The Jews are instructed to do some very simple things to
avoid the disaster that will befall the Egyptians. They are asked to take a young “lamb”, either
a sheep or a goat, a male, a year old and keep it in their home for four days
and then they are all to slaughter those lambs at twilight. Can you imagine the bleating of the lambs as
they are simultaneously killed? That
sound would mimic the sound of the wailing coming from Egypt later that same
night. When they killed the lambs, they
were to take the blood and smear it on the doorposts and lintels of their homes
and then were to eat the lambs roasted, in toto, nothing remaining. They were to do this all in an attitude of
haste and preparedness to flee. That’s
it. The only real thing required was
obedience and faith. Certainly, much
more came to be involved in the Passover meal once they entered the land to the
present day, but this night was only a night of expectant waiting and the death
of the first born of all the Egyptians, a bit of payback for Pharaoh’s determination
to kill the Hebrew babies, would be their salvation from slavery.
John’s joy and wonder at the incarnation and resurrection
are apparent in this prologue. He is
enraptured still with the idea that he was so privileged to be a disciple of
Jesus and to see His glory. Jesus said
that when He was with them again, after the crucifixion, their joy would be
complete and it would be a joy that the world could never take away and John’s
opening to the Gospel proves that in spite of his exile and the loss of all his
friends and fellow disicples cum apostles, he never lost the joy he had this
Easter morning when he peeked inside that tomb and saw it empty, just as the
women had said. His life would never be
the same and he didn’t want it to be, hope was restored and whole. The salvation of the world had come back from
the dead, all that he and they had believed was gloriously, improbably
true!
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