Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance
for the generations to come.
—Exodus 12:17
On the night of Israel’s emancipation from slavery, Moses instructed them to kill a lamb and brush its blood on the doorframes of their houses. Then they were to prepare and eat the Passover meal, so named because when God saw the blood, he would “pass over” that house, delivering it from the plague of death that was to ravage Egyptian homes.
Every year on the anniversary of that day, Israel was to observe the Passover, “So that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt” (Dt 16:3).
God wanted them to remember for their lifetime—and for generations to come—what he had done for them that night.
We face the future with confidence
when we remember God’s presence in the past.