Don't you love to know a secret? Or how about reading a mystery? Proverbs 25:2 says "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing; but the honor of kings is to search out a matter." Wow! I want to know the mysteries of God!
This week is considered a holy week because it represents the final week of Jesus' life, his death, burial and resurrection. It is a time to remember. But there is the "rest of the story"! The mystery of God, which was concealed from the time of Moses, yet revealed in Christ. Let's go back to the beginning of the mystery of Passover.
What would you do if you were instructed by someone in authority over you to do something very strange, at a time when you were at your wit's end, frazzled from being in a hard season for a very long time, feeling like you were going round and round the same mountain with no help from your God or your friends? That is exactly what happened to the children of Israel as told in Exodus 12.
Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, "This month shall be the beginning
of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying 'On the tenth of this month, they are each one to take a lamb for themselves according to their fathers' households, a lamb for each household. Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male, a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. And they shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. Now you shall eat it in this manner, with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste - it is the Lord's Passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike down all the first born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments - I am the Lord. And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live, 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."
They had all just been told a divine secret of the holy kind.... you do this, and I will do this.
(But it is our secret.) Because they obeyed, and followed his instructions, they were let in on the secret!
They tasted and they saw his goodness, his faithfulness, his deliverance.
Not only that, they were told "Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord through your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance. Permanent means existing perpetually, everlasting, especially without significant change; intended to exist or function for a long, indefinite period without regard to unforeseeable conditions.
Little did they know that hidden in this tradition, was a divine secret of the holy kind, a mystery not yet revealed, that it was a type and shadow of Christ, God's first and only Son, whose blood was to be shed for us as He carried the weight of our sin and was nailed to the cross, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Because the Jewish people have kept the Word of the Lord, as a perpetual covenant, it has kept them. Often, we, as Christians, have not taken seriously that the Passover Meal was the Last Supper, the final meal the Lord ate with his disciples. In Luke 22, the Bible tells us exactly what he said, sharing divine mysteries with his disciples about the details and because they listened and obeyed, they were privileged to share a meal with him which was the holiest meal which has ever been eaten this side of heaven. He revealed to them as they ate the unleavened bread "This is my body, which is for you, do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, he took the cup also, after supper saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." He revealed the Divine Mystery of the Passover Meal that the children of Israel had kept since the time of Moses, the time of their exodus from Egyptian bondage. It had been a type and shadow, a mystery concealed which was now revealed.
Have you partaken in the Divine Mystery? Has he revealed to you His Holy Plan for your life?
Are there specific instructions he is giving you that make no sense? Just listen and obey. There is no other way. Have a blessed day!
