1.In Exodus 12:7 G-d instructed the people to put the blood of a lamb on the two side parts and the upper part of the door to their home. Why did G-d pick this sign for the people?
Sheep were an important symbol to the Egyptians. This was the form given to one of their gods. Therefore to kill one and smear its blood on your door was a clear indication that the occupants of that house were rejecting this false god of the Egyptians.
G-d asked them to take a lamb, kill it, put its blood on the door and then eat its flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Not only that, but they had to pick it out 4 days ahead of time and keep it, look at it, think about the cost of what was about to happen. They had to make a decision – new life or old life. Do they let the opportune time pass or not.
This idea caused me to question, what sets us apart from the false gods worshiped in our day? These false gods might include the worship of money, power or maybe other blatant sins we see around us each day. This blood on the door was a clear sign to the world around them that they were rejecting the gods of Egypt and had faith in what G-d said He would do that night to free them.
The Israelites had to remove themselves from their old lives as slaves and consciously choose to change. As believers we can’t allow ourselves to hold on to old habits, old friends, old hangouts that lead us in the wrong direction. Our lives have been changed by the blood of the Lamb. As it was with these people, we need to cross over to the other side of the sea. We are not who we were, we must not continue in our old ways, old speech or old dress. Do not let the opportune time pass. Make the right choices.
We must be aware of the sin around us, the false gods. We must guard ourselves from falling into the silence so easily available to us. We should never be ashamed of who we are or worry about how the world sees us. It is much more important how G-d sees us and what do our children, family and friends learn from us.
That night of Passover, many years ago, was a time to make clear to all the Egyptian neighbors what G-d the Jewish people served. Who knows, a time may come when you are in the same situation and our Heavenly Father asks you to make a statement either in actions or words of who you serve. Do we follow G-d or do we stay silent so we will be more acceptable. Scripture tells us how we are to live and how we are to relate to the world that strives to pull us away from G-d.
2.In Exodus/Sh’mot 4:22-23 we read where G-d called Israel, “My son, My first born.” In Hosea 11:1 He said, “When Israel was a child I loved him and brought him out of Egypt, I called him.” In John 3:16 we read, “For G-d so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” How do we reconcile these verses? How can Israel be G-d’s first born and Yeshua His only begotten Son?
In Matthew 2:15 we read where he ties Hosea 11:1-2 to Yeshua rather than Israel. How? It can for sure be used that way, however it can also be used as speaking about the people of Israel as it is in our Torah portion. My point is, we can use these verses in several ways. The historical church used these passages to replace the Jewish people with the church saying G-d has rejected Israel because of their unbelief. And now the church holds the role of the chosen by G-d.
My view is different. I believe from Genesis/Bresheet 12:1-3 we can see G-d’s plan. In these verses we read of G-d’s plan for the descendants of Avraham. In Exodus 19:6, Deut. 14:2, Isaiah 61:6 and Deut. 7:6 and many more verses we read how the people of Israel are described as holy people, chosen by G-d, crown of beauty in the hand of the L-rd.
We also see in the Messianic scriptures these same words to describe believers in the Messiah such as I Peter 2:9-10, I Peter 2:5, Revelations 1:6 and Titus 2:14. I think Paul helps us with this dilemma in Romans 11 where he addresses the early believers and how they should see Israel. In Romans 11:1 it says, did G-d reject His people? By no means! In Romans 11:11 did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all, Romans 11:12-13 gives us a picture of what G-d’s plan is.
He has not forgotten His people. His plan is that their spiritual promises will be realized when they come to faith in Yeshua and they are grafted back in to their own olive tree just as we wild branches have been grafted in. We are grafted in to the tree whose roots are deep into the forefathers. The Jewish people are our older brothers and sisters. We often forget Yeshua was born a Jew, lived a Jewish life, and died a Jew.
Our heritage is wrapped up in all the bible not just the last third of the book. The Messiah had to come from Israel where G-d’s promise to Avraham would see its fulfillment. Yeshua was a unique Son of Israel begotten by G-d, one of a kind among the chosen people of G-d.
3. In Exodus 11:1-2 and Exodus 12:33-36 G-d told the Israelites to ask their Egyptian neighbors for silver and gold as they exited Egypt. Why the silver and gold? The Israelites were in such a hurry to leave, and the Egyptians so hasty in urging their departure, that they did not even have time for their dough to rise. Why then was God so insistent that they take the time to ask for these parting gifts? What conceivable use did they have for them in the long journey across the Wilderness?
This question is even more puzzling because that gold was used later to create the golden calf. But two details from the book of Deuteronomy provide the key. The first has to do with the liberation of slaves:
If a fellow Hebrew, man or woman, is sold to you, they shall serve for you for six years; in the seventh year you shall set them free. And when you send one forth free, do not send them away empty-handed. Provide for them liberally from your flock, your threshing-floor, and your wine-press, giving them a share in the things with which the L-rd your G-d has blessed you. Remember: you were a slave in Egypt and the L-rd your G-d redeemed you; and so I give you this command today. Deut 15:12-15
The second is one of the most striking commands of all, Moses’ insistence:
Do not despise an Edomite, for he is your kin. Do not hate an Egyptian, because you lived as a stranger in his land. Deut 23:7
The Israelites had been enslaved by the Egyptians. They owed them no debt of gratitude. On the contrary, they were entitled to feel a lingering resentment. Yet Moses insists that they should not do so. They should bear the Egyptians no ill will. Why? In this brief command we have one of the most profound insights into the nature of a free society.
A people driven by hate are not – cannot be – free. Had the people carried with them a burden of hatred and a desire for revenge, Moses would have taken the Israelites out of Egypt, but he would not have taken Egypt out of the Israelites. They would still be there, bound by chains of anger as restricting as any metal. To be free you have to let go of hate.
There is a fundamental difference between living with the past and living in the past. We remember the Exodus annually. But we do so for the sake of the future, not the past.
‘Do not oppress the stranger’, says the Torah, ‘because you know what it feels like to be a stranger.’ In other words: what you suffered, do not inflict. Moses’ message is: remember, but not in order to hate.
That means drawing a line over the resentments of the past. That is why, when a slave went free, his master had to give him gifts. This was not to compensate for the fact of slavery. There is no way of giving back the years spent in servitude. But there is a way of ensuring that the parting is done with goodwill, with some symbolic compensation. The gifts allow the former slave to reach emotional closure; to feel that a new chapter is beginning; to leave without anger and a sense of humiliation. One who has received gifts finds it hard to hate.
That is the significance of the silver and gold taken from the Egyptians by the Israelites at the express command of G-d. The gifts they took from their neighbors might have been intended to persuade the Israelites that it was not the Egyptians as a whole, only Pharaoh and the leadership, who were responsible for their enslavement
The message could not be more important than in the day in which we live. In an age driven by ethnic and religious conflict, the message of the Torah still rings true. To be free, you have to let go of hate.