Exodus: Unity of Law and Grace

The Tenth Plague V

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: The Tenth Plague V

Genre: Lessons with Q & A

Track: 033

Dictation Name: RR171S33

Location/Venue:

Year: Early 70’s

Let us worship God. Serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence with singing. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful until Him and bless His name, for the Lord is good, and his mercy everlasting, and His truth endureth to all generations. Let us pray.

Oh Lord, our God who has called us to be thy people, thy children, be merciful unto us for so often we forget thee, and we forget thy bounty and thy providential care. Give us a spirit of gratitude and of thanksgiving. Make us joyful day by day as we serve thee, knowing that the ends of the earth shall serve thee, that the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and that we have been called to triumph in Christ. Bless us to this purpose, and prepare us by the study of thy word and by the praise of the things that are of thee, for the victory that is ours in Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.

Our scripture is Exodus 12:21-28, and we continue for the fifth time a study of the Tenth Plague, the Blood of the Atonement. Exodus 12:21-28. “Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped. And the children of Israel went away, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.”

We have here Moses’ instruction to the elders of Israel concerning the passover. We think of the elders primarily in terms of a church office, whereas the biblical references are to heads of families, who are also heads of their clans or tribes, and who rule either in the civil or ecclesiastical spheres. Now, this is not a minor matter. Scripture gives us a family-based faith, in both the Old and New Testaments. The essential test of an elder, according to Paul, is given to Timothy, and the word “elder” can be rendered in the Greek word, either presbyter or bishop. The essential test of an elder is his ability to govern his family wisely in terms of God’s requirements. This we read in 1Timothy 3:1-16. Because the family is so basic, God uses familistic language again and again throughout scripture. He calls himself for example, our “father.” He calls the church his “household,” and so on and on.

This centrality is also stressed, the centrality of the family, in the fact that children must be taught the meaning of the passover communion, as verses 26-27 indicate. In the early church, children old enough to understand raise the question at the communion service, concerning the meaning of communion. This was a part of the earliest liturgies, and children partook of the elements, just as they had of the passover. In the modern church, communion is neither family nor action-oriented, two key aspects of communion. It is family-oriented and it is action-oriented. You come to receive from the Lord in order to be able to give and to act.

The passover is still observed, as in Moses’ time, by a small number of surviving Samaritans. Among Jews, the main outline is still kept in ritual form. The ceremony begins with the “Kiddush,” or sanctification, cleansing the house of leaven. The order of service is called Seder. The unleavened bread is matzo. The bitter herbs are dipped in a mixture of apples, nuts, raisin, cinnamon, and wine to symbolize the mortar used in building the store cities for Pharaoh. The blood of the passover lamb in the original passover was to be used to mark the lintel and the two side posts of the door. A bunch of hyssop was used to do this. Hyssop was also used in other ceremonies, as in the cleansing of leprosy and the red heifer rite, and it is referred to, for example, in 1 Kings 4:33 and in Psalm 51:7, and David’s use of it in the Psalm makes clear that purging with hyssop was a synonym for atonement. He said, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blotted out all mine iniquities.” David’s words make clear also, that lack of atonement means not only moral grief, but that sin, in effect, cripples a man just as broken bones do, whereas atonement means freedom from sin and a life of joy and gladness.

All the covenant people were restricted to their houses on the first passover. They could not go out all night. Our Lord, after the passover meal went to Gethsemane, in the middle of the night, but we do not know what the restrictions on going out were after the first passover. There is a relationship here to the law of the cities of refuge. A man seeking refuge in such a city had to remain there until the death of the high priest, who is a type of Christ. And so on the first passover, none could go out of their homes, which was their refuge against the tenth plague.

In verse 21, the lamb in referred to as the “passover,” and this is a very significant and important fact. It is not the rite that the slain lamb, who is the passover. Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 5:7 is in conformity with this. “Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us,” so that it is not the rite of passover, or communion, as we speak of them, but it is the sacrificial lamb in the passover, and the elements in the Christian service which are the communion. It is therefore, again a dereliction from the true meaning to transfer the term to an ecclesiastical ritual when it means the lamb of God. Both church and synagogue have been wrong at this point, and the plain reading in both Exodus and in Corinthians make clear that the term applies to the elements.

The requirement to stay in the house all night at the first passover meant that the blood of the lamb was their shelter, to remain within during the first passover did not mean that God could only then know who should live, but rather it witnessed to God the covenant people knew that their only shelter was the blood. Death would enter all other houses not protected by the blood of the atonement, hence, “None of you shall go out,” verse 32 reads. The sprinkling of the blood was not repeated after this first passover. On this occasion, the blood plus the requirement to remain indoors meant that their only security and shelter was in God’s atonement. Only after resting in total trust in the sole security of God’s atonement, could they then march out of Egypt as free men. The blood of the lamb provided the atonement.

