the new covenant, one is joined to the family of God through circumcision of the heart—being adopted as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself.

Now, many years after the Passover was instituted, another question arose about if certain people were to keep the Passover. We find these questions in Numbers 9:6-13—6 Now there were certain men who were defiled by a human corpse, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day; and they came before Moses and Aaron that day. 7 And those men said to him, "We became defiled by a human corpse. Why are we kept from presenting the offering of the LORD at its appointed time among the children of Israel?" 8 And Moses said to them, "Stand still, that I may hear what the LORD will command concerning you." 9 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “10 Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If anyone of you or your posterity is unclean because of a corpse, or is far away on a journey, he may still keep the LORD's Passover. 11 On the fourteenth day of the second month, at twilight, they may keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They shall leave none of it until morning, nor break one of its bones. According to all the ordinances of the Passover they shall keep it. 13 But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and ceases to keep the Passover, that same person shall be cut off from among his people, because he did not bring the offering of the LORD at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin.’” Question: The command in verse 10, about men who have been defiled because they touched a corpse right before Passover—we read about two men in the gospels that command applies to. Who would those two men be? What two men handled a corpse at the time of Passover in the gospels? Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. John 19:38-40—38 After this, Joseph of Arimathea…came and took the body of Jesus. 39 And Nicodemus…also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. 40 Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices. These men would not be allowed to keep the Passover the next day, because they would be considered unclean. And I think it might have shocked even Pontius Pilate that these two devout Jewish men—Joseph of Arimathea being a member of the Sanhedrin—would handle a dead body the day before the Passover. But, because they did, they would have had to wait until the 14^th of the next month, which would be the month Ijar to observe it. But I think Joseph and Nicodemus knew something that even the Pharisees, the guardians of the Law of Moses, didn’t know. That the Passover has come, has been slain, and never needs to be slain again. They knew that when they lay Christ, our Passover, in the tomb, He wouldn’t be there very long.

In this section of Numbers, we also see the provision for those who are away from home to keep the Passover. Numbers 9:10—“If anyone of you or your posterity is far away on a journey, he may still keep the LORD's Passover.” These were the only two reasons a person may be excused from keeping the Passover on the 14^th of the month Abib (Nisan). However, if they just didn’t feel like going through all the hassle of finding a perfect lamb or goat, and wanted to put it off until next month, and observe the “little Passover” as it was called. Well, we find God saying this in Numbers 9:13—“13 But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and declines to keep the Passover, that same person shall be cut off from among his people, because he did not bring the offering of the LORD at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin.” Sorry! Unless you are unclean or on a journey, you MUST keep the Passover on the 14^th of Abib (Nisan). If you delay without reason, you are cut off from the nation of Israel. Period, paragraph, end of story. God had set up some very distinct regulations concerning how He was to be worshipped. If someone wanted to say, “Well, I know what it says, but I worship God in my own way.” Well, you go ahead and do that—and then, when you stand before Him, you can explain to Him why you thought you knew better than He did. And He can then explain to you why He did not accept that kind of worship. And you can have a chat with Nadab and Abihu, whom we will talk about further down the road.

Now, there is one last aspect of this feast that we’re going to look at today. In the middle of all the regulations concerning the Passover, God says in Numbers 9:14—“And if a stranger dwells among you, and would keep the LORD's Passover, he must do so according to the rite of the Passover and according to its ceremony; you shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger and the native of the land.’” Real simple—there was but one Law for both Jew and for Gentile. There was not one Law for the Jew and another, separate Law for Gentile. One Law covered them both. Four times, God repeats this command. Once in Leviticus, three times in Numbers. God makes it very clear that He does not set one standard for one group of people, and another standard for others. Romans 3:19—Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. The ONE Law of God shuts EVERY mouth, and declares ALL THE WORLD—Jew and Gentile—to be guilty before God. Romans 3:28-30—28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. 29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. See, one thing we need to understand about the OT Law is that it was not simply God’s standard for a specific group of people for a specific period of time. While the Law was indeed given only to Israel, and it was only the Israelites who suffered the temporal punishments for violating its various commandments (for example, the Hivites were not stoned with stones for working on the seventh day of the week), it’s not as though God ignored murder before that moment when the people of Israel got to Mt. Sinai. Listen to what He said to Cain after he killed his brother Abel, Genesis 4:10-11—“10 What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground. 11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.” And of course we know why God sent the flood to wipe out all but the family of Noah. Genesis 6:5-7—5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually…7 So the LORD said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth." And after the flood was over, Genesis 9:6—“Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man.”

