Friday, August 12, 2011

Living Under God's Strict Instructions

Exodus 12 was on of the hardest readings I've done because it reveals a side of God that none of us really want to see: God is a stickler for detail and for specificity, and that He is also harsh in terms of punishing people who disobey these instructions. This is shown later in the Old Testament in Judges and Leviticus (which I am not looking forward to reading by the way). .

Why is God such a stickler for detail in commanding His people to follow all these silly rules? It's because the value of obedience to God is of utmost importance. Verse 24 explains why God ordered something so ridiculous: it's so that generations after the people who escaped Egypt can still give thanks to God. This brings up the question: Why did God have to make it so specific? It goes to the value of obedience. Obedience that is performed towards a task that requires the utmost precision and detail is a stronger sign of virtue than obedience that asks for something that can be ignored and that can be performed without much effort.

I think in understanding God's strict instructions, we must also look at the detailed fulfillment of His promises. Verse 40 is an outline of God's promise fulfilled at this night. There's also a detailed description of how He worked through pharaoh in verse 31-36. Let's remember that God's been reminding Moses these exact same actions and words by pharaoh and the Egyptians since before Moses was in Egypt. He's a stickler for detail in fulfilling His promises as well. And for the same purpose for being a stickler with instructions: it's for His glory. In this sense, He is glorified through the fulfillment of all His promises, not just some or part of it.

The last point that this passage wants to point out pertains to the Passover. In this part of the passage, God is strict when it comes to who can partake in the meal of the Passover, which also means being strict when it comes to who has to obey His ordination earlier and being picky/specific with which people He will accomplish His promise through. This passage is I think the highlight of this entire section because the Passover is the last meal Jesus shares with His disciples before He was crucified. It brings us back as to what Israel was chosen for. It was to fulfill God's promise to Abraham and to mankind through Genesis 12:1-3. The latter promise being fulfilled through that same line: Abraham to Judah to David to Jesus.

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