Friday, Sept. 20
Exodus 12:14-51 Read it here
It’s always seemed odd to me that the story of the first Passover would also contain instructions for how it is to be commemorated. It seems like the people would have enough on their minds without planning future family dinners.
But there are times when things happen that we know will be landmarks in life. We may not plan the commemorations on the spot, but we know they will come.
I am of the generation that I remember where I was when I heard President Nixon resign, when I saw the Challenger explosion on live TV, and of course, when I heard of the 9/11 attacks.
President Kennedy’s assassination was within my lifetime, but before my awareness, but I heard my siblings recount their memories of it often enough that I almost feel I was there.
There are even things that happened long before I was born that still feel like they shaped the world I live in: The bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Texas City explosion, the Galveston Hurricane, the Civil War.
It is historical events that define a culture (which is why disagreements over school history curriculum get so emotional.) They re-shape not only how we live, but also how we perceive ourselves and the people around us.
All historical events, though, eventually fade from memory. Many are lost completely in the mists of time and others remain only as historical references with little capacity to evoke the meaning or emotion that made them memorable.
The escape of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt, though, still shapes the thought and self-awareness of much of the world’s population (Jewish, Christian and Muslim), about 3,300 years after it happened. Jacob may have been the father of Israel, but it was Moses that God used to shape its identity.