When God gave the Ten Commandments in the hearing of all the people, and when He spoke the entire Law to Moses up on Sinai, God was not really introducing any new commandments; He was not all of a sudden prohibiting things that He had previously condoned. When God gave the Law, He was simply telling Moses to put in writing those things that had been understood by all mankind even from the time of the Fall, when sin and death entered the world. Listen to Romans 5:12-14—12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam). Over the 1500 or so years before the giving of the Law, men died. The reason we die is because of sin. Sin entered the world, and death through sin. So when Paul says in Romans 5:13 that sin is not imputed when there is no law, he’s saying that there must have been some kind of Law in existence before Sinai, because men died. And men died because of sin. So that one Law covered every single man—except Enoch, who was taken out of the world before he died.

 Now, just as there was one Law for both Jew and Gentile, there is also one gospel for both Jew and Gentile. There is not one gospel for Jew and another, separate gospel for Gentile. There’s a real popular preacher on TV who says that Jews don’t need to accept Christ as their Savior, since they are Jews and the Jews are God’s chosen people—therefore Jews are saved because they're Jews. And I'll tell you his name, it’s John Hagee. That teaching is heresy—that was the very same error that the Pharisees were guilty of. Matthew 3:7-10—7 But when [John the Baptist] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, 9 and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” John the Baptist was saying, “Yep, you guys are sons of Abraham. Whoopty-doo! That and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee, but it ain't gonna get you into the kingdom of God!” That’s just a loose translation from the Greek. There is ONE GOSPEL for the Jew and for the Gentile. Listen to what Peter says in Acts 15—and keep in mind, if there were ever a devout Jew, it was Simon Peter. Acts 15:7-11 (NASB)—7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; 9 and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. 10 Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are." Jew and Gentile are both saved in the same way—by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone according to the Scriptures alone for the glory of God alone.

Paul tells us the following, in Ephesians 2:14-18—14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross…18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Colossians 3:11—There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free—and to expand that thought, there is neither white nor black, American nor Canadian, Latino nor Japanese, African nor Asian, French or English, Russian or Mexican—but Christ is all and in all. Galatians 3:28—There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Albert Barnes—“Every man, on whom is the image and the blood of Christ, is a brother to every other one who bears that image, and should be treated accordingly. What an influence would be excited in the breaking up of the distinctions of rank and class among people; what an effect in abolishing the prejudice on account of color and country, if this were universally believed and felt!” There was one Law for both Jew and Gentile—there is one gospel for both Jew and Gentile.

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--"You shall keep the feast of Passover"

There were three great feasts that the people of Israel were commanded to keep every year: Passover; the Feast of Firstfruits; and the Feast of Ingathering. These were three feasts that were to remind the people, year after year, of the fact that God is their Provider, their Deliverer, and the one to whom they should look for all their needs. These were symbolic—they were meant to point to the One who would provide their salvation form sin; the One who would deliver them from evil, and who would give life and give it more abundantly. The Feast of Firstfruits and the Feats of Ingathering—we’ll look at those when we get to those parts of Leviticus. Today we are going to look at Passover and how that was a shadow of the Christ to come. The Passover was to remind them of how God saved them from their bondage to Pharaoh. However, the One who was pictured in that event was going to, one day, save many from their bondage to sin, Satan, the flesh and the Law.

Exodus 23:13-19—“13 And in all that I have said to you, be circumspect and make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth. 14 Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year: 15 You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty); 16 and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field. 17 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD. 18 You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor shall the fat of My sacrifice remain until morning. 19 The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.” Each of these feasts was a guide, a shadow, which was meant to guard hearts of the people until the Son of God appeared to fulfill these things (Galatians 3:25).

By the time Christ arrived, the keeping of these feasts had become the ground to which many people were clinging for their salvation. But in many places in the OT, God rebukes the people of Israel for keeping feasts and for offering sacrifices that He would not accept. Isaiah 1:11-14—11 “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” says the LORD. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats. 12 “When you come to appear before Me, who has required this from your hand, to trample My courts? 13 Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. 14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.” And the reason He would not accept them is because the people were saying—in their heart—“I'm not going to stop sinning, so I'll just bring a lamb or a goat and make my offering and God will be happy with that.” And in the NT, Paul rebukes the people for trying to be righteous by keeping them. Galatians 4:9-11—9 But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.

