Today feels like a new beginning. It was nice to have Sunday School again and to have a little more on our schedule. I am also confident that things will only improve in our area and we will see new things each day. Today’s passage starts a new beginning for God’s people who have been held captive in the land of Egypt for 400 years. Our story today, finds Moses, the one called by God to lead the Israelites to freedom, and his brother Aaron, feeling defeated after the ninth plague was not taken seriously by the Pharoah. They probably didn’t know what they could possibly do next as more time ticks by when harm being done to their people. Yet the beautiful thing is God is never done. God had more in store for Egypt and this time it seemed like God was telling them to be prepared, for this time would be different.

Pray and Read Exodus 12:1-14

A New Beginning

For the Hebrew people of this time, living in Egypt, it was March, getting close to April (if we are comparing the time to our calendar) really for them, it was the month of Abib, later called Nisan. The end of the year would be about now, what we call September. Before to many of us begin to over analyze and try to contemplate the comparison between three different calendars we are talking about, let us stick to thinking about how Moses and Aaron have just been told to forget the civil calendar of the Egyptians because God was creating for them a new one and it begins now. Nisan became their first month of their new calendar. Basically, God was saying that their new year, begins now. It may have been in the middle of the year for Egyptians, but God was going to give the Hebrew slaves a new beginning.

Get Ready to Celebrate!

God doesn’t tell them how to escape their harmful situation, instead God tells them to have a celebration of sorts, a time of praising God and feasting and fellowship with one another. God lays out the plans, detail by detail down to the day and what they are to do each day of this new month or at least for half of the month. I wonder what Moses and Aaron thought about when God starting telling them to tell their people to prepare a celebration before telling them how they would be rescued from Egypt. I wonder what was the chatter in the Israelite camp after hearing these instructions from the Lord. How can they safely do this that God was commanding them. One day they would not be allowed to work, yet they were slaves and it wasn’t normal for them to get a vacation day, especially not all of them at one time. Also, what were they celebrating anyway, nothing good has happened yet. They have only seen and in some cases in around some really difficult times in the land where they lived. God doesn’t always tell us just what miracles He will perform on our behalf. Even in the toughest times, we just have to trust that God has our best interest at heart.

Get Ready to Go!

God also told Moses to tell everyone that when the fourteenth day came to have their stuff packed, sandals on and staff in hand. It was going to be time to leave very soon afterwards. God didn;t tell them the exact time, but told them to be right for when the time came, they would all be leaving quickly. They didn’t know how they would escape. They knew of the devastation that was coming upon the Egyptian people. If I were one of them, I would be wondering if it would be possible for us to just leave before the hand of death came upon the people. Why did they need to stay through that? God had a plan, and they needed to trust God’s plan. They needed to do exactly as He told them to do, and trust they they would be okay. Just be ready to move, even in the night of fear or the sorrow of the aftermath, just be ready to go.

Get Ready to See God’s Work

This is the final plague out of ten all together against the people of Egypt who have held the Hebrews captive. This final act of vengeance from God may seem really harsh. It is just that, revenge. For a long time, Hebrews have been enslaved to do harsh labor with unfair treatment, as well as seen their children killed by the Egyptians (remember the story of the birth of Moses?)

The bad that was going to happen to the people of Egypt would be devastating, even scary for the Israelite people to witness. In the darkest, saddest, scariest of times, God just may be working in our favor. We may have to endure a little pain now, but the future will make it all worth it. We may see chaos right now, but later, it will make sense. We may have to change where we are, what we are doing and go into the wilderness not knowing if any good will come from it, but just our faith to know that God is with His people. Pain may last for the night, but Joy comes in the morning. The main thing is to stay steady, be prepared, be strong and trust in the Lord.

Moses and Aaron were not to follow God alone.

It was the whole congregation, getting a sacrificial lamb or goat, and sharing with someone if they had excess. It was the whole congregation coming together as they could to praise God and show thanks for something they haven’t even seen yet. It took the whole congregation stepping out in faith and doing what God commanded each of them to do. Moses and Aaron wasn’t going to do it for them. If each of them joined together, then together that would see a new day and they would see their victory.

Now is the time for us to do the same. It seems hard, there is just to much going on. The death, the darkness, the destruction, the illness is everywhere. Satan doesn’t want us to see a new day. The enemy would be happen if we pulled the cover over our eyes and gave up. I know you have heard me speak for almost a year now about a Great Awakening and many of you are probably still wondering what that is or if that is real. I know it is, I feel it coming. I want you to know it is real and feel it coming just as much as you know Jesus is the son of God and that He is coming back soon. I need you with me, I need you to have faith in things we haven’t seen but will see soon.

This past week, I was looking through the cabinets in my office when I found a conceptual building plan that was purposed to our church 25 years ago. I knew it existed, in talking with a few people but to actually see the plan, it made me tear up a bit. You see, one of the first things that I envisioned for this church when I became pastor was to build a new, second yet bigger Sanctuary. I only told maybe three people of this very crazy idea. Let’s face it, right now we don’t have the people or the money to build on to our church. But we will. I know we will. God has told me that we will. I don’t know when or how, but I know someday we will see it. Today is the first day in our journey to see a new day. We are heading towards the promise. It won’t be easy, maybe not everyone will see it. But I have faith that it will happen. By God’s will, and if we are faithful to God, we will see the Great Awakening happen before our very eyes. Do you believe it?