I know I’ve said this before and I will probably say it again and again: It is amazing how the Bible is truly a Living Word because it changes with us. There is always something new that speaks to us or suddenly is revealed in a profound way, even when we’ve read the same words over and over.
Right now, my Bible studies have taken me to the Book of Exodus once again. This familiar story of the release of the Hebrews from the hardship of Egypt through miraculous signs and wonders, I’ve read almost constantly from grade school and onward. This time around, however, the story of the Israelities is taking on a new importance for me and has revealed something I had never noticed before.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among themthat you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord.” -Exodus 10:1-2 (emphasis mine)
Here’s the situation. Seven plagues have passed, sending Egypt into misery, but yet the Pharaoh refuses to let the Israelites go. God is about to release the eighth plague upon Egypt in the form of locusts which will devour all the crops that have survived a recent hailstorm. Before He does, He tells Moses that He is doing all of this so that all of Israel will be able to tell their children and their grandchildren about who God is and how He freed them from the bondage of slavery in which they had been trapped as a race for over 400 years.
That passage stuck in my head and was scarcely out of my head when I moved on a few chapters later to just before God released the tenth and final plague in which all the firstborn of human and animal in Egypt would die overnight. Before the tenth plague comes to pass, God instructs Moses how to commemorate this event into a holiday that would eventually become known as Passover.
When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.'” -Exodus 12:25-27 (emphasis mine)
As many of you already know by now, my wife and I will be expecting our firstborn child sometime at the end of August. This has been an exhilarating and crazy ride, one that I often have a hard time believing I’m on. During this anticipation period, I have been thinking long and often about how I would like to raise this new child and how to handle this responsibility.
One of the things that God has been revealing to me is what I’ve shared with you, that it is so vitally important that we tell our children about God. We HAVE tell our children (and just not our own children, but the children all around us) about what God has done for us, the miracles and the every day things. (Sometimes those things are one and the very same.) We HAVE to tell our kids about Moses, Samson, Gideon, Joseph, Jesus, Peter, Paul, Thomas, you, me, and how God is knitting all of us together using us as His thread and Jesus as his needles, and how one day we will all be together again in Heaven, eating from the Tree of Life, having fully ingested the apple of the Tree of Knowledge.
Whoever this child of ours turns out to be, whatever job he takes, whatever school she goes to, whatever experiences my wife and I are able to give him, the only important thing that I truly want for my child is for her to know God and what He has done for us and for him/her.
On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ -Exodus 13:8
-Matt
BiblechildrenEgyptExodusGodparentPassovershowteachtell
Our Children and Our Children’s Children
May 24, 2012
Calvary
Comments Off on Our Children and Our Children’s Children
Matt
I know I’ve said this before and I will probably say it again and again: It is amazing how the Bible is truly a Living Word because it changes with us. There is always something new that speaks to us or suddenly is revealed in a profound way, even when we’ve read the same words over and over.
Right now, my Bible studies have taken me to the Book of Exodus once again. This familiar story of the release of the Hebrews from the hardship of Egypt through miraculous signs and wonders, I’ve read almost constantly from grade school and onward. This time around, however, the story of the Israelities is taking on a new importance for me and has revealed something I had never noticed before.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among themthat you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord.” -Exodus 10:1-2 (emphasis mine)
Here’s the situation. Seven plagues have passed, sending Egypt into misery, but yet the Pharaoh refuses to let the Israelites go. God is about to release the eighth plague upon Egypt in the form of locusts which will devour all the crops that have survived a recent hailstorm. Before He does, He tells Moses that He is doing all of this so that all of Israel will be able to tell their children and their grandchildren about who God is and how He freed them from the bondage of slavery in which they had been trapped as a race for over 400 years.
That passage stuck in my head and was scarcely out of my head when I moved on a few chapters later to just before God released the tenth and final plague in which all the firstborn of human and animal in Egypt would die overnight. Before the tenth plague comes to pass, God instructs Moses how to commemorate this event into a holiday that would eventually become known as Passover.
When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.'” -Exodus 12:25-27 (emphasis mine)
As many of you already know by now, my wife and I will be expecting our firstborn child sometime at the end of August. This has been an exhilarating and crazy ride, one that I often have a hard time believing I’m on. During this anticipation period, I have been thinking long and often about how I would like to raise this new child and how to handle this responsibility.
One of the things that God has been revealing to me is what I’ve shared with you, that it is so vitally important that we tell our children about God. We HAVE tell our children (and just not our own children, but the children all around us) about what God has done for us, the miracles and the every day things. (Sometimes those things are one and the very same.) We HAVE to tell our kids about Moses, Samson, Gideon, Joseph, Jesus, Peter, Paul, Thomas, you, me, and how God is knitting all of us together using us as His thread and Jesus as his needles, and how one day we will all be together again in Heaven, eating from the Tree of Life, having fully ingested the apple of the Tree of Knowledge.
Whoever this child of ours turns out to be, whatever job he takes, whatever school she goes to, whatever experiences my wife and I are able to give him, the only important thing that I truly want for my child is for her to know God and what He has done for us and for him/her.
On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ -Exodus 13:8
-Matt
Share this:
BiblechildrenEgyptExodusGodparentPassovershowteachtell