The feasts and the offerings and the rituals and the blood of bulls and goats—these were all simply guideposts, if you will, that were meant to lead the people to the One who would deliver them from their real enemy. Now, for those couple thousand years between the giving of the Law and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the people always thought their real enemies were foreign nations—the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Egyptians. But their real enemy was no human kingdom. Their real enemy was not of this world. Their real enemy is the same enemy we all need to be delivered from, and that is whom? Ephesians 6:12—We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. The feasts and offerings were not meant to make one righteous, but to point to the One who would make us righteous—the Lord Christ. Galatians 3:23-24—23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. The writer of Hebrews tells us that these things were merely a “shadow” of Christ. Hebrews 9:9—[The tabernacle] was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience. He goes on to say in Hebrews 10:1—1 The law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. These things contained in the Law could not cleanse the conscience; they could not take away sin; they could not do anything. They were only an outward manifestation of an inward change.

Because you could perform all these outward rituals every single day for the rest of your life but if there was no change on the inside; if there was no mourning over sin; if there was no heart that longed after God—those rituals and offerings and sacrifices were useless. You could kill 100 goats a day, but if there was no hatred of sin, no shame, then all the blood of all the bulls and goats in all of Israel could not make one person righteous before God. Like baptism. You could get dunked in water every day, but if your heart has not been changed and if there is no repentance, if there is no hunger and thirst after righteousness, all the water in the world cannot wash away one single sin. 

For now, let’s look at the first of these feasts, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, in Exodus 23:15—“You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt.)” This command is repeated in Exodus 34:18. This Feast of Unleavened Bread is, of course, also known as what? Yes, Passover. Turn with me please to Exodus 11:1. I don’t think I need to set the scene up for you. But just in case—the people of Israel have been living in Egypt for over 400 years. They have been in bondage to Pharaoh, forced to build many of the monuments and temples that archeologists are now discovering. And it is most likely that the Pharaoh at the time was Rameses II. He ruled Egypt from 1279 BC until 1213 BC, and was one of the longest-reigning of the Egyptian pharaohs. Moses commands Pharaoh, in the name of YHVH, to let the people of Israel go. Pharaoh refuses time after time, and eventually God sends the first nine plagues to punish Pharaoh and the people of Egypt.

When Pharaoh still won’t budge, we find Moses telling Pharaoh the following in Exodus 11:4-7—4 Then Moses said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt; 5 and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals. 6 Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again. 7 But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the LORD does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.’” So, who was going to be the object of the wrath of God in this plague? Just like we talked about last week, the reason the people of Israel were to dedicate their firstborn to God was as a reminder of this night, because God destroyed the all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, but spared the firstborn of the Israelites.

Now, Exodus 12:1-2—1 Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.” This was the month of Abib. It is now called “Nisan”. Like the car but with only one ‘s’. The name ‘Abib’ comes from the Hebrew word which means “the month of green ears.” It is the month when the grain would be seen for the first time that year. Now, the name was changed from ‘Abib’ to ‘Nisan’ after the Babylonian captivity, and that is what it has been called ever since. Abib—Nisan—occurs during the springtime of year, and it falls in what we call March or April. And there is a reason for the ambiguity, if you will. The Hebrew calendar reckons months quite differently than the Gregorian calendar that we use. Our calendars measure the time it takes for the earth to revolve around the sun. The Hebrew calendar is based on the phases of the moon. There are 12 months in the Hebrew calendar; 7 of the 12 Hebrew months have 30 days, the rest have 29. So, there is a difference of 11 days between the lunar Hebrew calendar and the solar Gregorian calendar. Also, every couple of years they need to add an entire month to make sure the Passover stays in the right part of the year. ISBE— 

“The year was composed of 12 or 13 months according to whether it was an ordinary or a leap year…[a leap month] was used to make the lunar year correspond approximately to the solar year, a month being added whenever the discrepancy of the seasons rendered it necessary. This was regulated by the priests, who had to see that the feasts were duly observed at the proper season.” 

 And this is why Passover—and consequently Resurrection Sunday—may occur in what we call the first of March one year, and what we call the middle of April the next year.

So, with all that being said, let us move on to Exodus 12:3-6—“3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month.” On the 10^th of Abib (Nisan) you examine your sheep (or goats) and you find one that was physically perfect. No open sores, no sickness, no physical deformities. Had to be perfect, and could not be more than a year old. And when you find that perfect specimen, you set it aside—or, ‘sanctified’ it—for the next four days, until the 14^th of Abib (Nisan). If your family was not big enough to eat and entire sheep or goat by yourselves, then you had your neighbor come over with his family to help you, because as it says in verse 10, “You shall let none of it remain until morning.” 

