Exodus 20:1-17: Holiness Test

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, August 3, 2014. Based on a 'Holiness Test' on August 12, 2012 from Captain Michael Ramsay

For a Deuteronomy version of Holiness Test click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2012/08/holiness-test-deuteronomy-51-21-exodus.html

Today we are continuing in Exodus, looking at the Ten Commandments. Now there is an important phrase in the Deuteronomy record of the 10 Commandments - Deuteronomy is the record of Moses’ telling the children of the people who received the 10 Commandments what the Exodus version of events is all about - Deuteronomy 5:3: “It was not with our ancestors that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.” And almost none of them were alive when God made this covenant with Moses.[1]  This is important because the principles of this covenant still apply to us, God’s people, today. This is what God reminds the Hebrews before He presents the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy. And this is what Jesus reminds us in the Gospels when he confirms that all the Law and the prophets hang on the fact that we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and soul and that we must love our neighbour as ourselves (Matthew 22:34-40, Mark, 12:28-34, Luke 10:25-27). This is interesting because the Ten Commandments themselves can be summed up exactly this way: as loving God and loving one’s neighbour.[2] You will notice that the last six or seven commands relate directly to loving one’s neighbour and that the first three or four relate directly to loving God.[3]

Today, as we look at this very important part of scripture, instead of a sermon or a homily, I have a test for us. Now, if you have a bulletin today the test is inside it; if you don’t have a bulletin or a pen, put up your hand and we will ensure that you get one. I want you to right down your answers but don’t work ahead, we will go over the test together and don’t show your answers to anyone else, unless you feel so-led. This test today relates to how each of us loves God and our neighbours.[4] Are you ready? This is a two-part holiness test. It has only ten questions and it is based on the Ten Commandments: The first part of this holiness test we are taking will encourage us to examine our holiness relating to our love for God.

DECALOGUE HOLINESS TEST

Part 1: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (Deuteronomy 6:5).

Here are the Questions:

1. Do we ever put anything before God? Exodus 20:3 (Deuteronomy 5:7; cf. Leviticus 26:13; Numbers 15:41; Deuteronomy 13:4-5) records the Lord’s command that “You shall have no gods before me.” This is pretty straightforward. There is only one God, so you should not put anyone or anything else before God.[5] Do we ever put anything before God? Susan, the children and I often visit different corps, congregations or churches on our holidays. This is great. Do we all do this? Do we set time aside like this for God – even on holidays - or do we sometimes put our holidays or our company before God, letting them interfere with our worship of YHWH in community? Do we sometimes put television, work, homework, or friends before God: opting to do these things instead of, or more than reading our Bibles? Do we ever put our bank accounts or our friends’ opinions before God? Do we sometimes make our decisions based on our finances or our friend’s advice instead of by discerning God’s will through prayer and Bible study? The question again: do we ever put anything before God?

2. Is there anything that maybe was meant to aid us in worship that now is successfully competing with God for our love and attention? Exodus 20:4 (Deuteronomy 5:8): “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.” This is different than the first commandment. This is asking if we ever make images of God that we may be eventually tempted to wind up worshipping. Moses made a bronze snake in the desert that God later had destroyed because people began worshipping this image (Numbers 21:4-9, 2 Kings 18:4). The rightfully condemned golden calves of Aaron and Jeroboam may have been simply meant as a place for God Himself to sit (Exodus 32; Deuteronomy 9; 1 Kings 12:28; 2 Chronicles 11:15, 13:8).[6] Do we ever make images relating to God that may wind up in essence competing with God for our attention? Do we have a version of the Bible that we will only read? Do we have certain ways of worship: a certain kind of music or tradition or sacrament or non-sacrament that once was meant to aid us in worship but is now in essence competing with God for our attention? In church, do we pay more attention to the music, the sermon, or other things than we do to God? Question 2: Is there anything - that maybe was meant to aid us in worship - that now is successfully competing with God for our attention?

3. Are we ever careless in our use of the Lord’s name? This is important and this is something that was even brought to my attention this week actually. Exodus 20:7 (Deuteronomy 5:11; cf. Leviticus 22:32): “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” The AV or KJV, that most of us grew up with and may have memorized this command in reads, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain…” We know what this means right? It can mean a couple of things, it can mean that we are not to swear an oath and then not keep it (cf. Numbers 30, Matthew 5:33-37, James 5:12).[7] It can also more commonly mean that we shouldn’t flippantly or thoughtless mention the Lord’s name.[8] We have heard people say, ‘oh my goodness’ (but not using the word ‘goodness’) as a exclamation or this new generation can simply text, ‘OMG’. Anytime we are careless like this or anytime we attribute things to God that God did not say or do or anytime we use His name in careless or profane ways  (some people even curse using Jesus Christ, our Lord’s name!), anytime we do these things, we are misusing the name of the Lord. Question 3: Are we ever careless in our use of the Lord’s name, do we ever take His name in vain?

