Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“You shall tell your child on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, September 29, 2024
by Pr. Sara Gorman, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: Even when scripture makes God sound vengeful, God is also full of grace and mercy.
Having to slaughter an unblemished lamb in order to save your first-born child from death is something any parent would do. No matter how long it took to find the unblemished lamb, they would do everything in their power to save their child’s life. They would likely even give their own lives to save their child’s. That is what it is to be a parent. And while we may not always think that way, God is a parent too.
God watches over all of God’s children. God protects them from all harm when possible. God makes a way when it seems there is no way. God doesn’t tell the Israelites to figure it out and then leave them on their own. No, God gives them the exact directions of how to avoid the firstborn’s death. And if we don’t see that as gracious, we’re not seeing the whole picture.
Sure, we can stop at the question, “Why would God do such a thing in the first place?” But then we miss the next part. Even when we don’t understand, God still walks with us, and ensures we will not be alone. Throughout our life bad things are going to happen. In fact, they’re happening around you as you read this. These events usually don’t make sense because they are horrific, unnecessary, and as if God wanted this kind of thing to happen.
But we have to keep reading. There is more to the story. And while we might grapple with the reality that this event is happening, in the midst of it God is doing a new thing. God is writing a new story, taking the pain and the hurt and the confusion and using it to write our stories and impact others in a way we might have never imagined.
