“Some remarkable, yet strange, foreshadowing”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Sunday, September 10, 2023
Exodus 12:1-14 (Forward, p. 43) CEV p. 65
The Israelites were commanded to commemorate the Passover yearly as an everlasting memorial as to what God had done for them, and so, in many ways, this celebration could well have become far too familiar and routine, ‘old hat’, you might say. It would be easy to dismiss their exodus and their deliverance from Egypt as something that had a relevance only in terms of the past, with little or no relevance to today. And yet, there were some elements to it that were rather uncanny in the way that they foreshadowed what was to come.
The choice of the year-old goat or lamb, a male without spot or blemish of any sort, prefigures the choice of Jesus, ‘the lamb of God’, as the sacrifice of the New Covenant. And as His blood was effectual for their deliverance from death, so too was the blood of this Passover sacrifice. And not only that, ‘this blood’ had to be applied to each and every household, which was a deliberate and conscious decision to appropriate this deliverance for themselves. And so it is with Jesus as well. And interestingly, the way that the blood was applied, on the doorposts and the lintel, just ‘happen’ to form the Hebrew letter, ‘Chaim’, which means ‘life,’ which is most appropriate, for it is by that blood that we find life, life eternal.
And, even the fact that the Hebrew families had to take this lamb or goat, presumably right into their yard or household, for a time, reminds that Jesus, the Lamb of God, dwelt right here in our midst for a time.
Incredibly, it would seem that God was planning our salvation way back then, and planting, quite deliberately, various symbols or ‘markers’ within the Passover memorial that would foreshadow what was to come, and provide, for the Jewish people, a kind of ‘ha ha’ of recognition, when they saw what Jesus was and has done. Wow. Such is God’s incredible love and care of us. Amen.
Forward notes: “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” (verse 11).
“I wonder what this meal was life for the Israelites. I can imagine it was full of stress, uncertainly, fear, and excitement. I wonder if parents struggled to persuade young children to eat quickly. I wonder what hopes and worries went through elder members’ minds. Were stories told? Plans rehearsed? Doubts voiced? Joys kindled?
“What blows me away about God’s extensive instructions for this meal is the tender care for God’s people that they exhibit. God insists that they take a minute to nourish their bodies to prepare for the journey ahead. God beckons them to show up at the meal dressed ready for liberation to finally happen.
“God has anticipated the Israelites’ basic bodily needs for this crucial moment and taken care of the details so that they can gain their freedom.”
Moving Forward: “Before your meals today, offer a special prayer of thanksgiving for God’s tender care.”