The Perspective of Passover

Last night I attended my first Passover Seder meal. Our meal was a messianic passover celebration at Destiny Worship Center and the message was powerful. Passover is a celebration to remember the day the Lord delivered the Jews from slavery out of Egypt. The Lord told Moses that he must tell Pharaoh to let his people go so that they can travel into the wilderness to have a feast and worship him. Pharaoh would not listen so God sent ten plagues over the land of Egypt, each one worse than the last. Finally the Lord told Moses that the angel of death would pass through Egypt killing the firstborn of every household, including the first born of all their animals. The people of Israel were told to select a perfect year old lamb without blemish. They were to care for it diligently for four days. Then at twilight they were to slaughter the lamb. Next they were to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of their door frames. That night they were to eat a meal of the lamb meat roasted over a fire, along with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast.
"This is how you will eat it: with your cloak tucked in your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord's Passover." (Exod 12:11)

That night the angel of death passed over Egypt.  Everyone who was inside a house covered by the blood of the lamb were saved. Those who were not experienced the judgment against Egypt, which was death.
What the Jews experience in the natural, we now experience in the Spiritual. God wants to set apart his church so they can worship him as he intended. Egypt represents sin and things in life we have become slave to; Jesus came to set the captive free. Apart from Jesus, sin leads to death both naturally and spiritually. He was the perfect Lamb who was sacrificed for us. When you are covered by his blood, the angel of death and God's judgment will pass over you. God is constantly working in our lives to accomplish this goal, both through warnings and world events. Sometimes we get so caught up the plagues of our lives, that we lose perspective. I know this happens to me a lot. I am so distracted by my current situational afflictions that I lose perspective about what really matters. There is a lot of suffering in this world....there is a lot of suffering in my town, my workplace..my peers. It distracts us from the bigger picture and what really matters. Life or death.  I forget what is coming for those who don't know him. I am surrounded  by people who don't know him. We lose the urgency that  we need to have. Notice how God told the Israelite to eat their meal...as if they were getting ready to run out the door.  We need some urgency.

“It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.  On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything.  Remember Lot’s wife!  Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.  I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.” (Luke 17)

This week's cover of Time Magazine asked this question:  What if there is no hell? 

This is a really scary article to me. There is a place called hell. It is real and not somewhere that we should want any one to go. God did not create hell to put people there. He created it as a place to put the devil and his angels when they rebelled against God in heaven. It is the only place that God is not...it is dark, terrifying, full of torment and lasts for eternity. If someone chooses a life without God and specifically the sacrifice of Jesus' blood to save them, hell is the only alternative place for them to go. It is the natural consequence of not choosing God...you go to the only place He is not.  God doesn't want anyone to go there: "For God so loved the world, that he sent his one and only son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16
There is a final judgment of God coming. We should not get so lost in current afflictions that we forget to try and get as many people into the house protected by the blood of the lamb as possible. It has helped me to remember that the things in life that are plaguing me are ALL for this purpose.
Make sure you invite someone to church this weekend for Easter.