SPARED TO SERVE - Exodus 12-13
In Exodus 12 we have the account of the Passover - a very important event historically and prophetically!
The last of the ten plagues sent by God as judgment on the land of Egypt entailed the Angel of Death killing every first-born in the land. Simultaneously with that judgment, God tested Israel. If they exercised faith via obedience in observing all that God commanded regarding the Passover, their household would be spared God's judgment of death. In a similar manner, all who place their complete trust in God by obedient faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Who He is and what He has done) are spared God's final judgment of death (separation from life, separation from God).
The important application of this is in the moving from Exodus 12 to Exodus 13. God did not "merely" save them from the Angel of Death! He spared them in order that He could MOVE them and that they would leave their previous life and live a new life of following God! In similar fashion, God never intends to remove the ultimate penalty/judgment of sin from a person and then just leave them exactly where they are. God spares men in order that they will walk away from their sin-controlled slavery and lead a new life - a life of obedience and faithfulness to God, which results in great blessings. If Israel wanted to receive God's promised blessings, they needed to get out of Egypt!
Some additional parallels to consider-
In the cross of Calvary upon which Jesus Christ died, we see the Passover fulfilled.
But we know that Jesus did NOT remain in the tomb. He rose from the dead - resurrected! and in that we have pictured for us the new life that follows salvation for all who are "born again". Paul puts it this way in Romans 6:4-11 "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
In the Passover, man is reconciled to God because God's wrath is satisfied by the means required by God for Him to be satisfied (it is not up to us to decide how God is to be satisfied!)
In the Resurrection we see being set free (released!) from sin and this "world" - freed to live for, and serve, the Lord.
The Passover was not the end - it was just the beginning!
The last of the ten plagues sent by God as judgment on the land of Egypt entailed the Angel of Death killing every first-born in the land. Simultaneously with that judgment, God tested Israel. If they exercised faith via obedience in observing all that God commanded regarding the Passover, their household would be spared God's judgment of death. In a similar manner, all who place their complete trust in God by obedient faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Who He is and what He has done) are spared God's final judgment of death (separation from life, separation from God).
The important application of this is in the moving from Exodus 12 to Exodus 13. God did not "merely" save them from the Angel of Death! He spared them in order that He could MOVE them and that they would leave their previous life and live a new life of following God! In similar fashion, God never intends to remove the ultimate penalty/judgment of sin from a person and then just leave them exactly where they are. God spares men in order that they will walk away from their sin-controlled slavery and lead a new life - a life of obedience and faithfulness to God, which results in great blessings. If Israel wanted to receive God's promised blessings, they needed to get out of Egypt!
Some additional parallels to consider-
In the cross of Calvary upon which Jesus Christ died, we see the Passover fulfilled.
But we know that Jesus did NOT remain in the tomb. He rose from the dead - resurrected! and in that we have pictured for us the new life that follows salvation for all who are "born again". Paul puts it this way in Romans 6:4-11 "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
In the Passover, man is reconciled to God because God's wrath is satisfied by the means required by God for Him to be satisfied (it is not up to us to decide how God is to be satisfied!)
In the Resurrection we see being set free (released!) from sin and this "world" - freed to live for, and serve, the Lord.
The Passover was not the end - it was just the beginning!