The Lord said

George Sneddon September 10, 2023 2 0

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Exodus 12: 1-14 (NRSVA)

12 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 neighbour 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 judgements: 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.

We are, perhaps, so often used to hearing ‘The Lord said,’ followed by statements of compassion, love, humility, kindness, beauty, hope and of course, resurrection. We’ve adopted those ourselves as our Christian sales pitch. This is the Jesus we serve, we say.

I often feel we fall short when we do that. All of those things are true, but we must give a true account of who God is. We must always be prepared. And isn’t it jarring, unsettling… even nerve inducing to witness the anger of God as it was in the plagues of Egypt?

You might read it and struggle to visualise it, struggle to share it, struggle to own it as part of our Judaeo-Christian heritage. But own it we must.

The God of the Passover is the same God revealed in Christ Jesus that night when he broke bread and poured wine. God displays the fullness of his wrath, the majesty of his holiness, and the perfection of his grace and mercy, all in one meal.

PRAYER:

Lord of the Passover
you are good.
you are holy
you are majesty
you are perfection
you are grace
you are mercy

Help us always to taste and see
that you are you, Lord.

Amen.