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This week’s Parasha is titled Bo, which means “Go”.  It starts in Exodus 10 where the Lord tells Moses that He has further hardened Pharaoh’s already hard heart.  I believe this is the first time in this series of plagues that Adonai will make sure Pharaoh’s heart is hardened through plagues eight, nine, and ten.

Adonai sends Moses and Aaron back to Pharaoh to tell him that if he does not let Israel go, God will bring locusts on all the land of Egypt, (though Goshen would be protected from this plague).  Pharaoh’s officials have had enough of these plagues that El Gibbor, the Mighty God, has brought on them, and they urge Pharaoh to let the Jewish people go.  Since God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, he will say “No”. The Lord tells Moses, “Stretch out your hand over Egypt,” and God sends a strong east wind that blows in a plague of locusts.  The locusts devour everything that grows, whether on the trees or on the ground.  The effects of this plague cause Pharaoh to summon Moses and Aaron.  Pharaoh admits that he has sinned against “the Lord your God”.  The Lord removes the locusts with a strong west wind and sends them into the Red Sea.  Yet once again Pharaoh hardens his heart, and refuses to let the Israelis go.

The ninth plague brings darkness that covers all of Egypt for three days, except in Goshen, where the Jewish people are living – a humiliation to Amon-Ra, the sun god and chief of the Egyptian pantheon. Adonai is showing Egypt and all the world that He alone is God, demonstrating that the gods of Egypt are no gods at all.

This brings us to the tenth and final plague, the death of all Egypt’s firstborn. Following this plague, the Lord sends Moses one last time to tell Pharaoh to let the Jewish people go. The Israelis are instructed to ask their Egyptian neighbors for silver and gold and other valuables. This plague will inaugurate Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Out of death and misery in Egypt comes the very first holiday God gives His people. The Jewish people are instructed to choose year-old male lambs without defect and care for them for four days; after which they are to slaughter the lambs at twilight.  The blood from those lambs is to be put on the sides and tops of the doorposts of the Jewish homes, and then the lambs are to be eaten. The Jewish people are instructed to eat in haste, with their coats tucked into their belts and their sandals on their feet. This night God will send death throughout Egypt; every firstborn in any house without the blood of those lambs on its doorpost will die.

That first Passover would be different than all others.  On that day, the Jewish people likely heard the cries of the Egyptians and knew that many had died.  In the years to come, Passover would be a remembrance and celebration of our freedom.  Instead of haste, we now relax, recline and enjoy a celebration of the very first holiday that God gave us.

Moses tells the Israelis to remember the meaning of the service: “It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for He passed over the houses of the people in Israel in Egypt, when He struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.”

In the aftermath of that final and terrible plague, Pharaoh summons Moses and tells him, “Take your people and go!” The next morning, the great Exodus begins and our people (approximately two million) pack their bags, take their unleavened bread and all the silver and gold they plundered from the Egyptians, and journey from Ramses to Sukkoth; 430 years to the day from the Jewish people arrival in Egypt.

So what applications can we take from this Parasha?

First, the fact of God’s sovereignty. When God enacts His plan there is nothing that man can do to stop it. We see this demonstrated when El Chai, the Living God, hardens Pharaoh’s heart, in order to ensure that all mankind understands that there is only one God – and it is He. God powerfully transforms the hearts of men according to His will.

We also see that when the Israelis leave Egypt, they receive the equivalent of ‘back pay’ for centuries of slavery, which they will gladly give to the Lord when the time comes to build the Tabernacle, using the Egyptians’ gold and silver, animal skins and fine linens. So, how are you using the treasures He has given you?

Just before the tenth plague, literally hundreds of thousands of lambs were slaughtered for that Passover. That was a lot of death to bring about life for the Jewish nation, yet it pales in comparison to the redemptive power that one death – the sacrifice that God’s perfect Lamb, Messiah Yeshua, accomplished; and not just for Israel but for all mankind, including you and me, and not just in this world, but eternal life in the World-To-Come!

At His last meal, which was a Passover Seder, Yeshua gave new meaning to the unleavened bread and the cup when he gave us the Lord’s Supper. Brothers and sisters, this is a reminder that when we eat the bread and drink the wine, it is a remembrance of the body and blood of our Messiah, who made full and final atonement for our sins and gave us eternal life and communion with Him.

Brother and Sisters, God wants each of us to experience our own personal Exodus, and to be set free from the things that once held us in bondage; We need to leave our own ‘Egypts’ behind, and the only way that will happen is for us to give our lives to Yeshua.