The Passover is an expression of the “equality” of all of us
before God. We are all sinners who require His mercy if we hope to avoid
condemnation and death. Israel’s Savior made this clear by requiring Israel to
make a blood sacrifice so that death would not strike them as it would the
Egyptians:
·
“When the Lord goes through the land to strike
down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe
and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter
your houses and strike you down.” (Exodus 12:23)
Moses explained that without the blood of this
substitutionary sacrifice, the “destroyer,” the angel of death, would also
inflict upon Israel what Israel deserved – death. They too deserved to die for
their sins.
Moses explained that God had “spared” Israel and “passed
over” them. Without the substitutionary blood on the doorposts, Israel would not
have been spared. To reinforce the fact that Israel too deserved judgment, God
required His people to understand, through a regular substitutionary offering,
that they too deserved to die:
·
“In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What
does this [the Passover ceremony] mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the
Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go,
the Lord killed the firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt. This is why
I sacrifice to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem
each of my firstborn sons.’” (Exodus 13:14-15)
Israel was required to buy back from God’s judgment their
firstborn with an animal sacrifice. Instead of them, the animal would pay the
price for sin.
The Passover is an expression of equality in another way.
Redemption was also open to the Egyptians. Those Egyptians who took God’s Word
seriously were able to avoid the effects of some of the plagues or to even join
themselves to Israel:
·
If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would
keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may
come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no
uncircumcised person shall eat of it. There shall be one law for the native and
for the stranger who sojourns among you.” (Exodus 12:48–49)
However, today’s secularism wants to apply equality even
further by eliminating any distinctions among humanity. Brian McLaren, a key
writer of the Emergent Church movement, charges that:
·
Christians have been taught to see in "us
vs. them" terms for centuries, and it will take time to reorient faithful
people in a new direction -- "us with them," working for the common
good (Huffington Post Religion Blog, 2/19/03)
However, Scripture has always maintained a sharp distinction
between the people of God and those who aren’t. The Passover also reflects this
absolute distinction:
·
“There will be loud wailing throughout
Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. But among the
Israelites not a dog will bark at any person or animal.’ Then you will know
that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.” (Exodus 11:6-7)
Is this kind of favoritism a violation of God’s just nature?
No! For one thing, God has always stated or demonstrated that it is legitimate
for Him to be merciful to those He chooses (Rom. 9:14-19). For another thing,
we all live in a way that reflects such discriminate mercy. When we
throw a party, we have no qualms about inviting only those we want to invite.
If someone from the next town complains, “That isn’t fair. You should also have
invited me,” you would simply point out that this has nothing to do with
fairness but everything to do with our freedom to be kind to only those who we
choose.
However, if we are a judge, we must apply the same
principles of justice to all indiscriminately. But under this standard of
justice, none of us deserve anything from God except condemnation (Rom. 6:23).
Therefore, our only hope is in the mercy of God, not in the justice of God.
This might violate our current values, but there is nothing
unjust about only being merciful to a select group of people. Nevertheless, God
had made His mercy available to all. Any who sought to join His people could.
In fact, when Israel left Egypt, they were joined by a “mixed multitude”
(12:38) of people, presumably including Egyptians. Besides, there is no
scriptural instance where someone who seriously wanted to join Israel was
refused.
Instead, we must be free to extend discriminate mercy. If
instead I am required to be merciful to all, I can be merciful to none.
Instead, true mercy must begin at home with individuals, with those we favor.
It is because I favor my children and wife that I can be compassionate and
merciful to others who have wives and children. This is because I understand
and value of discriminate mercy. If instead, I must be equally merciful to all,
mercy will be consumed in a sea of sameness and sterility.
A lack of evidence was never the problem. Egypt had
all the evidence. They experienced the 10 plagues of Israel’s God. This caused
them to tremble before God and to have a great respect for Moses. However, this
was not enough to incline them to accept Israel’s God.
The same was true of the vast number of the Canaanites. They
had heard all about the miracles that God had performed for Israel (Joshua
2:10), but they remained unresponsive to this God with the exception of one
prostitute.
The Gibeonites’ behavior reflected the deep darkness and
rebellion in the heart of humanity. They too had been convinced by the evidence
that God was with Israel (Joshua 9:9). However, they oddly decided to deceive
the Israelites and to become their slaves rather than to receive their God and
to become their brothers.
Does this make God unjust? The Egyptians had all the
evidence in the world but instead chose to harden their hearts against God.
Should God be required to be merciful to them? To the Canaanites? Many would
say “yes.” However, they can only maintain such a position by denying that we
are morally responsible agents. Instead, the Passover declares otherwise.
