I am always struck by God’s impeccable sense of timing. As I have been praying about the Coronavirus in recent days and what our response, as Christians, ought to be, God brought to my mind the story of the first Passover in the Old Testament (Exodus 12). God had already sent 9 plagues to warn Egypt that they had better change their ways, but He was about to send the 10th and final plague - the plague of death.
He gave the Israelites, His chosen people, strict instructions to follow in order to avoid succumbing to the plague. Let me boil it down to 3 key points:
They were supposed to celebrate a Passover meal, and they were not to hoard it; they were to take only enough for their own family, and if they had too much to meet the needs of their own family, they were supposed to share any excess with their neighbors. … i.e. - they were supposed to act in faith, not fear, when it came to their resources. They weren’t supposed to ration or hoard, and they were supposed to be generous with others, and make sure the needs of others were met, not just their own. (Exodus 12:3-4)
They were supposed to stay in their homes until the plague had passed … the Lord was very clear; they were not to come out for any reason! (“… None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.” - Exodus 12:22 ESV) If they did this - if they followed the instructions God had given them, the plague of death would “pass over” them, thus the name “Passover”. Staying in their homes was not a sign of fear of the plague; it was a sign of faith and obedience.
Each year, they were to celebrate Passover as a way of remembering how God had spared them from the plague, and one of the ways they were supposed to remember was to make a sacrifice by not working! (Exodus 12:16) This required faith! To abstain from working and trust that God would continue to provide for them and meet all of their needs required a great deal of faith and sacrifice.
The irony is not lost on me. This year, we celebrate Passover on April 8, and Easter on April 12. At least here in Michigan, there is a Governor’s Stay-at-Home order until April 13th. We are being asked to do 3 things: not to hoard resources, to stay at home for 3 weeks unless absolutely necessary to get food, medicine, or other essentials, and to close our businesses unless they are deemed necessary to sustain life.
And what are many Christians doing? Whining, complaining, or insisting the rules don’t apply to them. I have seen many claim that it is an act of faith to leave their homes and go about “business as usual”. There was nothing about the first Passover (or each subsequent one) that was “business as usual”! This was a complete disruption to the way they normally did things, and God expected their obedience.
Hindsight is 20/20. When God gave them the instructions and required them to step out in faith and obey them, not a single person had died yet — not one. It must have seemed completely crazy to follow all of these strict guidelines when there didn’t appear to be anything all that bad happening in their part of the world. … But God knew what they did not. When the plague came, those who had not complied “… woke up during the night, and loud wailing was heard throughout the land of Egypt. There was not a single house where someone had not died.” (Exodus 12:30)
© I Lift My Voice, 2020.