Thru the Bible

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Oh, for a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent Word.

Steve Schwetz: Welcome to Thru the Bible. Today our study of Exodus 12 with Dr. J. Vernon McGee is going to take us to one fateful night in Egypt. I'm Steve Schwetz, and before we get started, Greg and I have got a few minutes for an update on our partnership with Endure International to reach people in all places of Pakistan.

Greg: Yeah, this is a really cool story, Steve. So we talk a lot about our television, satellite television partner, Endure International. They do six of the major languages of the Muslim world. They do Turkish, Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, and Indonesian, many of these major, major languages. Well, one day I'm working at my computer and I got an email that they started some listening groups in Pakistan in a language called Marwari, and that is not a language that they had done any work for us in. And what we found out is that the local Urdu speaking pastor was also, could also translate it into Marwari, and they had, they basically had home groups, they didn't call them that, okay? And this is why we like to say the Holy Spirit is always a couple steps ahead of us, right?

Steve Schwetz: Yes, yep.

Greg: And the really cool thing was I said, hmm, Marwari, I think we have some audio in that language. And so essentially, what happened was we were able to connect them with the audio that was produced in India for the home groups in the language of Marwari.

Steve Schwetz: Marwari. In India.

Greg: Yeah. And this is why, and you love to tell people this, why do we do all these obscure languages?

Steve Schwetz: Yeah, because again, most of these people are already speaking Urdu. Why would that pastor take the time to translate it? And those of you that are like me, probably monolinguistic, you don't appreciate what a heart language is, what you learned, you know, on your mother's knee, so to speak. And the lack of content in these smaller languages has people listen when they normally wouldn't listen even if it's, if they're talking about Jesus Christ. And so it's just an exciting opportunity. The smaller the language, the higher the effectiveness that we find the ministry goes through or or receives almost without exception.

Greg: Yes, and this is a very practical example of what Steve articulated is a philosophy, but it gets very practical when you realize that people's spiritual language is their mother tongue. And that's why when you hear us talking about being in 250 languages or growing in the number of languages, we're not trying to get bragging rights. We want to literally reach more people in their mother tongues. And we found through this initiative, they had formed seven listening groups.

Steve Schwetz: Yeah, and that's the other thing that I I appreciate about the growth of Thru the Bible as a ministry. When we started, we were a broadcast ministry. In fact, we used to have a our our logo was an open Bible with this big massive radio tower on the top of it, and we would just fling the seed out and gee, let's get some letters back. Now, completely different with these small groups, with the follow-up teams in Pakistan, we've got people following up with these groups and they are giving birth to local churches, people are being discipled, and it's really taking the ministry to the next level from a missionary outreach standpoint.

Greg: Yes, so exciting.

Steve Schwetz: Greg, why don't you pray for us as we begin.

Greg: Father, we're just grateful to see your spirit moving in powerful ways through our humble efforts, and we pray you'd continue to allow us to get into more of these smaller heart languages so that all of those wonderful things we just celebrated will continue to happen to your glory in Jesus' name. Amen.

Steve Schwetz: Here's Dr. J. Vernon McGee with our study of Exodus 12 on Thru the Bible.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, friends, we have come to a high point in the Book of Exodus. It's the institution of the Passover, and we need to put down at the very beginning this statement where Paul says, "Christ, our Passover is offered for us." And that is important for us to see, by the way, that we're going to see Christ in this particular place here.

Now let me read, beginning chapter 12, verse 1. "And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you." Now, this brings us to what I have called a brand new division of the Book of Exodus. The first was a deliverance. Now it's the deliverance. And the deliverance is actually not by Moses. The deliverance is first by blood. That's the Passover feast, the death of the firstborn.

