A NIGHT OF WATCHING

"I read something new last week..." I flipped back through the pages of Exodus, searching for the passage that had so recently jumped out at me.

"But, Mom, haven't you already read that before? How could there be something new?" Nathaniel asked.

"That's what's so amazing about this book -seems like no matter how much you read it, there's always something new." Always something I didn't notice before, or that I noticed and then forgot, so that it seems new with a fresh reading.

Yesterday, for example, one little piece of a verse struck me as odd, got stuck in my head where it turned over and over in the mulling machine. Exodus, Chapter 12 - the Passover, the death of the firstborn, the sudden expulsion of the Israelites from Egypt. At precisely the planned moment - exactly 430 years to the day - God delivered His people ("the hosts of the LORD" - v. 41) from bondage. Then, verse 42 begins, "It was a night of watching by the LORD, to bring them out of the land of Egypt..."

A night of watching by the LORD... It's as if all of God's attention was focused on this one event. He was watching, waiting, ready to spring the gate. Quietly working in a mighty way to liberate His people. The time was....NOW!

Reading through that piece of a verse yesterday, it seemed to me as if all of Scripture was about that one event, that one moment. It seemed as if God was looking through time and space once again at His people, trapped and miserable in their slavery, watching...and compelling me to "Look!" My mind fixed on that one moment. Watching, waiting...was ever a night so pregnant with tension and anticipation?

A night of watching by the LORD... Then another such night came to mind. A similar passage. A Passover feast. The imminent death of the firstborn. And these words, recorded in Matthew 26: "...remain here and watch with me...watch with me...watch and pray..." A night of watching by the LORD, by Lord Jesus. It's as if all of God's attention, all of Scripture is focused on this one event.

Was there ever a night so pregnant with tension and anticipation?!

The bonds are broken. The gate is sprung. The time is NOW!