Fri.’s Devo - The Passover and the Exodus

Read: Ex. 13-15
God makes a big deal about buying back the first born son. The first born son is a picture of us and our natural birth which is our first birth. If we are to be a son of God then we have to be bought back by the blood of Jesus. This is the picture of Passover. The lamb was slain for us, but we have to appropriate his blood to be saved. Unleavened bread has to do with our sanctification process. The yeast stands for sin so we spend the week, or our lives, getting the yeast out and becoming like Jesus. This feast was to be a visible sign like a mark branded on their forehead or their hand.
I am also doing a Bible study on Revelation and I find it interesting that this mark God gave his people will be copied by Satan in the end. He will demand a mark on the forehead or the hand to be able to buy or sell in the end times (Rev. 13:16). Salvation is our mark that identifies us as His sons.
They emptied Joseph’s grave to take his bones into the promised land. This would have been on the third day after Passover, the same day Jesus’s body rose from his grave and went to the promised land of heaven. Joseph’s life was a type of Jesus’ life.
God led them under the canopy of a cloud by day and the warmth and light of fire at night. This way they could travel continually. This is a picture of God’s total protection over us in our darkest nights or gloomiest days. We can keep walking our walk with him. He covers us with his loving kindness and protection.
Israel received their salvation at Passover and their baptism in the cloud and in the Red Sea. In 1 Co. 10:1-2 Paul says, “I do not want you to be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” John came with a baptism of water (the sea) but Jesus came with the baptism of the Holy Spirit (the cloud). We need to be baptized with both. The enemy was defeated in the sea. Our sanctification renders the enemy inoperable. If we have a struggle in an area and allow the Lord to cleanse it with his sea of forgiveness and love then the devil can not defeat us in that area - both horse and rider will be hurled into the sea.
They didn’t get to celebrate their victory long before they came to their next obstacle - bitter waters. God told Moses to cast a certain tree into the waters and it made the waters sweet. That tree is a picture of the cross. We can apply the cross to every situation and it will become sweet.
Lord, help us to see the power of the cross in our lives today.