Joshua and Judges: God gives the go-ahead after He impresses gratitude through the Passover. Jos 5:10; 1Co 5:6-8.

Title: Joshua and Judges: God gives the go-ahead after He impresses gratitude through the Passover. Jos 5:10; 1Co 5:6-8.

 

Announcements /opening prayer:

 

 

Jos 5:10 While the sons of Israel camped at Gilgal, they observed the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the desert plains of Jericho.

 

God instructs on the precise nature of the celebratory feast so that it will imprint precise images upon the hearts of the participants.

 

For us, the truth written in the pages of scripture is etched and emblazoned upon our hearts through their reality in the person of Christ. Hence we have one ritual - the Lord's supper so that we may never forget Him and the new covenant in His blood.

 

If we fail to see the doctrines that we study embodied in the person of Christ, alive and powerful, then we fail to see the reality of those doctrines.

 

The Passover is the first and most important feast. It marked the beginning of spring and the first of the harvest. Nisan was their first month and so it marked the beginning of a new sacred year. Historically it marked their deliverance from bondage and the commencement of their existence as a people and a nation. But most importantly is what the feast represents, which is the redemption of the people of God through the sacrifice of the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. The feast is full of types that all point to the Lord Jesus Christ and His atonement that would redeem mankind in order to set them free.

 

In preparation, the head of the house was to search with a lighted candle all places where leaven was usually kept and to put what of it he found in the house in a safe place, whence no portion could be carried away by any accident. Before doing this, he prayed: ‘Blessed are You, Jehovah, our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us by Your commandments, and commanded us to remove the leaven.’ The search itself was to be accomplished in perfect silence and with a lighted candle. To this search the apostle may have referred in the admo­nition to ‘purge out the old leaven.’

 

1Co 5:6 Your boasting [celebrating grievous sin] is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?

 

1Co 5:7 Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump [referring to the church at Corinth], just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.

 

1Co 5:8 Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

 

The search of the house depicts that in the person of Christ, throughout Him, there was no sin. To do the search in silence and so thoroughly was to impress upon you that this was incredibly important and not to be taken for granted in the slightest. He was without sin that He might save the sinner. He is the light in a dark world and He died for every sin.

 

He died for the obvious and easily found sins and He died for the hidden sins of man, deep within the recesses of his soul, even his subconscious mind. None were overlooked but all were atoned for.

 

Pro 20:27

The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord,

Searching all the innermost parts of his being.  

 

The next care was to select a proper Paschal lamb, which, of course, must be free from all blemish, and neither less than eight days, nor more than exactly one year, old. The innocent lamb was slaughtered and it would be remembered that the blood of the paschal lamb was brushed on the door posts and above the door. A lamb free from blemish spoke of the sinlessness of the Messiah as did the unleavened bread and the house being cleaned out of all leaven.

 

The death of the lamb was a clear and powerful image of the Messiah receiving the judgment that we justly deserved.

 

The unleavened bread spoke of the lack of sin against the Lord as well as the haste with which Israel was to move out the next day.

 

The bitter herbs that the bread was dipped in spoke of the bitterness of the long years of captivity as well as the bitterness of our Lord's suffering.

 

At the sacrifice of the lamb the Jews would sing the Hallel, which consisted of Psa 113-118. It was again sung at the end of the meal.

 

According to the Talmud, the ‘Hallel’ recorded five things: ‘The coming out of Egypt, the dividing of the sea, the giving of the law, the resurrection of the dead, and the lot of the Messiah.’ 

 

Why sing? Why not just recite or have someone read it aloud? Singing elicits emotion. While it is silly to allow emotions to dictate the content of our thinking, when that thinking is focused on the wonder of God's deliverance, grace, mercy, and love the outflow of emotion is natural and it is so encouraged. It is not to overrun everything else, as the singing was a small part of the entire celebration, but it was to be a part of it none the less. Singing brings out emotion from the heart.

 

Singing - The believer should respond to the truth of God's works with the proper appreciation. What emotion is proper is not stressed.  

 

The children were to ask the father what the Passover meant to them and the father would explain its meaning.

 

Exo 12:26-27

And it will come about when your children will say to you, 'What does this rite mean to you?' that you shall say,' It is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.'

 

Exo 13:14

And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What is this?' then you shall say to him, 'With a powerful hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery.

 

Again we have powerful imagery. Why have a young child ask the father for the explanation? In the same way, Israel were to be like children before God, as we are, but not in immaturity, but in asking for instruction, knowing father to be all wise and knowing best, and being of faith in Father as well as being curious, inquisitive, searching, adventuring, always looking for the next wonder.

 

Mar 10:14-15

"Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.

 

So why the circumcision and why the Passover before they take the fight to Jericho? They must understand why they are doing this, the purpose in it, and most of all, they must be filled with gratitude over the fact that God is giving it into their hands.

 

There are many scales within the conscience of every man and here is one such scale:

 

A scale in the conscience of every man:

 

Presumption -------------------------------- Gratitude

Presumption is the idea that the world just is what it is and getting as much of it as you can for yourself is the order of the day. Gratitude - wondrous awe at what has been given to you; life or existence, all the things around you. Presumption is taking it all for granted, insusceptibility to wonder, and assuming that stuff just is what it is and it is the job of each of us to aggrandize our portion of it as much as possible.

 

Presumption - world is here, as it always has been, to be taken by the cunning and ruthless.

 

Presumption looks like greed and a large amount of debilitating selfishness, and it is, but it is better defined, as so many things are, as what it lacks. It lacks gratitude. The idea that the world is just out there to be taken by the cunning or the ruthless is what is behind this vice. It is an  irreverent presumption because it comes short of the very reality that the world need not be the way that it is. While it is true there are no utopias because the world is full of sinners, it is also true that great nations can exist if they are governed by principles of freedom and morality. And this is the desire of God for Israel. To be a nation of grace, and righteousness, and justice and not a nation of boasting over wealth and power and human wisdom.

 

Jer 9:23-24

Thus says the Lord, "Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things, "declares the Lord.

 

In 1791 America proved it could be a nation that fully protected the God given rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all its citizens.

 

Much of the modern world has chosen cunning over belief.

 

Gratitude - everything is a gift to us by a Creator including our very being and everything that is around us. None of it is ours and we are not the masters of any of it.