Day 20 -- Exodus 11-13

Someone who is reading through the scriptures with us e-mailed me the other day with a reaction to the readings.* He said that he found some of the sexual material in the Book of Genesis “embarrassing.” He’s right. It is. The only answer I can think of to make is what my mother used to say to me when I was a kid—“Billy, the big embarrassments are yet to come.”
To say that in the Bible human relationships are treated with bold frankness is to say the very least. The Bible discloses all that we need to know about God, and more than we need to know about ourselves--the whole stinking truth about our species. But that is one reason that the Bible has such authority as Word of God for us. It does not hide the truth. The God who meets us in the Bible is holy, but the Book of Faith is not prudish. It takes for granted that people can be nasty, but God values and loves us in spite of our nastiness. And as far as embarrassments are concerned, in the Bible there are worse yet to come.
The reading for today brings the story of the Exodus to its climax. Israel is rescued from the last and most terrible plague, the death of the firstborn, only by strict and absolute obedience to the demands of God. God claims for himself the first of everything. “The LORD said to Moses: Consecrate to me all the firstborn; whatever is first to open the womb among the Israelites, of human beings and animals, is mine’” (13:1-2).
We have already read the story of how God called upon Abraham to sacrifice his firstborn son Isaac (Genesis 22). Isaac belonged by rights to God absolutely, and God could justly ask for his return at any time. Only by an act of God’s mercy was Abraham allowed to substitute the blood of an animal for the life of the child. Blood is the sign of life, and the blood sacrifice became the sign of Abraham’s absolute obedience.
Now the sacrifice of the lambs at Passover becomes the sign of the absolute obedience of the People of Israel to the covenant. The obedient shedding of innocent blood redeemed the firstborn of the people from death, and the blood--the sign of God’s mercy--became the visible symbol of their obedience. So God commanded the people to take some of the blood of the sacrificed lamb and “put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it” (12:7). And the Angel of Death would pass over the houses so marked. The sign of death became the source of life.
Everything about the Passover feast points to a willingness to be absolutely obedient to the call. There was to be no sign of delay or reluctance in preparing and eating it. The people were to eat the meal fully dressed and hurriedly (12:11). Everything about the Passover meal is symbolic of what their relationship to God should be like—spontaneous and immediate.
Leavening stands for the past, for waiting. Now the time for waiting is past. Therefore they are to put away all leavening. Get rid of it. The past is extinguished. Now there is no time left to delay while the bread rises. “They baked the unleavened cakes of dough that they brought out of Egypt,” the text says, “because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves” (12:39).
We need to remember that too—there is no time to respond to the call of God but right now. . . .
*If you have questions about the text, the best way to contact me is by email at williamroen@gmail.com .