"A MILLION LAMBS AND THE FIRSTBORN"

September 5, 1999 am
MF Blume

Reve 13:8 ...the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Exod 4:21-23 And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go. And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel [is] my son, [even] my firstborn: And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, [even] thy firstborn.

Jesus is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Moses was also said to have written of Jesus.
This tells us that God's plan of salvation through Jesus Christ was eternal.
Before the world began He was slain.
This means that it was foreordained and planned since before the world was founded.
And we come to see, therefore, that all Old Testament events of how God worked with man have a hint of this great and overall plan of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Of all the infinite ways in which God could have saved Israel out of Egypt, He used one particular means.

A lamb's death would provide a family with blood to be struck around their doorways.
And we can only conclude that He chose this system because Jesus is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Hundreds of thousands of lambs died that single day.
Bleating was heard throughout the land of Goshen.
Blood flowed in every home.
This pictured Jesus' death to come.
God had His firstborn Son to come in mind as far back as then, and further.
God ordained that a death occur in every house in Egypt.

Exod 12:30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for [there was] not a house where [there was] not one dead.

Even the Hebrews house had a death.

But in their case it was a lamb's death

Did you know that by the time this world is over, every one of us will have died.

But the reason some will keep on living, although it will be said that they died is because another died as them.
The Bible says that it is appointed unto man once to die.

Think of this:

What saves a soul is identification with Jesus' death, burial and resurrection.
Jesus died for us, so it can be said that we died.
And then after we died with Christ, our life comes to an end and they lay us in a grave.
Did we die a second time?
Did a man die twice?
There is a second death, but that is a spiritual death for eternity.
But if there is only one physical death that we die, then which death do you think God sees as THE death?
He reckons the death with Christ as our only death.
And the death people refer to after we are saved when they bury us is only a SLEEP.

These Hebrews would step across a threshold of their homes that would be marked by blood, and all that would come between them and the power of death that would sweep through the kingdom would be that little lamb's blood.

What a step of faith!
They would put their confidence in that sort of thing to attempt to escape death!
AND IT WORKED!

That takes faith.

For you to have been a Hebrew that day, and to believe that walking through that doorway with lamb's blood would keep you from a force that mankind simply must bow down to, called death, is for you to have manifested faith!

God gave words for Moses to speak to Pharaoh.

Israel is my son, even my firstborn.
Let my son go that he may serve me.
And if you refuse, I will slay your firstborn son.

After plague after plague is meted out upon Egypt, we read the following:

Exod 11:4-6 And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt: And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that [is] behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.
Exod 12:29 And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that [was] in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.

God had Jesus Christ in mind when this occurred.

He lumped all of Israel together into one person in His eyes.
HIS FIRSTBORN.
He looked ahead by a stretch of 1,500 years.

Jesus is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

This brings up a question.
The firstborn son of God in the Exodus story is THE HEBREW PEOPLE, ISRAEL.
But if Jesus is "the LAMB SLAIN from the foundation of the world"...
And the man Jesus Christ is also the FIRSTBORN SON OF GOD...
Why did God refer to the people of ISRAEL as His "Firstborn Son"?

Its as if God blew a perfectly good opportunity to show a really wonderful foreshadow of Jesus Christ.

He could have called each of the Lambs that would be slain the "firstborn son of God."
That way the Firstborn Son of God clearly dies to free the people.
Just like the man Jesus Christ died to save us from sin.
BUT GOD DIDN'T SAY IT THAT WAY.

In a picture with both a lamb and a people, that shows a picture of salvation, God calls the people, NOT THE LAMB, his Firstborn Son.

But we know Jesus is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
But the FIRSTBORN SON OF GOD does not die in the Exodus story.
The lamb dies.

Why did not God say, "The Hebrews shall take my firstborn son, the lamb, and slay him and take his blood..."?

That way we would see the clear link between Jesus and the Lamb.
But the record stands that God called the HEBREWS HIS FIRSTBORN SON.

It looks like the picture is a bit messed up.

Here is the answer:

God had the man Jesus Christ in mind when He called Israel His "firstborn son."

Many people were called a single SON.

A whole NATION was called one person... THE FIRSTBORN SON OF GOD.

And the thought God had in mind was that Jesus was indeed the LAMB slain from the foundation of the world...

And Jesus was the firstborn Son of God.
And those little lambs that died did foreshadow Jesus Christ.
BUT....
When that entire nation obeyed God's Word and walked through doorways splattered with those lamb's blood, God did two things.
In His mind He saw all those lambs as foreshadowing the GREAT LAMB OF GOD, JESUS CHRIST.
And He saw all that nation of millions of people IDENTIFY WITH THAT LAMB'S DEATH.
AND IN HIS EYES THEY WERE ONE WITH THE LAMB OF GOD!
That is how He saw and that is how He wants us to see it.

When you and I believe that Jesus died as us and repent of our sins and accept His blood for remission of our sins, we take a great step of faith.

All that stands between us and eternal hellfire is that Lamb's blood.
And we say, "THAT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME!"
And no matter what year or what city or town you are baptized into that death, whether it is years apart from the moment I was baptized, it can be said that we both died the same time Jesus Christ died, and that was 2,000 years ago!!!

Roma 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

We are baptized not into each other's deaths.

We are baptized in one person's death.
One person's death becomes all of our deaths.
JESUS CHRIST'S DEATH.

