Good day dear friends. As we begin our day, let us begin it with prayer. Prayer for God to use us to be a blessing to others and for a blessing to come to those for whom we've been praying. Sunday we heard that a young man from our congregation Zane Childress was wounded in Iraq and his dad informs us that he is now in a US hospital in Germany and is headed to North Carolina soon. David and Jae will be flying to NC to be with their son. Zane was wounded as he tried to help his buddies hit by an assault on their Humvee. We don't know the extent of his wounds but we're thankful he's alive and coming home soon. We believe at least two of his group were killed during this assault. Pray for peace in every corner of the earth.
Here is today's study guide:
Tuesday: Read Exodus 12:1-14. Here we find the story of the Passover. Notice the instructions from God for this sacrifice. Notice the importance of the lamb, and the “condition” of the lamb that was to be used. Could you be a “lamb?”
Here is that text:
12:1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2 This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. 4 If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. 7 They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. 10 You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 14 This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.
Your years of suffering can come to an end with the killing of an unblemished lamb. That is essence is what God was telling the people of Israel. For over four hundred years you have been suffering under this oppressive government, you want your own land, you want your freedom, do as I say and you will be free. This act of obedience would protect the people from the greater deaths that were to occur that night of the first passover. A brutal thought, but again in that context, the context of an oppressive Pharoah who had ordered the death of all male children to keep the Hebrews from multiplying out of control, the context of hard slave labor, the death of a lamb will free you from that.
I asked a question that has another answer. We don't have to be sacrificial lambs. The Lamb who gave His life for our sake was the final sacrifice. We should be obedient lambs as we find mentioned in Matthew 25:31-46, those who care for one another and do the will of God. Read that passage when you have time and you'll see, at that great judgment, that God will separate between the sheep and the goats. Guess who the goats are; they're the ones who cared only for themselves and did not help others in any way.
PRAYER: We thank you Gracious Father for Jesus being our lamb. For His having been without sin or blemish. We pray that in our actions, our thoughts and words, we can be like Him, caring for others and giving of ourselves to help make the world a better place. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Have a great and blessed day!
e.v.
