Exodux 7-13
Plague after plague afflicted Egypt, but Pharaoh still refused to release the Israelites. And yet God continued to demonstrate His power and give Pharaoh opportunities to accept “that I am the Lord” and “there is none like me in all the earth” (Exodus 7:5; 9:14). Meanwhile, Moses and the Israelites must have watched with awe at these manifestations of God’s power in their behalf. Surely these continued signs confirmed their faith in God and strengthened their willingness to follow God’s prophet. Then, after nine terrible plagues had failed to free the Israelites, it was the tenth plague—the death of the firstborn, including Pharaoh’s firstborn—that finally ended the captivity. This seems fitting because in every case of spiritual captivity, there truly is only one way to escape. No matter what else we may have tried in the past, it is with us as it was with the children of Israel. It is only the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Firstborn—the blood of the Lamb without blemish—that will save us.
25) Exodus 7–10. The Plagues of Egypt
There have been numerous attempts through the ages to explain the plagues described in these chapters of Exodus. Some have tried to show that the various plagues were the result of some natural phenomenon such as passing meteorites or the explosion of a volcanic island in the Mediterranean Sea. While there is some degree of logical progression in the plagues (the river’s pollution could have driven the frogs out of the marshes to die, and this situation would then have bred lice, flies, and disease), it is not possible at present to explain how the Lord brought about these miraculous events. The fact that the plagues were selective (that is, sent upon the Egyptians but not the Israelites) adds to their miraculous nature. God often works through natural means to bring about His purposes, but that fact does not lessen the miraculous nature of His work. In the plagues and eventual deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt is a record of remarkable and miraculous intervention by God in behalf of His children. HowHe actually intervened is not nearly so significant as that He did intervene.
The fact that the Lord plagued Egypt so many times shows how merciful He is. Instead of immediately destroying Pharaoh and the Egyptians, He gave them many chances to acknowledge Him and His power. The Lord’s purpose is to have all of His children turn to Him. Only after nine impressive displays of the Lord’s power and Pharaoh completely hardening his heart did the Lord prepare the destructive tenth plague.
I can choose to soften my heart.
Hopefully your will is never as dramatically opposed to God’s will as Pharaoh’s was. Still, we all have times when our hearts aren’t as soft as they should be, so there is something to learn from Pharaoh’s actions recorded in Exodus 7–10.
What do you learn from the following scriptures about developing a soft heart? 1 Nephi 2:16; Mosiah 3:19; Alma 24:7–8; 62:41; Ether 12:27.
See also Michael T. Ringwood, “An Easiness and Willingness to Believe,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2009, 100–102.
Exodus 7—How Could the Pharaoh’s Magicians Perform “Miracles”?
President Joseph Fielding Smith, then President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said:
“All down through the ages and in almost all countries, men have exercised great occult and mystical powers, even to the healing of the sick and the performing of miracles. Soothsayers, magicians, and astrologers were found in the courts of ancient kings. They had certain powers by which they divined and solved the monarch’s problems, dreams, etc. . . .
“. . . The Savior declared that Satan had the power to bind bodies of men and women and sorely afflict them [see Matthew 7:22–23; Luke 13:16]. . . . It should be remembered that Satan has great knowledge and thereby can exercise authority and to some extent control the elements, when some greater power does not intervene”
Exodus 11 is a continuation of the face-to-face meeting
between Moses and Pharaoh that occurred at the end of
Exodus 10. While still in the presence of Pharaoh, Moses
received a revelation about the tenth and final plague. He
declared to Pharaoh that the final plague would be the death
of the firstborn in all the land. Pharaoh responded to Moses
as he had before—he hardened his heart and ignored Moses’ warning. Moses then left, seeing Pharaoh’s “face again no more” (Exodus 10:29; see also v. 28).
The tenth and final plague, described in Exodus 11–12, was a great tragedy for the Egyptians. The final plague was also one of the most significant events in Israelite history when God showed His power as He delivered His people. To all who believe in Jesus Christ, this event— known as the Passover—is one of the most powerful symbols of Christ found in the Old Testament and can strengthen our testimony of His Atonement. As you read, look for how God’s miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage can be compared to Christ’s Atonement and think of how Jesus Christ delivers us from the spiritual bondage of sin.
The fact that the plagues were selective (that is, sent upon the Egyptians but not the Israelites) adds to their miraculous nature. God often works through natural means to bring about His purposes, but that fact does not lessen the miraculous nature of His work. In the plagues and eventual deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt is a record of remarkable and miraculous intervention by God in behalf of His children. How He actually intervened is not nearly so significant as that He did intervene. (O.T. Institute Manual)
The Passover symbolizes Jesus Christ’s Atonement.
The only way for the Israelites to be spared from the tenth plague, described in Exodus 11:4–5, was to precisely follow the instructions the Lord gave to Moses in Exodus 12, a ritual known as the Passover. The Passover teaches us through symbols that just as the Lord delivered the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, He can also deliver us from the bondage of sin.
Exodus 12:1–20—Animal Sacrifice a Similitude of Christ
President Joseph Fielding Smith said:
“When the Israelites left Egypt, the Lord gave them the passover. They were to take a lamb without blemish; they were not to break any of its bones. They were to kill it, cook it, and eat it with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. This feast they were to remember annually thereafter until Christ should come. This was also in the similitude of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. If you stop to consider it, it was at the time of the passover that our Lord was taken and crucified in fulfillment of the promises that had been made that he would come to be our Redeemer.
