“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD – a lasting ordinance.”
~ Exodus 12:14
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you been in a church when the Lord’s Supper was celebrated? The Lord’s Supper in usually celebrated once a month in most churches. The Lord’s Supper is to be a time of recalling Jesus’ death on a cross. Eating a piece of bread or a broken up cracker fragment is a symbolic way of reflecting on the horrific suffering that Jesus did for you on the cross. Taking a sip of grape juice or of wine from a goblet is a symbolic way of thinking about the blood that Jesus sacrificially shed for you on the cross. The Lord’s Supper was once the Passover Feast. Not long before Jesus was crucified on a cross and while He was celebrating the Passover Feast with His twelve disciples, Jesus told His disciples to replace the Passover Feast with a time of remembering what He was going to do for every guy, gal and kid who would be led to accept Him as his or her personal Lord and Savior. The Passover Feast had been a very important time of reminiscing about a pivotal moment in the history of God’s specially chosen people’s existence. God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids comprise the Israelite people group. The Passover took place a long time before Jesus made His appearance on planet Earth. The Israelites had been living in Egypt for about 430 years. The Israelites are named after Jacob. Jacob had his name changed by God to Israel. Israel fathered twelve boys. Because of his impertinence, Joseph – one of Israel’s boys, ended up being sold by his bros to a passing Ishmaelite camel caravan. Joseph through God’s divine intervention ended up being taken to Egypt. Joseph after a time and again through God’s divine intervention ended up in a very important position in Egypt. After being warned of a pending famine, Joseph was tasked to insure that grain was stored throughout Egypt. When the famine got bad in Egypt, the land of Canaan was also affected resulting in Joseph’s bros and his dad relocating to Egypt where there was food. Jacob’s extended family over the next 430 years or so grew to be around 600,000 guys. As the Israelite population grew, the Egyptians began using the Israelites as slaves. God – long before this time, had first promised Abraham then Isaac and then Jacob that He would give their extended family the land of Canaan to always to have to live in as their very own land. The time had come for the Israelites to leave Egypt for the Promised Land. God called Moses to lead His specially chosen people to the land of Canaan – which was the Promised Land. Everything was in place for the Israelite people group to leave Egypt except that the Egyptian Pharaoh would not let the Israelites leave. God sent plague after plague as a way to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelite people group leave Egypt for Canaan. A plague involves guys, gals and kids dying. Your grandpaa will tell you someday about the different plagues.
Exodus 12 tells you how God finally had Pharaoh let His specially chosen people – the Israelites, leave Egypt. After God in one night killed all the Egyptian firstborn males, Pharaoh finally relented to letting the Israelite guys, gals and kids leave Egypt. Your grandpaa is the firstborn in his family. Your dad is a firstborn. Ben – you are also a firstborn. God did not kill any Israelite firstborn males. God gave special instructions through Moses and Aaron to His specially chosen people that would keep their firstborn males from being killed by God. God’s specially chosen people were to select from their flocks a one year old lamb. This lamb was not to be sick or lame or have anything else wrong with it. This lamb was to be kept inside the house for four days. All of God’s specially chosen people were to kill the lamb that they had kept inside their house on the very same evening of the month. This one year old lamb exemplifies what Jesus did for you. The blood of the lambs which were killed by the Israelite families saved them from having their firstborn males killed by God. Jesus’ blood is what covers all your sins – and which saves you from going to a horrible place called Hades when you die. When God through Moses and Aaron instructed His specially chosen people to select a one year old lamb without defect, God also told His specially chosen people what to do with this lamb. God told His specially chosen people to smear some of the blood of their lambs on the sides and on the top of the doorframes of the houses where they lived. When God came during the night to kill all the firstborn males God passed over the houses which had the lambs’ blood smeared on the doorframes. This one night changed everything for the Israelite people group. Pharaoh finally gave the Israelites his permission for them to leave Egypt. God’s specially chosen people would always remember what God did for them that night. God asked His specially chosen people to not forget all He did for them when He said in verse 14 ‘“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD—a lasting ordinance.”
When Jesus sat around a table with his twelve disciples in a house in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover Feast, Jesus and His disciples were remembering something that took place over 1500 years earlier. The Lord’s Supper is now a time of remembering what took place almost 2000 years ago when Jesus suffered and died on a cross for you. Your grandpaa finds it really incredible that when he partakes of the Lord’s Supper, that your grandpaa is partaking of something that has been celebrated in two different forms for about 3500 years ago. Your grandpaa has a fear that many guys, gals and kids who regularly partake of the Lord’s Supper have not really internalized the magnitude of what they are doing. Your grandpaa still remembers that first time that he partook of the Lord’s Supper. It was after your grandpaa made a confession of faith before the Volga Christian Reformed Church elders. It is instrumental that a guy, gal and kid has accepted Jesus as his or her Lord and Savior before he or she partakes in the Lord’s Supper.
Exodus 12 (55)