Tag: passover

Categories
Exodus Devotions

What makes us different

Jesus and Passover

The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you.

No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:13)

What made the Israelites different from the Egyptians? Why were the Israelites spared God’s judgment and not the Egyptians?

As we’ll see later in Exodus, it wasn’t because the Israelites were somehow morally superior to the Egyptians.

Rather, it was the blood of the sheep or goat that was shed for them.

It’s the same with us.

We deserve God’s judgment as much as anyone.

What distinguishes us and saves us from God’s judgment is not how good or faithful we are.

Rather, it is Jesus’ blood shed on the cross for us.

Perhaps David was thinking of the Israelites using hyssop to brush the blood on their doorposts when he prayed,

Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. (Psalm 51:7)

God told the Israelites to always remember what he did for them that day. (Exodus 12:24-27)

In the same way, let us always remember what Jesus did for us on the cross, and like the Israelites, fall down in worship.

It’s your blood that cleanses me.
It’s your blood that gives me life.
It’s your blood that took my place in redeeming sacrifice.
And washes me whiter than the snow.
My Jesus, God’s precious sacrifice. — Michael Christ

Categories
Psalms Devotionals

The God who came down

Psalms

Psalms 113-118 were traditionally sung during the Jewish Passover feast.

When Jesus and his disciples were singing during the last supper, they were probably singing these hymns. (Matthew 26:30)

With that in mind, verses 4-6 really struck me.

The Lord is exalted above all the nations,
his glory above the heavens.

Who is like the Lord our God—
the one enthroned on high,
who stoops down to look
on the heavens and the earth? (Psalm 113:4-6)

Yet God did not simply stoop down to look. He actually set aside his glory, came down, and became one of us. And he did it to die for our sins. (Philippians 2:5-8)

And because of what Jesus did for us, we have been raised from the dust, from the trash heap of our sin, and are now seated with him as children of the King. (Psalm 113:7-8, Ephesians 2:1-7)

So as we remember that, let us sing with the psalmist,

Hallelujah!

Give praise, servants of the Lord;
praise the name of the Lord.

Let the name of the Lord be blessed
both now and forever.

From the rising of the sun to its setting,
let the name of the Lord be praised. (Psalm 113:1-3)

Categories
John John 19 Luke Luke 23 Mark Mark 15 Matthew Matthew 27

If we were forced to bear the cross Christ bore

The gospels

We know very little of this man of Cyrene, this Simon. It is conjectured that he is the father of the Rufus mentioned in Romans 16:13, the only other Rufus mentioned in the Bible.

In all probability, he was a pilgrim from Northern Africa, a Jew who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, perhaps for the first time ever.

But when he arrived, he got more than he expected. He saw the true Passover lamb sacrificed for him. (I Corinthians 5:7).

For a time, though, Simon had to bear the cross Jesus was eventually crucified on.

As Jesus was going up the hill, the physical strain, the loss of blood, the scourging, the beating he had taken at the hands of the soldiers, and the emotional strain, of being betrayed and abandoned by those he loved most dearly, became too much and he fell under the weight of the cross. He could no longer bear it.

And so Simon had to carry it for him.

And it makes me think. What would have happened if Jesus had said to us at Calvary, “Enough. I can’t bear this anymore. You carry the cross. You die on that cross. You deserve it, after all, not me. I’ve never sinned. You have.”

In a sense, Simon had to experience that, if only for a short time. A cross that he should have been carrying anyway because of his sin, was put on him because Jesus simply couldn’t do it anymore.

Did he realize later, “I was doing Jesus no favor by taking up that cross for him. I was carrying the cross I deserved anyway.

It was he who was doing me the favor by trying to carry my cross up to Calvary. It was he who helped me, he who saved me by dying on that cross when I should have been the one hung there.

But what if he had chosen not to? What if he had simply felt like he could not bear it any longer? Where would I be now?”

The answer? Hell. Because that’s what we all deserve. Hell.

But Jesus did bear the cross. He loved us so much that he died there, and by doing so he took the punishment we deserved upon himself.

And now, because of what he did, our sins can be forgiven, and we can find life as we were meant to have it. A life in relationship with the God who loves us more than any other.

So let us never take the cross for granted. And when we look at it, may we look to the One who died there with hearts full of gratitude.

Jesus Christ,
Praise your name,
Lord, I sing
Without shame.

You bore the cross.
So much love.
All my life, all I need is you.
–James Gabriel

Categories
Exodus

Remember this day

Don't forget

One of my favorite movies of all time is Star Trek — The Wrath of Khan. 

In the climatic scene, Spock goes down to the engineering section, and needs to go into a room flooded with radiation to get the engines back on line. 

He knows he’s going to die, but is determined to go anyway, and when one of his friends tries to stop him, he knocks him out. 

But before he goes into the engine room he stops, touches his friend, and says “Remember.” 

We of course (you Trekkies, anyway) find out what that means later, but at the time, it kind of had the feeling of, “Remember me.  Don’t forget who I was.  Don’t forget what I’ve done.”

And that’s kind of what God was telling the Israelites in this chapter:  Remember this day. 

Remember what I’ve done for you. 

Remember how you were slaves in Egypt.

And remember all I did to bring you out of bondage into freedom. 

Remember how I brought you out from death into life.

And God wants the same thing of us.  He wants us to remember the day he brought us out of bondage to sin and death, and into the freedom of the children of God. 

Why?

I suppose it’s because we forget so easily. 

What happens when we forget?

Often times, our love for him starts to wane. 

When we first become Christians, there’s usually a strong love in us out of gratitude for what he’s done for us.  That he died on a cross to take the punishment for our sins, pulling us out of the miry clay of life and setting us on solid rock. 

But when we forget what he’s done, our love wanes and we start taking him and his love for us for granted.

He starts taking a back seat in our lives as we start pursuing money, our careers, or whatever else it might be.

That’s why God said to the Israelites, “When you go to this land of milk and honey, celebrate this ceremony I’ve given to you so that you won’t forget what I’ve done for you. 

“When things are going well, celebrate what I’ve done for you so that you never forget me and my love for you.”

But God doesn’t want us to remember just for our own sakes. 

He told the Israelites,

On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’  (Exodus 13:8)

And again in verses 14-16, he said again,

“In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal.

This is why I sacrifice to the LORD the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.’

And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the LORD brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.”

God’s desire is not only that we would stay in close relationship with him, but that our children and the generations to come would do so too. 

So let us never forget the cross. 

Let us never forget the sacrifice Jesus made for us. 

And let us pass on to the next generation all he has done for us.

I remember the day I heard you call out my name.
Still remember how you have gently shown me your way.
I will bow down and worship and give all my praise to you.