I mentioned that this holiness quiz today has two parts. This next question can go into either the first part – the ‘Love God’ part - of the test or the second part of the test – the ‘Love your neighbour’ part. The Exodus version belongs firmly in the first part of the Ten Commandments; since this is the version we are looking at today, we will assign this next question to Part 1.

4. Do we observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded? (Exodus 5:8, Deuteronomy 5:12) Now bearing in mind that Christians have always come together on the Lord’s Day (Sunday) rather than on the Sabbath (Saturday) as the Hebrews in the desert did; and bearing in mind that, as the authors of Romans and Hebrews point out, now everyday is supposed to be and actually can actually be as a Sabbath to the Lord  - not just one day a week (Romans 14:5-6, Hebrews 4:1-2); given that, do we set aside sacred time and space to worship God? Do we have at least one day a week where we do no work but God’s work? Exodus 20:11 records that just as God ceased from His work when Creation was complete, we should do the same as a part of loving our God. Deuteronomy 5:14-16 records that because the Hebrews were slaves in Egypt, we should not only cease from our work but we should not cause other people to work either – except for working for God, of course (Remember that the Priest and the Levites in ancient Israel weren’t given Monday off in lieu of the Sabbath)  - Do we ever make others work by filling up with gas or going out for lunch on the Lord’s Day? This particular example may or may not come into play now, after the resurrection, now that of the tomb is empty (Cf. Romans 14:5-6, Hebrews 4:1-2). But I will leave this question with us anyway: do we keep at least one day as holy, as the Lord our God has commanded us to keep it holy?

This concludes Part 1, the ‘Love God’ part of our Decalogue Holiness Test. We’ll stop here and check our work. You can check your own work. We’ll now review the answers and if anyone gets 4/4, great. If not, I’ll get you to make your corrections for homework and we’ll try to remember to ask you about it next week.

1)      Do we ever put anything before God? (No)

2)      Is there anything successfully competing with God for our attention? (No)

3)      Are we ever careless in our use of the Lord’s name? (No)

4)      Do we keep at least one day holy, as the Lord our God has commanded us? (Yes)

DECALOGUE HOLINESS TEST

Part 2: Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord (Leviticus 19:18).

If you are using a paper instead of your bulletin, I will ask you to number your pages 1 to 6 for Part 2. We will now start the second part of our test, sub-titled, ‘Love Your Neighbour’ (cf. Romans 13:9). This part is important as shown by the fact that Jesus also addresses a number of these items specifically: Matthew 5:21, 27, 33; Mark 12:29–31; Luke 10:27; 18:20; see also Romans 2:21, 22; Galatians 5:19f.; Ephesians 4:28; 5:3; Hebrews 4:9; James 2:11, etc.[9]

1. Do we honour our fathers and our mothers, as the Lord our God has commanded us (Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:16)? This has many applications. Obviously it relates to children living under their parents’ roof. Do they do as their parents ask; do they respect their wishes; do they avoid doing anything that can bring embarrassment or financial or other hardship upon the family? This passage also, however, refers to us in dealing with our elderly parents. Do we provide for them, as they need provision? Remember there were no pensions, Medicare, or old age security while the Israelites were wondering around the desert. How adults honoured their parents had a great bearing on their culture and society (cf. Ephesians 6:1-3). Question 5: Do we in this room love our neighbours by honouring our parents?

2.      Have we ever broken the command not to murder? (Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 5:17). Matthew 5:21-22 records Jesus as saying,  “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” Have we ever been angry with a Christian brother or sister? Have we ever referred to someone as “you fool”? Question 6: Have we ever broken the command not to murder?

3.      Have we ever committed adultery? Exodus 20:14 (Deuteronomy 5:18) records, ‘You shall not commit adultery’. Jesus says, Matthew 5:27-28: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Have we ever committed adultery in our hearts?

4.      Have we ever stolen? Exodus 20:15 (Deuteronomy 5:19) says, ‘You shall not steal.’ Have we ever not put in the time that we are paid to put in at work? Have we ever not claimed all of our income on our income tax? Have we ever withheld payment from someone for something they have done? Have we ever ‘borrowed’ something from a sibling or friend without asking? Have we ever stolen?

