Imagining Strong: Passover

For the last two weeks, the lectionary readings in Exodus has given us two contrasting pictures of strong. With Shiphrah and Puah, we see a picture of strength as withstanding the onslaught of Evil. With Moses, we see a picture of strength as a person who in being weak, is now made truly strong because he has learnt to move in step with the One who is making all things new in our world. This week, we see a third picture of Strong -a united people, marked by the Passover. 

One of the ways we boast of strength is how long a civilisation has been around. On the website -China Highlights, China has the boast of being one of the four ancient civilisations of the world, together with Mesopotamia, Egypt and the peoples in the Indus Valley. In this sense, to be strong, is to withstand the test of time. We live in a world that is decaying and dying. Nothing lasts forever. So when we see something that can withstand the test of time, it is something of a wonder in our world. 

The children of Abraham, the nation of Israel is not one of the ‘great civilisations’ of the world. They do not compare to the ancient civilizations of the Chinese, Egyptian or Mayans. They are not studied with the Babylonian, Greek or Roman empires. And yet, today, we are still reading and being informed by their Scriptures -the TaNaK, and today, around the world, people preach, teach and live in the name of their Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. 

Almost 2000 years ago, a Jewish disciple of Jesus wrote about the Gospel of Jesus to the disciples in Colossae that it is “bearing fruit and increasing” in the whole world. When he wrote these words, the people formed by this Gospel was only found in a few parts of the Roman empire... today, his words could not be more true. 

The result of the Gospel of God, concerning Jesus is a people (Exodus 6:6-8, Acts 2:42, 15:14). A people united across cultures and languages, tribes and nations. A people united through the generations -grandfathers, fathers, and children and children’s children. A people who are withstanding the test of time.

In Exodus 12, we see the seeds of how God is uniting all the peoples of the earth, under His Banner.In and through the Passover, God brings a people together by our need for forgiveness; our redemptive journey towards His glory seen in Jesus; a commission worth giving our lives for -the salt of the earth, the light of the world. 

As you and I face the battles of the week, and the challenges ahead of us -let us not forget that we are part of a People who were created in Christ, our Passover Lamb to withstand the test of time. For His Name, and His Glory.