Celebrating God’s Deliverance
- jacarroll71
- Jan 25, 2015
- 2 min read
Today’s reading: Exodus 11-12; Matthew 18:21-35
1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Exodus 12:1-2
God, who created time, instructed His people to observe certain periodic days to remember important events and theological truths connected with those events. The Passover was one of those events. God commanded that it be observed annually and that it coincide with the New Year.
The Passover definitively set apart the Israelites from the Egyptians. The blood of unblemished lambs marked the homes of those who believed and distinguished them from those who did not. The blood protected the inhabitants of those homes from death. The lamb paid the price and the people were saved.
Christ, too, paid the price as our Passover lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29; I Corinthians 5:7). Just as the ancient Israelites celebrated their deliverance from slavery by an annual Passover celebration, we as God’s people today celebrate corporately, by the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper or Communion, the fulfillment of a greater Lamb whose offering made a once-for-all atonement for sin.
Meanwhile, that deliverance and forgiveness which Jesus Christ obtained for us ought to be manifested in lives of forgiveness towards others. Let us be vigilant to show grace and mercy toward those who owe us, not as the unforgiving servant in Jesus’ parable.
Let us daily celebrate our deliverance by practicing Paul’s admonition to the Christians in Ephesus: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32
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