TITLE: Saved by Grace Though Faith
READ: Exodus 12:1-30; Psalm 37
Text to read:
For I will pass through the
land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of
Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute
judgments: I am the Lord. 13 The blood
shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood,
I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike
the land of Egypt.
Exodus 12:12-13
REFLECTION
It must have been a harrowing night for the Hebrews living
in Egypt. All through the night they heard screams and distraught cries as
every household in Egypt discovered that their first-born had died. Even though
God had said so, it was hard to imagine at least one person in every Egyptian home
being struck down. Perhaps it was even harder to feel safe and not wonder if
their home would be the next to experience a death. God had only given one
instruction for the Hebrews to obey in order to avoid having a death in the
family – to paint the doorposts and lintel of their house with the blood of a
freshly killed spotlessly white lamb. But what could such a mild and seemingly
useless action do to prevent having a death in the home? Could they not have
done more? Perhaps further fortified their houses, or sealed the gaps in their
walls? Or maybe even tried some of the incantations and magic that the Egyptians
had practised? But all of these actions would have been futile, since the Egyptians
lived in far more secure houses and their first born were still being killed.
And Egyptian magic clearly didn’t work either, since death came upon the
Egyptian magicians too.
What about their conduct? This was perhaps a good time for
moral self-examination. Had they lived uprightly? Worshipped fervently enough?
Or behaved kindly to their neighbours? Were they deserving of life? Would the
Lord, as He passed their houses, look kindly upon their household and spare them
from death? God had said nothing about who deserved to live or die. There were
no stated criteria as to what conduct would be good enough for a household to
be spared. God didn’t seem clear enough. All He said was that they paint blood
on the doorposts and lintel of their houses. But how could that be enough for
the fierce judgment to pass them by?
There was no conduct good enough for God to spare the
Hebrews. No actions, no incantations, nothing could have saved them. Only that
God loved them. He saw their plight and how Egypt had oppressed them, and
sought to set them free. V 13 tells us that the blood was not a sign for God
but for the people. It was not as if God could not distinguish one community
from another – the Egyptian home from the Hebrew home. The sign on the
doorposts and lintel was to let the Hebrews know that they had done nothing,
they could do nothing. They had simply had a meal (the lamb was not even a
sacrifice; it was for their consumption), and then painted their doorposts and
lintel with that lamb’s blood. They were saved simply because God loved them.
RELATE
It is so hard for us to accept love. We are mostly
transactional people. We live in a quid pro quo world, where everything has to
be earned. We believe we are loved because – because we are loveable, because
we are morally upright, because we are generous to the one who loves. We are
usually able to understand that we are loved only when we have done something
to deserve that love. But what if we are underserving of love? Like when we are obnoxious, selfish, mean,
insulting, black-hearted, untrustworthy? When we are unloveable? We constantly
feel the urge to do something to justify any love that we desire. Which is why
many of us do not feel loved by God. What can we do to deserve God's love? It isn’t that God doesn’t love us. Rather,
it is that we refuse to believe and therefore accept that God loves us so
much, He would die for us. For no good reason at all. Except that He does. This
is where ‘belief’ and ‘unbelief’ is the difference between life and death. When
we do not believe that we are God’s beloved, the Apple of his Eye, then we constantly feel that if there is a God, He must not be interested in us at best, and at worst, He must hate us and is only waiting to inflict some punishment on us to 'teach us a lesson'. We might as well be dead. But
the moment we realize that we are special to God, each one of us, then
everything around us changes. We become unafraid of living. Every day, every moment, we live knowing that God treasures us and only wants to bless us. Even in the face of
danger, we feel guarded and protected by a loving God. And there is nothing we can do to bring that about - except to believe He loves, receive His love, experience His love, and respond to His love.
REST
Father, I want to believe that I am your beloved, not
because of what I have done, but simply because I am your beloved. Please help
me in my unbelief.
Chiu Ming Li
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