Hello, and welcome to Bible Stories. We are your hosts, Matthew. Hello. Hey, Matt. My name's Todd, and we are two minister slash buds who love

the stories of the Bible. Not only that, but we cannot wait to share them with you, Mom's friends. You're wondering, Mom's friends, what does that mean? Maybe you're a new

listener. Hey, Mom's friends is this. We've got our mom's listener for sure, and then we got a few of their friends. So if you're one of their friends, then you're a mom's friend, and we love you for that. Today, Matt, and we've got a special episode. We're going to talk a little bit more about Jesus, and this is nearing the end of his life, and there's an altercation that's taken place, and then Jesus begins saying some things

that are pretty powerful, and yet not everyone understands them, even to this day. And so we're going to provide some clarity for that. But Matt, go ahead, give us the story, and help us take it away. Well, that's right, Todd. Today, we are going to be in Matthew 26 for the most part, and it's the Thursday night of Passion Week. It's Jesus has had really a packed day, and he has gone into the night. So we're getting into the early morning hours here very soon.

And things are escalating. Jesus today has celebrated the Passover feast with his disciples. He's washed his disciples feet. Judas has gone to the religious leaders, and he has made a deal to betray Jesus. Thursday is a big day.

The Passover feast was significant, very significant today, because this is the institution of the Lord's supper, something that we observe. And it's also apart from that, it's a big day in general, because Passover feast is a big festival.

It's an important festival that Jesus had established for the Jewish people, and here's here's why here's what had happened.

The people of Israel, they were in slavery in Egypt to Pharaoh, and the Lord, he wants them out, right? So he's got this fantastic new home waiting for his, his children, the Jewish people, a land flowing with milk and honey.

There was one problem. Pharaoh has a bit of an issue with losing his workforce. He is refusing the requests of Moses and Aaron to release the Israelites.

Pharaoh is cruel, and he wants to hold them as slaves. Well, God has certainly been doing some convincing. He's been doing some convincing through Moses and Aaron, namely in the form of plagues.

And buddy, can I can I just play you the hits for a minute? Let's hear them all. Here we go. I'm talking about turning the Nile to blood.

I'm talking about tons of frogs. Yeah, talking about gnats, net attack. I'm talking about flies, the death of livestock. And I know when you have a big Mac attack, you've got to have that beef.

I'm talking about boils, hail, locus, darkness, and not a darkness like, you know, you get the middle, get up in the middle of the night.

The lights aren't on. You Superman night lights gone out, but you got to get to the bathroom. You stumble around and it's tough, but your eyes adjust. I'm talking about pitch black that just envelops you.

Yeah, like your eyes don't adjust. That's right. Now, for most of us, this amount of gnarly stuff would convince us to change course. But Pharaoh's heart, he had hardened his heart. And at one point, God is going to harden his heart. Pharaoh's heart.

There's just no going back. So God was going to have to send one more plague, the most horrific one yet, the death of the first born males, both people in cattle.

So this was really scary stuff for the Israelites, because God shared with Moses, Moses shared with the people. What was going to happen before it happened?

And the idea of death, hovering, sweeping across the homes over the homes of Egypt and reaching in and touching each family, that's really frightening.

Well, Israel's role so far when all these other plagues have happened, it was passive, you know, like my parenting style, just very passive, you know, you guys sure, whatever, you just do what you want to do.

There's a frog. You can go play with it. Go ahead. The plagues were going to happen. And the Jewish people didn't have to do anything to get God's protection. They were just automatically safe. God didn't say when the boils come, do this and the boils won't touch you. Just the plagues just passed over them without them doing anything. But this time, things are a little different. God provides Moses with some very specific directions as to the steps that Jewish people need to take to make sure that

death passes over their homes without causing any harm. So the Lord tells Moses this. This is back in the book of Exodus.

While the Israelites were still in the land of Egypt, the Lord gave the following instructions to Moses and Aaron. From now on, this month will be the first month of the year for you.

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