Week of Monday, February 7 – Sunday, February 13
Disruptor – Man as Instructor
“Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. 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. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.” “The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.” – Exodus 12:3-6 ESV
It was May 21, 1946. The place—Los Alamos. Louis Slotin was carrying out an experiment in preparation for the atomic test to be conducted in the South Pacific. In his effort to determine the amount of U-235 necessary for a chain reaction, he would push two hemispheres of uranium close together. Then, just as the mass quickly became critical, he would push them apart with a screwdriver, instantly stopping the chain reaction. That day, just as the radioactive material became critical, the screwdriver slipped! The hemispheres of uranium came too close together and the room was filled with a dazzling blue light and burst of intense heat. Louis bravely used his body to shield his colleagues from the blast of radiation as much as possible while tearing the two hemispheres apart with his hands, disrupting the chain reaction. Louis suffered an agonizing death nine days later, but his sacrificial act saved the lives of the other persons in the room.
Another lethal chain reaction was set in motion in the garden of Eden, bringing the sentence of death to every one of Adam’s race. On the eve of the Exodus, God decreed a final plague of death to every firstborn in Egypt, but he graciously gave instruction as to how to save the lives of every firstborn among his people. It required a lamb without blemish to be sacrificed by the head of the house, then its blood smeared on the doors for all to see. They called it “Passover,” when the death angel literally “passed over” the homes displaying the blood of the lamb. That sacrificial lamb proved to be a “disruptor” of the death that came upon Egypt.
Interestingly, Moses looked ahead and told them: “And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses’” (Exod. 12:25-27). Note that this Passover rite was to be rehearsed by the head of the house as a teaching tool for the family, pointing to our essential role as instructors. Men were to use the Passover meal to remind the family of the Lord’s deliverance from death through the blood of a lamb. While we as men have multiple things that we need to instruct our families on, nothing is more important than teaching them about the way Jesus died and was resurrected for our sins. He was the disruptor.
Obviously, the Passover was a dress rehearsal for the coming of the true lamb of God. John the Baptist announced of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). God himself provided a sacrificial Lamb who disrupted the curse of sin and death! Jesus stepped in and shielded us from the lethal chain reaction, taking our place and punishment. He broke the power of sin by becoming sin for us. Men, let’s find ways to instruct our families about the Lamb of God, the Disruptor of death who is our Deliverer!
Disruptor – Man as Instructor
“Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. 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. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.” “The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.” – Exodus 12:3-6 ESV
It was May 21, 1946. The place—Los Alamos. Louis Slotin was carrying out an experiment in preparation for the atomic test to be conducted in the South Pacific. In his effort to determine the amount of U-235 necessary for a chain reaction, he would push two hemispheres of uranium close together. Then, just as the mass quickly became critical, he would push them apart with a screwdriver, instantly stopping the chain reaction. That day, just as the radioactive material became critical, the screwdriver slipped! The hemispheres of uranium came too close together and the room was filled with a dazzling blue light and burst of intense heat. Louis bravely used his body to shield his colleagues from the blast of radiation as much as possible while tearing the two hemispheres apart with his hands, disrupting the chain reaction. Louis suffered an agonizing death nine days later, but his sacrificial act saved the lives of the other persons in the room.
Another lethal chain reaction was set in motion in the garden of Eden, bringing the sentence of death to every one of Adam’s race. On the eve of the Exodus, God decreed a final plague of death to every firstborn in Egypt, but he graciously gave instruction as to how to save the lives of every firstborn among his people. It required a lamb without blemish to be sacrificed by the head of the house, then its blood smeared on the doors for all to see. They called it “Passover,” when the death angel literally “passed over” the homes displaying the blood of the lamb. That sacrificial lamb proved to be a “disruptor” of the death that came upon Egypt.
Interestingly, Moses looked ahead and told them: “And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses’” (Exod. 12:25-27). Note that this Passover rite was to be rehearsed by the head of the house as a teaching tool for the family, pointing to our essential role as instructors. Men were to use the Passover meal to remind the family of the Lord’s deliverance from death through the blood of a lamb. While we as men have multiple things that we need to instruct our families on, nothing is more important than teaching them about the way Jesus died and was resurrected for our sins. He was the disruptor.
Obviously, the Passover was a dress rehearsal for the coming of the true lamb of God. John the Baptist announced of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). God himself provided a sacrificial Lamb who disrupted the curse of sin and death! Jesus stepped in and shielded us from the lethal chain reaction, taking our place and punishment. He broke the power of sin by becoming sin for us. Men, let’s find ways to instruct our families about the Lamb of God, the Disruptor of death who is our Deliverer!
- Moses told the men, the heads of households, to anticipate questions and to be ready with the answer as Instructors. What are you doing personally to prepare to answer the spiritual questions of your family?
- Just as God tells Israel to remember the Passover, we are called to always remember Jesus, the lamb of God. How can you instruct your family about how Jesus disrupted death for us by dying on the cross?
- Ask God to help you maximize those moments when your family is asking questions and offer them a providential perspective on what God may be doing or saying in a given circumstance.