[Note: This is the prepared text for a sermonette given to the UCG Portland congregation on the Last Day of Unleavened Bread, April 8, 2026.]
Good afternoon brethren. I had originally thought to spend my entire sermonette discussing a single passage of scripture but in thinking about the day and a prophecy contained in this passage, I decided to change my approach and instead look at how the Song of Moses connects poetry, prophecy, and history for the Last Day of Unleavened Bread. I say this hoping I don’t anticipate anything in the sermon message that is to follow. So, let’s begin today by turning to Exodus 15, an offering of praise given by Moses after God delivered Israel from the threat of Egypt’s army. I’d like to start in verse 9 and talk about how the Song of Moses here connects Moses’ offering of poetry with God’s salvation of His people in history as well as a pointing of prophecy that demonstrates how God’s plan was operating long before it happened.
Exodus 15:9-10 reads: “The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil;
my desire shall be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.’ You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters.” It is often an ominous thing when the Bible records someone talking about themselves too much and what they are going to do. Six times in six poetic lines in Exodus 15:9, we see the army of Egypt personified (presumably in the Pharaoh) as making claims that they will do specific destructive and predatory things to the people of Israel, pursuing, overtaking, dividing the spoil, satisfying their desire on them, drawing their sword, and destroying them. These are not pleasant things. Fortunately for Israel, nothing of the sort happens. Instead, Moses records that God responds by blowing with His wind and covering them with the sea so that they sank like lead to the bottom of the water. Pharaoh and the army of Egypt thought that they were going to destroy Israel, and instead God destroyed them.
Continuing on, we read in Exodus 15:11-13: “Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? You stretched out Your right hand; the earth swallowed them. You in Your mercy have led forth the people whom You have redeemed; You have guided them in Your strength to Your holy habitation.” What is the response of Moses to this deliverance? It is praise, but praise that is mixed with an awareness of God’s power mixed with His mercy. God’s people experience His action to deliver them as an act of divine mercy, protecting them from whatever horrors Egypt’s Pharaoh and army had in mind for them, and a wondrous miracle in opening up the Red Sea so that they may pass over to the other side in safety. But Moses here, the psalmist and poet, also reminds us that this glorious rescue is fearful at the same time. God guides His people to the Promised land, here pictured as a foretaste of His habitation, His eternal kingdom, but the enemies of God are swallowed up by the earth in a foretaste of what would happen in the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, which we read about in Numbers 16.
Nor is this the only prophetic echo this song contains. Continuing on in Exodus 15:14-17, we read: “The people will hear and be afraid; sorrow will take hold of the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the chiefs of Edom will be dismayed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling will take hold of them; all the inhabitants of Canaan will melt away. Fear and dread will fall on them; by the greatness of Your arm
They will be as still as a stone, till Your people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over whom You have purchased. You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, In the place, O Lord, which You have made for Your own dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established.” Here again Moses turns his attention to how the deliverance of God’s people by the Eternal brings fear and terror on the enemies of God and of His people. Here again, Moses connects God’s bringing of Israel from slavery in Egypt to the Promised land with salvation and entry into the Kingdom of God where believers are promised in places like Revelation 21 and 22 that we will live in His sanctuary forever. I should note as well that this is by no means a unique connection, as we see a similar connection drawn in Psalm 95 as well as the commentary on that psalm found in Hebrews 3 and 4, which we do not have time in this message to explore but which you can read for yourself.
What we see from this, and what ought to remind us of the importance of the Last Day of Unleavened Bread in God’s overall plan is that God was not simply delivering Israel in a physical sense. Moses wrote this song celebrating how God had delivered them from slavery and from the threat of the horrors that the army of Egypt sought to inflict upon them, but also pointed to a larger goal that God had in mind in not only planting them in a physical promised land, which would happen in 40 years’ time, but also in opening the way to His Kingdom for believers to enter for all time, an invitation that, unfortunately, few in Israel would even understand, much less accept.