5.      Have we ever given false testimony against our neighbour? (Exodus 20:16, Deuteronomy 5:20) This command is primarily referring to a court action but it can most certainly be extended to include any false statement about a neighbour.[10] Have we ever made false claims about a political or historical figure? Have we ever passed along falsehood about a colleague or community member? Have we ever repeated a rumour or gossip as if it was truth? Have we ever shared a video or a comment on Facebook (maybe even from someone else’s page) without verifying its claims because we like what it is saying? Have we ever given false testimony against our neighbour?

6.      Do we ever covet our neighbour’s wife or anything that belongs to our neighbour? (Exodus 20:17, Deuteronomy 5:21) Do we ever wish we had our neighbour’s car? Do we ever lament that we don’t have a job as cushy or with as big a paycheque or with as many holidays as someone else’s? A big part of the advertising that helps prop up our whole economic system in this country is the desire to have what someone else has? Do we ever need to ‘keep up with the Joneses?’ Do we ever fall prey to that temptation? Do we ever covet someone else’s life or someone else’s possessions?

Let’s review Part 2 of our test:

1)  Do we love our neighbours by honouring our parents? (Yes)

2)  Have we broken the command not to murder? (No)

3)  Have we committed adultery in our hearts? (No)

4)  Have we ever stolen? (No)

5)  Do we ever give false testimony? (No)

6) Do we sometimes covet someone else’s life or someone else’s possessions? (No)

So how did you do? How did we do on the Decalogue Holiness Test? How are we at reflecting or emulating the Lord’s holiness through loving God and loving our neighbour? I know that everyone here probably aced this quiz (of course!) because we are all living the holy, sanctified lives that God calls us to in Exodus here (Exodus 19:6, 22:31, 31:13), in the Old Testament (cf. Deuteronomy 7:6, 14:2, 14:21, 26:19, 28:9; Leviticus 11:44-45, 19:2, 20:7-8), in the Gospels (cf. Matthew 5:48) and in the New Testament (cf. Ephesians 1:4,18; 1 Thessalonians 4:4-7; 2 Timothy 1:9; Hebrews 12:4; 1 Peter 1:13-16). But, if for some reason we didn’t get the test perfect, I would like us to take it home and work on it. You can use the book to help you too. Actually I would encourage that. The more you read the textbook (the Bible), the more you will understand about the holiness exam. I want to point out two quick things before we go here:

a.                        No matter how you did on the test, there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). He is patient and as we study for the tests this life will send – and this life will have many test – the Lord will always be there to help us. He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). 

b.                        Don’t worry about transforming yourself into a holy person. The Gospel itself has the power to transform us (Romans 1:16-17). As we read the Bible and as we pray and as we spend time with God, God will naturally transform us into His likeness. God loves as and as we seek Him and His Kingdom and His righteousness, He promises that we will find Him (Matthew 6:33). So that is how we ace the holiness exam, simply seek first the kingdom of God and everything else we need will be added unto us.

So now I will leave us with this prayer of encouragement from 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24. Let us pray:

 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify us through and through. May our whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls us is faithful and He will do it.’ Amen.

Go now and live a holy, sanctified life in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

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[1] Thompson, J. A., Deuteronomy: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1974 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 5), S. 128

[2] cf. Thompson, J. A., Deuteronomy: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1974 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 5), S. 129 for a good discussion of the division of the Decalogue into two holiness parts: your God and your neighbour.

[3] John J. Kilgallen, “The plan of the 'nomiko' (Luke 10.25-37), New Testament Studies Vol.42 (November 1, 1996): This idea was common enough by the 1^st Century that this was Jesus anticipated response to the question in the Lukan account.

[4] Cf. Paul Foster, “Why Did Matthew Get The Shema Wrong? A Study of Matthew 22:37” Journal of Biblical Literature Vol. 122, Iss. 2 (2003): 309-333 re. Matthew’s version of the Shema

[5] Cf. Ronald P. Byars, Between Text & Sermon: Deuteronomy 6:1–15, Interpretation Vol. 60 (April 2006): 194-196, for a good practical discussion on this topic.

