Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

Devotion based on Hebrews 10:23

Today, Christians celebrate Maundy Thursday or, as it is also called, Holy Thursday. The shadows of this night stretch back 3500 years. The descendants of Abraham had been forced into slavery in Egypt. But the Lord had promised that they would one day live in their own land where, through one special descendant, all nations on earth would be blessed.

The Lord kept that promise. Through a series of powerful miracles that you can read about in the Bible’s book of Exodus, the Lord rescued Abraham’s descendants from their slavery and brought them into that Promised Land.

Along the way, the Lord appeared to them with a covenant, a contract that said, “Obey me, and I will bless you.” But almost immediately, the people broke their side of the deal. And they continued to disobey and rebel against the Lord.

But the Lord gave a greater covenant to his people—a promise that didn’t depend on their obedience. A promise of forgiveness and deliverance from disobedience and death, just as he had delivered them from slavery and death in Egypt.

Every year, the people of God celebrated a special meal called the Passover. That meal remembered God’s rescue in Egypt. More importantly, it foreshadowed God’s future rescue, when he would make good on that promise of forgiveness and deliverance for all people.

Jesus came to fulfill that covenant promise. As he ate the Passover meal with his disciples, he was just hours away from giving his life to win a home in a heavenly Promised Land for all people. That night, he gave them a special meal to recall the covenant he came to fulfill. He fed them his own body and blood with bread and wine in a miraculous meal we call Holy Communion. It was their assurance, and it remains ours today, that God is faithful to his promises to unfaithful sinners like us.

No matter how unfaithful we have been to God, God’s faithful love gives us hope. Sure hope that, because God never breaks a promise, every one of our sins is forgiven through Jesus. Sure hope that one day, we will celebrate an even greater feast with Jesus in heaven.

Prayer:

Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.