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It Is Written

Sabbath School 3rd Quarter 2025: Exodus

Eric Flickinger

Jiřί Moskala

01 Oppression: The Background and the Birth of Moses

02 The Burning Bush

03 Rough Start

04 The Plagues

05 Passover

06 Through the Red Sea

07 The Bread and Water of Life

08 Covenant at Sinai

09 Living the Law


Welcome to Sabbath School brought to you by It Is Written. Glad to have you with us today. We are taking a journey through the book of Exodus, looking at the journey that God has led Moses and the children of Israel through. And we're getting to a very important point in that journey today. This is lesson number 5.

We are looking at the Passover and the final plague of the 10. Let's begin with prayer. Father, thank you for being with us today as we study your Word. Give us wisdom and understanding and help us to clearly see your purpose and your point in the things that you do. We thank you in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. We're glad to have you here, and we are also delighted to have the author of this quarter's Sabbath school lesson with us, Dr. Yirgi Mascala. Dr. Mascala, thank you again for joining us.

It's a pleasure to be here with you and to study the Word of God, the Gospel according to Exodus. Absolutely. We have here kind of the culmination of the 10 plagues. We're looking at the Passover. Connect this plague with the first 9 plagues for us.

You know, Pharaoh is experiencing plague after plague, and his heart always decided against God. And it was coming to the point when we read that it was not Pharaoh who hardened his heart, but it was God actually who hardened his heart. It means that his heart, as we said last time, is like a mud. But still, God is working with him. God wants to persuade him because now will come the most devastating, most severe plague.

And it is what is very interesting that when God was leading, not only Pharaoh, but the whole nation, in preparation for the final 1, that they will surrender to him, to abandon all these Egyptian gods and to follow the true living God, who is a loving, caring God. Now in the ninth plague, there was darkness, darkness for 3 days. And of course, in their imagination, it was God Ra, who was the God of sun and was providing everything. Now he's unable. But at the same time, it was the time for reflection that now Pharaoh, his officers, magicians and all Egyptians, all the nations can reflect on what's going on.

So God is giving them like last opportunity. Think through. Be very careful what will be your decision. So I think that all this was preparing him to say yes to God. But unfortunately, every time he's saying no.

So now God is sending again for the last time to Pharaoh and telling him, tell him that now will be clear distinction between those are following me and those who are not, between the Israelites and the Egyptians. And you will see now that all Egyptians, including you, in all levels, with the exceptions, the firstborn will be that. And this was like striking to the core of the matter. And God does not want to do it. And we read that when Moses heard that, he is himself devastated because he knows that it is coming to this final point and there will be not only 1 family but all families will be affected because everybody has the firstborn.

So Moses is coming and telling him that. And in chapter 11, you have his last appeal to Pharaoh. He's telling him, Yes, every firstborn son in Egypt will die from the first son, firstborn son of Pharaoh who sits on the throne to the firstborn on the slave girl who is in her hand and so on. And it goes. And then he's expecting that this will be the last warning for pharaoh and then he will say okay okay stop stop here I I will let you go at least this it would be would be some kind of acknowledgement of God's command, of God's existence and so on.

But no, he's refusing. And then in the text we read After that, you know, Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh. This is in chapter 11, verse 8. So Moses is angry. This is like for the first time we read that even Moses is angry and he's angry with Pharaoh and he's now leaving because he knows that this is the last encounter.

Then there will be again encounter, it will be in the Red Sea but it will be not personal encounter and even Pharaoh in that case will die even though we don't have it exactly in the book of Exodus but then in the book of Psalms we read that also Pharaoh with his whole army died in the Red Sea. So this is something which we think and we say, if only, if only he would listen, everything would be different. And I think that this is also like a warning for me and for all of us that if only we would listen carefully, so many things we will not experience in our life. We have disappointments, disasters, maybe even some tragedies because of our wrong choices. There are some tragedies which can come without our wrong choices, but if it is on us and we know what is God's will and we are stubbornly going against what we can say, you know, this is really our fault, But God is always merciful and he can call us back.