[6] S. Dean Mcbride, Jr., ‘The Essence of Orthodoxy: Deuteronomy 5:6–10 and Exodus 20:2–6’, Interpretation Vol.60 (April 2006): 145

[7] Earl S. Kalland, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Deuteronomy/Exposition of Deuteronomy/III. The Second Address: Stipulations of the Covenant-Treaty and Its Ratification (4:44-28:68)/B. Basic Elements of Life in the Land (5:1-11:32)/1. The Ten Commandments (5:1-33)/a. Exhortation and historical background (5:1-5)/(3) Prohibition against misusing God's name (5:11), Book Version: 4.0.2; but cf. Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Exodus/Exposition of Exodus/II. Divine Morality (19:1-24:18)/C. The Decalogue (20:1-17), Book Version: 4.0.2

[8] Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Exodus/Exposition of Exodus/II. Divine Morality (19:1-24:18)/C. The Decalogue (20:1-17), Book Version: 4.0.2

[9] Cf. Rev. Allan McCafferty, ‘Always Another Question?’, The Expository Times,  Vol. 121, Iss. 9 (June 2010): 457-458

[10] Cf. R. Alan Cole, Exodus: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1973 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 2), S. 168

Exodus 12:24-28: Remember Today

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 06 July 2014. Based on an earlier version presented 01 July 2012 by Captain Michael Ramsay

Click here to read a more detailed earlier version of this homily: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2012/06/exodus-1224-28-remember.html

I heard a harrowing story. Dave, a member of the Rotary club here in town, told this story of a family vacation that he took in Acapulco in 1968:

Dave and his wife are on holiday down in Mexico. They check into their hotel. They are near the ground floor and there are these little lizards - Geckos or something else – climbing all up the walls; so they speak to the hotel and ask to be moved as far away from the lizards as they can, up to the top floor. They do move up to the top floor. This turns out to be a mistake. In the middle of the night, they are woken up as people are running through the halls screaming. Some girls from Quebec tell them what was happening: the hotel is on fire. The stairs, they are concrete for the top few floors and then wood beneath and the wooden stairs are ablaze. The girls from Quebec jump over the railing from the 10^th storey or more up and plunge all the way down. Dave and his wife and his two sons, aged six and nine, are trapped. Without thinking they run to the elevator but the door closes with people inside it just before they get there. Actually I think Dave may have even gotten his hand in the closing door but they don’t catch the elevator, which is good because we know what happens to people in elevators in a fire. Dave and his family are trapped. They try to tie sheets together to scale down the outside of the building but as Dave is heading over a balcony, it is good that he has an arm linked through the railing because someone unties the sheets. He then climbs down the side of the balcony and swings onto the balcony below. His wife then drops one of his children for him to catch and then the other and then she scales down as far as she can, then falls and Dave catches her legs and pulls her in. They do this until the third story or so of the building when they run out of balconies. Dave then throws one child down onto a straw thatched roof, hoping that will break his fall. He sees the boy fall through the roof and run away; so he throws the other son down who makes a new hole as he crashes through the thatched roof. He runs to safety. His wife jumps next and Dave is able to scale a palm tree to the bottom. They are injured but they survive. It was quite a tale to hear recalled. They survived by the grace of God but others on their floor who leapt over the railing or who took the elevator did not.

What had happened was, apparently there was a dispute between two ownership groups – one local and one foreign – the foreign group was residing in the hotel on that day and some local people had attacked the hotel with Molotov cocktails – hoping to collect insurance, I believe.

It was quite something to hear this story. I don’t think many of us in Rotary previously knew this about Dave at all. There is more to his story here too. One of his sons had a piece of the thatched roof he fell through stuck into his foot. The other had a twig protruding from his neck with blood spurting out. They were okay though. There was another miracle in this story. Dave and his wife recognize this as a miraculous salvation. When Dave and his wife were climbing down the balconies to escape the flames, they left somewhere her straw purse with their passports, money, plane tickets, and the like. The next day Dave went back and began looking in this burned out hotel building for this straw purse. God saved it for them. It was on a balcony on a burned out floor but this straw purse with its contents was still there. It was fine. God protected it and God protected them. God was there for them in the midst of this ordeal.

