GOD'S AMAZING LOVE

What amazing love that God would choose to give up His heavenly home to be born as a human baby just so we could have salvation.  

Today we had Communion at church - and the origin of the Communion commemoration was the night before the exodus of God's people from slavery in Egypt under a Pharaoh who didn't remember why thy were there in the first place.  

Back in Jewish history, Abraham had a son born to his wife, Sarah, named Isaac.  Isaac had twin sons, named Esau and Jacob, with Jacob conniving (with help from his mother) to be the one who got his father's blessing.  Jacob had 12 sons, but Joseph was very much a favorite, because he was born of the woman Jacob loved most.  Because of Jacob's favoritism to this son, the older brothers faked his death and sold him to merchants who were passing by where they were grazing their father's sheep.  Once in Egypt, he was sold to the ruler, Potiphar, and became a servant to him.  (I won't go into all that happened in his earliest years in Potiphar's service, but what a story!)

Eventually Joseph became a highly acclaimed leader, second only to Potiphar, and it was during that time that there was a horrible famine in his homeland, and his brothers came before him to buy grain. (Again another WOW! story.)  Ultimately it is a story of God placing him in the right place for the right time. It is a wonderful story, but not my current focus.  I just want to establish the basis for why the Hebrews (Israelites) were in Egypt.  Because of the famine, Joseph's entire family came to live in Egypt, and were treated very well because of Joseph.  And then time went by.  In fact, almost 400 years of time.  The Hebrews, who were the foreigners, grew to be a very large group, and the Pharaoh at the time was afraid they would also become powerful, so he enslaved them, using them to build the bricks to build his cities (and very likely the pyramids) until God sent someone to rescue them.  

That someone was Moses.  He was born to Hebrew parents, but hidden to escape Pharaoh's mandate to kill all Hebrew baby boys at birth. When he was too old to hide at home any longer, his mother hid him in a basket in the reeds at the edge of the river, and when the Princess came down to bathe she heard the baby, felt immediate love for him, and adopted him as her own.  Moses' elder sister was not far away that day.  She was watching over her baby brother from the shore, and immediately went to the Princess and asked her if she would like to hire a nursemaid.  The Princess said yes, and so it was Moses' own mother who nursed him and cared for him until he was old enough to be weaned.  

Moses grew up in the palace, but he didn't forget his heritage.  When he was about 40 years old he saw one of the Hebrews being abused by an Egyptian and he killed the Egyptian; and because of that had to run for his life.  But again God had a plan.  After 40 years in exile, God called Moses to return to Egypt to be the leader who would bring His people out of bondage. Multiple plagues ensued, with Moses pleading for Pharaoh to let his people go, with Pharoah's heart being hardened each time and saying no - until the final plague.  

God told Moses to have everyone prepare to leave, to prepare unleavened bread (think whole wheat crackers), and to kill a young lamb for each household, put some of the blood of the lamb over the top and sides of the doorposts of their houses, roast the lamb, and stay inside.  That night the Angel of Death passed through Egypt and killed the firstborn male of everything - both animal and people. But the Angel "passed over" the houses protected by the blood of the lamb.  No one in those homes died.  And finally Pharaoh relented (briefly) and told Moses to take his people and leave.  

That Passover was commemorated every year by the Jewish faithful up to the time of Jesus. And Jesus became the Passover Lamb, the perfect Lamb of God, the final sacrifice ever needed. On the night before He died on the cross, He celebrated Passover with His disciples, and he changed Passover from being about remembering their ancestor's rescue from Egypt to being about Him and the ultimate sacrifice He was about to make to provide salvation for all who would accept his sacrifice.  

So, when we drink the "cup", the grape juice or wine of the commemoration, we are remembering that His blood over the door of our hearts is our protection from eternal separation from God, i.e., eternal death; and when we eat the unleavened bread, we are remembering that Jesus said it was symbolic of his flesh that was wounded for us: a crown of thorns that pierced His head, the lashing of the whip that had pieces of metal hooks and rock attaches to the ends of the things to tear away the flesh, the spikes nailed through his hands and feet, the spear thrust through his side as he hung on the cross, the mediator between God and man.  Fully God.  Fully human.  Fulfilling the purpose He came to earth to do - to provide us Salvation.  

What amazing love.  That Jesus (God) would come as a baby, live in our broken world, and then choose to be the sacrificial lamb for us, to take our place, and be slaughtered to pay the price for all sin for all time.  The thousands of animals that were sacrificed as offerings were only symbolic.  He was and is the only one who can forgive us of Sin.  He did.  He does.  All we have to do is accept the gift of Salvation that he offers us.  

John 3:16  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life.  John 3:17  For God did to send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  He paid the price for our ticket to Heaven, but we have to reach out and accept it.