And then we have in chapters 13 and 14, crossing the Red Sea and the destruction of the army of Egypt, and that's by power. God delivered them by blood and by power. And redemption, friends, today is by blood and by power. The blood that the Lord Jesus shed for us to pay the penalty for our sins, and then the power of the Holy Spirit in making this real and making it effectual in our sinful hearts, for it's not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord. So it's the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross for us, it's the work of the Holy Spirit in us. And that is important to see here in the redemption.

Now we have here that God says, "This is the beginning of months for you." Actually, this is where it all begins. This is the birthday of the nation, actually. And yet we'll see an emphasis not put upon the nation, but really upon the family. The emphasis is there. That was true, we saw in Genesis, but now Israel entered Egypt as a family, and they make their exit now as a nation overnight.

But the interesting point for us to consider here, God did not place the emphasis on the nation, but on the family here. Now the families were the building blocks out of which the nation was made. You remember Pharaoh forced them to make bricks without straw, but God had them make the bricks of the family for the building of a nation out of the straws of individuals, and we'll find that here.

There is an old cliché, it's epigrammatic to say it, I know, but it's true. No nation is stronger than the families of that nation. Now we're going to watch God make bricks with plenty of straw. There's a lot of individual, and the Passover is the oldest religious holiday known to man. It's not a national holiday in the sense that Yom Kippur is, the day of Atonement, but it is a religious holiday, and it was a family affair. God redeemed the individual in the family. Now this is to be, though, the birthday of the nation. This is the beginning of months, and the zero hour has come. Here is where the countdown begins for the Exodus out of Egypt.

And notice now what he says in verse 3, "Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel saying, In the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house." Now there are two prominent points of emphasis in this verse here. You can see it's a family celebration that we're going to have. First is the blood, and the second is the house or the family. The lamb speaks, of course, of the blood that'll be put on the doorpost. This is a great emphasis now God's putting on the family, though they've become a nation, and He'll deliver the nation, but He does it by families and the families by individuals.

Notice, "Every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house." You see, this is getting it right down to the family, to each house. Now listen to this verse, verse 4. "And if the household be too little for the lamb." Well, it doesn't say anything about the lamb being too little for the household. That wouldn't happen. The lamb is sufficient, friends. The way this is presented, the lamb is adequate. "If a household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls, every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb."

Now God goes right down to the individual in the family. Every man shall be counted in on this. You take the lamb for a family, but here's a man and his wife, they are childish, they have no children, or maybe their children are married and moved off somewhere else. Well, then he joins maybe with his neighbor who's in the same position, it's just he and his wife. So they get together and they divide the lamb according to the individuals that are there. Now it may be that there is a man next door that's got half a dozen or maybe a dozen children. Well, before you decide to bring those two families together, make sure that each individual will get part of the lamb. You see, this is to be a personal, private matter.

The redemption is for the nation, yes, but it centers in the family and it must be accepted and received by each individual in that family. The Passover, I said, is a family affair. And then notice how important that is. God gives them here just the modus operandi by which God saved individual Israelites. It's not because they are a member of a nation or belong to a family, but an individual. You remember, we have the story, and this ought to throw light on many problems and many questions that come to us here. And one is, well, was the family of the Philippian jailer saved because the Philippian jailer believed? No. Each member of his family had to have a transaction with the lamb, had to partake of the lamb. That was true here.

Every member had to exhibit his faith in this way. Or he was out, by the way. And so when we say that the Philippian jailer and his family were saved because of the faith of the Philippian jailer, you just didn't read that verse all right. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy family." Well, somebody says it says then if you believe your family, no. Your family will have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and they'll be saved. Here is the picture of our redemption and let's look at the picture. Each member, every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Each one will have to participate and partake of it in order to come in under the blessing, you see, and the redemption of the blood that's out on the doorpost of the family.

Now, this is a fateful night in Egypt, and it's the last of the plagues, by the way, and the land of Goshen, you remember, was spared during the last three plagues. God's people were delivered from judgment, but you see, they're not redeemed, and they have to now be redeemed and exhibit faith in the blood. That evening, Israel was doing a very odd thing. And if you go inside any of the homes that night where the blood was sprinkled on the doorpost, you'll notice something's taking place.