But when we hear his voice, we need to respond right away because we never know what will be the next. So we see that Pharaoh had these opportunities, God continued to give them, and He continued to reject the opportunities, and we're about to see the results of that persistent rebellion and that persistent rejection. Something interesting happens here. God is about to free his people from Egyptian bondage. And we might expect that when he's about to do that, he would start telling Moses, okay, here's what you need to do to get ready to go.

Here's how to divide people up. These are the supplies that you need to take. But he takes a different route and he introduces the Passover. Why did God establish the celebration of the Passover? What was its purpose and why now?

I think this is very important to recognize that He's not preparing them for battle. But in order to go out and be really God's people, they need to consecrate. They need to put their heart totally in trust in the Lord. And in order to be spared of that calamity which goes upon the Egyptian gods and Egypt, they need also to do something. So God is calling them to grow in obedience.

So they are now in preparation for the going out and God is saying to be ready for it, you need to celebrate Passover. And what was the Passover? You know, Passover was the occasion when the whole family had to be together and they are now gathered around the lamb. And I want that everybody will see that picture. The lamb is at the center and then the whole family or sometimes families, if the family was small, so they had to be together, and they are now surrounded, surrounding the lamb.

And the lamb is the center point. And not only that the lamb is center point, but now they had to take also the blood of that lamb and put this lamb on the doorframe of their house. And this blood will be a sign of life. This will be a sign of protection that these people who are inside now they are those who want to serve the Lord. And again, they had to do everything exactly what God is saying.

They cannot say, oh, OK, we take the son, this blood and put it in our bed. OK, or or outside in the courtyard somewhere. No, it is precise and God wants that we follow Him according to what He's saying, according to His Word, not according to our imagination. We say, okay, the blood is a sign of life so I will do it my way. No, we need to do it always God's way.

And this is this beauty which we have here, which is teaching us that even the Israelites who are now seeing how God is powerful, omnipresent, omnipotent, and he is dealing with all these situations, now they need to, before they will be spared of that plague, also to show that there are really those who are following this living God. So God tells them to do some very specific things, and 1 of those, as you mentioned, was to put the blood on the doorposts. What did God promise to do when He saw that blood on the doorposts, and why was that act so very significant? You know, in English, we have the word for this event, Passover, and it's very good, is like a play with word because it's Passover, it's pass over. So God is promising, when I will see this sign of life, this blood of the Lamb, then I will pass over your house and you will be not under the condemnation.

But judgment will come upon you, but this will be a judgment of life because God's judgment has always 2 sides. 1 is condemnation and punishment and death, and another is life and protection. So if they will now do what God is saying, God will pass over. And this is His promise, that what those who are in a stubborn rebellion against him, they will experience. God's people will not.

And of course, this blood has a very significant meaning. This blood is blood of the lamb. And we know that the lamb is pointing to the future. Because in order that the firstborn of Israel can live, this lamb had to die. And this blood is protecting them, giving life.

So it's giving the future that they can live because of that Passover lamb. And of course, in the Bible, this is the imagery for Jesus Christ, who also in the time of Passover died for us, for all humanity, that we can live. So this is the sign of life. And God is teaching them right there when they are in Egypt and going out, that their life is dependent on that lamb which will come. And that he is the true sacrifice for them.

And he's also the 1 who is giving them life. And not only life for this earth, but life eternal, because he is not defeating now only Egyptian gods or showing how stubbornness is bad and disobedience has no future, but he's taking our sins upon himself in order that we can live. So he's that Passover lamb, as also Paul is speaking in the New Testament. So we see very clearly this symbolism present in the Exodus story, the Passover story, that points us to Jesus and His sacrifice. Exactly.