It is the same with the Hebrews in our text today. Those of us who have been reading Exodus as we have been looking at it as a church family recently will have read the stories of the plagues in Exodus. They are quite something with each one becoming more awe-inspiring than the previous one.[1]

1. The Nile turning to blood (7:14–25)
2. Plague of frogs (7:25–8:11)
3. Plague of lice or gnats (8:12–15)[2]
4. Plague of flies or wild animals (8:20–32)
5. Plague of pestilence (9:1–7)
6. Plague of boils (9:8–12)
7. Plague of hail (9:13-35)
8. Plague of locusts (10:1–20)
9. Plague of darkness (10:21–29)

A few weeks ago, we shared about Susan the kids and my experience on our camping trip to Montana and how we got a little taste of hail with our tent being destroyed and us having to flee for shelter elsewhere.  And I still remember vividly the closest thing ever to a plague of darkness that I have ever experienced and that was about two years ago here in Swift Current. I don’t know how many of us were outside and experienced and can still recall that darkness that swept over a corner of the city: it was really quite something. I have not seen anything like that before. I heard people refer to that as an ominous, fear-provoking experience as that blackness approached at mid-day, even as you could see blue skies fleeing from its presence. We went to pick up Rebecca for lunch from school at that time. There was a tornado warning. The school had announced that the children were not to go outside. Some students, of course, were pressed up against the windows to see what was happening, others were in tears hiding safely under their desks. These feelings of fear and awe, of terror and wonder, that people were having here in Swift Current on that day are probably a fractional reflection of the intensity of the emotions that would be swirling around the Israelites as they sre experiencing the power of God through the first nine plagues and they would be in our text today, I imagine, in a metaphorical funnel cloud of awe and terror as they prepare for the final plague, the tenth plague: The Angel of Death (11:1–12:36).

It is in the context of the children of Israel huddled in their houses preparing for Death’s arrival that our pericope today is found. In the opening 13 verses of this chapter, God tells Moses and Aaron exactly what is about to happen. Just like a Tornado alert: ‘Get ready’, God warns them, ‘the Angel of Death is coming’.

Now there has already been a lot of flooding and states of emergency declared in this province this past week alone. And just like we have emergency disaster plans that we are to follow in the city and in The Salvation Army when disaster strikes, God here is giving Moses and Aaron their instructions as to how to save themselves and their families when the Angel of Death strikes at Goshen, in Egypt. I don’t know if anyone here has ever huddled in a storm cellar or was forced to take shelter or headed beneath deck on a boat being tossed about in a storm but I imagine that it is the same feeling. The people take all the right steps and now they are just waiting and hoping, and praying for Death to pass.

I have binders and binders full of the city’s and the Army’s plans of what we need to do in the event of a major disaster: a flood, a fire, a tornado strike, … God in Exodus here gives Moses and Aaron a disaster preparedness plan to share with the Hebrews in Egypt for the impending strike by the Angel of Death. It looks like this. Picture with me - you and your family – you have received your disaster preparedness plan from your leaders. Disaster is going to strike, you are fearful (like the school children hiding under their desks awaiting a tornado) and you are in awe as you await the Angel of Death who is coming to claim many from your country on this very night. On this very evening as Death is approaching; this is the plan:

1. You are to take a lamb or a kid to share as a meal with everyone in your household. If there aren’t enough of you in a household to eat a whole lamb, you must share it with your closest neighbour (12:3-4);
2. The animal must be 1 year-old and without defect (v.5);
3. You have already been taking care of the animals for 14 days in preparation for this day – now everyone in town is to go and slaughter the lamb at twilight (v.6);
4. You will then – this is important – take some of the blood and put it on the sides and the tops of the doorframes of the houses where you will eat the lambs (v.7);
5. Then you will eat the meat roasted over a fire with bitter herbs and bread without yeast and you must eat it all. You may not leave any of it until morning! If there are leftovers, you must burn them (vv. 8-10);
6. When you are eating this meal, you are to eat it with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on, and your staff in your hand (v. 11). In our language today: you are to have your coats, hats and shoes on and your car keys in your hand. You are to be ready to go. You are to eat it in haste because it is the LORD’s Passover.

God tells Moses and Aaron that as the people follow this plan they will survive the impending strike by the Angel of Death. Then God tells them, ‘You must never forget this night. You must remember how I saved you.’ I imagine this evening must be as clear to those who experienced it as the images were to Dave and his wife of that night climbing down the side of the building – and Dave’s wife, she’s afraid of heights. I imagine that every time they think about this night, they remember every feeling that was racing through their heart and mind and I imagine that they’ll never forget it.

I remember when I was in Nipawin and the building exploded right behind The Salvation Army Ministry Centre downtown. My office shook. It felt like a truck had struck it. With others, I headed outside to see what had happened, I saw injured or dead or dying people lying on the ground as the flames began to engulf part of the downtown. My children and everyone else around on that day have stories surrounding those moments. I imagine each of us have had times like these that will never leave our minds.

