Life by Death

Hi, and welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. I'm Mike Whitmer and I title today's reading, Life by Death. Carl was battling cancer and needed a double lung transplant. He asked God for new lungs but felt odd doing so.

He confessed, it's a strange thing to pray, because someone has to die so I might live. Carl's dilemma highlights a basic truth of scripture. God uses death to bring life. We see this in the story of the Exodus. Born into slavery, the Israelites languished under the oppressive hands of the Egyptians. Pharaoh wouldn't release his grip until God made it personal.

Every eldest son would die unless the family killed a spotless lamb and slathered its blood across their doorposts. Today, you and I have been born into the bondage of sin. Satan wouldn't release his grip on us until God made it personal, sacrificing his perfect son on the blood-spattered arms of the cross. Jesus calls us to join him there. Paul explained in Galatians chapter 2, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. When we put our faith in God's spotless lamb, we commit to daily dying with him, dying to our sin so we might rise with him to new life. We express this faith every time we say no to the shackles of sin and yes to the freedom of Christ.

We're never more alive than when we die with Jesus. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Exodus chapter 12, verses 5 through 13. 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 members 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 door frames 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 boiled in water, but roast it over a fire, with the head, legs, and internal organs. 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 of both people 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. Let us pray. Lord Jesus, your death brings us life. Help us die to sin today and live our lives through you. In your name we pray. Amen.