Coming To God His Way

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

It's been a while since we've updated this blog, but since we started our Going Deeper: Reading Through the Bible in a Year, I'm going to try to write more often based on some of those passages that we're going through each week.

Recently, we dove into the book of Exodus and one of the central themes of the Bible that runs from Genesis to Revelation has really stood out to me during the story of the Passover: If we're going to come to God it has be His way. It can't be our way, or a way that we've made up. It's either God's way or nothing.

Remember how God refused to accept Adam and Eve's clothing that they made for themselves in the garden? Or how he refused to accept Cain's offering? God gave Noah specific instructions for building the ark. And he gave specific directions to the people of Israel in Exodus for the 10th and most devastating plague found in Exodus 12. Here are the some main points taken from Trevor McIllwain's Firm Foundations:

1.They had to choose a lamb without blemish.

Think back to the ram that was caught in the thicket and was sacrificed in the place of Isaac. He was caught by his horns so that he would be an acceptable sacrifice.

2. They had to kill the lamb.

Its blood had to be allowed to flow out and was a reminder to the Israelites that the punishment for sin is death.

3. They had to place the blood on both of the doorposts and above the door.

It was the blood on the doorpost that would save their firstborn from the judgment of God during the night.


4. They had to stay inside the house until the morning.

They couldn't leave the house where the blood had been applied to the doors until the morning.

5. They couldn't break any of the lamb's (or goat's) bones.

This last point is important later on in Scripture. We'll probably get there in a few months!

God kept his promise and he passed through Egypt during the night executing judgment upon the land. All of the Israelites who followed his instructions were spared the lives of their firstborn.

And God hasn't changed! We can't come to God our own way or by our own means. It has to be by the way that he has instructed.

And, for us, in 2010 Apex, NC, that way is Jesus Christ.