“Responding to God’s Mercy” (Exodus 12:33 - 13:22) | 4/2/23
Exodus 12:33 - 13:22 | 4/2/23 | Will DuVal
How we respond when we’re shown MERCY - kindness in spite of our sin - it says a lot about us. I was giving Elijah a bath last week and I had to leave the room for a few minutes, so I told him not to splash water outside the bathtub. I walked back in to him leaning over the edge, trying to “clean” the tub, pouring water EVERYWHERE. So, of course, I LOST it - yanked him out of the tub, told him he was gonna get a spanking, he started CRYING… But by the time I’d gotten him dried off, and I had COOLED off, I realized that even though he had disobeyed me, he WAS at least trying to be helpful. And sometimes as parents we help our kids learn about JUSTICE by giving them what they deserve, and other times we help them learn MERCY by NOT bringing down the hammer. So I thought, “You know what: I’m gonna show him MERCY; I’ll talk to him about JESUS; it’ll be this sweet, gospel moment.” So I asked if he understood why he deserved a spanking, then I told him I wasn’t going to GIVE him a spanking, but before I could even GET to the JESUS part, he asked if he could get back IN the BATH; Elijah LOVES his bath. I said, “No…” And he started crying twice as hard!
Sometimes our response reveals how LITTLE we actually grasp the mercy that we’ve been shown.
Last week in Exodus ch12, we witnessed God’s climactic, paradigmatic display of MERCY in all the Old Testament: PASSOVER, when God poured out his final and fiercest plague on Egypt - the death of their firstborn sons - but God SPARED his own people, Israel, despite making it clear to them that they TOO were just as sinful and deserving of His judgment. Yet in His MERCY, God provided a MEANS for their absolution, through the sacrificial, substitutionary death of the Passover LAMB in their place. And most importantly, we considered all the ways that Passover points us ahead to JESUS, our once and for ALL time, atoning sacrifice for sin; the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the WORLD” (Jn 1:29).
Now, THIS week, in Exodus chTHIRTEEN, we’re going to see how we ought to RESPOND now, to having RECEIVED such great mercy from God. It ought to evoke FOURResponses.
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#1 - Because of God’s mercy, we CELEBRATE. (12:33-41)
We pick the story back up at its CLIMAX, in ch12, v33, where just AFTER the 10th plague and the Passover we read:
“The Egyptians were urgent with the people [the Israelites] to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” 34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders. 35 The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. 36 And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.
37 And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38 A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. 39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.
40 The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. 41 At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.”
“Free at last, free at last; thank God Almighty: they’re FREE at last!”
And what do you do when you’ve been SET free, after 430 years in bondage?? You CELEBRATE!!
Now, that’s the MAIN point here that we can’t miss. But let me give you 5 related, sub-points arising out of these 9 verses:
First, note the “HASTE” with which the Israelites fled Egypt. Remember: this whole story is an ALLEGORY for the deliverance that JESUS offers us from our bondage to SIN. So the takeaway for US TODAY is when Jesus offers you freedom from SIN, you don’t linger in it; you RUN! We read 1 Peter 4:3 last week: “the time that is PAST suffices for doing what the Gentiles do, living in [SIN]” - 430 years SUFFICED for making bricks, serving Pharaoh; 27 years of MY life SUFFICED for indulging in lust and pride and selfish idolatry, serving SIN; I don’t want to hang around Egypt another SECOND - I’m going FREE! Running!
Second, don’t miss who goes WITH them; v38: “A mixed multitude”. Apparently there were NON-Israelites, perhaps other enslaved peoples, perhaps even some of the EGYPTIANS, who followed Israel out into the wilderness. Remember: from the very BEGINNING, Genesis ch12, God has wanted to USE Israel, as a blessing to ALL nations. Now here He is, doing it again.
Third, notice God’s BLESSING here: not only does he liberate His people; but He won’t let them go EMPTY-HANDED. “they plundered the Egyptians… silver and gold jewelry and clothing.”