Now let me read verse 5 now. "Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year, ye shall take it from the sheep or from the goats." Now, this lamb is to speak of Christ, and the Israelite shall kill it. It's for the family, it's to be put on the doorpost, but each one will have to exhibit faith. Now here is the thing that is amazing, verse 6. "And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening."

Now I'd like to call your attention to something here, friends. "Israel shall kill it." Well, each family had a lamb. There must have been thousands of lambs slain that night. But when God talks about it, he says, "Israel shall slay it in the evening." That lamb is speaking of another lamb. Christ, our Passover, is offered for us, and God looked at it as one lamb. You see all of that's pointing to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world.

Now, will you notice here, there must be that evidence of faith in what they're doing. Faith in the adequacy of the blood. Verse 7, "And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses wherein they shall eat it." Now, the children of Israel were to put the blood outside on the door, and the death angel will pass over. Now, I think that we have here a picture that'll answer another question for us. Now there are many people that have written in and they say, at the time of the Rapture, what about the little children of believers? What about them? Here are little ones that have not reached the age of accountability. You mean to say that the Lord would take mama and papa and go off and leave two little precious children there? No, friends, God won't do that.

Let's read this. "They shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses wherein they shall eat it." And they eat the lamb on the inside. That is by faith to partake of Christ, but the little one doesn't know what's taking place. Well, will the little one be left in the house when the children of Israel go out of the land of Egypt? If the little one happens to be just a little one, hasn't reached the age of accountability, will the little one be slain? Oh no, no, friends. The blood covered it all. The death angel passed over all of them. And I assume from this picture that the children that have not reached the age of accountability in every home at the time of the Rapture will be taken, covered by the blood, if you please. God would not leave them, anymore than he left them in the days when the children of Israel were redeemed and went out of the land of Egypt.

Now will you notice it says, "They shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it." Now, each one of these, of course, had a tremendous message and meaning in everything that they did. This speaks, of course, of the fellowship of the family. The family were together in this.

Now I want to make a statement now, and I'm sure I'll get reaction to this, but I don't mind it at all. We today, in our very highly organized Bible schools and in our church programs, we put the juniors here and the junior highs there, and the high school over here. Can you well understand that Moses telling them to put all the children in the nursery over at the palace of Pharaoh, because that's where he was raised, and to take the juniors down to the volleyball court? May I say to you, there'd been a lot of children would have missed out that night on the Exodus. May I say this is done by families. And I'm afraid that our churches today have been guilty of dividing families. We ought to have families together in church. I'm a square, I grant that, but you see, I started off as a young preacher up in Middle Tennessee, and I was pastor of a city church, however, but I used to go in the summer because I guess I'm a country boy. And I went up in Middle Tennessee and helped meetings in those country churches, and had the best time of my life. And I'd start preaching at night and you'd see a mother sitting out there with a little one in her arms, it may be restless. I learned out-talk 'em. If I can't out-talk a six-months old child, well, something's radically wrong. So I learned to preach above 'em. And that little one go to sleep. The mother'd pick it up, take it to the back of the church, had a pallet there, put the little one down. She'd come back down, she's sitting there with her husband and maybe two or three other children, and here comes up another, it's just like popcorn all over the place, these little ones going to sleep. And they told me they'd had a preacher there the year before me that had a meeting, and one night they put down about like they did every night, about a dozen babies. And all of a sudden, he stopped and he said, "You know, I'm a greater preacher than Paul the Apostle." And the people were amazed. He paused and they all had the question in their mind, how in the world could he be greater than Paul the Apostle? He says, "Paul preached till midnight and only put one to sleep." He says, "I haven't preached but 30 minutes and I put a dozen to sleep." On that basis, I did the same thing, my friend.

