And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover. —
Exodus 12:11
All days are not the same. There are defining moments that the rest of our lives hinge on. In those moments, every second counts and the cost of one mistake can be significantly amplified. Leonard Ravenhill once said, “The opportunity of a lifetime needs to be seized during the lifetime of the opportunity.” In those defining moments of our lives, we cannot afford to be slow, casual, indifferent or tentative. That would be too costly.Exodus 12:11
Israel had waited 430 years for this moment. After nine consecutive plagues, Pharaoh had stubbornly refused to let them go because God had hardened his heart. The angel of death was about to destroy the first born of Egypt and finally force their release. The Passover feast was to be celebrated by Israel the night before their release. God had given them instructions in painstaking detail about the kind of lamb, its preparation, the smearing of the blood on the doorposts, among others.
In our key verse, God highlighted the kind of posture they must adopt during the celebration. They were to eat the meal in haste, fully dressed up and ready to move. This was definitely not the time to recline and chat lazily as they enjoyed the delicacies. What did the instruction about their dressing and posture communicate? There was a need for a sense of urgency and readiness. When you’ve waited so long for a major opportunity, you cannot afford to let it slip because of your slow pace or poor judgment. Nothing should be allowed to go wrong.
Prayer:
Lord, open my eyes to significant moments of opportunity and help me to always respond with urgency and alacrity.Scripture Reading:
Exodus 12:3-14
YearOfExcellence