Isn’t that just LIKE our God? He is SO gracious, to give us blessing on TOP of blessing. Some people have this terrible misconception about the Christian life, that it’s a DRAG. No FUN. But Jesus said, “I came to give you life to the FULLEST!” He said, “If y’all enjoy giving good gifts to your kids - and you’re a bunch of SINNERS! - how much MORE do you think your heavenly FATHER, God, enjoys blessing YOU, HIS children, with good gifts” (Matt 7:11). God’s not the “fun police”; He’s the fun-MAKER, the gift-GIVER, the blessing-BESTOWER.
But fourth, and we’ll come back to this one when we get to ch32, but we’re gonna see that these very same gifts that God sent them out of Egypt with, the Israelites will use and ABUSE - they’re gonna melt down the gold and fashion it into an IDOL, a Golden CALF, to worship INSTEAD of God! And if it’s just like GOD to BLESS us, isn’t it just like US, to take His blessings and turn them into IDOLS!?
God gives you beautiful children, and you WORSHIP them. They become your #1 thing, your reason for getting out of bed in the morning, serving THEM, instead of serving GOD.
God gives you that JOB you’ve been praying for, and then you turn it into an IDOL. It CONSUMES you: your first thought in the morning and your last thought at night isn’t the LORD, it’s WORK.
Or God gives you MONEY or HEALTH or FRIENDS or… fill-in-the-blank: what is it for YOU? Tim Keller says an IDOL is when a GOOD thing - a BLESSING from God, intended to point you back to HIM, inspire your gratitude toward HIM - when it instead becomes your MAIN thing, and replaces God.
But fifth, in SPITE of it, our God is a PROMISE-KEEPING God. Specifically, God is fulfilling His promise to ABRAHAM here, from all the way back in Genesis 15, when He promised not ONLY to free His people, but added: “and they shall come out with great possessions.” (v14b) And they DO; the Egyptians basically PAID Israel to leave, they are so desperate to be DONE with God’s judgment, the plagues.
Philip Ryken points out (351): “the word the Bible uses to describe these parting gifts is a military term: ‘plundered’. This shows that the exodus was a VICTORY for God’s people… they left as conquerors, carrying the spoils of God’s victory.”
And friends, what do you do after a big - MASSIVE! - victory? Anybody watch the San Diego State game last night? You CELEBRATE!!
Just LISTEN to how THIS victory - the Exodus - is celebrated throughout the rest of Scripture:
We’ll get a whole SERMON on it the Sunday AFTER Easter, Exodus ch15:
““I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously…
The Lord… has become my salvation”.
But the exodus victory is celebrated all OVER the Bible:
Num 20: “when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice… and brought us out of Egypt. ” (v16)
Deut 4: “because [the Lord] loved your fathers and chose their offspring… [He] brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power” (v37)
Josh 24: “it is YAHWEH our God who brought us… up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery… Therefore we will [WORSHIP] the Lord, for he is our God.”” (17-18)
1 Kings 8: “[we] are your people, and your heritage, which you brought out of Egypt… Blessed be the Lord… Not one word has failed of all his good promises, which he spoke by Moses” (vv51, 56)
SECOND Kings 17: “you shall fear YAHWEH, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm. You shall bow yourselves to him” (36)
We could go ON and on - I didn’t even GET to the Psalms; over a DOZEN Psalms reference the exodus; half of them written specifically as songs of PRAISE in response to God’s work of deliverance in the EXODUS. In total, one pastor I listen to counted 56 references - CELEBRATIONS! - of the exodus from Egypt in the Bible.
But brothers and sisters, you and I have inherited the even GREATER spoils, of an ever GREATER victory: Jesus’s triumph over SIN and DEATH that won us ETERNAL life! His resurrection that we celebrate next Sunday on Easter. Friends: a victory THAT good is too AMAZING to be celebrated just one day a year; EVERY day is Easter for us! How could we NOT keep the party going YEAR-ROUND, because of what JESUS has done for us! Praise God!
#2 - Second Response: Because of God’s mercy, we COMMEMORATE. (12:42-51; 13:3-10)
We read in v42 now:
“It was a night of watching by the Lord, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations.
