There is a conspicuous absence of any mention of forgiveness or atonement within the context of any Old Testament Passover. Instead, the Scriptures speak frequently of the Exodus Passover in terms of purchase or redemption. Israel was not redeemed from sin through the Passover, but only purchased from Pharaoh (Exodus 6:6; 15:13, 16; Deuteronomy 7:7-8; 9:26-29; 13:5; 15:15; 21:8; 24:18; II Samuel 7:23-24; Psalm 74:2; 77:15; 78:42-43; Isaiah 43:3; 51:10; Micah 6:4).
This is what we see in the Exodus Passover. Israel's sins were mercifully overlooked because of God's faithfulness and covenant loyalty to Abraham (Genesis 12:2-3; 15:13-16; Exodus 2:23-25; 6:4-6). The Passover represents the beginning of Israel's relationship with God. It demonstrates God's profound grace in initiating fellowship with a sinful nation, and delivering those who believed Him at least enough to follow the Passover instructions.
There is a conspicuous absence of any mention of forgiveness or atonement within the context of any Old Testament Passover. Instead, the Scriptures speak frequently of the Exodus Passover in terms of purchase or redemption. Israel was not redeemed from sin through the Passover, but only purchased from Pharaoh (Exodus 6:6; 15:13, 16; Deuteronomy 7:7-8; 9:26-29; 13:5; 15:15; 21:8; 24:18; II Samuel 7:23-24; Psalm 74:2; 77:15; 78:42-43; Isaiah 43:3; 51:10; Micah 6:4).
This is what we see in the Exodus Passover. Israel's sins were mercifully overlooked because of God's faithfulness and covenant loyalty to Abraham (Genesis 12:2-3; 15:13-16; Exodus 2:23-25; 6:4-6). The Passover represents the beginning of Israel's relationship with God. It demonstrates God's profound grace in initiating fellowship with a sinful nation, and delivering those who believed Him at least enough to follow the Passover instructions.
Now let's go back to Exodus 6. I want you to see the confidence that rings from God, that He is able to complete what He starts.
Who can stand before Him? Does He have the ability? Does He have the power? Does He have the wisdom to complete what He sets out to do? He says, I appear, I established, I heard, I remembered. I will bring you out. I will rid you of their bondage. I will redeem you. I will take you for a people. You shall know that I am God, and I will bring you into the land. I will give it to you. Are you beginning to get some kind of an idea why they wrote of salvation in the past tense? They had faith in it, that what God says He will do, He will do. It was as good as done, if they would just live by faith, and yield.
Did you notice God's agency? I tried to emphasize it. Hearing the cries of the patriarchs' descendants, God Himself takes the initiative to rescue them, to free them and redeem them. He chooses to take them as His people and He does not just leave them defend for themselves once they are free. He then visibly leads them as we know by the pillar of cloud and fire to the Promised Land and just gives it to them as their inheritance. He does not mention it here, but He also gave them water, He fed them, He protected them from the sun, He made their shoes and their clothes last, and He promised to fight all their battles. As we are fond of saying, all the Israelites had to do was walk.
That is kind of interesting, that last verse. "Then you shall know. . ." It indicates that God expects that when He begins to speak to us, that though we may believe Him, we may not be able to really translate that into the kind of action that we someday will be able to. We will really not know the Lord your God until after He has fulfilled what He has promised to do. So He expects that there is going to be weakness on our behalf. And that we are not always going to do things right in regard to our faith in Him.
"Who's going to stop Me?" is what He is saying. "You puny two and one-half million recalcitrant—stubborn, stiff-necked—Israelites aren't going to stop Me from doing what I want to do." I added that, of course, but that is the sense. He gave it in a very encouraging and positive way. Oh brethren! If God is going to save you, nobody can stop Him! Why make it hard on yourself? Why not just yield, rather than force Him to use more stringent measures to get us to submit?
Here God promises to bring them out of their bondage and, of course, we understand this also applies to you and me, to bring us out of our bondage. This time, though, He is getting to the root of the problem. The last time provided an analogy. The last time gives us an example we can look at and learn from. This time, with you and me, He's playing for keeps and He's getting to the root of the problem. The problem is in us. It is in our minds (remember Romans 8:3).
I want us all to notice that God solemnly promised to do all these things, culminating in Him giving them the land, bringing them to it. Put into other words, God predestined them to make it, and they didn't make it, even though He solemnly promised to do so.
What God is doing here is establishing Himself as Israel's Savior, first of all to Moses, by proposing all that He would do for them in order to relieve them of the burden of their slavery. He did all that He said, and He thus became Israel's Savior by breaking Egypt's power to hold them in thrall.
Here is the first mention of redemption in the Bible in relation to Israel. God does not specify at this point about what the redemption price will be, only that He mentions there are going to be great judgments. Let us turn to after the exodus. They are just over the Passover.
We are all familiar with these verses, but I just wanted us to note the clear word that it is God who is doing all the work, and at the same time teaching His anointed to take on the mantle of responsibility that will lead to His honor and glory as He is expanding His Family.
