So many different holidays...
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It's interesting how we have so many different holidays on our calendar, many of which have little resonance with us. Consider Washington's birthday, Lincoln's birthday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, even ones like Memorial Day and Veterans' Day -- and that's just in the United States. Even Canada has ones like Victoria Day and Boxing Day to throw into the mix as well. While there will be protests from some that days like this carry a great deal of significance for them -- and rightly so -- for many of us, they may mean an extra day off school or perhaps a day off work if you work in certain professions. That's about it.
For the children of Israel, Passover was meant to be much more than just a date marked on a calendar. For them, this was the beginning of a new chapter, the end of slavery and the first steps on the march to freedom. "This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast" (v. 14). As scripture later points out, entire generations of Israelites lived and died without celebrating this most important of feasts (2 Kings 23:22). Did it become just a date on a calendar for them too?
For the children of Israel, Passover was meant to be much more than just a date marked on a calendar. For them, this was the beginning of a new chapter, the end of slavery and the first steps on the march to freedom. "This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast" (v. 14). As scripture later points out, entire generations of Israelites lived and died without celebrating this most important of feasts (2 Kings 23:22). Did it become just a date on a calendar for them too?