“All these things point to his coming and to his ministry. In fact sacrifice goes right back to the days of Adam. Animal sacrifices were to be without blemish, for it was in the similitude of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and pointed to his coming. We do not learn much in the Book of Genesis what sacrifice was for, because the plain things pertaining to sacrifice have been removed” (Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. [1954–56], 1:22).
Exodus 12:14–17, 24–27; 13:1–16
The sacrament helps me remember my deliverance through Jesus Christ.
The Savior wanted the Israelites to always remember that He had delivered them, even after their captivity became a distant memory. This is why He commanded them to observe the Passover feast each year. As you read His instructions in Exodus 12:14–17, 24–27; 13:1–16, think about what you are doing to remember God’s blessings to you.
As past chapters have shown, the Lord has often influenced history in such a way that it becomes in and of itself symbolically significant. Jacob in the Book of Mormon taught that the commandment for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac provided a similitude of God’s sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son (see Jacob 4:5). Joseph, who was sold into Egypt, provided a type or symbol of Christ and His ministry (see Reading 8-19). Nephi taught that from the beginning of the world all things have been given to typify or symbolize Christ and His Atonement (see 2 Nephi 11:4).
These chapters of Exodus contain one of the grandest and most profound of all historical types. The deliverance of the house of Israel from bondage is not only one of history’s most dramatic events, but it is also full of symbolic significance for the Saints of all times.
As preparation for reading the scriptural account of this remarkable event, consider Elder Bruce R. McConkie’s summary of the significance of these events:
“At the time appointed for their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, the Lord commanded each family in Israel to sacrifice a lamb, to sprinkle its blood on their doorposts, and then to eat unleavened bread for seven more days—all to symbolize the fact that the destroying angel would pass over the Israelites as he went forth slaying the firstborn in the families of all the Egyptians; and also to show that, in haste, Israel should go forth from slavery to freedom. As a pattern for all the Mosaic instructions yet to come, the details of the performances here involved were so arranged as to bear testimony both of Israel’s deliverance and of her Deliverer. Among other procedures, the Lord commanded, as found in Exodus 12:
1. ‘Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year,’ signifying that the Lamb of God, pure and perfect, without spot or blemish, in the prime of his life, as the Paschal Lamb, would be slain for the sins of the world.
2. They were to take of the blood of the lamb and sprinkle it upon the doorposts of their houses, having this promise as a result: ‘And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you,’ signifying that the blood of Christ, which should fall as drops in Gethsemane and flow in a stream from a pierced side as he hung on the cross, would cleanse and save the faithful; and that, as those in Israel were saved temporally because the blood of a sacrificial lamb was sprinkled on the doorposts of their houses, so the faithful of all ages would wash their garments in the blood of the Eternal Lamb and from him receive an eternal salvation. And may we say that as the angel of death passed by the families of Israel because of their faith—as Paul said of Moses, ‘through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them’ (Heb. 11:28)—even so shall the Angel of Life give eternal life to all those who rely on the blood of the Lamb.
3. As to the sacrifice of the lamb, the decree was, ‘Neither shall ye break a bone thereof,’ signifying that when the Lamb of God was sacrificed on the cross, though they broke the legs of the two thieves to induce death, yet they brake not the bones of the Crucified One ‘that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.’ (John 19:31–36.)
4. As to the eating the flesh of the sacrificial lamb, the divine word was, ‘No uncircumcised person shall eat thereof,’ signifying that the blessings of the gospel are reserved for those who come into the fold of Israel, who join the Church, who carry their part of the burden in bearing off the kingdom; signifying also that those who eat his flesh and drink his blood, as he said, shall have eternal life and he will raise them up at the last day. (John 6:54.)
5. As ‘the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt’ because they believed not the word of the Lord delivered to them by Moses and Aaron, even so should the Firstborn of the Father, who brings life to all who believe in his holy name, destroy worldly people at the last day, destroy all those who are in the Egypt of darkness, whose hearts are hardened as were those of Pharaoh and his minions.
6. On the first and seventh days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Israelites were commanded to hold holy convocations in which no work might be done except the preparation of their food. These were occasions for preaching and explaining and exhorting and testifying. We go to sacrament meetings to be built up in faith and in testimony. Ancient Israel attended holy convocations for the same purposes. Knowing that all things operate by faith, would it be amiss to draw the conclusion that it is as easy for us to look to Christ and his spilt blood for eternal salvation as it was for them of old to look to the blood of the sacrificed lamb, sprinkled on doorposts, to give temporal salvation, when the angel of death swept through the land of Egypt?
“It was, of course, while Jesus and the Twelve were keeping the Feast of the Passover that our Lord instituted the ordinance of the sacrament, to serve essentially the same purposes served by the sacrifices of the preceding four millenniums. After that final Passover day and its attendant lifting up upon the cross of the true Paschal Lamb, the day for the proper celebration of the ancient feast ceased. After that Paul was able to say: ‘Christ our passover is sacrificed for us,’ and to give the natural exhortation that flowed therefrom: ‘Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.’ (1 Cor. 5:7–8.)” (The Promised Messiah, pp. 429–31.)
No comments:
Post a Comment