“If the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb” (Ex. 12:4).
A man’s first responsibility was to his own family in providing a passover lamb—to his own household. He was not to share the lamb with others unless he had first shared it with his own family.
Dear fathers and mothers, you may be very much concerned that your children have nice clothes to wear, that they have a good education, that they’re well fed and that they have proper medical care. All these things are right, but oh! never forget that your first responsibility to your dear children is the welfare of their souls.
It is their souls that are going to live forever, and your first responsibility, dear parents, is to speak to them about God’s Lamb. Are you speaking often to your own children about the Lord Jesus, God’s Lamb? Do you speak His blessed name often in their ears? Oh! be sure that they are under the shelter of the blood and that they are feeding upon Christ. The household was to feed on the lamb before it was shared with a neighbor.
No doubt the little ones didn’t eat as much as the grown-ups could eat. Sometimes when we have a family Bible reading—a time when we are feeding on the Lamb—we might talk in such a way that the children don’t understand at all what we are saying.
Each “according to his eating.” We see here that thought was to be given as to how old each one in the household was and what they were capable of eating—what they needed according to their age. Some needed less, some needed more. So we read in Hebrews 5:14, “Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age.”
It’s nice when parents talk to their children and try to make the truths of God’s precious Word simple and understandable for them. Let us never forget that even little boys and girls can know and love the Lord Jesus as Saviour and, too, can enjoy what He has done for them on the cross.
“With many such parables spake He the word unto them, as they were able to hear” (Mark 4:33).
“They . . . so spake, that a great multitude . . . believed” (Acts 14:1).
“Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14).
G. H. Hayhoe (adapted)