Hey guys! If you a Christian or you are/were around a Christian friend, you might have heard this word - "Passover". Memes like the one I have posted, may not be new to you. If you are wondering what in the world that means, this is just for you. π
Passover is a seven-day long Jewish festival. This year it is to be celebrated between 8th April till 16th April. Why is it called "the Passover"? Because God passed over the houses of Israel. Now that may sound like Greek and Latin. Let me explain…
The Israelites were slaves under the cruel Egyptian task-masters. God warned the Egyptian King (Pharoah) to let his people free through Moses. Pharoah did not bother and rejected the proposal straight out. God sent in plagues one after the other (water turned into blood; frogs, lies, darkness filled the land and so on) to remind him that He was in control of nature. The Pharoah would not budge. God again warned the final plague would be the most terrible of all. Pharoah only got angry at God and not sorry for his mistakes. He didn't want anything to do with God. This was the last and the scariest plague; every firstborn son in the land of Egypt would die - from the firstborn son of the king who sits on the throne to the firstborn farm animals would die. Did Pharoah listen and change his mind? Sadly not.
God told the Israelites if they want to be safe from the plague, that each family must take a year-old lamb without any blemish, cook it and eat that night. They had to take some of its blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they stay (Just like in the picture). Just as God said, the plague happened at midnight. Loud outcry was heard all over Egypt except in Goshen because the Israelites did exactly as God said. The plague did not attack the house which had the mark on its doorposts. The Israelites were safe because God passed over the houses that had the mark and did not let the plague have a say.
What does it have to do with COVID?
COVID is no plaything. It seems like the world is under a big shutdown - economies are crashing; governments are struggling to stop the spread of the virus. More dangerous than the virus is the panic and mental stress it has put on people. People for once are beginning to contemplate about death and things that really matter in life.
If you are someone who does not believe in God, then this might seem like a way nature balances itself (Thanos comes to mind) and you just don't have any hope. If you believe in God, you might be wondering what He is up to, like me π€.
Or like some Christians, you might be tossing out jargon like 'end-times', 'unrighteousness', etc. π
In obscure times like these, it is safer to dig back in time because invariably history repeats itself. Let's think about the plague in Egypt again. We just saw from the story of the Passover that the land of Goshen had hope even though it was right in the middle of plague-infected Egypt. What was that hope? If it was on the blood of the lamb, I'm sure all of us who know this story would have been right at the mutton shop when the outbreak happened. If it was eating the lamb that gave hope, then I'd be the first to order Roghan Ghosht from Swiggy. πSurprisingly the truth is much, much simpler than that.
God did a symbolic thing with the lamb. 1000 years after the first Passover, God came to the world in the form of a man named Jesus. Jesus lived a perfect life. He did good and spoke only good. Even an atheist is cool with that fact. But during a Passover celebration, His own people crucified Him. Now you may ask if He is God why didn't He save Himself? You are not wrong at all! He could have, but he didn't, just for you and me. Why you may ask?
The only way for a Holy God (who cannot tolerate sin) to pass-over your life and save you from the plague, is to become that blemish-less lamb and die for you. If you are like me you would be wondering, would it not have been simple if we just killed a lamb every time we sinned/ once a year on our birthdays? The sad but honest truth is that our sin is so dark that it takes something at God level to clean it. Though it is human to err, it is not like a food spill on our cloth that can be washed with detergent. Evil is buried deep in our hearts and it takes God to wipe it clean.
So, today, you have the lamb sacrificed, you have the blood in a bowl, figurately. What do you do? Just say, "Jesus I accept what you did for me. Please forgive the evil in me. Thank you for being the mark over my heart, that I am kept safe from plagues. Amen!"
What have you just done? You have bought yourself life insurance on your soul for eternity. Today it is COVID, tomorrow it could be something else. But now you now have hope - the hope of a pass-over; the hope that God protects you not just on earth but in your after-life as well. π
