“Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, “What do you mean by this service?” you shall say, “It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.”’ And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.
“Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.” Exodus 12:21-28
Moses knew the Lord would deliver Israel from Pharaoh’s servitude, but the promise seemed drawn out in coming. Initial hesitancy crept into courage, days followed days, plagued followed plague, and now the Lord prepared them for His final outpouring of wrath before the exodus. As the eternal God always intends, He directed them not just to immediate obedience to specific instruction, but to forever remembrance of His amazing deliverance. They responded as He was worthy, with humble, reverent worship. (Exodus 3:7-4:13; 6:2-11)
When God pledges His word, we are to take it as truth for now and ever. The immediate with our timeless God is always. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and so His pledges hold for present and future. What He promises to do is already accomplished within His supernatural providence, and we are to take encouragement that He will continue in His faithfulness. We are never to stop marveling at what He has already done, as that remembrance and praise remind us to look up, opening the way to heightened anticipation of seeing His hand yet again. Faith that is expectant in Him is faith that sustains any delay. (Psalm 119:89-90; Isaiah 55:8-9; Hebrews 13:8; 1 Peter 1:25)
Do we begrudge God’s daily demands, frustrated at the lack of immediate gratification? Do we get weary in waiting for fulfillment of His promises, and flag in hope and prayer and meanwhile gratitude? How might our expectancy rise if we increased praise along the way, recounting the glimpses we see of His grace, beauty, and power?
When God does act in a flourish of magnificence, do we thank Him at once and then forget, or maintain a spirit of ongoing gratitude? To repeatedly celebrate His goodness is to increase further expectancy and magnify the Lord. (Exodus 12:42)
Lord, let me never forget the power and glory of Your deliverance, and praise You with constancy, delight, and expectancy for Your ongoing faithfulness.
As the rain and snow 