Exodus 12:29-32 marks the end of the cycle of plagues from the previous chapters with one final horrible plague – the killing of all the firstborn in Egypt. This final plague is what finally breaks Pharaoh and causes him to let the Israelites go. Two key rituals are established in conjunction with the sending of this plague – Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread (also called the Passover Feast). These rituals were set up to help the Israelites understand redemption, the key concept behind this last plague.
Redemption is the word that the Bible uses to describe the concept that all people rightfully belong to God but God provides a way by which they might be "bought back," or "redeemed." It's a word that captures the whole thrust of the Bible. The basic biblical storyline is that all people faced the threat of judgment and death from God because of our sin against God. But God provides the way for us to be redeemed, and he does so at great personal cost. Passover then is what we call a "type" – it is a foreshadowing model or pattern for the work of Jesus Christ that was to come.
All of this can be seen when we recognize the following major truths that the Passover event teaches.
1. God's right of ownership. All of God's people rightly belong to God (Exodus 4:22). Pharaoh was defying God's right to his people so God sends this last plague as kind of equal measure sort of justice.
2. God's provision of protection. God sends this plague against the Egyptians but the Israelites were also at risk from the destroyer that God was going to send upon Egypt. So God instructs the Israelites to follow the set Passover rituals in order that they might be protected (see Exodus 12:11-13, 23). The key part in all the rituals was the sacrifice of an unblemished lamb. A lamb had to die and its blood shed so that Israel could be saved and ultimately redeemed out of Egypt.
From this we can see that redemption requires two basic things:
1. The need for a substitute. Someone or something must take the place of the one being redeemed.
2. The need for blood. The substitute must die, and explicitly shed its blood, for the person they are being the substitute for. Note the specific mention of blood in Exodus 12:12-13.
The Passover ritual was not a nice, neat, and tidy family dinner. At its heart was a rather bloody, messy sacrifice. Something is being killed so that others might live. Cf Lev 19:11. Admittedly, all this seems pretty barbaric and primitive. But, to quote RC Sproul, this is so that anyone can understand exactly what's going on here. Redemption comes at great cost, because what Israel was being redeemed out of was not just Egypt but also the threat of death. Death was coming through the streets of Israel, and Israel deserved to experience that death, given the many times already in which they had doubted and turned away from God. However, God acted to protect them, covering them over with a sacrifice. He provided a way for something else to take the death blow that was coming towards the Israelites.
All of this points the way ahead to Christ. In his last supper with his disciples, celebrated during the Passover Feast, Jesus spoke of his body being given up and his blood being poured out for the forgiveness of sins. These are all echoes of the Passover. The ritual of communion, instituted at this last supper by Jesus, becomes the new Passover meal for God's meal and Jesus the new Passover lamb for God's people. Thus redemption in the Old Testament finds its ultimate purpose in Jesus Christ. As John the Baptist says in John 1, Jesus comes as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
This was necessary because all people have rejected God, not just the ancient Egyptians or Israelites. Thus all people deserve death (see Rom 5:12, 6:23). But amazingly, rather than protect his Son Jesus, God willingly gives him up so that he might take our place and so that through him we might become like firstborn sons to God (see Rom 8:32).
This was God's plan all along, foreshadowed in the Passover rituals. It was to send one Lamb, his own Son, to die for the world. Only Jesus could live the perfect life so that he could be the perfect sacrifice so that a people might be redeemed. Redemption then is about God choosing a people for himself and redeeming them through the substitutionary death of Jesus. His death, and specifically his blood, atones for our sins. It is the power that can destroy the chains of sin around the human heart and free us to be truly children of God. See 1 Peter 1:18-19, Rom 5:9, Eph 1:7, 1 John 1:7. This atonement and redemption is what enables any believer to be fully the person God intends them to be. See 1 Cor 5:6-8.
What are your thoughts about redemption? How do you see the doctrines of atonement and redemption play out within the Christian life?
