PASSOVER!

Not one of them was certain where they were going to go. A few of them knew Moses from way back long ago. He’d murdered an Egyptian and had then run away. But that was forty years ago. Who was he anyway? They’d had to work much harder since he came on the scene. But they had been in slavery – just how long had it been? Much longer than three hundred years. They didn’t know for sure. But God alone knew just how much they’d all had to endure. And then this fellow Moses with Aaron as his mate, Had said they represented God and He would change their fate. They’d seen so many miracles since those two come along. The local deities were thrashed for Moses’ God was “strong”. He’d said to them to get prepared, they soon would say goodbye, To Egypt and to slavery; deliverance was nigh. But first there’d be a “Passover” and they had things to do. They’d heard the Angel of the Lord that night was passing through. They had to kill a year old lamb, on which there were no flaws. To drain its blood and sprinkle some round every dwelling’s doors. The meat was to be roasted on an open fire-grate, With head and legs and innards which they’d incinerate, With anything left over. A very special feast, With bitter herbs and special bread in which there was no yeast. They also had to eat it all before the night was gone, With urgency, while fully dressed and with their sandals on! The families to gather with their neighbours and their friends. The people in the houses in each case would all depend On roasted lamb available. Each family were groomed, To know that before morning, the feast would be consumed. Within the blood marked houses, the people were not harmed. But from the outside noises, they must have been alarmed. The weeping and the wailing as Egypt’s firstborn died; Both animals and people - and the Egyptians cried. But safe within the houses with lamb’s blood around the door, Death’s angel had passed over them; and so, forever more, Each fourteenth day of their first month the Hebrews celebrate, That they had been delivered from the self same dreadful fate. The Jews call it the Passover and to this very day. They try to celebrate it in much the same old way. But Christians have a secret. Our Lamb is Christ the Lord. And everything that happened then is seen in our record Of just how he was treated. His roasting in the sun. His agony upon the cross until His life was done. Oh glorious Passover when death’s angel passed us by! The blood of Christ defeated sin; our home is now on high! We’re also in a hurry to leave slavery behind, And be with the Lord Jesus In the mansions He’s designed Jim Strickland – written Thursday, 02 June 2011