How to keep the Passover story alive
Ex. 13 (selected verses)
3 Moses said to the people, ‘Remember this day on which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, because the Lord brought you out from there by strength of hand; no leavened bread shall be eaten….8 You shall tell your child on that day, “It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.” 9 It shall serve for you as a sign on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead, so that the teaching of the Lord may be on your lips; for with a strong hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt. 10 You shall keep this ordinance at its proper time from year to year.
11 ‘When the Lord has brought you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your ancestors, and has given it to you, 12 you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your livestock that are males shall be the Lord’s…. Every firstborn male among your children you shall redeem. 14 When in the future your child asks you, “What does this mean?” you shall answer, “By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. 15 When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from human firstborn to the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord every male that first opens the womb, but every firstborn of my sons I redeem.” 16 It shall serve as a sign on your hand and as an emblem on your forehead that by strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.’
17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was nearer; for God thought, ‘If the people face war, they may change their minds and return to Egypt.’ 18 So God led the people by the roundabout way of the wilderness towards the Red Sea….21 The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. 22 Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.
The Passover meal was to be remembered annually, generation after generation was to remember the fact that they had been slaves in the land of Egypt and that they were freed by God’s grace and action. This was not mere history – this was present tense reality. The people of Israel, even hundreds of years after the event, understood that they had been freed. The rescue from slavery was a present tense experience. Our rescue from slavery to sin, death, and hell through the power of the cross is a present tense reality for us. Those who wear the cross as jewelry in a way follow the command to wear a sign of Israel’s rescue.
Also every first born was a reminder to their parents that God had rescued Israel and all first borns. And every first born knew that without the Passover blood they would be among the dead. In dedicating the first borns, the people of Israel were reminded that just as the past was God’s, so was the future, all future first borns were God’s. (I recognize that this might create pride on the part of first borns, but I would suggest that deeper reflection by first borns would lead to humility, “My life is not my own, but I belong to God who saved me.”)
Finally we have the introduction of the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire which were to lead the people for 40 years through the wilderness. God was leading this operation, he brought the people into the land of promise by the back door instead of going up the coast from Egypt to Palestine. Because God was aware of the fearfulness of the people, God understood the people and called them to live within their abilities. When God invites us to do things, he invites us to use the gifts we have, not the ones we don’t. God invites to tasks that we can do by his grace and strength.
PRAYER:
Teach us, O Lord, the humility that comes from recognizing that we do not save ourselves, that we do not rescue ourselves, but that it is by your grace and power alone that we are saved. Make us humble, O Lord, that we might live in humble thankfulness. In Jesus’ name. Amen.