Exodus 12:21­27 (TNIV, abridged)

Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, 'Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the door-frame... When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the door-frame and will pass over that doorway... When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, "What does this ceremony mean to you?" then tell them, "It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord..."'


The blood of the lamb, applied to the door (to symbolize the place where the private and the public meet?), was to bring salvation. Here is a basic truth of God's good news delivered as a graphic picture. John the Baptist underlined it when he greeted Jesus with the words, 'Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world' (John 1:29).

The significance of this moment was such that the instructions were not only given for a meal to be eaten in haste, but also for its anniversary celebration every year into the future. Even before the first lamb had given up its life, its future relatives were being given a role in God's plan.

How would the people, who were about to experience God's saving power as never before, remember what he had done for them? How would the next generations, who would live in the benefit of this moment long into the future, be taught and reminded? By reenacting the meal and having its every significance stated to all, so that all would remember.

How good is your memory? We are all prone to ups and downs in our relationship with God; and it's amazing how easily we can forget what God has done for us in the past. The better we are at remembering, though, the more likely we are to trust God again in the future. The Passover was not an empty ritual; it was an aide-memoire of practical significance.


Reflection

Are you ready and able to recall what God has done for you, should someone ask?



Stephen Rand



[from New Daylight September - December 2007]