You see, they did it by families. And I don't know, those little churches weren't very well organized, but they sure did have some wonderful saints of God, and they produced some very wonderful men and women that grew up in that area. In fact, it's out of areas like that in this land where the backbone of this nation was produced. I don't know where we're producing them today, but I'll be honest with you, I haven't very much confidence in the hippies. I'm very sorry, I don't, but I have no confidence in this revolutionary crowd that's on our campuses today. I think we've done it wrong, friends. Here's the pattern that was given. The family was to do it together.

Now we are told here, "They are to eat it roast with fire." Fire speaks of judgment. That must be the judgment of sin. And unleavened bread, you see, that speaks of Christ, as the one we to feed upon, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Now there are different meanings that have been attached to the bitter herbs. May I say to you, I hear sometimes the idea given as if we're trying to sell something when we ask people to accept Christ. It won't always be sweet, friends. There are bitter herbs to go with it. And he says in verse 9, "Eat not of it raw." Raw, you see, there must be the judgment of sin in our lives. When we come to Christ, friends, we come as a sinner. He died for our sins, and that's where we begin with Him. Nor sodden at all with water. In other words, it must be just trusting Him and Him alone. And I'm afraid there's some people who trust water today. But roast with fire, there must be judgment. His head with his legs and with the pertinence thereof. All of it is to be roasted. And you shall let nothing of it remain until the morning. And that which remaineth of it until the morning you shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet and your staff in your hand, and ye shall eat it in haste, it's the Lord's Passover. And friends, when you come to Christ, this speaks of Christ, our Passover offered to us. When we come to Him, we should have our loins girded, ready to get out of the world, and no longer involved with the world. I don't believe that you're converted and live a sinful life.

We had a remarkable instance here of a woman who ran a liquor store in South Los Angeles, got converted. She called me up and she said, "I'm getting out of the liquor business, and if you tell me to, I'll take a hammer and break every bottle." I told her, I said, "You go sell it." And she got out of the liquor business. She was a wonderful Christian, by the way. May I say to you, you'll get out of Egypt if the blood's been put on the doorpost, because you to eat it with your loins girded, ready to go, if you please. How tremendous this is. Verse 12, "For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, I'll smite all of the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt, I'll execute judgment. I'm the Lord." Now, all of these plagues have been directed at each idol individually. Now, all of them demanded the firstborn. God says, "I'm now turning the guns against all the idols."

Now will you notice, "And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are. And when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt." And God says that the people were not saved because they were seed of Abraham. Why the Egyptians could have obeyed and they would have been saved. God says, "When I see the blood." They were not saved because they were doing the best they could and paid their honest debts and because they were good people. God says, "When I see the blood, I'll pass over." And they were not to run out during the night and look at the blood. They were to have confidence and faith in it. God says, "When I see the blood." He didn't say when they saw it. And they were not saved because of their thoughts or their feelings, their experiences, not because they regarded the blood. God says, "When I see the blood, I'll pass over." To them it was just faith. Not saved because they went through the ceremony and were circumcised. God says, "When I see the blood, I'll pass over." They were not saved because they belonged to the church. The death angel wasn't making a survey of the neighborhood. "When I see the blood," God says, "I'll pass over." They were not to open the window and tell the death angel how good they were and how much charity work they did. If a man had put his neck out of the window that night, he'd have died. God says, "When I see the blood, nothing is to be added to it." Who was saved that night? Those who believed God. Those where the blood was sprinkled, those that had trusted the blood. I say to you candidly, in closing, I do not understand it completely, but I set my seal that God is true, and today, it's the shed blood of Christ that will save you and nothing else, my friend. So until next time, may God bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: Learn more about God's offer to save us by calling 1-800-65 Bible, or click on "How to Know God" in our app or at TTB.org. I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'll save you a seat as the Bible bus rolls along next time. We're grateful for our committed listening family who faithfully pray and invest in Thru the Bible as we together take the whole word to the whole world.