The Passover (Part II)

By Odon Bulamba (18 April 2003)

Exodus 12:3-13

Here God compared those people and they had to comply with His rules, they were all told to take the blood and put it on the doorposts. If you didn’t do it then you would sacrifice your first-born. God knew the Israelites but He wanted them to respect His rules. I think that God knew every single house, but He wanted to see how obedient they were, He wanted the Israelites to work and put laziness aside. How will you find the blood of a lamb if you haven’t worked first to find a lamb? How will you find the blood of a lamb if you haven’t worked to find the knife first? And you as Christians, do you have Jesus’ blood in your life? What kind of knife did you use? The Bible says in the book of Hebrews, the Word of God is like a double-edged sword. If you need to know Jesus Christ in your life then accept that this Word will cut you and the blood will live in you.

When the angel came, he didn’t choose the name of Michael or Saeeda, the only thing He looked at was the blood. And for us, one day when Jesus will be back the only thing that God will ask us is if the Holy Spirit is in us, those who are sealed by the Spirit will be met in the air and those who are not sealed by the Spirit will stay here.

I knew a pilot who was very strong, he said that when Jesus returns I will go to the airport and take a plane to meet Him, because there will be a big crowd I will try to find someone and jump on him and hold him tight and then my plane will crash. But for how long will you hold onto someone, you will be tired if you stay like this in the air. This man said what can I do then? I said, it doesn’t cost you anything, just change your life and give it to Jesus, that’s all.

Many Christians today forget that day, they don’t even check to see if they have wings to fly, they don’t even check to see if they are ready to go and meet Jesus, everyone of us must find this courage, always wear your belt with you. The Bible says that the belt represents the Gospel and the Word of God, which means the truth, we are called to carry the belt of truth, many people wear the belt of arguments, the belt of disorder, the belt of pride or curse and other things, but we are called to wear a belt of truth. Jesus said, ‘I am the way the truth and the life’, so if you have Jesus Christ you have the truth and you have the way and you’ll have life also.

Let’s read John 13:34 a new commandment I give to you, even as I have loved you that you also will love one another.

It’s not about loving my sister because she’s my sister; it’s not about loving my husband because he’s my husband. My God talks to us about a divine love and a divine love is a perfect love, we are called to love one another. If the Israelites didn’t love one another they wouldn’t have travelled together. Love is a great secret in Christian life.

1 Cor 11:27-31 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgement.

This is the message, a lot of people get together the way that the Israelites got together around the Lord’s table, they are ready to open their Bible to take the bread but they don’t examine themselves, they don’t take time to think who am I, they don’t take time to think about what they are doing, and as a consequence they fall sick. There are two kinds of sickness, one is physical and one is spiritual. Sometimes they even find death, whether it’s physical death or spiritual death. So are we really ready to come to the Lord’s table? What is this Lord’s table? We must meditate on it, what is the Lord’s table? And who are called to come to this table, what does sickness mean, what does death mean and what does it mean to examine yourself?

Moses did what he had to do, because God helped him help the Israelites leave the place where they were, but at some stage Moses didn’t do anything, it was up to the conscious of everyone and up to everyone’s family to accept what God had asked them to do. Moses gave them the message, (I give you the message to be free), so Pharaoh let them go and they were free forever, but God also did something, He said to the Israelites you need freedom, I think that you should respect the rules that I give you and today Pharaoh will set you free. Many people on this earth, when the pastor talks to them they neglect it, when servants of God talk to them they don’t care about it.

On that day God didn’t come from heaven to talk to the Israelites, He used Moses. Whoever didn’t accept what Moses said and whoever doubted what he said would see death in his house the following day. As for us Christians let’s try to listen to what the servants of God are telling us, let’s try to respect the Gospel, if you doubt, try to check to know if what they are saying is true or not, but let’s respect the message because through man God speaks. This is how God works among man, it’s true that He reveals things to some people but we must be careful with the messages we are given.

The feast that the Israelites had, ended up with something very good on one side but on the other side it ended up with something very bad. Try to imagine there is a party and you go back home with swollen lips, if someone asks you what happened you’ll say someone punched me, so the party wasn’t good, but others go back home joyful, people ask them why are you happy? Because the party was really good. The Israelites had to finish the celebration with joy; they had to finish it with joy and honour. So how are we going to finish our feast on this earth?

On the earth we have joy, we eat whatever we want and we wear whatever we want and each person will say I’m to live because it’s a free gift. But how will this feast end, are you ready to finish this feast with joy or not? And if not, why don’t you think about it now, because when the angel of Lord will come some people will cry and others will laugh. When Jesus returns, some Christians will go and others will stay on earth. Those who are not serious will stay, the Bible says they will say, ‘Lord, I was your servant and I was this one’, but God will say, ‘I don’t know you, get out’. What a shame it will be on that day. Because you worked for God and did things for 10 or 20 years in your life but the master of your work says, I don’t know you.

So please take things seriously so that God will know you, if you are not recognised, woe to you. To be recognised, you must do something; for example here in New Zealand not everybody knows Chloe, if you put her on the road people will just say she’s a child, that’s all, but there are some famous people here, for instance if queen Elizabeth came to NZ I think everybody will know who she is. So Jesus also needs to recognise us, and to recognise us we need to make an effort. If a child is bright you’ll know it because of his work, and the teachers will recognise his name because they will know his work. As time goes the teacher might forget the names of the children but she’ll never forget the name of the bright child. On the other side the teacher will never forget the name of the child who is naughty, he will know that this one is trouble. It’s the same with Jesus, He recognises who belongs to Him and who doesn’t.

So please learn something from this Passover, freedom is there, redemption also. Moses did what he had to do and now it’s God’s time to do what He has to do. Boaz and Ruth also did what they had to do, Naomi also; it was complete freedom. I don’t know if you know what I mean but try to see a bit higher and you’ll understand.