43 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner shall eat of it, 44 but every slave that is bought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him. 45 No foreigner or hired worker may eat of it. 46 It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones. 47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. 48 If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. 49 There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.”
50 All the people of Israel did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 And on that very day the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts…
ch13, v3 now: Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. 4 Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out. 5 And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month. 6 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. 7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory. 8 You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ 9 And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. 10 You shall therefore keep this statute at its appointed time from year to year.”
To “commemorate” is “to honor the memory of [something] by observance”. “KEEP this statute”, All ISRAEL shall “keep” it, as a COMMANDMENT, “REMEMBER this day”, “THROUGHOUT your generations”, from YEAR to year, as a MEMORIAL.
We discussed this at length LAST Sunday, in vv14-28 of ch12, where God instituted the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We noted its significance and symbolism - leaven represents SIN. So God is calling His people here to make a “clean sweep” of their sin; to leave it behind, in Egypt! Sin is a remnant of your SLAVERY. The old has GONE, behold, the NEW has come - you are a NEW creation in Christ; Romans 6: “you who were once slaves of sin have… been set free from sin, [and] have become slaves of [CHRIST]!” (vv17-18)
But we ALSO pointed out the PROBLEM: that we all suffer from gospel AMNESIA. Too often, we are FORGETFUL of this glorious deliverance that Christ has worked for us, so we fail to LIVE OUT, to live INTO our new identities in Christ; we go on living like SLAVES instead of SONS - the sons and daughters of GOD that Jesus DIED to MAKE us.
Hence, God’s call here to REMEMBER. “Commemorate”. And just as God instituted the Passover meal to help the Israelites remember His greatest work of salvation in the OLD Testament, we made the connection last week that JESUS instituted the Lord’s Supper - the “communion” meal - to help US now remember God’s greatest work of salvation of ALL TIME: Christ’s sacrificial death, on the cross, in our place, to pay for our sins; we commemorate that each week, at the Lord’s table.
So what does this passage, specifically, have to teach US, about OUR observance - “commemoration” - of CHRIST’S deliverance? 8 things:
First, v42: Passover is called a “night of WATCHING”; both God watching out for Israel, but also ISRAEL watching, waiting, TRUSTING in God’s divine protection. And in the years to come, Passover would ALSO take on the significance of watching and waiting for God’s FUTURE deliverance as well. Jews still today look not only BACK, to the Exodus, but they also look FORWARD at Passover, to the arrival of the Messiah. But friends: you and I know today - the wait is OVER! Jesus has COME, our Passover Lamb, who takes away the sins of the world! And yet, He calls us NOW to WAIT - to WATCH - for his RETURN. Jesus promised to RETURN to deliver us not just from the PENALTY of sin, but from the very PRESENCE of sin. So until that day, we eat His Supper. WHY?
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes [again].” (1 Cor 11:26)
Second, vv43 & 45: “no foreigner… or hired worker may eat of it. ” So, too, the Lord’s Supper is reserved for the Lord’s PEOPLE. It is ONLY for those who are covered by the blood of the LAMB. Historically, the Church has gone to great LENGTHS to “FENCE” the communion table; to try and keep those who ought NOT to be eating the Lord’s Supper from doing so, from “eating and drinking JUDGMENT” on themselves, as Paul put it (1 Cor 11:29). Many churches STILL do that - they only serve communion to MEMBERS of their church; those whose TESTIMONIES have been heard and validated by the church. Here at West Hills, we leave it up to your own conscience. We wouldn’t want to DENY communion to a brother or sister who may be visiting - passing through town and worshiping with us for the morning. But if this is your regular church home, friend: I would just use this opportunity to lovingly encourage you: this is just ONE of the reasons you WANT to join the church as a member: to make sure you’re not eating judgment on yourself. To make sure you’re not a FOREIGNER! Sure, we’ve probably gotten it wrong before; there may be a few folks here we mistakenly received into membership, whose names are NOT in fact written in the Lamb’s Book of Life - because we make mistakes, and it can be hard to tell sheep from goats sometimes. But I think more often than NOT, we get it right.
