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"Come to Save Us"
You’ve gotta love this passage. It’s the eve of the Israelites' miraculous escape from the hands of the Egyptians, and God prepares to send his judgment down on the people who have enslaved and oppressed His people. It's tense, dramatic stuff: this is a matter of life and death, and if the instructions are not carried out to the letter, then death will come to the firstborn of the house.
The careful instructions that are given are not a magic spell, but instead are loaded with meaning. Like the fact that the lamb or kid was to be a perfect year-old male - much more expensive than a female. Or the fact that the blood loss that caused its death was to be a token of the sacrifice, one that God would recognize. The way that it was to be completely consumed showed that the whole animal was to be considered part of the sacrifice. This price was so great that it would cost everything.
And here’s the heart of the matter. God's judgment was due on a whole bunch of people who had done wrong. For others - for His own people - these instructions were the way to avoid that judgment. They were to become a clear reminder of the fact that only something that was costly could pay the price. What's more, only someone who obeyed his instructions would know how to prepare themselves.
Of course, God told them to remember this Passover every year from then on. These lessons were so important they needed to be reinforced again and again.
And there’s something else besides this: this wasn’t going to be the last time we’d need to be saved from judgment.
Again and again and again, He has come to save us.
This devotional is based on a collection of worship songs for Christmas called Majesty In A Manger, available here: http://smarturl.it/MajestyInAManger
You’ve gotta love this passage. It’s the eve of the Israelites' miraculous escape from the hands of the Egyptians, and God prepares to send his judgment down on the people who have enslaved and oppressed His people. It's tense, dramatic stuff: this is a matter of life and death, and if the instructions are not carried out to the letter, then death will come to the firstborn of the house.
The careful instructions that are given are not a magic spell, but instead are loaded with meaning. Like the fact that the lamb or kid was to be a perfect year-old male - much more expensive than a female. Or the fact that the blood loss that caused its death was to be a token of the sacrifice, one that God would recognize. The way that it was to be completely consumed showed that the whole animal was to be considered part of the sacrifice. This price was so great that it would cost everything.
And here’s the heart of the matter. God's judgment was due on a whole bunch of people who had done wrong. For others - for His own people - these instructions were the way to avoid that judgment. They were to become a clear reminder of the fact that only something that was costly could pay the price. What's more, only someone who obeyed his instructions would know how to prepare themselves.
Of course, God told them to remember this Passover every year from then on. These lessons were so important they needed to be reinforced again and again.
And there’s something else besides this: this wasn’t going to be the last time we’d need to be saved from judgment.
Again and again and again, He has come to save us.
This devotional is based on a collection of worship songs for Christmas called Majesty In A Manger, available here: http://smarturl.it/MajestyInAManger
Scripture
About this Plan
The single most significant point that there has ever been in human history didn’t start out all that impressive. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus began with a birth that confounded expectations and rewrote the rules. And yet there was majesty in the manger. But why did it have to be that way? Join this little wander through the Bible's back streets as worship gets truly festive.
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