Now, let’s fast-forward to the NT—or, more correctly, to the end of the OT. There’s a fellow preaching in the wilderness outside of Jerusalem. And he’s making the leaders of the religious establishment a little sketchy. Because people are going out and flocking to him instead of paying the scribes and Pharisees the honor and adoration they deserve (said with tongue firmly in cheek). And many are going out to hear this man because even the Pharisees know that the people reckon this man to be a prophet of God. And indeed he was. He would be the last prophet of the Old Covenant. He preached of the coming Messiah—his cousin, actually—and one day that Messiah comes along and this prophet cries out John 1:29—“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” For the last 1500 years God had been giving them one clue after another about what to look for in the coming Messiah, and the clearest picture He gave them was the lambs that were used not only in the daily sacrifices, but in the Passover lamb. The people had been under mandate to provide their own lambs as a sacrifice—but now God has provided His own Lamb to deal with the problem of sin, Satan and the flesh. Just as Abraham promised Isaac when he took him up Mt. Moriah, in Genesis 22:8—“My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” And indeed, God provided a Lamb as an offering for sin for the people. So here we have the Passover—or Paschal—lamb as a picture of the Christ. A lamb without spot or blemish.

Now, in Exodus 12:6-7—“6 Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 7 And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.” And on that day, the whole assembly would gather together and kill that lamb—slit its neck from one side to the other, and all the people watched as the blood poured from that lamb. And let’s remember—what did that lamb do to deserve being killed? That innocent lamb was killed so that the people could be delivered from slavery and bondage. Hmmm. I wonder if we can see some similarities here. A lamb without spot or blemish. A lamb that never sinned. All the people of Israel gathered to watch this lamb pour out all its blood so the people could be freed from slavery and oppression. Can you think of anybody that scenario may remind you of? Also—They were to put blood on the vertical posts and the horizontal beam across the top of the entrance. Hmmm. The vertical post and the horizontal beam. I wonder what THAT might symbolize.

BUT—I want to point this out. In our main text, Exodus 23:15, the people were commanded to keep the Passover every single year. Year after year, they are to come to Jerusalem, bring their lambs and goats, kill them, cut them up, and burn them. Year after year after year after year. The lamb you killed last year does you no good this year. Hypothetically speaking, if you had killed your lamb in 2009, you would still have to bring one in 2010. In 2011, the one you killed in 2010 would do you no good; you would have to bring one in 2011. In 2012, all the lambs you brought in 2009, 2010, and 2011 would do you no good—you would still have to bring one in 2012. In 2050, all the lambs you would have killed from 2009, 2010, 2011, all the way up to 2049 would not do you one bit of good—you would still have to bring a new one in 2050.

All the lambs that were killed, cut up and burned every year under the Old Covenant were a symbol. They were a picture. They were a reminder of how God delivered them from one ruthless oppressor—but they were also a way of looking forward to God delivering them from an oppressor who was much more ruthless than Pharaoh. It was meant to keep in the front of their minds the fact that one day God Himself would redeem them from bondage to sin, Satan and the flesh. It was meant to be a tutor to bring them to Christ (Galatians 3:24). We don’t have to bring a lamb or a goat to Jerusalem and slay it every year. Reason number one, 1^st Corinthians 5:7—Christ, our Passover, was crucified for us. And even if we wanted to bring a lamb or goat and sacrifice it at the temple, we couldn’t—there’s no more temple. That’s why God had the temple destroyed. We talked last week about how even the Jewish historian Josephus knew that it was God who allowed the Romans to destroy the temple. He thought it was because of all the killing that had been taking place—but the truth is, God had the temple destroyed because He did not have anymore use for it. The true temple is in Heaven. “Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days”…He was speaking of the temple of His body (John 2:19-21). And, finally, writing of the New Jerusalem, John says in Revelation 21:22—I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 

Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who was slain, whose blood was poured out—not to deliver us from earthly tyrants, but to deliver us from the wrath of God that we deserved. And when we—spiritually—apply that blood to ourselves, God passes over our sins. Romans 3:23-25—23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed. So, when that first Passover lamb was killed, it was to be burned and eaten in a very particular way. Exodus 12:8—“Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.” The phrase “bitter herbs” does not refer to chewing on a sprig of oregano or basil. It’s actually a poor choice by the translators; it literally refers to some member of the lettuce family. If you go to Kroger’s and see the bags of precut salad, and some of them look like they're filled with grass and purple weeds—that’s probably what is referred to here. John Gill—

“Whatever they were, for it is uncertain what they were, they were expressive of the bitter afflictions of the children of Israel in Egypt, with which their lives were made bitter; and of those bitter afflictions and persecutions in the world, which they that will live godly in Christ Jesus must expect to endure; as well as they may signify that as a crucified Christ must be looked upon, and lived upon by faith, so with mourning and humiliation for sin, and with true repentance for it is an evil and bitter thing.” 

Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen.