We
know in baseball it only takes three strikes to get a batter out, but it took ten
strikes of God’s judgment for Pharaoh to let God’s people out of Egypt. According to Maxie Dunnam, plague literally
means “a stroke or a blow.” (The
Communicators Commentary – Exodus p.134) It was this final blow of all of Egypt
losing their first born sons that gave cause for Pharaoh to finally face reality
and let God’s people go. Egypt got the
message on that day that God was God and Pharaoh was not, for Pharaoh and all
his officials were helpless over the power of this last and deadly plague.
As
I mentioned last week, such judgment on God’s part seems a hard pill to
swallow. Perhaps we can understand why
it took so much suffering for the message to get through to Pharaoh, but did
the people of Egypt have to suffer so greatly.
Yet, are the Egyptians in the days of Moses any different than Nazi
Germany in the days of the Holocaust? We
can point our finger at Hitler as the main culprit of crimes against humanity,
but what about the many who turned a blind eye to the travesty. Edmund Burke is often credited with saying
“all that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men to do nothing.” Is this not what happened in the kingdom of
Egypt? For 80 years Pharaoh and the
Egyptians had mistreated the Israelites by working them way beyond the point of
reason and killing their first born sons.
I’m sure there were good people amongst the Egyptians, but just as in
Nazi Germany self-preservation caused them to stand by and do nothing.
In
the Jewish faith, there is no greater celebration than Passover. Just as for the Christian, the celebration of
Easter is at the heart of our faith. If
Jesus did not die on the cross and rise from the dead, what would there be to
our faith? Maxie Dunnam said “what
Calvary is to the Christian, the Passover was to the Jew.” As Christians we must always make this
connection. In I Corinthians 5:7, Paul
calls Christ “Our Passover Lamb.”
Because of the blood of Christ, God passes over us in terms of being
judged. We appear unblemished in God’s
eyes in regards to sin. What does God
ask for in return? He wants us to put our
faith in him. This is exactly what he
asked of the Israelites. God asked the
Israelites to kill and eat an unblemished one year old lamb, and rub its blood
on the top and side of the doors. When
the Israelites did this they were showing a sign of faith that they believed
God would keep his promise.
God’s
call to a sign of faith continues. In
reference to the Passover meal, Exodus 12:11 says “This is how you are to eat
it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your
staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it
is the Lord’s Passover.” (NIV) Imagine yourself as a part of one of those
Israelite families. Young or old, you
know that through Joseph you were delivered as a people to Egypt. You know that times have changed and now you
are a people living under fear and oppression, but Moses has come home and he
shares the message that God has promised to deliver you as a people. In his message he has told you as a family to
eat this lamb as though you are ready at any moment’s notice to get on the road
to freedom. Don’t eat slowly, eat with
haste, because at any moment could be the signal that it’s time to move.
As Christians, we
have been delivered from the oppression of sin in our lives. God has given us the message of freedom from
sin through Jesus Christ. We are no
different than the Israelites in that God has called us to anticipate a journey. Allow me a moment to return to my baseball
analogy. When I played little league as
a kid or when I’ve played many a game of church league softball, I would
occasionally have to take my turn sitting the bench and I wouldn’t complain,
but I didn’t like it. Especially in my
softball days, I would have to remain engaged in the game whether it was
intensely rooting on my teammates or coaching the base runners at one of the
bases. I could never be just a casual
observer. I believe the same is true
with faith and is illustrated in the Passover by how God wanted the Israelites
to be prepared to be on the move. Our faith
is not to be lived out watching in the dugout.
We are called to be ready to move to what’s next, to engage in our faith
in any way we can. Yes, sometimes God
calls us to wait, but we are to wait with anticipation of what comes next. I remind you of two of our “End in Mind”
statements:
-
God
chooses me, every day, to show His love to the World
-
God has made me unique and has plans to use
me to help others know him.
I believe these statements are
important especially for our teens.
Parents, are we helping our young people anticipate what God might be
calling them to next? We are a people
who have been delivered from sin, but not just so we can experience
heaven. We’ve been called to a journey
and we need to be ready with our sandals on and our staff in our hand, prepared
for whatever the Lord has next in mind for us.
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