Powerpoint Pictures: Strangers; Stop, Look, Listen; Don’t Run Swimming Pool Sign; Fire Bell; Electric Socket; Matches
We are told some things as children to keep us safe. [Don’t talk to strangers; Stop, look, listen when crossing a road; Don’t run along the side of the swimming pool; If the fire bell rings meet at a certain location; Don’t put your fingers in electric sockets; Don’t play with matches].
The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. They needed to be rescued, and God had sent a rescuer, Moses, to lead them out of Egypt. But Pharaoh said “No! I will not let the Israelites go.” Even after 9 plagues had fallen upon the Egyptians (Nile to blood, frog, gnats, flies, death of livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness), he still refused to let them go.
Why do you think Pharaoh didn’t want to let the Israelites go? [As slaves they were a valuable workforce].
God spoke to Moses again and said that He would send one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt, and then Pharaoh would let the people leave.
This plague would be the worst of all the plagues. It was a plague called the Passover. God was going to pass through Egypt and every firstborn son and animal will die.
But God also gave instructions to keep the firstborn Israelite sons safe.
Three instructions:
Get ready to leave Egypt – put your sandals on, tuck your cloak in your belt, and have your staff at hand.
Get a lamb which has no defects, kill it, and paint the sides and tops of the doorframes of your house with its blood.
Roast the lamb, and eat it with bread (without yeast) and bitter herbs. And do all this quickly because you’re about to leave Egypt.
Now it makes sense to get ready to leave Egypt, it makes sense to eat a meal, but why painting your doorframe with blood?
“The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.” (Exodus 12:13)
When God passes through Egypt, every house where He sees the blood on the doorposts, He will pass over and everyone inside those houses will be kept safe.
And that’s what happened. At midnight every eldest son of every Egyptian died. But in the home of the Israelites, the eldest son was kept safe because they followed God’s instructions.
Then Pharaoh said to Moses and Aaron “Get out, leave Egypt, you and all the Israelites.” So that’s what they did. God had rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. But the story is not quite over yet…