Exodus 12:14, 24-27 ‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. It will come to pass when you come to the land which the Lord will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service. And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ that you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’”
The Passover meal is called a “Seder”. Seder literally means: “order” in Hebrew. As instituted by God, the Passover Seder is now an annual ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted throughout the world on the eve of the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar to remember that God passed over His people in deliverance by the blood of the lamb. Exodus 12:22 says, And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning.
John 19:28-30 After this, Jesus,]knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.”
Jesus, the Christ, was clearly always intended to be our once and for all Passover Lamb. The plague of the death of the firstborn was a biblical foreshadowing of this fact that God would punish His own innocent Son to be our once-and-for-all substitute for us on the Cross for the forgiveness of our sins. For those who would say that Jesus was a good teacher but He never claimed to be God, you need to read your Bible. Only God can forgive sin. Jesus being the Passover Lamb was a bold proclamation of divinity.
What does this ancient tenth plague and Jewish festival meal have to do with us today? Spiritual, the Passover is relevant to our faith today as we think about what Christ has done for us. Pastor Kyle outlined three things that we are going to need today to live life God’s way. (1) Growing patience. We live in the ‘microwave” era, where we get things done in an instant and can google anything we need to know immediately. Take a deep breath and ask God to help you to enlarge your patience.
(2) Two-way Divine Remembrance. We have to remember that God remembers His people. Psalm 13:1-2 says, “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?” Psalm 106:44-45 “Nevertheless He regarded their affliction, when He heard their cry; And for their sake He remembered His covenant, and relented according to the multitude of His mercies.” We serve God who remembers His covenants and promises with His people. We serve God who sees us in our distress, cares and acts in His time. So, what do we need to do? Remember God, His holy Word, His faithfulness and His many blessings upon us, Psalm 103:1-2 says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.”
(3) Continued Obedience. The current time that we are living through today is a chance for us to ask ourselves: “Can we trust and obey Jesus even in this uncertainty?” On our own we cannot. Doing self-improvement will get us only so far, then our strength will run out. But the good news is that with God’s spirit, we can. It is the difference between religion and relationship. It is not doing out of effort, but doing out of the Spirit of God, who did it for us. The next chapter of our life is an opportunity of trust Jesus. Our challenge is to say: “Yes Jesus, I am going to trust and obey you, even in this circumstance today.” We are going to get through it God’s way.
Treat every day as a day that the Lord has made that we get to rejoice in.
In Christ, Brian
Happy Valentine"s Day
1 comment:
Post a Comment