Exodus 12:11: 11 This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the Lord.
Prayer Focus: There is a sense of urgency in the way that God instructs the Israelites to eat their lamb. Those who share in this meal should be ready to depart from bondage in Egypt at a moment’s notice. This involves having their traveling clothes on, shoes on their feet, and staff in hand. We hear echoes of Luke 12:35-36, in which Jesus instructs: “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks.”
God’s liberative action in Egypt was not simply an isolated event that occurred long ago, but one that continues to unfold here and now. “Egypt” is any and every agent of abuse and oppression in the world today. When Passover is re-enacted as a liturgical practice, it is to be performed with the same urgency of those Israelite slaves. For if the agents of abuse and oppression in our world don’t produce urgency in us, then we have become far too comfortable in the “Egypts” of today. We run the risk of allowing the “Egypts” of today to become our permanent homes. We run the risk of being ill-prepared for the new promised land that God is leading us into. Today, I pray that we all might be alert and ready to take notice of the ways that God is at work in our world. May we hurriedly seek to depart our “Egypts” and instead take part in God’s kingdom.