Commemoration Week 2018 Friday <3
So today I am closing the week with this thought from Exodus 13: 14-16
“In the days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal.This why I sacrifice to the LORD the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.’ And it will be a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the LORD brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.”
Even as I type those words, the echoes of the voice of the feminist movement that began shaping my thinking back in the 70’s wants to rise up..why the males??? Are daughters not considered worthy of being dedicated.
How deeply the systems of the world can become etched over the truths of God’s word.
And that is what this week means to me.
This week is the one where I put up my hand to the voices that would tear away all that is good and right and true about our God. A week to press pause on the craziness of too many voices and tune my ears to One Voice.
Because the Pharaoh that stubbornly refuses to allow each one of us to leave the bondage of our worldly viewpoints continues to hold God’s children captive.
And we help greatly when we cooperate in that bondage by refusing to leave the dicey, but familiar, comfort of captivity.
This passage isn’t about alpha males and a chauvinistic God who disregards the worth of women.
No.
This passage is about a God who knows who we are and what we are made of.
He knows that even when we are set free, we are prone to forget.
And so He provided Israel with a giant reminder of His deliverance.
And He provided us with a picture of what would come when the time was right.
Because it would be His firstborn who would be sacrificed to redeem us.
A son.
Jesus Christ.
Born of a woman named Mary.
The sign on His hand would be a piercing nail that held Him to what should have been our cross.
The sign on His head would be a thorny crown jammed down hard by our arrogant mocking.
And it would be His blood that would buy us back, pay the debt, cancel the sin.
So, as God’s children, male and female, sons and daughters, I remind us this week…
When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation.
He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.
…How much more (than the animal sacrifices of the Law), then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! Hebrews 11-14
Remember Him and honor Him well as He surely has remembered you <3