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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover of the Lord your God,
because in the month of Abib, He brought you out of Egypt by night. Sacrifice
as the Passover to the Lord your God an animal from your flock or herd at the
place the Lord will choose as a dwelling for His Name. Do not eat it with bread
made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of
affliction, because you left Egypt in haste - so that all the days of your life
you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt. Let no yeast be found
in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat
you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until morning.”
“You must not sacrifice
the Passover in any town the Lord your God gives you except in the place He
will choose as a dwelling for His Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover
in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary of your departure
from Egypt. Roast it and eat it at the place the Lord your God will choose.
Then in the morning return to your tents. For six days, eat unleavened bread
and on the seventh day, hold an assembly to the Lord your God and do no work.”
Deuteronomy 16:1-8
This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Chapter 16 of the Book
of Deuteronomy opens with words on the Passover and as we have seen elsewhere
in this book so far, Moses is simply taking God’s earlier instructions and reminding
Israel of them as they are about to enter the Promised Land.
Now, you might wonder
why Moses had to go to such lengths in resurrecting commands from the Lord and
bringing them back to the forefront for God’s people. The reasoning is clear
when we keep in mind that this group of Israelites was a completely new
generation, one that wasn’t in Egypt when the Lord’s deliverance from
enslavement happened or on the forty day exodus to Canaan that followed. They
weren’t at Mount Sinai when the Ten Commandments and others important
directives were issued by God nor were they in the company of those who blew
the first chance to enter the Promised Land, those who died off in the desert
wilderness after God sent them back into it for forty years as punishment for
their disobedience. Now, this newly minted cohort of Israelites was ready to
succeed where their ancestors had failed, ready to now cross the Jordan River
and take possession of the land the Lord had promised Abraham approximately 470
years before.
And so this was why it was
of such great importance for Moses to invest so much time reminding this generation
of Israelites of what God expected from them.
When we look at the
prescribed observance of Passover, we see where it was a matter of remembrance,
remembrance of the oppression and affliction that Israel had suffered at the
hands of Pharaoh and Egypt, and how God had delivered them from that suffering,
rescuing them because He valued them as His chosen people while fulfilling the
covenant He had made with Abraham (Genesis 17:1-8).
Going back to our
scripture passage for today, we see where Israel was to “observe the month of
Abib and celebrate the Passover of the Lord…because in the month of Abib He (God)
brought (them) out of Egypt by night”. They weren’t to “sacrifice the Passover
in (just) any town the Lord your God (gave them) except in the place He (chose)
as a dwelling for His Name”. And once there, the Israelites were “sacrifice the
Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary of (their)
departure from Egypt.”
After this point, the Passover
tradition continued, albeit sporadically through the Old Testament before
reaching a pinnacle in the New Testament with Jesus, the One who was the final
Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7), the Lamb of God who came and took away the
sins of the world (John 1:29).
The day before His
crucifixion, Jesus would share His final Passover meal on earth and of interest,
the disciples came to their Master and asked where they should make preparations.
On
the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus
and asked, “Where do You want us to make preparations for You to eat the
Passover?”
He
replied, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My
appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with My disciples
at your house.’”
So
the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover. Matthew
26:17-19
This modeled the
following from our verses for today in Deuteronomy:
“You
must not sacrifice the Passover in any town the Lord your God gives you except
in the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name. There you must
sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the
anniversary of your departure from Egypt.”
After the disciples had
made Passover preparations as Jesus asked, we find Him sharing the meal with
His disciples, an event known today as the Last Supper or Lord’s Supper.
Thankfully, the scriptures capture what happened there:
When
the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And He said to
them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I
suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in
the kingdom of God."
After
taking the cup, He gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among
you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the
kingdom of God comes."
And
He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying,
"This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
In
the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, "This cup is the
new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.” Luke 22:14-20
Going back to the looming
Israelite release from Egyptian captivity, it was the blood of the slain, unblemished
lamb that had been brushed on the doorframes of Israel at Passover which led to
Israel being spared from the death penalty that fell on Egypt’s first born. Then
later, it was the blood of God’s first born Son, Jesus, that would spare all
mankind from the death penalty of sin and offer the opportunity of deliverance
into eternal life for all who would simply believe in Jesus as their Savior.
In other words, the
blood of Jesus washes away the sin of His disciples who that they experience
the miraculous experience of death passing over them as they are ushered into a
new, eternal life with the God and Christ, the Ones who made it all possible.
Today, we find Christian
churches being obedient to the Lord’s call to remember Him by partaking of the
bread and cup whether they refer to the sacrament as the Lord’s Supper, Holy
Communion, or the Eucharist. And as the bread is consumed and the wine or juice
drank, Christian believers are reminded of Jesus and the willing, selfless
sacrifice He experienced in order to save them. Indeed, through this
observance, believers are able to remain rooted in their Savior and remember
the suffering and sacrifice He went through, the great price that was paid for
their pardon and redemption.
But we need to ask
ourselves, “Should the formal rite of this special meal prescribed by Jesus be
the only time we should remember all He has done to bring us the sure hope of
salvation?
I think we would agree
that the answer is certainly not, and yet the affairs of life can serve to
distract and draw our attention away from the cross. To prevent that from
happening, here are some things that all Christians should institute into their
daily spiritual routines:
First, they need to read
from the gospels daily and it doesn’t matter which of the four. We just need to
make sure we are reading about the life and ministry of Jesus without ceasing.
After all, as Christians we are to be Christ-like and we’ll never know how to
live as Jesus did if we don’t know how that looks.
In the gospels, we see
Jesus deal with nearly every situation or circumstance we will go through in
life and through Him, we learn how to best deal with those situations and
circumstances when they occur.
Further, the more we know
about Him and the more we get to know of Him, then the more we will be in
relationship with Him because Jesus isn’t dead by any means. We serve a living
Savior who longs to have a personal relationship with us.
And this leads me to the
second way we can remember Jesus daily…through prayer.
When we read the
Gospels, we quickly see that prayer was central to Jesus and His life. Yes, He
invested a lot of time in service to His people but He also took time out to personally
communicate with His Father, the Father who is ours as well, the Father who us
in Heaven as we say at the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer which is the prayer
Jesus taught us to pray (Matthew 6:9-13).
Today, God and His Son
Jesus who sits at His right hand still awaits our prayers today, yearning for a
personal relationship with each and every person they worked to save. It’s
through this prayer and conversation that we have the blessed opportunity to thank
them for all they have done, the least we can do given the great depth of suffering
and loss that came with bringing us salvation. Our daily conversations with our
Lord serves to show our deep, heartfelt gratitude for Him while letting Him
know that we will always remember and appreciate all He has done, all He is
doing, and all He is yet to do.
Friends, let’s not let a
day go by where we fail to thank our God and Jesus for loving us enough that
they were willing to do whatever it took to save us from the penalty of Hell
while blessing us with the gift of Heaven.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you
feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com