The Lord’s Supper is only for the Lord’s PEOPLE, those who truly belong to HIM.
Third, vv44,48-49: “every slave that is bought for money may eat… AFTER you have circumcised him… no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.” → Circumcision was the SIGN of the OT covenant, just like BAPTISM is the sign of the NEW covenant today, one’s rite of passage INTO the faith community. It’s another “security check”, so to speak, to ensure that only those who BELONG to the Lord are coming to His table. You ought to be BAPTIZED, upon the profession of your faith.
Fourth, v46: “It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take [it] outside the house, and you shall not break any of [the lamb’s] bones. ” → Ryken notes (363): “These instructions… emphasize the WHOLENESS of the sacrifice.” Like we pointed out last week: we have to receive ALL of Jesus, not just the parts of Him we LIKE; a Jesus made in OUR own image, to OUR own liking. NO- we take ALL of Jesus, or we get NONE of Him.
Fifth, v47: “All the congregation of Israel shall keep it”; v50: “the Lord commanded Moses” → Commemorating the Passover was a COMMAND for God’s people. Likewise, Jesus now COMMANDS us: “DO this, in remembrance of me”. Communion for the Christian isn’t optional; that’s why we call it an “ORDINANCE”; Jesus ORDERS us to do it.
Who? “ALL the congregation”! It’s just ONE of the reasons we don’t stay HOME on Sundays. You can livestream a sermon. You can sing along to some worship songs. But you cannot EAT the Lord’s Supper unless you’re gathered with the Lord’s people. You can eat your OWN bread and wine at home; it may even TASTE better than the stuff we serve you here, but it won’t be the Lord’s Supper; cuz you can’t COMMEMORATE the Lord’s Supper on your OWN - that’s 1 Corinthians 11:20; it is necessarily a COMMUNAL meal.
Now, if you are SICK: YES, please stay home. If you are CHRONICALLY sick, or dying: I will BRING you the Lord’s Supper. But the rule of thumb is that we gather with the Lord’s people, on the Lord’s DAY, to commemorate the Lord’s DEATH, at the Lord’s SUPPER.
Sixth, ch13, v3: “No leavened bread shall be eaten.” We covered this last week: before we come to the table, we purify ourselves of sin, lest we eat - 1 Corinthians 11:27 - in an “unworthy manner”, with unrepentant sin in our hearts. The Lord’s table is an occasion - weekly - to CLEANSE ourselves of sin and rededicate ourselves to the Lord.
Seventh, v8: “You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’” Parents: God tells US to tell our KIDS about what He DID for us, when he brought us out of SLAVERY. Do your kids KNOW your testimony? Do you commemorate what Jesus DID for you, to SAVE you, so OFTEN in your home, with your children, that THEY can tell your faith story, as if it’s their OWN? Do they WANT it to be their own? Do you LIVE OUT the gospel, in such a compelling, winsome way, that your kids say: “I want to be like DAD when I grow up… like MOM… I wanna be FREE!”
Parents: are we Psalm 78 people?
“The things our fathers told US… We will not hide them from [OUR] children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord… and the wonders that he has done…
that the next generation might know them…
and arise and tell them to their children,
so that they should set their hope in GOD
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments” (vv4-7) Commemorate.
Our kids need to SEE us taking communion, parents; they need to WANT to belong to the family of God.
Eighth and lastly, v9 says: “[Passover] shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth.” → Ryken explains (366): “The Passover feast kept the message of salvation in front of God’s people.” So too, Church, must we keep the message of CHRIST’S salvation ever in FRONT of us - that’s why we take communion every WEEK here. Is it possible to commemorate Jesus’ death TOO often? I don’t think so! We need it ALWAYS in front of us.
Response #3 - Because of God’s mercy, we CONSECRATE. (13:1-2,11-16)
Now we read in vv1&2 of ch13:
“The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”...
And vv11-16:
“When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, 12 you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord's. 13 Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. 14 And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. 15 For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ 16 It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”
To CONSECRATE means to “set apart as HOLY unto the Lord”. And God commands His people here to “Consecrate to me all the firstborn.” So WHY consecrate? And WHY the firstborn?
