A NEW YEAR FOR YOU
(Part 1)
Exo. 12:1-2
Morning Meditation 11/1/16
Verses 1-2 say, “And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.”
I am going to do a few studies on Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and show how it illustrates our salvation and deliverance from Egypt to Canaan. There are so many rich lessons in this, and I fear before I start, that I will miss some of the important ones.
Before we get started, let me state some things by way of introduction. Egypt is a type of the world in Scripture. The Lord’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt is a type of salvation. It is only a type because Israel was already related to God by unconditional covenant. God confirmed the Abrahamic covenant to Jacob before he and his sons entered Egypt (Gen. 35:10-12). They were already God’s children and so the lessons of deliverance from Egypt to Canaan are only typical. A type is simply an illustrated lesson. If it typifies a New Testament truth there will be corresponding verses in the New Testament that will fit like a piece in a puzzle. When you put the puzzle together there will be a beautiful panorama of the whole thing.
Now let’s come to our text. “And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt” refers to the PLACE where they were when the LORD spoke. God comes to Egypt where they are and speaks to them. Men will never discover God in Egypt unless God comes to Egypt to introduce Himself. Egypt does not worship the true God. Egypt had many gods the chief of which was Ra the sun god. My wife and I, along with many other new friends on our tour, went to Egypt this past November. We were shown many interesting and historical things. It can be summed up in TOMBS and MONUMENTS. There was nothing in Egypt that even closely resembled something that would honor God or to suggest that the people ever knew God. They claim that before creation the Absolute Spirit Ra was diffused in primordial Chaos. Their ideas about this Ra are complicated, but they picture him as creator of the universe, including creating a mate (his double) for himself. If you were to study Egyptian religion, you would discover similarities in their ideas of the creation story, and the book of Genesis. But it is only similar in some areas and a complete perversion that rejects the God of Genesis for a god worshipped by means of idols. Cain is the human author of false religion (Gen. 4:1-7). He departed from the presence of the Lord (Gen. 4:16), and committed the first murder (Gen. 4:8). He and his descendants built the first city (Gen. 4:17), practiced the first polygamy (Gen. 4:19), were the first nomads (Gen. 4:20), were the first named musicians (Gen. 4:21), and established the first school (Gen. 4:22). This is the reason that Cain is credited as the one who built the first civilized society. It was a civilized society without the true God.
This false religion, civilization, and culture was brought into the new world (after Noah’s flood) through Ham’s descendants into Egypt. The following verses show that Egypt was originally the land of Ham. Psa. 78:51 says, “And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:” Psa. 105:23 says, “Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.” Psa. 105:27 says, “They shewed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.” Psa. 106:22 says, “Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea.” All of these verses are historically referring to Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage. So far, I haven’t found a written record of Israel’s deliverance, and the death of the Pharaoh who died in the Red Sea. Dr. Ed Vallowe asked the Egyptian guide (an Egyptian lady with a Ph.D. in Pyrmidology), what about the Pharaoh who was drowned when the Jews crossed the Red Sea? She replied that this was just in the Jewish mind, that it never happened. It seems that Egypt was so humiliated by God’s judgment against them, and their false gods, that they have written this completely out of their history. Don’t get too upset with them, America doesn’t believe in God either. If they did, they would not be teaching evolution and murdering babies.
Our text says in verse 2, “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.” The beginning of the Jewish year was the same as the world’s before the event of the passover. When God gives the passover and the means of deliverance for Israel, He said “You will have a new birthday.” You will begin to number your years from this date. So the Jews today have a different first of the year than the rest of the world. They were in Egypt with a different birthday! Their new birthday began in Egypt where God visited them. He came to where they were, and changed their bondage to deliverance, gave them a promise of a land flowing with milk and honey, and became the power to accomplish all He promised. Amen!!
God visited us in Egypt. John 1:14 says, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 3:17 says, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” The Son was sent from outside the world (outside Egypt) into the world to save the world. This is what Jesus came to do. He came to me when I was a nine-year-old boy. I trusted Him as my personal Saviour. He came into my life and gave me a new birthday. When I remember my Adamic (Egypt) birthday, I get depressed. But when I remember my new birthday I am filled with joy and gladness. Someone hold my mules!
God said, “ . . . it shall be the first month of the year to you.” It is not just a new year. It is “the first month” of a new year. This suggests a time and a place. There is a day on which the new month of the new year begins. The place is Egypt. You see you don’t go to heaven to be saved. You say, “Preacher, no one teaches that you go to heaven to be saved.” Oh yes they do. People who teach that you are saved by good works believe that they will not be saved until they stand before God in the great judgment and their good works are weighed against their bad works and only then will they be saved. But the Bible teaches that Israel (in type) was saved in Egypt before they ever left. We are saved while still in this world. They were not only saved but they had the assurance from God that they were saved. God said, “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months . . .” God said, “You can go ahead and change your birth date because, while you are in Egypt, you are no longer counted in Egypt.” God gave them the land before they saw it, so that they could enjoy it by faith, before they saw it. Jesus told His disciples in John 15:19, “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” He prayed in His great high priestly prayer, “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:14).
Egypt hated Israel in their slave days. But their hatred increased as God began to change them. Even though they were slaves in Egypt, and they hated it, they had no hope of it ever changing. That is, until God began to give them a new hope through His man, Moses. Can you imagine how Pharaoh felt when Moses came and told him that God said, “let my people go?” He wasn’t about to let his free labor go. The world hates it when we discover that we do have to remain slaves to the world system. This is the reason that it is so difficult for missionaries to enter foreign countries. Satan is at the border and in the government of these nations and will do all he can to discourage the man of God with the true gospel. They do not want to hear the words of deliverance. It is really amazing when you think of it. Being a Christian will always make you a better citizen. Why wouldn’t any nation want better citizens? Well, they don’t mind having better citizens. They just don’t want a group of people in her midst celebrating a different birthday!!! That makes them very uncomfortable. They also have a problem with losing their slave labor. Let me illustrate. Americans are slaves to sex, gambling, dope, divorce and you name it. A man gets saved and at that time, gets a new birthday. He is born in a new family under a different principle of life. He quits illicit sex (any sex outside of marriage), he doesn’t go to the gambling boats any more (the taxes the state gets, suffers as a result), he quits using dope (and hurts the business of all those who are paid by the government to gather statistics and help the dope addict), and reconciles with the family (and the divorce lawyers can’t make a living and therefore can’t pay taxes to the state and government or rent their high priced offices and therefore causes all kinds of financial problems). Jesus taught His disciples that the world would hate them. And it does.
Has your birthday been changed? Or, is the only one you have, the one that marks the day you were born in this world. If you go to heaven you must get a new birthday. This happens when you accept God’s passover Lamb as your personal Saviour. John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The day you look to Him and trust Him by faith is the day God will give you a new birthday.
May God bless these worlds to our hearts..
In Christ
Bro. White
