Suggested reading: Exodus chapter 12 verses 1-20

We left our previous meditation concerning the institution of the Jewish Feast of the Passover with the children of Israel killing their lambs and applying the blood to the doorways of their houses, which guaranteed them freedom from facing the judgment of God that was to fall on the Egyptians. We noted that this pointed to the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, which is the only means by which we can find forgiveness for our sins and peace with God. However, although the blood of Christ makes it possible for each one of us to be cleansed from our sin, we have to apply it, by faith, to our lives, if we are to experience the reality of it.

The children of Israel’s safety from judgment did not depend on their moral condition or on their appreciation of the blood; indeed, they could not even see it, when they were within the safety of their houses. God had said, ‘And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy when I strike the land of Egypt’, Exodus chapter 12 verse 13. It was what God saw in the blood that counted! He looks upon the blood and is satisfied. The same is true as far as we are concerned. It is what God sees in the blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross that cleanses and saves us from our sin. The hymn writer expressed it like this:

When God of old the way of life would teach to all His own,
He placed them safe beyond the reach of death, BY BLOOD ALONE.

It is His word, God’s precious Word, It stands forever true;
When I the Lord, shall see the blood, I will pass over you.

To be continued