Well, they would consecrate - “set apart” - these offspring, to the Lord, as a REMINDER that they rightfully belonged to God anyway. Whether it was the Israelites’ own children, or their baby lambs or their donkeys… they ALL came, ultimately, from the LORD, and thus, they rightfully belonged TO God; Psalm 24:1 declares “The [whole] earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof”; God “owns the cattle on a thousand hills” - it’s ALL HIS!
It’s the reason we dedicate children to the Lord here at West Hills, like just a few weeks ago: to remind ourselves that they’re HIS kids, not ours; He’s just LENDING them to us, to raise them for HIS glory, to love and serve HIM.
Second, why the FIRSTBORN? Ryken explains (370-1): “Firstborn sons were important in the ancient world… because they “signified the center and future of the family.” The eldest son had special responsibilities and privileges, including the right of inheritance… The point of consecrating the firstborn was really to show that the WHOLE FAMILY belonged to God. [He] represented ALL the offspring… a part representing the whole - the way, for example, a captain represents his team at the beginning of a football game… The same principle applied when Israel brought their firstfruits to the Feast of the Harvest (Ex 23:16-19). They offered their first and their best to show that the whole harvest [really] belonged to God.”
Listen, I love my daughter, Ellery, my firstborn, with a SPECIAL kind of love; no QUESTION. And I LOVE my son Elijah - my first SON, through adoption - with a different and powerful love as well. But I’m just gonna tell you: there is NO ONE like my BO; my FIRSTBORN SON. Just LOOK at that boy - that’s my FIRSTFRUITS right there! If you’ve GOT a firstborn son - “if ya know, ya know” - you FEEL me on this; it’s just BIBLICAL. There’s something SPECIAL.
Now, I’m gonna move on before I send ALL my kids to THERAPY, but here’s the even BIGGER point we need to see about consecration here: that in THIS context, in EXODUS, it means a whole lot more than just standing up in front of the church, or the assembly of Israel, and “dedicating” your child; you consecrated in one of TWO ways: either you SACRIFICED, or you REDEEMED. In order to set the firstborn apart unto the Lord, they had to either SACRIFICE it, or REDEEM it. Why?
Because this is yet ANOTHER commemoration of the PASSOVER. When God showed Israel that THEY were just as sinful as EGYPT, and as a result, that they ALSO deserved death. And the only way for them to be SPARED, was through a SACRIFICE, the blood of a lamb. God didn’t want them to ever FORGET that, hence, the consecration of the firstborn in perpetuity here. Either through SACRIFICE, or through REDEMPTION. What’s the difference?
Well, the difference was whether the animal was CLEAN or UNCLEAN. The difference between the firstborn DONKEY in v13, and the LAMB that they would sacrifice in its place, to REDEEM the donkey, is that the lamb was a CLEAN animal, a PURE sacrifice; Numbers 18 clarifies: “the firstborn of man you shall redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem… But the firstborn of a cow, or… a sheep, or… a goat, you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar…” (vv15-17)
Sacrifice them. Did you CATCH that? You and I are like the donkeys: we are UNCLEAN; we’re a bunch of ASSES! As Ryken notes (372): “This showed [God’s people] that they were sinners in need of salvation… They needed to be REDEEMED. Otherwise, they would perish.”
So let’s talk about REDEMPTION then. To “redeem” is to “RESCUE by means of a PAYMENT”, to RANSOM. When the Israelites “redeemed” their firstborn sons - like Mary and Joseph did with JESUS, in Luke ch2: “according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written… “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to… the Law of the Lord… “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons” (God’s law made allowances for folks like Mary and Joseph who were too POOR to afford a lamb) - but when they did that, and REDEEMED their children, by means of a SACRIFICE, they were acknowledging that they were SINNERS, and but for the mercy of God, providing this sacrifice, this MEANS of atonement, they rightfully deserved DEATH.
