Eat it in haste

‘And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s Passover.’

Anyone who doubts the power and authority of God they should study the plagues suffered by Pharaoh and the people of Egypt. They endured these things as a result of Pharaoh's hardening of heart against the request of Moses to let the children of Israel go.

One more plague was to come, and that was to occur on the children of Israel's final night in Egypt. The firstborn in the land of Egypt were to die, including those of the beasts of the field. None were to be spared. The children of Israel would be safe as long as they followed the Lord's commands.
A lamb without blemish was to be taken, killed, roasted on a fire and eaten in a certain way. The blood of this same lamb was to be sprinkled upon the side posts and upper door post of each dwelling.

At midnight when the destroyer came Israel would be saved by the blood. It was a dreadful night in which even the dogs remained silent!

In 2003 we are also saved through a sacrifice and shed blood. Not those of any ordinary lamb, neither those of our own choosing, but those of God's choosing, namely of His Son, Jesus Christ.
He was without spot or blemish, and He was hung on a cross and slain. The fire of God's fury was upon Him, and His blood was shed for sinners.

We are saved through this shedding of blood. We are born in iniquity. We are sinners from the time of our conception. We are destined for an eternity in Hell unless we are saved by grace.
God has provided a substitute to die and bear the punishment that our sins deserved. He is Jesus, the Lamb of God Who died in our room and stead. If we believe that He died for us, then through faith we accept His righteousness as our own.

His blood cleanses us from all our sins. We are no longer under condemnation. We are born again, not of the flesh but of the spirit.

It was the words, 'ye shall eat it in haste' that caught my attention this morning as I read this chapter. Why would they need to eat it in haste? Are we to do the same? The answer is that the matter of our salvation is an urgent business. Life is so unpredictable that we are not to leave it until another day. We are not promised tomorrow, and therefore we are to make haste in getting our house in order. We have business to do with God, and it must be done immediately.

Delay would mean death! It would mean being left behind! We are not to linger in Egypt, but we are to get out - fast!

Well do I remember the 6 months of anguish I had when, having heard the Gospel and being affected by it, I struggled in no man's land trying to believe! I did not know whose side I was on.
I wanted to be a child of God. I wanted to be saved. I wanted to rid myself of all that Egypt offered. But though I wanted to believe, yet it was the hardest thing on earth for me to do.

I feared death. I passed a cemetery every day going to and from my work and I feared that I would end up there before being saved. I feared a lost eternity, yet I knew that God would have been just in sending me there. I had sinned against Him and I did not have an Advocate.

It was not until my head knowledge became my heart knowledge that peace flowed into my desperate soul. The penny finally dropped and I believed with all my heart that Jesus Christ died for me on that cross outside the walls of Jerusalem.

We do everything else in our lives in haste. Should we not eat to our souls' satisfaction each morning from the Word of God? Should we not make haste to the Throne of Grace before the concerns of the day take over? Should we not make haste to be assured each day of our salvation?

If we have stumbled backwards and have once again wandered in Egypt's land, then we should make haste to get out. If not, then we shall soon be found in the gutters of that same land.