In Leviticus 17:11-14, we read, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood. And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust. For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat no flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.”

Now this requirement is repeated in Acts 15:20 in the counsel of Jerusalem, in the counsel to all the Gentile believers. Blood is equated with life. No man can shed blood except as God’s law permits or requires, whether for food or self-defense, in war and so on. Life is God’s creation, and it is therefore entirely subject to His laws. There is an important aspect to this judgment which must not be overlooked. Plagues one through three hit both Egypt and Goshen, Egypt and Israel. Plagues four through nine struck Egypt alone. Both Egyptians and Hebrews were now vulnerable to the tenth plague, which set forth God’s judgment on all unatoned sin. Only those who were under the blood were spared. Thus Israel had now to realize that in God’s sight they also merited judgment and death, even as Egypt did. Their only deliverance was by placing the blood of God’s appointed lamb between themselves and God. They had no other immunity from this plague, from death. Being the descendents from Abraham gave them no protection, only the substitutionary blood could do that.

Now, an interesting aspect also, this first passover, and of the requirement laid down for all future passovers. Not only that no one was to eat blood, but even the ungodly within the land of Israel when they went there who did not believe and who did not celebrate the passover, could not eat blood, and when they killed a wild animal or a domestic animal, they were to cover the blood with dirt. Now, this is an important point. There is nothing in the Bible that says the unbelievers in the land are to be forcibly converted. That’s alien to the whole of God’s law, and of course that’s one of the first things people charge us with, that we want to compel everyone to be a Christian, that’s ridiculous. But, they cannot show contempt for the faith. That is required. That they show respect, and so they cannot show contempt for blood because it symbolizes so much in the sight of God. Therefore, they must, whatever they want to believe, treat certain things with respect, and central to them is blood. So, there is nothing here in the way of compelling faith, only showing respect for the other person’s faith. What this requires is a mutual respect, because the Bible says you are not to convert them by force, and it says to those who do not believe, “You’re dwelling in the midst of a godly people, you cannot show contempt for the faith of the godly.” Now we’ve forgotten this, and so we tolerate all kinds of contempt being expressed publicly. It is not censorship to say that films like The Last Temptation are morally wrong. What it is is an assault on the faith of most Americans. It is a violation of this requirement. It has no place in a truly godly society or in a free society, because everyone should be free from contempt, free from attacks. So, those who do not believe should not be assailed for their unbelief, and those who believe should not be assailed for their belief.

We are told of the elders of Israel to whom Moses and Aaron spoke concerning the passover, that they bowed the head and worshipped. The fact of the fourth coming deliverance from Egypt made them ready to worship now, but later in the wilderness, their complaints and lack of faith became apparent. It was obvious that they had given a fearful and formal compliance to God’s requirements. The death sentence on them, even as it had been passed on Egypt, had only been delayed. Their generation died in the wilderness, barred by God from the Promised Land, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua.

Thus, the ceremony for the first passover lays down a number of premises for society. This is why we should not treat the ceremonial laws of scripture as though they were nothing. They tell us certain things about man and society, and about our requirements in obeying God, which we must make of ourselves and others, that we are to live side-by-side under God, but each is to respect the other. To do otherwise is to sin against God. Let us pray.

Oh Lord, our God thy word is truth, and thy word is altogether righteous and holy. Give us grace to know it, to understand it, and to obey it, and to rejoice in it. Oh Lord, our God, we give thanks unto thee that thou hast redeemed us, and given us the eternal protection of Jesus Christ, that we are His for time and eternity, and all thy promises to us in Christ are yea and amen. How great and marvelous thou art, and we praise thee. Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Next week we will conclude with the tenth plague, and after that begin our studies in the departure of Israel from Egypt. But important to understanding all that follows is an understanding of this, the tenth plague and its implications. Yes?

[Audience] I knew somebody who worked in the hospital and when the blood was {?}, she’d take it home and feed her roses. In order words, when you’re returning the blood to the soil and covering it over, the {?} thing is you’re feeding the soil, are you not? {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, yes but we are to cover it, not just pour it out. Yes. Any other questions or comments? Yes?

[Audience] Does that include rare meat when you eat meat?

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience] Medium rare, or.

[Rushdoony[ No, it means that the meat, or the carcass is to be bled thoroughly. Of course, there will always be a little residual amount left. In this country, the carcasses are usually bled very carefully and thoroughly. Any other questions or comments? Well, if not let us bow our heads in prayer as we conclude.

Our Lord and our God, we give thanks unto thee that day after day thy mercies are new every morning. Teach us to look at thee, thy providential care, thy word, thy grace, and to know that all the evils of this world shall pass away, and thy righteousness shine as the noon day sun. Make us joyful in the certainty of thy government. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.

End of tape.