Last week, we learned it all starts with trusting God, but just how did the Israelites have to trust God? They had to show their trust in God by following the detailed instructions they were given for the Passover. In Exodus 12:3-7, God begins a very explicit set of instructions (take a moment to read it). The instruction begins with, “Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.” The lambs in the Exodus 12 are an Old Testament representation of Jesus (John 1:29).
Everything about these lambs points to Jesus and the Nation of Israel is to place their trust in God by following His detailed instructions. After having spent 400 years in slavery to Egypt, trusting God was no easy task as they were conditioned to the Egyptian World System. Do you see the parallel? We, too, have been molded and shaped by our world, conditioned to think like the world, and see life the world’s way and that makes trusting God and doing things His way so hard!
On the 10th day of the first month, just before the 10th plague, they were to choose a lamb. In the Bible, 10 is the number of “testing.” Would they trust him and follow His instructions? God tells them to “choose” the lamb. Our ability to choose demonstrates our free will. God wants the best for us, to prosper us and not to harm us, but we have to choose His blessings. If we did not have a choice, it would not be faith, but coercion. If we didn’t have a choice, it wouldn’t require trust but would be an obligation. Like the Israelites we have to choose God.
After choosing the lamb on the 10th day, they were to love and cherish it until the 14th day, the day of slaughter. How does this apply to us, after all most of us don’t slaughter animals in the 21st century? God made this stipulation because our motivation for trusting and following Him has to be our love for Him. He wants a relationship with us based on love. Our love for God fuels our trust in Him, but it doesn’t end there.
You see, it wasn’t the life of the lamb that saved each household, it was the death of the lamb. If they didn’t love the lamb, then its death would mean nothing. At the first Passover, the lamb died so they could live. The same is true for us – when we chose to trust God and develop a love relationship with Him, we can appreciate His grace and mercy in sending His only Son to die for us and apply the blood to our lives as we trust Him as Savior and Lord. Where are you in the testing and trusting?