A Shared Sacrifice

Scripture: And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Exodus 13:4

Observation: God is giving His people instructions for the Passover. As part of this ceremony, households were to select their best lamb and sacrifice it for the meal. Here, tucked away in a detail, we find instructions for those households that are too small, too poor to own a lamb. In this case, they are to partner with a neighbor to share a lamb.

Application: God is so gracious to think of this. Certainly there would have been many homes where a lamb was a luxury. I can imagine the stress and fear that could arise as families felt excluded from worship because they did not have the requisite offering. Yet God comes up with a plan to provide. Instead of lowering the requirement (use a goat instead), he shares the load. He calls neighbors to partner in worship. Worship and ceremony here become a shared experience. A shared sacrifice. I think the application for me is not only God’s gracious provision for the poor, but his desire that we see worship as a communal act. We are not coming to God merely as individuals, or as family, but as The Family, God’s family.

Prayer: God, help me see the communal nature of worship and model it and lead our people in this. Pray especially for Scott, our worship pastor, as you have called him to lead us in worship. Give him insight and expectation of what you want to accomplish in and through us in worship.