Exactly. If somebody wants to dig more deeply into the subject of the Passover, they can pick up the companion book to this quarter Sabbath school lesson. What do you talk about in chapter 5 with the Passover that would give us more insight, more depth to what we're studying here? Yes. In chapter 5 in that companion book, I am explaining more about the Passover, about the meaning of sacrifices, about what is the symbolism of the lamb and how it pointing really to Jesus Christ.

So many additional insights are there with the references that those who would love to know more can really dig into that topic and praise the Lord for what he's doing for us. That's right. So this is a very significant subject, understanding the importance of the lamb and the blood on the doorpost the whole Passover, kind of a dividing point in history as it were. And if you want to dig more deeply into that, you can pick up the companion book for this quarter's Sabbath school lesson at itiswritten.shop. Again, that's itiswritten.shop.

You will find the companion book to this quarter's Sabbath school lesson. If you want to dig even more deeply into it, you can also find online the teacher's edition and also additional study helps for teaching Sabbath school. We're going to be back in just a moment as we continue looking at the Passover here on Sabbath school brought to you by It Is Written. At It Is Written, we are passionate about studying the word of God. And we encourage you to be serious about it as well.

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Go further. Dig deeper. ItIsWritten.study. Welcome back to Sabbath School brought to you by It Is Written. We're looking at the Exodus today, specifically the Passover.

Dr. Mascala, let's talk in the context of the Passover. We know that it was important for the people who were going through it at that time, but why was the Passover celebration, or why is the Passover celebration, still very important for future generations to understand? We have the lack of memory, and we need to celebrate the most important events in our life. And God knows that if the people of God will survive different situations in life, they need to freshly remember what God was doing for them.

This is why he's establishing that every year they will be celebrating Passover, this positive judgment on God's people. And they again need to show that they make the priority in their life, that God is number 1. So now all these subsequent generations need to do things in remembrance of what God did before. And What is very significant is not that they are now remembering, oh, this was done to our forefathers. This happened if time goes 1 century back, or maybe even 10 centuries back.

No, now God wants that they will celebrate it as if they were there. So in the liturgy, which is even mentioned in the Bible, now the parents need to teach their children and they have to say not what happened to our forefathers and, you know, when we were in Egypt and so on, but now they are like saying, we were in Egypt, we were enslaved, and we were liberated from God. We are the ones who are guilty. And we are now the ones who are in view of this lamb and the blood sign, we will have life. So they are like playing things and reliving what happened in the past.

And I think this is very important even for us today that if we think, for example, about the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, it should be not only for us like a past event. Yes, praise the Lord, Jesus died for us, for our sins. It needs to be like, again, my experience And realize it was me, my sins, who brought Jesus to the cross. He died for my sins, and I am praising him. And this must be very fresh experience all the time in our life.

And this is why I think it was so crucial for Israelites to celebrate it regularly, every day. And when you have some kind of a feast, a celebration with that, it's fresh. It's remembering what really happened and it can go from 1 generation to another. So the parents played a very important role in making sure that that continued. And you touched on this, but for it to be real to us, we have to participate to some extent in remembering these things as well.

Why is it so important for us to remember God's goodness today? I think that if we really forget God's goodness, we will start to have real doubts in our life. And when the doubts will come, then maybe mistrust to the Lord, and everything starts to be like common and God is disappearing from life. This is why it was so important that parents are teaching children and these children will teach their children. So it was like from 1 family to another family, and they will witness about this kindness and goodness of God.

And not only showing like God led them in the past, but how their story goes together with this metanarrative story, how it fits together. Because they are in continuation of God's leadership, God's guidance in their life. So I think that, you know, remembering God's goodness, God's kindness to us is so crucial. God is always faithful, but because of the trials of life and, you know, situations and our busyness, we can forget. And 1 of the biggest problems of God's people is, and we will see it even in the book of Exodus later, but in the history of God's people is that it's very often written, and they forgot, or they did not remember.

