Joseph was seventeen years old when he was sold to the Egyptians as a slave. He served as a slave for thirteen years before he was elevated to the position of authority over Egypt at the age of thirty. Hunger and destitution and starvation were very severe and extremely distressing in the land [Canaan] (Gen.43:1). Joseph, chosen by God to save his family at that time, interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams, when no one could. That resulted in Pharaoh setting him over all the land of Egypt, fulfilling Joseph’s dreams of long ago before he was sold to slavery. God is never slow, nor tardy to fulfill His purpose. No one in his family realized that Joseph was the key person in their midst whom God had chosen to bring about the fulfillment of the prophecy given to Abram many years ago.
God had told Abram that his descendants were to live in a foreign land four hundred years as slaves (Gen. 15:13). Thirty years previously when Joseph was the prime minister of Egypt, the Israelites enjoyed a good life style. However, after his death and all his brothers’ and all that generation, a new king arose who did not know Joseph. Concerned with the increase of the Israelites, and afraid they would turn against the Egyptians, he came up with the deal to set over the Israelites taskmasters to afflict and oppress them with burdens.. But more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more they multiplied and expanded, so that the Egyptians were vexed and alarmed. That caused the Egyptians to reduce the Israelites to severe slavery. They made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar, brick and all kinds of work in the field. All their service was with harshness and severity (Exodus 1). God meanwhile, was preparing Moses to lead Israel out of that situation. Moses was supernaturally saved from the water by Pharaoh’s daughter and adopted into her family. He grew up as a prince, but did not care to have such a life style. He is listed as a hero of the faith in Hebrews 11:24: By faith Moses, when he had grown to maturity and become great, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, because he preferred to share the oppression and bear the shame of the people of God rather that to have the fleeting enjoyment of a sinful life. After forty years living in the palace, he became a fugitive in the land of Midian (Exodus 2: 15). Forty years he had been living in that desert hiding from Pharaoh, when God called Him to deliver his people from Egypt’s slavery. Moses was eighty years old when a meaningful life style started for him marked by God calling him to the task of a deliverer. From prince, to shepherd, to a deliverer, Moses’s life’s season was divided by the number forty.
Egypt had to go through many trials before they let the Israelites go. Under the direction of God, Moses and his brother performed signs and wonders before Pharaoh to prove the veracity of their God. Plagues after plagues fell on Egypt, but Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened as God intended, so he could witness the only true God’s wonders. The last judgment to fall on the Egyptians was the death of their first son. The entire country suffered the loss, including the loss of their animals. It was a night of horror witnessing the death of their sons. God however, had a plan of deliverance for His people, Israel. None of them was affected by the judgment, because that night was a Passover night when the nation of Israel would pass from death to life in the deliverance provided for them.
Here is what Israel needed to do according to the Lord’s instruction: the blood of the lamb killed for the sacrifice they were to put it on the two side posts and on the lintel of the houses in which they shall eat [the Passover lamb]… they were to eat with their loins girded, their shoes on their feet, and their staff in their hand; they were to eat it in haste, for the Lord said, I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment… the blood shall be for a token or sign to you upon the houses where you are, when I see the blood, I will Passover you and no plague shall be upon you to destroy your when I smite the land of Egypt (Exodus. 12:7,11-13).
The church of the Lord YAHSHUA the Messiah has passed from death unto life at the time of the new birth in Christ. The covenant of blood- the blood of the Lamb of God shed for them provided the way out of condemnation into salvation. Those who have received the gift of salvation are marked with YAHSHUA’S blood by the means of forgiveness and His Holy Spirit. When God the Father sees the blood of His Son on the believer, He will pass over us, by the calling us heavenly bound through the trumpet sounding before His judgment falls on the earth. The Holy Spirit is the token given to every believer guaranteeing his salvation from the judgment to come. As we wait for that day, a day which is not known to us, we must continue to be separated from the things of the world, as in leavened bread, symbolic of corruption and outside of the holiness of God. As it was for the Israelites who ate the leavened bread were cut off from the nation, the believer will be cut off from God if he remains feasting in the things of the world.
As it were in the days of Noah… eating, drinking, marrying and given in marriage, so it will be in the day of the Son of Man. In those days people were feasting on the worldly leaven, unaware of the judgment to come, for their indifference to the warning. There is no room for the Holy Spirit in a clouded life filled with the world’s pleasures, or leavened bread. We either serve God or we serve the world. Deliverance from the judgment to come will be only for those who are set apart for God. They will be the only ones to hear the calling through the trumpet sounding. We will hear our names loudly and clearly when God’s trumpet will sound. As when Lazarus’ name was called out from the grave, so, we will hear our names, especially those who are dead in Christ, for it is a personal call to those who are His and set apart for that time.
The blood on the door posts of the Israelites foretold of the coming sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Whose blood was shed for the atonement of men’s sin. Whosoever will accept His sacrifice for the forgiveness of his sin will be marked by forgiveness and the cleanness of his heart before God. Their deliverance from God’s judgment to come is secure, when God sees the effect of His Son’s blood in his life. Noah, Lot, the Israelites all experienced deliverance before judgment, and we, YAHSHUA’S true bride will also, provided that we are not mingling with the world’s leavened bread, or life style.
Light from the Word 