Thursday, February 07, 2008
Engaging every fiber of our being - Cherish
This is a really backdated post... I had intended to post this just at the begining of 2008, somewhere when it was probably much easier to be sensitive about things coming to an end, and something new begining. And not now, when the 'its over' feeling has long ended, and everyone is settled in their new positions. But perhaps the lateness of this entry due to procastination is a revealing reminder to our ability in expressing appreciation and grattitude. The more emotionally atuned might commit themselves to mementos, rituals and even
closures. But as we move on in our finitude- time becomes a balm for wounds, a purger of the old and an invitation to the new.
Yet...
"...it isn't easy to burn intimate documents that are dear to you; it would be like admitting to yourself that you won't be here much longer, that tomorrow you may die, and so you put off the act of destruction from day to day... Man reckons with immortality, and forgets to reckon with death." -- Immortality, Milan Kundera
The book of Exodus in the bible devotes 3 entire chapters to the Passover.
Exodus 12:1-17
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire head, legs and inner parts. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover.
"On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn both men and animals and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
"This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD -a lasting ordinance. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat that is all you may do.
"Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.
Besides being particular instructions for the Israelites to follow in the past, Christians today recognise the event having two important representations: It parallels to the Holy Communium, which in turn points towards the sacrifice of Christ. On a larger picture, it parallels the Israelites' redemption from slavery in Egypt into the promiseland, which in turns points towards the Christian's Journey, from bondage to Sin to freedom in Christ.
The lamb of the blood is needed for the Israelites to realise that something needs to pay the price - The lamb had died in the place of the first born in the home. The manner of eating the passover, in haste, was for the Israelites to recall the readiness in faith they had to possess while in Egypt (they were disappointed 9 times, over 9 plagues on Egypt before they were released) The purpose of the unleaven bread was to indicate renewal - there was no need for old yeast, as God had granted them a brand new start.
The potrait of the passover is thus a memento, a ritual and something that points forward. The historical significance of the Israelite's freedom from Egypt is important, but so is the perspective in terms of what it stands for in macro terms. The Christian God is a God who remembers. A God who recognises human nostialgia and gives us a time frame and processes to remember Him by.
And appropirately so, since we're so forgetful creatures. Beings who flirt with the experience of nostialgia, and yet regret not appreciating the moments we cherish.
"I can't live in a world without a past." -- Danial (until he tells me which emo comic he took that from. lol.)
Labels: Life, muse
_____________Zoneseekers..::
by a perspective that relies on the author of Truth...
3:39 PM
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