You know, this remembrance, not to forget, this is what we need to have, fresh experience with God, with His goodness, with His kindness, to witness to others also how God is good. So God is good, He is kind, He is patient, He does give us opportunities, And we see evidence of this in the story of the Passover. God said, if you don't want to experience this tenth plague, put the blood on your doorposts and do the things that I've invited you to do, called you to do. But there were those who didn't. There were those who didn't believe God, didn't answer His call, didn't do what He asked them to do, what He commanded them to do.

And unfortunately some terrible things happened. Walk us through the 10th plague. What happened? Well, in the 10th plague, those who did not respond according to what God said, we know that even some Egyptians responded correctly. And they were coming together with Israelites out of Egypt.

So it was a known fact. So everybody knew that in order to be really rescued from the last plague, you need to show your faith in the Messiah, in the coming Messiah, in that Passover lamb, that he will do it. And do it actually, to play it together, and be like together around the lamb, because the lamb was the most important. And then what the lamb did died for us. So in order that we can live, somebody had to die.

And this death of Jesus Christ, of course, ultimately, this is what give us life and life eternal. And those who did not go with that, so from the pharaoh's family till the end, even with the animal world, the firstborn died. And very often it is stated, well, who really died like the pharaoh's family? From what we know from this 18th dynasty of Pharaoh in Egypt and how this is the best fitting scenario here. We know that Thutmose III was the Pharaoh Exodus, who was dealing mainly with Moses and with Aaron, and he was the 1 who was also leading the whole Egyptian army, then later on against Egyptians when they were by the Red Sea.

But what is usually not known is that Thutmose III had a firstborn son. Had a firstborn son, but the firstborn son with the name Amenemhat, he actually died before the actual exodus from Egypt. But his son, another son, which was not the firstborn son, was Amenhotep I. And he was put by Thutmose III as a co-regent, co-faoro, on the throne, like approximately 2 years before this 10th plaque. And so from what scenario we have here, Amenhotep I was not the firstborn son of Thutmose III.

His firstborn son actually died before already. We don't know if it was by accident or by sickness, but we know that he died. And so, who died from the Pharaoh family? It was the son of Amenhotep II. His son actually died and he was ruling after the Exodus.

This is the best scenario we have. So you have Thutmose III, then you have Amenemhat, the firstborn son of Thutmose III, but he died before. And then you have another son of Amenhotep II of this Thutmose III. And his son actually was killed as the firstborn. And what we know is that after Amenhotep II, another son, his son, was on the throne, and it was Thutmose IV.

And from the inscriptions, which are for our disposition, we know that Thutmose IV was not the firstborn. So this fits very clearly to the scenario that from the Pharaoh family, actually, the son of Amenhotep II died. And his brother, later on, Thutmose IV, was the king after Amenhotep II. This is the Pharaoh family. And Pharaoh played that he is God and he is the son of Godra and many other gods.

And now his son is not protected or in this situation from Thutmose III if you would, so his grandson. And it's in biblical language, son or grandson, it's like the same venue because it's the same family. So we see these details which are fitting exactly with what we have in the Scriptures. And from the secular history, it's fitting together. So we can have the full confidence in what is described here.

And not only that, but we need to learn our lesson, that we follow the Lord, and that we are always living in the sign or in the view of the Lamb, and that what He accomplished on us on the cross, we will take for ourselves. And I think that this is the most important for all of us. And also for those who are listening to our discussion, that they will give their heart to the Lamb, to Jesus Christ. So this is an example of how we can also benefit from the love and the grace and the mercy of God. The story of the Passover, a real blessing.

Thank you for joining us today. We look forward to seeing you next time when we look at the Crossing of the Red Sea here on Sabbath School brought to you by It Is Written. ♪♪ you

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Series

Sabbath School 3rd Quarter 2025: Exodus

05 Passover

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

01 Oppression: The Background and the Birth of Moses

28m

02 The Burning Bush

28m

03 Rough Start

28m

04 The Plagues

28m

05 Passover

28m

06 Through the Red Sea

28m

07 The Bread and Water of Life

28m

08 Covenant at Sinai

28m

09 Living the Law

28m

Sound Doctrine