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10:1-11, spells out exactly what this experience of crossing over the Red Sea means for us, and we would do well to pay attention to it. 1 Corinthians 10:1-11 reads: “Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”
What does this mean for us? When we read about the deliverance of Israel from Egypt and from its oppression, we are reading about our own deliverance from sin and from the domination of wickedness in all the forms it may take. Like Israel, God delivers us not merely to set us free in a physical sense but also so that we may serve Him and enter His kingdom. Israel gave God an offering praise that we have read in Exodus 15 for saving their lives, but did not have a vision of what God was saving them for. Even though Moses himself pointed it out in song, Israel did not understand that God was preparing the way for them to pass over into the promised land after their experiences in wandering in the wilderness, and, if they would commit themselves to obedience to God’s laws and ways and faith in God’s loving and merciful provision, entrance into His eternal Kingdom. We can do better. God willing, we can look into these scriptures and see the meaning of this day and its part in a larger overall plan that God had been working and continues to work for both historical reflection and future prophetic fulfillment. Let us profit from the example and from the biblical instruction that we have been given.
Now, having talked a little bit about Exodus 15 being an offering of praise in light of God’s dramatic work in the history of ancient Israel, let us briefly turn to discuss the offering we are about to take up. If anyone needs an offering envelope please raise your hand and an usher will provide one to you. Please make sure to fill out as much of the envelope as possible to make it easier to process. It is customary for us to go to one of a few places to discuss the offerings and I would like to go to one of those places today to discuss briefly the offering that was specifically given on the Days of Unleavened Bread that we have been celebrating for the last week. I would like us to turn to Numbers 28:16-25.
Numbers 28:16-25 reads: “‘On the fourteenth day of the first month is the Passover of the Lord. And on the fifteenth day of this month is the feast; unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. And you shall present an offering made by fire as a burnt offering to the Lord: two young bulls, one ram, and seven lambs in their first year. Be sure they are without blemish. Their grain offering shall be of fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah you shall offer for a bull, and two-tenths for a ram; you shall offer one-tenth of an ephah for each of the seven lambs; also one goat as a sin offering, to make atonement for you. You shall offer these besides the burnt offering of the morning, which is for a regular burnt offering. In this manner you shall offer the food of the offering made by fire daily for seven days, as a sweet aroma to the Lord; it shall be offered besides the regular burnt offering and its drink offering. And on the seventh day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work.”
Let us briefly note that this offering is different from both the offering of praise given by Moses and the children of Israel to God in Exodus 15, which was a specific offering of the heart given to God in gratitude for his saving their lives from the threat of Egypt’s Pharaoh and his chariots and the offering that we give today. The offering we read of here in Numbers 28 was the ordinary offering given while the tabernacle and the temple was in operation, reminding Israel of their need to be forgiven as well as featuring a variety of animals whose sacrifice pointed to Christ serving as our Passover. Regardless of the form of offering that was given in a particular time, or that we give today, the Bible gives us a principle in 2 Samuel 24:18-25. Let us turn there now for our last scripture in this message.
2 Samuel 24:18-25 tells us how the plague that God sent on Israel after David counted a census on the land was ended and it gives us a philosophy of giving offerings that was valid for David in his time and situation and is also valid for us. 2 Samuel 24:18-25 reads: “ And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” So David, according to the word of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded. Now Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. So Araunah went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground. Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.” Now Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood. All these, O king, Araunah has given to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God accept you.” Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.”
Just as was the case with David offering to God and seeking the plague on Israel to be removed, we do not come before God empty handed today to give towards the work of preaching the Gospel to the world and preparing God’s people for His kingdom today. Nor do we offer to God that which costs us nothing. I am not here to shame anyone who has reflected on how God has blessed them and prepared an offering to give today, for God knows our hearts and is able to bless us all bountifully and bless the work of preaching and proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to the whole world whether we give a little or much in the eyes of tax accountants and bank tellers. Despite the variety of offerings that God has received from His people, the principle remains that we do not offer to God that which costs us nothing, even though all we give to God He first gave to us. In that spirit and with that mindset, therefore, let us take up the offering today. [Finish by reading the offertory music announcement, after which we have a congregational hymn led by Mr. Eric Johnson.]
