Bible in a Year - Women’s Thematic Reading Plan | Day 170

Day 170 of the Women’s Bible Plan: Read Exodus 12:24-28 and reflect on how God commanded His people to remember the Passover and teach their children the story of redemption. Through this passage, this devotional helps families consider how faith is remembered, explained, and passed on to the next generation through daily life, worship, and honest conversations.

🌸  Dear Sister, welcome to Day 170 of our reading journey. 

A home is not only a place where people live together. It is also a place where faith is seen, heard, remembered, and passed on. Often, children first learn about God not through a formal theology book, but through how parents pray, worship, face hardship, confess sin, forgive, and speak of God’s grace.

Exodus 12:24-28 comes shortly after the institution of the Passover. God did not only want Israel to experience deliverance; He also wanted them to remember it. He did not only want that generation to know how He saved them; He wanted the next generation to hear, understand, and worship the God who redeems.

When the children would ask, “What mean ye by this service?” the parents were not merely to explain a religious tradition or a family custom. They were to tell the story of how the Lord passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, smote the Egyptians, and delivered their households. Faithful discipleship often begins like this—with a question, a sign, a family practice, and a story of God’s saving grace.

A Minute of Grace

Exodus 12:24-28 records God’s command that Israel should keep the Passover as an ordinance for themselves and their children forever. When they entered the land the Lord would give them, they were still to keep this service. Most importantly, when their children asked what this service meant, the parents were to answer: “It is the sacrifice of the LORD’S passover,” because the Lord passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, struck the Egyptians, and delivered their houses.

This short passage is full of wisdom for family discipleship. God knows how easily people forget. The first generation personally experienced the blood of the lamb, the judgment on Egypt, and the deliverance from slavery. But if the next generation was not taught, the Passover could become only a form, a festival, or a tradition. God did not want the story of redemption to remain in the past, nor did He want faith to remain on the surface of ceremony. He wanted parents to explain why they did what they did.

This matters deeply for families today. We may bring children to church, Sunday school, worship, prayer, and Bible reading, yet children may still ask, “Why do we do this?” “Why do we pray?” “Why do we believe in Jesus?” “Why do we trust God when life is hard?” These questions are not interruptions. They are opportunities to walk with the next generation toward God.

The heart of the Passover was not an outward ritual, but God’s redemption. Israel was to remember that they were not saved because they were stronger, better, or more deserving. They were saved because God had mercy on them, and the blood of the lamb marked and covered their houses. As we look back at the Passover today, we also see more deeply the redemption of Christ. Jesus is the Lamb of God, who gave His life for us so that we might be saved by His blood.

Today’s theme, “Teaching Children About the Passover,” invites us to reflect: Do we treat faith only as our personal experience, or are we willing to pass the story of God’s salvation to the next generation? Not everyone has children, but all of us may influence younger people, children around us, teenagers in the church, or those who are younger in faith. God calls us to become people who remember grace, tell the story of redemption, and pass on faith with love.

Whispers for the Heart

1 God commanded Israel to pass on the meaning of the Passover from generation to generation. What stories of God’s grace and deliverance in your own life need to be remembered, spoken, and shared with the next generation? Are you intentionally sharing your faith story with children, family members, or younger believers?

2 When the children asked, “What mean ye by this service?” the parents were to tell them about God’s redemption. How do you respond when children or younger people ask questions about faith? Do you feel bothered, nervous, or afraid of giving the wrong answer, or do you see their questions as opportunities to help them know God?

3 The Passover reminded Israel that they were saved by God’s mercy and the blood of the lamb. Does your family life often return to the center of salvation? When you teach, discipline, encourage, and walk with children, are you only giving instructions, or are you also helping them see God’s love, grace, and redemption?

As you read Exodus 12:24-28 today, do not see this passage only as an ancient instruction for Israel’s festival. Let it also remind us that faith must be remembered and spoken in the home. The next generation needs people who are willing to tell the story of redemption.

Take a quiet breath before you begin. Bring your family, children, the next generation, your spiritual influence, and your responsibility to speak of God’s grace before the Lord, and let His Word meet you there.

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🪕 Response Hymn: 

Exodus 12:24-28 (KJV)

24 And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.

25 And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the Lord will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.

26 And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?

27 That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.

28 And the children of Israel went away, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.

🪕 Response Hymn: 

💡 Closing Thought · Let the Story of Redemption Be Heard at Home

After reading Exodus 12:24-28, we see that God did not only want Israel to experience the Passover; He wanted them to tell their children what it meant. Faith is not only a memory for one generation. God’s salvation must be remembered and spoken, so that the next generation may know that the God we worship is the God who saves.

As we close this page and return to our families and daily life, perhaps our children will not ask deep questions today. Perhaps our homes are not always quiet and orderly. Perhaps we ourselves are still learning how to live out our faith more faithfully. But remember this: faith transmission often does not begin with perfection. It begins with honesty—honest prayer, honest repentance, honest stories of God’s grace, and honest efforts to bring children before the Lord.

May today’s Scripture remind you not to despise each spiritual conversation at home, each prayer, or each opportunity to speak of God’s grace. May our families become places where redemption is remembered, and may the next generation hear, through our words and our lives, of the God who saves.

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