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For I will pass through the land of Egypt that
night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human
beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgements: I am
the Lord. The
blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the
blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the
land of Egypt. (Exodus
12:12-13)
Lamb’s
way
It is difficult to think that God would be the cause
of deadly plague. And it doesn’t help to suggest this was necessary because
only an ocean of tears could release Egypt’s grip on Israel’s throat.
The firstborn of the Egyptians included little
children, innocents, mourned by mothers and fathers who had nothing to do with Pharaoh’s
enslavement of the people of Israel. Most of them likely suffered themselves
under his heavy hand. It’s totally unfair that they should suffer for the sins of
the tyrant who ruled them.
You could say the lamb whose blood was smeared on
Jewish doorposts was equally undeserving of the death it suffered, just like
Jesus who centuries later was labeled the Lamb of God because he suffered
without complaint, though innocent.
There’s a trajectory from the blood of the lamb to the
blood of the Lamb. The first delivers one people and the latter delivers everyone,
right down to us today—plus everyone and everything else that will ever be.
At the end of things, God promises to wipe every tear
from every eye, which must include those ancient Egyptians grieving for their
little ones, not to mention every person who ever suffered because of the sin
and selfishness of others.
Still, the idea that God visited a plague killing so
many innocents in Egypt remains no less troubling. But just maybe the idea that
this was God’s work is just a matter of perception. Maybe the plague was
natural occurrence those in bondage interpreted as God’s intervention to break
the oppressor’s grip.
Maybe God is just as sad about dead Egyptians as about
the atrocities some of their number savaged upon the people of Israel. Maybe
the blood of Jesus, the Lamb, is the tears of the God who absorbs the immensity
of sin and suffering of every time and place that we might see the Love who bears
all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things—refusing ever to curse or hate.
Maybe looking at him we might finally understand the
way of love that redeems the world, the lamb’s way.
Pr.
David L. Miller
