A continuation of my study following the Love God Greatly study of 1 and 2 Peter.
We read 1 Peter 1:13-16 and SOAPed 13, 15.
13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.
It's Passover season! So the reference to girding up loins immediately took me back to the first use of this phrase in the Bible, when the Israelites were to eat that last meal in Egypt in haste, with their clothing girded up about their loins - ready to move in response to whatever the Lord would have them to do. I see many parallels between that story and this passage of 1 Peter.
I can't imagine that night. Knowing what was necessarily happening in the homes of the Egyptians around them, there must have been a dreadful sense of unease. I wonder if they knew what was going to come next. I need to re-read that text... The whole country has been through the most bizarre series of events in all of history, and if recollection serves, I don't think the Israelites had been told what was happening next. Can you imagine the instructions given to the children? "Kids, let's eat quickly. Keep your shoes on and be ready to MOVE if I tell you to." They've seen the power of God, and surely they knew He would free them, but they didn't know HOW or exactly WHEN.
God knew he was about to pull them out of a lifestyle that had become part of who they were over the last 400 years they had lived in Egypt. He was about to set them apart in a big way. They would be given guidelines for how to live directly from the hand of God. Yet, many times along the way, they would grumble and whine to Moses about wishing they were back in Egypt, living as they had while they were there. Likewise, in this passage, God calls us to separate ourselves, "not conforming" ourselves to the former lusts. He uses the word "holy" four times. Holy means to be sanctified or set apart to God. God called the Israelites to be set apart, and he repeats the call to holiness to us in this passage.
Later in this chapter (verse 19), we are reminded that we have been redeemed "with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot" to complete the picture of the Passover. My family will be celebrating a Passover Seder in our home this Friday, a tradition that we started a few years ago. As every year, I cannot wait to celebrate this time of "telling the story" of what Jehovah did for the Israelites, and what Messiah Y'shua has done for us!
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