(Paul Marcellino is pastor at the First Baptist Church in Camden.) The last few weeks we have been studying Exodus and the character of Moses. Moses had a special relationship with God that no other man has ever had. God chose Moses to lead his people away from the bondage of the Egyptian Pharaoh to the Promised Land.

Although Moses did not feel as if he was a likely candidate to lead the people, God was determined that Moses would lead his people. It was not an easy task for Moses to do. He had become quite comfortable with his life as a shepherd and did fear going back to Egypt because of previous circumstances.

After much debating Moses did finally accept God's will for him to confront and persuade Pharaoh to let God's people go so they could go to the desert and worship Him. Pharaoh did not want to listen to any such request. In his evil spirit he refused time and time again, regardless of the plagues that God sent to the Egyptians.

All together there were ten plagues that God sent to Egypt because of Pharaoh's refusal to allow the Israelites to go to the desert to worship Him. The final plague in Exodus 11:4 states: Then Moses said, "Thus says the Lord: About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the hand mill, and all the firstborn of the animals."

A special note about this plague is that the Jewish families did not suffer from this plague. God warned them that if they were to be spared from the destroyer they must sacrifice a lamb and sprinkle the blood on the door posts and stay inside while God passed over.

The Passover is a very significant part of history. Not only were the Jewish firstborn spared, they had to make a decision. Were they willing to trust God? Were they going to be obedient and kill the Passover lamb and use its blood to protect the firstborn? They had to make a decision about their faith. God would protect them but they had to prove their faith and trust in Him. If they believed God they were to follow his strict instructions in preparing for the Passover.

Christ is our Passover Lamb and has shed his blood for us so we can have salvation. If we are to have salvation there has to be a human component. We must learn a valuable lesson in Exodus that we have to show God that we want to be his children and trust our lives to Him.

I challenge all of us to commit our lives to Him and receive God's grace.