Title Keep the Passover/Numbers 9:1-5
Contents Keep the Passover/Numbers 9:1-5, Matthew 26:17-19
Israel and Korea are similar in many ways. One of them is historical experience. Just as Korea suffered from numerous foreign invasions during its long history of half a million years, Israel has also suffered countless foreign invasions since Genesis until today. Just as we had the experience of losing our entire nation at times when we were invaded by numerous foreign powers, Israel also has the experience of losing its nation. And just as we regained the country that had been taken from Japan, according to the text, Israel also tasted liberation from Egypt. And just as Korea overcame trials and tribulations and became an independent country, hosted the Olympics and became the world's 11th largest economy, Israel is small, but it is showing its strong potential among the world's powers.
Today's text introduces the most fundamental and essential reason why Israel was able to overcome the numerous crises and triumphs. That is, they kept the Passover. In other words, because Israel kept the Passover, they were able to overcome many crises and trials and build a strong and reliable nation. This is a valuable lesson for us today.
1. What is the Passover?
The Israelites entered Egypt under the leadership of Joseph. However, in Exodus 1:8, it is said that a king who did not know Joseph came to rule Egypt and the Israelites became slaves overnight. They are subjected to indescribable abuse, and are taken to the construction of a national treasury and subjected to unbearable labor. Even the birth of a boy is terribly painful to kill. This is 430 years. The biggest problem for them is that the long-term slavery has made slavery deeply ingrained in their bodies and minds.
What is slavery? First of all, slavery is a state of lack of ownership. Slaves cannot run their own lives according to their will. So, I have no will to carve out my own life. You always look out for others and live your life in a way that tells you to do whatever it takes. I live in a state of despair. Next, slavery is a heteronomous state. Slaves work only when someone tells them to move, and only when someone lifts a whip. They don't know how to move on their own. And slavery is a state of dependence. Slaves depend on their masters. They only look at the owner because they eat only when the owner feeds them, and can only wear them when the owner puts them on.
Because of this kind of slavery, the Israelites have been living as slaves for 430 years without dreaming of liberation. Exodus 2:23-24 says, “The children of Israel groaned and cried because of their torment, and the voice of their cry came up to God because of their torment. When God heard the sound of his suffering, he remembered the covenant he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” God had compassion on Israel and remembered the covenant he made with them. So he called Moses and raised the people of Israel out of Egypt and set them free.
The Passover is a kind of Liberation Day in Israel that was observed to commemorate God's liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. As mentioned earlier, the Israelites were in a state where they could not save themselves. And because of his slavery, he was in a state where he could not even dream of escaping from Egypt on his own. God saved these people of Israel. Therefore, the Passover tells us that God saved the Israelites who were completely incompetent by the power of God.
The Passover gives us a strong message. That only God can save us. Only God can essentially solve our problems.
2. Why should we keep the Passover?
In today's text, God commanded us to keep the Passover. In verse 1 of the text, He commanded us to keep the Passover from the year immediately after we came out of Egypt. And in verse 2, He commanded us to keep the Passover at its regularity. In addition, in verse 6 and below, God Himself has stated the specific rules for keeping the Passover.
God sternly commanded us to strictly observe the Passover. Then why was God so obsessed with keeping the Passover? Why is keeping the Passover so important?
First, in order not to forget the past.
In verse 11, God told the Lamb to eat both unleavened bread and bitter herbs. According to Exodus 12:8, on the night the Israelites left Egypt, they came out without preparing their meals properly because they were in a hurry to leave. So they ate the meat of the lamb they had slaughtered to put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts. In particular, Exodus 12:11 tells us to eat quickly, with a belt around your waist, sandals on your feet, and a staff in your hand. And since I couldn't afford to make good bread for a week while I was out in the wilderness, I had no choice but to eat unleavened bread.
God told us to keep the Passover to remember the events of this time. What they remembered while keeping the Passover is their past. If God had not saved him, he was forever remembering the miserable past of our ancestors, who had no choice but to live as slaves in Egypt.
Historian Arnold Toynbee said that great people never forget the lessons of history. Great people, great people don't repeat the same mistakes. But the poor nation, the poor character, repeat the same mistakes. It is easy to forget lessons from the past. Because they don't listen to the lessons of history.
Every year we celebrate Liberation Day to commemorate the day we took back our country from Japan. This annual observance of Liberation Day means that we should not forget our past and remember the lessons of history. Unfortunately, Liberation Day seems to be increasingly formally celebrated.
Seodaemun Prison was notorious for torturing and imprisoning patriots during the Japanese colonial era. It is now managed as a park, and the past patriots who were tortured and imprisoned are preserved as a lesson in history. If you go there, you will find the room where Martyr Ryu Gwan-sun was imprisoned. When I listened to the janitor, I noticed that in the room, the walls and the floor were filled with scribbles written with fingernails at the time when Ryu Gwan-sun was imprisoned. However, while the building was being repaired, all the writings were erased with white paint under the direction of the superior.
A thought came to me when I went to the Jerusalem Holocaust Museum. On the walls of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Germany, I saw that they took pictures of the inmates' graffiti that they had scribbled with glass pieces with their nails, and displayed them, explaining the meaning of the graffiti in detail. Even with the permission of the German government, I saw them take the graffiti pieces and display them like some kind of treasure.
Suddenly, two peoples were compared. There are peoples who take graffiti from other countries, cherish it and pass it on to future generations, and people who unconsciously erase graffiti from patriots in their own country with paint. Here is the difference between the people who keep the Passover and the people who don't.
Don't forget the memories of the hard times. Do not forget the memories of difficult times. Those memories will help you overcome today's difficulties. It will make you stand up again.
Second, to depend only on God.
In Text 9:10, “Speak to the children of Israel and say, Whether you or any of your descendants become unclean with a dead body or are on a long journey, you ought to keep the Passover before the Lord.” What we need to pay attention to here is the command to keep the Passover before the Lord. Keeping the Passover before the Lord has the following three meanings.
The first is gratitude. As the Israelites kept the Passover before the Lord, they realized that without God, they could not have been saved like this. And thank you and give all glory to God. There are people among us who sometimes forget the work of God and take away the glory that is due to God. There are people who secretly boast about themselves. That is pride. We can truly keep the Passover before the Lord only when we cast away pride.
The second is commitment. The Israelites kept the Passover before the Lord and vowed to continue to live as God's people. There are people among us who have received God's wonderful grace and yet do not live as God's people. 9:13 As the saying goes, there are those who are in danger of being cut off among the people. Now we must repent and return. Only then can you keep the Passover before the Lord.
The third is supplication.
As the Israelites kept the Passover before the Lord, they prayed that they would continue to keep and guide them. There are people among us who have experienced the great grace of God and are now managing their lives with their own strength. Rather than clinging to God and relying on Him, there are those who believe in their own strength, their talents. We must sincerely realize our shortcomings and pray for God's help. Only then can you keep the Passover before the Lord.
In fact, it is God who gave liberation to this nation. It was not because of the efforts of the Provisional Government of Shanghai. It was not because of the dedication of the independence forces of Manchuria, Japan and the patriots who were scattered in the United States. We believe that God heard the prayers of the Korean church, and we suddenly tasted liberation in God's way.
We need to sincerely thank God, make a promise before God, and pray fervently before God. And personally, our members must keep the Passover before God. We need to thank God, make a promise before God, and pray before God. God blesses those who keep the Passover before Jehovah.