Sat.’s Devo The Passover

Read: Exodus 10:1-12:13; Matthew 20:1-28; Psalm 25:1-15; Proverbs 6:6-11 God gave his reason for all the plagues and why he had made so Pharaoh stubborn that he wasn’t letting them go. God was waging war on the gods of Egypt and displaying His miraculous signs to his children. They were to tell their children how God made a mockery of the Egyptians so that they would know that He is God. God sent his eighth plague which was locusts to devour what was left of their crops after the hail. I find it funny that the Egyptian leaders asked the Pharaoh how long he was going to let Moses hold them hostage. It was Pharaoh who was holding Moses hostage! God was definitely flipping their script. After the locusts came the darkness to show them that they had become totally blinded to truth. Of course, the Israelites had light because they were walking in God’s light. It was now time for God to lead his people out of Egypt so He told Moses to ask their neighbors for their gold and silver. He told Moses he was going to pass through the heart of Egypt at midnight and kill all the firstborn sons of every family in Egypt and their livestock. God told Moses that from now on, this month would be the first month of the year for them. It was the seventh month on their calendar which is why they go by two calendars. One is the civil calendar and the other is their religious calendar. God was giving them a new birthday just like he gives us one when we are born again. God gave them a token of salvation through the passover he instituted this night. They were to kill a lamb at twilight and take the blood from it and smear it on their door on the two sides and above the door. Then they were to go into the house and cook and eat the lamb. This is a picture of the cross and the places that Jesus shed his blood - his hands and his head where they put the crown of thorns. They were to eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. These pointed to the fact that Jesus wasn’t risen yet and that his death would be bitter. That night, when the death angel passed over, it would see the blood and pass over. What a picture of eternity for the believer. Death has no hold on us. In Matthew, Jesus told the parable about the landowner who hired workers in his vineyard. He hired people at different times of the day but offered the same pay. At the end of the day everyone got the same pay no matter how long they worked and the ones who had worked all day complained. Jesus told this parable to keep us from comparing our suffering to others and our service to others. God has promised eternal life to all who believed that Jesus came in the flesh, died and rose again. The amount of service we do is not our business. Jesus told his disciples exactly what was about to take place. When they got to Jerusalem, the Jewish leaders would arrest him, turn him over to the Romans where they would crucify him but on the third day he would rise from the dead. The mother of James and John asked Jesus if her sons could sit on either side of him when he came to his kingdom. Jesus explained that she was asking a very hard thing. The people who sat at those places would have to drink the same cup of suffering that he did. Also, God was the one who had already chosen who would sit in those places. The way to be exalted in the Kingdom of God was to lay down his life here on earth. Jesus then modeled it for us. Lord, may we celebrate our new birth with gratefulness and joy. May we also be willing to drink the cup that you drank and give up our life for your kingdom.