God delivers and leads us

Exodus 13

The great deliverance of the Lord cannot be forgotten by Israel. God wanted them to deliberately keep it in mind and remember by way of observance year by year. If you keep things reminded, you don’t down play it. This was also to pass on the great act of God to generations to come. Not only were they to remember what He did in the past but to lead them to the promised land.

Three lessons we can learn from Exodus 13:

#1. Remember the deliverance by consecrating your firstborn. (Exodus 13:1-2, 11-16)

God does not only redeem us from darkness but He wants us to remember His work of deliverance. Hence, He commanded His people to consecrate the firstborn of beast and man to Him. The purpose was to institute the law of the firstborn which was to do with how a God struck all the firstborn of the beast and man of Egyptians when they proved stubborn to let His people go. It is not out of place to keep a memorial for the day of the Lord’s deliverance from evil or the day you were born again. We must not forget what God has done for us in the past. It serves as a faith booster when the enemy comes against us. 

#2. Remember the deliverance by the feast of unleavened bread. (Exodus 13:3-10)

Another aspect of the deliverance of the Lord is to remember the feast of unleavened bread. This is to celebrate when the Jews were moving from Egypt in haste after the Lord visited and struck the Egyptians. Unleavened bread is to be eaten in the period of the celebration in that time they didn’t have time to prepare. Whilst the law of the firstborn was about what God did against the enemy, the feast of the unleavened bread was about what Israel did on that same night of deliverance. We must remember what we did in the face of God’s deliverance. What was our attitude towards the great work of the Lord? We must not forget this.

#3. God leads His people out by day and by night. (Exodus 13:17-22)

In the last lesson, we see here that God led His people by the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea, Moses took Joseph’s bones along, and God led them by day in a pillar of cloud and by night in a pillar of fire. God did not only deliver them from the house of bondage but also led them to the promised land. God deals with us in the past and in the future. He is our present help in time of need. He did not deliver us to leave us on our own. He is with us. He is said He will never leave nor forsake us.

King David never forgot what God did for him by taking him from a low place and putting him on the throne as king of Israel. We must deliberately remember what God does for us and honour Him.

Take Action: Sit still and ponder over the deliverance of the Lord in your life.