Scripture for Sunday, May 28: Exodus 12:29-32
Additional Scripture: Acts 26, Hebrews 11:8-12, Revelation 4
Reading the Passover story is hard for two reasons.
One, this is one of the most familiar stories in the Bible--a landmark moment when God saves his people. We know how the story ends. It's hard to engage it with fresh eyes.
Two, we can quickly "pass over" the life-changing judgment experienced by the Egyptians on the way to Israelite freedom. If we pull up a chair in an Egyptian household, we catch other important dimensions of this story.
In the darkest hour of this night, God strikes the firstborn children of Egypt, from the least to the greatest, both male and female. Even the cattle are not immune. And in the middle of the night, great crying is heard--because, as Exodus 12:30 tells us, there was no house without a death.
One commentator likens this final plague to SIDS on a grand scale--youngest to oldest, the firstborn sons and daughters die in their sleep.
Do you hear the pain?
Pharaoh is caught in the difficult position of responding to both personal disaster and national crisis at the same time.
He calls for Moses and Aaron. "Get out of here! Go! Serve the LORD as you have said. Take your animals and get lost! And bless me also."
It is a terrible plague, a terrible picture, that leads to deliverance for the Israelites. What do we make of it?
There is a hint in Pharaoh's phrase, "Bless me also."
Up to this point in Exodus, the kingdom of Egypt has opposed the kingdom of God. Pharaoh has
asserted authority over God's people: Ordering the killing of not just the firstborn but all Israelite baby boys. Sentencing the Israelites to hard labor. Ruling as a god.
In this final plague, God does what he said he would do when he first called Moses in 4:21-23: he kills Pharaoh's firstborn son. In the plague on the firstborn, God makes a public statement of his claim over Egypt.
No, Pharaoh, you are not a god. The LORD is God.
It's as if for a moment, scales fall from Pharaoh's eyes. He catches a glimpse of what has been true all along: There is a creative, powerful, covenant-keeping God who rules a kingdom far bigger and far closer to his own reality than Pharaoh realized. The experienced reality of that power draws an uncertain confession of dependence and need from the lips of an all-powerful king.
We celebrate Christ's Ascension this week. And we remember that Christ is ruling at God's right hand, reigning over us, ruling over the kingdoms of this world--and that the veil that separates his reign from our vision is paper thin.
Honor, glory and power belong to him.
1. Hebrews 11 and Acts 26 give us pictures of how God's people in different times have navigated the tension between kingdoms of this world and God's kingdom. How might God's Spirit use them to strengthen our own vision of his rule?
2. Revelation 4 invites us into the throne room of God. This week as you experience conflicts between the authority of God and the authority of the powers of this world, ask God to remind you that a suffering, risen, ascended, triumphant Jesus who loves you rules as Lord of all.
