Day 31

Institution

To Start

Sit in surrendered silence.

Pray

Yahweh, breathe your Spirit into my lungs. Translate Your Word into language my heart can understand.

Read

Read Hebrews 11:27-28 & (if you have time) Exodus 12:21-28.

As you read…

• Ask God, “What do you want to show me?”

• Consider: What did Moses do by faith? Compare and contrast verse 27 and verse 28.

• Take a few minutes to meditate on these two moments in Moses’ life. Imagine what it felt like to be Moses. In the moment when he tells the people about Passover, where is he? What’s in his hands? What’s he wearing? What’s he feeling? What’s he wondering? Try to see the faces of the people he leads. Play this moment like a movie in your head.

• Why does instituting the Passover take faith?

Hebrews 11:27-28 (CSB)

²⁷ By faith he left Egypt behind, not being afraid of the king’s anger, for Moses persevered as one who sees him who is invisible. ²⁸ By faith he instituted the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch the Israelites.

Exodus 12:21-28 (CSB)

²¹ Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select an animal from the flock according to your families, and slaughter the Passover animal. ²² Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and brush the lintel and the two doorposts with some of the blood in the basin. None of you may go out the door of his house until morning. ²³ When the Lord passes through to strike Egypt and sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, he will pass over the door and not let the destroyer enter your houses to strike you.

²⁴ “Keep this command permanently as a statute for you and your descendants. ²⁵ When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, you are to observe this ceremony. ²⁶ When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ ²⁷ you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians, and he spared our homes.’” So the people knelt low and worshiped. ²⁸ Then the Israelites went and did this; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

From JL

About ten years ago I got invited to speak at a large Christian conference. It would be the largest room I’d ever addressed (by far). A few weeks before the event I ordered copies of a book I’d written to sell at a table in the lobby. I ordered six boxes—hundreds of books.

What was I thinking?

The day of my talk I was terrified. To take the edge off I window-shopped in the official conference bookstore. They had logo t-shirts and notebooks, the usual. But then I saw this wide brass bracelet with the conference theme stamped into it—“Trust His Path.”

I liked it. I like all giant brass jewelry, but I especially liked this. It had taken a lot of trust to get to this moment. It would take even more to get through my talk. Even more still to sit at my book table with an embarrassing number of books waiting for homes like little orphaned kittens.

I thought to myself, If this all works out, if I do well with my talk, if the books sell, if it seems like God’s doing something, I’ll come back and buy this bracelet as an altar—a reminder of how God showed up.

But I knew as soon as I thought it—That’s not how trust works. You don’t buy the bracelet after God shows up. You buy the bracelet before God shows up because you trust He will.

So I bought it, and I wore it, and the whole talk felt charged and alive. I could tell even from on stage, God was doing something in the seats.

After I finished, I walked to my table where a line had formed—a line 50 women deep at least. I sat down and started signing books, but more than signing books, I was listening—listening to story after story of God’s faithfulness. I met so many women that night. I heard more stories than I could properly hold in my head. I talked to woman after woman for more than two hours that night. I prayed with some. I hugged others. I made friends I still have today, and I sold all the books.

There was no question—God had wanted to use me that night. He had a plan, and He intended to execute it. I was nervous because I thought I was going to mess it up. But I bought the bracelet by faith because I believed He wasn’t going to let me.

This is the story I think of when I think of Moses instituting the Passover meal, a celebration of God’s faithfulness in delivering Israel from the angel of death. Why? Because Moses created a holiday and commanded its celebration before the event had even happened.

Moses says to Israel in Exodus 12,

When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ ²⁷ you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians, and he spared our homes.’”

He says “for he passed over” (past tense) while the passover is still in the future.

Moses expects God’s faithfulness. Moses “trust[s] His path.”

That’s how you live by faith: You expect the future God’s planned. You bank everything on His path.

Process

Every day it feels like we’re discovering a new way to live by faith. Today, Moses showed us that you can leave something behind by faith. And, by faith, you can start something new.

• When have you had to leave something behind because of your faith in God?

• When have you needed to start something new?

• Is God calling you to leave something behind right now? Is He asking you to start something new?

In the Comments

I grew up in a no-religious-holidays faith community—no liturgy, no Christmas, no Easter. I have since rebelled and made Advent and Easter my whole personality.

• Do you observe any spiritual traditions or holidays?

• What’s your favorite one? Why?

• Does it take faith to celebrate it?

Godspeed,

JL