And God foresaw it this way when He told Moses,

"Tell Pharaoh to let my firstborn son go, or I will slay his firstborn son."
And God, at that moment, saw THE PEOPLE IDENTIFIED WITH THE LAMBS THAT WOULD DIE.
And since those lambs represented Jesus Christ, He couldn't help but refer to Israel as HIS FIRSTBORN SON.

When we die with Christ and are buried with him in water baptism...

And we take a step of faith and truly believe the only thing to keep us from an eternal death to come is that precious death of Jesus Christ...
WE ARE CONSIDERED ONE WITH THE SON.

We are the firstborn from the dead.

Joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.

Satan hates for people to discover this Gospel.
He knows that Pharaoh represents him.
And He knows that God is teaching us, through this story, that Satan is powerless against us when we take a step of faith through the door.

Jesus even said He is the door.

John 10:9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

Go in and then go out and find pasture.

Enter in to escape death, and go back out again as someone considered by God as one with the Son.

Lets go back to God's instructions to Moses about what to say to Pharaoh.

After Moses hears these words, he sets out to go to Pharaoh for the first time since he ran from Egypt 40 years previous.
On his way with his son and wife, Zipporah, he stops in an inn and rests.
And the strangest occurrence is recorded in the Bible that could leave us spinning saying, "What on earth is that incident left right there in the middle of all this exciting introduction to the Exodus?"

And its a horrible little story.

Exod 4:24-26 And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast [it] at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband [art] thou to me. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband [thou art], because of the circumcision.

Only three verses.

WHAT IS THE POINT?
Why mention this?
And then go on as though nothing ever happened?

We see Moses' life threatened with death at the hand of God.

And God just told him to go and tell Pharaoh to let Israel go.
Did God suddenly make last minute changes and forget to tell Moses after telling him to go to Pharaoh and tell him to release Israel?

God does not change His mind like that.

Obviously God planned for Moses to be saved from death and continue on his journey.
God would not have Israel's whole deliverance balanced on a man who is to tell Pharaoh to release Israel and then kill the man.

And so we see God had something in mind here.

He smites Moses with something that is killing him

We are not told what it was.
And then suddenly his wife, Zipporah, runs and grabs a knife.
Then she races towards their son, Gershom.
She immediately circumcises Gershom and takes the blood-soaked foreskin and throws it towards Moses, striking Moses' feet with it.
The blood is on Moses' feet.
And she cries, "Surely thou art a bloody husband to me."

She utters a strange statement like this.

And then we read God let Moses go and Moses is saved from death.
And Zipporah says again, "A bloody husband thou art because of the circumcision."

What did she mean.

Why did God do this?
This came together as the Lord spoke to my spirit and pointed out that GERSHOM WAS MOSES' FIRSTBORN SON.
God just finished referring to Israel as His Firstborn Son immediately before this happened.

And we come to find out that what Zipporah meant when she called Moses a bloody husband to her because of the circumcision, was that she was saying, "I PURCHASED YOU FROM DEATH BY THE BLOOD OF OUR SON."

That makes it a wonderful little story instead of a horrible little story.

I used to presume she complained at Moses and His bloody God in forcing her to circumcise their little boy.
But I was wrong!
She exclaimed that Moses was saved by Blood.
So she called him a bloody husband.

And what is even more astounding and wonderful is this:

Colo 2:10-13 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with [him] through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST.

There is here what is referred to as "THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST."
And whereas men circumcised a tiny piece of flesh from the male children, and that very event saved Moses from death, THIS circumcision is done without the hands of man, and is the removal of the ENTIRE BODY OF THE SINS OF THE FLESH.
And Paul the Apostle said that this Circumcision causes us to be circumcised with Christ in forgiving us of all our sins!!!!

BURIED WITH HIM IN BAPTISM.

What does that statement have to do with this?
Romans 6:3, a verse we already read, says baptism is baptism INTO CHRIST'S DEATH.
That is why we are strong on Jesus' Name Baptism.
WE DIE WITH JESUS.
The water doesn't do it, but our faith in His death being identified with us does it!

God was showing Moses a bit of what He was trying to say when He called Israel His firstborn.

He was saying, "Moses, little Gershom is your firstborn. And a firstborn son's circumcision is going to touch you and its blood is going to save you from death."
And we would read thousands of years later, "We are circumcised in the circumcision of Jesus when our sins were thrown on him, and he was freed from an entire body of our sins by the Almighty Spirit of God, having forgiven us of all our sins."

WE ARE TOUCHED BY HIS BLOOD.

In the Bible, blood indicates death.

And as Moses was a bloody husband.. a husband brought back to his wife by the payment of the blood of their firstborn son's circumcision, we are blood-redeemed church, bought by the Blood of Jesus.

And this passage seems to say it all:

1Pet 1:18-19 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, [as] silver and gold, from your vain conversation [received] by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

One thing alone can stand between you and eternal death.

Nothing else can help you.
Not religion.
Not good deeds.
Not even going to church every week.
Your faith in the blood of Jesus, and baptism into His death alone can set you free.

You need to be touched by the Blood, and joined to Jesus' death, so that when eternal death comes to your door, it will see that a death already occurred there.

YOUR'S AND JESUS' DEATH.

Do you want to know what "Gershom's" name means in English?

"STRANGER"
Because...
Exod 2:22 And she bare [him] a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.
Moses' son's name described what he truly was.
This was another manner in which Moses was connected to his son, Gershom.
MOSES WAS A STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND.
The blood of Jesus, and His death as us, caused us to also become STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND.
HIS NAME CHANGED OUR ADDRESSES.
God is going to take us home one day, family!
This world is no longer our home.