Transformed – teen devotion – April 18, 2021
Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe… When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
Exodus 12:21-23
Passover
Do you eat a special diet? Do you know anyone who eats a special diet?
God gave his people, the Israelites, a special Passover diet in Exodus 12. The main item on the menu was a blemish-free lamb. God instructed Israel on how to prepare it, eat it, and even what to do with the lamb’s blood. They were to paint it on their doorframes—almost like a Halloween movie scene.
Why did the Lord give this special meal and these specific instructions? He was setting the table for his deliverance. The Israelites were enslaved in Egypt at the time. But the Lord would deliver them in a special way—through the blood of a lamb!
But lamb wasn’t the only food on the menu. The Israelites were to eat bitter herbs to remind them of their bitter slavery and need for deliverance. You probably don’t need to eat herbs to be reminded of bitterness. Are you lonely, sick, frustrated, afraid, or struggling with sin? The reminders of bitterness are all around every day. Like Israel, you need deliverance too.
God has provided your deliverance through THE Lamb! All those Passover lambs set the table for Jesus, THE ultimate Passover Lamb to come. Years later, a man named John the Baptist pointed directly at Jesus and said, “Look, THE Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29).
At the Passover, every family had its own lamb. Every Israelite archway was covered in blood. God made his deliverance personal. God makes his deliverance personal to you too. In bread and wine, Jesus gives his body and blood for your forgiveness. On the archway of your heart and the framework of your conscience, God paints the certain promise that Jesus has, does, and will deliver us too.
Prayer: Jesus, when I am reminded of the bitterness of sin and life in a sin-filled world, deliver me and renew me in your saving love. Amen.
