Come on, blood on the door posts?

 

When God says to pray without ceasing or pray about everything, it could seem trivial to pray for parking places and other conveniences for life. Yet He shows me that He cares. Also, any ‘trivia’ that happens could be His will for me, so why not pray about it?

Our Monday night’s Bible study often leaves me awake thinking about our conversations and prayers, so I asked God that I would instantly go to sleep and wake up at 7:30. Trivia — in a world of far more important needs and situations requiring prayer. However, I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, and woke up at 7:30.

God is in the details. He often does unusual things in answer to prayer. When the Israelites were in slavery in Egypt, the people wanted out. Moses prayed for what seemed impossible. Pharaoh wasn’t about to let two or three million slaves just pack up and leave. His army was ready to stop them, but when God does something, He cannot be stopped. Yet, when His answer came, it seemed very odd.

First, He sent ten terrifying plagues. In hindsight, we can see that these were designed to change Pharaoh’s mind. Yet at the time, how odd they must have seemed, so odd that how could this be part of the answer? Not only that, each one effected Pharaoh, but only for a brief time and he persisted in saying no way to Moses’ requests. The tenth and worst plague was the death of all the first-born.

Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. (Exodus 11:4–5)

Since this applied to all, the Israelites needed protection. God told them to sprinkle the blood of a lamb on the doorposts and lintels of their homes. Then, when the angel of death saw the blood, he passed over that house. This instituted the Passover, but did the people of that time wonder how blood smeared on their doors could have power to stave off the death angel? Nonetheless, its presence demonstrated faith and obedience. It also symbolizing the future sacrifice of Christ and His power to remove sin and give life. The NT begins His story with:

The next day (John the Baptist) saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

Pharaoh got the message as his people wailed over all that death. Then he allowed the  Israelites to leave, but he changed his mind again and sent his army after them. But God intervened:

By faith (Moses) kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. (Hebrews 11:28–29)

Think of what the people of God were thinking during all this. Plagues that affected them too? Blood on their doors? This was God’s answer to their prayers? How odd, at least at first. Sometimes our prayers are odd, but God’s answers are hardly ever what we expect. When I prayed last night, part of me laughed at myself because I expected to be awake wondering about the Bible study conversations, not sleeping well or long, and being awake far too early, or oversleeping because I was so tired.

The Passover demonstrates that God’s provisions are always just right, even though they may seem foolish to the human intellect. The NT says that “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18) yet He teaches us that we can accept and rejoice in His provisions, no matter how pointless some of them may seem and even when our requests seem too trivial to bring before the Almighty God of the universe.

PRAY: Jesus, all of this is humbling. I really don’t know Your will, yet You are showing me that Your heart is for me, that You want the best for me. Sometimes my requests are simply selfish. Many times, they are from physical needs for health or strength or even sleep. You know what is best for my situations and are showing me that I can trust You with all of them, little or huge. You care and You have the power to do anything. Again, I am in awe of You. (More examples) 

PONDER: Think about the way God took me from slavery to sin and how He used negatives to bring me home to His heart, negatives I would never have picked for myself. May I rejoice in trials knowing that God is using them to have His will done in my life. What a wonder — and a delight!

 

 

The Lamb who is also a Lion

 

The first mention of a LAMB in the OT is when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. The boy didn’t know he was going to be put on the fire and said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” His father replied, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”

He did and then commended Abraham’s faith and obedience, but the story is much bigger. The next part of it involves sacrificial lambs offered for sin and even though those offerings did not take away sins, they resulted in atonement and forgiveness.

These lambs were also sacrificed on other occasions such as Solomon’s ascension to the throne, Josiah’s renewal of the covenant, Ezra’s return from exile, and in Ezekiel’s eschatological visions of the temple. Lambs are also descriptive of God’s people.

In the NT, the term is used most notably for Jesus who became the ultimate sacrifice for sin:

John 1:29. The next day (John the Baptist) saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

The Lamb story is near its climax! After Jesus died and rose again, the NT repeatedly declares that He is that Lamb . . .

1 Corinthians 5:7. Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

1 Peter 1:17–19. And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Some references to Jesus as God’s Lamb use a paradoxical description of Him, such as Revelation 5:5–6 where Jesus is depicted as both a Lion and a very unusual Lamb: “And one of the elders said to me, ‘Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.’ And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.”

Revelation also describes the “wrath of the Lamb” and says, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” and how those who come out of great tribulation with robes washed “white in the blood of the Lamb.” He is called “the Lamb in the midst of the throne” who will be the Shepherd who will guide His people to “springs of living water” where God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

This Lamb will also be at war with God’s enemies and He will conquer them because He is Lord of lords and King of kings. Then the marriage of the Lamb will be celebrated at a marriage supper as His bride (the church) has made herself ready.

Revelation 22:1–5. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. I’ve written about the vulnerability of lambs and think of Jesus with that same gentleness yet with the amazing power described above. He is the conqueror. For some reason, perhaps my age, perhaps the confines caused by Covid, or perhaps just the need of my soul partly because another friend was lost this week in an accident, I need to keep my eyes on Him, this Lamb of God who is mighty, worthy of all worship and praise. Jesus is sovereign and has His hand on the trials of life. At the same time, He puts me in awe of His gentle power and the fact that this meek power is what He wants in me.