THE BEGINNING OF MONTHS

"This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you."  (Exodus 12:2

The children of Israel had been in Egypt for 430 years. Their stay began with seventy people coming into Egypt for sustenance under the direction of Joseph, Jacob's son who had been exalted over Egypt (Gen 46:26; Ex 1:5). Eventually, Joseph died, and a Pharaoh rose to power who did not know Joseph (Ex 1:6,8). Because he was intimidated by the number of Israelites now in the land, he made slaves of them–a condition God told Abraham about many years before (Gen 15:13). At the point of this text, the time appointed for Israel to remain in Egypt had expired. They had experienced sore oppression, and had "groaned because of the bondage," and cried out to God (Ex 2:23). In the "backside of the desert," God had prepared Moses to deliver the people from bondage. The time had come for them come out of Egypt with a "high hand" (Ex 14:8). Because the deliverance would be no ordinary deliverance (if there be such a thing), their preparation for the deliverance was no ordinary preparation. Their deliverance would come at the peak of darkness–at "midnight" (Ex 11:4). Extensive activities would precede their deliverance, including packing al their belongings and applying the blood of the Passover lamb to their houses, and eating the Passover meal. The instructions for the activities of the evening were given to Moses, and began with these words: "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you." However time may have been reckoned among them before that, it was here changed. The current month, Abib (Ex 13:4) was not the beginning of the year. This month corresponds to a part of our March and April–Springtime. From this point on, Israel reckoned the year as beginning with deliverance–beginning with their exodus from the land of bondage. That deliverance made every other point of time secondary, at the very best.

There is a lesson of perspective here for us. In our hearts, we must learn to think of our lives beginning when we were born again. Life prior to that was really pointless and vain. For us, things really started when we were delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son (Col 1:13). Before that, we were "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph 2:1) and"enemies in our mind by wicked works" (Col 1:21). Our deliverance from that condition is even more real.