Just Add Water: Celebration as Commemoration

“The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.”

Exodus 12:47

I attended a powerful mid-week service in which the pastor used the Passover & Exodus stories (Exodus 12 – 14) as the basis of his sermon.  The pastor entitled his message “Just Add Water”, because he wanted to describe the transformation we undergo in our relationship with God when we pass through the red seas of life.

Pastor wanted us to understand the mindset of the Israelites at the time.  At the point where God gave His instructions and required that they celebrate Passover, the Israelites were still in bondage.  In fact, they’d gotten their hopes up several times.  Just at the point when it appeared that Pharaoh would relent and let the Israelites leave, God would harden Pharaoh’s heart again.

Pastor used Egypt as a metaphor for persistent challenges.  Some troubles are not removed quickly & completely.  We’ve all felt the disappointment & discouragement that comes when we think we’ve overcome a problem – and then it comes back.  That’s how the Israelites must have felt.

That’s why Pastor stressed the importance of celebrating the fact that God is with us.  It is also imperative that we celebrate every day.  Pastor said that, for every struggle we encounter, there’s also a secondary struggle that accompanies it.  The secondary struggle is the thought that God has abandoned us.  That thought is more dangerous than the original problem.  If we believe that God is with us, then we just take our troubles to Him.  If we believe that God has abandoned us, then we’re really in trouble.

Ultimately, though, God has the victory.  In Him, we also have the victory.  At the time of the celebration, the Israelites may not have known it, but God was about to put Egypt behind them – forever.  So when we celebrate, this is what we are celebrating.

1. God is with us.
2. He will provide for us.  That’s what the Passover meal was about.
3. We are redeemed.  We are no longer the property of sin.  The devil might want to mess with us, but he can only go “so far”.
4. We have peace with God.

In establishing Passover, God was instituting a celebration for future generations.  “On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt’.” (Ex. 13:8).

Pastor explained that God is a God of covenant.  Covenant confession is our agreement with what God says.  Covenant strength is us depending on the Lord to do all the work (Ex. 14:19-20).  Covenant law is God giving us a heart of flesh so that His law would be in our hearts (Ezekiel 11:19)

“The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.”

Exodus 14:13