The thing with these events as real as they are to us, they are not as real to people who don’t actually experience them and as time passes people tend to forget the important lessons that come from them. I had the honour of speaking at the D-Day memorial again this year. For those hundreds and thousands of soldiers present on June 6, 1944, as long as they live, this is a day they will never forget; but if I were to guess I would say that less people across this whole country officially remembered that anniversary even than lost their lives on the beaches on that day alone. Remembrance Day and the Legion remind us of the horrors of war, lest we forget. It is no coincidence that as the Cold War ended and more and more of our veterans pass away, that there are more wars in our world than ever before. Did you know that from end of the cold war -1989 or 1990, until the end of the twentieth century there were more wars in that one decade than there were in the whole rest of the century prior. People forget and then another generation experiences the same horrors. 

As the Israelite families of our pericope today are sitting in their houses awaiting the impending calamity, God tells Moses that they are never to forget this day.[3] They are to remember it forever. They are to tell their children and their children’s children. This should a permanent feature in the school curriculum, so to speak. It is to be like our annual Remembrance Day ceremonies in that there are some elements that must be observed. As far as the Passover remembrance ceremonies for the Israelites, they are to incorporate some of their Emergency Disaster Preparedness Plan into a ceremonial dinner and they are not have any yeast in the house at all for seven days prior and they are to eat only unleavened flat breads. Then God tells them, Exodus 12:24-27:

“Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.

One reason that the people were to remember this was so that they would not forget what the Lord had done for them in the past and another reason is to wait for a future deliverance. As this ceremony developed over the generations, it came to incorporate an act of ceremonially ‘looking for Elijah’. This is because tradition later stated that Elijah must return before the Messiah is to come.

Now Elijah does return and Jesus the Messiah does come and when he does and as Jesus is celebrating this very important Passover remembrance with his disciples, Jesus the Messiah utters the very important words, “Do this in remembrance of me.” This is, I think, a big reason why God wanted the Passover ceremony etched so deeply in the minds of humanity for so long because just as when the Egyptians gave up their firstborn sons, God saved His people through the blood of the Passover lamb; so when God gives up His firstborn son –Jesus Christ – He also saves us; His people, all His people, He saves through the Blood of the Lamb.[4]

This is the most important event in the whole history of the world: The death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. God, through the giving of His only begotten son has made it – just like with Exodus and the Angel of Death – so that none of us need to perish but all of us can have salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is important to remember.

This is why we come to church, this is why we go to Bible studies, this is why we pray and this is why we read our Bibles; this is why we have our Mercy Seat and this is why every year we celebrate Good Friday and Easter Sunday/Monday every year. That is why we are here today: because just as God offered salvation to all His children from the passing over of the Angel of Death and all the plagues in the Exodus account; so too He offers salvation to all of us, this very day, from Sin and Death and from everything that is plaguing us. As that is the case, it is my hope and my prayer that if any of us have not yet implemented our eternal disaster preparedness plan, that you would delay no longer and that we would all experience that salvation both today and forever more.

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] Cf. Walter C. Kaiser Jr., The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Exodus/Exposition of Exodus/I. Divine Redemption (1:1-18:27)/E. The Passover (12:1-28)/1. Preparations for the Passover (12:1-13), Book Version: 4.0.2. for more detailed list.

[2] R. Alan Cole, Exodus: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 2), S. 113: In the evening: literally ‘between the two evenings’. Jewish scholars are not agreed as to the exact meaning. The phrase is also used of the time for the regular evening sacrifice (Exod. 29:39) and of the time for lighting the lamps in the meeting-tent (Exod. 30:8). The orthodox piety of Pharisaic Judaism understood the meaning as being between the time in the afternoon when the heat of the sun lessens (say 3 or 4 p.m.) and sunset. Other groups preferred the time between sunset and dark, or other similar explanations.

[3] Thomas W. Mann, “Passover: The Time of Our Lives.” Interpretation 50, no. 3 (July 1, 1996): 240-250. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed June 28, 2012), 241-242: The Passover narrative is arguably the most important section of the entire book because it is primarily here that the experience of exodus is communicated not simply as a moment in historical time (in the past) but as a perennially recurring moment in the present life of those for whom the story is sacred.

[4] Norman Theiss, "The Passover Feast of the New Covenant." Interpretation 48, no. 1 (January 1, 1994): 17-35. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed June 28, 2012), 17: In the eyes of the first three evangelists and Paul, Jesus construed his last supper with the twelve disciples as the fulfillment of God's plan to inaugurate a new Passover meal. In this new meal, Jesus interpreted his death as a new Exodus in which the new people of God were liberated from all that enslaves them and freed to serve God in holy living.