Telling the Story to Our Children
Month 3: The Great Rescue · Loving Others
Today's Scripture
Read together: Exodus 12:24-27
24 And you are to keep this command as a permanent statute for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as He promised, you are to keep this service. 26 When your children ask you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’ 27 you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck down the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
Memory Verse
“The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a sign; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”— Exodus 12:13 (BSB)
📖 Bible-in-a-Year (optional)
Today's reading: Deuteronomy 8–10
Reading the whole Bible in a year — do this when you have extra time.The Heart of It
On the very night of their rescue, God was already thinking about the next children who would come. He told the families to keep the Passover every year. And He told them what to say. "When your children ask you, 'What does this service mean to you?' you are to reply, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD.'" Did you catch that? God planned for children to ask questions. And He planned for parents to have answers ready. The rescue from Egypt was never meant to be a secret. It was meant to be told. Around tables. Year after year. To kids who weren't even born yet.
This is one of the most loving things a family can do. We pass the good news on. The Israelites loved their children by telling them the rescue story again and again. They told it until those children could tell it to their own children. We get to do the very same thing. And our story is even bigger, because we know the true Lamb the Passover pointed to. Loving others doesn't always mean big, grand things. Sometimes it is simply taking the time to say, "Let me tell you what God has done." When we tell the story, we are not just sharing facts. We are handing the next child the most important thing they will ever receive.
Around the Table
God wanted moms and dads to tell their kids the rescue story over and over. Now you know it too!
Let's do it: Take turns telling one part of the Passover story in your own words. Cheer for each storyteller!
God planned for kids to ask, "What does this mean?" And He planned for parents to be ready to answer.
Let's talk: Who is someone younger than you that you could tell about Jesus, the true Passover Lamb?
Faith is meant to be passed down on purpose, from parent to child. You are not just someone who hears the story. One day you get to tell it.
Let's go deeper: How could you help a younger sibling, cousin, or friend understand what Jesus did for them?
💬 Conversation Starter
What is a family story you love hearing again and again? Maybe one about Grandma, or the day you were born? God wants the rescue story told just like that. He never wants it forgotten!
🛡️ Defending the Faith
How has the Bible's story survived thousands of years? One big reason is that God built in a command to tell it. Parents told it to children. Those children told it to their children. That faithful retelling, plus careful written records, is one reason the story reaches us so well kept ().
For Dad · Go Deeper
Faith is always one generation from being lost. And God's main plan against that is not the program at church. It is the parent at home. puts the teaching role squarely on you. "You are to reply," it says. Research on lasting faith confirms what Scripture assumed all along. The single biggest factor in whether children keep the faith is parents who talk about it naturally and often, not just on Sundays. You don't need a seminary degree. You just need to keep telling the story. Tonight's devotion is the assignment. Don't underestimate it. The frogs and the blood and the open door will stay in your kids' memories far longer than you think. And one day they will tell them too.
Draws on: Sam Rainer, on parents as the primary disciplers of their children.
Let's Pray Together
"Father, thank You for a family that can tell Your rescue story together. Help us never keep it a secret. Help us pass it on with joy to those who come after us. Make us faithful tellers of what You have done. In Jesus' name, amen."
God's rescue story is meant to be told. And I get to hand it to the next person who needs it.