And that was true in EVERY instance… but ONE, friends: Jesus’ redemption, there in Luke 2. Jesus’ redemption was just like Jesus’ BAPTISM, or Jesus’ PRAYER that God would “forgive us our trespasses” - Jesus didn’t HAVE any trespasses, so he didn’t NEED to pray for their forgiveness, or be baptized for their cleansing, or be REDEEMED for their atonement; no JESUS just did those things as an EXAMPLE for US.
But friends: Jesus was so much more than an EXAMPLE; he was himself OUR redemption! “In order to redeem US, God offered up HIS firstborn Son - not to be redeemed but to be the Redeemer” (Ryken, 376). As Romans 8:32 proclaims: “God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all”.
Eph 1:7 “In him [...JESUS…] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses”
Titus 2:14 - Jesus “gave himself up for us, to redeem us from ALL lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession”
Friends: if you belong to THE LORD, then you have been REDEEMED at the highest price imaginable: 1 Peter 1:18-19 “you were ransomed… not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” Our redemption cost God the life - the DEATH - of his only begotten SON. And because he PAID it, to PURCHASE us, we now belong to the LORD; we are HIS.
“You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” (1 Cor 6:19-20), the PRICELESS blood of JESUS!
So what is our APPLICATION here, with response #3? Because we have been redeemed, “bought with a price”, we now consecrate our lives back to the LORD. We set ourselves apart, for His service.
2 Corinthians 5:15 “[Jesus] died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” It’s the LEAST we can do, isn’t it? In response to Christ’s MERCY?! He DIED for us, surely we can LIVE for Him!
Romans 12:1 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship”.
“God: take my MIND, I consecrate my THOUGHTS to you.
Take my HEART, I consecrate my EMOTIONS to you.
Take my HANDS, I consecrate my ACTIONS to you.
Take my LIBIDO, I consecrate my SEXUALITY to you.
God: take EVERY part of me; it ALL belongs to you, to be used for YOUR glory.” “Take my life and let it be / Consecrated, Lord, to Thee”.
Lastly, and quickly cuz I’m out of time: Response #4 - Because of God’s mercy, we COOPERATE. (13:17-22)
We read:
“When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” 18 But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. 19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.” 20 And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. 21 And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. 22 The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.”
This is the ORIGINAL “GPS” - forget “global positioning”; they had GOD’S positioning system. And unlike Google Maps, God’s directions are ALWAYS perfect. Even when he leads you hundreds of miles in what SEEMS to be - to you - the wrong direction. “God, aren’t we supposed to go NORTH, to CANAAN? Shouldn’t we just take the Via Maris, the “way of the sea”, that well-known, ancient road; isn’t that the most DIRECT route?”
See, God knows that just because it’s the EASIEST path, that doesn’t make it the BEST path.
And the same is true in OUR lives as well, friends. If God is leading you what seems to YOU to be HUNDREDS of miles in the WRONG direction out into the wilderness right now, that must just mean that God knows something you DON’T. That the EASY path in your life must be filled with Egyptian outposts and Philistine battalions. Yes, God may bring TRIALS into your life, but it’s only to save you from otherwise DEVASTATION.
The QUESTION is: will you TRUST him? Do you TRUST that He knows best. See, God was graciously LEADING His people out of Egypt and INTO freedom here, but they still had to choose to FOLLOW Him… to COOPERATE. To fall in line. Will WE?
When SIRI pipes up - “Wrong way; make a U-turn ahead” - you’ve got a CHOICE to make, don’t you: who are you gonna trust? Yourself, or HER? Brothers and sisters: do we realize that we’ve got an even BETTER “GPS” now than the Israelites did; that we’ve got the cloud and fire of God living right INSIDE us, God’s very own Holy SPIRIT, who He sent to “guide us into all truth” (Jn 16:13). But the best navigation system in the WORLD does you no good, if you don’t FOLLOW it. Cooperate.
Friends: Jesus offers us the greatest mercy imaginable, in his sacrificial death in our place. May WE, in RESPONSE, CELEBRATE it, may we COMMEMORATE it, may we CONSECRATE our lives to Him, and may we COOPERATE, and follow Him, wherever He leads. Amen.