Numbers 33:3-4 (KJV)
And they departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the morrow after the passover the children of Israel went out with an high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians. [4] For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which the Lord had smitten among them: upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments.
On the morrow after the Passover. The journey of the Christian begins with the cross of Jesus Christ. Passover was when Jesus Christ the Lamb of God was crucified for the sins of the world. The journey of the Christian begins when he, through the blood of the Lamb, have the wrath of God pass over him, and is set free from the dominion of the devil and the darkness, and is set free from sin by the power of the Holy Spirit. A man cannot claim to be on a journey as a Christian if he has not encountered at the beginning of the journey the Passover Lamb who has been crucified for him. One does not become a Christian because he decides to follow Jesus Christ, but when he beholds the crucified Son of God and begins to believe Him for eternal life. The cross is where the Christian is born. The realization of the death of Jesus Christ is when the Christian begins his life. The life before the Passover is a slave to sin, slave to Satan and slave to condemnation and guilt, but life after the Passover is freedom in Christ. After the Passover we are no longer slaves, but rather, we have become slaves to God, to Christ's love and to righteousness. We have become servants of God. Without this Passover, we would have never been freed from our old lives, and our bondages and burdens would have destroyed us. But after partaking in this Passover, we were released, that we may begin this journey to the promised land.
Apostles of Christ also thought that their journey with Christ began when they met Christ. But their real journey began when they saw Christ crucified and saw Him rise again from the dead, and understood why He came to the world. It was after the Passover they received power to be His true witnesses. Before the cross, they were confused and weak, but it was only after the cross, after understanding that Christ has died for their sins, and after seeing that this Christ did not die, but is living forever and ever - that's when they had the confidence and the peace to go out into the world. Thus all Christians must go through the Passover. All Christians must experience God's Destroyer passing over them because of the blood of Jesus. They must be freed from the dominion of sin by the power of God through faith. Without this experience, how can a person claim to be a true Christian?
Israel went out with an high hand in the sight of all Egyptians, for the Egyptians had buried all their firstborn. Egyptians had thrown all Israel's firstborn into the Nile, and therefore God's just retribution came upon them in slaying all the firstborn. It is God's vengeance that gives us the victory over our enemies. Vengeance is the Lord's, not ours. If we leave our vengeance to God and His righteousness, then we are the ones who will go out victorious over our enemies. God remembers the sins of all who have not been covered by the blood of Jesus. God takes record of all the wrongdoing we have ever done against God and our neighbors, and a just retribution will fall upon our heads - unless we repent and stay under the blood of Jesus.
The just God went throughout the land, and struck down all the firstborn of the Egyptians - but notice how He did not pick out the firstborn of the Egyptians, as though it was the ethnicity that condemned them. No. God is not partial in His judgments. He doesn't condemn a person because He is Egyptian, Arabic or Asian. And He doesn't not punish a person because he is a Jew or people from a western country that believes in God. God's scales are just and equal. Like how the symbol for justice has a blindfold over her face while holding the scales, God's justice is blind to ethnicity, family background or social standing. God's rule is always the same for any person of any nationality:
Ezekiel 18:20 (ESV)
The soul who sins shall die.
God shall punish every one who has sinned without partiality. God's destroyer likewise went down to strike ANY firstborn, whether Hebrew or Egyptian, but spared the firstborn who have taken shelter in a house that has been marked by the blood of the lamb. Jesus Christ is the Firstborn of God who was slain for all who should put their trust in Him. Hallelujah for God's righteousness and His provision for salvation.
Upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments. Egyptians had not only sinned against their fellow man, but they have also been for thousands of years sinning against their Creator. Their gods, among many others, were following: Blood, frogs, lice, flies or wild animals, pestilence, boils, hail, locusts and darkness. God executed judgments upon Egypt by making these which they worshipped to come and harm them. The idolator will thus be destroyed by the god he worships. Does a man worship money? Out of money will come trouble and pain upon the man. Does a man worship oneself? Out of his own self will come all the miseries and suffering. Does a person worship relationships or their partners? Out of the relationships will come sorrow, futility and destruction. We must worship the only one Image of God, and this Image is Jesus Christ:
Colossians 1:15 (ESV)
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
2 Corinthians 4:4 (ESV)
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
God only has only one image of Himself and He is Christ. His own Son is the one who bears His image. Like Father, like Son. And God has sent this Son, who is His exact image, into the world that we may know God. But what an abomination is it to God the Father, when men think that God is like a fly or a frog or like locusts! This is why God hates idolatry. And what offense is it when men love that which is not God as much as, if not more than, His only Son? God is greatly offended. Any image we worship as God, God absolutely abhors, and through the thing God's judgments shall come. What was the mistake of Satan? He beheld his own image and worshipped his own beauty and his own wisdom:
Ezekiel 28:17 (KJV)
Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
Let us not commit this sin that the devil committed. It was not that he did something so horrible that he went from being this beautiful angel to this defiled corrupted and evil serpent. He looked away from the image of Jesus Christ, and looked at his own beauty. When we look away from Jesus Christ the perfect beauty, we offend His Father, and we commit sin. Let us behold Jesus Christ, and in His wisdom, His righteousness, His perfection, His holiness and His love. Let us continue gazing at this Image of God, let us worship Him and adore Him and love Him above everything in the world. Why should we adore any other inferior image and thus be destroyed? Worshipping of Jesus Christ is the only religion that God has prescribed for the world. Let us keep ourselves from idols, and only adore Jesus Christ, God's beloved Son.
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