For 430 long years, the people of Israel languished under Egyptian bondage. Each time Moses, their leader, went before Pharaoh to appeal for the release of his people, the answer was always the same. No way! (Exodus 11:10). Nine times Moses appealed. And nine times God responded to Pharaoh’s refusal with a plague against Egypt to prove that He alone was God and sought to convince Pharaoh to change his mind. Pharaoh was not just being mean. The people of Israel by now had become an essential part of the Egyptian lifestyle and economy and their departure would bring major economic disruption.
The Lord said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely.” (Ex. 11:1) “Tell your people to get ready.”
This plague would be the worst. It would affect every family - both human and animal. Their youngest child/offspring would die. “On the same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn - both men and animals - and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.” God instructed Moses to have every Israelite family take some hyssop and paint the blood on the doorpost of their house. “The blood will be sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.” (12:12-13)
The people of Israel followed God’s instructions in detail and slew a sacrificial lamb and put the blood of that lamb on “the top and sides of the doorframe.” With that, God kept his promise and the people of Israel were spared the outpouring of his wrath on Egypt.
The “Passover” is commemorated each year by faithful Jews to commemorate that day of salvation. (Ex. 12:24-27) God was painting a vivid picture of another Passover in which you and I must participate.
The Bible is clear that all have sinned and fall short of God’s ideal, and that the consequence of sin is death – eternal separation from God. The sentence of death is on all of us. However, God loved us so much that he sent Jesus (the Passover lamb) to pay the price for our sins through his death on the cross (John 3:16-17). Today, it is the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from all sin - past, present, and future - as we, by faith, receive it. (I John 5:11-12)
Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. (I Peter 1:18-19) Our only means of salvation is through the shed blood of Jesus. When we personally embrace the fact that Christ died for me, God declares over us… “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” That is the declaration of the ages. “But Lord, I’ve slipped up so many times!” “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” “But Lord – you know how weak and vulnerable I am!” “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” (I John 1:9)
Without doubt, Calvary and the resurrection are earth’s greatest events as far as man is concerned …and very possibly the greatest events in God’s eternity.
In his hymn, Robert Lowry asks and then answers two questions. Questions we each must answer. “What can wash away my sin? Nothing, but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. (Chorus) O precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know – nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
Be blessed my friend.
Glen (Pitts)
The Barnabas Group / Loads of Love
Yorumlar